Saturday, September 21, 2013

Streaming Sunday..."Nova: The Mystery of Easter Island"


My fascination with PBS continues...

The Story:

How did all of those giant statues get placed all over Easter Island?  There's been many theories over the years, but now the crack team at Nova may have finally uncovered the truth...

Space Aliens!

No, just kidding.

Instead, we've got historians and scientists that postulate how the statues got to their location.  The old, best theory was the statues were laid on logs and rolled across the island.

That's so last century.

No, the legend has it that the statues "walked" into place.

And before the end of the episode, they are going to prove that very fact. 

They created their own scale model of one of the statues for experimentation.

While they gear up for the big moment, there is much discussion about what happened on this island centuries ago and how it came to be.  Pretty interesting stuff, in addition to the mystery of how the statues got around the island.

So they finally get to the moment of truth, and with a bunch of muscles and some rope, the statue begins to wobble.

I have to admit, it's pretty cool when they fail, because the failure actually proves they were right.

As an armchair quarterback, I was yelling at the tv going, don't put the ropes "there!"... "Move them over there..."

Thankfully, they could apparently hear me. 

:)

When they fix the way they tried to move the statue, suddenly it all clicks, and until someone else comes along with a better idea...

Mystery Solved!

Final Grade: B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Pretty interesting subject for a viewing, but I won't be rushing out to see it again in the near future.  Could revisit it down the road again for science/history with the kids though!  Still very entertaining subject.

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