Global Warming.

[Crazy Wolf]

What I don't understand is the anger towards people who believe things must be done about global warming. Even if it isn't true, what's wrong with making more efficient appliances, limiting our oil use, and getting power from the sun, storms, and sea? All it does is move the money from oil people and governments into the hands of the alt-energy people and makers of low-energy products. And the government can get the money back via taxes, so I don't see what the problem is with creating a brand new industry is*...


*granted, it has been around for a while, but gummint funding could make it boom.

[Real-BadSeed]

Easter islands story is very interesting. The main theory is,.. they cut all the trees to use as rolling logs for moving the huge stones used in erecting those giant heads the island is famous for. Something they were fanatical about, and the entire population was involved in the project. Something that went on for generations.


So that leads me to believe they were praying to the brain god asking for brains. Because clearly they were lacking one...
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O.T.

Well it wont be long before its so obvious that no one will be able to deny the problem. When we have heatwaves several years in a row around the world killing lots of people..... When whole water systems dry up, for the first time ever....When we have huge unnaturally large storms 10 years in row.... When entire glaciers melt away in only few years time.

Oh wait thats already happening...

[jumjum]

Originally Posted by Real-BadSeed

..So that leads me to believe they were praying to the brain god asking for brains. Because clearly they were lacking one....

Blast you! My involuntary snort of laughter has awakened my sleeping house.


I try to remain true to my contrarian nature, and then this rears up on ABC news:
"Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks To Record Low". Measurements have only been made since the 1970's, but I don't like it. It's partly in the Canadians' back yard, so I think they've caused it. Do you have any idea how much sulfur dioxide and CO2 is put in the air from their secret Arctic Circle factories which process their satanic "bacon"? Their fault, I'm tellin' ya.

[Fuzzy Bunny]

Originally Posted by Real-BadSeed

Easter islands story is very interesting. The main theory is,.. they cut all the trees to use as rolling logs for moving the huge stones used in erecting those giant heads the island is famous for. Something they were fanatical about, and the entire population was involved in the project. Something that went on for generations.

The screwed up thing about Rapanui is that everyone has their own theory. The deforestation one is the most widely accepted, but while most people seem to agree that the change came about through man-made factors, there are literally thousands of theories, each one a little different from the other.

Quite a few historians actually believe that the moai weren't rolled on logs, but "walked" to their positions from the main quarry, which I find hard to believe but can't honestly totally discount based on what I saw there -- the idea being that they just moved them bit by bit by bit until they were in place.

They believed that the moai basically channeled their ancestors, whose cremated remains (at least of the royalty and leading families of the 7 or so clans on the island) were buried in 'ahu', or stone platforms that the Moai stood on. When resource scarceness caused massive famine and civil war, probably sometime in the mid-1400s, the moais were either toppled by rival clans, or by their own people angry at their ancestors for not helping out. As I mentioned previously, the theories on how it all came about, what it meant, and how it ended vary enormously.

The people themselves, who were originally Polynesian, may or may not have encountered natives when they arrived, but I seriously doubt it given the tiny size of the place. Something like 120 of them survived after most were killed, succumbed to starvation and diseases, or were sent to Peru as slave labor.

It's an incredibly fucked-up history, but if you ever get a chance to go visit, it's amazing. Here's some off-topic moais:

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