Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with theory

Help me make my life a little more chili

toomuchpete — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:49:27 -0800

I've decided that it is time for me to learn how to make chili and I'm looking for some pointers and resources on advanced chili theory. More composition and less paint-by-numbers, please. It is my firm belief that, as a red-blooded American man, one of my unspoken duties is to be able to make a mean pot of chili. And, further, because I do not have a family recipe to adopt, I believe that it is also my duty to develop one to pass on to any eventual TooMuchChildrens. *

It goes without saying that this process will likely not be quick, and will involve lots and lots of trial (and maybe even some error), but that's half of the fun. Trying 100 different recipes from other people and trying to pick the one I like best seems . . . boring (but probably just as tasty).

So I'm looking for resources that help me understand what really makes chili chili. Recipes are okay, I suppose, but I'm looking for more in the way of "theory". Less 1 lb of this, 1 Tbsp of that, more about balancing flavors, interesting ideas to try, and so on. Tips, hints, dire warnings.

I'm also open to general cooking resources in this same vein that could be applied.

I am not afraid of anything in my kitchen (except, maybe, the tupperware container in the back of the fridge) and I'm generally pretty experimental there, so this sort of thing is not entirely foreign to me, but I'd like a little direction and inspiration before I start throwing things in a pot.

So, hope me hive-mind: I'm looking for anything. Books. Websites. One-off tips. TV shows. Documentaries. 1-900 chili tip lines. Whatever.

And I suppose if you really, really must, your favoritest chili recipe or recipe book.

* - I am not interested in suggestions that this is not the case.

Rhetorical Theory texts for Undergrads?

BlooPen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:36:36 -0800

What textbooks and/or texts would you recommend for an undergraduate Rhetorical Theory class? I’ll be teaching Rhetorical Theory for the first time next semester and have been struggling to find a textbook or some combination of textbooks for the course. Alternatively, I can choose articles and selections from primary texts to post online, so suggestions for articles and key primary texts are also helpful. The students are mostly junior English majors focusing their studies on Lit or Creative Writing, and this will be their first exposure to rhetorical theory.

This question has given me a good head start, but I'm hoping to find things that are compelling for undergraduates without overwhelming them.

Innovative Book Designs

0bvious — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:37:46 -0800

Innovative Books: I am looking to compile a list of the most innovative uses of the book format. Books that break the mould in their layout and design, perhaps books that use online systems to extend their content value or push their form into new places. I am most interested in narrative and theory, but any book that is interesting (artist books etc.) would be really appreciated. I have a few examples, in order of publication, to set the ball rolling:

Compendium for literates : a system of writing by Karl Gerstner - A book about book form in an innovative form. Beautiful and still fresh

Dictionary of the Khazars: a lexicon novel in 100,000 words by Pavic - a 'dictionary novel' "written in two versions, male and female, which are identical save for seventeen crucial lines"

A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel by Tom Philips - an artist who has used one particular edition of one particular book as a space for his work for many years

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larson - extended use of footnote, side-note and illustration to give the narrative dimension

I would love any ideas you have!

How to simultaneously exchange information?

deadweightloss — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:13 -0800

How to simultaneously exchange information? Say a friend and I want to exchange pieces of information, but it is very important that we reveal the information at the same time (equivalently: neither of us know the other's info at the time we commit to our own announcement). if we are in the same room, this is easy, we both write our information on slips of paper and then exchange slips. If we are not in the same room, there is no obvious analogue. For example, simultaneously sending emails does not work, as he could get my email, view my information, alter his announcement, and then send his email all in a few seconds.

If an example would help, say that we are both to name positive whole numbers, and if the sum of our numbers is odd, I have to do an unpleasant task, while if it is even, he has to do the task. Obviously if he can see my information before committing to his announcement, the interaction is trivialized. So we want to find a way to randomize who gets the task using this method.

So how can we do this if not in the same room (presumably over the Internet)?

One thing reducing the difficulty of the problem: we are friends, so we will not get caught lying to each other (and if we are, a suitable punishment can be arranged). However a solution that would allow him to lie without my knowing won't work.

Long Tail Theory

nam3d — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:07:47 -0800

Where can I learn more about the theory behind The Long Tail? I've read the book but want something more than just examples. Books, papers, blog posts, etc all accepted.

