Because the various states of the US never exercised full sovereignty as independent countries. After leaving the UK at the beginning of the American Revolution, they banded together to create the Articles of Confederation that gave significant powers to conduct foreign relations, warfare, and control of ports to the United States. So they only ever operated with limited sovereignty. The central government was weak by design, but had clear powers that an independent country would reserve to themselves.

Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland all have a history as sovereign nations that had full control over their borders and foreign relations. They became part of the United Kingdom over a period of centuries (with all of Ireland belonging to the UK before the counties that now make up the Republic of Ireland successfully rebelled).

At first the countries were not a single entity. The UK developed after long processes, with each of them originally being different countries with the same monarch before the central governments merged. Since 1282 the heir to the English throne has been prince or princess of Wales, but it wasn't until the reign of Henry VIII that Parliament in London could pass laws for Wales.

Scotland was not conquered like Wales was, but instead a series of marriage pacts led to both England and Scotland having the same line of royal succession. The 17th Century is referred to as the Personal Union, as both kept their own laws under the same monarch. At the beginning of the 18th Century they formed a Constitutional Union as the United Kingdom, with Scotland now sending representatives to Parliament in London.

Around 1800 the British Isles were united under the United Kingdom of Great Britain (the island containing England, Scotland, and Wales) and Ireland. The government was fully centralized at that point. This was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1922.

Recently, the United Kingdom has restored some home rule with separate Parliaments in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland operating much as US state governments do. England still does not have a Parliament separate from the UK, although MPs from Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales do not vote on matters that only effect England.

https://xkcd.com/292/

I Want a New Drug by Huey Lewis.

Try the Windows Power Settings to adjust some settings. Others may be in the laptop BIOS or are locked by the manufacturer.

English Oxford lang. Same reason a 10 pound note is a tenner.

You had enough movement to aim your lance. There is also the skill in controlling your horse.

Modern jousting has a point system.

• 1 point if you touch the shoulder piece of your opponent.
• 3 points if you hit their shoulder piece with enough force to break your lance.
• 5 points if you strike them with enough force to unhorse them.

This year at the Ohio Renaissance festival I did not see a single participant unhorsed, but these are friends. But there are no points if you hit them anywhere other than the shoulder piece designed to take a blow, even if you break a lance or unhorse them.

I just watched a trial at arms with a jousting match yesterday.

Yes, it can be dangerous. But far less than movies show. They wear specialized armor (wealthy knights owned parade armor, jousting armor, and battle armor). Weapons were not the same as they used in battle: not so sharp, lances of softer wood without metal tips, etc.

Another thing that is different from movies is that swords used by knights were not nearly as sharp as you think. If you and your opponent were wearing plate armor, the goal was to knock them over and then use the sharp tip to slide between plates (or use a dagger instead of the sword). That's why hammers, flails, maces, and axes were popular weapons. Not as aristocratic as a sword, but the blunt weapon with a larger contact area had a better chance of unbalancing an armored opponent and hurting them from impact damage.

Knights were at least in theory soldiers. Most of the activities in a tournament were part of their training routines. They participated because they gained status and were able to show off their prowess, and they were doing most of the same things as regular drills anyway.

eta: The typical format does not start with knights jousting at each other. In the skills course before the ORF jousts, for example, one challenge is to hit a shield on a stand with a sandbag as a counterweight. Miss the shield or ride too slow and get hit by the sandbag, and you get no points. The next challenge is to hit a small round target that is approximately the size of the tip of a lance hard enough to make it spin. If a rider misses these two challenges, they will not have enough points to advance to facing a live opponent. Warm-up games would weed out people unable to control their horse and hit a target, making sure those who did get to joust were prepared at least to a degree.

Prodigy. Any album.

Same for KMFDM.

Do mid 20th century British writers use the same word?

Wartime intellegence included learning the "hand" of various operaters to trace movements, to distinguish false transmissions, and to try to fake transmissions.

And of course Tom Jones and Art of Noise did a cover of a Prince song together.

You know the scene in High Fidelity where Rob says " I will now sell four copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band" and puts the record on?

When I was managing a record store in the 80s I would do that with Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise.

Robyn Hitchcock has a double album of Dylan covers that are a love letter to why he started into music. The first disc spans Dylan's career, while the second is an attempt to cover the second half of Dylan's first electric concert in England.

New day, new shitshow.