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We once featured an Euler diagram that explained the British Isles, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain. This video explains all that clearly but quickly, then goes on to explain the British Empire, the Crown Colonies, Crown Dependencies, and other terms that confuse Americans and others who don’t deal with such geographical concepts every day. If this goes too fast for you, the script is available from C. G. P. Grey. Link -via reddit
You knew there were some provocative place names in the United Kingdom. Now we have a definitive (and long) list of funny place names in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all in one place. Here is a small sample:
Titley Close, London
Swallow Passage, London
Bachelors Bump, Essex, UK
Crapstone, Devon
Fanny Hands Lane, Lincolnshire
Golden Balls, Oxfordshire, UK
Hornyold Road, Malvern Wells, UK
Lower Swell, Gloucestershire
North Piddle, Worcestershire
Scratchy Bottom, Dorset, UK
Wetwang, East Yorkshire
Boysack, Angus, Scotland
East Breast, Inverclyde
Bullyhole Bottom, Monmouthshire, Wales
Go pick out your favorites at Anglotopia. Link -Thanks, Jonathan!
(Image credit: Flickr user Mark Robinson)
This video shows a sport native to the British Royal Navy. It’s in memory of a particular incident during the Second Boer War in which sailors quickly brought a gun from their ship to an inland battlefield over rough terrain. Since that time, teams of Royal Navy sailors have competed against each other by symbolically re-enacting this event. As you can see from the above video from 1997, this involves moving field guns over walls, disassembling them, swinging them across a gap with ropes, reassembling them, and then firing three rounds. And that’s just stage 1.
via Make
Hoverit Ltd, a British company, has introduced the first piece in its line of magnetic ‘hover’ furniture. Dubbed ‘The Lounger’, the chair is built by hand and defies gravity through the use of repelling magnetic forces in both its bed and base. The feeling one has when kicked back in this lounger is like none other and has been described as “floating on a cloud”.
If you want a hover chair of your own it’ll set you back about £7,500.
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by 
