A line of cool zip-up Star Wars themed fleece hoodies by clothing company Mad Engine are scheduled to be released in August 2012. Designs come in R2-D2, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, and a Stormtrooper. You may remember we posted about a similar line of hoodies by Ecko.

via Technabob and R2D2Central.com

images via TheForce.Net

The quirky music video for the song Zeroes & Ones by California-based indie rock band Baby Seal Club is full of chickens pecking at beet-filled human figures in a tiny faux Apple store. The song (which I think is pretty great) is from their upcoming album titled Default World, due out in summer 2012. The video was conceived & produced by Fudo, Wizzbang, Olava & Uncle Stabby.

Wizz Bang, the band’s Chief-Chicken Wrangler, described the video’s shoot in detail at the Baby Seal Club website:

I have raised many birds from egg to adulthood and one thing I’ve discovered along the way is that the baby chicks really enjoy eating the shredded vegetable fiber that shoots out the back of our big juicer. Being a somewhat macabre chicken-wrangler and verified horror flick fan, I noticed that the beet fibers looked a lot like viscera and guts – the amazing reddish color, the stringy consistency, and the hard-to-identify-on-film quality of the stuff thus sparked an idea. I began feeding them the stuff everyday as a “treat,” so they would become good and hungry for it when it was time to be on the set.

An advance copy of the CD is available now:

Modische Atlas der Anatomie is a 2002 series of surreal photographic digital manipulations by Netherlands-based artist and photographer Koen Hauser. Each image gives the appearance that the subject’s skin has been pulled off and is exposing plastic anatomical parts.

via Juxtapoz

images via Juxtapox

The music video for Hell No by Brooklyn-based band CHAPPO was directed and produced by Brandon LaGanke & John Carlucci of Ghost+Cow and features creepy singing mustached boobs (and other oddities). The band says it’s “NSFA” (Not Safe For Anyone).

The Online Gallery Playset is a fun new way to curate the Internet with a DIY miniature papercraft gallery (video). The playset was created by Aram Bartholl of Free Art & Technology.

via Free Art & Technology

This humorous video montage titled OBEY created by Everything is Terrible is made from found footage of singing Christian children. Good news.

The Internet Defense League is a network dedicated to spreading the alarm whenever the Internet is threatened by bad laws or monopolies. League members (including Laughing Squid) will receive alerts whenever an Internet threat is identified. Members will have the option of posting alert banners, calls to action, and other interventions on their websites. By broadcasting through member sites, the league will be able to spread the alarm quickly and widely. The Internet Defense League was created by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and Fight for the Future. For more info on the league see this article on Forbes.

Skwoil

I’m Not Hungry is a 2012 painting series featuring cute anthropomorphic animals by Kristin Tercek (aka Cuddly Rigor Mortis). Swoon Gallery is currently hosting an online exhibition of I’m Not Hungry.

Moostash

Effelant

via Archie McPhee’s Endless Geyser of Awesome and Super Punch

Elders React to Viral Videos is a new web series by Benny & Rafi Fine (aka The Fine Brothers) on YouTube that features senior citizens reacting and expressing their opinions about viral videos. The debut episode, Elders React to Nyan Cat, is really wonderful, as we get to hear candid remarks from the “elders” about the internet meme, Nyan Cat. They have also included bonus material. You may remember their 2011 video, Kids React to Nyan Cat, that we previously posted.

It’s got rainbow farts.

How long does this last?

Does it change color or anything?

I feel like that animal is my friend.

I don’t get it.

via Chris Torres

Salt Made From Tears is a line of flavored salts that supposedly are made from human tears. The salts are sold by Hoxton Street Monster Supplies in London. The store is part of the Ministry of Stories, a children’s writing center. Salt Made From Tears was developed by Studio Weave, Halen Môn, and We Made This.

The salt is collected from humans experiencing a range of emotions, and in various situations. You can pick up salt made from: tears of sorrow, tears shed while sneezing, tears shed while chopping onions, tears of laughter, and tears of anger. Each has a distinctly different flavour – salt made from tears of sorrow has a delicate lavender flavour, perfect for seasoning limbs and organs.

via Super Punch

omg!NOW has confirmed that Judd Apatow will soon be producing a new Pee-wee Herman movie, which will of course star Paul Reubens as his beloved character, Pee-wee Herman. Reubens is currently voicing Pavel, a character for the animated Disney XD series Tron: Uprising, but expects to start filming the new Pee-wee Herman film afterwards. Previous Pee-wee movies include Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and Big Top Pee-wee (1988).

via Pee-wee Herman

TED has posted the brilliantly hilarious talk and performance by Reggie Watts from this year’s conference.

Reggie Watts’ beats defy boxes. Unplug your logic board and watch as he blends poetry and crosses musical genres in this larger-than-life performance.

Reggie Watts creates unpredictably brilliant performances on the spot using his voice, looping pedals and his giant brain.

Simon’s Cat in “Tongue Tied”

Chuck & Beans

And We Were Young is an upcoming animated documentary by Andy Smetanka about American involvement in one of the final battles of World War I (trailer). The documentary will feature first person accounts of the costly Meuse-Argonne offensive of 1918, and will be animated with paper cutouts and silhouettes on 8mm film. Smetanka is raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.

Thanks to Richard for the tip.

