Factoid:

When seamen first landed on the Easter islands, they were distracted by two things: all the big statues placed on various spots around the island and the fact that the island was completely uninhabitated. New research now found out that the early native tribes, the Rapa Nui, that lived on the island started to produce these marvellous statues in a sort of race of some families against other families. Nowadays you might call it a "hype". But because it takes up a lot of hard work to produce these statues, some of them weighing more than 50 tons, they needed more and more people to do it. So less and less people cared about food and shelter. Moreover they cut down every single tree on the island because they needed them to move and place these statues. So, by producing these statues, they destroyed the basis of their existence. I guess, there is a lesson in there for all of us.

posted by 123454321 at 10:53 PM