John Safran vs. The Mormons

video: windows media or quicktime

Like many people, John Safran likes to enjoy his Saturday mornings peacefully at home. Unfortunately, his Saturday mornings were often disrupted by religious door-knockers, especially the Mormons or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). Thus, John decided to turn the table around by knocking on the Mormons’ doors and see how they would react when he preaches to them about the book of Origin of Species and Atheism.

Urban Sprinting

video: windows media

In this undated episode of Balls of Steel, Neg has created a new form of sport called "Urban Sprinting".

The rules are simple:

1. Find a shop with a security guard (or rent-a-cop)
2. Set off the shop's alarm with only with the anti-theft tag, not the actual merchandise (that would be shoplifting)
3. Run towards the nearest burger bar and see how long the security guard will chase you
4. Celebrate the victory with some "...fucking chicken nuggets"

In 2005, Tom Cruise was promoting his film War of Worlds in London, Balls of Steel's lead man squirted him with a water pistol, which Cruise was not happy about. The incident gave the show an enormous publicity boost.

No More Dummy Rummy

Donald Rumsfeld, aka. Dummy Rummy, has resigned as of Nov. 8, 2006.

Here is a collection of memorable moments of him as the Defense Secretary of United States. (video: windows media)

Kazakhstan Greatest Country in The World

(Click here to sing along with Kazakhstan's National Anthem)

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world
all other countries are run by little girls
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium
other countries have inferior potassium

Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool
it's length thirty meter and with six meter
filteration system a marvel to behold
it remove 80 percent of human solid waste

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
from plains of Tarashek to northern fence of Jewtown
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan
they very nosey people with bone in their brain

Kazakhstan industry best in the world
we incented toffee and trouse belt
Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region
except of course Turkmenistan's

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
from plains of Tarashek to norther fence of Jewtown
come grasp the might phenis of our leader
from junction with the testes to tip of its face!

After watching the film - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which obviously was meant to be a mock-cumentry, I was surprised by how much of what Borat (aka. Sacha Baron Cohen) said and represented about Kazakhstan were true.

According to Eric Weiner's article in Slate.com, Kazakhstan does have a problem with prostitution.

In the 1990s, Kazakhstan was a big exporter of prostitutes, and human trafficking was a problem. Now, given wealth amassed from the oil boom, prostitutes are even more popular, and the country is importing them, as well. Every evening, one street in Almaty is packed with prostitutes looking for customers, and newspapers devote pages of classified ads to "massage girls."

Although Kazakhstan does not have "Shurik" (Borat described it as "shoot dogs in a field and have a party"), but Buzkashi is a legitimate sport.

Buzkashi (literally "grabbing the dead goat"). In this popular game (a precursor to polo), players on horseback try to control the "ball"—the headless carcass of a goat or sheep. Then they have a party.

In the film, Borat called the nation of Uzbekistan as "assholes", that is true. Many Kazakhs dislike the Uzbeks, and the two nations have squabbled over territory in the past.

Tip Jar - The Book

I was delighted to receive an email yesterday from Dr. David Sutton of Southern Illinois University.

Dr. Sutton is an anthropology professor and currently working on a book being published by Berg Publishers about the anthropology of tipping. He asked me if he could use one of my photos in his book, with proper acknowledgment of course.



I have been taking photos of tip jar signs for over a year now. There are many people post photos of tip jars in Flickr, I have started my own little group of tip jar signs, cleverly named “tip jar sign”. So far there are 13 members, including myself. I don’t particularly care about the tip jars themselves, but only the notes attached to them to draw customers’ attention.

Besides the one that will be used in Dr. Sutton’s book, two of my other favorites are

“Tip Me, I’m A Pirate” which I took on Sept. 19, 2005 – Talk Like a Pirate Day



And “God Saves a Kitten” which is a parody of the parody of “Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten”.