Borderline fun

10 shocking border disputes that started over the most ridiculous reasons

Image: Jim Witkowski

Borders are treated seriously—but not always. From prank invasions to livestock wandering into the wrong country, some of history's most absurd geopolitical clashes are downright comedic. While most of these disputes didn’t lead to war, they certainly led to raised eyebrows, diplomatic side-eyes, and in a few cases, friendly resolutions over a shared drink.

Image: Jordi Vich Navarro

France vs. Spain, 1659–present

After the Treaty of the Pyrenees, France and Spain agreed to co-own a small island in the Bidasoa River. But how? By literally swapping custody every six months.

For centuries, Pheasant Island has switched national flags twice a year without issue—despite having no permanent residents.

Image: Felix W.

Canada vs. Denmark, 1984–2022

For nearly 40 years, Canada and Denmark playfully "invaded" Hans Island, which by the way is a completely barren rock islet, by planting flags and leaving bottles of liquor behind.

In 2022, after many years of endless border pranks (and shared liquor), the two countries finally agreed to split the rock 50/50, calling it the "Whisky War" resolution.

Image: Christopher Carson

USA vs. UK, 1859

It all started when an American farmer shot a British pig rooting in his potato patch on the San Juan Islands. This seemingly minor incident, however, sparked an international crisis that was only narrowly averted after U.S. President James Buchanan himself stepped in.

After this event, troops camped in a peaceful standoff for 12 years until arbitration gave the islands to the U.S. No human lives were lost, but still, sadly, the pig became the sole casualty of the conflict.

Image: Azzedine Rouichi

Egypt vs. Sudan, 1902–present

Due to conflicting colonial maps, Egypt and Sudan both claim the more valuable Hala'ib Triangle—and disown Bir Tawil, a barren strip of desert.

To this day, Bir Tawil remains one of the few unclaimed territories on Earth. Many micronations and would-be monarchs have planted flags there, but no one officially claims it.

Image: Vincent Foret

Belgium vs. Germany, 20th century

After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, it was required to cede vast swaths of land to other European nations. Among these was the Vennbahn, an old railway built under the German Empire.

When the Vennbahn railway tracks were transferred to Belgium, a peculiar situation arose: the railway snaked in and out of what was rightfully German territory, creating hundreds of small German exclaves entirely surrounded by Belgian land.

Image: Priya Singh

India vs. Bangladesh, 1970–2010

New Moore Island was a small, uninhabited sandbar that unexpectedly emerged from the Bay of Bengal in the 1970s, and both countries claimed it—only for the sea to reclaim it in 2010.

The long-winded dispute disappeared as literally as the island itself, with nature doing the diplomacy by sinking the land back underwater.

Image: Cristina Munteanu

Russia vs. China, 2000s

Not exactly a border dispute, but more of an unfulfilled promise and stalled partnership—a massive steel bridge across the Amur River, separating Russia and China, remained unfinished for years, stopping mid-stream due to inactivity on the Russian side.

This created a humorous situation for locals on the Chinese side, who could see that their half of the bridge was completed long ago, yet it led to nowhere. Eventually, Russia completed its half—but only after satellite photos of the disconnected bridge ends went viral.

Image: Caleb Woods

Australia vs. Rabbits, 1900s

Not a nation-vs-nation conflict, but a border of sorts: Australia once built a 2,000-mile fence to separate rabbit-infested regions from rabbit-free ones.

However, the rabbits won in most cases, either by digging under or jumping over. While the fence failed to completely stop them, it did become a bizarre national landmark.

Image: Michael

Imaginary

While there were no actual disputes here, since the territory in question is completely fictional, "Null Island" is a fun example of a made-up place created solely for cartographic purposes.

Located at 0°N, 0°E, this imaginary island is often used humorously in mapping and geographic databases, or as a placeholder for errors—a sort of cartographic joke.

Image: Stephan Seeber

Belgium vs. Prussia, 1816–1919

For almost a century, a small triangle of land with a valuable zinc mine became a "neutral" zone jointly administered by two countries—mainly to circumvent the new border policies established by the 1814 Congress of Vienna.

A flag was even designed, and over time, locals proposed adopting Esperanto as the official language, with some pushing for independence. The League of Nations eventually dissolved the territory, but not before it became Europe’s weirdest almost-country.

Debunking popular myths

Science exposed: The 10 senses you didn't know you had

Image: Merlin Lightpainting

Contrary to popular belief, our body is capable of perceiving a lot more than what sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch have to offer. Scientists studying perception have discovered at least 30 senses in addition to the five described by Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. These complementary senses are called interoceptors, since they allow us to recognize and feel our inner sensations. Join us to learn about 10 senses you didn't know you had!

Image: Ahmad Odeh

Kinaesthesia is a sense that allows us to perceive the position, movement, and state of our body, internal and external. In our daily activities, we hardly notice it, but it’s there, working for us all the time.

This process is, in turn, subdivided into two senses: proprioception —the perception of our body in the space around us— and interoception —the perception of our internal organs. But we will look into these two in more detail below.

Image: Luiz Rogério Nunes

Proprioception is the ability to perceive the position and movement of our limbs and torso, which allows us to control our body during daily activities. It is, in turn, the innate ability to discern the position and movement of body parts independently of visual information.

This faculty involves an intricate interplay between muscle memory, spatial awareness, and feedback from muscles and joints. It is fundamental to perform complex movements with precision. Thanks to proprioception, you can tell where your different body parts are located, even if your eyes are closed or you are not looking at your body.

Image: Shutter Speed

Interoception is the ability to sense our organism, providing information about the functioning or dysfunction of the internal organs. Although often underestimated, interoception is vital for survival: it helps us to maintain body balance and allows us to perceive when we are injured, when something is wrong with our body, when we need more oxygen, or to eat or drink water.

Interoceptive receptors are distributed throughout the body, usually in all the major organs and blood vessels. However, not all people's interoceptive receptors function correctly, which can cause different problems. These alterations can be due to excess or deficit; there may be a hypersensitivity that causes the interoceptive receptors to be activated with little stimulation, or they may not be triggered at all.

Image: Anirudh

This one's tricky. It is hard to define because it is a more abstract sense. In appearance, it is similar to interoception and proprioception, but it is a bit more complex. Cenesthesia is described as the awareness of being alive, the sensation of well-being or feeling sick. It is the name given to the singular set of sensations that an individual possesses of his or her own body.

In other words, everyone feels different: this unique and intangible experience of the inner self is cenesthesia.

Image: Hasan Almasi

Nociception is a neural process by which the body handles potentially harmful stimuli against body tissues. The term was coined by the British neurophysiologist Charles Scott Sherrington to describe the physiological process of pain. It derives from the Latin nocere, meaning "to damage".

This mechanism is crucial to protect the organism, as it allows us to identify and react to external injuries or aggressions. However, there are several disorders that can alter the way some people perceive pain.

Image: Liana S

Thermoception is the ability to perceive temperature and is a critical sensory function. It relies on thermal receptors in the skin, which send signals to the brain through specific nerve fibers. These receptors respond to different temperature ranges, allowing us to distinguish between cold, hot, and neutral temperatures.

Thermoception also allows us to adapt to different temperatures. But this ability varies from person to person. People sense temperature changes differently due to factors such as age, lifestyle habits, and health problems. In fact, some people with certain medical conditions like diabetes or Parkinson's, for example, may have difficulty sensing and reacting to temperature changes.

Image: Jael Rodriguez

As its name suggests, equilibrioception is the sense of balance and is one of the most important physiological senses. Basically, it is the sense that gives us spatial awareness and allows us to walk without falling. It involves the visual system and the vestibular system through the inner ear.

In humans, balance develops during the first years of life and begins to decline in old age. Some animals have this sense more developed than humans; for example, cats can walk and keep their balance on very narrow surfaces using their inner ears and tails without falling.

Image: Andy Cordery

Our perception of time is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, deeply rooted in the brain’s neurological processes. This intricate sense, called chronoception, is not just a passive recording of events, but an active construction of temporal experiences.

There are no "time receptors" in the body, so it’s not a traditional sense. Chronoception is a sophisticated cognitive and emotional process that not only has a neurological basis but also a psychological dimension influenced by age, culture, biological rhythms, and temporal illusions.

Image: Geoffroy Hauwen

Simply put, baresthesia is the sense responsible for detecting pressure changes in the body. This function is carried out by specialized receptors located primarily in the skin, muscles, joints, and other tissues.

Baresthesia is essential for the regulation of balance, posture, and proper interaction with the environment. Alterations related to this sense are associated with several medical conditions, including spinal cord injuries, strokes, and degenerative disorders, among others.

Image: leyre del rio

Not all human beings have developed this sense. It refers to the perception of smells when listening to music, or even smelling and tasting colors. In other words, it is the joint perception or interference of several types of feelings from different senses in the same perceptive act.

A synaesthete can, for example, hear colors, see sounds, or perceive taste when touching an object with a certain texture.