Making Comics: How to communicate visually

clipped from www.kk.org Magnificent! A work of genius. The best how-to manual ever published. I could keep piling on the superlatives because this book is simply a masterpiece. At one level, it is a comic book about how to make comics, and for that it is supreme; the best. It will walk you through every step of making a comic, including how to make them on the web, digitally, or in pen and ink. I've been working on a near-completed graphic novel, and every page has told me something important and spot on. With brilliant graphics, Scott McCloud combines the most profound insights from his two previous books, Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. But in this book he raises your understanding of graphic communication further by making every lesson utterly practical and useful for both novice and expert. I can't imagine anyone ever doing a comic manual better.

Stinky? It's Not His Sweat, It's Your Nose

Dang. Finally, some support for the big, sweaty feller! I remember that, starting at age 13, I received the Brut or Olde English cologne seasonal gift box throughout my college years.

clipped from www.reuters.com CHICAGO (Reuters) - When it comes to a man's body odor, the fragrance -- or stench -- is in the nose of the beholder, according to U.S. researchers who suggest a single gene may determine how people perceive body odor. The study, published online on Sunday in the journal Nature, helps explain why the same sweaty man can smell like vanilla to some, like urine to others and for about a third of adults, have no smell at all. Matsunami and colleagues at Duke and Rockefeller University in New York focused on the chemical androstenone, which is created when the body breaks down the male sex hormone testosterone.

Themes How the Mind Works

A fantastic collection of video presentation by the best thinkers and presenters on the planet.

clipped from www.ted.com If you're going to hold a conference about ideas, from time to time you need to step back and look at the mysterious engine that creates them: the human mind. What goes on in there anyway? How can our strange, gray, gooey brains create inspired inventions, the feeling of hunger, the experience of beauty, the sense of self? And how reliable are they? Might there be strange quirks in the ways our minds work, given that they were optimized for the needs of a savannah-roaming hunter-gatherer? Our speakers offer numerous insights. Dan Dennett argues that brains are the ecosystem in which a new form of life, the meme or idea, can flourish. Meanwhile Peter Donnelly, Al Seckel and Dan Gilbert, in three very different ways, highlight bizarre quirks in the way we think, perceive and experience. Yes, it turns out our mental programs are a little buggy. These talks will help you take countermeasures!

A big corporate thumbs-up for Google

I admit it: I am a iGoogle junkie. I have been experimenting with Google Docs, but tend to use the writeboard feature in Basecamp for collaborative draft documents. Plus, OpenOffice, the free open source equivalent to MS Office, can be installed on my laptop for off-road writing and spreadsheeting.

But this endorsement could mean billions of dollars in savings for global firms who have to dish out for installation and support of every knowledge worker at a terminal (anybody still using Office 2003?).

clipped from www.publicradio.org You may not have heard of Capgemini, but the technology consulting firm has some big-name clients, like drug maker Eli Lilly and the accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers — big corporations that spend big money on office software and technology. So it's no small deal that Capgemini is endorsing Google's suite of office software. Capgemini will continue to support business software made by other vendors, including Microsoft and IBM, but this is the first time one of the world's top technology consulting services will recommend Google Apps to its corporate customers.

Japan eyes robots to support older population

Researchers racing against time to build humanoid workforce.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com TOKYO - It looks like a washing machine on wheels, but the bulky contraption vacuuming the hallways of a Tokyo high-rise is a robot. Japanese researchers hope that robots like this one will be the answer to a pressing question hanging over the country -- how to cope with an aging population and a declining labor force. The vacuuming machine developed by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd is already cleaning floors in about 10 buildings around the country, including a 54-floor skyscraper in central Tokyo.

Staying awake difficult for workers

clipped from www.cnn.com Asleep on the job Speaking of nodding off, turns out American's aren't so good at keeping their eyes open in the workplace. A whopping 50 percent of those surveyed say they've caught someone sleeping at work, not to mention the 28 percent who admit they've fallen asleep at work themselves. Little-known-fact: Auto mechanics (65 percent) have the highest rate of self-admitted snoozing on the job, followed by 51 percent of government workers. Having trouble staying awake? Follow these pointers from "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Work," by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, on how to cover if you're caught sleeping at your desk. Blame work. Say, "I'm so exhausted; I was here until midnight last night!" Do not attempt this if your boss works late and you do not.

The Most Innovative Ways to Nap

My favorite activity synergized with funky furniture and gadgetry!

clipped from www.fastcompany.com With increasing awareness about the health benefits of sleep, napping is becoming both more popular and more acceptable -- not just on college campuses. The opportunity to cater to this trend has caught the attention of entrepreneurs, and in recent years, there has been a slew of new products and services that facilitate napping. Here are some of the most interesting ways to catch a few reinvigorating minutes of rest when you can’t just jump into bed.

One of the technologies, is a iTunes-like music streamer that uses an algorithm to combine music, words and rhythms.

pzizz is a mac and windows software application that generates random soundtracks which help you regain your energy. pzizz currently sports two modules: energizer and sleep. The service uses Neuro Linguistic Programming to achieve optimal brainwave action.

Neuro Linguistic Programming is defined as the influence of language patterns on the brain. It shows us how language patterns program our minds and form our views.

NLP is a system in which the brain is viewed as a computer that can be reprogrammed to think and feel in a way that helps people achieve specific goals.

The New Psychology of Leadership

clipped from www.sciam.com In recent years, however, a new picture of leadership has emerged, one that better accounts for leadership performance. In this alternative view, effective leaders must work to understand the values and opinions of their followers—rather than assuming absolute authority—to enable a productive dialogue with followers about what the group embodies and stands for and thus how it should act. By leadership, we mean the ability to shape what followers actually want to do, not the act of enforcing compliance using rewards and punishments.

Food vs. Service: Shift Labor Forces

See slideshow: "Life in Nanning"

clipped from news.yahoo.com For the first time in human history, more people are laboring in service trades than in food production, according to data gathered by the International Labor Organization (ILO), an agency affiliated with the United Nations. As recently as 1996, agriculture accounted for 42 percent of world employment, with another 21 percent of workers in goods-producing industries and 37 percent in services. By last year, the ILO says in a report released over the weekend, 42 percent were in services, 37 percent in agriculture, and 22 percent in industry.