Hype for the Future 50/284: British Possessions in the Greater Antilles

Within specifically the Greater Antilles, the Cayman Islands 🇰🇾 and the Turks and Caicos Islands 🇹🇨 are British Overseas Territories and possessions at a fair proximity to Cuba, albeit on opposite sides of the major island nation. The Cayman Islands represent the largest British Overseas Territory by population and are located to the south of Cuba and to the west of Jamaica. The Turks and Caicos Islands, however, are located just to the southeast of the Bahamas for which they share a maritime border. The capital towns for either territory are located on the relatively more significant islands, with George Town on the western end of Grand Cayman, the largest of the Cayman Islands. Cockburn Town, associated with Grand Turk Island, is the capital town of the Turks and Caicos Islands and is located relatively east within the territory.

Hype for the Future 49WCO: Warren County, Ohio

Lebanon

The City of Lebanon is a city of slightly over 20,000 residents and serves as the county seat of perhaps one of the most affluent counties in the State of Ohio, often contested with Delaware County for the top rank statewide. The downtown area of the City of Lebanon is home to places of significant interest, including the historic Lebanon, Mason, and Monroe Railroad and the Golden Lamb, the latter of which hosts the Black Horse Tavern as well as a combination of hotel and restaurant amenities within the primary space of the area downtown. While the downtown area is often quiet throughout the year, the occasional festivals and events can disrupt the silence of the historic city, which is also renowned for comparatively lower costs, a stark contrast from the Mason and West Chester area prices. The local culture of Lebanon, Ohio, can also be influenced over the summer by the Lebanon Country Music Festival, typically in June, and the Lebanon Blues Festival, always attached primarily to early August, each year. Third Fridays on Mulberry are also of significance in June, July, and August of every year, and the culture festival hosted by the Harmon Museum may also close a portion of Broadway between Main Street and South Street early in the summer of every year. Early in the autumn of every year is typically the Lebanon Country AppleFest attached to the area of the Countryside YMCA, and early in December of every year is the Lebanon Horse-Drawn Carriage Parade and the Christmas Festival of every year.

Waynesville/Harveysburg

Waynesville is home to an extensive network of German heritage, culminating at the Sauerkraut Festival every second full weekend of October. Harveysburg is also notable in the autumn, but for the Ohio Renaissance Festival located conveniently in the Greater Cincinnati area with a fair proximity to Columbus.

Elsewhere

Warren County, Ohio, is also home to communities including Franklin, Carlisle, Springboro, Morrow, South Lebanon, Maineville, and Mason. Kings Island is located within the county, and additional associated attractions may include, but are often not limited to, the attractions of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Fort Ancient.

Hype for the Future 49CIN → Cincinnati Metropolitan Area

The Cincinnati Metropolitan Area is the largest metropolitan area associated with the State of Ohio, though not necessarily the largest within Ohio itself (that title is likely more accurate to the Cleveland-Akron-Canton Combined Statistical Area per the 2020 United States Census). Apart from Ohio, the inner urban area also extends over the Ohio River into the Commonwealth of Kentucky to the south. The outer fringes of the area also extend into the State of Indiana, thus creating a tri-state region centered at Cincinnati, formerly known as Losantiville.

Historically, the City of Cincinnati was located within the Northwest Territory, originally as part of an unorganized portion of the Territory. As of 1788, Cincinnati would not have been considered part of any county territory at all, as Washington County had not extended west of the Scioto River, nearer Chillicothe, which would later become the original state capital of the State of Ohio. As of 1790, when Hamilton County was first formed, much of the Cincinnati area and even the Dayton area would eventually become part of the County, though the northwestern portion of the area, including the Indiana section as well as the Oxford area in Ohio, would become associated with Knox County, which would evolve separately into the county home to Vincennes, the oldest European settlement in the modern State of Indiana. In 1800, when Clermont County was formed out of the southeastern portion of Hamilton County, the outer east side of Cincinnati had been split off of the inner city area as a result. The next significant split to define the Cincinnati area would occur in 1803, when the counties with Hamilton and Lebanon had split off of Hamilton County to form Butler and Warren Counties, respectively. At the time, much of the extreme eastern side of the Cincinnati area toward Chillicothe and to the south of Columbus had been associated with the Counties of Adams, Ross, and Scioto. Of the counties in question, Adams County is along the Ohio River to this day, with Scioto River further upstream and Ross County somewhat further to the north.

