The Internet's head exploded yesterday at the news that FunnyJunk had sent a $20,000 legal demand letter to The Oatmeal, asserting that the Oatmeal's complaint about FunnyJunk's users reposting Oatmeal content was, itself, an offense warranting a $20,000 settlement.

This act of monumental chutzpah ("You want ME to pay YOU $20,000 for hosting MY unlicensed comics on your shitty website for the past three years?") was matched by Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman's response: to promise to raise $20,000 for cancer charities, but before it was turned over to them, to photograph himself standing astride the pile of money and forward this photo, along with a cartoon depicting Funnyjunk's lawyer's mother trying to seduce a bear, to FunnyJunk and its counsel.

The fundraiser was a smashing success, blowing past the $100,000 mark in a day. Now, MSNBC has caught up with FunnyJunk's counsel, Charles Carreon, a storied attorney who made his reputation litigating the sex.com case. They find Carreon in a state of sheer bewilderment as he confronts the enormous storm of bad will, negative publicity, and public disapprobation he and his client find themselves amidst. As he says, "I'm completely unfamiliar really with this style of responding to a legal threat."

I'd be tempted to feel some sympathy for Carreon, save for the fact that the interview closes with this: "He also explains that he believes Inman's fundraiser to be a violation of the terms of service of IndieGoGo, the website being used to collect donations, and has sent a request to disable the fundraising campaign." It's hard to feel sympathy for someone who wants to take over $100,000 away from cancer charities because of a supposed violation of someone else's fine-print.

"I really did not expect that he would marshal an army of people who would besiege my website and send me a string of obscene emails," he says.

"I'm completely unfamiliar really with this style of responding to a legal threat — I've never really seen it before," Carreon explains. "I don't like seeing anyone referring to my mother as a sexual deviant," he added, referencing the drawing Inman posted...

"I don't think that what I did was unreasonable," Carreon says while discussing the initial demands sent to Inman. He tells me that while this situation is unique, he is typically open to negotiation. He ended the conversation with a promise to keep me updated on how things are resolved and on whether he takes any legal action against the folks who have been harassing him since Inman's "BearLove Good Cancer Bad" fundraising campaign started.

"It's an education in the power of mob psychology and the Internet," Carreon told me.

It's a testimony to the power of smart people to fool themselves that Carreon can clearly see the ugliness of "mob psychology," but not the ugliness of legal intimidation.

Also, I'm rather amused by MSNBC's treatment of the cartoon of the mother and the bear (above).

Cartoonist turns lawsuit threat into $100K charity fundraiser

Yardley Joy Frantz of Allentown, PA was released on $20,000 bail after being arrested for using a stun gun on a man who had been aiding another man she'd allegedly hit with her car. It was easy for police to track her down: her license plate read ZOMBIE. When officers arrived at her home, they found Ms. Frantz "bleeding next to her right eye and trying to report a domestic violence incident." She told officers that she did not know who was driving the car when it hit the man.

Frantz was charged with three counts each of simple assault and harassment and one count each of aggravated assault, accidents involving death or personal injury, disorderly conduct, careless driving and failing to stop and give information or render aid.

She was also charged with three counts related to the stun gun, including using an incapacitation device.

It seems that Burger King must have taken a very long position on pork futures, because they've rolled out a temporary Memphis Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich, Carolina BBQ Whopper, Texas BBQ Whopper and a bacon sundae:

The AP reports that BK will launch the treat — which has fudge, caramel, crumbled bacon and a full piece of bacon — later this week, along with other limited time items.

It has 510 calories, 18 grams of fat and 61 grams of sugar, but we're guessing that these numbers won't discourage the bacon-curious from giving it a try.

Burger King Gives Us The Bacon Sundae We've Always Wanted But Were Afraid To Ask For

Last week, Boing Boing presented a series of essays about movies that have had a profound effect on our invited essayists. We are extending the series for several additional days. See all the essays in the Mind Blowing Movies series. -- Mark

Mind Blowing Movies: Inserts (1974)

[Video Link] Inserts could never be made today. It's too politically incorrect, and it would be difficult to find talented actors and actresses to essay its mentally and (in a sense) physically demanding roles. However, I've just finished watching Inserts for what must be the 30th time, and I'm as big a fan of this movie today as I was when I first discovered it in 1979. I'm only hoping that this review inspires you to go out and rent this R-rated classic so you can form your own opinions, rather than relying on either mine… or Leonard Maltin's ("Pretentious, unending nonsense… Dreadful") or Mick Martin's ("Dreary").

