Great Britain and the United Kingdom
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Breathe. Well, just as the U.S. isn't America. America is two continents and several associated islands, comprising a great many countries. The U.S. is a sizable chunk -- make that two sizable chunks -- of North America, but also includes some islands that are nowhere near America. The United States of North America, Western Canada, and Hawaii :jig: (Plus Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands... ) But, yeah, at least the code isn't NA.
Some years ago I worked (in England) for a US company. We were setting up a new issue reporting system, and the US team were doing most of the design. One of their ideas was to use three letter country codes rather than the internationally agreed two letter ones. Guess what they chose for US based addresses? NOR! Round about that time I really lost interest.
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Chris Maunder wrote:
Great Britain and the United Kingdom
Oh dear, those are two different things?! Who knew? :rolleyes:
You have just been Sharapova'd.
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I'm trying to fix an issue with conflicting country designations. Specifically, country codes. We use the country code "UK" internally to mean "United Kingdom". However, ISO 3166 uses the country code "GB", short for "Great Britain". Sort of. Great Britain is an island comprising England, Scotland and Wales, plus some other bits. The United Kingdom, more correctly called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, contains the Island of Great Britain plus Northern Island, plus some other bits. i.e. it's bigger than Great Britain. The country code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, aka United Kingdom, is GB. GB is short for Great Britain. Except Great Britain doesn't mean the United Kingdom. Britain was used interchangeably with "United Kingdom", but not so much anymore. Following so far? To recap: Great Britain is an island, not a country. Except that it's made up of 4 3 other countries (except they are independent nations, not actual countries) and some other bits. It doesn't have a country code. The United Kingdom is a Sovereign State and has a country code "GB". My head hurts just thinking that through. You guys are complicated. [Edit: Updated to correct the bits I got wrong. Other bits I've got wrong have not yet been updated]
cheers Chris Maunder
The Channel islands are even more bizarre. Part of the British isles, not part of Great Britain, not part of the UK, but has the Queen as their head, and yet Jersey and Guernsey have different statuses and different currency. We like quaint stuff in Britain, it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, the more the better in fact, provided it is rooted in ancient history (and confusing to foreigners). :) The term Britain stems from the Brythonic tribe of Celts, who inhabited what is today England and Wales. When the Saxons invaded, creating eventually England, many of these Celts went to France, and set up a new country call little Britain, Brittany, and speak Breton. However Big Britain went on to speak English, and then called, as an ultimate insult, the original Britons, 'foreigners', or 'wealah' in Saxon, the 'welsh' today. :) Of course whether or not the Goedelic celts in Scotland should be part of Britain or not is questionable, but they ended up being included anyway. And the other Goedelic Celtic land, Ireland, is also called part of the British Isles, which the southern Irish hate, since they hate the English. England takes its name from Angeln, in Denmark by the way. East Anglia in the eats of England shows the link more obviously. Anyway, so that's why the Bretons and Welsh speak the same language, and we have the geographical/political mess we have today! :)
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The Channel islands are even more bizarre. Part of the British isles, not part of Great Britain, not part of the UK, but has the Queen as their head, and yet Jersey and Guernsey have different statuses and different currency. We like quaint stuff in Britain, it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, the more the better in fact, provided it is rooted in ancient history (and confusing to foreigners). :) The term Britain stems from the Brythonic tribe of Celts, who inhabited what is today England and Wales. When the Saxons invaded, creating eventually England, many of these Celts went to France, and set up a new country call little Britain, Brittany, and speak Breton. However Big Britain went on to speak English, and then called, as an ultimate insult, the original Britons, 'foreigners', or 'wealah' in Saxon, the 'welsh' today. :) Of course whether or not the Goedelic celts in Scotland should be part of Britain or not is questionable, but they ended up being included anyway. And the other Goedelic Celtic land, Ireland, is also called part of the British Isles, which the southern Irish hate, since they hate the English. England takes its name from Angeln, in Denmark by the way. East Anglia in the eats of England shows the link more obviously. Anyway, so that's why the Bretons and Welsh speak the same language, and we have the geographical/political mess we have today! :)
Of course many places have the queen as the head of state. And why does Hawaii have the Union Flag [don't forget the same flag has 2 different names depending on where it is flown] on it's own flag. Last time I was in the USA I was asked about a city in England called Glasgow. Oh well.
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I think no one ever really thinks about it. Other than when the English refer to themselves as British and everyone else as English but everyone else refers to themselves as Scottish, Welsh, etc Except for the address when sent from overseas: then mostly always use UK. Other than if you live in the Channel Islands; then you need to use Jersey, Guernsey, etc. Or Isle of Man. Or the Shetland Islands. Or London which is really its own country these days and is everything inside the M25. :-)
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Of course many places have the queen as the head of state. And why does Hawaii have the Union Flag [don't forget the same flag has 2 different names depending on where it is flown] on it's own flag. Last time I was in the USA I was asked about a city in England called Glasgow. Oh well.
