Laughing Squid

Greg Lake, the legendary singer, songwriter, guitarist and frontman for progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP), passed away on December 7, 2016 from complications due to cancer. He was only 69 years old. Lake’s death comes only just a few months after the passing of bandmate Keith Emerson. Drummer Carl […]

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Zach Efron star in Baywatch, a lifeguarding comedy action film based on the classic television series of the same name that was popular in the 1990s. BAYWATCH follows devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) as he butts heads with a brash new recruit (Efron). Together, they uncover a local criminal plot […]

DJ Yoda helped programmers turn one of ABB‘s YuMi industrial robots into DJ YuMi to celebrate the Ford Fiesta. The challenge for Yoda and the programmers was to translate music terms like bars and beats per minute into code and math the robot can understand. Watch collaborative robot deliver a storming live set with his […]

French filmmaker and photographer Mathieu Stern created two fascinating Star Wars themed Photoshop tutorials on how to create the illusion of a Jedi levitating and how to create a realistic lightsaber. A photo posted by Caro (@caro_cosplay) on Dec 4, 2016 at 9:28am PST A photo posted by Mathieu Stern (@mathieustern) on Sep 17, 2016 […]

Somerville, Massachusetts artist Judith Klausner (a.k.a. “Miss Mantis“) has created Altered Authors, an altered series of vintage porcelain figurines that feature pun-full mashups of popular authors and animals that relate to their work. Altered Authors like Raven-Headed Poe, Jane Austern, Louisa May Alcottontail, Salmon Rushdie, and Whale-Headed Herman Melville are available to purchase from Judith’s […]

Jon Farrow of the Royal Institution teamed up with Tom Scott to demonstrate how to debunk perpetual motion machines by looking for the hidden power source using a few examples of so-called perpetual motion devices. Although there are many YouTube videos claiming to show perpetual motion devices in action, a machine that generates more energy […]

Morris is an interactive stuffed animal fish, created by skilled cross-disciplinary artist and designer Rachel Ciavarella, that allows you to turn him inside out and examine his innards. Rachel is currently raising funds on Kickstarter to help her make a limited production run of the reversible Morris. Morris started as an exploration of material textures, […]

In a humorously informative episode of “It’s Okay To Be Smart“, host Joe Hanson shares the fascinating history of the common pigeon, noting Charles Darwin‘s intense fascination with the bird, its noble ancestry, excellent eyesight and internal homing system that still puzzles scientists to this very day. How are pigeons so good at finding their […]

Peeqo – The GIF Bot Peeqo is a cute interactive robot that communicates through movement and GIFs it displays on its screen. When not displaying a GIF, the robot shows a bespectacled set of eyes. The robot’s creator, Abhishek Singh, has posted the Peeqo’s code and design files to GitHub, and shared photos of his […]

Galway, Ireland musician Banjo Guy Ollie performeda a multitrack cover of the Mega Man 2 Game Boy title screen music using a five string tenor banjo, a mandolin, a bouzouki, and a u-bass. Fans of Ollie’s work can help support his future covers on Patreon. Here is the original song. Related Laughing Squid PostsBanjo Guy […]

David McCandless of Information is Beautiful, whose visualizations we’ve previously posted, has created a really fascinating world map for 2016 that plots what each country does better than any other in the world. Being the best at something doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good or even acceptable in any way. For example, the United States is […]

Pony Up Daddy is a human saddle for kids who love getting pony rides around the house and obliterating mommy and daddy’s entire spine. Enough horsing around though. The easy to put on neoprene saddles are available to purchase from Amazon (Bandit Black, Raider Red, Sheriff Blue, and Princess Pink) and the product’s website. images […]

A photo posted by Dominique Ansel Bakery Japan (@dabjapan) on Nov 15, 2016 at 6:16pm PST Dominique Ansel, chef and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery with locations around the world and creator of the legendary Cronut, has introduced the newest of his creations – the ChurroDuo, a modern interlocking 3D sculptural interpretation of the traditional […]

Madonna joins James Corden to dance, twerk in a car, and sing Carpool Karaoke. The pair discuss Madonna’s career, love life, and the time she kissed Michael Jackson. James and Madonna go for a drive through New York City singing classics from her epic catalog of music, and James learns about Madonna’s relationship with Michael […]

In the 26th episode of their “100 Years of Beauty” series, WatchCut Video provides a visually chronological history of the past 100 years of beauty in Haiti as modeled by artist Nzingah, whose hair and makeup were styled in correlation with the expertly researched trends of the beautiful but tumultuous historical nation. Alo bèl! Rethink […]

A photo posted by MONDO (@mondotees) on Dec 2, 2016 at 9:02am PST Mondo has released a rad collection of Gremlins ceramic tiki mugs for their new and ongoing series of pop culture inspired tiki mugs, titled Tee-Kis. The Gremlins themed mugs were designed by Michael Bonanno and sculpted by Ramirez Studios. The green, candy […]

Casually Explained makes some humorous predictions for the future of science and humanity over the next 10, 100, and 1,000 years. The predictions include self-driving cars, virtual reality, and colonies on Mars all with a unique perspective. Related Laughing Squid PostsA Prescient 1976 AT&T Interview With Sci-Fi Author Arthur C. Clarke About the Future of […]

