#micro states

[sixfromerie-home]

Thinking about a conversation I had where some Europeans were pointing out how, compared to Europe, North America doesn't have a bunch of microstates.

To be fair, just about every day there's some loony American trying to declare his property as an independent nation, but that doesn't work over here.

[mapsontheweb]

Have you visited any of these micro states?

by @Atlasova_world

[frenchraisins]

Monaco: top things to do in this beautiful micro country

Monaco first came into my consciousness during college when I read a story about the Grimaldi Family curse which doomed members to endure unhappy married lives. The Grimaldi Family, one of the oldest dynasties in the world, is the ruler of the Principality of Monaco.

Monaco first came into my consciousness during college when I read a story about the Grimaldi Family curse which doomed members to endure unhappy married lives. The Grimaldi Family, one of the oldest dynasties in the world, is the ruler of the Principality of Monaco. It was supposed that an ancestor of the Grimaldis kidnapped and violated a beautiful maiden who was the source from whence the…

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[triviapeople]

What's the Deal with Luxembourg? #history #podcasts #trivia

What’s the Deal with Luxembourg? #history #podcasts #trivia

Luxembourg City (Photo by By Martin Röll via Wikipedia)

On this date in 1867, Luxembourg gained its independence. At just under 1,000 square miles, it’s considered by some to be the largest European microstate.

Here are some things you may not have known about Luxembourg and European microstates.

Luxembourg is a grand duchy, meaning its monarch is a grand duke. It is the only such country…

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[catch21productions]

Devolution: An Outsider's Perspective

Devolution: An Outsider’s Perspective

For someone growing up outside of the United Kingdom, one’s first exposure to the English / Scottish -let’s say “problem” –  is likely to be the 1995 movie Braveheart. That might be a bit inane, but it is true. It was true for me.

We have all seen it. Mel Gibson fights for love and freedom against the English invaders, who are inexplicably bent on subduing Scotland. Patrick McGoonhan, as the…

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[andrealdn]

Niketas and Baudolino were seated opposite each other, in the little chamber of a tower, with double windows on three sides. One side revealed the Golden Horn and the Pera shore opposite, with the tower of Galata emerging from its procession of hamlets and hovels; from the second pair they could see the canal of the port debouching into the Strait of Saint George; and finally the third pair faced west, and from it all Constantinople should have been visible. But in this morning the delicate color of the sky was darkened by the thick smoke of the palaces and basilicas consumed by fire.

The Genoise colony of Galata described in Umberto Eco's Baudolino

[andrealdn]

as Muriel Spark once observed "nevertheless" is a very Edinburgh word...

Alex Massie. 2012. Does honest uncertainty beat spinning and blagging? ThinkScotland, 30 Oct

[andrealdn]

Iceland. A fascinating, strange place. And misunderstood. Did you know that the famous Blue Lagoon is actually a man-made pool filled with runoff from the power plant next door? Or that Iceland could become the world's next data center capital? ... even in late June, it's chilly enough to cool the equipment without refrigeration. It's actually mixed with warm, recirculated air to reach the target temperature. ... the company promises reduced cooling costs "by 80% or more." ... In the past the biggest hurdle was bandwidth: Iceland didn't have the right underseas cables to support high-speed, low-latency data centers. ... Taxes were also a problem. Iceland stuck companies with a 25% tax on servers they brought in - a nonstarter that would have negated most cost savings. But the country's parliament has resolved that issue: no more 25% tax. ... The good news: Because Iceland is so small - and because the $100-plus billion global data center industry, per Gartner, is so huge - even modest success would make a meaningful change for the country.

Dan Frommer. 2012. Iceland's Cheap, Green Cloud: How a Tiny Island Could Drive Big Changes. ReadWriteWeb, 18 July