MetaFilter posts tagged with GreatBritain

Mostly Smith and Jones with the occasional Patel

MartinWisse — Sun, 05 May 2013 06:54:52 -0800

A zoomable map of the most common surnames in Great Britain, based on the electoral rolls.

You bring me ukeleles

cthuljew — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 04:05:31 -0800

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - Anarchy In The Ukulele [1:07:05 slyt] [many previouslies]

Not that many Dutch people care what you call the country

MartinWisse — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:58:55 -0800

Thinking of Holland you think of windmills and tulips, but the former is originally a Persian invention (as far as we know) while the latter came from Turkey. Worse, Holland is not even the name of the country you're thinking of. Luckily, there's a handy youtube video to explain the difference between Holland and the Netherlands. Bonus: while the Netherlands is complicated enough already, the author (C.G.P. Grey) of this youtube video is confident enough to take on the differences between England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and more(previously) as well.

Land of crumble and lemon curd and opportunity

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 07:08:18 -0800

I'm British (SLYT)

If only he would listen to their advice on how things should be run! It was such good advice.

Cash4Lead — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:46:30 -0800

A history of the English monarchy and how listening to "bad" advisors has gotten it in trouble.

Every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010

Dim Siawns — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:47:06 -0800

The BBC has put up a page presenting statistics dealing with deaths on British roads between 1999 and 2010. A slightly older page presenting mostly the same statistics (up to 2008) can be visited here; this earlier version was published in conjunction with several other articles, including one looking in-depth at a single crash and its aftermath in Stevenage in 2007.

C.G.P. Grey

Blasdelb — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:00:24 -0800

Here is Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever and other neat videos by C.G.P. Grey who explains non-obvious aspects of science, history, geography, elections, and economics in entertaining and clear ways. The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained, starting with what should be obvious and quickly moving to expand an ever increasingly large venn diagram of political and geographical relationships that somehow manages to keep from getting confusing. Also wonderful, How Scotland Joined Great Britain, The True Cost of the Royal Family Explained - (Rebuttal), and the History of the Union Jack Copyright: Forever Less One Day How the Electoral College Works and The Trouble with the Electoral College or how to win the Presidency with only 21.9% of the popular vote. Also, The Alternative Vote Explained, Gerrymandering Explained, and Mixed-Member Proportional Representation Explained Death to Pennies What are Continents? Daylight Saving Time Explained More neat things: Ayn Rand loves torture (Tag cloud of Atlas Shrugged made with wordle. Word size is proportional to frequency.) Where Should State Capitals Be? Googlemaps awesomeness United States Median Household Income by State United States Population Growth Passport Ownership by State

UK London Met police proposed undemocratic refusal of bail to all arrested in London riots.

maiamaia — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:05:45 -0800

London Metropolitan Police formulated policy of refusing bail to all arrested in London riots which might have influenced high remand in custody rate.

The Great North Road

maxwelton — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:49:57 -0800

"A superb amateur home movie in colour from August 1939, recording a trip north from London along the A1."

Ancient people on the move in the news

stbalbach — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:56:45 -0800

Britain Is More Germanic than It Thinks, and Kon-Tiki explorer was partly right – Polynesians had South American roots. England Between about 402 AD and 550 AD, after the fall of the Roman Empire, about 200,000 Angles, Saxons and Jutes (don't forgot the Jutes!) sailed from Germanic areas to England, a massive influx of people, but they faced about a million native Britons (Celts):

The Celts were no match for these roughnecks. The Romans had taught [Celts] how to play the lyre and drink copious amounts of wine, but the populace in the regions controlled by the Pax Romana was barred from carrying weapons. As a result, the local peoples, no longer accustomed to the sword, lost one battle after the next and were forced to the edges of the island. The army of the Britons was usually in retreat. Many fell into captivity. According to Härke, the captured Britons lived a miserable existence as "servants and maids" in the villages of the Anglo-Saxons. London geneticist Mark Thomas is convinced that the conquerors from the continent maintained "social structures similar to apartheid," a view supported by the laws of King Ine of Wessex (around 695). They specify six social levels for the Britons, five of which refer to slaves. As a result of the brutal subjugation, the reproduction rate of the losing Britons was apparently curbed, while the winners had many children. The consequences are still evident today in the British gene pool. "People from rural England are more closely related to the northern Germans than to their countrymen from Wales or Scotland," Härke explains.

Polynesia In 1947, Heyerdahl controversially claimed that Easter Island's famous statues were similar to those at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, and sailed a raft from Peru to French Polynesia to prove it could have been colonised from America. Popycock said detractors. Recent DNA evidence appears to show he might have been partly right after all.

The U.K. Explained for non-residents

marienbad — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:31:10 -0800

[SLYT] A brief video explaining the parts of the UK. This video explains the difference between Great Britain and The United Kingdom, and its various territories, and which countries form which political and/or geographical groups.

Daily progress of the disease or hurt

catlet — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 07:38:29 -0800

More than 1000 diaries kept by surgeons of Britain's Royal Navy between 1793 and 1800 have been cataloged by the National Archives, and are now available for public study. Some images from the collection have been posted to Flickr: an illustration of yaws, a device to stabilize a broken patella, a sketch of a gunboat from the Waikato Invasion, a long-nosed monkey. Some material is available in PDF, including several journals from convict ships headed to New South Wales, an eyewitness account of a measles epidemic which killed nearly a third of the population of the Fiji Islands (coinciding with the Fiji Islands becoming part of the Empire), and a journal that describes a young intersex shipmate. In an echo of Tuskegee, Guatemala, and other syphilis studies [previously] journal ADM101/103/2, not available online, describes a female passenger with syphilis and gonorrhea with whom both her "keeper" and a ship's officer had intercourse so that the ship's surgeon could study how venereal disease was spread.

