Narrativium makes the world go round...

...and brings ruins to life.

With the right sort of story to go with it, even a derelict old building is newsworthy:
http://www.dotcomtod.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11730&mode=flat&order=0&thold=0

(Sorry, link is in German; only wiebke, floppy_hat and japanologist can understand this properly from among you. Still, I'm proud of the accomplishment.)

Every nation is so very odd...

... and in this charming minimalist cartoon an Italian cartoonist shows why the Italians are very odd.

http://europa.tiscali.it/futuro/speciali/cartoon.html

(Thanks to my friend Stephan the japanologist, who posted this on his LJ.)