The Virtual Window Interactive is a toy based in, and an advertisement for, The Virtual Window, a theoretical Visual Studies text authored by Anne Friedberg, who passed away this week at age 57. If you're like me, the first thing you'll realize is that your native aspect ratio is faulty already.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Oct 15, 2009 - 17 comments

British composer and TV presenter Howard Goodall presents a documentary exploring the influences and theory behind the music of The Beatles, and the transformation of their sound over their recording career. Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on Youtube. But that's not all... [more inside]
posted by Magnakai on Sep 9, 2009 - 30 comments

A rock given to the Netherlands as a gift by the American Ambassador to commemorate the Apollo-11 moon landing is tested and found to be nothing but petrified wood. Expect a "I told you so" from your neighbourhood conspiracy theorist at any moment. [more inside]
posted by dearsina on Aug 28, 2009 - 81 comments

The Status of the P Versus NP Problem It's one of the fundamental mathematical problems of our time, and its importance grows with the rise of powerful computers. (via mr)
posted by kliuless on Aug 27, 2009 - 116 comments

Take three kids and a flute. Anne says the flute should be given to her because she is the only one who knows how to play it. Bob says the flute should be handed to him as he is so poor he has no toys to play with. Carla says the flute is hers because it is the fruit of her own labour. How do we decide between these three legitimate claims? [more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada on Aug 21, 2009 - 193 comments

Not just a huge conspiracy... a TITANIC CONSPIRACY! "There are a number of good reasons to believe that the vessel which sank on the night of April 14/15 was in fact Titanic's slightly older, and very similar, sister ship Olympic."
posted by GuyZero on Jul 14, 2009 - 106 comments

The New Kaldor Facts: Ideas, Institutions, Population, and Human Capital [pdf] - "For now, we think that progress is likely to be most rapid if we follow the example of the neoclassical model and treat institutions the way the neoclassical model treated technology... Further out on the horizon, one may hope for a successful conclusion to the ongoing hunt for a simple model [1] of institutional evolution. Combining that with the unified approach to growth outlined here would surely constitute the economics equivalent of a grand unified theory..." [2, viz. previously] This might, as it were, be a subset of collective cognition (or, possibly, autism [3]).
posted by kliuless on Jul 14, 2009 - 9 comments

Paul Romer: A Theory of History, with an Application - "His economic theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living by looking primarily at just two forms of innovative ideas: technology and rules." (previously, via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless on Jul 3, 2009 - 11 comments

The Wire Files Open-access online journal darkmatter, "producing contemporary postcolonial critique," devoted its fourth issue to the television drama The Wire. An editorial explains that the "special issue aims to examine the place of race in the complex formation of the series." Thirteen articles cover The Wire's political economy, subversion of heteronormative assumptions, racial codes, Herc as a Zelig-like nexus, Baudrillardian urban space and much more in a veritable smorgasbord of academic bean-plating.
posted by Abiezer on Jun 29, 2009 - 37 comments

The Free Will Theorem - "If there exist experimenters with (some) free will, then elementary particles also have (some) free will." (previously)
posted by kliuless on Jun 28, 2009 - 229 comments

Back in the late Pleistocene epoch 100,000 years ago, the 2000 book contended, men who carried rape genes had a reproductive and evolutionary edge over men who did not: they sired children not only with willing mates, but also with unwilling ones, allowing them to leave more offspring (also carrying rape genes) who were similarly more likely to survive and reproduce, unto the nth generation. That would be us. And that is why we carry rape genes today. The family trees of prehistoric men lacking rape genes petered out. Newsweek's Sharon Begley examines evolutionary psychology and some of its most controversial theories (and how they are being rethought) in Don't Blame The Caveman.
posted by hippybear on Jun 25, 2009 - 92 comments

Understanding comics - Scott McCloud recaps his comics theory work at TED. [more inside]
posted by Artw on Jan 31, 2009 - 30 comments

Driving Off the Map by James Clinton Howell is a formal analysis of Metal Gear Solid 2. If you played this game — even if you didn't like it (especially if you didn't like it) — you need to read this to learn what you actually played. If you've never played Metal Gear Solid, it's still an excellent example of serious video game scholarship.
posted by cthuljew on Dec 8, 2008 - 37 comments

"Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression."
posted by grumblebee on Nov 11, 2008 - 43 comments

Michael Bérubé, professor of American Literature and Cultural Studies at Penn State, one of America's most dangerous professors, award winning blogger, author, and father of Jamie Bérubé, has started up his blog again. I, for one, welcome our new(ly) blogging (again) overlords. previously
posted by pasici on Sep 29, 2008 - 15 comments

"Žižek!" is a feature documentary exploring the eccentric personality and esoteric work of the "wild man of theory": the eminent Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. [more inside]
posted by homunculus on May 12, 2008 - 18 comments

Eikongraphia - Browsable architecture design theory thingy.
posted by carter on Feb 26, 2008 - 3 comments

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts (pdf), a recently-updated paper on the Cornell arXiv peer-review site. By Hrvoje Nikolić of the Rudjer Bošković Institute in Croatia. [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Feb 25, 2008 - 47 comments