Pro streetballer Nemanja “Tricky” Blazic from Belgrade, Serbia did the Mannequin Challenge with a little flair by spinning a basketball on everything. He spins a basketball on a pen while writing, on the corner of a book while reading, on a wooden spoon while cooking, and more. via Tastefully Offensive Related Laughing Squid PostsMan Spins […]

For CineFix‘s ongoing Trailer Mix series, New York filmmaker Bobby Burns and Dustin McLean worked together to create a fake movie trailer that reimagines Disney•Pixar‘s Finding Dory as a sinister thriller. Disney•Pixar never fails to bring us the most heartwarming animated stories, from Toy Story to the latest hit, Moana. But what if they took […]

As part of the Royal Institution‘s annual science-themed advent calendar they shared a stylized animation that explains physicist Richard Feynman‘s building block analogy for the first law of thermodynamics. How Richard Feynman’s classic analogy of building blocks explains the conservation of energy. Professor Andrea Sella recalls Feynman’s illustration of the first law of thermodynamics with […]

Kurzgesagt makes a case for setting a new “year zero” to properly reflect human history. The video uses the idea of the Holocene calendar proposed by scientist Cesare Emiliani that would set year zero 10,000 years earlier than the Gregorian calendar, changing the year 2016 to 12,016. To further embrace the Holocene calendar, Kurzgesagt is […]

Japanese “balancing expert” who is known as Thumbsam1 and Thumb Tani, demonstrates his incredible talent for stacking Japanese coins in the most fascinating ways, sometimes using props and sometimes using just the coins alone. ???????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/11TZp0IkBo — ??? (@thumb_tani) December 3, 2016 ?????1?????????????????? pic.twitter.com/c5b29pi3tl — ??? (@thumb_tani) November 23, 2016 ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/XZt1r48tSQ — ??? (@thumb_tani) […]

Large-sized ice cubes are great for cocktails. They look really cool and melt very slowly so as to not distill the flavor of a straight spirit or the alchemy of a well-made concoction. The Laughing Squid Store is currently offering the BLOXX 12 Jumbo Ice Cube Tray and Sveres Jumbo Ice Ball Tray, each at […]

Over 200 YouTube creators and celebrity guests from around the world recreate challenges and memes popular over the past year in YouTube Rewind 2016. YouTube created an elaborate quiz to test viewers on the references they pick up on, shared 360° and behind-the-scenes videos, and made announcements about the top trending videos of the year. […]

Frank Curre, a proud WWII veteran who was serving on the USS Tennessee in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the day of the infamous attack in 1941, shared his incredible history with StoryCorps shortly before his death on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2011. Curre spoke about being a 17-year old who convinced his mother to sign […]

Maru, the infamous box-loving, adorably fat-faced feline figured out how to fit his big fuzzy body into a smallish glass mixing bowl and promptly fell asleep. In June 2016, Maru did his very best to fit himself inside a green plastic bowl, but wasn’t as successful in his task. And in April 2015, Maru squeezed […]

Several flags were planted on the surface of the Moon during the NASA Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, but with harsh lunar conditions they were never expected to survive for long. Simon Whistler reveals the fate of those flags in an episode of his fascinating series Today I Found Out. Related Laughing Squid PostsEvery […]

The ever-insightful School of Life offers an animation explanation of the concept of snobbery, stating that it comes from a place of insecurity and offers what can be done to effectively address snobbish behavior without disrupting one’s own sense of well-being. At the root of snobbery is a lack of imagination and confidence about how […]

While at DesignerCon 2016 in Pasadena, Tested editor Norman Chan met up with filmmaker and artist Jack Venturo to check out and talk about his elaborate collection of action figure dioramas based on popular movies and television shows that he carefully handcrafted and painted. Jacks’ highly detailed dioramas are available to purchase from his website. […]

A photo posted by Burning Man (@burningman) on Dec 2, 2016 at 10:54am PST A picture entitled “Anything but Boaring” by Jeremy Chiu was the most liked Instagram photo from Burning Man 2016 during the first week of December, per a tweet from the official organization account. The picture features a shirtless man perching upon […]

Life Noggin‘s animated host Blocko (Pat Graziosi) explains how long-term space travel negatively affects the human body and how that could impact future missions to Mars and beyond. Why haven’t we traveled to Mars already? Well, space travel can have some devastating effects on the human body! Related Laughing Squid PostsInternational Space Station Expedition 46 […]

“Fresh Squeeze” by filmmaker Robert McIntosh is a mesmerizing aerial tour of Venice Beach that he captured with his micro quad drone. The footage smoothly moves us backwards over the beach and through a skate park as McIntosh carefully squeezes his drone through all sorts of tight spaces. Having some fun with a micro quad. […]

Daredevils Yves Rossy, Vince Reffet, and Fred Fugen of Jetman Dubai teamed up to fly in formation alongside the Armée de l’air (French Air Force) with their custom jet-powered wings. Airborne Films captured their magnificent aerial adventure, titled “Alpha Jetman,” that took place 4,000 feet up in the sky while they were doing around 160 […]

