Tag: #FOWC

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N is for North Macedonia

North Macedonia is a landlocked country in the Balkans, i.e., the old Kingdom of Macedonia. Graphic from Countryreports.org.

Fast Facts

  • Named for: Macedonia means “tall people” according to ancient Greeks
  • Capital: Skopje
  • Long/Lat: 42.0 N/21.2 E, 6500 mi & 13 hrs East of CV
  • Population: 1.8 million or 27 CVs, big for a “small” country
  • Size: 9800 sq mi, 540 CVs
  • Avg temp in April: 64 F/16 F, similar
  • Median household income: $7,000
  • Ethnicity: 55% Macedonian, 24% Albanian, 4% Turks
  • Main industries: Chemicals, Manufacturing. Embargoes and trade conflicts are common.

Sadly, there is no South Macedonia. Neither is there an East or West Macedonia, and when Macedonia gained independence in 1991 and tried to be the whole Macedonia, the Greeks blpcked them. It’s pretty ironic, since the Macedonians once conquered Greece, and the Greeks have never conquered Macedonia.

Those Greeks do act as if they run the show. They think they invented everything, and slap labels on things like the Pythagorean theorem (Pythagoras was great, but the Babylonians knew about the right-triangle relationships way before that) or the Metonic cycle (Babylonians again) and so on. Alexander the Great, the Macedonian emperor who spread “Greek” culture into the east, was tutored by a Greek, but he wasn’t Greek. Such a long time ago, who pays attention?

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L is for Liechtenstein

Fast Facts

  • Named for: “Light stone” Liechtenstein Castle in Southern Austria
  • Capital: Vaduz
  • Long/Lat: 47.1 N/9.3 E, 6000 miles or 11 hours East of Castro Valley
  • Population: 41,232 or 0.8 CVs
  • Size: 62 sq mi, 4 CVs
  • Avg temp in April: 54F/12 C mountains!
  • Median household income: ~$150,000
  • Ethnicity: 67% Liechtensteiners, 9% Swiss, 7% German (pasty white people)
  • Main industries: Precision manufacturing (e.g. dental equipment), financial services (low taxes)

We move from islands to mountains: Central Europe, on the other side of the world from Kiribati, literally and metaphorically. Liechtenstein is one of only two double land-locked countries, which is a thing because humans now must have special statistics for everything. Double land-locked means that it’s land-locked between two other land-locked countries, in this case between Switzerland and Austria. If they could carve out a country within Liechtenstein’s borders, that would be land-locked cubed.

Liechtenstein’s nickname is “The Principality,” which isn’t much shorter, so I’ll just have to learn to spell it. Liechtenstein means “light stone,” and it was what Hugo von Petronell called the castle he built after receiving a fief from the Babenburg margraves. Translating that medieval-speak, it means he did something good for the honchos who ran Austria in the 13th century. But here’s the rub: Liechtenstein Castle is in Austria. Was then, still is now.

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K is for Kiribati

Kiribati is a group of multiple island clusters: Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Islands (Adobe stock photo)

Fast Facts

  • Named for: Gilbert Islands (Thomas Gilbert) and Christmas Island (named by Cook)
  • Capital: Tarawa (upper left)
  • Long/Lat: 1.3 N/173.2 E, 4800 miles & 14 hours west of Castro Valley, though there is no direct route. You can fly through Honolulu.
  • Population: 116,000 or 2x Castro Valleys
  • Size: 313 sq mi, or only 18 Castro Valleys (not counting the water)
  • Avg temp in April: 87 F/31 C
  • Median household income: $4,400 annual
  • Ethnicity: Gilbertese (from Kiribati), but ancestors were Melanesian, Micronesian & Polynesian
  • Main industries: Fish, phosphate, tourism

The Kiribati Islands are the indigenous people’s way to pronounce “Gilbert,” as these were originally called the Gilbert Islands after Thomas Gilbert in 1788. Gilbert worked for the British East India Company, and the Brits were all over, colonizing “New South Wales” (Australia) and scooping up as many islands as they could claim. Look! that one looks like a Phoenix. Let’s call it Phoenix Islands. Look! it’s Christmas day, so we’ll call that one Christmas Island. How about Gilbert for these and Ellice for those?

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