Inserts is the story of two afternoon hours in the life of The Boy Wonder (hereafter "The BW") (Dreyfuss), a former mainstream silent film director who's lost his nerve, and who, as the film opens (in the early 1930s), is reduced to making porno movies in his mansion. The Boy Wonder's "set" is in the corner of his spacious living room … but it may not be there for long. His neighborhood is undergoing urban renewal, as Los Angeles begins to build the first of its maze of freeways, and the roar of giant earth-moving machines can be heard continually from outside. It's obvious from his constant swigging of cognac that The BW has completely lost respect for himself, but his porn career provides a manageable balance between his fear of working in "the real movies" and his need to be behind the camera, directing something. 

His star is Harlene (Cartwright), an ex-mainstream actress who used to "pork [Von Stroheim] plenty when he was straight." Now, she's a waitress by day and a cocaine addict in her off-hours… and The BW's sort-of girlfriend, even though, we soon find out, he's psychically impotent.

This month, Joe Jackson releases his tribute to Duke Ellington, titled The Duke. Guests include the likes of Sharon Jones, Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim, violinist Regina Carter, and members of The Roots, along with Iggy Pop who Jackson buddies up with for a rousing rendition of "It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)." Promo interview about that track above. And lest we forget Mr. Jackson's post-punk roots…

Here's a bizarre-but-striking couture moment: basket-woven hair.

“There were many permutations,” Palau said to Style.com of the technique, “but in the end it was highly technical yet very simple.” Palau divided models’ hair into three sections before adding extensions over and under natural strands for a woven effect, ending each panel in a skinny braid. Back panels were folded flat against the head and pinned in place before the entire head was sprayed with Redken’s Forceful 23 hair spray. Sixty bottles of hairspray were used to hold everything in place!

Hair Weaving At McQueen

Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin has an in-depth look at the "Defensive Patent License," a kind of judo for the patent system created by my former EFF colleague Jason Schultz (who started EFF's Patent Busting Project) and my former USC colleague Jen Urban (who co-created the ChillingEffects clearinghouse). As you'd expect from two such killer legal freedom fighters, the DPL is audacious, exciting, and wicked cool. It's a license pool that companies opt into, and members of the pool pledge not to sue one another for infringement. If you're ever being sued for patent infringement, you can get an automatic license to a conflicting patent just by throwing your patents into the pool. The more patent trolls threaten people, the more incentive there is to join the league of Internet patent freedom fighters.

“The idea is if you want to be part of this network of defensive patent people, you are committing that all of your patents, every single thing you’ve done, will be available royalty-free to anyone who wants to take a license, if they commit to only practice defensive patent licensing,” Schultz said today in Boston at the Usenix conference on cyberlaw issues. “As long as they don’t offensively sue anyone else in that network, everything’s cool.”

The commitment is both daunting in that it requires submitting all of a member company’s patents to the pool, and forgiving in that members can still sue the pants off non-members. Schultz said his team thought long and hard about the exact implementation of the Defensive Patent License.

The “all-in” provision was put in place to prevent companies from joining the network while only providing their lamest patents. The ability of DPL members to sue non-members, meanwhile, preserves the right to monetize inventions. It also keeps members on a level playing field with non-members.

“Defensive Patent License” created to protect innovators from trolls

If your day is in the doldrums, I present "Oh god, did you put something in my drink" (presumably not the original title, though who knows?), 3:17 worth of sheer freakout.

Oh god, did you put something in my drink (Thanks, Joeyx!)

Clark and Kent, an ad-agency, created this nifty business card that folds into a phone booth for added Supermanness.

Clark&Kent: Phone Booth Business Card (via Super Punch)

Paul Vermeesch, a Lego jedi, created this loving tribute to MC Escher's Relativity, with innumerable grace-notes and sly in-jokes. It's living proof of the progress of Lego: ten years ago, I blogged Lego/Escher mashups of much less ambition.

Six months in the making, I present my largest creation to date: a 1x1x1 foot model of M.C. Escher's print "Relativity" reenacted in the Lego Star Wars theme. A far larger, cleaner, and more detailed rehashing of my 2010 version, this diorama is fully lit from the inside, presents the original Star Wars trilogy in a roughly counterclockwise format, and even features a minifig-scale theatre in the back which plays Lego's CG version of the Star Wars saga. Enjoy!

I attempted to stay as true as possible to the geometry and proportions of Esher's work, while bringing in the colors, worlds, and characters of Star Wars, and the freshness of the Lego medium. Unlike my first version of this concept, this diorama was not built solely for the finished replication photograph. This diorama has many details and scenes not completely visible in the finished picture. Take a look at some of these scenes and details below!

Star Wars Relativity V2 (Thanks, Phoebe!)

Last week, Boing Boing presented a series of essays about movies that have had a profound effect on our invited essayists. We are extending the series for several additional days. See all the essays in the Mind Blowing Movies series. -- Mark

[Video Link]To date, the most mind-blowing film I've ever seen was 1980's The Stunt Man, directed by Richard Rush. This movie truly had exactly that sort of effect on me, through scene after scene, until the very end.

