 unhealthy people use it as a substitute for honesty (or a cloak for whining), it’s bound to have the opposite affect. And the research seemed to confirm this.
the Apostle Paul advised us, there are some times when it’s smart for us to keep our mouths shut (Eph.4:29). Sarcastic opinions are always irritating when they’re coming from certain people. 
Obviously, my book Pharisectomy oozes with sarcasm. (And wait until you read my new book “Broken Escalators” this Oct!) But, in Pharisectomy, I spend a lot of time poking fun of churches. So when I first released it, I wondered if an audience (who didn’t know me) could handle the jabs. After all, when I’m sarcastic in person, I have the added opportunity of smiling at people – and if necessary, I’ll add an awkward side hug. But how would this work in a book?
For example, it’s always bothered me to read books and blogs that critique the church – coming from Christians who aren’t successful pastors. It just feels… well, …irritating. It’d be like listening to Miley Cyrus talk about the president’s foreign-policy. We simply don’t trust her on that topic. (Heck, we don’t even trust her to make good music). And in the same way, none of us want to hear jokes or critiques from people who don’t have the skills to build a life-giving church (nor a desire to help churches when they aren’t).
So once again, when people with low levels of credibility and love get sarcastic, most of us would rather listen to Miley Cyrus (in defense of Miley, I still rock out to “Party in the USA” when I’m alone in my car). But it still begs the question: how could sarcasm cause a team to “significantly out-produce” other groups of people when it comes to creativity and problem solving?
One of the studies’ authors suggested that, sarcasm requires a person to think more abstractly. When a friend says, “Wow, you’re a real charmer!” (right after you got caught picking your nose), it requires your brain to translate a bit more. In other words, sarcasm causes people to think divergently, sometimes paradoxically, which perhaps causes people to approach their problems from a different angle.
So, the next time you find yourself stuck, just go around the room and tell everyone which celebrity supermodel they look like the most. (I look very Chuck-Norris-like). Keep it positive. And it just might jumpstart a whole new wave of creative solutions.
As mentioned in Black Cat's thread, I decided to try doing a three-way cupping of the Rwandan Kinini autumn harvest natural process from three different roasters: Black Cat, Crankhouse (Google cache link) and Yellow Bourbon. Black Cat and Crankhouse are the Peaberry, Yellow Bourbon is not. It...
Hi there, I decided to collect all summaries and results from coffee cupping. Naturally I thought about collecting data and reviews in the spreadsheet which is quite straight forward. This method, however, has it's limitations when my database increases. It's hard to compare coffees and review...
I wondered how people judge the quality of roasts both as home Roasters and the professionals among us? As we've got so many knowledgeable folks also if you have ideas what good tests would be? Obviously taste is a key factor but as that's subjective are their extra tests that people do. If...
I'm new to the coffee scene and want to start doing some home roasting with the aim to produce a quality bean in due course. I appreciate that there are a number of thing that will need to come together to produce a quality roasted bean but how do you know you have one. I'm assuming by cupping...
Guys at work performed the cruelest prank on me and I am not sure my pride will ever recover. Here's the story, followed by a serious question and I'd appreciate your thoughts. So here's what happened: About a week ago, a college brought a very dark roast ashy coffee from Cuba - Cafe Serano...
really late in the day but cupping some new crop samples at the roastery tomorrow at 10.30am if anyone is in or around sheffield 3x Bolivian new origin on me so will be fun to see how these play out, a brazilian with some none brazilian tasting notes & a 91.25 ethiopian which i'm really looking...
Does One Roast Profile Fit All Brew Methods?
Quick review of several roasters reveals a few are offering the customer the choice of having their S.O.s roasted either for espresso or pour over which indicates that there is a different roast profile used for each to optimise for the brew method in question. Does this matter? Does it affect...
Any interesting coffee events on in London? A cupping session I can join?
So... In the longstanding tradition of assuming I'm wrong and I'm entirely misguided about objectively looking at coffee and its taste, I want to send some coffee out to upstanding citizens of the forums. Also @garydyke1 actually has this properly nailed as an idea so... it'll all be from...
To receive the same coffee roasted 6 different ways, A, B, C, D, E, F.... (must be cupped in that sequence) looking for 5 participants. Must have ability to cup (so 6 x 200ml bowls/cups of equal size) 12g of each roast will be provided with a red envelope containing revealing the info...
Just wanted to, ahem, put it out there that I shall be attending a cupping session with Tim Wendelboe tomorrow morning. That is all.
Cupping: how old can the beans be?
I've got Hasbean beans in the bags with a one way valve. They were roasted 15 days ago. I opened them 14 days ago. Perhaps I'm imagining it but the taste seems a little diminished already. Is it too late to cup them?
Cupping - how much difference does the spoon make?
There was an interesting article in the Guardian earlier in the week about spoon science - 'zinc for fizz, steel for saltiness, gold for mango sorbet...the right type of spoon can blow your taste buds away...' (or not). There is much forum interest in the difference that water can make (along...
Old Business: Leaks
Old Business: Leaks
The news this week contained reports that Bush himself authorized that information be leaked from classified pre-war assessment of Iraq. His staff are insisting that these leaks were in the national interest. However, in light of this argument, I would like to resurrect a posting that I made on March 5 called "Subverting Democracy." It explained the moral implications of selective leaks. It forces news sources to try to somehow distinguish between leaks that the President wants to get out and those the President does not want to get out, with criminal penalties applied to those who get wrong.
Old Business: Wiretaps
My argument against wiretaps has never been that the government should not engage in wiretaps. It is that, without oversight, this power can easily be abused. The President can too easily claim that anybody who challenges his policies is a "suspected terrorist" and start an investigation.
Two news items this week relate to this issue.
First, in hearings before the Senate, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that the President can wiretap any American's communication without a warrant.
Second, Crooks and Liars put me onto a statement from a former AT&T Employee about NSA equipment installed at a telephone office.
Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment at issue, it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the internet -- whether that be peoples' e-mail, web surfing or any other data.
So, the question comes up again, given that this group believes the President can do no wrong, and has already authorized torture until death, extraordinary rendition, imprisonment without trial, and deceived the country into a preplanned war, how much trust should we have that they are not abusing this power?
How ironic that an administration elected on a platform of returning morality to government does not know how to tell the difference between right and wrong.
New Business: Desires and the Definition of 'Good'"
I had a very nice discussion this week with the people over at at stupidevilbastard.com on desire utilitarianism. In the face of some very good questions I encountered there, I came up with ways of presenting the main points of desire utilitarianism that I had never used before. I thought it may be useful to bring them over here to give readers an idea of how I think.
Thwarting Desires
A reader there reported interpreting desire utilitarianism as saying that desire fulfillment must be consonant with the desires of others or at least not be at odds with the desires of others.
That is not the case. A desire can be at odds with the desires of others and still count as a good desire. The desire to punish wrongdoers, for example, certainly thwarts the desires of the wrongdoers who would be punished. Yet, if we were unwilling to punish wrongdoers, we would end up with more wrongdoers. Where "wrongdoing" itself is defined in terms of actions that fulfill bad (desire-thwarting) desires, we