Ever wondered if and where a specific set of numbers could be found in pi? Maybe you'd like to know where your birthday is? Or maybe just something funny. [prev. here, here] [more inside]
posted by TimeTravelSpeed on Dec 4, 2007 - 68 comments

Theory of Humor. A scientific paper, written by Tom Veatch, describes his Theory of Humor. When is something funny? When is it not funny? When does it cross the line? Why are puns generally shitty? And the mysterious and magical powers elephant jokes have on children, revealed! A great data set to use for practice in applying the theories presented in the paper can be found here.
posted by iamkimiam on Nov 20, 2007 - 57 comments

Collective Perception
posted by Soup on Nov 18, 2007 - 38 comments

The Meaning of Life. "We create life, we search for it, we manipulate and revere it. Is it possible that we haven't yet defined the term (PDF)?" [Via The Loom.]
posted by homunculus on Sep 6, 2007 - 43 comments

Samuel Huntington is interviewed by NPQ
posted by semmi on Feb 4, 2007 - 7 comments

12 tone scale? bah! Harry Partch: American composer, philosopher, publisher, teacher, satirist, instrument builder and designer, sculptor, theorist, experimentalist, adapted violist, conductor, author, retired hobo, seaman, sewer cleaner, vagrant, and graffitist. Until his death, Harry Partch had been doing his own thing for more than half a century. Partch's own thing began with his rejection of the European masters and the traditional bourgeois concert-hall performance.
partch created over 30 intruments to produce the sounds caught by the human ear not reproduced in concert halls. his life story is cool. his thoughts (pdf) have influenced the path of contemporary experimental music. one of the best of the bands influenced by him.
posted by localhuman on Oct 26, 2006 - 20 comments

As virtual worlds economic activity and populations grow, the importance of Real Money Trade comes to the fore. When does fraud inside game worlds become illegal? when do earnings from online worlds become taxable? [discussion], and what happens when real day traders get interested? [more inside]
posted by MetaMonkey on Oct 21, 2006 - 25 comments

What Good Are the Arts? asks John Carey’s recent book of the same name. The New Criterion think Carey’s thesis is informed by cynical political motives rather than earnest convictions, and accuses Carey of dabbling in the risky art of aesthetic relativism: Obviously, art is ultimately about “the search for truth” (a lesson we’d do well to remember before society falls apart). But as Carey and others point out to the contrary, the Third Reich was all about art—and yet, art under the Third Reich had precious little to do with “searching for truth.” So just what good are the arts? Here’s what a few others have to say on the subject.
posted by saulgoodman on Oct 4, 2006 - 45 comments

Among his collected works, in the few, short years before mathematician Alan Turing was driven to suicide, he published "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis", theorizing how a standing wave-like distribution of "cannibal" and "missionary" chemicals might explain how plants and animals develop their shape and pigmentation. Blogger Jonathan Swinton focuses on this more obscure aspect of Turing's research, and reviews some of his posthumous and unpublished efforts — including one of the earliest known examples of digital computation applied to the field of biology.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Aug 7, 2006 - 10 comments

Social theorist Murray Bookchin died July 30th in his home in Burlington, Vermont. During a prolific activist career spanning half a century, Bookchin forged a new anti-authoritarian outlook called social ecology, which sought to reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state. Bookchin was a relentless critic of ideologically similar movements that he found disturbing, including the New Left's drift toward Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus on individualism and personal lifestyles among anarchists. He was kicked out of the Young Communist League at age 18 for openly criticizing Stalin. In 1974, he co-founded the Institute for Social Ecology. He published more than 20 books and hundreds of articles during his lifetime. A public memorial service will be held for him in Burlington, Vermont, on Sunday, August 13th. (Summarized from an email sent by Brian Tokar.)
posted by strangeleftydoublethink on Jul 31, 2006 - 18 comments

Legal Theory Lexicon. A companion to Prof. Larry Solum's Legal Theory Blog, the Lexicon collects Solum's introductory posts on various aspects of legal theory. The Lexicon does a spectacular job of providing both a clear introduction to a wide range of basic and advanced topics, as well as references for more advanced reading.
posted by monju_bosatsu on Jul 17, 2006 - 4 comments

Imagining the Tenth Dimension (Flash). 10th dimensional physics and string theory don't get any easier than this.
posted by Jimbob on Jul 4, 2006 - 76 comments

i began cataloging the colors, and put the color list on the web. over time, the paint catalog turned into a web site.
posted by ijoshua on Jun 27, 2006 - 7 comments

Color theory is demonstrated before your very eyes, inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Itten, Joseph Albers, Marcel Duchamp and George Jetson. yes it's the COLORBOT© Color Harmonizer-Discorder. via dataisnature
posted by signal on Jun 27, 2006 - 26 comments

It's all one's and zero's eh? The complex patterns of the natural world often turn out to be governed by relatively simple mathematical relationships. A seashell grows at a rate proportional to its size, resulting in a delicate spiral. The gossamer network of galaxies results from the simple interplay between cosmic expansion and the force of gravity over a wide range of scales. As our catalogue of natural phenomena has grown more complete, more and more scientists have begun to look for interesting patterns in human society.
posted by Unregistered User on Jun 10, 2006 - 17 comments

