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Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#141

Post by lb1lf »

tinus_hn wrote: post #34
aetherspawn wrote: post #7

A neighbor once moved the pegs marking our block a few meters so that he could move (and claim) the neutral strip. The most irritating thing, is that he more or less got away with it because he was old and persistent. In fact, he gradually built infrastructure on it, despite hundreds of complaints to the local council and authorities. In the end the council couldn't come up with a good way to settle the dispute, so t…

This all goes well just until it goes horribly wrong and you’re forced to demolish everything you built.

...or you encounter a bit of chainsaw diplomacy: (link in Norwegian, but the photos are quite telling.)

https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/GkGJm/nabotvist-paa-ne...

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#142

Post by Turing_Machine »

macjohnmcc wrote: post #17
aetherspawn wrote: post #7

A neighbor once moved the pegs marking our block a few meters so that he could move (and claim) the neutral strip. The most irritating thing, is that he more or less got away with it because he was old and persistent. In fact, he gradually built infrastructure on it, despite hundreds of complaints to the local council and authorities. In the end the council couldn't come up with a good way to settle the dispute, so t…

My father's uncle kept moving the fence between our property and his so he could drive to the back of his own property. This was an ongoing thing. I think eventually my father just gave up and let him have the strip. Now neither property is in the hands of family and no one will know unless a survey is done in the future.

In at least some jurisdictions, allowing someone to do this over a period of years can create an easement that has ongoing legal effect. You don't lose title to the land, but neither are you allowed to prohibit the neighbor from traveling over it.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#143

Post by anticensor »

smnrchrds wrote: post #132
markvdb wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I initially started writing half an encyclopedia here, but I scrapped that. Some random bits: - There's rather limited contact between the linguistic communities of Belgium. - Knowledge of nl is generally extremely limited in Wallonia. I have a feeling it's improving a bit, even if nl is not obligatory in education there. - Knowledge of fr is clearly worsening with the youngest generation in Flanders, even if fr is o…

Thank you for this information. What are ber, ln, and ku?

ber: Berber

ln: Bantu Lingala

ku: Kurdish

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#144

Post by Turing_Machine »

koheripbal wrote: post #120
ilamont wrote: post #57

If you want to see a messed-up peaceful border situation, there is a Mohawk community straddling the U.S./Canadian border with the actual line going through NY State, Ontario, Quebec, Cornwall Island, and the St. Lawrence River. The convoluted rules inhabitants have to follow to see relatives, go to school, get medical care and conduct daily business are extreme. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akwesasne

They actually have fewer regulations and can usually cross the boarder very easily. It's one of the reasons that the area is extremely popular for smuggling.

Right. I believe that is the place where the American side was (on paper) consuming hundreds or thousands of times the normal rate of Canadian cigarettes.

What was happening was that the cigarettes were being sold as export items (so little/no Canadian tax paid), exported to the American side, then smuggled back into Canada via the Canadian side.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#145

Post by jaeh »

hinkley wrote: post #92
smnrchrds wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Benoît Poelvoorde It looks like a very French first name and a very Dutch last name. Is that common in Belgium? Is there a significant overlap between the linguistic communities of Belgium?

Sometimes it’s collectively referred to as Benelux, so a name that would fit in the Netherlands does not surprise me. It does throw me when some documentary interviews a Frenchman with a very German last name. Until I find out he lives in Alsace. That area traded hands so many times. There are some French names on the other side of the border too, I’m told. And isn’t “Austria” just a mistranslation of the German for…

During the second world war, Austria was called "Ostmark", not österreich.

And yes, "we do not talk about that" since the war ended, the Myth that we were the "First Victim of the Nazis" still perpetuates, at least in the Generation of my Grandmother (who is 94).

The only austrian resistance when the nazis entered in 1938 was a Group of International Brigades that had returned from the spanish Civil War and they all got slaughtered. You likely will not find that in a lot of history books either, somehow the ~80.000 international Volunteers of the Civil War in Spain are rarely mentioned anywhere.

No Pasaran!

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#146

Post by gumby »

nucleardog wrote: post #127
gumby wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are serious bollards, and I think she'd rather move them into Belgium. Hmm, her husband is Belgian, if moving is involved you're right: he might want them to head into France. Perhaps they could each move one of them!

Sounds like the setup for some wacky sitcom hijinks. Marc is from Belgium, Emma is from France. When it came time to decide where to live, they couldn't come to an agreement so compromised and live on the border. But what they didn't know is that neither of them ever truly gave up the fight. Tune in for their late night heists and hijinks as they try to move into their preferred country... by moving the border! Frida…

I certainly know two people who would watch that show.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#147

Post by Twixes »

capableweb wrote: post #140
foobarian wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One does not simply use GPS to mark a spot..." I tried this at home and it turns out that easily available GPS devices have huge amounts of error, especially without unobstructed line of sight like in woods. I left a phone on a stump recording a walking trail, and it wandered around multiple tens of meters. There is value in what the surveyors do :) Although I guess they would use markers like this as references, so…

I'm unsure where in the world you are, but accuracy depends on the satellite you're receiving data from. Commercial GPS satellites (or rather the stream you receive) also have better precision than normal "consumer" ones, and one could assume military has the most accurate ones. The new Galileo (Europe) system has a accuracy down to 1 meter, while GLONASS (Russia) has something like 3 meters. The commercial accuracy…

Is Galileo online?

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#148

Post by ifdefdebug »

markstos wrote: post #61

My family farm got a new neighbor, who noticed that he technically owns a sliver of land with the first 100 feet of our gravel driveway, nevermind that we've been using it for the past 50 years since our property was purchased. I don't think anyone had noticed before, as this goes way back before GIS systems and satellite photos of property boundaries. For decades there's been a fence in the logical place between the…

Maybe related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27038094

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#149

Post by capableweb »

Twixes wrote: post #147
capableweb wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm unsure where in the world you are, but accuracy depends on the satellite you're receiving data from. Commercial GPS satellites (or rather the stream you receive) also have better precision than normal "consumer" ones, and one could assume military has the most accurate ones. The new Galileo (Europe) system has a accuracy down to 1 meter, while GLONASS (Russia) has something like 3 meters. The commercial accuracy…

Is Galileo online?

Yes. Here is the status page for Galileo: https://www.gsc-europa.eu/system-service-status/constellatio...

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#150

Post by jfengel »

hinkley wrote: post #92
smnrchrds wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Benoît Poelvoorde It looks like a very French first name and a very Dutch last name. Is that common in Belgium? Is there a significant overlap between the linguistic communities of Belgium?

Sometimes it’s collectively referred to as Benelux, so a name that would fit in the Netherlands does not surprise me. It does throw me when some documentary interviews a Frenchman with a very German last name. Until I find out he lives in Alsace. That area traded hands so many times. There are some French names on the other side of the border too, I’m told. And isn’t “Austria” just a mistranslation of the German for…

I think you're mixing it up with Ukraine, which can be translated as "border land".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%9... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine

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