Even though the modern State of Ohio was first settled nearer Marietta, the county formation had actually been more developed nearer Cincinnati even in 1803. For instance, Athens County, a modern county adjacent to Washington County, had not yet been formed, though Clermont, Butler, and Warren Counties had already been formed and in full force. Even Franklin County had been formed in 1803, somewhat prior to the formation of Athens County. Although Ohio University (OU) in Athens was the first university to be established in the State of Ohio, Miami University in Oxford was the second and remains located in Butler County to this day. More recent university formations within the Ohio portion of the Greater Cincinnati area include the following, with years of establishment, control, and status for each higher educational institution:

• University of Cincinnati (UC) (1809, public)
• Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (1969, public community college)
• Athenaeum of Ohio (1829, private Catholic) ← Cincinnati
• Xavier University (1831, private Catholic) ← Cincinnati
• Art Academy of Cincinnati (1869, private special focus)
• Wilmington College (1870, private)

Within the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the general south side of Cincinnati, including the mouth of the Licking River that Losantiville was partially named for, was entirely located within Kentucky (also spelled “Kentucke” at the time) County under the Commonwealth of Virginia as of 1776, with the county becoming effective in 1777. When the three original Kentuckian counties of Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln were formed in 1780, the Northern Kentucky area was entirely associated with Fayette County. In 1785 (effective 1786), the eastern third of the Northern Kentucky area would become part of the then-newly-formed Bourbon County, which today uses Paris as the county seat and is associated with the Bluegrass region. The western two-thirds of the Northern Kentucky area remained under Fayette County, which today uses the significantly larger City of Lexington as the county seat. In 1788 (established 1789), county governance in the Northern Kentucky region would be transferred from Fayette County to Woodford County in the west and from Bourbon County to Mason County in the east. Woodford County today uses Versailles, approximately midway between Franklin and Lexington, as the county seat, while Mason County uses Maysville as the county seat and is directly along the Ohio River further upstream. Once Kentucky had separated off from Virginia in 1792, much of the Woodford County portion of the area, including the Northern Kentucky section, has become the northern end of Scott County, which uses Georgetown as the modern county seat and is in the direct path between Lexington and Cincinnati, approximately midway. In 1794 (effective 1795), following the formation of Harrison County using Cynthiana as the county seat, was the formation of Campbell County, which would cover the entirety of the Northern Kentucky area as well as much of the area directly to the north of Georgetown, including modern-day Pendleton and Grant Counties. At the southeastern end of the county would become Bracken County as of 1796 (effective 1797); following the split of Bracken County between Campbell and Mason Counties, the Northern Kentucky region proper would become split again with the formation of Boone County, established 1798 and effective 1799, named for Daniel Boone. Also around the time of the Boone County formation was the formation of Pendleton County further south, splitting the aforementioned area to the north of Georgetown from Northern Kentucky.

Deeper down into Kentucky, yet still occasionally in the broader definition of Northern Kentucky, was the formation of Owen County from Scott, Franklin, Gallatin, and Pendleton Counties in 1819 followed by the formation of Grant County from western Pendleton County in 1820. While numerous minor exchanges in county boundaries were established throughout the next several years, the most significant of the changes was the addition of the Glencoe area and further east to Gallatin County from Boone County in 1837. While Gallatin County would later split in 1838 with Carroll County formed to the west, including from Henry and Trimble Counties, the final addition to the county map that would define Northern Kentucky was the incorporation of Kenton County as an independent county from the western part of Campbell County. With just a few minor tweaks, the approximate county boundaries have remained very similar to the original boundaries following the Kenton County formation of 1840.

Though the Commonwealth of Kentucky lacks the university-friendly traditions that had defined the Northwest Territory through the Northwest Ordinance and especially within the State of Ohio, the Northern Kentucky region actually has Northern Kentucky University (NKU), located in Highland Heights, Kentucky. Though NKU is the only public Kentucky university to be associated with the Greater Cincinnati area, numerous private institutions may be associated with the indirect Cincinnati area within the Commonwealth. The private liberal arts college of Georgetown College is located in Georgetown, which is in Scott County, though the area is more appropriately identified as the north side of Lexington. Thomas More University is located in Crestview Hills, which is definitely identified with Northern Kentucky as the university is firmly located within the orbit of Cincinnati, significantly detached from the Lexington and Bluegrass regions. For health education, Beckfield College is a private for-profit college located in Florence within the region. The community college serving the Northern Kentucky region is the Gateway Community and Technical College, serving classes in Covington, Edgewood, and Boone County.

