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Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

bbc.co.uk

181–190 of 287 posts

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#181
post #14

This is so ironic. There is already a movie (Rien a Declarer / Nothing to declare) whose main premise is a guy spending his nights slightly moving the border between France and Belgium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6MljTh0kws (This extract is French only unfortunately :( ) Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQPaxlZWu4 (With English subtitles) But, as someone who grew up less than 100 meters from this borde…

Thanks for sharing, the trailer and the clip before were very funny, saying as someone who probably knows just 2-3 words of French.

Will have to see if it is streaming somewhere..

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#182
post #14

This is so ironic. There is already a movie (Rien a Declarer / Nothing to declare) whose main premise is a guy spending his nights slightly moving the border between France and Belgium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6MljTh0kws (This extract is French only unfortunately :( ) Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQPaxlZWu4 (With English subtitles) But, as someone who grew up less than 100 meters from this borde…

One of the most complex borders with hundreds of enclaves and people living there with no clear idea on which country they belong to used to be the India-Bangladesh border. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Bangladesh_encla...

This is another interesting one. A part of Russia that sits on the Baltic Sea disconnected from Russia proper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vince Thompson is one of about 2,000 Mohawks who lives there. He's also represents the Island as a chief on the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne. Just to take his daughter to a dentist appointment and go to some meetings, he says, he has to go back and forth through U.S. and Canadian customs, waiting in line and answering intrusive questions each time. "I’m going home. I gotta report in. Then I gotta race back home, pick…

While I'm sure that's true - it is still a very popular smuggling area exactly because the border patrol is very thin.

Would it be better just to solve that by putting up stops on both sides of the reserve's border?

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#184

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?

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…

I have a very good friend from Flanders. His partner is from wallonia. He told me that the word 'poopen' is nl slang in one community for 'to have sex with' and 'to defecate' in the other. This caused much hilarity.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#185

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…

How commercial and normal are differentiated? Is it possible to crack it and use in your own GPS device?

Seems Galileo has four different services that it offers. Open Service is the public service. If you understand the protocol and radio signals, you can build your own device to read it yourself.

High Accuracy Service used to be the commercial service, but is now just called HAS and is offered free of charge apparently.

Then there is Public Regulated Service for government bodies, and a Search and Rescue Service.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aaah I was going to post that :D! It stars one of my favorite comedic actors, Benoît Poelvoorde who is belgian. I'd encourage anyone with a taste for foreign films to check out "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (Man Bites Dog in english) another great movie of his (features lots of violence and serious themes, not a family movie).

> 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?

Yes, specifically it's more common that way around than the other due to the large influx of Flemish workers who moved to the coal and iron regions in Wallonia during the industrial revolution.

Most people with FR first name and Dutch last name are Walloons who probably do not speak Flemish.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about this case, but typically this is uninhabited, unimproved land that is exchanged.

Dutchie here, FTA : > wordt geklaagd over drugsoverlast, afval en naaktloperij So the actual problems are complaints about drug users, illegal trash dumping and nudism. And the negotiations only took 5 years.

>And the negotiations only took 5 years.

Yeaaaah I'm gonna point fingers to Belgium tho.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#188

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…

I have a very good friend from Flanders. His partner is from wallonia. He told me that the word 'poopen' is nl slang in one community for 'to have sex with' and 'to defecate' in the other. This caused much hilarity.

"Poepen" is nl_nl for "to defecate", and nl_be for "to have sexual intercourse".

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#189
post #92

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…

[deleted]

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#190
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be more inclined to assume it's just that nobody wants the hassle, and so it's easier to just insist it's up to the farmer.

Yeah, I read this as " just put it back where it was and we'll all forget it ever happened ".

Also, they probably want to make sure the farmer knows that it's not supposed to be moved, so that he doesn't just move it again.
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