Blog 2: HGTV’s Flip or Flop Auctions
https://www.thelist.com/31486/untold-truth-flip-flop/ This article focuses on the show Flip or Flop, a reality television series on HGTV. Tarek and Christina El Moussa are former real estate agents who decided to switch jobs and buy distressed properties through auctions. After purchasing the houses, they remodel them and try to sell them at a profit. The process begins […]
A Peek into Google’s Search Algorithm
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/google-tests-changes-to-its-search-algorithm-how-search-works.html How does Google’s search algorithm work? Donald Trump made headlines recently when he accused Google has been rigging its results against him. Of course, there has not been any proof that Google’s results are purposely politically biased. Although Trump is well-known for spewing evident-less accusations, many other bias complaints have surfaced since then. Many […]
Artificial Neural Networks
Source: https://www.explainthatstuff.com/introduction-to-neural-networks.html In class we’ve been learning about networks as an abstract structure, with nodes connecting edges that, depending on the context, satisfy/uphold certain properties. These properties include the structural balance property, which applies to networks with edges that can be either positive or negative, and states that the networks tend to be separable into […]
The Grey Market
The grey market refers to products that are imported from abroad and sold outside a manufacturer’s normal channels of distribution. By utilizing fluctuations in exchange rates, grey marketers are able to sell genuine, trademarked products for significant discounts. Termed “arbitrage”, this essentially involves the simultaneous buying and selling of commodities in different markets in order […]
To take the shot or not? A look on how we can apply game theory to vaccinations
http://theconversation.com/game-theory-can-help-prevent-disease-outbreaks-102934 This article talks about how traveling internationally facilitates the spread of diseases between various countries. The authors talk about how what is best for each individual person- getting a vaccination, or traveling, or any decision that can put you in contact with any diseases, comes at the cost of something- there is a trade […]
Braess’s Paradox in Electrical Power Grids
Networks Blog Post 2: https://physicsworld.com/a/beating-braess-paradox-to-prevent-instability-in-electrical-power-grids/ We rely on electrical power grids to deliver us electricity all over the world. These grids are constantly changing as we add more types of energy sources such as renewables. In terms of electrical current, “electrical power grids operate in alternating current (AC) mode and all generators in the grid […]
Advertising Platform can go “wild”
http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~korolova/papers/Facebooks_Ad_Platform_New_Attacks.pdf Irfan Faizullabhoy, Aleksandra Korolova Recently, our lectures have been talking a lot about web searches, advertisers, page rankings, and advertising pricing strategies. The real power that enables marketing businesses to reach more specific and related group of audiences is those Ad targeting platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Google or Pinterest. These companies have developed […]
Blog Post #2
Article:https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/10/20/bad-traffic-blame-braess-paradox/#6e08578b14b5 In 1968 a German mathematician named Dietrich Braess noticed that adding a road to a congested traffic network increased the overall journey time. Braess studied this phenomena eventually coming up with Braess’s Paradox that states adding resources to a transportation network can sometimes hurt performance of that network at equilibrium. Since its proposal, Braess’s […]
Why The Airline Industry Is A Hotbed For Market Clearing Prices and Auctions
Its no secret that airlines enlist a large variety of methods to make the most money on tickets. A lot of these tricks include internal changes such as minimizing the time aircrafts are grounded, decreasing the number of service items being given at no extra cost, and packing as many seats into an airliner as […]
The World of Neopets
Virtual pets were ubiquitous in the childhood of the millenial. From Tamagotchi to club penguin, everyone has a favorite. One of many, Neopets.com allows its users to adopt “neopets” that generally look like mash-ups of animals and fairytale creatures. Weirdly, Neopets is a rather comprehensive creation for a digital pet website. Aside from the usual […]