Laughing Squid

• 'WiFi', A Short Film Exploring What Happens When the Internet Goes Down
• Delta Ad Campaign Adds USB Ports To Uber Cars to Promote Availability of UBS Ports on Long-Haul International Flights
• Smell May Be the Reason Why Cilantro Tastes Like Soap To Some People
• The Sights, Sounds, Tastes, & Smells of a Music Festival Presented in the Form of Illustrated Charts by Gemma Correll
• Cumulus Parasol, A Cloud-Shaped Umbrella That Inflates Itself in the Sun
• Skilled Chef Cooks and Flips a Large Batch of Miniature Pancakes With Extreme Speed and Precision
• How to Turn Old Plastic Bottles Into String
• 'Affinage', A Short Documentary About the Process of Aging a Fine Piece of Cheese
• Remarkable Impressions of Characters From Seasons 1-4 of 'Game of Thrones' by Charlie Hopkinson
• 'Mobilize', A Documentary About the Potential Health Effects of Cell Phone Radiation
• 'The History of Hollywood in Under 10 Minutes', A Video Crash Course in Cinema From 65 A.D. to the Present
• Complete 1960s 'Batman' Television Series to Release on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Digital HD in November 2014
• A Live-Action and Animated Video About Video Game Characters Coming to Life and Destroying a Boy's Bedroom
• Music Vault, A YouTube Channel Featuring More Than 13,000 Live Videos of Rock, Jazz, Soul, and Blues Artists
• A Young Woman Quickly Recites the Names of All 50 States in the United States Without Taking a Breath
• Time-Lapse Video of Italian Artist Marcello Barenghi Creating a Photorealistic Illustration of an Oddka Vodka Bottle

'WiFi', A Short Film Exploring What Happens When the Internet Goes Down

“I feel so alone. No Instagram, no Snapchat.”

“WiFi” is a short film by writer and director Julian Smith that explores what happens when the Internet goes down. Suddenly everyone can “jog” again.

via Viral Viral Videos

Delta Ad Campaign Adds USB Ports To Uber Cars to Promote Availability of UBS Ports on Long-Haul International Flights

Delta is running a clever ad campaign that I spotted during a recent Uber trip in NYC. The Uber car we were riding in was equipped with Delta-branded USB ports attached to the top of the passenger seat, making it easy for riders to charge their USB powered devices. The ad campaign promotes the availability of USB ports on Delta’s long-haul international flights.

photo by Scott Beale

Smell May Be the Reason Why Cilantro Tastes Like Soap To Some People

Nacho Cabellero, a 3rd year bioinformatics PhD student at Boston University, explains about the genetic variant that causes the herb cilantro to taste like soap to 10% of those who had their genetics analyzed through 23andMe, himself included.

The first time I tried cilantro I didn't realize it; I just thought somebody had emptied a bottle of Old Spice on my pizza in an attempt to poison me. Cilantro tastes like soap to approximately 10% of the people who have had their genotype analyzed by 23andMe. The currently accepted explanation is that those of us who passionately despise cilantro were born with a genetic variant known as a single-nucleotide polymorphism (or SNP, pronounced 'snip')…The cilantro SNP is called rs72921001, and apparently, its genomic location lays close to a cluster of olfactory receptor genes that includes OR6A2, the gene most likely to be alerting our brain about the presence of cilantro.

Nacho’s information comes from a very interesting report 2012 report from Flavour Journal.

The leaves of the Coriandrum sativumplant, known as cilantro or coriander, are widely used in many cuisines around the world. However, far from being a benign culinary herb, cilantro can be polarizing—many people love it while others claim that it tastes or smells foul, often like soap or dirt. This soapy or pungent aroma is largely attributed to several aldehydes present in cilantro….These results confirm that there is a genetic component to cilantro taste perception and suggest that cilantro dislike may stem from genetic variants in olfactory receptors.

image via Nacho Caballero

The Sights, Sounds, Tastes, & Smells of a Music Festival Presented in the Form of Illustrated Charts by Gemma Correll

UK-based artist and writer Gemma Correll has created a clever series of illustrated charts that point out most of the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells that one might experience at a music festival. Correll posted her charts on Medium under their I Love Charts collection.

images via Medium

Cumulus Parasol, A Cloud-Shaped Umbrella That Inflates Itself in the Sun

The Cumulus Parasol is a solar-powered umbrella by Netherlands-based design studio Toer that inflates itself into the shape of a cloud when it’s in the sun. The solar panels are located on top of the parasol, inflating the cloud in about 20 seconds, and deflating it when the sun goes away. Toer is also the studio behind the faux grass-covered Field Hammock.

