twenty-eight years and a million words
So it turns out the famous "Easter island" statues are only found near sources of fresh water. Perhaps they were property markers for those families or groups that controlled (or depended on, anyway) the water there?
It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
—John Steinbeck, Cannery Row