Though the Ohio and Kentucky portions of the area already cover the vast majority of the tri-state area, the smaller portion of Indiana does not contain a significant influence on the culture of the Cincinnati region, with many residents identifying more rurally or with the smaller communities of the region. For instance, residents of Liberty, Indiana, could identify either with proximity to Richmond or to Oxford, Ohio, or the residents of the surrounding area in Union County (typically more associated with Dayton) may identify with the rural traditions locally. The only colleges or universities that could reasonably identify with the Cincinnati area within the State of Indiana are private: Hanover College in Hanover (typically more associated with Louisville) and Veritas Baptist College in Greendale.

Attractions

The Northern Kentucky and Eastern Cincinnati regions are generally regarded as more historically significant, with both located approaching the Appalachian Mountains further to the south and east. Clermont County, Ohio, is often regarded as Appalachian by culture as well as by nature, though the extent of the cultural influence may not nearly be as significant as in the backcountry regions of Virginia or North Carolina.

Hype for the Future 49Z: What about the Naming Convention?

If novaTopFlex ever extends beyond twenty-seven posts in a single day as novaTopFlex, the next step is to add an additional two (2) letters for technical topics and three (3) letters for geographical and mathematical topics, as in “Hype for the Future 49SIN” for a blog post about sine.

Hype for the Future 49Y: The Divide between “Global North” and “Global South”

Within the “Global North” may include Global Southern traits, yet within the “Global South” may include Global Northern traits. Perhaps the most obvious case study is Oceania as a continent, since Australia and New Zealand are typically identified as part of the “Global North” while the vast majority of the associated islands are considered the “Global South” regardless of size or other factors. The most commonly contested of the regions may include Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Middle East, and North Africa in addition to the aforementioned Oceania.

While most of the aforementioned regions are identified with the Global South, Singapore 🇸🇬 may be identified as an exclave of the Global North surrounded entirely by the Global South, with Malaysia 🇲🇾, Indonesia 🇮🇩, and Brunei 🇧🇳 located nearby.

Hype for the Future 49X: Alphabets, Abjads, and Abugidas Compared

In the Western world, society expects alphabets to be the written form of communication, even outside the realm of the Latin alphabet. Notable alphabets also include the Cyrillic, Green, Georgian, and Armenian alphabets, and other alphabets that may exist typically exist for a significantly smaller portion of the global population. In an alphabet, the letters can represent vowels or consonants, but never both, and both are required features. In an abjad, as is the case with Arabic or Hebrew, consonants are the base, and vowels are an optional secondary feature of the system. Being written from right to left is not technically a requirement for a writing system to be an abjad, though the vast majority of abjad uses are in that direction. And finally, an abugida system contains characters of either all vowels or consonants plus vowels, but never consonants alone. The accents may exist to change the vowel, consonant, or other portions of the character pronunciation, though not necessarily in every possible case.

Hype for the Future 49W: Malta, the Forgotten Island Nation

Though the Order of Malta and the Maltese nation may each serve complicated yet complementary stories, Maltese communications are very Arabized yet also very Christian, using effectively the same script as the Italian language. As a side effect, Maltese people write from left to right, rather than from right to left as in nearby Algeria 🇩🇿 or Tunisia 🇹🇳. Even the Maltese flag 🇲🇹 is quite interesting, sitting at the crossroads between Christianity ✝️ and Islam ☪️ and with strong Muslim heritage even despite being a relatively Christian nation.

Hype for the Future 49V: Upcoming Topics for the YouTube Channel

As novaTopFlex over on YouTube, expect upcoming video topics to include, but not necessarily to be limited to, the Unicode character sets, compatibility with European languages in different scripts, and digraphs in the European playlist for novaTopFlex, including font support and additional information.

