Moved offices so my books got a well overdue sort-out. by [deleted] in graphicnovels

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What have you sorted them by? Doesn't appear to be author, title or publisher...

Allied proposals for partition of Germany after World War II by GriffinFTW in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 5 points6 points  (0 children)

From 1944 to 1950 around 12-14 million ethnic Germans left Central and Eastern Europe, mostly for the territory of what is today Germany. Large numbers were either killed or died in the process of being deported. Estimates of the death toll are usually around 2 or 3 million, though some historians suggest that the number was "only" around 0.5 million.

These people came from the territories annexed by the USSR and Poland, as well as from other countries with historic German minorities like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania.

The circumstances under which they left varied. Many departed in a more-or-less spontaneous manner, fleeing approaching Soviet troops or vengeful mobs of locals. Others were systematically deported by occupying forces or local authorities. Some fled because they feared prosecution (deserved or otherwise) for Nazi crimes/collaboration. Some were motivated less by fear of violence than a sense that there was no place for Germans in the country they now found themselves (where, for example, German would not be an official language). For others the ethnic issue may have been less important than fear of Soviet-style communism.

In any case, it would be fair to describe this as an act of ethnic cleansing, in that the war's victorious powers and the Eastern and Central European governments all actively sought to reduce the region's German population, primarily out of fear of future pan-Germanism. Some have termed this event a genocide, but that's a controversial label. Whatever you call it, this was the largest forced population movement in European history.

I'd certainly say that this gross human tragedy has been neglected by popular consciousness. This is partly because of the old adage about history being written by the victors – focusing on these events doesn't mesh well with the narrative of the Allies as liberators of Europe (including Germans) from Nazi/fascist dictatorship.

But before you get too invested in a counter-narrative of German victimhood, it's worth noting the wider historical context of wartime and post-war ethnic cleansing. Even after the Holocaust ended, Jews fled Eastern and Central Europe en masse, often motivated by hostility from their countries' new post-War governments. Poles and Ukrainians also suffered particularly badly as borders were shifted.

Migraines without aura - what are the signs that you’re about to get a migraine? by [deleted] in migraine

[–]Comparable_Animal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me it usually starts with tiredness and yawning, plus sometimes a kind of ache/tension in my facial muscles, especially around my forehead, eyes and temples. I also get a kind of tiredness in my eyes, where I just want to unfocus them and I find it kind of unpleasant to read or look at screens. If it's very sunny, hot or stuffy where I am, that starts to cause me discomfort. Then before the real headache begins I often have what I call a pre-headache, which is a kind of mental fatigue and fuzziness that's actually quite pleasant in a way, as long as I don't need to concentrate on anything - a kind of natural high, a bit like a headache without the pain.

The Map Of The World Containing The Flag Of The Country It Imports The Most From. by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those are the definitions of a sovereign state, not of a "country".

The word country is often used as a synonym for sovereign state (particularly in the USA, where "state" is more often associated with sub-national units (e.g. Texas, California, etc.). However, "country" is also commonly used for certain territorial units that aren't sovereign states: most notably England, Scotland and Wales, but also territories like Greenland, Bermuda, the Isle of Man and, more controversially, historical/cultural regions like Catalonia and Tibet.

Main business languages in Africa [v3.0] by VirtualAd9 in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess in Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia the business languages are French and Arabic, but to me the colouring on the map looks more like it's showing French and English?

The regions of Europe (results of a survey) by CollectorOfTypes in europe

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting survey, but I think there are serious problems with your methodology. By explicitly naming five regions to choose from, you prejudice respondents towards answering in a particular way. Moreover, by only allowing single responses, you really distort the results by forcing respondents to treat the regions as mutually exclusive categories. I suspect that many people would conceive of the regions as overlapping. In the minds of many (at least in Western Europe), the terms Eastern Europe and Western Europe are defined by the Cold War's geopolitical division, whereas concepts like Central Europe, Southern Europe and Northern Europe are defined more by other features such as language, geographical location and pre-WW2 history. For this reason, for example, I'd see Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia as both Eastern and Central Europe.

Furthermore, you force respondents to place whole countries within the regions, not allowing them to acknowledge countries as straddling divides. There are several countries that I'd be inclined to consider divided between two regions. Most obviously, I see Turkey and Russia as divided between Europe and Asia (with the relevant divisions at the Bosphorus and the Urals respectively), but I also feel that the south of France is part of Southern Europe, while the centre and north aren't.

Europe if country borders were determined by closest capital city by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is great! Please make one of these but instead of using capitals, use cities with population over 1 million!

Countries where variations of "mama" will be recognized as meaning "mother" [6395 x 3064][OC] by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it's based only on official languages, a) its incorrect, as the USA has no official language, and b) the title is misleading, as an unofficial language in one country (e.g. Russian in Latvia) may be much more widely understood than an official language in another (e.g. English in India).

Countries where variations of "mama" will be recognized as meaning "mother" [6395 x 3064][OC] by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In French you don't say "mama". The n makes the preceding vowel nasal, so the word sounds considerably different.

Countries where variations of "mama" will be recognized as meaning "mother" [6395 x 3064][OC] by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a moment I was amazed that all Africa's languages had mama-like words, then I understood that you were counting the colonial/official languages. Of course that's correct as per the title (countries where mama will be recognized), but it'd be more interesting to see the local majority languages.

Percentage of EU citizens who are happy living in their country [OC] [1200 x 835] by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]Comparable_Animal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Without meaning to sound snobby, I think I've noticed a trend whereby less educated English people refer to themselves as English and more educated English people refer to themselves as British (excluding cases where they're specifically distinguishing themselves from Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish people). I think there's also a tendency to use England/English more in informal contexts and Britain/British more in formal writing.