
Nicaragua Raids Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps - bjonathan
http://searchengineland.com/nicaragua-raids-costa-rica-blames-google-maps-54885
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fertel
I wonder if Nicaraguan military would have made that mistake if Costa Rica
still had its own military.

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kls
This thing that i am really suspicious about is why was a Nicaraguan army, so
close to Costa Rica a nation know for not having a standing military. I love
Costa Rica for the exact reason that they don't have a standing military, they
really do have a live and let live philosophy. I have many times thought about
"screw it all, I am moving to Costa Rica" but it is thing like this that
really concern me about doing so. Latin America has been known for it's
eternal left / right struggle and Costa Rica just seems too be to easy a
victim if the wrong people come to power in one of it's neighbors.

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icegreentea
Maybe that border area is a good training area? Training areas are typically
kinda hard to find. Have to find a place where people won't mind alot of
people with guns running around and possibly blowing stuff up.

You'll also recall a bit ago, a Swiss Army company accidentally waltzhed into
Lichtenstein, or when some British Marines missed the Gilbrator and landed in
Spain instead on a exercise.

Sometimes mistakes do happen.

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kls
Sure, there could be a legitimate reason, but given Latin America's history, I
would not blame the Costa Ricans for being suspicious.

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VladRussian
basically the Nicaraguan commander was acting inside the space of an augmented
reality where the "augmentation" was skewed. In the bright technological
future who controls the augmentation controls the reality.

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Semiapies
Or using the error as an excuse. The taking down of Costa Rican flags is
rather suspect.

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electromagnetic
Perhaps, its doubly dubious given that Costa Rica doesn't have a military...
however Costa Rica hasn't had a military in like 60 years, so the question is
why didn't they do this sooner?

IMO the taking down of flags is probably the cause of not knowing where the
border truly is. Up until recently there were sections of the US/Canadian
border where you could _accidentally_ drive into the other without going
through a passport check by making a wrong turn.

Imagine been a farmer in the middle of nowhere, why does this land here belong
to me, but that land on the other side of the old rubber tree doesn't? You
wouldn't care if you hadn't seen a government official in your entire
lifetime, you'd just go and build a house and put up a flag.

Again think of it from the PoV of the soldier who took down the flag. You're
following orders, you're told you're performing an operation in your own
territory near the border. This _is_ your country... you don't know that the
top brass isn't entirely certain that it is and that they're relying on an
American company to have reliable maps of their own territory.

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Semiapies
You're ignoring the fact that _the flags were there_. This isn't simply
putting one's own flag, it's seeing another country's flag up and taking it
down, then going, "What, we thought we were in the right place, _despite the
flags_."

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tdfx
Was I the only one who expected to be redirected to The Onion?

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jared314
The only thing crazier than fiction is reality.

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samiq
been a costa rican myself it's hard to understand the mind of this nicaraguan
leaders... been the 2nd poorest country in latinamerica shouldn't they be more
concerned about making it up for the people rather than invading another
people's land? the worst of all is having Chavez behind it pushing for a
military conflict :S

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anamax
> been the 2nd poorest country in latinamerica shouldn't they be more
> concerned about making it up for the people rather than invading another
> people's land?

That's not how politics works. Invading another country is a good way to keep
the people from noticing how badly the govt is doing.

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techiferous
See also:
[http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/02/18/britain.marin...](http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/02/18/britain.marines/index.html)

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iwr
This could be a case of a "cartographer's watermark", a purposeful error.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartography#Cartographic_errors>

also this:
[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copyright_Easter_Eggs#Exa...](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copyright_Easter_Eggs#Examples_from_Tele_Atlas_.28used_in_Google_Maps.29)

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meatsock
See also: [http://www.theonion.com/video/ospan-classic-cia-
accidentally...](http://www.theonion.com/video/ospan-classic-cia-accidentally-
overthrows-costa-ri,18056/)

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zlapper
I have nothing against Nicaragua, but they (well, their goverment) have tried
to claim San Andres & Providencia islands, which belong to Colombia...

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samiq
and here is google's official take on the issue

[http://googleamericalatinablog.blogspot.com/2010/11/aclaraci...](http://googleamericalatinablog.blogspot.com/2010/11/aclaraciones-
sobre-los-alcances-de.html)

basically what every body knows, the SLA for Google Maps doesn't cover
military actions and no country in the world should use it as the basics for a
military conflict.

yes, we made a mistake and we are fixing it.