Playing Those Mind Games Forever?

watercarrier — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:23:41 -0800

Possible Jungian Reasons for *Getting into Someone's Head*? Long time ago, read the book *Games People Play*. Have the rules changed? Why would a rational person attempt play mind games with someone ? What are the *rules* of the *game*? Are there payoff's for the player? If so, what are they and how do they manifest? Studies, books and current day examples on the subject appreciated.

Uh...hang on, just give me a minute.

Demogorgon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:34:31 -0800

What is the most important scientific question of our time? I volunteer at an observatory for a local amateur astronomers' society and one of the guests at a recent star party came up and asked, "What do you think is the most important question science has to answer right now?" Obviously, there is no right or wrong answer, but after the party was over a lot of us were still talking about this question and I ended up learning a great deal from my fellow club members that I might otherwise not have.
The next time this question gets asked I want to be prepared to offer a variety of answers from differing fields and opinions. I don't expect to represent every answer as an expert, but I'd like to be able to give a few more examples than I was able to, and then correlate them to some book recommendations from the answers in this thread about introductions to your field.
I also think it is important to frame the question in a way that can be meaningfully answered, i.e. "What is the most important scientific discovery about to be made?" or something like that.
Of course, I had my own answer in mind, but as a relative layperson to that branch of study I had a really hard time articulating why it was so important to "science." Therefore, if you are uniquely affiliated with a specific field that you think will produce a game-changer, feel free to get as technical as you're comfortable doing.

Thanks!

Theories/discussions about corporate inertia

runkelfinker — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:43:27 -0800

I'm looking for interesting theories/discussions around the phenomenon of corporate inertia I'm trying to find out as much as I can online about corporate inertia - in other words, how companies and management get bogged down, fail to innovate, make stupid decisions etc, because of internal issues which may be organisational, cultural, attitudinal or similar.

So far I've found a few things - e.g. Warren Buffett's "Institutional imperative", as well as the Peter Principle and Parkinson's Law, but am eager to hear of more!

This string theory - it vibrates?

tzikeh — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:19:35 -0800

Help me find this famous quote (paragraph) about string theory? I think it's Michio Kaku, but I could be misremembering. It's in an early chapter of a modern lay-person's book about theoretical physics (Possibly Kaku's Hyperspace, possibly Chaos by James Gleick) and the gist of the quote (paragraph) is that string theory is ridiculous, it makes no sense, and we can't prove it, but the only thing we know for certain about string theory is that it is absolutely true.

Escaped from Greenock Prison

cameronfromedinburgh — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:13:33 -0800

Browsing today's newspapers here in Scotland it would seem that there is an anti-Scottish feeling pervading the whole of the USA after the compassionate release of the Pan-Am bomber last week. Question1: Am I right in thinking that this is the case, or is it just right wing neo-con nonsense eminating from the Fox News stable? Question2: If this anti-Scottish feeling does exist, how best can I explain that we the UK/US public have been sold a lie by our Governments and that this guy was merely a patsy? The usually sound Scots legal system was a victim here and was used and abused by the use of Public Interest Immunity Certificates and dodgy state sponsored witnesses. This system needs rectified, what is the best forum to speak out on?

What books would teach me about information and data?

Deathalicious — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:58:24 -0800

Let's say I wanted to educate myself to sort-of the equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree in Information and Data (not sure what the real degree would be called, but you get the idea). What should be in my syllabus? Areas of study would include things like informational networks and social networking, tacit and explicit knowledge, parsing and data extraction, data mining, visualization, metadata, information retrieval and storage, plus other things that I'm probably not even aware of. Websites are great, but so are books (maybe excluding $$$ textbooks if possible), podcasts, videos, source code, applications, etc. Assume a relatively high level of technical know-how (including coding skills) but little formal computer science training.

To me do really is a deer, a female deer ...

TheyCallItPeace — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:22:13 -0800

I just bought an ukulele, and I want to learn how to play it. Thing is, I know nothing about music in general. What should I learn? I am guessing that learning some music theory is not necessary to learn an instrument, but I imagine that it can only help. When I say I know nothing, I really mean I know nothing beyond do re mi fa sol la si ... which apparently has been replaces by single letters of the alphabet in no particular order. Sharps, minors, majors, etc are all greek to me.

This is a question for all you musicians out there (amateur or pro): what should I learn first? What are the best sites/book for it? Is there any bit of theory that is particularly useful for guitars, ukuleles or other instruments in that family?

