We have just launched our new cloud hosting service, for more info check out our new cloud hosting site http://laughingsquid.us.

With cloud hosting, data is stored on clusters of servers, instead of a single stand-alone server. This provides increased reliability, reducing the risk of downtime by removing a single point of failure. It also allows for better scaling of resources when there is high traffic or load spikes.

Here are some of the advantages cloud hosting offers over our standard web hosting services.

Laughing Squid has partnered with Rackspace, whose servers and data center we have been using for 10 years, to offer our new cloud hosting service on The Rackspace Cloud.

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Laughing Squid Launches New Cloud Hosting Services

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guest post by Burstein!

University of Wisconsin School of Biomedical Engineering have developed a device that lets you tweet by the power of thought alone!!!. Putting aside the obvious jokes on “thinking before twittering” for the moment, this is exceptionally neat stuff.

The interface consists, essentially, of a keyboard displayed on a computer screen. “The way this works is that all the letters come up, and each one of them flashes individually,” says Williams. “And what your brain does is, if you’re looking at the ‘R’ on the screen and all the other letters are flashing, nothing happens. But when the ‘R’ flashes, your brain says, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Something’s different about what I was just paying attention to.’ And you see a momentary change in brain activity.”

Practically speaking, technology like this is exceptionally useful for persons with locked-in syndrome or spinal cord injuries. Between this and the Nerve-tapping Neckband, I look forward to not talking to any of you again.

via Wired Science & New Scientist

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Researchers Create a Device Allows You to Post To Twitter Using Thoughts

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guest post by Burstein!

The fine folks at Molleindustria are a team of Italian artists, designers and engineers who appear to view video games as more than mere entertainment, but also as a medium to push sociological boundaries.

We believe that the explosive slogan that spread quickly after the Anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle, “Don’t hate the media, become the media,” applies to this medium. We can free video games from the “dictatorship of entertainment”, using them instead to describe pressing social needs, and to express our feelings or ideas just as we do in other forms of art. But if we want to express an alternative to dominant forms of gameplay we must rethink game genres, styles and languages. The ideology of a game resides in its rules, in its invisible mechanics, and not only in its narrative parts. That’s why a global renewal of this medium will be anything but easy.

Faith Fighter is just one of their efforts. They have also done fun games like Operation: Pedopriest where your mission is to work for the Catholic Church to intimidate parents from calling cops and reporting your priest’s sexual habits.

Finally, it is worth noting that these fine folks also allow you to wager on where the next terrorist strike will be.

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Faith Fighter & Pedopriest: Sacrilegious Flash Games by Molleindustria

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guest post by Burstein!

art by Ji Lee, photo by unknown

In a beautifully flawless prank, the Public Ad Campaign refaced over 120 illegal billboards in New York City. The billboards are illegal because the parent company never received permits and there are too many of them for the city to tear them all down. That means they are open game for public art!

photo by unknown

Bravo to all those fine folks in taking citizen action against the plight of illegal billboards. Now, here is a question for you all - are there illegal billboards in the Bay Area? If so where? Mail me at mastermind [at] thoughtpolice [dot] commercial.

More Coverage: Barbara Celis, Wooster Collective, Gothamist, ANIMAL & Urban Prankster

via Urban Prankster

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Public Ad Campaign Takes Over Illegal Billboards in New York City Streets

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by Alexandre Duret-Lutz

A stereographic projection is technically mapping a sphere onto a plane. What photographers like Alexandre Duret-Lutz, Masato, Seb Perez-Duarte, Boltron and Masakazu Matsumoto have done is take a 360° panorama photograph that covers -90° (the ground) to 90° (the sky) and then mapped that onto a plane.

photo by Masakazu Matsumoto

Regardless of how it is done, the effects are beautiful.

photo by Masato

Masakazu Matsumoto provides a FAQ on the technique at his flickr set.

via Pink Tentacle

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Stereographic Projection, 360° x 180° Panorama Photography

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GAMA-GO is having a grand opening party for their brand new San Francisco Flagship Store this Saturday, May 2nd from 12-5pm. The store is located at 335 8th Street at Folsom in SOMA.

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GAMA-GO Grand Opening Party For Brand New San Francisco Flagship Store

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Tweed Rides - group bicycle events in which riders eschew spandex in favor of elegant, vintage-inspired riding attire - are growing in popularity, with newly-announced rides in San Francisco, Chicago, and Sydney, Australia.

photo by Rubin Starset

On the recently-launched  SFTweed blog, self-described “Tweedpunk” Colin Fahrion has announced that the Second San Francisco Tweed Ride will take place this coming Thursday, April 30th.

Once again, we fine bastions of tweed bicivility will gather to show the city how to really ride in style! Fortunately, Spring is upon us, and the night has begun to be pushed back by the day. As such, the sun shall still grace our ride, giving all passersby a chance to bask in our grand tweediness! Our last ride was a joyful time with games, contests, and of course the sharpest dressed company a cyclist could ask for.

In addition to the games, contests, and prizes that proved so popular during the inaugural San Francisco Tweed Ride, Thursday’s ride has a special surprise: a mid-route musical performance by the fabulous “post-industrial-folk-noir” septet Corpus Callosum! 

photo by Fenchurch!

Moving Eastward, Chicago’s first Tweed Ride will take place this coming Saturday, May 2nd. Organized by the fine dapper folks at The Chainlink, their event takes special inspiration from no less of an historical figure than The Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill.

