Measuring Utility: not as easy as we’d like
At the heart of economics and game theory lies the notion of the utility function. Without this concept, it becomes meaningless to attempt to logically deduce the optimal strategy for a situation. We often treat the utility function as a known quantity. Not only that, but we often assume that it is a constant value […]
Your Friends Have Even More Friends
A recent study using Facebook examines and calculates the average number of one’s friends of friends and concludes that one’s friends have more friends than the given individual. It’s an interesting and surprising phenomenon that most people would probably never think about on the daily basis. To calculate what they call the “friendship phenomenon”, or […]
Adderall to the top: a form of the prisoner’s dilemma
http://www.theventureonline.com/2012/09/uh-drug/ This website speaks of the high use of Adderall within academic settings. The reason for the high usage is that drugs such as Adderall increase one’s academic performance. At the same time, the drug also has side effects, which turns this situation into a proper prisoner’s dilemma. The prisoner’s dilemma applies here because […]
Online Networking Creates Opportunities for International Trade in China
Today’s global economy resembles a network exchange structure, one in which is it extremely beneficial to be highly connected. As access to resources and development of products has become increasingly specialized, international trade plays an invaluable role in the state of any large country’s economy. In China, a company called Tradesparq has recently created a […]
I Have All This Money, and Don’t Know Who to Give It to
Business is all about making the right investments, and sponsorships represent a massive amount of brand-spend around the world every year ($56 billion and counting). So, if a company hands over a large sum of money to sponsor an event, activity, person, or organization, they would like to feel confident that have spent their money […]
On the NHL Lockout
While discussions concerning sports are often related to entertainment, it is impossible to avoid the simple fact that professional sports are very significant economically, as billions of dollars change hands with every passing season. One of the most significant stories in professional sports as of late has been the lockout that is currently taking place […]
Dance to the psychedelic synth beat – Gangnam Style!
The world’s attention is on Psy, singer from Korea who has brought a huge boom in culture to the world. Psy’s song Gangnam Style, is the most viewed video in Youtube, top seller in iTunes, and ranked high in the Billboards. It is simply amusing and astonishing to observe how a non-english song can have […]
Scale-free Networks
The study of networks emerged because researchers wanted to understand better about how a variety of complex networks in our lives would form and behave. Networks can be found everywhere in our lives; friendship or webpages linked by hyperlinks are the most well-known examples. We can also find networks in life sciences too; protein-to-protein interactions […]
Another perspective into the age long open source v/s licensed marketed software debate
Open Source projects are a source of assistance and guidance to many software engineers seeking to find solutions for problems that they come across building their own projects, or looking for ready-made code that can perform certain functions for them without having to write it from scratch. Open source platforms are also used by coders […]
The Growing Presence of Attack Ads in American Politics
With November 6 rapidly approaching, the general election for President of the United States is kicking into high gear in many respects. Interestingly enough, Independent studies by both the Huffington Post and the Wesleyan Media Project, both summarized in the link below, have both reported that these last minute efforts have included a higher than […]
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