Books on theory building

Sutekh — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:43:30 -0800

Please recommend your favourite books on theory building. I'd like to improve my approach to theory in my research (which is in the business field, but that's probably not important). Bonus points for texts with tips on viewing research problems in terms of theoretical solution or conceptualization.

Is it too late to become an amateur physicist?

reenum — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:49:30 -0800

Is it too late for me to get into physics? I've been reading profiles of physicists lately, and the work they do fascinates me. There's something oddly poetic about being able to use math to explain the world's phenomena. I especially enjoy reading about string theory and the elusive Unified Theory of the Universe.

I'd like to get to a point where I can do some of the math and work out some of the equations mentioned in the articles I've read.

I have a couple of handicaps, as I see it:

1. I'm 30.

2. I don't have a strong grounding in math. When I was younger, I bought into the contention that I couldn't "do" math and developed an aversion to math. So, I'll need to start from the ground up. By which I mean high school algebra up.

Given that I don't have much of a foundation, is it feasible for me to embark on an endeavor like this? This wouldn't be for fame or glory. I'm a curious person, and I'd like to be able to do what the physicists I read about do.

Theory and Practice Agree in Theory but not in Practice

jasonhong — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:58:01 -0800

In what cases is game theory a good model of actual human behavior? I'm curious as to the extent that game theory has been empirically validated as being a good model of human behavior, in terms of theories and domains. If you know of any specific theories or domains that have been validated, or any good survey papers or introductory material, I'd really appreciate it.

For example, (I'm making these next statements up) "game theory turns out to be surprisingly effective for modeling dating behavior among high school students" or "the predicted results of Prisoner's Dilemma based on game theory highly correlates with our user studies".

I'm familiar with the basics of game theory (minimax, nash equilibria) and basics of behavioral economics (the ultimatum game, Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory,
The Paradox of Choice, some of George Loewenstein's work).

How do you stop an infinite number of suicide bombers?

cali59 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:18:03 -0800

Can anybody elaborate on a discussion on hypothetically stopping suicide bombers that was featured on The Unit? On the season 2 episode of The Unit entitled "Two Coins", the team meets with an anti-terrorism expert to discuss suicide bombers. The problem they are facing specifically is how can you possibly stop an arbitrarily large number of suicide bombers that are overlapping or leapfrogging to the target (first bomber blows up the most exterior barricade, the second bomber following close behind blows up the next barricade, and so on). The expert gives them a book on siege warfare, says that he thinks the Romans solved the problem, and asks them to come up with their solution overnight.

The team comes back and starts a dicussion about how the leapfrogging suicide bombers can penetrate any distance linearly, but that they cannot penetrate vertically. And then this fascinating discussion abruptly stops when they realize that two people are missing and they have to run off and try to save them.

So my question is, assuming the writers of the show didn't just make this up on their own, does anybody know more about this concept? The first thing that comes to mind is to build underground, but is that the end of the story? It's hard to see how building up solves the problem, unless you can do it on some semi-indestructible mound of earth or something. Also, can anyone recommend any good books on the subject? (I assume the one the expert told them to read was just a made up cover, and in any case I no longer have the DVD)

AHRC Funding for PhD - How to ensure it!?

0bvious — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:16:50 -0800

Applying for AHRC funding for an Art PhD. Any advice? I am very much at the end of a very long, and arduous, PhD application procedure. I am applying to do Art Practice, with heavy emphasis on practice-based research. I got the place at the university, now I need to get the funding!

I have one very good reference already finalised and am waiting to hear back from my proposed supervisor on the other (required) reference.

What are the most imperative aspects of my 500 words proposal for funding?

I realise that this subject is rather contextual, but any advice would be appreciated.

What are the day-to-day details of a world based on Social Credit?

cowbellemoo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:06:15 -0800

What are the day-to-day details of a world based on Social Credit? How do companies conduct their business? How are civic services accomplished? A friend and I are trying to understand the theory and we're getting hung up on a practical conception or application of it. I follow with the concept of Cultural Inheritance, the critique of traditional credit as anti-social, the more results-driven look at production, the confluence of money with democratic power ("voting with money"), income security, and the radical de-centralization of power. But what does it look like? I realize that economic/political models have endless permutations, but is there a standard Social Credit Utopia you could describe to me?

How would, say, a home get sold? What business models would companies follow? How is education conducted? Big civic things, too, like how would a park be built? A newfangled communications infrastructure? Sanitary services? Disaster relief?