Wastedtalent wrote:
Of course many places have the queen as the head of state.
But not because they are the territory of the Duke of Normandy. :)
Wastedtalent wrote:
don't forget the same flag has 2 different names depending on where it is flown
Does it? Union Flag is its only name as far as I know.
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Wastedtalent wrote:
Of course many places have the queen as the head of state.
But not because they are the territory of the Duke of Normandy. :)
Wastedtalent wrote:
don't forget the same flag has 2 different names depending on where it is flown
Does it? Union Flag is its only name as far as I know.
Munchies_Matt wrote:
Does it? Union Flag is its only name as far as I know.
AKA the Union Jack, maybe they can be used interchangeably, maybe only the Union Jack when flown at sea, who knows, there's many conflicting reports on this so depends who you believe.
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
Does it? Union Flag is its only name as far as I know.
AKA the Union Jack, maybe they can be used interchangeably, maybe only the Union Jack when flown at sea, who knows, there's many conflicting reports on this so depends who you believe.
Union Flag is a slang name, the official one is Union Flag.
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I'm trying to fix an issue with conflicting country designations. Specifically, country codes. We use the country code "UK" internally to mean "United Kingdom". However, ISO 3166 uses the country code "GB", short for "Great Britain". Sort of. Great Britain is an island comprising England, Scotland and Wales, plus some other bits. The United Kingdom, more correctly called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, contains the Island of Great Britain plus Northern Island, plus some other bits. i.e. it's bigger than Great Britain. The country code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, aka United Kingdom, is GB. GB is short for Great Britain. Except Great Britain doesn't mean the United Kingdom. Britain was used interchangeably with "United Kingdom", but not so much anymore. Following so far? To recap: Great Britain is an island, not a country. Except that it's made up of 4 3 other countries (except they are independent nations, not actual countries) and some other bits. It doesn't have a country code. The United Kingdom is a Sovereign State and has a country code "GB". My head hurts just thinking that through. You guys are complicated. [Edit: Updated to correct the bits I got wrong. Other bits I've got wrong have not yet been updated]
cheers Chris Maunder
What does the postal service use? I would go with that.
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It's Northern Ireland NOT Island! You will certainly attract some Irish ire with that mistake!
:doh: and :-O I can't believe I wrote that. Bad typo of the year.
cheers Chris Maunder
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Union Flag is a slang name, the official one is Union Flag.
Munchies_Matt wrote:
Union Flag is a slang name, the official one is Union Flag.
:doh:
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Not since I played Pirates. First I looted that place and then I chased the governor away and got a fat reward for getting a new one from Spain. Arrrr!
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I'm trying to fix an issue with conflicting country designations. Specifically, country codes. We use the country code "UK" internally to mean "United Kingdom". However, ISO 3166 uses the country code "GB", short for "Great Britain". Sort of. Great Britain is an island comprising England, Scotland and Wales, plus some other bits. The United Kingdom, more correctly called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, contains the Island of Great Britain plus Northern Island, plus some other bits. i.e. it's bigger than Great Britain. The country code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, aka United Kingdom, is GB. GB is short for Great Britain. Except Great Britain doesn't mean the United Kingdom. Britain was used interchangeably with "United Kingdom", but not so much anymore. Following so far? To recap: Great Britain is an island, not a country. Except that it's made up of 4 3 other countries (except they are independent nations, not actual countries) and some other bits. It doesn't have a country code. The United Kingdom is a Sovereign State and has a country code "GB". My head hurts just thinking that through. You guys are complicated. [Edit: Updated to correct the bits I got wrong. Other bits I've got wrong have not yet been updated]
cheers Chris Maunder
I watched so much the braveheart movie that I memorized all the dialogs and that made me interested on the history of the united kingdom. So I thought: "Well, Scotland is a country. But the united kingdom is something that Scotland is part of, it has its prime minister." Then I thought: "Well, what the hell is Great Britain in all of this mess? Oh, ok Great Britain is geography, nevermind" Then I thought back: "Ok, so did Robert DeBruce actually earn the Scots' freedom? Of course, a movie is a movie, but is Scotland truly independent? I know in the world cup they have their own footbal team, but in the summer Olympics they don't. It's kind of unfair, I guess.". So, in the end of the day I have no idea what the united kingdom is, if it's a super country, or if it is a kingdom, or if scotland and wales are wannabe countries or if it's nothing like that. It seems that England still rules the island and that primae noctis[^] finally paid off and all Scots are actually Englishmen. If I were to create a more fine grained verison of the RISK[^] board game. Could I make Scotland separate from England? So I could pick Scotland and kick British arse? It's all too confusing to me. And now you confuse me more with country codes... PS: I love Scotish accent and I wish I could be with William Wallace's army and kick british in the balls :laugh: . Just a joke, I'm just aggravated by medieval England. I either play as France or Scotland in Medieval Total War II[^]
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
Union Flag is a slang name, the official one is Union Flag.
