There is sad news today for New York City bagel lovers. H&H Bagels, the legendary bagel shop in New York City, has been shut down by a city marshal. The shop, located at 46th Street, was the last location of H&H Bagels in the city and still shipped bagels worldwide until its closure. In 2011, they were evicted from their main location in the Upper West Side. Take a look at the post, H&H Bagels, Like No Other Bagel in the World, where Scott extols the joy of a warm bagel from H&H Bagels.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has reported that H&H Bagels owner, Helmer Toro, is determined to keep the 46th Street shop open despite the recent closure.

via Eater

Thanks to Jason Laskodi for the tip!

photo by Scott Beale

Archie McPhee wins the Internet with their latest Cult of Unicorn video featuring a Unicorn in a Unitard on a Unicycle.

When the new section of the High Line in New York City was getting ready to open in June 2011, Korean-born artist Hyemi Cho worried that she would lose her privacy due to the proximity of her apartment to the new span. Instead of giving into the fear, she painted art for her window that gave the illusion that she was peeking out and waving from behind the curtains. The art has been a hit because it takes the urban park’s visitors by surprise and she has now created additional window paintings for her apartment to further the fun. In addition, she is also creating paintings for other buildings along the High Line. These fun “voyeuristic” paintings have been temporarily removed so that they can be part of Cho’s first solo exhibition, High Line and Personal Stories, at the Nancy Margolis Gallery from January 26, 2012 through February 25, 2012.

…I imagined myself cautiously peeking through my curtain looking outside, seeking the sky and river I used to love to see. I thought, “I am a painter. Why don’t I paint the reality of life and put it out to the public.” In this way, I would (re)solve the restriction of my freedom and my frustration of this invasion of my privacy.

The window paintings have brought me, now an animal in a zoo, delightful interactions with people on the Highline. Everyday, I see people laughing at the paintings and photographing them. Sometimes, I actually peek out and wave my hand, the real life recreation of the painting. The surprise on their faces turns to excitement and they wave back, saying “hi” with their hands. I see that my paintings are a good surprise and make people smile and laugh.

via High Line

photos by Hyemi Cho and Meg Kinney

Pleated-Jeans has posted a series of simple instructions on How To Eat Food.

An adorable hazel dormouse, a small rodent that hibernates for long periods, was captured snoring in the video titled Snoring Dormouse posted by thamesditton46. The video was shot by The Surrey Wildlife Trust Mammal Project Officer, Dave Williams, as part of The Surrey Dormouse project based in England. The Surrey Wildlife Trust is taking donations to help fund this project and others.

Surrey Wildlife Trust actively monitors dormice in 22 woodlands around Surrey. Mammal officer Dave Williams and a group of volunteers and ecologists monitor these sites on certain days each month from April to October. The monitoring teams carefully check 25 – 50 boxes in each woodland to look for dormice; each box and any contents (including species other than dormice!) are recorded.

via Viral Viral Videos

“Astronomical” is a representation of the Solar System across 6000 pages of a 12 volume set (video). Each page represents one million kilometers of distance from the Sun—for example, Earth shows up on page 155 of volume 1. The “Astronomical” set is by UK-based artist Mishka Henner. It can be ordered from his website.

via io9 & NewScientist CultureLab

It looks like NBC is proposing a mid-2013 spinoff of the hit television comedy series, The Office, which would feature Dwight Schrute, the character played by actor Rainn Wilson. According to TV Editor Nellie Andreeva of Deadline, the spinoff will most likely take place on the fictional Pennsylvania-based bed-and-breakfast, Schrute Farms.

Some details from Deadline:

I hear that NBC is working on an Office spinoff starring Rainn Wilson for a potential midseason 2013 launch. No deals have been closed yet but I’ve learned that the proposed spinoff is a family comedy, which was the brainchild of Wilson and The Office executive producer/showrunner Paul Lieberstein. It will have Dwight (Wilson) living at the Schrute family beet farm and bed & breakfast, which have been featured on the show several times, including in an episode where Jim and Pam visited Dwight there.

via Deadline

In an effort to reach new heights of laziness, Ben Heck built his own Xbox 360 controller-mounted Hot Pocket dispenser.

via Revision3, Geekosystem & DVICE

“Still Life” by artist Scott Garner is an interactive picture that can be tilted by the viewer, causing the objects in the picture to be tossed about the frame (video). Garner created the effect with a framed TV, swivel mount, spatial sensor, and 3D software.

via MAKE

In “Microwaves Ruin Everything,” a microwave oven destroys a variety of items, from a watermelon to a bottle of champagne. The video is an ad for Moe’s Southwest Grill. As the ad helpfully warns, do not try this at home “especially if you like to see, smell, hear, touch, talk and breathe.”

via Geekologie

Actor Matthew Broderick is back as his character Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) in Coming Soon, a ten-second Super Bowl teaser ad posted by chuckachucka2012. We look forward to see what “Ferris” will be advertising on February 5, 2012, aka Super Bowl Sunday.