Hype for the Future 49U: Additional Interests with Unicode

Thanks to Unicode, nearly every language and writing system across the globe can be represented online. Even emojis have designated sections of the code charts, along with the tags of the associated emoji codes. Unfortunately, however, subnational flags may be re-rendered as black flags at times, since the tags in Unicode may not be maintained as appropriately as such. England, Scotland, and Wales are examples of such subnational entity flags. Beyond the writing systems and the obvious, even ancient and otherwise historic systems are also available and represented, including Cuneiform, hieroglyphs of numerous types, and even archaeological systems.

Hype for the Future 49T: What about Romanian?

The Romanian language requires the comma accents below the letters S and T as accented letters that change the pronunciation of certain words in the Romanian language. Even though specifically the comma letters are in Latin Extended-B, many of the other Romanian accents exist in Latin Extended-A or perhaps even in Latin-1 Supplement. Therefore, the Latin Extended-B characters are specifically designated as Romanian additions. Otherwise, most of the letters in Latin Extended-B and later down the code charts are not Indo-European nor European at all, such as the capital schwa, which strictly represents Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 while the Cyrillic version represents Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 and (to a lesser extent) Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬.

Hype for the Future 49S: The Hungarian Language as Represented in Unicode

The Hungarian language is written in the Latin script and contains such accented letters as ó, ö, ő, ú, ü, and ű. Specifically Ő and Ű require access to the Latin Extended-A code block on Unicode, but none of the aforementioned Unicode characters can reasonably be written in just ASCII.

Hype for the Future 49R: Latin Extended-A

Spanning U+0100 and U+017F of the Unicode Code Charts, Latin Extended-A predominantly services localization and internationalization for Eastern European languages in the Latin script, including Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Turkish, Czech, and Slovak, though not every accented letter may necessarily be represented in the code block for any of the aforementioned languages.

Hype for the Future 49Q: Unicode

Thanks to Unicode, the concepts of both localization and internationalization have become significantly easier across the globe, especially for non-English languages. While C0 controls and Basic Latin, spanning U+0000…U+007F, serve the needs of the Anglosphere, Latin-1 Supplement services chiefly Western European languages and covers U+0080…U+00FF of the code chart. Such languages include Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and Italian, though Scandinavian languages are also identified through the Unicode block.

Hype for the Future 49P: Internationalization and Localization

In the tech industry, l10n and i18n, referring, of course, to localization and internationalization, respectively, are of the utmost importance to identifying how to accommodate users from different countries and regions alike in an effort to promote increased diversity in modern technological cases of innovation. Unfortunately, however, innovation can never be fully accomplished without a form of cultural erasure, and the complications of Eurocentrism are often perpetuated by the prioritization of left-to-right writing scripts and the stigma of right-to-left writing, thus stigmatizing Hebrew, Arabic, and related languages and language groups.

Hype for the Future 49O: Chad vs. Romania

Chad and Romania have nearly identical flags, though Chad is a nation split between the Sahara and the Sahel in Africa while Romania is a nation associated with Southern Europe that prefers not to be associated with Eastern Europe to distance the nation from neighboring Ukraine and nearby Russia. Though Romania is, of course, Romanian, Chad is a victim of the Age of Imperialism, first with the Arab spread of Islam toward the Sahara, followed by the French colonization of the nation impacting the Sahel.

Hype for the Future 49N: Celtic Influence in Spain?

Galicia, located at the northwest edge of Spain where the nation appears to encroach on Portuguese territory, is home to perhaps the most Celtic of Celtic influences on Spain as a nation. Though Galicia is today certainly a part of Spain, the regional Galician language is perhaps more associated as a disputed dialect of the Portuguese language, often associated with being written in Spanish orthography even in spite of the Portuguese syntax, particularly notable with place names such as “A Coruña,” which would be written in Portuguese orthographic syntax as “A Corunha.”

Hype for the Future 49M: Pagoda Symbols and Chinese Square Areas

The Tiananmen Square and related places in the People’s Republic of China 🇨🇳 are often identified with a uniquely Chinese symbol on Google Maps, a mapping system and service utilizing icons in addition to the place colors to reference specific locations.

Hype for the Future 49L: Japan on Google Maps

Unlike most countries worldwide, Japan is often depicted on Google Maps with unique symbolism, such as three dots representing a culturally and/or historically significant point of interest. Additional symbols unique to Japan include museum symbols as well as nearly all other types of symbols in purple on the map.

Hype for the Future 49K: The Sun is Always over Land?

