Happy birthday, mdg1!

Glad to "see" you still with us, Mario!

Willingly serving as part of Marvel's promo machine here...

...as I just saw the Winter Soldier trailer.

My compliments to the responsible parties.

So...did those boats get names to go with their pennant numbers?

What makes a country a country?

There's been lots of ink, bandwidth and blood spilled over the millennia on this question, but this video makes for an entertaining attempt at an answer, yes?

And as a watcher of several comic-book continuities for the last three decades, this question has perhaps more relevance than even your average watcher of international politics. ;-)