The Germans are closing Tempelhof Airport, home of the Berlin Airlift. Sad.

Why are photos of politicians often so good? Is it just that they’re photographed so often? For whatever reason, I really like this picture:

Blog hijacker Lorelei here (by invitation). Through my work, I have recently learned that Tokyo residents have a rivalry with residents of Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city, that seems not totally unlike New York’s rivalry with Boston. (Or maybe LA or Chicago, but the sports rivalry makes Boston a better choice IMO.) Osakans also have an accent, only it’s considered a sign of wit and cleverness, whereas most of our accents have a stigma.

In reading up on this, I ran across a blog post running down some of the differences between Osakans and Tokyo-ites. (RD said he thought it read like a Yakov Smirnoff routine.) It included this description of some TV commercials made as public service announcements by Osaka’s government:

Their tightness [with money] can even be proved by data. The number of parking spaces in Osaka is the highest in Japan, but Osaka is usually in the top 3 for the number of illegal parking violations. Actually the deviousness of their illegal parking is famous. The Osaka Prefectural Government has made funny TV ads to try to get people to stop illegally parking. These TV ads show the self-deprecating humor of Osaka people.

#One Obachan (middle aged woman) got an illegal parking ticket from a policeman but she starts screaming instead of apologizing, “Everybody do this! Why are you accusing only me!, You are so nasty!” Actually Osaka Obachan are known to be scary and have a lot of nerve.

#One Ojichan (middle aged man) is getting a parking ticket from a policeman. But he eats the ticket quickly in order to get out of paying it. As in this TV commercial, Osaka Ojichan are famous for being tight.

I would really like to dig these clips up, but I doubt they are searchable in English. Instead, here’s a video clip in which a Tokyo girl and an Osaka girl have a sumo-like butt-bumping competition. No, really.

The drainage system in Siem Reap, Cambodia doesn’t seem to be up to traditional international standards:

There was one channel on TV in Japan that showed complicated math (and physics?) problems for at least two hours one morning. I request that someone who knows math kindly solve all of the equations:

A list of songs about school shootings, though it’s missing Strength Through Music by Amanda Palmer.

Shibuya Crossing is one of the busiest intersections in Japan. Traffic is stopped in all four directions and pedestrians are allowed to cross the intersection in any direction they so please (this is apparently called a pedestrian scramble). Here’s a video of the intersection at a not particularly busy time, with a really irritating background song that I now regret using:

This intersection was used in Lost in Translation:

Sadly we didn’t get to see the big dinosaur.

I attended a baseball game in Japan between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers. When you buy tickets in Japan for a baseball game, they ask you which team you’re rooting for and seat you within the stadium based on that question. For my game, all the Tigers fans were on the third base side of the stadium, and all the Giants fans were on the first base side. This was done to facilitate the organized chanting that goes on throughout the entire game without stop. They sing, they chant, they wave flags, they bang sticks together… the whole time.

It was hard to watch the game what with all the fun of well organized and stadium-wide chanting.

Maureen Dowd, in an Op-Ed piece, mentions a person who just HAS to have a fake name:

Republicans once more charged the media with sexism for reporting on Palin’s Imelda Marcos closet. “No one would blink if this was a male candidate buying Brooks Brothers suits,” said William F. B. O’Reilly, a G.O.P. consultant.

William F. B. O’Reilly, Republican consultant? That “B” stands for Buckley, doesn’t it? William F. B[uckley] O’Reilly?!? Someone made that name up! It’s got to be a placeholder, right? The guy’s name has both Bill (William) O’Reilly and William F. Buckley in it?!? Jeez, throw in a Limbaugh, Goldwater or a Reagan and you’ve got an unstoppable Republican superman!

And look, he’s a real guy with his own “strategic communications” company!

O’REILLY STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
William F. B. O’Reilly
The Chanin Building
380 Lexington Ave., Suite 2111
New York, NY 10168
212-681-0055

Weird.

Slate has a very aggressive attack on libertarianism in light of the financial crisis. So angry.

I have a few video clips from my travels which I haven’t done anything with yet. I’m going to start putting them online in the next few days. Here’s the first, the tuna auction in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market:

It was surprisingly sing-songy.

One of McCain’s strongest blocks of supporters is in the Vietnamese community (at least compared to other Asian immigrant communities) — do we have a Manchurian Candidate on our hands?

AP: “‘I don’t find anything funny about Adolf Hitler,’ said Jonathan Swain, Indiana campaign spokesman for Obama.”

It’s been widely reported that Sarah Palin spent over $150,000 of campaign money on clothes, but my question is, what did she buy for $133 at the Gap? Do you think she has the same socks that I do?

Dear everyone,

Can we non-law enforcement types please be less concerned about voter fraud? I don’t care much about out-of-town kids registering to vote, and I don’t care much about a few people who don’t know how to use touchscreen voting machines. If there’s any actual, significant voting fraud going on, it can be dealt with outside of the electoral process. We have the police, we have the FBI, I’m content to let them handle it rather than griping about it endlessly in a ploy to influence the election or explain potential defeat.

Thank you.

Forget about the Bradley effect, I’m now concerned about the Brady effect.

The Georgetown Law Library Blog links to a collection of national and international government provided statistics sites. Thanks to this, I’m now perusing the Tuvalu Central Statistics Division’s June 2008 biannual report.

At the same time, Kottke links to to a site that has graphed Japanese minute-by-minute census data to let us know what the Japanese are doing right now.

Bradley didn’t lose because of the Bradley effect. Does anybody?

GreatBigStuff.com, your home on the Internet for buying great big stuff. Want big scissors for a ribbon cutting ceremony? Done. How about a giant pencil, a giant wristwatch, giant computer keys and a giant toothbrush? No problem.

I really enjoyed this song/video by Tim Minchin about a certain six letter taboo word containing “a couple of Gs, an R and an E, an I and an N.” The sync is off, but the song is still enjoyable:

Via YesButNoButYes.

The New York Times has always had a terrible, irritating “feature” which would open a dictionary definition in a new window if you double clicked on any word in a story. It bothered everybody, everybody. It meant that if you were trying to select a piece of text, or just aimlessly clicking while you read, the story would often vanish behind an unwanted dictionary definition, usually of a word you were pretty certain to already know.

Well, the tyranny of the dictionary is over! Behold:

See that little question mark? Now, in order to access the useless dictionary, you have to intentionally click on that question mark. This means I can once again highlight text on the NYTimes without fear. My life has been returned to me!

Thank you New York Times web editors, you must have gotten my letter!

NYTimes: “As the show concluded, Obama made an appearance onstage. He called the event ”a magical evening” and said he wouldn’t ruin it with a long speech. Then he delivered a speech…”

Oil prices have dropped by more than 50% since July. I’m buying a Hummer.