22,041 research outputs found
Video Pandemics: Worldwide Viral Spreading of Psy's Gangnam Style Video
Viral videos can reach global penetration traveling through international
channels of communication similarly to real diseases starting from a
well-localized source. In past centuries, disease fronts propagated in a
concentric spatial fashion from the the source of the outbreak via the short
range human contact network. The emergence of long-distance air-travel changed
these ancient patterns. However, recently, Brockmann and Helbing have shown
that concentric propagation waves can be reinstated if propagation time and
distance is measured in the flight-time and travel volume weighted underlying
air-travel network. Here, we adopt this method for the analysis of viral meme
propagation in Twitter messages, and define a similar weighted network distance
in the communication network connecting countries and states of the World. We
recover a wave-like behavior on average and assess the randomizing effect of
non-locality of spreading. We show that similar result can be recovered from
Google Trends data as well.Comment: 10 page
History, Historical Fiction, and Historical Myth: \u27The German Doctor\u27 by LucÃa Puenzo
The escape of thousands of war criminals to Argentina and throughout South America in the aftermath of World War II is a historical subject that has been clouded with mystery and conspiracy. LucÃa Puenzo\u27s film, The German Doctor, utilizes this historical enigma as a backdrop for historical fiction by imagining a family\u27s encounter with Josef Mengele, the notorious SS doctor from Auschwitz who escaped to South America in 1949 under a false identity. While Puenzo sought to tell a story within a historical context, the film still has important historical commentaries. Ultimately, The German Doctor demonstrates the intersections of history, historical fiction, and historical myth as it perpetuates false conceptions and conspiracies and creates a new field of pseudo-history despite its historical fiction label
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