Google has introduced the Holiday Window Wonderland, an immersive online experience that offers an amazing virtual tour of some of the most iconic and elaborate holiday-themed windows of New York City. Using hundreds of photos from such luxurious shops as Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Barneys New York , Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Burberry, Fendi, Henri Bendel, […]

Peter Denbigh and the team at Skyler Innovations has created Watch Ya’ Mouth, a hilarious family party game where teams attempt to read and interpret phrases while hindered by mouthguards. It is available to purchase from the Watch Ya’ Mouth website, Amazon, and Firebox. Vlogger Joe Santagato and a group of his friends demonstrated how […]

In another interesting episode of Today I Found Out, host Simon Whistler shares the astronomical reason the hottest days of summer are called the “dog days” that goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. The earliest reference to some aspect of this expression goes all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians. They […]

A photo posted by R O H A N D A H O T R E (@rohandahotre) on Jun 27, 2016 at 7:50am PDT Rohan Sharad Dahotre, a very talented illustrator and designer in Pune, India, has created “Animal Doodles“, a clever series in which he adorned photos of individual animals in the wild with […]

In an episode of BrainCraft, Vanessa Hill interviewed Matthew Shifrin, a young man who has been blind since birth who uses LEGO to help him see the world. Shifrin uses a modified system of instructions that describe the steps in text rather than images to build his elaborate LEGO collection, and runs the site LEGO […]

BrainCraft host Vanessa Hill explains the science behind earworms – the snippets of catchy songs that repeatedly and annoyingly get stuck in one’s head. Thankfully, she also offers a simple solution for removing this mentally invasive vermin. Using principles of the Zeigarnik effect, which states that incomplete tasks are remembered far more frequently than those that […]

Seattle artist and writer Cassie Murphy (a.k.a. “KittyCassandra“) has created Westpurrld, an art print that features characters from HBO‘s popular television show, Westworld, reimagined as cats. The prints are available to purchase from her Etsy store. image via KittyCassandra via Archie McPhee’s Endless Geyser of AWESOME! Related Laughing Squid PostsArt Prints Featuring Characters From Popular […]

Riga, Latvia e-commerce company Scandiweb set a new Guinness World Record for constructing the world’s largest Rube Goldberg machine. The Scandiweb team planned for months and used the massive, elaborate machine to light a Christmas tree in the town of Riga. Related Laughing Squid Posts300 Step Rube Goldberg Machine Sets New World RecordThe World’s Most […]

Anthony “Buckets” Blakes of the Harlem Globetrotters made an incredible 583-Foot trick shot, the highest basketball shot ever made in North America, from the top of Tower of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas. Related Laughing Squid PostsHarlem Globetrotter Corey ‘Thunder’ Law Sets New World Record with 109-Foot Basketball ShotIncredibly Detailed 150-Gigapixel Interactive Panorama of […]

Chris Pratt and host Jimmy Fallon played “Mad Lib Theater” on The Tonight Show. Pratt gave Fallon a list of random words that were then placed into a hilarious Christmas scene acted out by the duo. Chris got into character as Santa Claus (Papa) and Jimmy as an elf named Ding Dongs. Related Laughing Squid […]

Simon Whistler explains why boats and ships measure their speed on the water in knots and how the unit is measured in an episode of Today I Found Out. How fast you’re going while out floating on the big blue can be notoriously tricky to judge if you’re just eyeballing it. One method used to […]

In a story for Motherboard, Nicky Ashwell discusses living life with an advanced bionic hand called the Bebionic Small which uses myoelectric control. The hand uses a number of grips intended for different tasks. The variety of grips is made possible by individual motors in each of the hand’s fingers. In this episode of Humans+, […]

While in the San Francisco Bay Area, vlogger Tom Scott of “Things You Might Not Know“, visited town of Colma which is famous for its close proximity to San Francisco (approximately 10 miles) and its designation as a necropolis in which the dead outnumber the living by a ratio of one-thousand to one. And many […]

The Baudelaire orphans are having a very terrible childhood in a new trailer for the Netflix series Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. All eight episodes of the new show based on Daniel Handler‘s book series will premiere on January 13, 2017. Based on the internationally best-selling series of books by Lemony Snicket (aka […]

Filmmaker David Friedman of AARP Studios shared heartwarming footage of the iconic Dame Helen Mirren as she waxed poetically about her love of dogs while playing with an adorable pile of adoptable puppies. The dogs were brought in as a surprise for the actress during an interview and photo shoot with the magazine . Helen […]

WordPress has released their latest update, WordPress 4.7 “Vaughn”, named after jazz vocalist Sarah “Sassy” Vaughn. The update was designed to let users more easily create and customize their WordPress site by adding new features and live non-destructive previews to the customizer. The update also introduces the new theme default Twenty Seventeen which is designed […]

Utilizing the respected research of psychologist Jonathan Cheek about the meaning of introversion, the folks at New York Magazine put together a simple animation that explains the four different types of introverts – Social, Thinking, Anxious and Restrained. Most people think they’re just introverts and extroverts but it turns out not all introverts are created […]