For five happy years they enjoyed simple lives in their straw and mud huts.
Generating their own power and growing their own food, they strived for self-sufficiency and thrived in homes that looked more suited to the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings.
Then a survey plane chanced upon the 'lost tribe'... and they were plunged into a decade-long battle with officialdom.
One for you here, Dad - from the BBCVeteran star Sylvester Stallone and his biceps are back on the big screen for the fourth Rambo film, which sees the 61-year-old don khakis to play the action hero one last time.
He may be a good deal older and craggier than when he first starred as Vietnam veteran John Rambo, but this did not deter Stallone from plunging himself deep into the treacherous jungles of south-east Asia, where the film is set.The movie, which was released in the US in January, has had mixed reviews, with Variety singling out its "unusually high body count" for criticism.
In the film, Rambo has become a pacifist recluse in Thailand who reluctantly helps guide a group of Christian missionaries to Burma by river.
When he hears of their capture by the Burmese army in the thick of a civil war, he steps in to help.
I'm sure the message here is spiritual but just for good measure, here's the trailer.
Spotted at BoingBoing - You can also see Louis Theroux and the:
Neo-Nazis , Westboro Baptist Church , Black Supremacists , Swingers, Body Builders, UFO Hunters, Apertheid Diehards in South Africa, Thai Brides, Gangsta' Rappers, Hypnotists, Televangelists, Wrestlers, Enlightenment, San Quentin State Prison.
In any country, let alone one as patriotic as the US, few actions are as provocative as protesting at a soldier's funeral.
The Phelps family pickets mourners across the country, to mark what it describes as God's revenge on the US for tolerating homosexuality.
Their actions are in the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, which numbers 71 and is headed by "Gramps", preacher Fred Phelps. The church, which is based in Topeka, Kansas, mostly comprises his extended family.
Honestly, if this one didn't come from the BBC, I wouldn't believe it: "Britain's Duke of Edinburgh may be planning a quiet birthday celebration at home this weekend, but there will be feasting and flag-waving in an isolated jungle village in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, where he is worshipped as a god..."An isolated society's first contact with the outside world can be a shock — often the natives will first assume that the newcomers are spiritual beings of some kind who possess divine powers. With time, however, it will inevitably become apparent that the outsiders are mortal and that their power comes from their equipment (or cargo). Cargo cults tend to appear among people that covet this 'magical' equipment, but are unable to attain it easily through trade. Given their relative isolation, the cult participants generally have little knowledge of modern manufacturing and are liable to be skeptical of Western explanations. Instead, symbols they associate with Christianity and modern Western society tend to be incorporated into their rituals as magical artifacts. Across cultural differences and large geographic areas, there have been instances of the movements independently organizing.
Famous examples of cargo cult activity include the setting up of mock airstrips, airports, offices and the fetishization and attempted construction of western goods, such as radios made of coconuts and straw. Believers may stage "drills" and "marches" with twigs for rifles and military-style insignia and "USA" painted on their bodies to make them look like soldiers, treating the activities of western military personnel as rituals to be performed for the purpose of attracting cargo. The cult members built these items and 'facilities' in the belief that the structures would attract cargo. This perception has reportedly been reinforced by the occasional success of an 'airport' to attract military transport aircraft full of cargo[citation needed].
Today, many historians and anthropologists argue that the term "cargo cult" is a misnomer that describes a variety of phenomena[citation needed]. However, the idea has captured the imagination of many people in developed nations, and the term continues to be used today. For this reason, and possibly many others, the cults have been labelled millenarian, in the sense that they hold that a utopian future is imminent or will come about if they perform certain rituals.
Via Wikipedia.
In the speech, Feynman pointed out that cargo cultists create all the appearance of an airport right down to headsets with bamboo "antennas", yet the airplanes don't come. Feynman argued that some scientists often produce studies with all the trappings of real science, but which are nonetheless pseudoscience and unworthy of either respect or support.