:doh:
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
It was a slow morning..... :)
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The Channel islands are even more bizarre. Part of the British isles, not part of Great Britain, not part of the UK, but has the Queen as their head, and yet Jersey and Guernsey have different statuses and different currency. We like quaint stuff in Britain, it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, the more the better in fact, provided it is rooted in ancient history (and confusing to foreigners). :) The term Britain stems from the Brythonic tribe of Celts, who inhabited what is today England and Wales. When the Saxons invaded, creating eventually England, many of these Celts went to France, and set up a new country call little Britain, Brittany, and speak Breton. However Big Britain went on to speak English, and then called, as an ultimate insult, the original Britons, 'foreigners', or 'wealah' in Saxon, the 'welsh' today. :) Of course whether or not the Goedelic celts in Scotland should be part of Britain or not is questionable, but they ended up being included anyway. And the other Goedelic Celtic land, Ireland, is also called part of the British Isles, which the southern Irish hate, since they hate the English. England takes its name from Angeln, in Denmark by the way. East Anglia in the eats of England shows the link more obviously. Anyway, so that's why the Bretons and Welsh speak the same language, and we have the geographical/political mess we have today! :)
Munchies_Matt wrote:
(and confusing to foreigners). :)
Tell me about it :doh: See my reply to Chris, just after yours.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I watched so much the braveheart movie that I memorized all the dialogs and that made me interested on the history of the united kingdom. So I thought: "Well, Scotland is a country. But the united kingdom is something that Scotland is part of, it has its prime minister." Then I thought: "Well, what the hell is Great Britain in all of this mess? Oh, ok Great Britain is geography, nevermind" Then I thought back: "Ok, so did Robert DeBruce actually earn the Scots' freedom? Of course, a movie is a movie, but is Scotland truly independent? I know in the world cup they have their own footbal team, but in the summer Olympics they don't. It's kind of unfair, I guess.". So, in the end of the day I have no idea what the united kingdom is, if it's a super country, or if it is a kingdom, or if scotland and wales are wannabe countries or if it's nothing like that. It seems that England still rules the island and that primae noctis[^] finally paid off and all Scots are actually Englishmen. If I were to create a more fine grained verison of the RISK[^] board game. Could I make Scotland separate from England? So I could pick Scotland and kick British arse? It's all too confusing to me. And now you confuse me more with country codes... PS: I love Scotish accent and I wish I could be with William Wallace's army and kick british in the balls :laugh: . Just a joke, I'm just aggravated by medieval England. I either play as France or Scotland in Medieval Total War II[^]
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
Fabio Franco wrote:
It seems that England still rules the island
Yet our current PM, and the last, are Scots. :) In fact Scotland has had a large impact on the UK, contributed a lot, its a fair deal for both side in reality.
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Fabio Franco wrote:
It seems that England still rules the island
Yet our current PM, and the last, are Scots. :) In fact Scotland has had a large impact on the UK, contributed a lot, its a fair deal for both side in reality.
Munchies_Matt wrote:
Yet our current PM, and the last, are Scots. :)
Cool :)
Munchies_Matt wrote:
In fact Scotland has had a large impact on the UK, contributed a lot, its a fair deal for both side in reality.
I imagine so, the recent plebiscite proves that, still. There must be a cultural feeling that Scotland should be on its own (also proven by the close advantage of the no in the plebiscite)
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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Hang on to this picture, Chris. It will save you and the rest of us a lot of grief in the future.
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OriginalGriff wrote:
And isn't the Netherlands part of Spain?
How old were you again? We ditched Spain over 300 years ago ;) Our National Anthem goes a little like... "Wilhemus van Naussau am I of German blood, something something, I have always honored the king of Spain." And then a whole lot more verses that most people don't know. For some reason we usually sing the first and sixth verses from a total of fifteen. I'm not all that chauvinistic though. Last time I sang that anthem was on Queensday back in elementary school.
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
That was so funny, I actually spat up my coffee. I feel the same way about the US national anthem (Star Spangled Banner). I do remember "O say can you see.." and "land of the free". What's in between I'll fake as best as possible. Considering that it was actually sang as a tavern song with different words long before the US adopted it and its new words, I ain't doing so bad.
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Yeah - but...which bit?
cheers Chris Maunder
The bit that strikes back! (Star wars)
