June 24, 2009 at 10:33pm Comments
June 24, 2009 at 10:20pm Comments
June 24, 2009 at 8:40pm Comments
"We analyze a collaboration network based on the Marvel Universe comic books. First, we consider the system as a binary network, where two characters are connected if they appear in the same publication. The analysis of degree correlations reveals that, in contrast to most real social networks, the Marvel Universe presents a disassortative mixing on the degree. Then, we use a weight measure to study the system as a weighted network. This allows us to find and characterize well defined communities. Through the analysis of the community structure and the clustering as a function of the degree we show that the network presents a hierarchical structure. Finally, we comment on possible mechanisms responsible for the particular motifs observed."
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Pablo M Gleiser: “How To Become A Superhero”, Journal of Statistical Mechanics, September 2007. Full text available in PDF.
“Pity the villains of the Marvel comics - they never had a chance against superheroes like Spider-Man. An analysis of the social webs within the fictional Marvel universe reveals that villains were banished to the periphery of society, while the superheroes were well connected. Physicist Pablo Gleiser of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studied the social web within the fictional universe of Marvel comics, comprising 6486 characters in 12,942 issues. Taking two characters to be linked if they appeared in the same issue, he found a superficially realistic social network. A small fraction of characters - notably the superheroes themselves - had far more links than most others, acting as key social hubs. ‘The Marvel universe looks almost like a real social network,’ says Gleise” (NewScientist, September 2007). See the paper’s figures HERE.
This is to go along Mary1in post about the X-Men Universe Relationship Map.
(via skandalon)
June 24, 2009 at 8:39pm Comments
Many neuroscientists have claimed that our minds are just a function of and thus reducible to our brains. I challenge neuroreductionism by arguing that the mind emerges from and is shaped by interaction among the brain, body, and environment. The mind is not located in the brain but is distributed among these three entities. I then explore the implications of the distributed mind for neuroethics.
The same thing was argued by Gregory Bateson throughout the book Steps to an Ecology of Mind.
June 24, 2009 at 8:33pm Comments
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
— Gandhi (via aaaartstar) (via honeyhands)
June 24, 2009 at 12:43pm Comments
"Today we are always as ready to judge as we are to fornicate."
— Albert Camus, The Fall (via Slaughterhouse 90210) (via reconnoitre)
June 24, 2009 at 12:40pm Comments
June 24, 2009 at 12:13pm Comments
The number of demonstrators arrested in Tehran on Saturday is estimated at 550 or so, which is less than those arrested by the NYPD for protesting Bush policies in 2004.
At the Republican National Committee convention in St. Paul, 250 protesters were arrested shortly before John McCain took the podium. Most were innocent activists and even journalists. Amy Goodman and her staff were assaulted. In New York in 2004, ‘protest zones’ were assigned, and 1800 protesters were arrested.
I applaud the Iranian public’s protests against a clearly fraudulent election, and deplore the jackboot tactics that the regime is using to quell them. But it is important to remember that the US itself was moved by Bush and McCain toward a ‘Homeland Security’ national security state that is intolerant of public protest and throws the word ‘terrorist’ around about dissidents. Obama and the Democrats have not addressed this creeping desecration of the Bill of Rights, and until they do, the pronouncements of self-righteous US senators and congressmen on the travesty in Tehran will be nothing more that imperialist hypocrisy of the most abject sort. - Juan Cole
June 24, 2009 at 11:47am Comments
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