Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 287 posts

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#191

Post by glandium »

ghaff wrote: post #163
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…

In a prior life (i.e. 25 years or so ago), I was in Brussels for a work event where there were various speeches. The way it worked is that you either spoke English or you spoke alternating French/Flemish.

20 years or so ago, I went to the movies in Brussels. A movie in English with subtitles. Both in French and Flemish at the same time, and in many cases the subtitles were taking close to half the height, it was ridiculous.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#192

Post by hellbannedguy »

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…

Netflix will be in touch.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#193

Post by teachingassist »

csunbird wrote: post #21

> A local history enthusiast was walking in the forest when he noticed the stone marking the boundary between the two countries had moved 2.29m (7.5ft). How do you even measure that effectively? Aren’t the stones more than hundreds of meters away from each other? edit: for example, can I do that as well with minimal equipment (e.g. with just a phone)?

I'd guess this has got this level of accuracy via back-and-forth mis-translation. "A good 2 metres" (as Flemish news is quoting) became "7.5ft" became "2.29m"

Or, if you can identify where a stone has been moved from and to, you can use the pre-installed iOS app 'Measure', which always gives you a number to the nearest cm over this distance.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#194

Post by mey »

8ytecoder wrote: post #26
317070 wrote: 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...

Little video on that https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-aIzkvPwFo

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#195

Post by dkarl »

gumby wrote: post #116
elliekelly wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered moving them a few meters into France? Maybe your friend can squeeze in a Belgian living room, too.

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!

What if they find the midpoint of the bollards and rotate them around this point 18º clockwise every night for ten nights?

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#196

Post by 1123581321 »

markstos wrote: post #131
thaeli wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The easiest thing for everyone involved is for their neighbor to grant an easement for the existing driveway. That way they can keep using it, but it's with explicit permission, so the neighbor doesn't have to worry about an adverse possession claim. If they're not amenable to that, the specifics digfer by state, but usually it's a "boundary line agreement" or similar where you'd basically be buying that small sliver…

Thanks for the input! So far the neighbor hasn't been reasonable at all, so I don't expect we'll get to do this the easy way.

If they're being unreasonable, you probably can just insist on keeping it. Take a look on the expirations by state here: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/state-state-rules-ad... Good luck!

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#197

Post by gumby »

dkarl wrote: post #195
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!

What if they find the midpoint of the bollards and rotate them around this point 18º clockwise every night for ten nights?

Couldn't that risk cutting an ambiguous divot unmoored from either region? Might not be safe to step into such a zone once it developed. Could drift away into a different set of dimensions.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#198

Post by simondotau »

mey wrote: post #194
8ytecoder wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Little video on that https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-aIzkvPwFo

I don’t even have to click the link to know that it’s that episode of Map Men.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#199

Post by cinntaile »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #178
cinntaile wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good enough is not even close to native though. He was wondering about native.

Well, he was saying: > but the compulsory classes don't get you anywhere near native proficiency. And my proficiency is good enough work related and when I meet people. With no issues. What more would i need?

That's what I wrote. The original comment received a question "Do you speak both languages natively?". While not aimed at me, I addressed it for the general case. People aren't brought up with both languages and will not have a native understanding of both. 6 years of at most 3 to 5 hours a week of French in high school don't get you to native level. I don't doubt at all that it's sufficient for your needs, but the bar for native is much higher than communicating without issues when dealing with work or meeting people. Even if you were at native level, it still wouldn't mean that this is the general case.

I hope the original poster replies as well, it would be interesting to know if he knows the history behind his last name.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#200

Post by simpss »

iso1631 wrote: post #151
g_p wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK (technically Great Britain in this context) at least, there is an open dataset available from the national mapping authority (Ordnance Survey), which is called boundary lines. It contains all of the different boundary lines and borders of local authorities, parliamentary constituencies, regions, nations etc. This is all geo referenced against the OSGB coordinate system. I could see interesting challenges in…

In the UK, most freehold boundaries are available as a gml file. I'm looking at moving house and have one open right now in fact, here's a screenshot of it https://imgur.com/cX2Seow.png The white area being roads and non-registered land (mainly stuff that hasn't sold for decades and roads). It's great, I can find a unique owner for any bit of field I have a question about, the size of the plot, etc. The downside is t…

it has a small price so it becomes difficult/cost-prohibitive to use for nastier purposes.

ex, in my country forest owners get spammed and targeted by forest-management companies that want to cut it down.

Post reply on HN