This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like seekingarrangement.com connects women to ‘sugar daddies’ already. I guess Miss Travel is just taking that trend international. Wait, I checked, it’s the same guy doing both.

Avengers is blowing up worldwide. Even in Sri Lanka, the 3D cinema (Majestic) is booked for days in advance. I caught the film this Wednesday and here’s what I thought. Basically, it’s entertaining fare.

Arunoda Susiripala is a great geek. Here is on the MTV Sports morning show, which I happened to host. I am not great at TV but I think this is still an interesting interview. If you’re a developer or user or in the online scene, you must know Arunoda. He’s developed Yalu, which is the most popular (SMS) app on AppZone, and he’s made money doing it. Then, like any good entrepreneur, rather than leaving a ladder behind him he left an elevator. His online service kodeincloud lets anyone create similar apps through a drag-and-drop interface. It’s now responsible for around 60% of the new apps on AppZone.

Guy Gunaratne is a Sri Lankan Briton who I met while he was down here filming The Truth That Wasn’t There. I haven’t watched it cause it’s largely unavailable/expensive on the web, but I think I’m in it. I’ve had random drunken NGO types accost me but I don’t remember exactly what I said. Anyways. Him and Heidi are in the running for a meeting with Richard Branson to pitch their idea (and prototype) for layered web video, which looks cool. I recommend watching the video above and voting for them.

This ad was pulled for raising racist hackles, but I don’t get it. It’s not a great Indian imitation or anything, but I don’t see anything that offensive. I’m Sri Lankan, but still. The character is a Bollywood producer who likes Kim Kardashian and Snooki, which I wouldn’t call entirely rare. India is number two in Google searches for ‘sex’, btw. Pakistan is number one. It’s a caricature, but a human one and I think not especially racist.

Today is 4/20, or International Marijuana Day. Marijuana is great, one of the least toxic and most rewarding drugs. The fact that this plant, which you can pluck from the ground in Tanamalwila, is illegal is a misnomer at best and an ongoing tragedy in reality. Seriously, it’s a plant, it’s good for sick people, it’s an essential ingredient in traditional Ayurveda, and it supports great music and art. It also good economics and social policy, as the California video above shows. Today, on International Marijuana Day, everyone should just chill.

Star Wars is a deep part of modern culture, despite George Lucas repeatedly disinterring it an molesting the body in public. See (for an example of culture, not necrofilmia) this children’s book about Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. It’s a series of touching vignettes about how life coulda been, if Anakin Skywalker had stuck around to raise his kid. Here’s a money quote: “It is pointless to resist my son. It’s bedtime.”

Whitening creams are evil, but this is a new low. Whitening creams have rapidly gone from the face to body to armpits and now… to the vagina. As in, if your vagina isn’t white enough, your husband won’t love you. It’s horrifying. These whitening creams can be extremely damaging to skin and now they’re marketing them for use, like, directly on a rather sensitive orifice. Madness.

Artra is a new art magazine coming out soon. This is their promo video, which I thought was quite good. Well shot and interesting. It features a lot of people I know – Imaad and Kris at Poetry Pilau, Aamina Nizar taking photographs – and some people I don’t, ranging from dancers to painters to artists of every stripe. Looks like an interesting mag. I hope they keep it connected beyond the print, like this video.

Apparently Ashton Kutcher (of That 70s Show and marrying Demi Moore fame) is going to be playing Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic. While Kutcher generally portrays duncey characters, he is a king on Twitter and a savvy tech investor himself. I still find it a bit odd to see the airhead from That 70s Show portraying a genius.