Laughing Squid

Objects endlessly move, rotate, and wobble in surreal environments in the wonderfully odd animated GIFs of French graphic designer Julien Rivoire. We previously posted about his surreal illustration in the Computer Virus Catalog. GIFs by Julien Rivoire via The Creators Project

A hoopoe, a strikingly colorful bird with a jaunty crown of feathers, feeds its young in this beautiful slow motion footage shot by nature filmmaking duo Saturnina and Artur Homan. The footage is from their upcoming film The Secret Life of Trees. They’ve posted a trailer for the film online. via Presurfer

Sydney-based designer Nick Barclay has created an ultra-minimalist film poster series in which each movie is represented only with circles. He has more minimalist design work on Behance. photos by Nick Barclay via My Modern Metropolis

In his 2012 photo series Città Minime, Italian photographer Matteo Mezzadri created a miniature city out of bricks, which he then documented in a series of delightful photographs. Because Mezzadri built the city in his studio, he was able to manipulate the lighting and even the atmosphere for each image. Mezzadri talks about the series […]

Recently, the esteemed artist and illustrator Bob Staake created the very touching “Broken Arch” illustration for the December 8, 2014 edition of The New Yorker magazine in response to the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. But in 2008, Staake had put together Pixfix, a timelapse video series in which he demonstrated how to create unique animated […]

Jim Kearns, the head bartender at New York City’s Tijuana Picnic who’s known for his wonderful Mexican-influenced libations, spoke with Potluck Video about Mezcal, the smoky spirit derived from the maguey agave plant; what it is, how it’s made and how it can be used creatively in cocktails. Mezcal is an agave distillate. Mezcal is […]

British artist Jenni Sparks has created a meticulously detailed hand-drawn map of Paris that highlights everything from obscure corner shops to famous landmarks. It is available for purchase at Evermade. We previously posted about Sparks’ hand-drawn maps of London and New York City. photos via Evermade submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

An Airbus A380 operated by Emirates flies into a cloud, leaving a giant gash in its wake, in this short video by aircraft spotter Schipholhotspot. Schipholhotspot recorded the video of the plane on December 31, 2014, the same day the spotter shot this video of a China Southern Airbus 330 performing a similar feat. No […]

Illustrator and hand-lettering artist Jessica Hische (previously) has created a love-themed design for a new U.S. Postal Service stamp entitled Forever Hearts. Hische hand-lettered the design, which features the word “forever” in an ornate, heart-shaped script. She talks about the unusual assignment in this short video. image via United States Postal Service via swissmiss

Self-described as “The World’s Dumbest App,” LookFor helps people find one another in crowded places through an incredibly simple (or dumb) mechanism–it turns a smartphone’s screen into a flashing, colored beacon. The app’s creators at Retroproof suggest it can be used to find people at crowded concerts, movie theaters, or large outdoor crowds, or it […]

“If you ever don’t know what to do next, just try to think like a Scandinavian industrial designer.” Höme Improvisåtion is a multiplayer video game by developer The Stork Burnt Down that tasks players with assembling furniture without instructions in a clear spoof of IKEA. The game was created as part of the Global Game […]

Black Pizza, a funky design studio in Paris, along with the help of Chef Julie Bassett and photographer Erwan Fichou, have created “Pizza Is the New Black“, a fun photo series of monochromatic “pizzas” made with unusual yet strangely unifying ingredients that somehow bring the dish together as a sum of its parts. In a […]

For those not familiar with the magic of binaural recording, it is actually a fairly old technique for creating life-like three-dimensional stereo sound. The heart of the technique is dummy head recording, in which sound is captured with two mics embedded in the “ears” of a head-shaped form. The replication of human ears, the “head […]

In the remarkable slow-motion music video for “Unconditional Rebel” by siska, a complex tableau featuring 80 actors unfolds in exquisite slow motion over the course of three minutes and 24 seconds–the actual shot, however, was only five seconds long. To achieve the effect, a Phantom Flex4K high-speed camera–recording at 1,000 frames per second–was driven along […]

An orphaned and tame fox squirrel named Peanut always comes running home whenever his human Roger Durre calls for him. Once inside, the little squirrel is able to snag a treat or two before Durre takes him back outside. According to Durre in 2011, Peanut had been released some time ago, but keeps running home […]

For the past few winters, New York City-based graffiti artist Faust has been writing messages in beautiful script on snow-covered cars and other convenient urban canvases. Faust posts his latest work on Instagram. photos by Faust via Betype, alohastuff, Whudat, DesignTAXI

