Slashdot Mirror
Canada and Denmark using Google as Battleground
TedRiot writes "Canada and Denmark are fighting over Hans Island using Google as battleground. A quick search of 'hans island' revealed a paid advertisement with the banner headline: 'Hans Island is Greenland. Greenland natives have used the island for centuries.' The ad was linked to the Danish government's foreign affairs web page with the letter condemning Graham's visit. Toronto resident Rick Broadhead placed a Google ad and said the Canadian government needs to get with the times." Reuters has coverage as well.
Searching for "hans island" (both with and without enclosing quotes) returns nothing as described in the summary and articles.
The first hit is an over-2-year-old Maritime Affairs (Canada) articleexplaining why Hans Island is (or should be) Canadian Territory. (Actually an interesting read...)
The second hit is the Wikipedia article.
In fact, the supposed site(s) is nowhere in the first page of hits.
Or the second page.
The news hits refer to Google supposedly having these ads, but that reference is somewhat circular, since I can't find the paid advertisement, banner, or site in question anywhere on Google.
The sponsored (ad) links on the right sidebar include a Web Design ad, and the marginally entertaining:
Hans Island - Dispute
Why Worry about Hans Island When
What you need is an Ergonomic Chair
www.ergo4me.com
A search for "Hans Island is Greenland" returns nothing but...you guessed it, the news articles claiming there's a paid site on Google that says "Hans Island is Greenland." Likewise for "Hans Island is {Canadian|Canada}." Now, I'm not saying the articles are lying (and perhaps Google pulled the ads for some reason), but since this article is exclusively about how the battle for Hans Island is being taken to Google, and is entitled "Politics: Canada and Denmark using Google as Battleground", well, I'd love to see it.
Because I see nothing except someone pimping knockoff ergonomic chairs with eBay-style "searchsquatting".
And, amusingly, as I'm typing this article, I see more paid hits appearing. Google started with one. Then the ergonomic chair ad was added. Now, as I'm about to post, there is a "Hans Island is Canada" link...by vaginainstitute.com, a site apparently dedicated to, erm, researching vaginas.
i hope the danes and canada go to war over this..
with these two military powers squaring off somebody is bound to lose an eye
CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!!!
Canada being soft I understand, but Denmark? These people used to be Vikings, shessh!
I say the settle it with a friendly game of Risk and call it a day.
insert inflammatory anti-microsoft comment here
As a Canadian, I must admit I've never heard of this debate until now. I find it intriguing, but even more so is the nature of the argument. Now perhaps its just me, but does it not remind you of two siblings fighting over a small toy?
Except on a grander scale.
Hans Island belongs to Greenland
5,200 results
Hans Island belongs to Canada
39,500 results
What are they gonna do with Google, search for locations to fight at? :)
Fallout 3 will suck.
It's 1.3 square km. in the Arctic. The only good use for that spot is another Starbucks.
I can confirm that the ad does show up. the link goes to here.
What I feel bad about is the fact that these ads were placed by citizens of their respective countries. Now that slashdot will be battering the click-through into oblivion... at $.05 a click...
might get mighty expensive...
It's an unhabitable island. Can't even get to it during the winter and it's really tiny.
What do they want from it exactly?
And all this time when they said "future wars will be fought by computer", I had a totally other idea in mind.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I wonder if the publicity (and slashdotting) forced the Google ad. over it's daily limit? (For those who don't know, when you buy a Google ad. you specify how much you want to pay for clicks per day -- go over that limit and your ad. doesn't appear.)
Hmmm...now to "research" the vaginainstute.com ad...
it is the surrounding waters that are important. If you own a tiny spec of an island, then you can claim 200km or economic sea waters around it. This area may contain oil, manganese nodules, fish, whatever. One example is a tiny little French island in the middle of the Canadian oil fields off the coast of Newfoundland. Canada doesn't want that to happen again. As the sea ice keeps melting, the northern tundra and sea passage becomes more important. Canada has to enforce its authority there.
Oh well, what the hell...
Get your friggin' Hans off our island, okay?
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
'Twas a bitter day, that day they came,
Canucks and Danes, both ready to say,
"This isle is ours, so piss off you jerks,
Or we'll Google and Slashdot the entire works!"
