191–200 of 356 posts
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We do not have the same king. The King of Great Brittan is not the King of Canada, they just happen to be the same person. Is the US also part of the British Empire?
Canada is no longer part of the British Empire. Neither is the US, since the end of the War of Independence. That’s what independence means.
Though empires are out of fashion , British colonies universally benefited from the British empire. The ones who are thriving today owe a huge debt of gratitude, and the languishing ones are that way because they decided not to continue the British tradition. The 20th century decline of the British empire is one of civilization's worst failures, on par with the decline of the Roman Empire.
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> The Franco-Spanish border runs for 685.42 kilometres (425.90 mi) between southwestern France and northeastern Spain. [1] > The Brazil–France border is the line, located in the Amazon Rainforest, that limits the territories of Brazil and France. The border is located between the Brazilian state of Amapá and French Guiana. It is 730 kilometres (450 mi) in length. [2] I'll be damned! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Is there a standard for measuring borders for these purposes, in light of the coastline paradox? I don't mean to suggest that there's no sensible way to do it; I just wonder if people might be using inconsistent methods sometimes, leading to not-very-comparable estimates.
In this case, the length of the border is dominated by the length of the thalweg of the Oyapock river. Using thalwegs is SOP in international law when using rivers as the natural border and the choice of river is due to treaties that are hundreds of years old.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Franco-Spanish border runs for 685.42 kilometres (425.90 mi) between southwestern France and northeastern Spain. [1] > The Brazil–France border is the line, located in the Amazon Rainforest, that limits the territories of Brazil and France. The border is located between the Brazilian state of Amapá and French Guiana. It is 730 kilometres (450 mi) in length. [2] I'll be damned! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Is there a standard for measuring borders for these purposes, in light of the coastline paradox? I don't mean to suggest that there's no sensible way to do it; I just wonder if people might be using inconsistent methods sometimes, leading to not-very-comparable estimates.
Best I can find is the CIA World Factbook [1] which lists France's border with Spain at 646 km (under "France" and "Spain", same value), and Brazil's border with French Guiana at 649 km (under "Brazil").
So, already a radical difference -- from a 45km difference to a 3km difference (just 0.5%). But there's more:
> When available, official lengths published by national statistical agencies are used. Because surveying methods may differ, country border lengths reported by contiguous countries may differ.
But there's no indication whether these particular measurements are made by the CIA using the same technique with maps of the same resolution... or, being so close to begin with, whether different resolutions would change the asnwer... or if these are official lengths derived using totally different and ultimately incomparable procedures.
So maybe it's not so cut-and-dried that France's longest border is with Brazil...?
[1] https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/archives/2022/f...
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Is there a standard for measuring borders for these purposes, in light of the coastline paradox? I don't mean to suggest that there's no sensible way to do it; I just wonder if people might be using inconsistent methods sometimes, leading to not-very-comparable estimates.
Borders are not like coastlines because they’re abstract delineations, not physical things, even though they’re frequently defined using geographic features. In this case, the length of the border is dominated by the length of the thalweg of the Oyapock river. Using thalwegs is SOP in international law when using rivers as the natural border and the choice of river is due to treaties that are hundreds of years old.
So yes, the length of the border is dominated by the length of the river, but that's just repeating the question, precisely because the thalweg is a physical thing, not a geometric delineation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there a standard for measuring borders for these purposes, in light of the coastline paradox? I don't mean to suggest that there's no sensible way to do it; I just wonder if people might be using inconsistent methods sometimes, leading to not-very-comparable estimates.
It's an excellent question. The Wikipedia citations don't actually lead to much, and there's no indication they use the same methodology. Best I can find is the CIA World Factbook [1] which lists France's border with Spain at 646 km (under "France" and "Spain", same value), and Brazil's border with French Guiana at 649 km (under "Brazil"). So, already a radical difference -- from a 45km difference to a 3km difference…
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> That said, it's unlikely that the entity currently managing .io (a hedge fund if I'm not mistaken) has the legal muscle to force ICANN to keep it in the list ICANN periodically lets anyone with $1 million create random new generic TLDs like .top and .win and .google and .hiv and .amazon and .zip - it's pretty clear there aren't any real rules or standards for TLDs apart from having money. Why should ICANN break thi…
> ICANN periodically lets anyone with $1 million create random new generic TLDs Why? Isn't ICANN non profit?
As an outsider I consider Canada and Australia - British Empire. Hard to think otherwise as they have the same king.
I'll give you another reason to consider Canada as part of the British empire. It's actually called Canada. The local Indians have two words for settlements - one word for their own settlements, and another word for the settlements of other peoples who have come to their lands. Canada is the latter - it actually means "foreigner's settlement on our land" or "invader's settlement". Interestingly, I just tried to Googl…
As an outsider I consider Canada and Australia - British Empire. Hard to think otherwise as they have the same king.
[1]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-s-secret-letters-re...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Borders are not like coastlines because they’re abstract delineations, not physical things, even though they’re frequently defined using geographic features. In this case, the length of the border is dominated by the length of the thalweg of the Oyapock river. Using thalwegs is SOP in international law when using rivers as the natural border and the choice of river is due to treaties that are hundreds of years old.
That works for smooth vector lines, like the border of Colorado, but not for rivers. The thalweg of a river is the same as a coastline -- it has the same fractal nature to it. The more you zoom in, the more it wiggles back and forth. So yes, the length of the border is dominated by the length of the river, but that's just repeating the question, precisely because the thalweg is a physical thing, not a geometric delin…
In international law (w.r.t. borders) thalwegs are not dependent on coastlines but on navigable channels with a finite precision. The boundary monuments are often kilometers apart which creates a straight line regardless of the shifting coastline (which is a much bigger problem than the coastline paradox, since rivers can change on a dime).