CONTENTS FEATURE: Good workplace morale can be a laughing matter SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news WELCOME: The newest EditPros client NET NOTES: Captivating web sites FEATURE: Good workplace morale can be a laughing matter      Politely told that he could smoke his customary cigars as long as he didn't annoy other people around him, zany comic Ernie Kovacs replied, "Well then, I won't smoke. I'd much rather annoy these people."      Did you hear that even though most workers want to make more money, employees at the U.S. Mint would like to make less?      Humor can help set a receptive mood. The right joke or witticism at the right time can relax tension and turn an otherwise calculated presentation into a pleasant conversation. A well-placed silly pun in a sales letter can bring a smile. The right quip executed with good comedic timing can help charm an antagonist into becoming an ally. "Young man," extolled the wealthy business executive to the new sales intern, "I started out as a shoeshine boy and today I'm a multimillionaire." After thinking about that for a moment the young man piped up, "Gosh! You must have used your shoe polish really sparingly!"      A gentle joke like that can help break the ice and set the stage for a presentation on just about anything from shoe polish to retirement annuities. But humor must be handled with deftness and sensitivity, as well as an understanding of what makes people laugh and why.      Physiologically, laughter is created by rapid vibration of the human diaphragm, causing people to emit a distinctive sound. Laughter is a natural phenomenon, evident even in infants who are tickled or hear a noise they enjoy. The "sense of humor" that triggers laughter matures with age, and is interrelated with the portions of the brain in which visual information and language are processed.      The old aphorism advising that "laughter is the best medicine" may have some scientific validity. Academic researchers have determined that laughter may actually induce beneficial physiological changes in musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, endocrine, immunologic, and other systems of the human body. The subject is treated seriously in numerous scientific journals, including the Journal of Social Psychology, Humor: The International Journal of Humor Research, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Much more likely to occur when an individual is in a group than sitting alone, laughter is a social mechanism.      "Laughter occurs when people are comfortable with one another, when they feel open and free. And the more laughter, the more bonding within the group," according to Mahadev Apte, a cultural anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.      Scientists have actually determined that humor appreciation appears to be based in the lower frontal lobes of the brain associated with social and emotional judgment and planning. That finding was determined by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research conducted by Dean K. Shibata, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York, along with five colleagues. Their findings were presented to a conference of the Radiological Society of North America in November 2000 "Although the purpose of humor and laughter is still largely unknown despite 2,000 years of speculation, having a sense of humor is a key part of our personalities and it can play a powerful role in balancing negative emotions, such as fear," said Shibata.      From a leadership perspective, introduction of humor provides the means to establish a comfortable emotional atmosphere for a meeting or written presentation. It also can be used to dissipate tension arising from a potentially embarrassing, confrontational or threatening situation. A meeting to tackle lagging productivity, for example could begin with a good-natured quip that jabs playfully at the problem. "I was surprised to learn how many people actually work in this building: about half of them."      Humor is subjective, however—meaning some people may be disturbed by what others consider funny. The business world requires discretion in use of humor. Avoid forms of humor that could embarrass someone by making fun of a physical characteristic, that trivializes a view that others hold sacred, or that others could interpret as vulgar or otherwise offensive.      Humor can be identified by classification. Distinctive types include situational humor, parody, satire and wordplay, including puns. Situational humor is based upon the joke's setting. One type of situational humor takes advantage of incongruity. "The boss invited me to his pool room Saturday evening. I realized I'd made a mistake when he answered his door holding a cue stick, and I was standing there in my flippers and snorkel." Puns are based on misunderstandings involving double meanings of similar-sounding words, or words that have multiple meanings. Although some people consider puns a relatively sophomoric form of humor, that may be an unfair characterization because puns demand the audience to have a certain level of semantic sophistication. Puns are usually safe to use in a business environment because they're often innocent and poke fun at the language rather than at an individual. Irony is a means of espousing a point of view by expressing precisely the opposite standpoint in a way that reveals its absurdity. An expression of irony may begin as an apparent compliment before unleashing the true underlying contradictory statement. "My sister told me she really likes the pound cake I made for her. She's using it for a doorstop." Satire illuminates the foibles and foolishness of life, sometimes in a attempt to draw attention to ridiculous or irritating conditions that require corrective action. Sarcasm, which is harsher than satire, is often inappropriate in civil business discourse. Black humor is a particularly bitter and often incendiary breed of satire. Black humor may be indignantly used to rail against greed, vanity, bigotry, intolerance, fanaticism, complacency and pretension. Avoid satire and sarcasm, particularly in e-mail, in which it may be misinterpreted. Parody is a form of comedy in which the words of a well-known song or piece of literature are comedically changed.      Keep in mind some other guidelines when infusing humor into writing or a talk. Write for a wide, diverse audience, and avoid "inside" jokes that only a limited number of people may understand. Use humor that supports rather than distracts from your message. Make sure your humor is lighthearted and does not have the potential to be hurtful.      