And by "the very end" I don't mean "the end of the movie." I mean "the very end of the VHS cassette I first saw it on." I sat there in my chair, staring blankly at the screen with this fixed, open-mouth grin on my face after the credits rolled and the screen went to black. There was some blinking. No drooling as far as I can recall, but otherwise, I spent those several minutes staring at a black screen and trying to process what I'd just seen. What blew my mind wasn't the story itself so much as how it'd been told. As I reviewed the experience, I started to appreciate that The Stunt Man is possibly the finest magic trick I'd ever seen. The trick is over, it gratefully releases its grip on your sense of free will and independent observation, and you start to appreciate just how skilled the magician was.

This happy mental state was only broken by the THUNK of the tape stopping at the end of the leader and then auto-rewinding in the VHS deck.

But I'm precluded from choosing and discussing The Stunt Man for a couple of reasons.

First, while it's a movie I love to recommend to people, I adamantly believe that you should watch The Stunt Man knowing only two things in advance:

1) Peter O'Toole is in it;

2) Peter O'Toole is good in anything.

(Before you skip down to the bottom of the page to click a button and post a snarky reply: yes, I have seen Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage, as a matter of fact. And yes, Peter O'Toole was good in that, as well.)

When I sat down to see the movie for the first time, I didn't know anything about The Stunt Man other than it was a Peter O'Toole film that I had never seen. Two hours and ten minutes later, while the film was rewinding and just before I gave it an immediate second viewing, I intuitively understood that if I'd known that it was a comedy (or a drama) (or an action movie) (or a thriller with a twist ending) (or no twist ending), or that Peter O'Toole was the focus of the whole story (or that his role was barely of any consequence)... no, it wouldn't have been the same experience.

You have to watch it as a blank slate. It's a mind blowing movie. You have to allow "The Stunt Man" to pursue its own agenda with you, on its own timetable. It's ruined if you're two thirds of the way through and suddenly think of a scene from the trailer that you hasn't appeared yet. And the effect is certainly going to be ruined if I explain in advance why I think it's a mind-blowing movie.

The second reason I shouldn't talk about The Stunt Man is because it wasn't, in fact, the first thing that came to mind when I started thinking about "Mind blowing movies (or TV shows or whatever)."

It's actually a little bit embarrassing.

It was The Curse Of Mr. Bean.

Read the rest

A person called Chadwick John Dillon produced this suit-of-armor hoodie. He's apparently selling it (or possibly producing them to order). The details require a Facebook account, which I don't have. Chadwick, if you're reading this, consider me interested (though not interested enough to give Mark Zuckerberg all the intimate details of my life!).

Update: From the comments, Melissa Gutierrez sez, "The maker has an Etsy shop that is in vacation mode at the moment because of overwhelming interest in said hoodie."

My friend Chad just made this shirt of armor and it’s for sale! Hit him up for the details! (via Super Punch)

Out today, The Art of Luke Chueh. After the jump, a galley of selected images from the book.

The eagerly awaited first book from critically acclaimed pop surrealist artist Luke Chueh, The Art of Luke Chueh presents Chueh's bold and unusual art -- employing minimal color schemes, simple animal characters, and a seemingly endless list of ill-fated situations.

Chueh has enjoyed success in the Lowbrow and Pop Surrealist art movements, and has risen to the forefront of the art scene in LA., featuring at sold-out shows, including the popular Crazy 4 Cult at Gallery 1988, in and around Los Angeles for the past four years. With a dedicated following, some of Chueh's characters have been recreated as a line of toys. Chueh also designed the cover for Fall Out Boy’s album Folie a Deux.

Oh, you know how we at BB love baseball player Dock Ellis who in 1970 pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while tripping balls on LSD. Ellis was quite a character. I hope this film about Ellis, titled "No No: A Dockumentary," gets finished! From the Kickstarter page:

During his 12 years in the major leagues, Dock lived the expression "black is beautiful." He wore curlers on the field. He stepped out of his Cadillac wearing the widest bell bottoms and the broadest collars. When he put on his uniform, he was one of the most intimidating pitchers of the 1970s.

Dock was often at the forefront of controversy and has been called the “Muhammad Ali of Baseball.” He was an outspoken leader of a new wave of civil rights in sports, when black athletes were no longer content to accept second-class treatment or keep their mouths shut about indignities. For this, the press labeled him a militant.

But that’s only half the story…

After Dock retired from baseball, he was as outspoken about his addictions to alcohol and amphetamines (aka “greenies”) as he had been about racial prejudice during his career. He spent his last decades using that blunt honesty as a counselor helping other addicts, until his death from liver disease in 2008.

"No No: A Dockumentary (about Dock Ellis)" (Thanks, Jenn Shreve and a half!)