How Auctions are used in Modern Online Advertising
When you think of advertising you probably have a few conceptual models that come to mind. Whether that’s a television ad, a pop-up that shows before a video on YouTube, or even an old-school print ad. You likely don’t think about auctions when someone talks about advertising. Companies all over the world are making use […]
Game Theory and Dating
The dating world can get pretty confusing. Trying to read people, pick up on the cues and make the right decisions is usually not easy. An example of a tricky situation is the following. Imagine you are going on a date with a person you are into tonight at 8pm. You are excited and a […]
Amazon, Antitrust, Auctions
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/technology/amazon-europe-margrethe-vestager.html The explosive growth of Amazon as a company and the powerful effect it has had on society – changing the way we shop and even threatening certain industries with obsoletion – has brought about antitrust concerns among the American and European public. Not only does Amazon have huge depth in its primary area […]
Alex Jones, Components and Power
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/twitter-permanently-bans-alex-jones-and-infowars-accounts.html Several weeks ago, Alex Jones, an internet commentator best known for the controversial site InfoWars, was banned from Twitter after other tech companies such as YouTube and Facebook kicked him off because his polarizing perspectives on major events such as 9/11, the Sandy Hook shooting and others. It is very interesting that such companies are […]
In the News: Braess’ Paradox and Transportation Networks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/20/new-roads-create-more-traffic-fail-local-economies-cpre A report in England has exemplified how trying to become more efficient is problematic with road network structures. For most people, it is intuitive that in order to reduce traffic, people should build more roads so that the number of drivers on each road would be split (perhaps evenly) among each of the roads. […]
Game Theory in Football
https://www.economist.com/game-theory/2015/02/03/threes-a-charm Justin Wolfers from the New York Times has done some game-theoretical analyses of the Seattle Seahawks’ final play in the Super Bowl, played on February 1st. They discuss that both could have used a bit more explicitness on a big issue in game theory: how optimal strategies evolve over the course of a game, especially near the […]
Using Game Theory to search for Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life
https://dailygalaxy.com/2018/08/signals-from-intelligence-beyond-the-milky-way-alien-civilizations-may-use-neutron-star-mergers-as-a-communication-event/ The search for extraterrestrial life has been a hot topic for some time now in astronomy. However, recently many researchers have been negative that there are other intelligent life that we would have the ability to communicate with. This arises because it seems less and less likely that our own galaxy contains intelligent life. […]
Expensive Antibiotics and Game Theory
https://www.wired.com/story/antibiotics-pharma-price-jump-is-testing-one-of-medicines-oldest-questions/ We all know that pharmacies have been raising the prices for their drugs to absurd amounts of money. However, unlike cancer drugs or epinephrine, antibiotics are typically cheap. Antibiotics also costs the same to manufacture as many other kinds of drugs, such as cancer drugs. Not only is it normally too cheap for an effective […]
Matching in College Admissions?
https://www.vox.com/2015/4/7/8355247/college-admissions-terrible-preferences Even though most us are well along into our academic careers here at Cornell, many of still remember the dreadfulness of (the first half of) senior year of high school, having to deal with college admissions. In theory, the Common App is supposed to make the process less stressful by making it […]
Trump’s Blow to Iranian Oil Sparks Curious Price Divergence
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-20/trump-slams-opec-again-as-oil-prices-trade-near-80-a-barrel In this Bloomberg article written by Serene Cheong, the U.S. government’s decision to end its deal with Iranian oil exports has resulted in a demand for an alternative supply of oil. While Dubai may produce crude oil similar in quality to Iran’s crude oil, it is London’s Brent that is beginning to dominate the […]
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