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Comment by jwr | Hacker News Reader

UK and "Rest of Europe", got to love this point of view :-) You might as well go ahead and say "UK" and "Europe", wouldn't be too far off the mark.

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On a (loosely) related note, dividing Europe to West/East (perhaps Central) is purely political (it follows Berlin Wall[1]). For example, countries of V4[2] are in the middle[3] and yet they are called Eastern Europe. Another reason might be that most of the East is covered by Russia.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegrád_group

3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Europe_po...

the division could also be based on the population density. in the west it's higher -> the east-west boundary is to the west..

dividing Europe to West/East (perhaps Central) is purely political (it follows Berlin Wall[1])

There has been a long history of splitting Europe into East/West, starting with when the Roman Empire was split into East & West. Though the definition of what's east and what's west has changed since then.

I would say "UK" and "Continental Europe".

Where does that leave Ireland and the Nordic countries?

Ok, you are right.

The Nordic countries (except Iceland) are technically part of Continental Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe

"Techincally" yes, but up here in Sweden we usually exclude ourselves from Continental Europe as it doesn't feel like we're part of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe#Scandinavia

Ireland is left in the same bin as Mexico. You can see it up there, can't you?

seems like the poll divides the world into SF(&NY), English speaking areas, China, and the rest of the world! :)

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