h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My bedroom

Yes, Polynesians arrived here at different times. The last wave of pre-European colonisation happened in the South Island where Kai Tahu came down from the North Island and assumed the dominant role here over the already existing peoples. There had been previous waves of that too.

There are marked differences between that and the European colonisations though. Colonising Maori didn't wipe out the existing cultures but in some respects merged with them or were assimilated into them. And they were largely driven by shortage of resources (food) rather than empire building.


>>There*s a US flag on the moon<<

Yes, but they haven't claimed ownership have they? Wasn't there a guy a few years back who filed for ownership of the moon (as no-one else had bothered) and was selling of parcels of land there?

The existing wildlife, on the other hand...

Yes. The Lunar Cheese Louse was driven to extinction after astronauts mistook them for golf balls.

How did the Pirate Bay guys get on with their plan to buy Sealand and operate it as an independent nation?

No-one recognises them. Their national bank is an account on a UK high street. But, they did survive an invasion by vikings.

I read an interesting story about disputed land recently. When the Berlin wall was built, there was a piece of East Berlin which would have been too awkward to build the wall around, so the wall just cut it off, leaving a piece of East Berlin on the western side of the wall.

It was cut off from the East, but the West were afraid to use it for diplomatic reasons and the reaction it might provoke. So two Turkish brothers just claimed it for themselves and used it as a plot of land to grow vegetables. It was the only part of Berlin were east and west were undivided. It all went well, until the brothers had a fight...and built a dirty big fence down the middle to split it in two.

Two questions about Bir Tawil:
- Are there enough people there to form a footie team?
- If so...by how much would they gub Scotland?

Just read that Tonga was never formally colonised and has never been invaded since it was founded as a nation-state.

Does it fit the bill MB?