While the British Empire has been renowned historically for being an empire where the sun had always risen at least somewhere, the overall answer is: yes, the sun is always up somewhere over land regardless of the time of day, time of year, or other factors, based on Earth geometry.

Hype for the Future 49J: French Guiana 🇬🇫

French Guiana is a French Overseas Territory located on the South American continent. Like the remainder of the Guianas, whether Spanish 🇻🇪, English 🇬🇾, Dutch 🇸🇷, or Portuguese 🇧🇷, French Guiana identifies predominantly with the Caribbean. However, specifically French Guiana is located on the Atlantic Coast nearest the Brazilian coast, with Suriname located directly to the west. Unlike Guyana or Suriname, however, French Guiana is not a sovereign state as the territory remains under the direct jurisdiction of France, though the region is obviously not identified as part of Metropolitan France. Cayenne is the capital of French Guiana, compared to Macapá in Amapá (Brazil), Paramaribo in Suriname, and Georgetown in Guyana.

The historic slave trade is also associated with the region, with an overwhelming dominance of Africans in the region, particularly within Guyana 🇬🇾, Suriname 🇸🇷, and French Guiana 🇬🇫 as represented by the Pan-African flag colors and the resemblance to many of the flags of West Africa. Beyond the Africans, however, a significant population from the Indian subcontinent had also settled especially Guyana.

Hype for the Future 49I: Saint-Pierre and Miquelon 🇵🇲

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon refers to an awkwardly positioned French overseas territory, extremely close to the Island of Newfoundland yet not included within the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada 🇨🇦. Even though the area is generally associated with Anglo-Irish culture, the islands comprising Saint Pierre and Miquelon 🇵🇲 are often associated with quintessential New France as remnants descended from the mother country.

Hype for the Future 49H: Indonesia and Monaco 🇮🇩 🇲🇨

The slight differences between Indonesia and Monaco are associated with the significant geographical separation between the two nations. While Monaco is certainly European, Indonesia is generally Asian and Melanesian further east. Monaco is represented in emoji form with a more European shade of red, while Indonesia is generally more vibrant and less of a crimson red.

Hype for the Future 49G: The Pyrenees

The Pyrenees are a mountain range associated with Spain, France, and the microstate of Andorra in between. The southern side of the Pyrenees is associated with Catalonia in Spain, while the northern side is associated with Occitania in France. The Spanish flag, like the Portuguese flag, contains an emblem appropriate to the nation, though the color scheme for Spain is red, then yellow, then red, from top to bottom. Andorra also contains an Andorran emblem on the national flag, differentiating the nation from Moldova, Romania, and even Chad—all of which maintain the same color scheme as one another: blue, yellow, red, from left to right. And finally, France is the plainest of the flags, blue, white, and red from left to right.

Nations with Flags Similar to Andorra

Andorra, as mentioned previously, is not unique for having a flag with such a color scheme. The other countries are Romania, Chad, and Moldova: 🇷🇴 🇹🇩 🇲🇩 🇦🇩

Hype for the Future 49F: Southern Spain

Spain is located near the western edge of the Mediterranean Sea, as Portugal to the west is entirely located to the west of the Strait of Gibraltar. As such, much of Spanish identity is influenced by the Mediterranean, though interestingly the driest part of the Mediterranean region by geography. More typically associated with the Mediterranean region, of course, are nations such as Italy, Portugal, or Greece, though the Spanish presence on the Mediterranean is also of significance. Perhaps the most iconic of the influences south of Catalonia along the Mediterranean is the region including Valencia, as the regional culture is effectively continuous with the culture associated with the aforementioned Catalonia and even Occitania up into France further north.

Hype for the Future 49E: Not All Spanish Life is Castilian

Apart from the Castilian Spanish heritage of the nation, Spain is also home to relatively outlying areas including (from west to east) Galicia, the Basque Country, and Catalonia—all on the northern side of the nation. The native name associated with Galicia is officially Galicia; however, the local name is often associated with the spelling and pronunciation of Galiza, though Reintegrationism may advocate for Galiça instead. Beyond the Galician realm, the Basque Country is natively known as Euskadi and Catalonia as Catalunya, respectively.

