Following the Crowd Experiment
This article references an experiment on majority-biased transmission conducted by psychologists at the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology and Psycholinguistics. A test apparatus consisting of three colored boxes with a hole in the top of each was used. For each test, an observer (toddler, chimpanzee, or orangutan) was allowed to watch four other members […]
Controversy over Bayes’ Theorem in the 21st Century
An article published in the June 7, 2013 article of Science Magazine entitled Bayes’ Theorem in the 21st Century by Bradley Efron (http://www.ime.usp.br/~abe/lista/pdfxeAKkfZxJM.pdf) looks at the controversy surrounding Bayes’ Theorem over the time at which Bayes published his paper (1763) all the way up until now. At first it seems odd that there would be […]
The Flu Network
Informationisbeautiful.net took a look at animals that can catch variants of the influenza virus and created a Venn diagram which visually displays the overlap of flu viruses that can infect multiple species including humans, horses, pigs, birds, seals, and bats. We are most familiar with types B and C of the influenza virus. They cause […]
Online Reviews: Making or Breaking a Restaurant
How did you hear about your favorite restaurant? Maybe you stumbled upon it while driving down the road. Or perhaps your friend told you that this is the absolute best place to be on a weekend night. Nowadays, the answer to this question is most probably that you did you searching on the internet and […]
Bayes Rule, Machine Learning, & Fighting Spam
Bayes Theorem, one of the most fundamental concepts in probability theory, has had found its way into applications in an incredible variety of fields. One of the most well-known applications of Bayes Theorem is a family of machine learning techniques named Bayesian Classifiers, or Naïve Bayes Classifiers, that are used in to classify entities. A […]
Tie Strength on Social Networks
http://leonidzhukov.net/hse/2011/seminar/papers/chi09-tie-gilbert.pdf The research paper “Predicting Tie Strength With Social Media” by Eric Gilbert and Karrie Karahalios is trying to answer the following question: Can social media data predict tie strength? The authors present a model that is capable of predicting tie strength in social media platforms. The model was tasted on 2,000 social media ties […]
Metagaming
http://www.randalolson.com/2014/05/27/a-data-driven-exploration-of-the-evolution-of-chess-moves-captures-and-checkmates/ In competitive events, players often go to great lengths to get an advantage over the competition. In long distance running, for example, athletes will train at high altitudes to get used to low amounts of oxygen, and thus have increased performance at low altitudes. In chess, and other, similar, games, there is a different […]
Herd Mentality
As human beings, we often pride ourselves on being independent thinkers and usually knowing the difference between right and wrong. However, many studies on Herd Mentality and information cascades suggests that in spite of these abilities, we still often choose to take the safe route and go with the choice that the people around us […]
Six Degrees of Neural Specialization
When you take a class called “Networks”, it becomes pretty clear that your life is legitimately full of networks. Your family tree, the political structure of your country, your decisions in day-to-day life, your presence on social media, and your real-life social circles all fit into various networks. You are a node that influences, operates […]
False Positives in NCAA/MLB Drug Testing
In order to maintain the integrity of NCAA athletics, they require that schools test a certain number of athletes each year. At Cornell, 10 football players and 8 athletes from other sports are tested. The consequences of failing a mandatory drug test are severe. Testing positive for any banned substance results in a full year […]
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