Category: Nets ‘n’ webs
-
How to reduce extremism? Travel!
Andre Martins studies agent-based computer models of extremism at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. We’ve heard from him before following his claim that extremism is an emergent phenomenon in our society. Now he’s back with the results of a study on how to reduce extremism. Martins creates a network model in which agents…
-
How to maximise your PageRanking
Google’s PageRank system rules the web, right? This is the algorithm that determines how far up the list yer site appears in a given Google search. A better ranking can mean big bucks for some sites The PageRank algorithm is closely guarded secret. But a growing number of academics are trying to reverse engineer the…
-
Web traffic and sand piles
Drop grains of sand onto a flat surface and they form a pile. Keep adding grains and eventually ya’ll witness an avalanche. The curious thing about avalanches is that yer can’t tell how big they is going to be. A single dropped grain could dislodge a handful of other grains or hundreds of grains or…
-
The terrible truth about extremism
Why is our way o’ living threatened by extremists? A natural question for anybody a-fretting and a-worrying about the state of world order. But the answer ain’t gonna please ya’ll. It’s looking increasingly as if extremism is an ordinary emergent property of societies like ours that we can’t do nothing about. Andre Martins at the…
-
Cellphone records reveal new patterns of human activity
Switch yer mobile phone on and it checks into the local network giving your location and the time you were there. The network also records the calls you make, their frequency, duration and to whom you make them plus wherever they happen to be too. Multiply that by the entire popualtion (mobile phone penetration approaches…
-
When the storm surge hits NYC
The Big Apple has had its toes watered by storms surges from passing hurricanes on many an occasion. But how to hold back the waters in future? Alexander “Bonkin” Bolonkin reckons the best way to protect the city is to rap it in a textile storm surge barrier, a kinda giant gag. Sounds good to…
-
Money, it’s a gas…
…so said Pink Floyd in Dark Side of the Moon. And how right they turned out to be. The statistical rules governing the distribution of money and wealth bear more than a passing resemblance to the ideal gas laws. In fact, the statistical mechanics of money and wealth distribution have their own sub-headings in the…
-
Public transport: the cities most vulnerable to attack
Public transport networks are easy targets for terrorist attacks: anybody in London, Tokyo or Madrid will tell ya that. So Christian “Furbie” von Ferber at Coventry University in the UK and his buddies have decided to model a few of ’em from the point of view of network theory and find out how vulnerable they…