Well, I never!
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That’s crazy !
And that was before electronic banking so that 20 percent of their currency would have been 20 percent of freaking everything ! Big roll of the dice.
You ever get there , Ben ?
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Amazing that one lone project, proposed over 300 years ago, and which barely got off the ground, still has profound social and political ramifications today.
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Yeah, Ben, now that is interesting stuff. And quite well known in the Auld Country (believe it or not).
3 positives that may arise from a Johnson Tory election victory:
Scottish independence.
Irish reunification.
And with the 'brit-split', the redundancy of the Union Jack flag.
Which means we at least have to change ours.
Speaking of Australia, heard of this?
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2012/07/t...
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Fascinating stuff- somehow I do remember this story but the details are scant. Thanks for putting that up Facto.
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"And the bastard still won't tell me if he scored any surf."
Having been that bastard a few times, I can tell you with certainty that he didn't.
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There is a book about the people in Facto's post. Paradise Mislaid by Anne Whitehead.
A good read if little dry from memory.
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The French tried to cut through the Isthmus at Panama and failed, the Americans took it on and finished the job, "The Path between the Seas" by David McCullough is a great read on the subject, it has some really interesting content like the discovery of how Malaria was contracted. Iv'e done several trips into central America, always scored well in Panama. I used to work with a bloke who worked in the pan American highway, the section that was supposed to cut through the Darien gap but they were stopped.
A thread for things you've just discovered.