Denmark to claim the North Pole

Hey, Legos bricks are nigh-indestructible. Not that it applies to anything made of said bricks.

edited 19th May '11 8:43:19 PM by KitsuneInferno

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

Legos are universally configurable and can even be used with the original sets. This is clearly a long, quiet overthrow of the world's governments by first unifying it with a common toy, and thus unifying all children ages 8+ under Denmarkian (Danish sounds too innocent) servitude.

Once they have control of the children, they will have effectively taken control of the future.

Iceland is FIRE!

And this thread is OFFTOPIC!

/forced re-rail

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

Let them do their worst. I'm not afraid of them. I eat Danish for breakfast!

Okay, TH, now you can re-rail the thread. If you think it's worth it.

edited 19th May '11 9:00:43 PM by Karalora

Does this mean Santa Claus will have a Danish Passport?

Potentially, now we'll need to pay a tariff on Christmas Presents. Such an outrage.

The Danish obviously trying to take over the world, and if allowed to succeed in the North Pole, they will then take the bread basket of conquerers: Ethiopia. Because it hasn't been conquered enough lately.

I'm Danish, and I had no idea about this. >.< Anyway... what the hell are we going to do with it? It's mostly just a big block of ice. And a couple of polar bears.

Studies show; Intelligent girls are more depressed 'Cause they know what the world's really like

^According to wikileaks, they want oil

People should read the thread -_-;

^ So do the Russians, and the Americans, and the Canadians...

You know what? We should assign ownership of the North Pole to the Republic of Cameroon. Just because.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

They wouldn't be able to hold onto that claim for even 30 days before the Russians and Americans wipe their country off the face of the Earth for that.

Or they could simply sell it to the highest bidder, piece by piece. That'd be cheaper than a messy war between superpowers anyway.

edited 31st May '11 7:09:10 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

@Major Tom: I didn't say that they don't, I just explained why Denmark would want huge chunk of ice xD

^Isn't USA officially only super power nowadays?

edited 31st May '11 7:33:15 AM by SpookyMask

Actually, as the person who reached the north pole first, Peary would give the US a pretty legitimate claim to the place.

I just hope that oil is made irrelevant before the strongest countries find an excuse to start battling over it. Some things are best left buried. Unless some kind of international agreement could be reached? Maybe make it the first company or companies that can set up there, regardless of nationality, and, rather than simply leave the profits untaxed, have the taxation taken as a global average, and sent to regional development funds and charities the globe over.

edited 31st May '11 8:36:05 AM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

I dunno, it depends on how you define "superpower", probably.

If we go by "a country capable of having a significant influence on other countries' actions on a worldwide scale", then no — Russia and China are definitely there, and perhaps the EU too (but the EU is really quite penalized by the lack of an unified foreign policy). India and Brazil are also close, but they probably are not quite at that level.

For example, returning to this thread, the U.S. cannot just go "f*** you all, I have the most weapons and therefore the North Pole is mine". It probably has enough military power to win a war against Russia, Canada and Denmark, but the economic backslash of such a decision alone would be insane, and far higher than any advantage that it could achieve by owning the Pole.

edited 31st May '11 8:57:45 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

^ If there's enough petroleum in the Arctic Basin as some of the estimates suggests*

, the economic backlash is of little consequence.

Why do you think the Russians are so damn interested in it? They have plenty of oil to export and use themselves but they want the Arctic Basin's.

edited 31st May '11 9:02:24 AM by MajorTom

I think that you are overestimating the usefulness of energy. If the U.S. had all the oil ever but no access, or difficult access, to foreign markets, it would fail hard.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Just wait for peak oil everywhere else. They'd be begging for us to explore and tap the Arctic Basin in that scenario.

All routes lead to "he who controls the Arctic Basin's oil, controls the future of Humanity's petroleum needs, one way or another." David Xanatos himself couldn't be more pleased at such a deal.

It's a bad short term strategy, as it would really hurt foreign relations.

It's also a very doubtful long term strategy: among other things, it seems likely that sooner or later an energetic alternative will be developed, and a grab of this kind would definitely increase the incentive to research it.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Major, have you missed the large amount of Made in China/Taiwan stickers dotted around?

edited 31st May '11 9:42:43 AM by Yej

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

China doesn't have 20 years to enjoy that. But that's off topic even more than talking about imperialist ambitions on the North Pole.

x3

That's why they're playing this gambit today. Denmark knows they couldn't fight the two big powers, but by setting up a table, they can get a larger share of the scraps.

Diplomacy sometimes involves reaching for a big piece, but then splitting it, just enough to give yourself a bit more than you would get otherwise.

edited 31st May '11 9:45:26 AM by blueharp

^ Just as often, that blows up in your face. Denmark has no real negotiation power against the likes of the Russians and the Americans.

And thus they have next to nothing to lose by starting things off.

They can either get something by convincing the two big powers to let them have it instead of the other guy, or they can accept that they'd get nothing anyway.