Zip code, try time zone at NRT. Landed there once and the "Altitude-Airspeed-Temperture" info screen was still on the displays. Turning off the runway at the farrr end out in the farmland, and the display is reading "Miles to Destination: 5". It's a loooong taxi. And stay off the new south 5th runway at ATL, it's down near Macon.

Actually, one real reason is if parallel runways are not far enough apart, then both cannot be used for landings in real instrument weather, which really slows traffic down during snow and thunderstorms, thus there is not one convienient close runway on each side of the terminal.

As for "I also have never understood why a boarding pass has to be so big." Either you are showing your age or I will show mine if I know the answer. You mean a card 3.25 inches wide by 7.375 inches long by 0.007 inches thick? Well back in the day when pistons still moved planes, the airlines and the ticket agents first computerized and due to a monopoly by a certain computer company, that computer company made printers that only printed on one size card which they were the sole supplier of. $$$$ All these years later, it would be unbelieveably expensive to scrap every ticket printer and reader in the world and replace them using something other than an IBM punch card. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card if you are under 40.