Scott Weaver of Rohnert Park, California started making the Golden Gate Bridge with toothpicks at the age of 17. Now, thirty-some years later, he's completed an entire replica of San Francisco, with details like the Palace of Fine Arts and surfers at Ocean Beach. Here's a video:

Dude totally recreates San Francisco with toothpicks [Wired]

Ricky Flowers, 20, was fleeing on foot from Cleveland police when he climbed a 30-foot barbed-wire fence. Problem was, it was a fence surrounding a state prison. Apparently, police attempted to pull over Flowers's car. He and his passengers eventually stopped the car and ran. From AOL News:

Police say that they found seven bags of marijuana in the vehicle, and that Flowers told them he fled because he was driving with a suspended license.

Flowers, who cut his right arm on the barbed wire as he scaled the fence at the Northeast Pre-Release Center for Women, was taken to a local hospital, where he received 36 staples and stitches, police said.

Fleeing Police, Man Hops Fence Into Women's Prison

Slate points us to a strange ad for Friskies, the cat food, that features dancing turkeys, a golden fish-shaped boat, and a rainbow-colored wonderland with a red carpet leading to a bowl of cat food. The pet food brand claims it's trying to reach owners who want to "get inside and experience the magical world their cats experience." There's even a psychedelic remix version on YouTube, set to The Byrds' Eight Miles High.

Psychedelic cat food [Slate]

Last night's release party for Erykah Badu's new album at at the El Rey Theater in LA was amazing. The El Rey is a relatively small venue, the place was packed, the sound was rich, and Badu was in spectacular form with an incredible supporting ensemble. Opening turntablists J Rocc, DJ Nobody, and Kutmah spun fine sets, too. At left, one of a number of great shots from the evening by Jewell at Frolab (Flickr slideshow after the jump). The poster Badu is holding was designed by Emek, more of his art for this release here.

One of my favorite moments in the set last night was when Badu turned to her laptop on stage (yep), opened up a Sun Ra track, let it hang in the air for a while, bobbing her head, then led her band and the audience in a live call-and-response cover of that same song. The track was Nuclear War. I've embedded the original above.

"Nuclear War.... Nuclear War... They're talkin' about... Nuclear War... It's a motherfucker, don't you know... If they push that button, yo' ass gotta go...."

Go get the new Badu album, it's full of sweet funky beauty: New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh. More Frolab photos from the release party after the jump.

Read the rest

Boing Boing reader Georgia McElveen sends this photograph, and says she shot it after "coming accross a group of three girls protesting the burqa ban in France on Monday March 29, 2010." And that is all we know.

The number of Americans targetted by entertainment industry lawsuits nearly doubled this month, as the the US Copyright Group ("an ad hoc coalition of independent film producers and with the encouragement of the Independent Film & Television Alliance") brought suit against 20,000 BitTorrent users. 30,000 more lawsuits are pending, bringing the total number of US entertainment industry lawsuit defendants up to 80,000 (when you include the 30,000 victims of the RIAA).

This beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves gambit is puzzling to me. It seems likely to me that most of these defendants will settle for several thousand dollars (regardless of their guilt) rather than risk everything by hiring a lawyer to defend themselves. But does the "US Copyright Group" really think that Americans will go back to the mall with their credit-cards in hand once their friends' lives have been ruined by litigation?

How about making peace, instead? Offer blanket licenses, DRM-free downloads, ad-supported streams, and products whose EULA consists of "By buying this product you agree to abide by copyright" (a far cry from the current status quo, which goes more like "By buying this product, you agree... [15,000 words omitted] ...that we can spy on you, take it away again, stop you from exercising your consumer rights to lend or give away this product, etc etc etc).

