We are definitely fans of creature comforts here at the Spear Creative Group Offices; to this point, our Aeron chairs have played an important role in our longevity during long work days. But today we got a Steelcase Leap Chair to test–and while we’ve only been in it for a few hours, we think it might be giving our trusty Aeron a run for its money. The first thing we noticed is that Steelcase makes high quality chairs–they’re a major player in the office-furniture market and we’re familiar with some of their past products. The Leap Chair has an overall very solid feel and a multitude of features and adjustments (which are too numerous to name here). The prowess of the Leap Chair is supported by numerous case studies that document the increase in worker productivity that can be attributed to using this “office Cadillac,” as well as the numerous awards the Leap Chair has won. We were also truly impressed by the environmentally friendly production process used by Steelcase, which includes using materials that produce a chair that is 98% recyclable by weight! Aeron vs. Steelcase: who will be the victor? Stay tuned for the verdict.

Naughty! Naughty! Everyone I know is anxiously awaiting the the release of Borat! to U.S. theaters on November 3rd. Sacha Cohen has made us all laugh with Ali G., but I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw the preview for ‘Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.’ In this ‘first four minutes’ clip, you will get a little taste of what Borat will bring you on November 3rd–Borat will show you his crib, play ping pong, don his ‘borat-kini’ on the beach, bring back the running-man, and promise a fellow villager a new arm from America. Some interesting tid-bits about the movie: Although the film is supposed to be set in Kazakhstan, it was really filmed in Romania–some of the characters who are supposed to be speaking Kazakh are really speaking Romanian. And not that us Americans would be able to tell the difference, but Sacha Cohen is really speaking Hebrew in the film (not Kazakh). Finally, the ‘jagshemash!’ greeting that Borat frequently uses to yell is taken from the Polish and Czech sayings for ‘How are you?’–’Jak siÄ™ masz?,’ and ‘Jak se máš?,’ respectively. I can’t wait for this movie.

We know Iceland for two things: Pretty girls and Bjork. Thanks to our friends over at Flavorpill we can now add a third to our knowledge of all things Icelandic– the beautiful artwork and illustration of Ingi Erlingsson. Ingi’s work is ethereal, painfully detailed and we think this ’spring’ piece is totally uplifting. He now works in Southsea, UK at iLoveDust, a design company by day– and by night he is a freelance illustrator.

For those of you looking for a new music magazine that is all about the music, check out Dummy Magazine, a new quarterly music mag from the founders of Jockey Slut and X-ray Magazines. Dummy has teamed up with the guys at the London-based design group oki-ni (who we’ve blogged about before) to bring oki-ni subscribers (and now you) a pdf version of the new issue of Dummy–free of charge. The new issue has some great content, and features The Killers, Albert Hammond Jr., The Streets, Wolfmother, and The Mars Volta, among others. The thing I like the most about Dummy is it provides a unique voice in the a world where many of the mainstream music magazines are the exact same. Ya, it may not be as fun/easy to read a music magazine in pdf format (especially on the toilet), but you should at least check it out so that you know to order a real subscription.

Blogging is the wave of the future–it’s a phenomena that has already sprouted an unprecedented level of world-wide communication–dare I say blogs are making the world smaller? The reader-reach of a blog depends on many factors; there is no easy equation to figure out where our JoshSpear.com readers are located, what they want to read, etc. But people like Steven Johnson are getting creative in the way that they think about blog applications. Today, Steven launched outside.in, a powerful tool for participating in discourse going on in your immediate community. Outside.in operates according to core principles that are centered around the premise that the ‘neighborhood’ is of utmost importance in the world of blogging. When you go to outside.in, you will notice the impressive intelligence of the application when you play around with the map. When you scroll or zoom the map, the always-updated blog content — which comes from a combination of tagged neighborhood data, place blogs, and links contributed by users — changes. Outside.in is a creative and powerful way to transform the wide reach of blogs into a community-focused tool.

Via Boing Boing

Anyone reading this blog for a while knows we have a special appreciation for robots– Especially breakdancing robots. We also have a special place in our hearts for robots made from found objects like the ones above designed by artist Mike Heisler– he prefers to call them his Slobots. There are about a dozen Slobots to check out on his site, many for sale at fairly affordable (remember this is original art!) prices. We’re going to go back to reading How to Survive a Robot Uprising now, gasp!