At Riga airport, airBaltic proves us that language can still be a difficult thing to handle. Hope their pilots speak English in a slightly more comprehensible way than this poster.

Not to mention the inflation of scary angel-winged vehicles... and the humble attitude expressed by the "probably". Well, here's to "probably", airBaltic: Your super-special bus is crap. It costs 3 Lats, has a random schedule, is hard to use during the airport's rush hours, and it stops at all sorts of hotels on a round trip through the city centre, creating all sorts of confusion. I wonder why the usually well-visited airport express bus 22a ceased to exist per 1.1.2009... and hope this wasn't any of your making, airBaltic.

Poster of U-Cell at Tashkent airport.

My favourite airline that sometimes isn't my favourite anymore for very complicated reasons has enlightened my sense of logics again with this survey website:



So you tell me I should ignore the form fields below, only to tell me when I actually do click "continue" that I should fill them? Well.

Anyway I will get seriously angry if you create your own frequent flyer program now that you're not part of SAS Group anymore, and if this happens to have any effect on my EuroBonus membership. Promise.

So yeah, I might try that...:

Based on shared abbreviations, there are numerous countries whose Internet Top Level Domain is identical to a chemical element in the periodic table. How irrelevant, I hear you mumble. You're right, I answer.

But there are possible uses for this list.

An obvious use is a game: How many of these pairs can you name, either unaided (from your mind), or aided (someone says an abbreviation, the other players guess the country and element and whether there are both of them).
It's a little like the "Name all the states of the USA" game that Christian and me sometimes played when drunk (and we never made more than 45 or 46 of them).


But much more interestingly, maybe conclusions can be taken about common characteristics of these elements and the countries that share the same abbreviation:

Don't you find it at least interesting that Iridium, a very hard metal, represents Iran? It's the second densest element, and if "finely divided", it can be flammable.

Or that Francium, of which about 20 to 30 grams exist at any given time throughout the Earth's crust, stands for France? Colonialism, I sense you!

Or that Ruthenium is a transition element, which means it is "an element whose atom has an incomplete d sub-shell, or which can give rise to cations with an incomplete d sub-shell": Sounds like it might have something to do with Russia, doesn't it?

That Norway and Nobelium share an abbreviation is a tiny bit ironic. We guessed that Thulium (Turkmenistan's twin) "doesn't have many practical applications", as Wikipedia says. Beryllium (Belgium) "is found naturally only combined with other elements in minerals", Seaborgium (Singapore) has an unknown appearance, and Mendelevium (Moldova) "has a moderately stable dipositive"?

Seriously, people: There IS something about this theory.

But now here's the list, research yourselves:


Ac: Ascension Island & Actinium
Ag: Antigua and Barbuda & Silver
Al: Albania & Aluminium
Am: Armenia & Americium
Ar: Argentina & Argon
As: American Samoa & Arsenic
At: Austria & Astatine
Au: Australia & Gold
Ba: Bosnia and Herzegovina & Barium
Be: Belgium & Beryllium
Bh: Bahrain & Bohrium
Bi: Burundi & Bismuth
Br: Brazil & Bromine
Ca: Canada & Calcium
Cd: Democratic Republic of the Kongo & Cadmium
Cf: Central African Republic & Californium
Cl: Chile & Chlorine
Cm: Cameroon & Curium
Co: Colombia & Cobalt
Cr: Costa Rica & Chromium
Cu: Cuba & Copper
Er: Eritrea & Erbium
Es: Spain & Einsteinium
Eu: Europe & Europium
Fm: Federal State of Micronesia & Fermium
Fr: France & Francium
Ga: Gabon & Gallium
Gd: Grenada & Gadolinium
Ge: Georgia & Germanium
In: India & Indium
Ir: Islamic Republic of Iran & Iridium
Kr: Republic of Korea & Krypton
La: Lao People's Democratic Republic & Lanthanum
Li: Liechtenstein & Lithium
Lr: Liberia & Lawrencium
Lu: Luxembourg & Lutetium
Md: Moldova & Mendelevium
Mn: Mongolia & Manganese
Mo: Macao & Molybdenum
Mt: Malta & Meitnerium
Na: Namibia & Sodium
Ne: Niger & Neon
Ng: Nigeria & Magnesium
Ni: Nicaragua & Nickel
No: Norway & Nobelium
Np: Nepal & Neptunium
Pa: Panama & Protactinium
Pm: St. Pierre and Miquelon & Promethium
Pr: Puerto Rico & Praseodymium
Pt: Portugal & Platinum
Re: Reunion Island & Rhenium
Ru: Russian Federation & Ruthenium
Sb: Solomon Islands & Antimony
Sc: Seychelles & Scandium
Se: Sweden & Selenium
Sg: Singapore & Seaborgium
Si: Slovenia & Silicon
Sm: San Marino & Samarium
Sn: Senegal & Tin
Sr: Suriname & Strontium
Tc: Turks and Caicos Islands & Technetium
Th: Thailand & Thorium
Tm: Turkmenistan & Thulium

The Swiss newspaper Blick (that's the one of which everybody reads just the sports section - see screenshot) is notorious for its poor grammar and orthography.

But even for them it's quite rare that they manage to place two different spellings of the same word next to each other (thanks to the content management system)



(it's of course "patzen" that's correct)

The supermarket chain "Eroski" just kind of rings a bell.

And that the mineral water is "debil" is in any case amusing for my German-speaking eye (where "debil" means something like "moronic").

Now that's mostly fun for German speakers; it's at Munich airport.




Alright, I'll translate as good as it gets:

Comfortable and secure parking.
XXL-parking "extra wide and extra close"

The joke being that "breit" (wide) in German also stands for being very drunk; and yeah, it does sort of make sense to give drunk people the widest parking spaces, and the ones closest to the entrance, don't you think?

How can my spam-filter identify a message as spam that I myself wrote to a company-internal distribution list...

You can have English or English. And if you don't understand this text, you can also see it in English.