Live data from Hacker News

This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

littlerock.com.mt

141–150 of 157 posts

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#141
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like this happend to this oilrig land "sealand". People think it's easy to found your own country. Just find unclaimed space and be done with it. But there are many rich people out in the world who would hire armies to kill for such a spot.

>But there are many rich people out in the world who would hire armies to kill for such a spot. This is tribalism (or our modern version - nation states) in a nutshell. For all the hand wringing here about NSA SIGINT, defense spending, etc the reality is that the world is dangerous place. Not too long ago "liberal intellectuals", "russophiles," and "policy experts" were telling us how Russia was just going to eventua…

While taking this opportunity to 'demonstrate' your point of view (and how it's justified) concerning military/defense, it is just an opinion. I'd say it's more of a cultural sickness, than a human necessity. At least most people claim to believe in the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi, even if they can't find a way to walk the walk (just talk the talk).

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But there are many rich people out in the world who would hire armies to kill for such a spot. This is tribalism (or our modern version - nation states) in a nutshell. For all the hand wringing here about NSA SIGINT, defense spending, etc the reality is that the world is dangerous place. Not too long ago "liberal intellectuals", "russophiles," and "policy experts" were telling us how Russia was just going to eventua…

While taking this opportunity to 'demonstrate' your point of view (and how it's justified) concerning military/defense, it is just an opinion. I'd say it's more of a cultural sickness, than a human necessity. At least most people claim to believe in the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi, even if they can't find a way to walk the walk (just talk the talk).

Considering the worst mass murderers, despots, and warmongers of history were usually devoutly religious, I really, really don't think you want to play the religion card here. Heck, by far our most Jesusy president, GWB, sent over 100,000 Iraqis to their deaths by starting a major conflict with them with trumped up intel and knowing full well the civilian cost would be huge. Hitler considered himself a good Christian. Putin is a good Christian loved by the Orthodox church. Iran beheads women who supposedly cheat on their husbands yet as a theocracy they follow Allah's benevolence. The religious middle-east in general is humanity's armpit. Need I go on?

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duplicates will always happen, and as you have pointed out, sometimes there is positive value to that. The idea isn't to avoid duplicates, per se, but to try to ensure that the same discussion doesn't get hashed out again and again in different different, parallel and unconnected threads. There have even been cases[0] where the mods explicitly dipped in and moved comments from one submission to another to avoid the "…

Thank you for your reply. While you said my comment wasn't especially negative, I understand that the first sentence could have been taken that way, and that's probably the reason for the downvotes. It's just that I've seen people yelling 'DUPE' since the first year of Slashdot, and it seems like every site has some who make it their personal mission to rain on OP's parade. I love the idea of stopping the 'split disc…

You make a fair point about duplicates. There used to be a second-hand clothes store in my home town called "New to You". Similarly, if you haven't seen a story, it isn't a dupe.

The problem is that the HN front page only has 30 slots. Those slots are the scarcest resource on the site. Since we have no way of knowing what you've seen, we have to target overall coverage.

We don't treat stories as dupes just because they've been posted already; they have to have had significant discussion. But I get that you're talking about precisely those stories. I do think we have more work to do here.

In the meantime, one thing thing you can do is look at https://news.ycombinator.com/active and https://news.ycombinator.com/best for major discussions you missed.

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But there are many rich people out in the world who would hire armies to kill for such a spot. This is tribalism (or our modern version - nation states) in a nutshell. For all the hand wringing here about NSA SIGINT, defense spending, etc the reality is that the world is dangerous place. Not too long ago "liberal intellectuals", "russophiles," and "policy experts" were telling us how Russia was just going to eventua…

While taking this opportunity to 'demonstrate' your point of view (and how it's justified) concerning military/defense, it is just an opinion. I'd say it's more of a cultural sickness, than a human necessity. At least most people claim to believe in the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi, even if they can't find a way to walk the walk (just talk the talk).

> more of a cultural sickness, than a human necessity.

Probably not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#145
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your reply. While you said my comment wasn't especially negative, I understand that the first sentence could have been taken that way, and that's probably the reason for the downvotes. It's just that I've seen people yelling 'DUPE' since the first year of Slashdot, and it seems like every site has some who make it their personal mission to rain on OP's parade. I love the idea of stopping the 'split disc…

You make a fair point about duplicates. There used to be a second-hand clothes store in my home town called "New to You". Similarly, if you haven't seen a story, it isn't a dupe. The problem is that the HN front page only has 30 slots. Those slots are the scarcest resource on the site. Since we have no way of knowing what you've seen, we have to target overall coverage. We don't treat stories as dupes just because th…

I appreciate you considering the point! I can imagine it being a difficult thing to solve.

