Popular photos, constructive interference and the Crocodile Hunter

I've spent a fair bit of time over the past few months looking at the patterns in Yahoo's popular news photos. Generally, the most viewed photos are where you'll find celebrities, pageant girls and cute animals. The most recommended photos tend to feature the more sober news events. (In between you'll find the most emailed photos.)

There usually isn't a significant overlap between the most viewed and most recommended photos. But the freak death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has produced a rare event: nearly all the popular photos in all three categories are about him. Take a look:

They're not all the same photos, but the subject matter is identical. It's kind of like a zeitgeist-y version of constructive interference, when multiple waves are in phase and boost their signal. In this case it's the near-perfect alignment of celebrity star power and a shocking (and very sad) death.