This past Tuesday, September 16th marked a historic day for the commercial space industry. Boeing and SpaceX were awarded a contract by NASA to be the next manufacturers of the country’s rockets and spacecraft that will put American astronauts back on the map in terms of space exploration, returning astronauts to space with missions to […]
Gaming Romantic Relationships
Romantic relationships can be represented as a game between two agents, a man, and a woman. Unlike my referenced article, there are two payout matrices: scenario 1, which applies only when both parties are happy, and scenario 2, when either agent dislikes the other. The two pay out matrices are shown below. Scenario 1 Man […]
Game Theory in Ukraine
This article from the Economist discusses the recent conflict in Ukraine. More specifically, it delves deeper into how this situation has brought the United States and Russia back into a similar situation as to that of the Cold War in the late 20th century. The author argues that Ukraine has become the focus of a […]
Dutch Auction IPO: How Companies Like Google Sold Its Shares
Related Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101912149#. The world of Wall Street and investments can often seem strange and intimidating, but among the aspects that make up the financial world, one of the most important events that can happen to a company is by going public, also referred to its initial public offering. The article linked above describes how Google, […]
Alibaba’s Massive IPO
Article link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/alibabas-ipo-priced-at-68-a-share-1411075675 Thursday marked the record $21.8 billion IPO on the NYSE of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding, commonly known as Alibaba. This pegs Alibaba’s market value at $168 billion, or $18 billion more than Amazon.com’s. Shares opened at $68 apiece and climbed 138% before closing at $93.89 after the first day of trading. […]
Doping in Sports: A Game Theorist’s Perspective
Doping scandals in sports have become so commonplace in recent years that it is hard not to wonder if any athlete who accomplishes a magnificent feat was aided by drugs. Also, the huge risk involved with doping makes it hard to understand why so many athletes have turned to doping. That is until you consider […]
Impalas, Parasites, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
The existence of the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a good motivation for cooperation–by playing rationally, the two players in the Prisoner’s Dilemma end up with a worse outcome for both of them than if both players had cooperated. (Previous blog posts have pointed out that actual people cooperate more often than would be expected of purely […]