Foreign Exchange Program

Randomly looking at some old toothpaste:


Seriously. That site is brilliant.

Frescorts

BBC reports about rentafriend.com and discusses whether it's a good idea or ruining humanity. Clearly this has already been covered by Bryan Fuller.

Now all we need is a hug machine:

I wish I lived in a P.G. Wodehouse book

Aside from the fact that Hugh Laurie might be there being an adorably dense Wooster, the whole lawyer thing seems an easier gig than in real life:

"But I don't know anything about the law. What shall I say to him?"
"That's all right. I've been studying up a bit. As far as I can gather, this legal advice business is quite simple. Anything that isn't a tort is a misdemeanour. You've simply got to tell old Bennett that in your opinion the whole thing looks jolly like a tort."
"What's the word again?"
"Tort."
"What does it mean?"
"I don't know. Probably nobody knows. But it's a safe card to play. Tort. Don't forget it."
"Tort. Right ho!"

Wodehouse, Three Men and a Maid 150 (A.L. Burt Co. 1922)

I'm such a sucker for Rube

Is this a Rube Goldberg device or simply an elaborate set of dominoes? It's not really a device, but it's not simply dominoes -- there's some wheel-rolling and pushing-with-air going on. Either way, I kind of like this ad visually, until the end with the monolith phone at the end. Please -- that's so 2001 (as in, A Space Odyssey).

Um, ew.

Dear British people of the world:

This is why you have a bad reputation for food. How does it have so many good reviews? The continental part of my blood is curdling.

You Are What You Eat

I just found a cool little website devoted to direct marketing campaigns (as in, direct mail and other direct marketing and consumer-interactive advertising). It's got some cool, creative stuff.

But this one creeped me out a bit -- a Burger King in Brazil that wanted to show how every order is made fresh to order by printing each customer's picture on the sandwich wrapper. I'm not sure I like the idea of a hidden camera at Burger King, even if it is just for an advertising purpose. On the other hand, it would certainly get my attention, and I'd probably even save the wrapper as a souvenir. (I tend to save cool paper objects, especially advertising.)

Census 2010

I just filled out my Census 2010 form. Don't forget yours! Because participating in constitutional law is awesome.

Rube Goldberg

Many of you know I love Rube Goldberg devices. This one by OK Go is pretty excellent, though I'm not sure it's as easy to follow as it's supposed to be, and I'm a little suspicious about it being done in one shot rather than two (there's a zoom in that would be perfect for a new camera take, though I only watched the video once so I'm not sure).