NY Times is reporting that Mattel is planning on releasing an adult collectors series of Barbie and Ken dolls based on the AMC television series Mad Men.

via BuzzFeed

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“Lord Of The Onion Rings” by Dave MacDowell

via The Daily What

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image by Jeremy Benning, National Geographic

We really wish we could have been a fly on the wall when “Sizing Up Sperm” — a human re-enactment of fertilization — was pitched in the esteemed offices at National Geographic. Regardless of how the idea was hatched, the results are stunning and the program airs this Sunday, March 14. In it, people dressed in all white literally act out the role of sperm in the race to become one with the egg, running through valleys, squeezing through spirals, battling Leukocytes and much more. The impressive undertaking was completed with helicopter-mounted cameras, world-renowned scientists, CGI and over-the-top reconstruction of the sperm’s journey played out in real life by humans.

National Geographic’s Sizing Up Sperm page has video, photos, facts and “The Great Sperm Race” game, whose designers we’re certain are tired of all those “first person shooter” jokes. Or their friends endlessly playing Every Sperm Is Sacred over and over while they were trying to work. It just so happens that Slate also got in on the ejaculation meme, and delivered the riveting article on a story of sperm donors and DNA tracing in Are Sperm Donors Really Anonymous Anymore? It’s a great pairing with the NatGeo feature, and will make any guy think twice before donating sperm, most especially when over a dozen of your children find each other, and start racing to find… you.

via Lori Dorn

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Whenever people mention the random webcam site, Chatroulette, it inevitably leads to talk of how there are certain less-than-desirable webcam chat partners on the service. Some would wager that the guise of anonymity on Chatroulette helps these users feel a bit safer when baring it all. They aren’t as anonymous as they think.

Chatroulette Map is a project that is grabbing the IP addresses of users, along with a screenshot, and then using Geo IP tools to pinpoint them roughly on the map. The site relies on the fact that Chatroulette connects users directly to each other (assumedly in an effort to save bandwidth) and in doing so exposes IP addresses. Most of the screenshots are safe and entertaining, but there are a few of those Not-Safe-For-Work ones mixed in. The site is also a great way to see a small sampling of the concentration of users around the world.

Previously on Laughing Squid:

- Andrey Ternovskiy, 17 Year-Old Founder of Chatroulette

- Jon Stewart Using Chatroulette on The Daily Show

- Chatroulette Game, If You Turn Your Head I Win

- Meeting Yourself on Chatroulette

- Catroulette

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image by foCuseD-Photography for The Zentai Project

Zentai is the practice of wearing a full body suit (typically Lycra, though other materials fall into Zentai labels) for private enjoyment or exhibitionism. The suits can be colorful, animal themes or even sinister looking, and personal use ranges from sexual enjoyment to wearing the suits in public for fun and amusement — as seen at The Zentai Project.

While Zentai has been a staple of blog fodder for years as the prime example of far-out fetishes one can find with the click of a mouse, the fetish has had little thoughtful examination, nor has anyone bothered to talk to practitioners to hear the story from their side of the Spandex. At The Daily Beast, Will Doig did just that in his article “Men Who Love Lycra”. While the writeup is dressed with the sensationalism you might expect to someone who’s never encountered zentai (which is not always a sexual fetish), Doig’s piece by far the most in depth and titillating piece on the subject to date. It comes with its own shiny gallery, too.

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Ok Go, the band behind the recent Rube Goldberg inspired music video for “This Too Shall Pass”, is leaving EMI and starting their own record label Paracadute.

Ok Go has had some problems with EMI in the past, especially when it comes to their videos, which EMI has not allowed people to embed. This lead to Ok Go writing an open letter to their fans back in January. The video for 2006 song “Here It Goes Again”, which has over 50 million views, still has ebedding disabled.

via Ok Go

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The Video Game Bosses’ Lament by CollegeHumor

via Streeter Seidell

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The 140 Characters Conference, an event explores the real-time Internet organized by Jeff Pulver, returns to New York City April 20-21 at 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.

The #140conf events provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business.

Laughing Squid is one of the media sponsors of 140 Characters Conference NYC.

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Just in time for Spring, Google Maps has added a biking directions option.

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ROFLCon II has just unveiled this year’s conference t-shirt: Pixel Art Three Wolf Moon, designed by R. Stevens (Diesel Sweeties) and based on the now legendary Three Wolf Moon t-shirt produced by The Mountain in 2008.

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Theis Søndergaard recently launched Wired Reread, a new blog that searches for “retro gold” in old issues of Wired magazine.

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At long last the future has arrived!

Martin Jetpack is selling the world’s first commercially available jetpack for $86,000.

via TechRadar

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L’Ogre produced a fantastic music video for “70 Million” by Hold Your Horses, featuring the band recreating famous paintings throughout history.

via Scott Simpson

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At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art yesterday, I came across a series of clever artist-themed desserts offered at the SFMOMA’s Rooftop Coffee Bar. There were many on offer, but these three were my favorites: Mondrian Cake, Richard Serra Cookies, and Jeff Koons White Hot Chocolate. Delicious and brilliant!

photos by Telstar Logistics

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katamaran78 created “Galactica: Sabotage”, a remake the music video for “Sabotage” by Beastie Boys using footage from Battlestar Galactica.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the edit.

via Matthew Williams

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photo by Scott Meinzer

Scott Meinzer shot a beautiful HDR photo of a rainbow over San Francisco after yesterday’s rain and hail.

via Ryan King

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Cafe Grumpy photo by Scott Beale

Over the years I’ve noticed how the coffee situation in New York City has been steadily improving. Not long ago it was all Starbucks and Duncan Donuts, but that’s no longer the case. Oliver Strand of The New York Times takes a look at the best places to find good coffee in NYC, including a super handy interactive map.

photo by Scott Beale

The article mentions how San Francisco’s Four Barrel Coffee will be roasting in NYC soon. In the last year Oakland’s Blue Bottle opened a cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Portland’s Stumptown Coffee opened a cafe at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan, along with a roastery in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

via Buzz Andersen

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Cyriak creates some of the most bizarre animation out there, for example his latest video “Cycles”.

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Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer by BriTANicK

via Ze Frank

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Mauricio Balvanera put together a really great video from last weekend’s Urban Iditarod 2010 in San Francisco. He shot it at 60fps on a Canon 7D.

The music in the video is “Pursuit Of Happiness” by Kid Cudi.

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