Epidemic on Networks
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468042719300405 Amidst the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount to discuss epidemics on networks. Though Bill Gates predicted a pandemic occurring in 2015, no one truly predicted that a pandemic as pivotal as the COVID-19 pandemic occurs in our lifetime. It’s safe to say that life throws curveballs at us. At the […]
Vampire Bats and Social Distancing
This semester has presented new challenges, such as students agreeing to a Behavioral Compact in order to gain access to campus. Some measures for safety, like being in small groups and maintaining 6 feet, does not initially seem difficult but can enter some grey areas. For example, what do you do when a friend you […]
Check out my Spotify Wrapped! Diffusion of Music through Global Markets
Now that the end of year is approaching, many people are sharing interesting information from their Spotify accounts on who their top artists are, how many minutes, or which tracks they missed out on across the country. It’s no surprise there—Spotify has a user base of over 144 million premium paying members globally. They dominate […]
Blog Post #3: Epidemics in the Time of COVID-19
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/01/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s This year has been one of hardship and uncertainty with the COVID-19 pandemic taking over the world. In March, our lives turned upside down when we were sent home from school and back home with everyone quarantining from the virus. Now, we have adapted to these trying times, but we can reflect on the […]
Diffusion of AirPods as a Status Symbol
When Apple unveiled its new product, AirPods, in 2016, society was very skeptical of these small, wireless, overpriced earbuds that did not seem like anything special. However, a few short years later, these earbuds have taken over the headphone market and have become a major status symbol. The articles linked below all describe how AirPods […]
The Key to the Pandemic
An article in The Atlantic called “This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic” talks about how COVID 19 spreads and how we should be responding based on that. The overlooked variable they are discussing is k: the measure of dispersion. Covid is a very over disperse pathogen which means there are a few […]
Online Activism and Offline Activism, Which Is Real?
Article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell Diffusion and cascading behaviors can be used to explain a wide range of social phenomena we observe today. From how an individual adopts a new technology to the dynamics of online activism movements, the theory of the diffusion model unveils the way our thinking changes with regard to the beliefs of other individuals […]
Cybersecurity: The Cutting Edge Market for Lemons
The U.S. government has been scrambling to expose details about a massive cyber attack on the networking software firm SolarWinds that was detected this past week. The attack is purported to have been carried out by hackers of Russian origin and has already affected nearly 18,000 of the firm’s customer base, composed mostly of corporations […]
Environmental Economics
Source: https://mises.org/library/austrian-theory-environmental-economics This blog post will be related to the class topic of property rights and the notion of “tragedy of the commons.” It will focus on how these relate to the environment and public policy issues stemming from that, as this is one of the more common situations where the term “tragedy of the […]
The Spread of Pyramid Schemes
I have been vaguely aware of pyramid schemes for a significant portion of my life- I’ve heard stories about them from friends, seen people’s posts on FaceBook trying to recruit new participants, and have even started to receive private messages from old peers pin attempts to recruit me. I always knew the concept of them […]
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