photo by EDW Lynch

Westboro Baptist Church showed up to protest in front of Twitter’s San Francisco office on Thursday, but found themselves severely outnumbered by a crowd of absurdist pranksters, including guest blogger EDW Lynch above.

WBC’s hate-promoting signs were answered by multiple signs of randomness, nonsensical yelling, and even a unicorn. A portable stereo blared Lady GaGa, while press and people passing by ignored the WBC signs and took pictures and videos of the more entertaining signs. I was also there and turned on the video camera while holding my sign.

photo by Rubin Starset

Westboro had scheduled an appearance in front of the Golden Gate Theatre later that evening to protest Fiddler on the Roof. Fellow guest blogger, Burstein!, reports:

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective, Fred Phelps and his followers cancelled their appearance before Fiddler on the Roof. Apparently, they were all hated out from their big day and just had no more hate to spare. Nevertheless, even in their absence a small crowd gathered and gave rise to an elegantly dadaist protest in which accordions, random signs of love and hate, and rick rolls abounded. While many of those attending Fiddler were bemused and confused, the staff and crew apparently loved this counter-protest and the director, stage manager, and choreographer all came out to thank these ridiculous protesters.

photo by sandwichgirl

See also: God Hates Twitter, Westboro Baptist Church Plans Protest At Twitter Headquarters

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Mt. Holly Mayor Mike Haeg has uploaded an amazing video of the 1975 San Francisco Artists’ Soapbox Derby.

via Boing Boing

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Pee-wee Herman shows off his new Apple iPad to his friends in the Playhouse.

via Nerdist

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photo by APHROcentricity

A Unicorn Puncher is someone who takes it upon themselves to enact the saintly duty of restoring balance to the universe after an overwhelm of cuteness has affected a person, place, thing, dance floor, blog, or any similar saccharin brain rinse by the thankless act of punching a unicorn in the face.

To wit, Urban Dictionary tells us, “Unicorn Punch: (noun) The opposite of the unicorn chaser.”

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“Old Fangs”, a wonderful animated short written and directed by Adrien Merigeau that debuted last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival.

via Drawn!

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Back in 2005 Myles Weissleder shot this awesome photo of his dog Pico jumping in front of the Golden Gate Bridge with a rubber chicken in his mouth.

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A demonstration of superhuman tape measure skills made as a clever promo for the Integrity Windows’ Builder Skills Challenge.

via Kottke

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Barely Political and Joe Sabia have released the video of President Barack Obama announcing the iPad last night during his State of the Apple Address.

via Tim Shey

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Charlie Brooker of Newswipe shows us the proper way to reporting the news on TV.

via Rocketboom

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artwork by JennyBird

Eat Your heArt Out, a Valentine’s Day brunch benefit for the Black Rock Arts Foundation takes place on February 14th at Supperclub San Francisco.

Treat yourself and those you love to a sumptuous Valentine’s Day brunch in bed, including fresh fruit, interactive omelet and sweet/savory crepe station, croissants, artisan breads, jam and marmalade, cold cuts, fresh brewed coffee imaginatively served by Ritual Coffee Roasters, and LOVE-ly surprises.

Enjoy Interactive art; soaring aerial heARTistry; interactive photography zone by PhotoBOOF!; music and live performances by: Diva Marisa Lenhardt, Bad Unkl Sista, Tamo (Angels of bAss, Space Cowboys), Michael Anthony & The Late Nite Sneaky, Secret Valentine, and others. While you’re at it make-yer-own Valentine in the DIY heART gallery and tell Cupid what to do with his arrow. All proceeds help bring interactive art to public places across the globe. So, go ahead! Eat your heART out! …and feed your soul.

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Milky Way Transit Authority by Samuel Arbesman

This map is an attempt to approach our galaxy with a bit more familiarity than usual and get people thinking about long-term possibilities in outer space. Hopefully it can provide as a useful shorthand for our place in the Milky Way, the ‘important’ sights, and make inconceivable distances a bit less daunting. And while convenient interstellar travel is nothing more than a murky dream, and might always be that way, there is power in creating tools for beginning to wrap our minds around the interconnections of our galactic neighborhood.

via i09

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J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye and many other great novels, has passed away at age 91.

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Eugene Breynaert shows how he parks his 57″ wide car in his 61″ wide garage.

via The Presurfer

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“The War Against Work”, a new Threadless t-shirt by Glenn Jones.

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“Mixtape”, a wonderful short film by Luke Snellin brings back the memories for those of us who used to spend hours making music mixes on cassette tape.

via Amandalyn Ferri

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Laughing Squid guest blogger and long-time collaborator Josh Ellingson is having a solo art show “All The Best, Josh Ellingson Selected Works 2006-2009″ at Mission: Comics & Art in San Francisco. The opening reception is Saturday, February 6th and the show runs through March 10th.

Mission: Comics & Art presents “All The Best,” by San Francisco artist Josh Ellingson, whose artwork draws inspiration from comic books, classic sci-fi movies, video games, pop-culture and the potential of the human mind. “All The Best,” highlights his recent work from 2006-2009. In his own words, Ellingson describes his work:

“I’m influenced by popular culture, particularly television and movies, and I’ve also always been a fan of comic books and collectible toys. I’m enamored with science and scientific advancements and lately, astronomy has had a big impact on my work. There’s something about the scale of the cosmic level that makes my brain buzz.”

Ellingson’s artwork has appeared in a variety of publications and online media, and in the fall of 2009, his piece “Dirty Martini and the Birth of the Space Program” was displayed on the International Space Station, as part of the Zero Gravity Art show organized by space-entrepreneur and creator of Ultima Online, Richard Garriott. His work was also recently presented by the Museum of Robots located in the virtual online environment of Second Life. In addition, Ellingson regularly contributes articles and reviews to the poplular website Laughing Squid and the art/culture magazine Hi-Fructose, and is the director of the art and design collective space, The Local 303. He grew up with his grandparents in farmhouse in semi-rural Michigan, and has Visual Communications degree from the Kendal College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, MI.

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Forget about the Apple iPad, I can’t wait to get my hands on the iPad Nano.

via Amir Blumenfeld

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“Even in your company, I feel so alone.” (Dwell, September 2009)

“Unhappy Hipsters”, a new Tumblr genre blog that documents lonely hipsters in a modern world, which in this case primarily consists of photos from Dwell magazine.

via Coudal Partners

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MUNIFAIL uses Twitter to let San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom know whenever the MUNI system fails.

Check out The N-Juah Chronicles’ interview with MUNIFAIL creator Mike Monteiro.

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TechShop is planning on opening 15,500 square foot location in downtown San Francisco at 926 Howard Street in the Summer of 2010. They are looking for help opening this new space if anyone is interested in getting involved.

You can think of TechShop as a health club but with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment. It is sort of like a Kinko’s for makers, or a Xerox PARC for the rest of us. TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, “makers”, hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don’t have the tools, space or skills.

via Dav Yaginuma

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