You don't need to be a comic to write jokes or use humor effectively. Simply toying around with words that have multiple meanings, or illuminating incongruities in a lively, humorous way, can introduce just the right touch of levity. "My new boss thought I knew more than I did about computers. When he told me I needed to boot up, open Windows, check my bit transfer rate and said from there everything should be a cinch, I thought we were going horseback riding."      Exercised judiciously, humor can help you establish rapport, build trust and improve morale. Unless, of course, you'd rather annoy people. SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news Pulse Data HumanWare introduces Global Positioning System portable navigation technology for blind people      Pulse Data International Ltd. of New Zealand has unveiled a brilliant new application of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. A unique GPS module for the company's celebrated BrailleNote and VoiceNote family of personal data assistants provides a quantum leap in navigation for blind and visually impaired people.      The new product enables increased levels of independence by tracking the user's location in relation to established landmarks or "waypoints," such as department stores, office buildings, schools, theaters, bank ATMs, convention centers, and bus and train stations. The GPS module presents the information it contains as a verbal map, using speech synthesis or braille output to announce nearby landmarks, either on demand or as a running commentary. It can calculate speed, identify direction and distance to a destination or intersection, announce stops along a bus or train route, and even direct a user visiting an unfamiliar city for the first time—as blind taxicab passenger Mike May was directed when attending a conference in Fairfax, Va.      "The taxi driver missed the correct highway exit. Using GPS, I pressed 'record' to mark the location of the exit. By the time we turned around and came back we had gone 10 extra miles," recalled May. The cab driver did not, however, volunteer that information. "So at the destination, I asked not only what the fare was, but also the charge per mile. When the cab driver told me that, I subtracted the amount for 10 miles from the total fare."      Pulse Data HumanWare, an EditPros client, introduced the GPS module to American blind consumers and rehabilitation counselors at a trade conference in late March. The remarkable technology, used by land surveyors and direction-finding systems in cars and boats, generates its locational output using triangulation information from a network of 24 satellites orbiting the Earth. The BrailleNote GPS module consists of software and a GPS receiver that plug into the serial port of either a BrailleNote or a VoiceNote. The battery-operated receiver, about the size of a cell phone, connects to the BrailleNote with a cable and fits into a loop on the BrailleNote's shoulder strap. Version 1 of the software includes a database incorporating point-of-interest (POI) and "wayfinding" coordinates, to which the user may add custom information that is stored on compact "flash" memory cards.      PulseData credits Mike May—who has been a marketing and sales executive, a business owner, a political analyst and technical projects manager—for providing the impetus to apply GPS technology in wayfinding for blind people. When a former business associate of May's first conceived the idea, May was dazzled by its possibilities. "Where other people abandoned the talking GPS, I set my teeth into it and wouldn't let go," said May. He ultimately presented his idea to Pulse Data, which he regards as the most technologically innovative producer of assistive products for blind people.      Impressed not only with the idea but also with May himself, Pulse Data hired May—who incidentally holds the unofficial world skiing speed record among blind skiers. He set the record at Les Arcs, France, in 1988, blazing down a mountain ski run at 65 miles per hour. May, still continually on the run, is now Pulse Data HumanWare's product manager for blindness products.      Pulse Data HumanWare, the New Zealand company's American subsidiary, recently relocated from Loomis to Concord, Calif. To learn more, visit Pulse Data or call (800) 722-3393. We proudly welcome the newest EditPros client California Institute for Mental Health Sacramento, Calif. (916) 556-3480 Web: http://www.cimh.org The California Institute for Mental Health (CIMH) was established by mental health directors in 1993 to promote excellence in mental health services through training, technical assistance, research and policy development. The guiding vision of CIMH is a community and mental health services system that provides recovery and full social integration for persons with psychiatric disabilities, sustains and supports families and children, and promotes mental health wellness. CIMH collaborates with local systems of care (providers and mental health boards and commissions), the California Department of Mental Health, the California Mental Health Planning Council, and involved community groups to define and provide for the training needs of mental health constituent groups. Funding for CIMH comes from numerous sources, including private contributions; charitable foundations; county, state and federal contracts; grants; fees; and product sales. Net Notes: Captivating Internet resources Pun of the Day http://www.punoftheday.com/      This site, boasting the most puns on the Web, offers a categorical database of puns about transportation, technology, commerce, people, work, education, the law and other topics. AhaJokes.com http://www.ahajokes.com      This site specializes in clean jokes, and offers thousands of them. Categories include business, English, dumb laws, computers, math, puns, travel, shopping and many more. Humor.com Joke Database http://www.humor.com/html/j_a/joke_database.html      This expansive searchable database of jokes displays sets of jokes based on criteria you select, including subject categories (such as business, computing, entertainment, insults, politics, sports), "cleanliness" level (clean, moderate or filthy), and type of material (story, quote or one-liner). You can narrow your search by entering keywords if you wish. 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