All-inclusive Randomness

some pretty, ehm, unique, USB sticks can be found here.

This is not a review (but I’m pretty sure I liked the movie a lot). This is about how they fooled me. While watching the movie, I kept thinking, hmm, the Ukraine is so beautiful. Wow, it looks just like Slovakia. I absolutely have to go visit! I even made preliminary dream travel plans to check out Uzhorod, and Kiev, and Odessa and some obscure places in addition to that. Well, no wonder I felt such emotional connection to the film’s landscape — IT WAS FILMED AROUND PRAGUE (yes, prague is not in Slovakia, but I claim it as part of my “motherland” anyways).

First I was mad. But here’s their reasoning:

Although the filmmakers had initially scouted the Ukraine, they decided to film in and around Prague. Says Schreiber, “The Ukraine was beautiful and a wonderful place to shoot, but there just weren’t the back up resources. I was lucky enough to have shot a film in Prague as an actor and had become great friends with Matthew Stillman who runs Stillking, one of Prague’s best production companies. I sent him the script and he was convinced we could shoot it there. He invited us to Prague and when I saw the locations I realized they were not only a perfect match for the Ukrainian countryside, but they were also really beautiful.”

Also, another thing that became illuminated while looking into this issue: the reason why I liked the cinematography of the movie a lot is because it was done by Matthew Libatique of Requiem for a Dream (as well as Phone Booth and Pi and I’m sure many other things).

What are you doing, Mr. Thunder From Down Under? And when you stop, could you take me off your email list? You’re not my type.

from somewhere on the Economist website:

As the World Cup approaches, Berlin’s businesses are positioning themselves for best advantage. The latest manifestation of this trend is a new, luxury mega-brothel, which opened in late September, just three train stops away from the Olympic Stadium, the tournament’s main venue. Housed in a former warehouse in Charlottenburg, the Artemis, refitted at a cost of €5m ($6m), boasts saunas, cinemas and a swimming pool and can cater for up to 100 prostitutes and 650 male clients. The women are not actually employed: along with the men, they pay a €70 entrance fee and then keep the money they earn.

The owners of the brothel insist the timing of the opening, before the tournament, is pure coincidence. But they admit that a boom in business is expected. While prostitution, which is legal in Germany, hardly raises eyebrows in liberal-minded Berlin, the size and opulence of the new bordello has caused a stir.

Some guy proposed to his girlfriend through Ask Jeeves.

The story of a man returning home (from Porn Sunday) and passing by a pumpkin patch. (on Ramblings from the Desert via LA Green Girl)

Check out the a&s on that thing!

The hilarious JT etiquette images from previous post inspired me to find out if ‘portable ashtrays’ really exist. And I was not disappointed. Above is a publicity image provided by an Australian company called ButtsOUT for a product of the same name.

Below, the model our fair state ordered for a CalTrans anti-litter campaign has that natural California tan.

because where else if not at the height of a child’s face would you cary a cigarette?

and there are more entirely wonderful gems (even downloadable as hi-res PDFs) on the JT website. Did you know that they are in the tobacco AS WELL AS pharmaceutical, biotech and food business? Now, how’s that for a diversified portfolio?

At her dog’s wedding (!) a couple weeks ago. Pictures.

Doing a bit of research, I ran across Your Mom Online. Mostly I love that someone at Quad City Times named their teen site after a trash-talk insult. At first I thought they were embracing Your Mom’s humble origins (other recent successes: heard in “Yo Mama’s on the top of my things to do list” and half the jokes I make/hear) in the “Your Mom Topless” T-shirt Contest - until I checked out the rules where it reads - “Must be appropriate (no profanity).” Those looking for less restrictive T-shirt Contests should check out threadless.com.