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Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

So in your mind Alaska borders Texas?

Topologically, Alaska borders Texas.

Politically, since you can't walk from one to the other without crossing intervening political entities or relying on bulk transportation carriers, no.

Then again, same with Minnesota and Michigan.

Get in a row boat in Michigan. Row really hard. You can get to Minnesota without crossing any other border. And you'll come out the other side with ripped arms!

People can make the Atlantic crossing in a rowboat as well. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/uk/rowing-solo-trans-atlantic...

I suspect with the right boat someone could row from Alaska to Texas. Though it would probably take a full year.

Yeah, but those would leave US territorial waters....

That may be the real key. Michigan to Minnesota stays within US territory. New York to Rhode Island and Providence Plantation stays within US territory. Texas to Alaska does not, no matter which mode of travel you chose. Texas to New York might. Shall we go there?

It depends how oceans count as far as state barriers go.

I have to imagine that going from Texas to New York along the coast would hit a state border somewhere around Louisiana.

Your comment is a good example of a strawman.

No, it’s a serious question as topologically they do border each other. So, are they arguing being able to sail from A to B is enough or must they be sailing across freshwater etc. Borders do get drawn across bodies of water all the time, but deciding if France and the UK border each other but Spain and Italy don’t is arbitrary.

It's not arbitrary. You can get from France to UK without entering international waters, and without crossing waters controlled by another entity.

I don't think you can do that with Spain and Italy? To get from one to the other you'd have to go through French or Algerian waters I think.

And I might be agreeing with you; not sure here. Conversation went from rivers to lakes to "a coffee cup is the same as a donut" pretty quickly :)

Spain is the closest country to some parts of Italy. So, they limit each others economic exclusion zones. That said it’s close to 400 miles between them across open ocean. Further economic exclusion zones are a fairly recent and thus an arbitrary thing.

Minorca and Sardinia give you a path that avoids other countries’ waters, it seems (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Hypothetical-200nm-l...)

Land borders are also arbitrary.

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