Campaign agitation for the 2020 elections is already in full swing (:

A map of tourists at the helicopter office (showing where visitors came from for the tour). Europe is completely covered. In the US, only the coasts are densely packed. Africa is completely empty (except for the northern part).

You never know what you'll find on coffee tables in New York :)

Once it gets dark, you can take a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and catch an amazing view. That's exactly what I did.

Sounds fun, but honestly, the only interesting part is walking down the middle of the bridge where it's over the river. Before and after that, there's this incredibly long, boring interchange that you just want to escape from as quickly as possible. You can actually get to that same spot by subway. Not that the view changes any :)

This guy clearly knows how to wash windows without a ladder (:‌

New York is replacing phone booths with LinkNYC stations. These things provide free Wi-Fi, you can make calls to any state from them (plus a special SOS button for quick 911 calls), and even charge your gadgets. All completely free for users.

And free for the city too. They don't spend a dime from the budget on implementation or maintenance. The system is run by a private company and supported by advertising revenue. Over 12 years they planned to make $1 billion (!) and give half (!!!) to the city's budget. But after the first 4 years of operation, it became clear that those projections were way too optimistic. Not least because they didn't charge for advertising from local small businesses and nonprofits.

Everyone says it's a small world. So there I was, halfway through my second week on a business trip, when I suddenly found out I've been staying in the same hotel as two colleagues for the past week and a half. On adjacent floors, no less. And we never ran into each other once the whole time, even though we go to the same office every day.

They told me there's this little balcony on the 17th floor with a free view of the city. It's really nice in the evening.

So today I'm walking around the city, minding my own business. Then I notice this light drizzle suddenly appearing, like someone just sprayed water from a spray bottle. There are no clouds, no rain was forecasted, nothing like that should be happening.

I walk a bit further and it all stops. Then I realized what was going on: there's construction work happening up above. They're washing something down with water up there, it gets sprayed around, and from below it looks like it's drizzling. So not everything that falls is rain, you know?

Sometimes late at night the city falls asleep, and horses wake up. They stand at red lights and don't gallop (:

In New Jersey, you can't pump your own gas. It's the law from 1949! Only a gas station attendant can do it.

Violating this gets you a fine between $50 to $250 on your first offense. Repeat violations can result in fines up to $500.

Local commuter train. When checking tickets, conductors take your ticket and instead pin a slip of paper with your exit station marked on it.

One or two stops before your exit, they'll take that slip back. Which means they won't come back before your stop.

If you didn't manage to buy a ticket at the station, you can pay the conductor. +5$ for the conductor's service. You only don't need to pay this extra fee if it was impossible to buy a ticket at the boarding station.

You can buy a bag of ice at the store (!)

It's turning out pretty well, don't you think? A bit unrealistic (I figured it's because the work is still in progress), but it looks great.

At busy intersections in the city center (typically where traffic flows both ways on both roads), traffic lights can't handle the flow during rush hour. That's why we absolutely need to station a live traffic controller. They'll sort everything out. All they do is stop the traffic flow a bit before the traffic light.

In my opinion, drivers could probably handle it just fine on their own (:

AMC series ad looks funny. City of angry buses :)

Last night there was a light drizzle. As soon as it started raining, umbrella sellers instantly appeared out of nowhere. There was no sign of rain at all. But then boom, and suddenly you could buy a brand new umbrella on every corner.

These guys were actively promoting them. But the rain was pretty weak and nobody wanted to part with their money.

Fun fact: the capital of New York State has never actually been New York, but rather... the glorious city of Albany :)

Along the same lines, I think of my colleagues' nicknames (I changed the names a bit, but you get the idea): everyone calls Muhammad Ahsan by the name Samir (don't ask why), and Ken Li is actually named Li Xu (at least there's some overlap there).

About 20 years ago, practically every hotel in the USA had a Bible in the room. Somewhere in the nightstand next to the bed. The Gideons Christian association has been distributing books since 1899. For free. But lately, hotels have been starting to refuse this practice. Already more than 20% of US hotels check guests into rooms without Bibles.

This time I was especially lucky though: as a bonus to the Bible, they put the Book of Mormon (:‌

The metro trains are playing text announcements saying that begging is illegal (!) and if you really want to donate money, it's better to give it to a charity fund—that way you won't break the law and the money will be spent more wisely.

Plus, it's absolutely freezing in the metro cars. The air conditioning is working overtime. Except they only have it on the trains. At the stations, it's the opposite: unbearably hot and stuffy. You'd think you need fans just to survive. Even at night. And there are always plenty of homeless people around.

New York is behind us in time, sure, but only by like 7 hours (8 in winter). But this ad went stale like 3 weeks ago. Or maybe I'm missing something (: