Off topic - the French are next
 

"Swiss inadvertently invade Liechtenstein
Company of Swiss troops marches into tiny Liechtenstein by mistake
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:41 p.m. PT March 2, 2007
ZURICH, Switzerland - What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered 2 kilometers (more than a mile) across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story, but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

"We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein, and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press on Friday.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior Ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington, D.C., does not have an army."

You know that if they had crossed the French border, they'd own the country by now. Ya' gotta keep your eye on those crafty Swiss. :D

I think I speak for all of us when I ask, "There's a Liechtenstein?"

Of course there is, silly. I've got a couple of 'em - they're great for drinking beer.

If there was a Switzerland/France war, they could use the following weapons....

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/...nch_knife2.jpg

Jurassic, how long you been sitting on that pic?

Just until it was needed......:D

Just goes to show...if you live long enough you get to use all the useless gifs you accumulate.

That's what French soldiers say about their white flags. :rolleyes:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html
Read all about French military victories! :)

Not sure what this website is, but the server at work has it blocked under the category "Tasteless"...hmmm...

And JR, thanks for the picture...interrupted my Algebra kids taking a test because I was laughing so hard!!!

Considering that it is completely a text page with no vulgarity... why? You must have French IT folks! :)

Does France have it's own version of http://www.thegreatfirewallofchina.org? :rolleyes:

Of course there is. It is a ruled by a Prince. People there speak German (well, their idea of German). It is almost as wide as DC, but I bet it has much more banks than there are in Washington.

We Europeans have also more little States: do you know about Luxembourg (which is much bigger than Liechtenstein:))? Or about San Marino and Andorra?

Ah, you can find Liechtenstein by looking quite closely to a map of Europe, just between Switzerland and Austria.

Ciao

bad link - do you mean:
http://www.kashpureff.org/TheGreatFirewallOfChina??

Hmm... not last night from my house it wasn't. Oh well.

If we blink, will we miss Liechtenstein or Luxembourg?

Also, wasn't Andorra the name of a race of people in Star Trek? The Andorrans?

Remember, Star Trek was really in the future. So, isn't it amazing that a small country grew up to an entire race of beings?

That's true. Maybe they left Earth because they didn't like the 2114 United Nations, and found a home on an unused Class M planet. They re-named it Andorra and years later, Picard et. al. comes by.

Who knew? :D

And, just as importantly, notice how Picard never shows up at a planet called "France".

But, we all knew that. :D

It could be worse. You could have Klingons on Uranus. :eek:

Rhode Island is 1,214 sq mi (3,144* km²), I believe it's the smallest of the United States. The District of Columbia is 68.3 sq mi (177.0 km²); the metropolitan area of New York City is 6,720 sq mi (17,405 km²). (Data according to Wikipedia.) If you think that DC is small, then compare with the following:

• Andorra is 181 sq mi (468 km²), located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees;
• Liechtenstein is 62 sq mi (160.4 km²);
• San Marino is 23.5 sq mi (61 km²), located between Emilia-Romagna and Marche, two regions of Italy;
• Monaco is 0.75 sq mi (1.96 km²), famous for its Casino.

And, of course, there is the City of Vatican, only 0.17 sq mi (0.44 km²), enclosed in the city of Rome.

It is very easy to miss them on a map. Luxembourg is less easy to miss, because it is 999 sq mi (2,586.4 km²).

The population of Andorra is about 67000; I don't think they have nothing to do with the Andorrans of Star Trek, but we can wait and see if they decide to colonize some distant planet. Do you know that the country is ruled by the French President (formerly by the King of France) and the bishop of La Seu d'Urgell (a small town in Catalonia, pop. 12000)?

Ciao

Never heard of it.

No, but he was born and raised on a vineyard in France.

According to Wikipedia:[geek] "According to his personnel file seen in the episode "Conundrum", Jean-Luc Picard was born in La Barre, France, Earth on 13 July 2305 to Maurice and Yvette Gessard Picard. He grew up on his family's vineyard and constantly dreamed of leaving and joining Starfleet. He was consequently bullied as a young boy by his older brother, Robert."[/geek]

On a similar note, Scrappy, do you know what Hannibal Lecter said about the French?

Ask me, ask me......

Not a chance. :p

Please?

Huh, huh?

No way. That handbasket is all yours.

Pretty please?

Huh, huh?

[handbasket on]
Ok, I'll bite (so to speak.)

What did Hannibal Lecter said about the French?
[handbasket off]

Hannibal said that they taste like chicken.

Note that I coulda said "Smells like fish, tastes like chicken" but that would have been referring to ........something different.

Yea, you could've said that, but it's a good thing you didn't.

So, you've obviously been there and back already, and now you're ready for your next trip? :D

You needed Wikipedia for that? ;)

Not for the being born in France part; but I did for all the details. My geek factor is up there, but not high enough to know Picard's birthday.