Massachusetts-based crafter Caitlin Thornton (known also as Lucky Lycan) has created a wonderful jewelry box made in the image of Doctor Who‘s beloved TARDIS that has clever storage making the inside seem much bigger than it is on the outside. Made from balsa wood, this box is very light weight which is perfect for any […]

“Welcome to Shear, a peaceful colony planet, until it is besieged by giant Pokémon rejects.” Voice actor Jon Bailey of Screen Junkies and Smosh have recently created an honest trailer (previously) for Evolve, a new asymmetrical multiplayer video game developed by Turtle Rock Studios (Left 4 Dead) and published by 2K Games (Borderlands). From Turtle […]

CoordiMate is a self-inking stamp that aligns with graph paper to easily and quickly make Cartesian graphs when doing math homework, saving plenty of time so students can focus on their work instead of their drawings. A Kickstarter campaign is running now through February 21, 2015 to fund the product launch. images via Coordimate

“Can I Live?” A very good-natured President Barack Obama allowed BuzzFeed to film him doing the things no one ever admits in public as to doing such as making faces in the mirror, drawing pictures of his sweetheart, playing invisible basketball, blaming “Obama” when things don’t go as planned, and even using a selfie stick. […]

“Rambo Day” is a very special day and bachelor party put together by a group of awesome friends for soon-to-be groom and filmmaker Dana Saint of Gnarly Bay production company. Saint has been a huge fan of Rambo since he was young, so his pals took it upon themselves to surprise him on July 26, […]

After seeing an Instructable about how to make a cement light bulb wall hook, Marci Cupcake of Sewing with Cupcake came up with a concrete idea to make lawn and garden ornaments with cement, a hollowed-out light bulb, and rebar. She lays out the steps on her website and suggests using a handy tutorial for […]

The Thanks Nature Cafe in Seoul, South Korea is the first cafe to invite its patrons to interact with the resident free-roaming sheep while enjoying various coffee drinks. Similar to cat cafes and more recently owl cafes, Thanks Nature is a “sheep cafe” that has become very popular since 2015 is the year of the […]

In the charming and thought-provoking short film “Draw My Life,” filmmaker Casey Neistat (previously) employs drawings to tell the story of his remarkably eventful life, from his tumultuous early years to his success as a New York City-based YouTube auteur. The drawings are by artist Kim Smith, and the film’s music is by Jordan Galland. […]

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening takes Spyke (Fred Armisen) to court for making a lousy bootleg Simpsons T-shirt in this hilarious clip from season five of Portlandia. Groening, incidentally, was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.

In their latest video, Tripp Crosby and Tyler Stanton of Tripp and Tyler (previously) promote Present Spray, a handy pneumatic device that helps you ensure that all friends and family within a 500 foot radius are paying attention to you.

An orange paw that belongs to a sneaky cat who’s hiding under the bed repeatedly steals the treats that are being fed to a bewildered black-and-white cat, who just seems confused by the whole thing.

River Thames, U.K. Thrillophilia has created “32 Places People Have Mispronounced Their Entire Life,” a visually attractive way to explain the correct way to pronounce commonly mispronounced places around the world. Using a list of the same name posted by Distractify, both the correct and incorrect pronunciations use different sides of the same image to […]

PBS Space Time host and astrophysicist Gabe Perez-Giz explores the role of gravity in the 1990 SNES video game Super Mario World and the incredible leg strength of Mario in the debut episode of the series. We’ve run, jumped, and stomped all over the world of Super Mario, but, where in the universe is Super […]

“Small Circuits” is short video animated by London-based illustrator Grace Helmer for Harvard’s Fundamentals of Neuroscience series that explores the roles that neural networks play in the larger human nervous system, receiving and transmitting information through signals. Functionally, an ensemble of neurons like a brain does something very similar to what each individual neuron does. […]

Predator – “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses Rocky Davies has created “80’s Villains,” a parody series of record album cover illustrations featuring iconic pop culture villains and song lyrics from the 1980s. The full collection of villainous album covers are available to view on DeviantArt, Flickr, and Davies’ website. Freddy Krueger – […]

Dianna “The Physics Girl” Cowern explains the science behind why a golf ball placed on a bouncy ball placed on a basketball bounces really high when all three are dropped at the same time. The answer relates to the science behind a supernova explosion. What we just did is analogous to the process that occurs […]

