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dashlane.com/hai. Ahhh islands. They’re the bread and butter of what we
talk about on Half as Interesting when we’re not really sure what else to talk about. Well, that and strange borders so what if
we took islands and border disputes and put them together. Genius! Right, so this is Canada and this is the US
and this is the longest international border in the world. This line was drawn in a time when we didn’t
have crazy things like GPS and foresight so, rather amazingly, the entire US-Canada border
up to here was originally defined by the 516 words in Article 2 of the 1783 treaty of Paris
that just described it. As a point of comparison, it takes more words
for this toaster’s owners manual to describe how to make toast than it does for this treaty
to define the US-Canada Border. This whole bit of the border, for example,
was originally defined by the words, “that angle which is formed by a line drawn due
north from the source of St. Croix River to the highlands.” Ok, so, first of all, what’s the source
of the St. Croix River, second of all, what are the highlands? These 21 words are the entire definition,
there are no maps or coordinates or anything, so the Americans saw that this lake drains
into a river that drains into what is very debatably the St. Croix River, it’s really
just the same bay as the St. Croix drains in to, and they decided that was the source
of the St. Croix. Meanwhile, the British, who still controlled
Canada at the time, saw that there were these other lakes that also drained into the St.
Croix and decided that this was the source of the St. Croix even though they were way
further downstream than other lakes that drained into the St. Croix. Meanwhile, these “highlands” were supposed
to be the split between where rivers drained into the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic
Ocean but where that was was even more debatable. This mess all lead to Britain saying the border
was this and the US saying the border was this. Eventually the two countries fought a bit
of a war and signed a treaty just settling on this as the source of the St. Croix and
this as the highland and that was settled. Believe it or not this was one of only a few
border disputes resulting from those 516 words and each and every land dispute was eventually
settled except for one—right at the very start of the border. You see, when defining who got which islands
the treaty basically said any island within 20 leagues of the US, or 69 miles, that was
not already part of Nova Scotia was American. That would include this island—Machias Seal
Island. The problem was, the original text defining
which islands were part of Nova Scotia said they were, “islands, or seas lying near
to, or within six leagues of any part… of the said coasts.” To that I retort, what? What does “near” mean? Is this near or is this near? On a cosmic scale Australia is near Nova Scotia
so is Australia part of Nova Scotia? Maybe but probably not but whether this island
is part of Nova Scotia is more debatable. You see, according to Canada’s definition,
this is “near” enough to Nova Scotia but according to the US’ definition it’s not. That’s why Machias Seal Island is claimed
by both countries. There’s some more ocean border intricacies
going into each country’s arguments that I’ll skip over for sanity’s sake but at
this point you might think that the US is in the right because it’s Canada’s maybe
claim vs the US’ definite claim but Canada has another argument for why it’s theirs—this
lighthouse. Canada, which was then still part of the UK,
built a lighthouse on Machias Seal Island in 1832 and so the island has been inhabited
fairly continuously by Canadian lighthouse keepers ever since. Meanwhile, the US has never really had a population
on the island and never said they had a problem with Canada building a lighthouse so Canada’s
basically saying, “you never said I couldn’t have it, so it’s mine.” Believe it or not, that’s a valid and accepted
argument under international law in border disputes but then according to the US, according
to even more complicated international law garbage, lighthouses are not manifestations
of sovereignty since they are navigational aids rather than actual settlements. That leads to today where the island might
be part of Canada and might be part of the US. Rather tellingly, the lighthouse has actually
been automated meaning no lighthouse keepers are needed but two still remain on the island. Unlike most lighthouse keepers, who are paid
by the Coast Guard, the Machias Seal Island keepers are paid by Canada’s Department
of Global Affairs as their whole purpose is to sit around on Machias Seal Island to claim
sovereignty. Since water sovereignty is based on land sovereignty,
the big consequence of this dispute is that nobody’s really sure who owns the waters
around Machias Seal Island. The area has tons of valuable lobster and
the lack of regulations stemming from nobody being sure whose area this is has led to widespread
overfishing and so Canadian lobstermen get mad about the Americans taking their catch
and vice versa. Despite the dispute, boats from both the US
and Canada regularly visit the island with no problems or border controls so it’s almost
effectively in two countries at once. For now, Ottawa and DC are little interested
in souring their otherwise solid relationship for a little, rocky island so both countries
maintain that Machias Seal Island is theirs without doing anything to stop the other country
from doing what they want with it and it remains as the only bit of land that might be part
of Canada and might be part of the US. Just to review, if you’re defining a border
please make your definition a bit more complicated than this or you’ll lose your island to
Canada. Similarly, when you’re making a account
please make sure your password is more complicated than this or you’ll lose your account to
hackers. Of course, in addition, you should have different
passwords for each of your different internet accounts so if one gets compromised others
don’t too but remembering complex passwords for all your different accounts is tough…
unless you have Dashlane. Dashlane generates super secure passwords
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It’s probably Canadian but I bet they wouldn’t fight us for it
don't hate me for being a skeptic/twisted, but if people started showing up at this island with a mid-wife and giving birth, would it not be an easy way to get passports of both the countries for the new-born child?
Set up a joint-occupation treaty and allow for both US and Canadian citizens to travel and live there, visa free. Let the island self-govern to a degree, so that there won’t be disputes over which country has authority. Under clear felonies committed on the island, there would be punishments in whatever country the person has citizenship. If they’re not US or Canadian citizens, they would be held accountable in a joint country court that would put them in either country’s prison. For misdemeanors, it would be whatever the island determines to be a misdemeanor, along with the punishment.