Hype for the Future 49D: The Galician Language

In Galicia, the regional language is effectively as if a mix of Spanish and Portuguese. However, the overall syntax of the nation is significantly more akin to Portuguese than Spanish, though the orthography of the Galician language has often been criticized within Galicia for being excessively Castilianized. The regional movement of Reintegrationism in the Galician context attempts to dispel the Castilian concerns regarding linguistic syntax by promoting the idea that Galician and the numerous varieties of the Portuguese language are effectively the same language as one another in different forms.

For most requests associated with the Galician language, expect Portuguese rules in grammar and syntax to dominate; the movement of Reintegrationism attempts to retroactively change the spellings of the Galician language specifically to match the Portuguese language as a result. Many Lusophones would approve of the Galician speech patterns as being obviously Portuguese, while the majority of Hispanophones would not quite agree with the same.

Hype for the Future 49C: Portuguese and Spanish Cultural Influences Compared

Galician influences are also to be represented and factored into the discussion of the cultural traits and differences between Spain and Portugal. However, much of the Spanish interior is accurately depicted as semi-arid and relatively hot, though not necessarily comparable to the Sahara. In comparison, Portuguese culture and heritage are generally more influenced by the more lush and green territory claimed by Portugal, where the national identity is a seafaring identity and where the Portuguese are often depicted as unable to withstand distance from the ocean in any direction.

Hype for the Future 49B: Artifacts of Portuguese Culture

Portuguese culture in the modern European sense covers the modern-day mainland of Portugal, as well as the associated islands and related regions, particularly Madeira and the Azores Islands. Also of note from a Portuguese context is the orthography, which often prefers “m” at the end of words and famously seems to nasalize almost everything, particularly with the suffix “-ão” common to the language. Also a common feature of the Portuguese language is the letter “ç,” as Portugal does not claim the letters “k” nor “z” are truly legible domestically. Instead of “kilo-,” for instance, the national identity may prefer “quilo-,” and the orthographic preferences also associated with the Portuguese also contain the digraphic preferences of “lh” and “nh.” The latter, “nh,” is actually derived from the traditional orthography of the palatalized “n,” referring, of course, to the historic notation of “nn” for both Portuguese and Spanish (the latter of which has a tilde accent above the “n” nowadays).

Hype for the Future 49A: Portuguese Heritage in the United States

While researching much of the New England region, a notable quirk of the region was the outstanding Portuguese influence to Rhode Island, the South Coast of Massachusetts, and even Hawaii. Although Hawaiian culture was seldom influenced by the Portuguese, the seafaring identity is a shared feature of Portuguese and Hawaiian customs, many of which are otherwise unrelated. Massachusetts and Rhode Island, however, are perhaps more influenced by the Portuguese, though the Portuguese population still only scratches the surface of the South Coast region, including Tiverton and Little Compton in addition to Bristol County, Massachusetts, where most of the Portuguese-American population has resided traditionally and continues to reside in the United States of America. Not just is the South Coast region nearing the Narragansett of cultural or historical significance to the Portuguese-Americans, but the region is also important to Brazilian and Cape Verdean populations, as well as to the culturally similar region of the Azores.

Hype for the Future 48I: The Geopolitical Tensions on Cyprus

Cyprus 🇨🇾 is often recognized by Western societies as a sovereign entity; however, different Cypriot territories are often contested within the island. The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is located on the southern edge of the island, Akrotiri further west and Dhekelia further east, though the two military areas are firmly separated and clearly distinct as a result. Northern Cyprus is yet another contested territory, given the more extensive Turkish heritage of the region relative to the more extensive Greek heritage further to the south. And finally, the United Nations 🇺🇳 Buffer Zone on Cyprus, an area in which no crossing is permitted at all.

Hype for the Future 49/284: International Expansion

International musical traditions, especially for Europe and Asia, have become of particular interest and importance for novaTopFlex, particularly the European side of the traditions, since different cultural traits are more obviously related to one another, especially within the Latin side of the region. Beyond just the British Isles, novaTopFlex has also identified personal and communal interests in the musical tunes of the European mainland from all directions.

When regarding Russian musical interests, please note that Russia is a Slavic nation and as such should be regarded as European, even well into the Asian continent. However, additional Asian influences have traditionally existed even in spite of the Russian imperialist craze, including Siberian and potentially Mongolic influences in the east and even Uralic influences in central longitudes. As one travels east in Russia, the population density dramatically dwindles, as most of the national population lives on the European side of the nation.