Why am I getting ignored by these two?

InterestedInKnowing — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:57:29 -0800

Why are these two males acting funny with me? At my workplace, I get along with most of the ladies and all the men except for two young guys. Not that I don't get along with them but they ignore me. I noticed they clam up around me and don't respond to anything I say to them. Even getting a hi is impossible when they seem to kick it fine with the other ladies and gentlemen. I am not implying EVERYONE should like me 'cause that's impossible but usually males respond very well to me because I'm just myself and to the point. I am wondering why some males seem to take issue with me when I have not done anything to them to warrant that type of cold shoulder. What is that?

Person-Centered Theory

roxiesmom — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:52:56 -0800

Rogerian Theory Project I have searched through Google articles and articles from my school's library and have come up empty.

What I need? Well I'm doing a project on the Person-Centered Theory (Rogerian Theory by Carl Rogers). I have to find an recent research article, 2002 or more recent about the theory. So far I have come up without a recent article. I have found articles that have some information but nothing recent.

Is there somewhere that I have failed to look? Or can anyone help me with the search and give me suggestions on how to find an article more recent.

New theories of Mimesis (in digital/hypertextual/hypermedial cultures)

0bvious — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:09:48 -0800

I am looking for writings on mimesis in regards new, digital, hypertext and hypermedial technologies and cultures. I am following the redefinition of mimesis. From Plato's disregard of oral culture, through his mimesis of Socrates' dialogues in writing. Following Plato, Aristotle's theory was always a written mimesis, thus the order and processes of representation and mimicry were fundamentally written.

In essence, I am interested in how the artefacts of oral culture differed in their mimesis to written culture, and thus, how our modern move from a written to a digital/hypertextual culture will similarly impact on mimetic embodiment.

(I am also concerned with the terms 'digital' and 'hypertextual' - perhaps they are too narrow. Oral, written cultures and then XXXXX? The terms 'Cybertext' and 'Ergodic' do not seem to cover the ground wide enough.)

I have been reading Marshall McLuhan, Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man and Gunter Gebauer's and Christoph Wulf's Mimesis: Culture--Art--Society. I am looking for writings on digital, hypertextual mimesis, and how it differs, how it has altered, the theoretical embodiment of representation in thought, artefacts, language and culture.

Your help, ideas and advice are much appreciated, as always

Demand: Law. Gravity: Just a theory.

johannahdeschanel — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:44:38 -0800

How would you go about proving that the law of demand does not exist? Just out of curiouisity. Yes, it is something I think about on a Saturday night.

How I understand music reviews better and explain it to others ?

fizzix — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:40:19 -0800

I listen to a lot of 'contemporary' music (not classical), but how do I better understand music reviews and explain what I hear to my friends and peers ? I read music reviews (all sorts of genres, mostly rock and hip-hop, but also
electronic and blues) and often do not understand
a lot of the music terms and jargon mentioned in it.
For example, phrases like "supple, swelling pedal steel" from
tinymixtapes
and "surf-inspired riffs on 'x song' a "deep, rich tone, underscored by an eerie, shuddering organ." (from a review of a paper copy of a music mag, no online link), and "singing several layers forward in the mix"
in this blues review are confusing for me.

So far, wikipedia has been somewhat helpful, but I ask the hive-mind for any other
good introductory books and resources (besides learning how to play an instrument) so I can understand reviews better
and be able to more richly describe music to friends and other people (than just 'sounds like this band', 'fast-paced' and
'samples this instrument').

photogratheory

shothotbot — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:47:04 -0800

What are some good books on the theory or aesthetics of photography. I am not interested in technical aspects of, say, exposure but would be interested in what makes a good composition. I have read Szarkowski's The Photographers Eye and know of - but have not read - Sontang's On Photography. More books along the same lines would be great.

The art of multitasking, split screens in media

codybaldwin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:30:45 -0800

Looking for movies with the technique of split screen. Also, I'm looking for free media theory papers on the topic. I'm already aware of:
http://www.splitscreen.us/
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_screen_(film)#In_films

Does it happen a lot more on TV. I noticed that there is a screen shot from 24 on the wikipedia site. I'm doing research for a film I'm in the process of writing and need to see what other films have done with it. I would LOVE any kind of media theory papers that anyone knows on the topic, preferably free. Thank you.