This is a three-er

tellurian — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:17:51 -0800

Conquerors 2009 “There are many underhanded ways of making your conker harder. The best is to pass it through a pig." World Conker Champion – Charlie Bray. The World Conker Championships are on this weekend. All the action from last year. previously [1] [2] In other news, a cure for bleeding canker has been found, with a welcome side effect, leaf miners don't like having garlic breath.

I have nothing to declare except my prejudice.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:22:08 -0800

"Let them arrest me". Vehemently anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders was scheduled to travel to London tomorrow to attend a screening of his controversial short film Fitna (wiki, mefi). Yesterday however, the UK's Home Secretary notified Wilders that his presence in the UK would pose a "serious threat to [...] public security" (PDF), presumably intending to refuse his entry into UK. Wilders plans to board the flight anyway, daring British authorities to arrest him. Not that he's sitting so comfy at home either, however: Wilders faces prosecution in the Netherlands for hate speech and inciting discrimination. The decision to bar the self-styled "freedom fighter" from entering Britain has met with widespread criticism from the Dutch cabinet -- which by the way is completely made up of Wilders' political opponents -- and fellow MPs. The Dutch Foreign Minister has phoned the UK Foreign Secretary and stated he was "deeply upset and disappointed" by the decision. British papers join the chorus of condemnation.

Plunka-plunka-plunk, plunka-plunka-plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk.

WCityMike — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:45:39 -0800

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs the theme to "Shaft" (SYTL). Really, is any description needed? Also, since we're very loosely on the topic of odd British versions of popular songs, the rave remix of the "A-Team" theme that was in the Spaced episode "Epiphanies" (the Sean of the Dead guys). Just because, hey, this post wasn't random enough already. My work here ... is done.

The Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration

Kattullus — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:05:04 -0800

The Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration has drawings of uniforms and regimental regalia from all over the world. Assembled by one of these great, eccentric collectors of the late 19th Century, Dr. H. J. Vinkhuijzen, a Dutch medical doctor who started out as an army physician and eventually rose to the position of official court physician to Prince Alexander of Netherlands. He pulled plates out of books, colored in black and white drawings and painted his own watercolor illustrations. His collection includes pictures of the soldiers of many different nations and eras, from military superpowers like the Roman Empire, France and Great Britain, to lesser known, but no less formidable forces, like Byzantium and Persia and even taking in such minnows as Luxembourg, Monaco and Montenegro. Due to Vinkhuijzen's unusual classification system it can be hard to find some of the more interesting images, such as pictures of Etruscan cavalry, Spanish military musicians and 1830's Belgian ambulance.

"One sheds one's sickness in books." D. H. Lawrence

anotherpanacea — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:41:23 -0800

Books that heal: bibliotherapy banishes vexations of soul. Maybe.

What goes Up must come Down

adamvasco — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:15:29 -0800

End of Empire : A collaboration of all areas of geopolitics affecting countries of the world in relation to the 'Empire' of the United States of America, and the 'sub-Empires', such as the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and any other country which seeks to exploit poorer nations and their people in the quest for domination.

"The package was not recorded or registered."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:55:31 -0800

Oops: UK tax collection agency loses discs containing personal details of 25 million Britons in the mail.

Pedal Power

chuckdarwin — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:49:38 -0800

Jason Lewis has become the first man to circumnavigate the Earth using human power alone. It only took him 13 years: he set off from London in July, 1994 and ended his expedition in October, 2007, having travelled 46,505 miles (on foot and by pedal boat, roller blades, kayak, and bicycle). [via QI] He was struck by a driver in Pueblo, Colorado, and spent nine months recovering from two broken legs, returning to the trek in May 1996. He was also arrested on suspicion of spying in Sudan.

It's gonna be multiple choice, right?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:52:59 -0800

Think you're smart? Apply for a Prize Fellowship at Oxford's All Souls College. [via adrianhon]

Toob to Beeb

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 13:38:40 -0800

"I feel guilty because I have friends that are working really hard to get into television or acting and I'm just sitting here having not done anything more than enjoy playing with gadgets."

Susi Weaser (24) makes little one-minute gadget reviews and posts them on YouTube . The BBC must have liked them - because they hired her.

Send big dogs after her/That bite her bum

Mayor Curley — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:55:21 -0800

Long live our noble queen.

Brownlow's and Mollo's Nazi Britain

matteo — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 08:04:11 -0800

"The German invasion of Britain took place in July 1940, after the British retreat from Dunkirk". We see, documentary-style, members of the Wehrmacht trooping past Big Ben and St Paul's Cathedral, lounging in the parks, having their jackboots shined by old cockneys, and appreciatively visiting the shrine of that good German, Prince Albert, in Kensington Gardens. Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's film "It Happened Here", with its cast of hundreds (.pdf), imagines what a Nazi occupation might have been like — complete with underground resistance, civilian massacres, civil strife, torch-lit rallies, Jewish ghettos, and organized euthanasia. Shot on weekends, eight years in production, made for about $20,000 with nonactors and borrowed equipment and Stanley Kubrick's help, "It Happened Here" was originally envisioned by Brownlow as a sort of Hammer horror flick about a Nazi Britain. Thanks in part to Mollo's fanatical concern with historical accuracy, however, it became something else. The most remarkable thing about this account of everyday fascism is that it has no period footage. Brownlow's 1968 book about the film's production, "How It Happened Here", has recently been republished. More inside.

penthouse dealers

The Jesse Helms — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 09:21:51 -0800

"Were there U.K. publications?" Hilton responded: "No... there is stuff in London." Hilton's lawyer, Larry Stein, jumped in: "London is a U.K. publication." Her retort: "Right. U.K. Whatever."