Laughing Squid

Laughing Squid (LS) is a web site devoted to art, culture and technology of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, primarily run by Scott Beagle. The site's mascot is some sort of green squid that mated with a motherboard. I think. The background is moody black, and for this reason I prefer reading LS on my RSS Feed Reader.

How did the site start? Good thing you didn't ask, I'll answer it for you anyway by copy-pasting the from their FAQ:

"Laughing Squid was founded in November of 1995 by Scott Beale as a film and video production company, producing documentaries on the surrealist painter Alonso Smith and The Cacophony Society’s Portland Santacon ‘96 event. In 1996 Laughing Squid launched The Squid List and for a while Laughing Squid offered publicity and web design services, but then started focusing on web hosting in 1998. In December 1999 John Law invested a small amount in Laughing Squid and joined as head of 'special projects'. David Klass soon followed, investing a small amount as a silent investor."

There you go.  LS sometimes features nerd-ery that is highly localized, though often the links posted are globally interesting.  I would expect nothing less from a Bay Area site.