Before the Big Bang - way, way out of my depth, but I thought this comment was intriguing: "The paper as published, along with a longer follow up paper, looks to my untrained eye a nearly complete quantum gravitation theory, which is an exciting prospect in itself. However, as with all physical theories, we will await for experimental support before popping the cork." Here's some more on loop quantum gravity, spin networks, the big bang and ekpyrosis.
posted by kliuless on Apr 16, 2006 - 18 comments

Graphs, Maps, Trees. The Valve is hosting a literary event for professor Franco Moretti's new book, Graphs, Maps, Trees. Moretti aims to reinvigorate literary studies by constructing abstract models based upon quantitative history, geography, and evolutionary theory. PDFs of the original articles: Graphs, Maps, Trees. A review at n+1 is here.
posted by painquale on Jan 13, 2006 - 10 comments

A Natural History of Peace. Humans like to think that they are unique, but the study of other primates has called into question the exceptionalism of our species. So what does primatology have to say about war and peace? Contrary to what was believed just a few decades ago, humans are not "killer apes" destined for violent conflict, but can make their own history.
posted by semmi on Dec 22, 2005 - 13 comments

Soft Cinema is a software+video project by media-theorist Lev Manovich, which 'mines the creative possibilities at the intersection of software culture, cinema, and architecture.' While perhaps more intriguing in prospect than in practice, it seems at least a noteworthy attempt at making something new. A DVD version of the project was released earlier this year.
posted by misteraitch on Nov 17, 2005 - 8 comments

$250,000 award - if you can prove Darwin's theory of evolution.
posted by snark9 on Oct 18, 2005 - 119 comments

Semiotics for beginners. via Michael Bérubé
posted by kenko on Jul 27, 2005 - 21 comments

Neuroeconomics: "Eventually it could help economists design incentives that gently guide people toward making decisions that are in their long-term best interests in everything from labor negotiations to diets to 401(k) plans." Note the ambiguous use of the pronoun "their"--are we talking about the long-term interests of people in general or of economists?
posted by all-seeing eye dog on Mar 22, 2005 - 25 comments

"A theory that can't predict anything is not a scientific theory," Woit says. That would be string theory, which was going to be the theory of everything, but apparently can't even agree how many dimensions there are. "Those who dabble in alternate-universe speculations might be just modern versions of '16th century theologians (who) speculated that spirits and angels emerge from the extra-dimensional universe,' says Krauss, who is also an outspoken foe of creationist teaching in schools."
posted by raaka on Mar 16, 2005 - 52 comments

Management methods, models, thoeries Kick off 2005 sounding and/or being smarter than everyone else. Minds will spin given the amount of info available here.
posted by Voyageman on Dec 25, 2004 - 13 comments

Who says theory is dead? Judith Butler's latest book, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence, is a collection of essays on politics and violence after September 11. The essay on anti-semitism and Israel appeared in the London Review of Books.
posted by homunculus on Oct 17, 2004 - 21 comments

Human Intelligence is a good site from Indiana University that looks at historical influences and current controversies surrounding the study of intelligence. Find out more about topics such as "the Mozart Effect", the theory of multiple intelligences, and the influence of birth order on intelligence, and then browse the brains behind the history of inquiry into human intellect.
posted by taz on Sep 23, 2004 - 2 comments

Smolin vs. Susskind on the anthropic principle. For those keeping score: Stephen Hawking is for it. Brian Greene is not.
posted by kliuless on Sep 4, 2004 - 10 comments

The Dolmetsch online music theory & history pages - short introductions to the whole of the how and why of Western music, with enough links to fill in any gaps. Amazingly good, although as yet incomplete. via haddock
posted by thatwhichfalls on Aug 11, 2004 - 5 comments

Social theory trading cards, action figures and legos! [Via Boing Boing.]
posted by homunculus on Mar 16, 2004 - 5 comments

The Kennedy Assassination It seems forty years later, more people believe in a conspiracy theory. So what do you think of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby and others? Was Mark Lane right? Maybe Prouty had even more answers he didn't share.
A previous post here : ...Up Close and Personal
posted by alethe on Nov 21, 2003 - 35 comments

The Virtual Colour Museum presents Colour Order Systems in Art and Science: "a complete cultural history of colour", including illustrated explanations of 59 colour theories from antiquity to modern time, plus the significance of colours in various cultural systems (click the small images to enlarge), and a "virtual colour-space" dedicated to illustrating the spherical colour system construction of early 19th century painter Philipp Otto Runge. Walk this way >>
posted by taz on Nov 9, 2003 - 4 comments

The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, California is one of many places in the US that challenge the theory of relativity. Berkeley psychologists have a theory about these mystery spots. Another Berkeleyan visited the spot and documented his tour. Some have done their own comprehensive tests and came to a different conclusion. A book was written to describe these gravitational anomalies, skeptics and believers all have an opinion ... but where does the truth lie?
posted by jasonspaceman on Jul 17, 2003 - 32 comments