Well, Canada blustered, and Denmark stomped,
And some nerdie netizens submitted the lot,
To Google fine, that online star,
To win an island that could fit in a jar.
When it came to blows, aye those blows did ring,
As North Atlantic seals all gathered to see,
These crazy goddamn bastards fight for Hans,
The most ludicrous, uninhabitable chunk of land.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
As another Canadian recently returned to Canada, I can tell you why they're fighting over it -- however stupid the whole notion is.
We are fighting with the Danish over this to enforce our sovereignty. Unfortunately, like private arena disputes over copyright, failure to exert sovereignty means you effectively cede control over an area. Lose it if you don't use it, more or less.
We actually have a First Nations military unit dedicated to looking after our interests in remote northern communities.
You can read an entertaining article about the Canadian Rangers here.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
This battle is not merely over tiny little Hans Island. It is part of the positioning of Arctic countries, including Canada and Denmark (via Greenland), for access to the Arctic Sea. The Sea is now clearly destined to remain navigable for most, if not all, of the year, due to Greenhouse warming that has melted over 40% of the previous Summer ice. At 9% melt per decade, already begun, many ohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_passagef us will live to see the European "holy grail" of the Northwest Passage finally gained. The more national territory around the circle, the easier it will be for ships to travel under that nation's "protection". Subject to its rules and taxes, of course.
--
make install -not war
Yeah... Just did another google and it did not show up for me. hmm. Just curious, but is this the first slashdot story covering a google ad? I wonder if there is a precident for google to immediatly take down the ad if suddenly hundreds of thousands geeks start plowing their way into it. :)
As another Canadian, I'm far more concerned by the USA's refusal to recognise the water between Canadian Arctic Islands as internal waters of Canada. This has resulted in a few environmental and militaristic shinnanigans.
Here's hoping no one finds oil off the coast up there.
Who else would be so stupid as to vote a guy into office who was dubbed "the butcher from the Golan heights" when he was running against a Nobel Peace Prize winning man?
This is actually far more important than siblings fighting over a toy.
For one there is a natural resources issue. There are billions of barrels of oil buried along the north slope of Alaska and Canada not too far from this island.
Second, and possibly more importantly, there is a key territory issue. The polar ice caps are melting and it is predicted that within the next 50 years they will have melted enough to allow circumpolar shipping routes to open through the arctic. The country who controls the waters this route passes through effectively controls the route and will therefore own what will likely be the worlds most important shipping lane. (Europe to west coast USA, and Europe to China/East Asia) The idea here is that this route will pass within the territorial boundary marker of Hans Island. Denmark has far more to lose in this regard, because without Hans Island their westernmost border is Greenland which is nowhere near the upcoming shipping lanes. Canada on the other hand will probably get a piece of the pie either way.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
In case you are wondering where this is.
8 6&spn=0.015675,0.101435&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=80.827952,-66.6471
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
ANY MOVE THAT INFRINGES UPON CANADIAN SOVERIEGNTY SHOULD BE MET WITH THE GREATEST OF FORCE AGAINST THE DANES.
THE DANISH GOVERNMENT HAS ATTEMPTED (without success) TO INVADE CANADA A TOTAL OF THREE TIMES IN THE PAST 15 YEARS. It is bad enough that true and proud Canadian culture is being ENCROACHED UPON by less than tasteful americanism, but to be invaded by WARSHIPS is UNACCEPTABLE.
Here are somethings that we can do to protest the Danish government and it's hostile actions:
- Rename danishes to Artic Freedom Delights and boycott resturants like Tim Hortons if they do not abide.
- Burn Hans Christian Anderson books
- If you haven't already, boycott Metallica, which you should be doing anyways because of their unwaivering support of the RIAA.
- Fight against danish lies. It was an ITALIAN who discovered electromagnetism. But Danish propaganda fooled most of the world.
- Declare PHP a Canadian invention. The Danish Government doesn't want you to know this, but Mr. Lerdorf WAS A CANADIAN CITIZEN.
