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Directed Graphs, PageRank, and Soccer

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.6904v1.pdf Recently in class, we have been discussing directed graphs and their applications in understanding how the World Wide Web works, or how various link analyses and web searches like Hubs and Authorities or PageRank operate. However, directed graphs and their properties may also be used for other analyses. This blog post discusses a use […]

Google’s Censorship of the Internet

Article:  http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-22/google-is-the-worlds-biggest-censor-and-its-power-must-be-regulated The article discusses the idea that Google is not only the world’s most influential purveyor of information, but also the biggest censor.  Google maintains at least nine different blacklists, including one on the search autocomplete.  The autocomplete feature gives suggestions as users type in search queries, but freezes on certain words and topics, […]

Brexit and the Ultimatum Game

The concept of bargaining, in the most basic of generalizations, is a simple one: give someone an offer that benefits you as much as possible which will still be accepted by the other person. We’ve learned in class that bargaining can be understood logically with concepts like power, network exchange, and Nash Bargaining. A more specific example of a […]

San Francisco Real Estate and Market Clearing Prices

http://www.businessinsider.com/graphic-shows-out-of-control-san-francisco-housing-prices-2016-8 This article on exorbitantly expensive San Francisco real estate reflects the lack of a market clearing price in SF’s housing market. In an ideal market, there should be a market clearing price that should allow every buyer to get something at the end. This is not the case of San Francisco. Here, the influx […]

Game Theory for Children

People make decisions every day and each decision is based on different standards. Some decisions are based on individual’s values, and some depend on the choices made by other people they interact with. According to Networks, Markets, and Crowds by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg, game theory is designed to address situation in which the […]

Looking deeper at romantic networks

Of all the examples of networks I have come across in our Textbook, the most striking was the illustration of six months worth of romantic ties between high school students.  I have copied the network below: This network was taken from a study at UPenn, the link of which can be found at the bottom […]

Why you should burn the bridge behind you

In our study of network structure as it relates to bargaining power, we have found that outside options generally make an actor in a game more powerful, as these options tend to compete with one another and offer the actor choices. This tends to be true in simultaneous-move games where back and forth negotiation is […]

Applying PageRank to Extinction

PankRank is often compared to fluid, traveling through edges to node in a network.  In a network, all nodes start at the same initial PageRank value — usually 1 over the number of nodes. The PageRank is conserved with each additional computation.   An article titled, Google Algorithm Predicts When Species Will Go 404, Not […]

Amazon and its Product Rankings Algorithm

Online article: http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/2016/04/mythbusting-the-amazon-algorithm-reviews-and-ranking-for-authors/ This article discusses the ranking algorithm that Amazon uses in its search engine. Compared to Google, Amazon has 3 times the search traffic for products, and therefore it must support an efficient and fair search platform. We have discussed in class how companies like Facebook or Google rank slots for advertising, and […]

Someone For Everyone?

One of MTV’s infamous “reality” shows,  Are You the One?, challenges 10 single males and 10 single females to find their “perfect match” before the end of 10 weeks. Dating experts claimed to find perfect matches in this group of 20 people, and if everyone can find his/her perfect match, all contestants get to split one million dollars. During […]

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