For now, thank you SO MUCH for mentioning /active and /best. I had no idea those existed, and they are exactly what I need.

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#146
post #53

This gets much more attention than it should in my opinion. Its another micro nation that within few weeks no one will remember about. Besides stamps collectors and non-recognized passport holders.

Au contraire, I've been casually following "micro nations" for decades, and attempts are often long remembered. This one is notable as it involves actual viable land (in contrast with artificial or new/fluke natural dry surfaces), which the surrounding countries just plain don't want. It's not just a rock or platform with a flag on it.

Indeed, with a little persistence and some capital this could turn into an interesting project. Like Bir Tawil, it's a piece of land which is not just unclaimed, but in fact definitively disclaimed by the adjacent nations - but instead of being a barren patch of North African desert miles from nowhere, it's a pretty little patch of forestland on a major river in central Europe. Nor does it seem likely that Serbia and Croatia will be settling their differences over the border any time soon.

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While taking this opportunity to 'demonstrate' your point of view (and how it's justified) concerning military/defense, it is just an opinion. I'd say it's more of a cultural sickness, than a human necessity. At least most people claim to believe in the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi, even if they can't find a way to walk the walk (just talk the talk).

Considering the worst mass murderers, despots, and warmongers of history were usually devoutly religious, I really, really don't think you want to play the religion card here. Heck, by far our most Jesusy president, GWB, sent over 100,000 Iraqis to their deaths by starting a major conflict with them with trumped up intel and knowing full well the civilian cost would be huge. Hitler considered himself a good Christian…

>>> Hitler considered himself a good Christian

Well, sort of a nitpick but Hitler and religion is a bit more complicated than that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#148
post #54

> 160,000 people want to live there I just put my name down. It's a laugh. I'd probably be willing to fork over $30 for a passport. I don't actually want to live there. I suspect many of the 160,000 are similar. On a more serious note I could see an argument for setting up a new country that was open to all comers a bit like the US used to be when the "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to br…

Hey, you could be representative of an Olympics sports of your choice.

Olympics are a bit different because I believe there are requirements to be met in terms of performance.

But living in San Marino or Liechtenstein must be great - if you get to the national football team (which shouldn't be hard), you will have a chance to play against word class teams from time to time ;)

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#149
post #53

This gets much more attention than it should in my opinion. Its another micro nation that within few weeks no one will remember about. Besides stamps collectors and non-recognized passport holders.

Au contraire, I've been casually following "micro nations" for decades, and attempts are often long remembered. This one is notable as it involves actual viable land (in contrast with artificial or new/fluke natural dry surfaces), which the surrounding countries just plain don't want. It's not just a rock or platform with a flag on it.

>>> I've been casually following "micro nations" for decades, and attempts are often long remembered

Could you share more? Are there any decent write ups about the more interesting attempts?

Re: This man just claimed a new European nation. 160,000 people want to live there

#150
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously ? Are you from the US? If so, I can understand where you're coming from. Maybe violence is not the answer, or have you thought about this possibility ? Their motto is "Live and Let Live", doesn't that tell you something ? Or maybe you're a professional pro-war troll?

If your countrymen hadn't killed 126.000 Russians, and maimed 180.000 more, you would now be governed by homophobic, corrupt and oppressive Vladimir Putin. I am not pro-war. I am not suggesting anyone should be attacked, but if you don't have the power to defend what you stand for, you will trampled by those who do. I am from the Netherlands. The only reason we exist is because the U.S. won the second world war, and…

This kind of thinking leads to war. What I'm saying is that if we really want to create peace, we should think about peace. Not attacking. It doesn't matter who is attacking. If somebody is doing it, then it leads to more of this action.

Sorry for offending you, was not my cause. Just trying to see why somebody would think they should show force even though they are a new country and they have the possibility to act differently than we have done before.

I understand this is not a popular view, as we are being taught that we are "naturally" violent and warmongering race of beings, but I do not feel it is true. I feel it is something that is taught, and something that can be taught out of also.

Post reply on HN