Disqus - Latest Comments for Arasmus

Re: The wolves are circling Joost -- how should it respond?

Arasmus — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:01:45 -0000

Despite being very excited by the thought of Joost, when I eventually got to try it (on my parents' new Mac Intel desktop because it doesn't work on my pre-Intel Powerbook) I was overwhelmed by the trashy quality of the programming. I haven't been back since. Apparently I am not alone.

Re: 10 Ways History’s Finest Kept Their Focus at Work

Arasmus — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:12:19 -0000

The collective import of these observations is that these guys did very little work period, but the work they did do had great impact. This leads me to think of two reasons why maybe these rules do not apply to use today: (1) some of these guys (like Beethoven) lived at a time in which the general level of literacy (and therefore intellectual competition) was fairly low, (2) some of these guys (like Winston Churchill) got their positions in society because of the class into which they were born rather than by scaling the meritocratic heights. Perhaps basic competence was sufficient for those placed so highly by birth alone.

Re: 10 Ways History’s Finest Kept Their Focus at Work

Arasmus — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:41:01 -0000

Ben - you may already know this but check out Churchill's handling of the Gallipoli campaign in World War One - often described as one of the greatest disasters of World War I. My vote for greatest political leader of the last century would go to Gandhi - but he too, as for most leaders in the last century, was born to comfort.

Re: In startup success blogs don’t matter, paradigm shifts do

Arasmus — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:25:41 -0000

iLike - that leachy thing that stuck on the side of my iTunes like a limpit? The fact that it was all automatic was a plus, but I still haven't used it more than 3 times at the beginning of my 2 year "usership." I wish them well but its just plain ridiculous to equate my "iLike usership" with say my "Gmail usership" in coming up with a valuation.

Re: The Twitterization of Conversations

Arasmus — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:24:28 -0000

Micro-blogging is the substitution of Narrative with "Isative." The death of Narrative has dropped us all into a stream of present-sense impressions sans conclusion. We live now like characters of stories past with no indication of our fate beyond the next Twitter.

http://www.arasmus.com/microblog/2008/11/25/blo...

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Arasmus — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:17:30 -0000

"Why does this all matter? Well, if you are going to do this as a business you’ve got to prove how many readers you have and demonstrate both audience size as well as influence." - above all else, if you are going to do this as a business - you've got to show that you can monetize this audience that you are working so hard to build and I think that was one of Mike's points; "How much of that value does Robert receive? Zilch."

Re: Un-TreeHugger: Cole Cleaner Soda Can Disinfector

Arasmus — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:06:19 -0000

In the whole re-education process that we are all required to go through in response to energy-scarcity, environmental degradation and the diminishing marginal utility of increased consumption (did I get them all?) Mr. Leon Peng gets a D minus. This product takes the simple acts, described in the comments by other readers (wiping, using a straw or a bottle or just relying on your immune system) and substitutes an electrical machine that would utilize a lot of finite resources to create, ranging from energy to finance to human labor. The design succeeds only in making the simple complex, which frankly is not a rare skill. I would like to hear Mr. Peng justify this design. Mr. Peng? On what grounds do you think this design has merit? Is it because it is smooth and shiny? Wouldn't jewelry be a better focus for those aesthetics? Or is this the product designer equivalent of shock-jock journalism?

Re: Quitting Coffee is One of the Easiest Ways to Help The Planet and Yourself

Arasmus — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:20:31 -0000

Trevor Reichman's name goes onto my list of suspected slackers because of this sort of output. This post contains absolutely no content whatsoever and I can well imagine that it was written while staring at a cup of coffee listening to the intellectual equivalent of crickets. But even more glaring than the total lack of content is the absence of any attempt at an intelligent argument. Check out this logic:

"Whatever you believe, coffee is not essential to our lives and thus it is one commodity worth considering giving up entirely in order to benefit the planet and our pocketbooks in a time of economic and ecologic peril."

Do you really want me to list all the things that are not strictly essential to our lives? And what about the implications of your suggestion - coffee is often the only hope for many communities around the world that live in dire economic circumstances. It can affords an alternative to more environmentally disastrous activities such as deforestation or opium cultivation (as in the Golden Triangle in Thailand).

Treehugger with its ability to reach a large audience, "in a time of economic and ecologic peril," should seek to advance the green agenda. At the very least, Treehugger staffers should not write ridiculous articles like this that are of such poor quality they serve only to undermine what we are all trying to do. Sometimes if you don't have anything intelligent to say you should feel good about staying quiet.

Re: Quitting Coffee is One of the Easiest Ways to Help The Planet and Yourself

Arasmus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:33:40 -0000

I read Trevor Reichman's follow-up comment with even more shock and surprise as I read his original piece.