Ash Ruiz, a former member of Latin boy band Menudo (1990s), has launched his solo “electroganic” pop music career with Burn (One Love), a song that addresses the 2012 Burning Man ticket situation (it encourages people without tickets to “create the experience” at home). Los Angeles-based Ruiz is a past participant in the annual Burning Man festival. Here is a rough cut preview of the music video for Burn (One Love) from his 7-song debut EP titled Electric Innocence. The final video, which is directed by Elevate Films founder, Mikki Willis, will be posted by Ruiz on YouTube on June 12, 2012.

From the press release on PRWeb:

Despite Burning Man Festival’s efforts to create a smooth ticketing process for the 2012 late-summer festival after last year’s sold out festival crashed online ticket sales, this year’s lottery system instead created an unprecedented crisis. The massive desert lake-bed festival, capped at 50,000 people by contract with Nevada land management authorities, relies on experienced veteran attendees (called “burners”) each year to create the extensive fusion display of art and music. The lottery system failed to account for that need, and thousands of essential veteran burners have been unable to secure tickets for the approaching sold-out festival.

Ash’s Music Video for his original song, “Burn (One Love)”, addresses this with an up-tempo invitation for those who cannot attend the festival to create the experience in their own homes and communities. Given that the Burning Man culture has always encouraged people to bring its ethos of joyful – and responsible – human expression out from the desert and into mainstream, Ash’s video works to visually create what that can look like. Ash says, “When people watch this video, I want them to be inspired to live everyday like the fabulous creative beings they are!”

Ash Ruiz at Burning Man

Ruiz is also looking for band members to “rock the planet with electroganic vibes”:

via Joseph Pred

images via Ash Ruiz

“No Globes” is a snow globe containing a model coal power plant. When shaken, coal dust-like particles cloud the globe. The globe was created in 2009 by UK-based Dorothy Collective to highlight environmental concerns about coal power.

via Colossal & Play

Comedian Andy Samberg did impersonations of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and actors Mark Wahlberg and Nicholas Cage in the speech he gave for the 2012 Harvard College Class Day.

Here is the full speech which includes some other funny moments:

via The Next Web

At Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, Adam Savage presented a wonderful talk on “Why We Make.”

Adam tells a great story about his Indiana Jones hat, how he got started building his obsessions, and why makers should embrace the things that they have no choice but to make.

via Boing Boing

Ketchup flows out of a bottle with remarkable ease in this demonstration of LiquiGlide, a food safe super non-stick coating by researchers at the MIT Varanasi Research Group.

via Co.Exist

French food artist and filmmaker Alexandre DUBOSC has created an amazing animated zoetrope cake inspired by Tim Burton. It is titled The Caketrope of BURTON’s Team and it incorporates elements from some of Burton’s films, including The Nightmare Before Christmas and Batman. You may remember DUBOSC created Alimation, another edible zoetrope animation. DUBOSC has posted a set of the film’s “making of” photos that are worth checking out.

via Colossal

photos by Alexandre DUBOSC

photo by Blake Boston’s mother

Scumbag Steve is a persona of Blake Boston, a man whose MySpace picture was made into an internet meme in 2011. The photo shows Blake (then a high school student) standing in a hallway wearing a backwards cap. Unbeknownst to him at the time, redditors made up an entire character named Scumbag Steve by adding white blocked text to the photo that, as described by Know Your Meme, “centers around unethical behavior regarding drugs, partying, and other hedonistic behaviors.” Later, his trademark hat became a submeme as people began photoshopping it to other images using similar captions as the original meme. When Blake first discovered his image was all over the internet, he was hurt but later embraced what was happening and adopted the meme as his own.

In May 2012, according to TechCrunch, a Brisk Tea ad campaign featuring his memed photo began running on Imgur. He also began starring in a weekly web music video series titled Scumbag Thursdays as an effort to launch his rap music career. His debut video titled Scumbag Steve Overture currently has over 2 million views on YouTube.

Team Laughing Squid recently met Scumbag Steve at The Webby Awards in New York City and became part of his latest music video titled Dirty Girl. In the video, there are cameos of PRGuitarman (Nyan Cat creator) Brad Kim (Know Your Meme), Shira Lazar (What’s Trending), our own Scott Beale and David Klass, and yes, yours truly. For the record, Blake isn’t a scumbag at all. He’s a really great guy.

video by Ben Lashes

Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) & David Klass at The 16th Annual Webby Awards

Chris Torres (PRGuitarman), Ben Lashes, Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) & David Klass

photos by Scott Beale

Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) & Rusty Blazenhoff

photo & text by Scott Beale, photo memeification by Ken Dashner

More information about the Scumbag Steve meme can be found at Know Your Meme.

In this video clip posted by Fuu66 from a 1981 Super Friends episode called “The Stowaways from Space”, the Wonder Twins (Jayna and Zan) activate their powers in the shape of an octopus and in the form of an ice unicycle.

Pen & Ink is a Tumblr blog by Rumpus managing editor Isaac Fitzgerald and artist Wendy MacNaughton that tells the stories behind tattoos with the use of beautiful illustrations and hand lettering. User submitted tattoos and stories are currently being accepted for use on the blog.

via Rachel Fershleiser

“Life Backwards”, a wonderful video by Ryan Jay and Alexander Shahmiri featuring San Francisco moving in reverse.

via The Bold Italic