The 2nd of May 2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s invention of his exquisitely dry martini: copious amounts of gin poured over crushed ice while he observed the vermouth from across the room. The route, designed by the Right Honorable Lee Diamond, is 10 civilized miles meandering past (and into) some of The Windy City’s most infamous (and still open) speakeasies.

Like the SF Tweed Ride, Winston’s Tweed Ride will host contests for Most Dapper Chap, Most Snappy Lass, Most Stylish Noble Steed, Most Inspired Interpretation of Tweediness, and Best Mustache (open to both lads and inventive lasses).

image by unknown

Meanwhile, from the other side of the world, vintage cycling haberdashery Rocket Fuel brings us news of the first Sydney Tweed Ride.

image by RocketFuelStyle

Following the fine style of London, San Francisco, Auckland and soon Chicago. Sydney is having it’s very own Tweed Ride. So gather your most dapper or ladylike apparel and join us for a spin around the city and a fine cup of tea!

From London to San Francisco, or the Windy City to a Land Down Under, clearly the appeal of Tweed knows no bounds.

Interested in becoming one of the cogwheelnoscenti? The latest news of all things two-wheeled and tweedy can be had on SFTweed’s RSS feed, via their Jaunty Mailer, or on twitter @sftweed.

photo by Binx

See previously: Critical Masterpiece - The Tweed Ride Debuts in San Francisco

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Stylish Cycling On The Rise - Tweed Rides In San Francisco, Chicago & Sydney

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Laughing Squid has had some form of a black website over 13 years, so it’s finally time for a change. We’ve just launched a new design for the blog with a much cleaner look, that loads faster.

I’ll be tweaking and modifying the theme over time, this is just a new starting point.

If you are reading this via RSS, head on over to the blog and check it out.

We are now using the wonderful Thesis WordPress theme developed by Chris Pearson (version 1.5 should be out any day). It’s one of the best WordPress themes I’ve ever used and is going to allow us to have much more design flexibility and added features.

Of course white is not new to Laughing Squid, we’ve been using it on The Squid List the last few years and it’s also part of the design for our new cloud hosting website.

As I rolled out the new theme, I asked people on Twitter what they thought and as expected the reactions ranged from loving it hating it and everything in between.

Now it’s your turn, let us know what you think in the comments.

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Laughing Squid Launches New Blog Design

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by Scouting NY

Artist Marisol Escobar designed this poignant memorial to American Merchant Mariners lost at sea located on the west side of Battery Park in New York City. The imagery in the memorial is based on real pictures of drowning merchant marines taken by German U-boat sailors during World War II.

photo by Scouting NY

Scouting NY shot some truly haunting photos of the memorial

via Scouting NY

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Lost at Sea, A Poignant Merchant Mariners’ Memorial Sculpture in NYC

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illustration by Michael Rogalski

Maggie Koerth-Baker has a guest great post on Boing Boing about “How to Capture a Giant Squid” which includes a wonderful illustration by Michael Rogalski.

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How to Capture a Giant Squid

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At Saturday night’s How to Destroy the Universe Part 6 event at NIMBY, Chicken John offered people the chance to shoot bottle rockets as him while he sang “Come Sail Away” by Styx. The stunt was used to raise money for Swimming Cities of Serenissima (Chicken charged $10 per bottle rocket). Here’s a video of the carnage by Miriam Telles with photos by Tod Seele.

photo by Audrey Penven

If you didn’t make it to the event but still want to help Chicken, you can find out more about the project and made a donation through his website.

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Chicken John Survives Bottle Rocket Attack at How To Destroy the Universe #6

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guest post by Burstein!

Ogilvy and Mather put together a beautiful series of advertisements for Scrabble in which an engaging animation illustrates the silly and sweet songs that really are just kinda random strings of words - much like Scrabble. Kudos to Scrabble on making a really creative and original ad series.

See Previously: Scrabble 60th Anniversary Stop-Motion Animation by Pes

via Drawn

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Great Series of Animated Scrabble Ads

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guest post by Burstein!

The Perry Bible Fellowship is a web comic done good by Nicholas Gurewitch, who got himself a real life hardbound publication deal with Dark Horse Comics. If dark, surreal humor is your cup of tea, then this comic is for you.

via Boing Boing

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The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack Available in Hardcover

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by Martin Amm

Martin Amm is a talented German photographer that has a lovely series of close up shots of insects. I personally find his shots of insects in the morning dew most beautiful, but he has some other excellent shots and excellent taste as well.

photo by Martin Amm

Tip of the hat to Cory.

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Brilliant Photography of Insects in the Morning Dew by Martin Amm

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Sean Percival posted great graphic on Manolith that illustrates The Story of Beer.

via The Ephemerist

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The Story of Beer Through History

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by unknown

In response to all the hipster hate going around, I offer you a moment of joy with Look at This Lovely Hamster blog. Of course, there is always hipster hamster art for those of you that like their rodents to reflect youth culture.

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Look at This Lovely Hamster

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3D artist Benjamin Parry created some amazing illustrations of Alien vs. Predator in a game of chess and pool for a Sky Digital New Zealand ad campaign.

via Rockeboom

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Alien vs. Predator Playing Chess & Pool

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Maru the world famous Japanese cat loves to attack boxes. Happy Caturday!

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Maru The Cat Loves To Attack Boxes

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