New litigation campaign quietly targets tens of thousands of movie downloaders (via Michael Geist)

UK Labour MP Austin Mitchell has had a change of heart on the dread Digital Economy Bill and has produced anearly day motion asking to have all 24,000+ words of it subjected to scrutiny and debate, rather than being hidden away in the undemocratic, secretive "wash-up" process: "That this House believes that the Digital Economy Bill [Lords] is too important to be taken further in the last days of a dying Parliament; and considers that a bill with so many repercussions for consumers, civil liberties, freedom of information and access to the internet should be debated and properly scrutinised at length and in detail, with a full opportunity for public discussion and representation in a new Parliament after the general election and not rushed through in the few days that remain in this Parliament." Write to your MP and support the motion!

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) has a new process for reviewing requests for earmarks (money apportioned to local projects): she requires anyone requesting an earmark to make a video about it and put it online where everyone can see it.

As your Member of Congress, I am committed to doing everything I can to support the economic and community development important to the people of the First District---that means fighting for sound federal investments in our community that can grow our economy and create jobs.

This year, I am unveiling a new, transparent and open approach to how I receive, review and submit these federal funding requests: every requesting organization has been asked to make a short presentation, which has been recorded and posted online. This is in addition to extensive written materials they submit describing their funding request and how it will benefit Maine's first district. All of this information is particularly geared towards jobs retained or created and examining the long-term economic benefit of federal dollars. The videos and project descriptions will be posted on my website and the public is invited to comment on the projects.

I would love to hear what you think about these projects or this process.

My 2011 Appropriations Requests (Thanks, Jeff from Tacoma!)

After years of "copyright hell" fighting to clear the rights to the music in the stellar animated feature Sita Sings the Blues, the movie is finally available through NetFlix. Congrats, Nina Paley! (Thanks, Xeni!)

For some reason, GE once produced a line of housewares called "Tramatic" and advertised them with the slogan, "Tramatize your home!" No word on whether the homes ever got over the trama. Still and all, I like the lines and colors of these appliances!

Tramatize your home! (via Vintage Ads)

Brian Cook put together this lovely Snow White/Magritte mashup tee for Threadless: "I love art history and I love classic cartoons so I was really excited when this little ditty popped into my head."

Story Book Surrealism

Vote on Threadless

How it was done

(via Super Punch)

Charles Lavoie presents compelling evidence that practically every New Yorker cartoon can be captioned with "Christ, what an asshole!" without reducing its comedy value.

How "Christ, What an Asshole!" is the Answer to the New Yorker Magazine Caption Contest (via Making Light)

John Hilton III and David Wiley from Brigham Young University conducted interviews with authors who give away the electronic editions of their printed books and produced a short, fascinating look at the motivations and satisfactions of free online distribution. The paper, "Free: Why Authors are Giving Books Away on the Internet" is a free PDF (natch).

The authors' responses are (in my opinion) extremely interesting. Major motivations for making work freely available include "to increase visibility," "to increase sales," and "it's a moral obligation." All of the authors were glad that they had made they work available for free, and most reported that they thought it had increased the reach of their work. Nobody perceived that sales had decreased as a result.

Hilton also just published his dissertation, ―Freely Ye Have Received, Freely Give (Matthew 10:8): How Giving Away Religious Digital Books Influences the Print Sales of Those Books, which tracked sales of backlist religious titles before and after their ebook release.

During the ten weeks of the study the books were downloaded 102,556 times. Collectively, the books sold 68 more copies in the ten weeks they were online for free versus the ten previous weeks. This was an increase in sales of 26%. Over the same period of time in 2008, sales of these same books decreased by 38%. Furthermore, a study of comparison titles that were not put online for free found that sales of comparison books decreased both in 2008 and 2009...

(Thanks, John!)

With Tron: Legacy due out later this year (MCP, help us), a revival of the classic Tron from 1982 is underway, with a few truefans translating their passion into fun videos. At top, Hexagonall's "Tron vs. Saul Bass" title sequence. Below that, a new Tron (1982) trailer. Its creator, DrewboiX, writes, "Wanted to make a exciting trailer with a modern feel as oppose to its original marketing in the 80s." (via Underwire)

Here's a classic Rushkoff riff from the recent SXSW 2010. Program or be programmed!