To support his claim that coffee causes health problems, he links in his original article to a document that says coffeee produces adrenaline and in his follow up comment to a study that claims that in the long-term, anger can cause "a threat to one's health" because getting angry signals "the adrenal gland to pump large doses of adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream."

Reichman has taken a study on anger and claimed it will do just as good as a study on coffee because coffee also produces adrenaline. (1) So you have no actual scientific evidence supporting your point then? (2) How does the amount of adrenaline produced by being angry over the long-term compare with the amount of adrenaline produced by drinking coffee over the long-term? (3) Does coffee produce counter-veiling effects on the body that may cancel any negative effects from the adrenaline or even produce a net benefit for the body? Reichman's logic is alarmingly close to; a car is black, a crow is black, a car is a crow.

Reichman's response to the economics point continues to show an unwillingness to engage reality. He suggests that if we stop demanding unnecessary goods, foreign lands will focus on becoming a pastoral oasis supplying food to their local and neighboring countries.

Firstly, take a look at the best argument you can find for free-trade and in particular respond to the evidence that free-trade (apart from supporting peace - cf the European Union post World War 2) has over time done a better job of raising living-standards than protectionism.

Secondly, a better approach to encouraging food cultivation in the developing world is not to stop demanding "unnecessary goods" but to stop dumping food produced by Western farmers in local markets in the developing world. While the food products of Western farms are dumped in those markets, local producers will not produce food if you don't drink their coffee because it makes no financial sense for them to do so. Instead they will try to survive in the sort of grinding poverty that you cannot even imagine.

Thirdly, how do you propose that we decide what is a necessary and unnecessary good? Its a ridiculous question isn't it? Because its a ridiculous idea.

Fourthly, why do you get to choose what you want to do based on the best return that you can find in the market for your interests but people in the developing world should do what's necessary? We need more teachers in the US - how do you feel about quitting what you do now and becoming a teacher in a public school in a disadvantaged neighborhood for $25-30k a year for the rest of your life? Its necessary!

Finally, to say this piece has led to such great comments and discussion and to thereby imply that it is of great polemical value is a degree of self-delusion reminiscent of those that argue that there are two scientific schools on the subject of evolution. It is not a good piece, its illogical and ridiculous and the only reason I have taken so much of my time to respond to it is because I want to send a clear message to Treehugger editors that they should not waste their valuable platform on this sort of drivel but should instead help us to transition to a more sustainable economy by providing intelligent if not actionable information.

Re: Quitting Coffee is One of the Easiest Ways to Help The Planet and Yourself

Arasmus — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:44:51 -0000

Trevor Reichman now goes on my list of nice guys. So many lists.

Re: Naturhus Wraps A House In Its Own Private Greenhouse

Arasmus — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:26:08 -0000

As a boy, during the summer, I often had to wash and clean the windows on my parents' house. If I lived in this house I think I would have died - soooo much newspaper required to give it the old spick'n'span. Furthermore, I think this design would have a large deodorant footprint.

Re: Bioneers 2008: How to Use Digital Media for Environmental Activism - Advice from the Experts

Arasmus — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:54:00 -0000

Treehugger Staff - you need to check the links under "More on Bioneers 2008." Some don't lead where they are supposed to and the "Bioneers 2008: Mark Sommer Creates Educasts for Mobile Learning" link doesn't lead anywhere. I think a lot of people are going to come through here in the weeks and months ahead on this important issue - let's try and make it work for them. Thanks.

Re: Quitting Coffee is One of the Easiest Ways to Help The Planet and Yourself

Arasmus — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:20:31 -0000

Re: Quitting Coffee is One of the Easiest Ways to Help The Planet and Yourself

Arasmus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:33:40 -0000

I read Trevor Reichman's follow-up comment with even more shock and surprise as I read his original piece.

Thirdly, how do you propose that we decide what is a necessary and unnecessary good? Its a ridiculous question isn't it? Because its a ridiculous idea.

Re: Quitting Coffee is One of the Easiest Ways to Help The Planet and Yourself

Arasmus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:44:51 -0000

Trevor Reichman now goes on my list of nice guys. So many lists.

Re: Un-TreeHugger: Cole Cleaner Soda Can Disinfector

Arasmus — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:06:19 -0000

Re: Lifestream With A Little Help From Your Friendfeed

Arasmus — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:19:25 -0000

Thanks for the play-by-play from the Wordpress perspective. I am even more of a newb re CSS. As you can see I have just used the HTML embed but my wishlist is exactly the same as yours above (the aesthetics have been driving me nuts for over a year) - is there any way that I can adjust the HTML to achieve what I want?

Re: Lifestream With A Little Help From Your Friendfeed

Arasmus — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:39:39 -0000

Thanks very much for taking the time.