Modeling the Spread of the Black Plague
In the 14th century, the Black Plague epidemic swept from across Central Asia into Europe, wiping out upwards of 70 million people. The disease was carried by infected fleas on rats, and facilitated by exchanges on trading routes like the Silk Road, which allowed for greater contact between neighboring and distant regions. However, as the […]
The Plague Epidemic in Madagascar
The article “Madagascar Wrestles With Worst Outbreak of Plague in Half a Century” talks about the current plague epidemic in Madagascar that was first discovered in August. Since the start of the epidemic, the plague, also known as the “Black Death,” has led to 2119 probable cases and 171 deaths. Madagascar has always wrestled with […]
Coevolution of Garter Snakes and Newts
This article explores evolutionary game theory of garter snakes and newts. The garter snake-newt relation is a predator-prey matchup where garter snakes rely on newts as a source of nourishment to survive. The species are involved in a coevolution game; in other words, each player makes changes to its body and biological make-up in order […]
Bitcoin, Network Effects, and Illegal Transactions
https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/crypto-currency-and-network-effects-winners-usually-stay-winners-d28117a199aa Bitcoin is a currency that is largely dependent on other customers using it for transactions; without it, there is no proper faith in the currency, which could cause it to die out. This is due to how currencies must have the backing of some sort; people must have confidence in the value of the […]
How Facebook prevents network cascades
Article: https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-aggressive-moves-on-startups-threaten-innovation/ The attached article describes the business tactics Facebook uses to maintain its dominant position in the social media space. The strategy can be roughly split up into two distinct tactics. The first is to copy what the competition does. For instance, Instagram, a Facebook acquisition, copied Snapchat’s story feature which was followed by decreasing […]
Why Bad Things Happen to Good New Products
Source: http://www.allianceperformance.com/White%20Papers/Why_Bad_Things_Happen_to_Good_New_Products.pdf In this article, the author describes a phenomenon that once a new product is introduced to the market, after the initial success, customers’ enthusiasm usually evaporates then, though this new product is innovative, meets a clear market need and has a great feedback from test placements. Some people may suspect that it […]
Search Engine Optimization
Marketing has always been centered on reaching the customer with a message, an idea, a product, anything of value. In today’s world, it has become imperative that businesses take advantage of the internet considering the billions of potential consumers who use the it everyday. Because of the overload of information found on the internet, digital […]
Outing Sexual Harassers: A Networked Coordination Game
By: Boon Palipatana In Gillian Tett’s article for the Financial Times, “Trump and the ‘information cascade’ created a cultural reckoning,” Tett examines the behavior of individuals within the waves of sexual harassment scandals that have arisen over the past months. The series of scandals Tett refer to were seemingly sparked by some initial, well-publicized allegations […]
The Power of Information Cascades on Social Media
A month ago, sexual harassment allegations burst out towards renowned producer Harvey Weinstein against a number of actresses, including Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan, in situations that occurred about 20 years ago. Weinstein used his power and influence in the industry to coerce these young, relatively fresh faces in Hollywood into doing sexual favors for […]
Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/314/5805/1560 The concepts of Evolutionarily Stable Strategy and Nash Equilibrium are introduced in class, explaining how a behavior survives in relation to its fitness. However, neither of these two theories illustrates how cooperative behavior can exist under certain circumstances. If natural selection implies competition and thus opposes cooperation, how could cooperation happen? Martin Nowak proposed […]
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