The Tennis Picker is a truly simple and elegant product designed by Korean inventor Yunjo Yu that is essentially a Velcro sticker that attaches to a tennis racket so a player doesn’t have to bend down to pick up tennis balls. images via Yunjo Yu via Yanko Design, Inventor Spot, Boing Boing

YouTuber Sky Frog captured some first-person video of a drone as it delivers a candy bar to a hungry recipient across the island of Hong Kong in under 14 minutes. The video, which is sped up to around two minutes, offers a nice shot of many of the local landmarks along the way. via Boing […]

In “How Matzo is Made,” Alan Adler, the Executive Vice President of Streit’s Matzos talks with Potluck Video about their history, how they modernized matzo manufacturing in 1925, how their matzo is made, and how long they’ve put off having to move from their beloved Rivington Street location to another Streit’s location in New Jersey. […]

Grant “The King of Random” Thompson (previously) outlines how he created a makeshift arc furnace from microwave parts, which creates enough power to melt steel in under two minutes when the two repurposed carbon rods are pressed together. In the video, Thompson tries the arc furnace out on all manner of metals and a handful […]

Alex Luthor has recently created an “epic” movie trailer mashup where characters from both the Star Wars and Star Trek films meet and battle to the death in a galaxy far, far away. We previously wrote about Luthor and his movie trailer mashup where live-action Marvel and DC superheroes face off against each other. Ever […]

PBS Idea Channel host Mike Rugnetta takes a look at fan fiction, canon, and the animated television show The Legend of Korra in the latest episode of the series. Rugnetta specifically uses a certain romantic pairing in Korra to explore the many ways in which fan fiction serves as a sometimes better–or perhaps more useful–outlet […]

In a new Star Wars-themed comedy sketch by The Warp Zone (previously), a Jedi and Sith face off against each other and end up debating the merits of the crossguard lightsaber. The three-bladed lightsaber was teased in the first trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

NASA captured some truly awe-inspiring video from the International Space Station as the Northern Lights converge with a sunrise over the top of the North American continent.

DaftPunKonsole is a web app created by French developer Malik Dellidj that uses a computer keyboard to create simple remixes of the 2001 Daft Punk (previously) song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” The app assigns different words and phrases to various computer keys and plays the instrumental track with a tap of the space bar. The […]

Jeff Wysaski of Pleated-Jeans (previously), Eric Curtin, and Zack Soltes teamed up to create a great parody infomercial for doors, the innovative “product that makes it easy for us to get in and out of buildings, cars, and more”.

A rebellious cat hesitates for just a second before defiantly knocking a glass of water over the edge of a table in the face of of his human Jennifer‘s repeated protests. Gato malo (“bad cat”) indeed. via reddit

YouTube filmmaker tommy2x4 edited video of BMX bike riders taking on the Mega Underground Bike Park, a 320,000 square foot subterranean bike park located 100 feet below the ground in a former limestone cavern in Louisville, Kentucky. The video is set to the song “Under The Pressure” by Philadelphia-based indie rockers, The War on Drugs. […]

A lovestruck cat has a bad case of the butterflies Simon’s cat, known for his clumsiness and constant hunger, goes out of his way to offer a grand romantic present involving butterflies to his sweetheart, who’s sitting behind a window. Unfortunately, his sweetheart misunderstands the intention of the gift and causes Simon’s cat to shrink […]

“I love you more than anything. I want to show you this, and I don’t want to drop it.” GoPro has posted video of California CPR instructor Brandon Strohbehn proposing to his now-fiancé Nicole Nepomuceno as the two parachute in tandem at 10,000 feet. Strohbehn takes out the ring while the two are in the […]

Conan O’Brien and The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun visited Wi Spa, an “authentic” Korean spa in Los Angeles, on a recent episode of Conan. The awkward hilarity ensues as they mingle in the sauna, get a painful full-body scrub, and try out some other wild activities.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is an upcoming spy-fi film directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer that is based on the iconic 1960s television series of the same name. Set in the 1960s, the film follows a pair of agents from the fictional secret intelligence agency U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for […]

New York City-based writer, comedian, and video editor Bryan Menegus (previously) has created a four-minute compilation video for Digg that summarizes all six 2015 Oscar-nominated films for Best Picture. The films include Whiplash, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Selma, and The Theory of Everything. The Best Picture category has gotten more bloated over the […]

Legacy Contact is a new feature from Facebook that lets users name a friend or family member to manage their account in the event that they pass away, turning the page over to the loved one for use as a memorial. Legacy Contacts can write a post at the top of the timeline, update the […]