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I remember reading a Lucky Luke comic as a kid about the Oklahoma Land Run — but I didn’t realize it actually happened like in that comic which parodied Western movies. Wow.

One day, Moon Run and Mars Run? This notion of instant free-for-all “pirate civics” seems to have resonance with ideals of contemporary libertarians.

There’s also Urbit, which to my best understanding is a digital Oklahoma managed by a priest class of computer-scientologists.

Urbit, which to my best understanding is just another ICO scam.
It could also be a Situationist action which aims to transform Peter Thiel’s money into absurdist poetry. It’s hard to tell for sure.
i hope contemporary libertarians on the moon and mars will be OK with with some of the worst rankings in everything from infant mortality to diabetes to education, because that is the legacy of this type of extremist social experiment.
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I like the French balloon guy's idea - float above, and land at noon. This is the same loophole drone pilots used to fly over national parks for a while -- they could take off outside the park boundary and legally fly above the park, as long as they don't land. [1]

I believe NPS amended their rules in 2018 to prohibit this now, but I don't have a source on that, just word of mouth.

[1] https://forum.dji.com/thread-99353-1-1.html

Nothing like beautiful, serene wilderness with a loud BZZZZZZZ from a couple of drones.

I really want to love drones for their sci-fi coolness, but drone operators are a constant source of misery.

I can't figure out what it is about drones, except maybe because [to me] they sound kinda like a swarm of bees, but when they are flying around our neighborhood I find it very irritating. All the other random sounds, people, cars, whatever, generally don't get to me, but a drone is instantly grating on my nerves.
I doubt anyone will read this followup, but I want to elaborate. After giving it some more thought, I think a large part of my irritation comes with having something hovering above me somewhere, in addition to the sound. It's unnerving.
The "Oh Joe" meme reminds me of a festival meme in Germany. One day, a guy was looking for his girlfriend with a rather old-fashioned name. He started shouting her name and others joined in.

Since they year, people shouting the girl's name has become an integral part of festival culture.

Funny, we have the same thing in Portugal.
I think many festivals have something similar. At Shambhala you often hear "Steve? Allen?"
Far and Away did a decent cinematic retelling. It'd be interesting to see something which does a more complete job.
The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
Growing up in Oklahoma, we used to play Land Run as a game in school.
My wife is a teacher, they still do this.
Great article. On how cities surge, some are planned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_community#Brazil

At least Brasilia, Brazil's capital was planned, and if I remember well, there wasn't any city/encampment/etc before. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais' capital was also planned, but I believe it had some sort of settlement there before. So some cities just happen, others are planned, and others Oklahoma I guess :)

And on the Land Run... I believe many parts of New Zealand were populated in the same manner as Oklahoma. Some land was "acquired" from Maori tribes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_Zealand

The quotes around acquired are due to the way some land was bought or negotiated. Some times Maori would receive insignificant amounts of money, or in other cases pakeha would use of loopholes, such as a law requiring the land to belong to one person. Then once the land belonged to a person, they would negotiate with him directly. Some more succinct information https://teara.govt.nz/en/land-ownership/page-1

Glad I moved that place sucks.