How much do you think it cost Roald Amundsen to send a telegram to Norway (from Canada) in 1906? He had just successfully navigated the North West passage so he had a lot to say - 1,000 words to be precise but how much... in US dollars.
Answer. $755.28 Image
That's $23,211.35 in modern money.... for a telegram
And on that bombshell I'm opening a can of beans
Amundsen was an absolute legend by the way. I'm getting quite obsessed as I read more about him. Especially his early life.

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More from @Otto_English

11 Nov
Either Nick Fletcher, Conservative MP for Don Valley, really likes this photo or... he's managed to strike exactly the same pose, in exactly the same clothes 11 months apart. #DanHannanSpecial ImageImageImage
Thanks to @Tsar_Nicholas for the spot
It's been pointed out to Fletcher but he's clearly styling it out
Read 5 tweets
27 Oct
What's tallest?
To clarify... not from sea level. The actual height of the structures.
I had a super enjoyable row with my teenage kids about this earlier as we roamed... will give answer later
Read 6 tweets
17 Oct
We - like millions - obeyed the rules last Christmas. It was tough. My sister was up the road, my mum had just died, we all wanted to meet up. But we stuck to the rules - for the benefit of all. Then again... we're the little people aren't we.
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
He's "doing his best" or something
If you think otherwise. It's you they hold in contempt. They think you're thick.
Read 5 tweets
17 Oct
Long read on how British black propaganda and fake newsletters helped spark one of the worst atrocities in post war history. The events of 1965-66 in Indonesia and the purge against the PKI is little known here. Our part in them hardly known at all.
theguardian.com/world/2021/oct…
Undoubtedly the History Reclaimed lot will just ignore this stuff.
In my twenties I bizarrely found myself talking to Margaret Thatcher at a drinks party and somehow the subject got onto this. "The problem with Indonesia is that it was never colonised by the British!" She declared loudly at me - and having drunk enough I politely corrected her.
Read 4 tweets
16 Oct
Sounds impressive doesn't it. Cecil Rhodes the liberal who wanted to give "indigenous people" the same rights as white colonisers.

But take 30 seconds to fact check it and it falls apart like delicate tissue in a hot power shower.
Cecil Rhodes.... the reformer...
I went to school in Rhodes' hometown - Bishops Stortford - and they and we were all - then - very proud of him. The son of a small market town who had conquered Africa. I remember a very forthright teacher angrily lamenting the fact Rhodesia was being renamed Zimbabwe.
Read 5 tweets
16 Oct
This is so toe curlingly embarrassing.
Started Going
Seems he was offered the job so can't blame him for announcing it and updating his linked in.
Read 4 tweets

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