mjmooney Posted October 20, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted October 20, 2021 55 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: France's longest land border is with Brazil. OK, I'll bite. If this is some South American colony, that's not actually France. Otherwise, I don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 17 minutes ago, mjmooney said: OK, I'll bite. If this is some South American colony, that's not actually France. Otherwise, I don't get it. French Guiana Fully integrated in the French Republic since 1946 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 (edited) 19 minutes ago, mjmooney said: OK, I'll bite. If this is some South American colony, that's not actually France. Otherwise, I don't get it. can only be French Guiana .. legally its as French as wearing a beret and going on strike every 2 weeks but , yeah I'm not sure about that trivia fact Edit - snap Edited October 20, 2021 by tonyh29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted October 20, 2021 Moderator Share Posted October 20, 2021 22 minutes ago, mjmooney said: OK, I'll bite. If this is some South American colony, that's not actually France. Otherwise, I don't get it. You completely misunderstand the nature of France. What you think of as France is actually known technically as Metropolitan France. French colonies such as French Guiana are known as Overseas Departments of France. The official currency in French Guiana is the Euro, it is as much a part of France as Paris or Marseilles. French Guiana is officially in the EU and it has representatives in the French Parliament EDIT: The Island of Saint -Martin / Sint Maartin in the Caribbean is where the Netherlands / France Land border is, they have half the island each 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 On 17/10/2021 at 12:38, Xela said: he first officially registered trademark in the UK was the Bass triangle, in 1876. pedant but its actually a trade mark , two words good fact though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted October 20, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted October 20, 2021 21 minutes ago, mjmooney said: OK, I'll bite. If this is some South American colony, that's not actually France. Otherwise, I don't get it. Most of France's overseas territories are officially still France, as part of the French Republic. France did the Empire thing a bit different to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 I had the pleasure of spending a few days on New Caledonia Nouvelle-Calédonie... a tropical island in the Pacific. Euros ... French prices ... so technically I can't count it as another country I have visited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted October 20, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted October 20, 2021 1 hour ago, bickster said: You completely misunderstand the nature of France. What you think of as France is actually known technically as Metropolitan France. French colonies such as French Guiana are known as Overseas Departments of France. The official currency in French Guiana is the Euro, it is as much a part of France as Paris or Marseilles. French Guiana is officially in the EU and it has representatives in the French Parliament. Pah. Technicality. As far as I'm concerned France is The Hexagon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted October 20, 2021 Moderator Share Posted October 20, 2021 1 hour ago, mjmooney said: Pah. Technicality. As far as I'm concerned France is The Hexagon. In fairness, you should be right, and we should begin work to make it so immediately. Freedom for the Guineans! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted October 20, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted October 20, 2021 It's like saying that embassies are the sovereign soil of their parent countries, therefore almost every country has a land border with every other one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 Not only are overseas territories considered part of France, and have their own representation in the French legislature, but French people in other countries are *also* represented by eleven representatives in the National Assembly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituencies_for_French_residents_overseas French people in the UK are part of the third constituency, represented by Alexandre Holroyd, along with the rest of northern Europe: But while that's a pretty cool constituency, it is as nothing to the absolute best constituency that anyone has in democratic politics anywhere in the world, Anne Genetet's eleventh constituency, which is this magnificent whopper: Genghis Khan ain't got shit on it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 1 hour ago, mjmooney said: It's like saying that embassies are the sovereign soil of their parent countries, therefore almost every country has a land border with every other one. We’ve got a patch of land near us at Runnymede , the JFK memorial , that was gifted to the USA .. technically(well actually I think , legally )it’s US territory . I’ve not given it a huge amount of thought but wondered if someone broke the law in the U.K. and legged it there and got arrested , could they argue the case that they were illegally arrested / extradited or something ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 Been reading. The Lockheed SR71 had 4000 missiles fired at it during it's service. Not one ever got near it. Apparently it was retired, as we now have spy satellites, so there is no need for reconnaissance aircraft. This is actually untrue information, an we will always have the need for high speed, high altitude reconnaissance. Which had me thinking, what have they got now? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, foreveryoung said: Been reading. The Lockheed SR71 had 4000 missiles fired at it during it's service. Not one ever got near it. Apparently it was retired, as we now have spy satellites, so there is no need for reconnaissance aircraft. This is actually untrue information, an we will always have the need for high speed, high altitude reconnaissance. Which had me thinking, what have they got now? Lyndon B Johnson once said that the $40 billion spent on the space programme was worth every cent because of the advances in space photography and intelligence gathering. Getting the same information on the USSR by conventional means would have cost much more. In addition the information obtained allowed them to prioritise defence spending against real threats rather than predicted ones. He estimated space photography had saved $400 billion in defence spending. Edited October 21, 2021 by Mandy Lifeboats 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bielesibub Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 10 hours ago, foreveryoung said: Been reading. The Lockheed SR71 had 4000 missiles fired at it during it's service. Not one ever got near it. Apparently it was retired, as we now have spy satellites, so there is no need for reconnaissance aircraft. This is actually untrue information, an we will always have the need for high speed, high altitude reconnaissance. Which had me thinking, what have they got now? Like this bit of info, my 'guess' for now is that they would favour UAVs over manned aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 10 hours ago, foreveryoung said: Been reading. The Lockheed SR71 had 4000 missiles fired at it during it's service. Not one ever got near it. Apparently it was retired, as we now have spy satellites, so there is no need for reconnaissance aircraft. This is actually untrue information, an we will always have the need for high speed, high altitude reconnaissance. Which had me thinking, what have they got now? The SR-91 Aurora was rumoured since the 80’s but other than conspiracy theorists , nobody has seen it …. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 10 minutes ago, tonyh29 said: The SR-91 Aurora was rumoured since the 80’s but other than conspiracy theorists , nobody has seen it …. I'm fascinated by all this kind of classified stuff. I think the Aurora was actually the code name for the B2 Spirit. No one has actually seen a recent Spy aircraft, but I guess you wouldn't would you. Area 51 and the Skunk works still exist, so research and projects still definitely being developed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 13 minutes ago, foreveryoung said: I'm fascinated by all this kind of classified stuff. I think the Aurora was actually the code name for the B2 Spirit. No one has actually seen a recent Spy aircraft, but I guess you wouldn't would you. Area 51 and the Skunk works still exist, so research and projects still definitely being developed. Steve Coogan is rumoured to have done "something" as well 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) Spy satellites I have written about this on Villatalk in the past. In the early 90s I was part of Birmingham's Civil Defence Team. My job specifically related to a nuclear attack on the UK. My role was to receive data from throughout the UK and try to work out what had hit us. Part of this was based upon things like crater size and radiation levels. But I specifically remember that monitoring the amount of dead cattle in fields was a key tool to predicting if there were likely to be human survivors in an area. Two satellite photos of the same field taken minutes apart were enough to establish if it contained 200 dead sheep or 200 live sheep. That was 30 years ago. What they can see today must be amazing. Edited October 21, 2021 by Mandy Lifeboats 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 1 minute ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: Part of this was based upon thongs like crater size and radiation levels. just how big and dangerous are the women in Birmingham ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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