images via Toer

Skilled Chef Cooks and Flips a Large Batch of Miniature Pancakes With Extreme Speed and Precision

A skilled chef impresses his audience by cooking and flipping a large batch of miniature pancakes with extreme speed and precision in this video uploaded by JapanTotal.

via Viral Viral Videos

How to Turn Old Plastic Bottles Into String

YouTube DIY instructor Maxim Egorov has a series of videos demonstrating how to create cutting devices that can turn old used plastic bottles into a thick string or ribbon strong enough to hold a chair together. The videos are in Russian, but feature English subtitles.

via Boing Boing

'Affinage', A Short Documentary About the Process of Aging a Fine Piece of Cheese

"Affiange" is a short documentary segment by FoodieTV and The Perennial Plate that travels to British cheesemongers Neal's Yard Dairy to explore the process of aging a fine piece of cheese.

With cheese, you get a different vintage every day, whereas with wine, you have to wait every year. I just think it's amazing. You start with milk, a little bit of an enzyme and a couple of bacteria and the way you treat it, you end up with things as different as camembert and lancashire.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Remarkable Impressions of Characters From Seasons 1-4 of 'Game of Thrones' by Charlie Hopkinson

Impressionist and comedian Charlie Hopkinson shows off his talent in this video by doing remarkable impressions of well-known characters from seasons 1-4 of HBO’s Game of Thrones television series.

via Tastefully Offensive

'Mobilize', A Documentary About the Potential Health Effects of Cell Phone Radiation

Mobilize is a forthcoming documentary by Bay Area filmmaker Kevin Kunze that seeks to uncover the facts about claims regarding the long-term health effects of cell phone usage. The film explores the issue with such experts as Lawrence Lessig, Steve Wozniak, and Richard Branson, taking on such claims as links to cancer and infertility.

image via Mobilize

via Laughing Squid Tips

'The History of Hollywood in Under 10 Minutes', A Video Crash Course in Cinema From 65 A.D. to the Present

"The History of Hollywood in Under 10 Minutes" by Cinefix is a relatively brief lesson in the history of cinema that begins with the discovery that sequential images can produce a moving image and moves quickly up through the videos found on the Internet today.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Complete 1960s 'Batman' Television Series to Release on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Digital HD in November 2014

Warner Brothers will be releasing all 120 episodes of the beloved 1960s Batman television series on DVD, Blu-ray, and as streaming digital HD in November 2014. All episodes have been remastered for the release and will feature bonus content, which the company will reveal during a Comic-Con panel featuring the show's stars Adam West, Burt Ward, and Catwoman Julie Newmar on July 24th. The panel is one of a number set to occur at Comic-Con to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Batman character.

via Nerdcore

A Live-Action and Animated Video About Video Game Characters Coming to Life and Destroying a Boy's Bedroom

“Video Game Takeover” is a live-action and animated video by Joe Murayama of PixelStormFilms about a large group of video game characters who come to life and quickly destroy a boy’s bedroom after he walks away to get a drink.

A before and after video breaks down PixelStormFilms’ visual effects:

via Kotaku

Music Vault, A YouTube Channel Featuring More Than 13,000 Live Videos of Rock, Jazz, Soul, and Blues Artists

Music Vault is a new site and YouTube channel that culled together more than 13,000 concert videos. The channel's primary focus is classic rock artists, including the likes of The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young, though the list also includes jazz musicians like Wayne Shorter and more indie fare like guitarist Khaki King. Music Vault is also offering up a Tumblr blog as a way in to its massive collection.

via Rolling Stone

A Young Woman Quickly Recites the Names of All 50 States in the United States Without Taking a Breath

YouTube user Shrek Sanic has uploaded a video of a young woman quickly reciting the names of all 50 states in the United States of America without taking a breath.

via reddit, 22 Words

Time-Lapse Video of Italian Artist Marcello Barenghi Creating a Photorealistic Illustration of an Oddka Vodka Bottle

Milan, Italy-based artist Marcello Barenghi has created a fantastic time-lapse video that shows him creating a photorealistic illustration of an Oddka vodka bottle with colored pencils, markers, and an airbrush. We’ve previously written about Marcello and his ongoing series of realistic drawings.

music by Cinquequarti – “Motivational And Uplifting Notes”

image via Marcello Barenghi

via DesignTAXI

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