These are all peaceful political protests, but we Canadians should be ready to face the reality of the situation. After all, the danes did try to invade Canada at least three times. We still have to explore all diplomatic possibilities, but if you are a proud Canadian, when the time comes, you will take up arms to defend the Great North from the invaders. This is the Cold War of the 21st Century. CANADIAN INTERESTS AND SOVEREIGNTY MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS.
OH CANADA, I STAND ON GAURD FOR THEE
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
It's not the island by itself that is important to these two nations - the important point is that the island grants the nation maritime territorial rights.
The Danes say the countries' history of friendly relations should not be subjected to periodic squabbles over a frigid rock barely larger than a football field just south of the North Pole.
At least it's accurate; they could have said something really stupid like "just west of the North Pole".
The territory was unclaimed prior to 1985,
Allowing a European nation (denmark) to effectively claim new territory in waters of North America violates the Monroe Doctrine. While Canada is not a very good claimant its the only claimant that is compatible with US interests. If Greenland were independent it wouldnt be an issue, but I dont like the idea of Canada being forced to cede territory in North America to the EU(denmark).
The solution to this territorial dispute is really quite simple.
Canada should build a permanent settlement on the island - a humble cabin equipped with a satellite dish, diesel fuel tanks, a generator, and a large store of rations.
Some lucky private from the Canadian armed forces would be dispatched to guard the island in 3-month shifts, equipped with lots of pornography and a 50 calibre machine gun to scare off any encroaching Danish helicopters.
+5 insightful?! Misinformed at best.
For one there is a natural resources issue. There are billions of barrels of oil buried along the north slope of Alaska and Canada not too far from this island.
Look on a map? Here's one. That white spec is Hans Island, in the sound between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. Now zoom out and check the distance to the Canadian-Alaskan border where the oil. It's pretty damn far. (Yes, the distance is distorted in this projection, but it's still about half the width of the USA.)
The idea here is that this route will pass within the territorial boundary marker of Hans Island. Denmark has far more to lose in this regard, because without Hans Island their westernmost border is Greenland which is nowhere near the upcoming shipping lanes.
This is complete nonsense. Again, Hans Island is in the sound between Ellesmere island and Greenland. Not Baffin Island. It is not anywhere near the North Western passage. (Heck, the island isn't even in-frame on Wikipedia's map)
And Denmark hasn't made any claim to the Northwest Passage anyway. The USA has though. (Or rather, the USA does not recognize it as Canadian waters)
This whole thing reminds me of the Terry Pratchett novel Jingo.
Overnight, an island basically pops up out of the sea, right smack-bang equidistant between Klatch and the city-state of Ankh-Morpork, and suddenly everyone's arguing about going to war to "knock johnny foreigner" off of their bit of land.
Damn shame there's no roundworld equivalent of Sir Samuel Vimes who's going to go and arrest everyone forcing the argument over this for "disturbing the peace", "loitering with intent to cause an affray" (occupying the island with troops), and basically throw the dickheads claiming it as their own into prison for 30 days.
It would be nice if Hans Island just sunk into the ocean and disappeared. Wouldn't the people claiming the place as their own have egg on their faces then?
`Haha, you silly bastards lost an island!'
His name is Robert Paulsen...
No. You are so wrong at serveral points...:
You say danes cant build cars. Look at this http://www.leitra.dk/
No swedish "car" has that fuel efficiency.
Today Sweden still occupies the danish teritorys Skåne, Halland and Blekinge, stolen in the 1650's by Sweden, while the danes was fighting off germans from our borders, so dont talk about occupation
I remember some years ago when another nation on the american continent (these nations was btw. build by european "emigrants" (read: criminals unwanted in europe, put on boats, and ordered "Go west!")), claimed ownership of an island owned by a european country...
Today the Falklands are still european ground. And so will Hans Island be.
Heh' its fun to be rude... 80P
Well quite frankly Hans Island belongs to the Inuits, that lives in Alsaka Canada and Greenland. Not Denmark, Canada or USA should claim it. I think it should be part of an international Inuit zone.
But if oil or other resources are found there, Bush will claim that the local Inuits are "lead by an evil dictator, and Hans Island produces weapons of mass destruction. We dont need any more proof than that. Its simply a matter of doing the right thing". Then it would be renamed to Hansiburton Island.