SECONDNEXUS
percolately
georgetakei
comicsandsMost Read
President Donald J. Trump’s surprise announcement that he will seek to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports sent shockwaves around the world yesterday and roiled the financial markets. Whether those tariffs get implemented is open to debate. Many believe the reality show theatrics with which he made the announcement were intended to distract from the accelerating scandals that are engulfing his White House.
But if he really intends to enact the tariffs, which are opposed by many in his administration, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Trump campaigned on the promise of “America First” and many of his actions in the first year of his presidency have been designed to deliver on that campaign slogan.
How Easter Island's Stone Figures May Have Led to the Downfall of the Native Population
Easter Island is famous for its iconic stone heads. These statues, known as Moai, are a mystery of human ingenuity. Standing an average of 13 feet high and weighing 14 tons each, nearly 1,000 statues are positioned around the island, which is governed by Chile. Archeologists have long debated what the statues mean and how on earth a relatively small population could manage this engineering feat in the years following the arrival of the Polynesian people in 800 A.D.
"It is amazing that an island society made of 10 to 12 chiefdoms had sufficient unity and ability to communicate carving standards, organize carving methods and achieve political rights of way … to transport statues to every part of the island," said archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, founder of UCLA's Easter Island Statue Project.