We hate to be such a tease, but on a day like today, we just have to. Stick it out until the Super Bowl, or take a “day off” on Monday and catch the big reveal.

via Steve Garfield

Stereographs, side-by-side photographs that when viewed together produce a 3D effect, normally can only be viewed with a stereoscope. Stereogranimator is a site that lets viewers browse 40,000 vintage stereographs from the New York Public Library’s archive and convert them into animated GIFs and anaglyphs that can be enjoyed on the web. The site was built by the New York Public Library Labs, and is inspired by the work of artist Joshua Heineman.

via The New York Times ArtsBeat

photo via The New York Public Library

Stephen Colbert talks with author and illustrator Maurice Sendak (best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are) in Grim Colberty Tales (parts 1, 2), a hilarious two-part interview on The Colbert Report.

This beautiful high resolution composite image of Earth was taken on January 4 by NASA’s recently launched Suomi NPP Earth-observing satellite.

via Flickr Blog

photo via NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

So you may not be aware of this, but you can receive Laughing Squid blog updates via email.

The original option which we have add for years is to subscribe via FeedBurner which sends a daily digest of posts.

We just added a second option were you can subscribe via WordPress using their Jetpack service (look for the subscribe option on our sidebar). Once you sign up you’ll be able to select either a weekly digest of posts or an email update for each individual post. The WordPress subscription also has options for delivery window settings.

For some unknown reason, both options do not properly display embedded videos.

Los Angeles-based photographer Andy Stolarek was inspired to start his pet portraiture business, Furtographs, after a visit to a pedigreed cat championship in 2003. His unique style really captures the personality of the furry friends he photographs (full gallery of images).

This discovery began his photographic series ‘Grimalkin’ which focused on the niche arena of feline pageantry and competition. As his work progressed, he began to photograph the animals of friends and family, initializing Furtographs. With his unique aesthetic for portraiture, capturing each animal in an unconventional and dramatic manner became Stolarek’s Furtographs focus.

photos by Andy Stolarek

Thanks to Kestrin Pantera for the tip!

Snowman Cross-Section by Lunchbreath

YouTube ceated a visualization showing off their astonding rate of video uploads at One Hour Per Second.

Every second, one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube. That’s 24 hours every 24 seconds… or a decade every single day.

via YouTube Blog

Alex Pardee imagines what it might look like if Clive Barker designed scooters.

Obama as The Incredible Hulk by Ron English

via Ron English

Taiwanese designer Mike He of Pistacchi Design created this clever Pinocchio-inspired pencil sharpener for his 2011 Once Upon a Time project shown at Tokyo Designer’s Week. The Honest Boy Pencil Sharpener is available for purchase from online retailer, fred flare.

via The Awesomer

Eyewear company Warby Parker created a beautiful interactive infographic as their annual report.

via Ellie Rountree

New York City-based comedian, writer and filmmaker Mark Malkoff convinced thirteen (somewhat trepidatious) celebrities to let him sleepover at their Los Angeles-based homes, including Justine Bateman, Kato Kaelin, Martin Kove (The Karate Kid), iJustine, Paul Feig and more. Some only allowed him to nap at their place, many of them read books to him and some even wore cool pajamas. The resulting video from the time spent at their places is hilarious. You may remember Mark from when he performed a series of pranks at New York City Apple Stores.

Celebrities: They’re just like us! Except they have way nicer beds.

Over at Instructables, Canada-based Tigris Li has fashioned a tank out of cardboard box for kittens (and any small pet, really) and she’s made Kitty Tank Warrior, an adorable action-packed video starring her kitten in the cardboard tank. In a similar vein, we previously posted about a chihuahua that wore a tiny tank costume.

via Instructables

Hellnuts by Raid71

RCHOP by by Raid71

Cosmic Kiss by Raid71

Artist Chris Thornley (aka Raid71) was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and in response created a fundraising site called Art V Cancer that sells his art posters to benefit cancer research.

Art V Cancer is run by Chris Thornley (aka Raid71 the illustrator) & Julia Hall.

A couple of years ago our life, and our family’s lives were turned completely upside down when Chris was diagnosed with a very rare incurable non hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 37.

The first thing we thought of is death, cancer = death. But having lived for these years with cancer the first thing we can say is cancer doesn’t mean the inevitable; We soon discovered that there are over 200 differnt types of cancer and that most cancers are treatable, manageable and in some cases curable. More and more people can survive cancer but there is still a long way to go.

By buying a poster from Art V Cancer, we promise to donate all profits (only a small amount will be used to pay for posting and packaging etc.) to charities researching cancer cures and supporting those who are learning to survive cancer.

via OMG! Posters