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When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

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Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#201

Post by tehjoker »

cutler wrote: post #189
tehjoker wrote: post #178

This is great! It’s high time a brutal empire that starved Ireland and India and created the situation that resulted in the genocide in Palestine loses its literal shine. Honestly it is crazy that this country still exists as a monarchy in the 21st century.

Unfortunately in the case of Palestine Britain merely handed over the baton to an even more hideous imperialist monster - the U.S.A. - which has reverted to Napoleonic levels of barbarity. Imperialism is alive and well in 2025.

That's right, though I don't want to undersell the massive levels of suffering and trickery played by the British. Their stock in trade was to sow ethnic division and steal whatever they could. For example, the million+ that died in the partition of India was a result of their sowing of tensions between Hindus and Muslims. They also did a lot of looting in Africa.

Going back in time, if you read about the Duchess of Sutherland, the UK created their own internal Nakba where they internally displaced peasants to make way to "Sheepe Walks" and forced them to the sea to benefit the textile industry. Then they later wanted that land and attacked them again. The West is very familiar with creating Gaza-like situations.

Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#202

Post by da_chicken »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #188
michaelt wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, it's unlikely that the entity currently managing .io (a hedge fund if I'm not mistaken) has the legal muscle to force ICANN to keep it in the list ICANN periodically lets anyone with $1 million create random new generic TLDs like .top and .win and .google and .hiv and .amazon and .zip - it's pretty clear there aren't any real rules or standards for TLDs apart from having money. Why should ICANN break thi…

> ICANN periodically lets anyone with $1 million create random new generic TLDs Why? Isn't ICANN non profit?

That's not what nonprofit means.

Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#203

Post by crazygringo »

throwup238 wrote: post #200
crazygringo wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That works for smooth vector lines, like the border of Colorado, but not for rivers. The thalweg of a river is the same as a coastline -- it has the same fractal nature to it. The more you zoom in, the more it wiggles back and forth. So yes, the length of the border is dominated by the length of the river, but that's just repeating the question, precisely because the thalweg is a physical thing, not a geometric delin…

You’re thinking of a hydrological thalweg. In international law (w.r.t. borders) thalwegs are not dependent on coastlines but on navigable channels with a finite precision . The boundary monuments are often kilometers apart which creates a straight line regardless of the shifting coastline (which is a much bigger problem than the coastline paradox, since rivers can change on a dime).

Fascinating, I wasn't aware, thank you.

But when I look at Google Maps, the Oyapock river is extremely meandering. Major 180° bends within just 500 ft, e.g.:

https://www.google.com/maps/@2.3210582,-52.7667375,16z/data=...

Are you sure there's an official survey of every twist and turn, composed of "boundary monuments"? Is there a link to these things or something? It's not really clear to me there's any official "navigable channel" at all.

Is there anything you can link to that shows the actual legal boundary if it's made of vector segments? Or do we know if that's what Google Maps uses directly, or if that's what's being used for the length calculation?

Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#207

Post by dotancohen »

capitainenemo wrote: post #198
dotancohen wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you another reason to consider Canada as part of the British empire. It's actually called Canada. The local Indians have two words for settlements - one word for their own settlements, and another word for the settlements of other peoples who have come to their lands. Canada is the latter - it actually means "foreigner's settlement on our land" or "invader's settlement". Interestingly, I just tried to Googl…

I feel a citation is needed for that, since it seems in direct conflict with the given history of the word which was that Cartier heard the local indian youths at the village of Stadacona call their village "kanata" (village) and believed that it was the word for the entire area. There was no "invader's village" to even refer to at the time.

Looking into it online now, yes I agree that wherever I heard that from contradicts the established histories. It's too late for me to delete my comment, so if we could just start downvoting it so it disappears that would be great.

Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#208

Post by ripe »

tonymet wrote: post #115

Though empires are out of fashion , British colonies universally benefited from the British empire. The ones who are thriving today owe a huge debt of gratitude, and the languishing ones are that way because they decided not to continue the British tradition. The 20th century decline of the British empire is one of civilization's worst failures, on par with the decline of the Roman Empire.

> British colonies universally benefited from the British empire

I can’t tell whether this is a joke or a sincere opinion, but HN readers might be misled if it’s allowed to stand. Briefly, this is an absurd claim.

I can speak confidently about India, and I am pretty sure the story is similar for other unfortunate colonies. Instead of arguing here, let me provide an accessible starting point to learning about it:

The podcast “Empire,” by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. The first series looks at the British in India, covering The East India Company, the Raj, Gandhi, Independence and Partition.

Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#209

Post by lugao »

wolvesechoes wrote: post #140
capitainenemo wrote: post #82

Hm. I feel like the french republic can still make the claim though, at least according to this wikipedia map. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Mapadefr...

It is always funny to ask people what country has the longest land border with France.

It's funny because you can't measure borders due to the coastline paradox.

Re: When the sun will literally set on what's left of the British Empire

#210

Post by t1E9mE7JTRjf »

tehjoker wrote: post #201
cutler wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately in the case of Palestine Britain merely handed over the baton to an even more hideous imperialist monster - the U.S.A. - which has reverted to Napoleonic levels of barbarity. Imperialism is alive and well in 2025.

That's right, though I don't want to undersell the massive levels of suffering and trickery played by the British. Their stock in trade was to sow ethnic division and steal whatever they could. For example, the million+ that died in the partition of India was a result of their sowing of tensions between Hindus and Muslims. They also did a lot of looting in Africa. Going back in time, if you read about the Duchess of…

Ah yes, the killing was the fault of someone other than those killing people. Why didn't I think of that.
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