For over a thousand years Easter Island was home to a thriving civilisation until ecological disaster nearly wiped them out. Michael Arbuthnot, Secret Worlds, Easter Island, PBS 2015
What happened to all the trees? ibid.
On a remote island in the Pacific ocean a frightening and mysterious massacre took place: a race of stone giants carved thousands of years ago guard the shore in silence as if unable to endure what they have witnessed. The clues to the mystery remain locked behind mute lips: there is no voice to tell who carved the giants and why hundreds of them were destroyed in the Easter Island massacre. In Search of s1e17 … The Massacre of Easter Island, History 1977
At one time the population exceeded 10,000 … Less than 1,000 people live in the only village. ibid.
A string of 44 islands stretching over 113 miles, and they are connected by 42 bridges from Key Largo to Marathon and all the way down to Key West. Holidaying with Jane McDonald s1e3: Florida, Channel 5 2022
We were sad when we were first evacuated and moved. And then after resettling, they moved us off again because it was still contaminated with the poison. It was like we were being used in a baseball game. Kelen Joash, Bikini native
No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friends of thine own were; an man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne, 1572-1631, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII, 1624
Isolated animals became new and distinct species. Islands are natural laboratories for evolution. Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero II: Wallace in the Spice Islands, BBC 2013
Because it’s an archipelago, because the islands are within reach, it is a recipe for division of species. Every now and again one or two finches gets blown across, because that happens rather seldom, there’s time for it to evolve in a different way on the new island. Richard Dawkins, interview Darwin’s Brave New World 2009
Darwin later came to recognize the crucial importance of islands and archipelagos for his theory, and he did several experiments to settle questions about the theory of geographical isolation as a prelude to speciation. Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth p271
What are all your names? Lord of the Flies 1963 starring James Aubrey & Tom Chapin & Hugh Edwards & Roger elwin & Tom Gaman & David Surtees & Simon Surtees & Nicholas Hammond et al, director Peter Brook, Piggy
His name’s not Fatty. His real name’s Piggy. ibid. Ralph
If we don’t lose our head, we’ll be all right. ibid. Ralph
After all, we’re not savages, we’re English, and the English are better at everything. ibid. Jack
We might stay here until we die. ibid. Piggy
A snake thing. Ever so big. We saw it. When we was hiding in the jungle in the dark. ibid. Piggy
I tell you there isn’t a beast. ibid. Ralph
Bash her in! Kill the pig! ibid. all
I don’t believe in no ghosts. Ever. ibid. Piggy
Who thinks there may be ghosts? ibid. Ralph
The rules. You’re breaking the rules. Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got. ibid. Ralph
Why are things going wrong like they are? ibid. Ralph to Piggy
I gave you food and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who’ll join my tribe? ibid. Jack
You’re a beast and a swine and a bloody bloody thief. ibid. Ralph to Jack
Which is it better to be? A pack of painted savages like you are, or sensible like Ralph is? ibid. Piggy
The third largest island on Earth. Wild Borneo, National Geographic 2015
I plan to turn this entire island into ... a love colony. The Comic Strip Presents ... Five Go Mad on Mescalin, Channel 4 1983
It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719
My island was now peopled, and I thought my self very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection which I frequently made, how like a king I looked. ibid.
Oh! what a snug little island,
A right little, tight little island! Thomas Dibdin, English songwriter
A likely thing ... If it was ever intended that I should go across salt water, do you suppose Providence would have cast my lot in an island? Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Miss Prost
Fairest Isle, all isles excelling,
Seat of pleasures, and of loves;
Venus here will choose her dwelling,
And forsake her Cyprian groves. John Dryden, 1631-1700, King Arthur
What is this sad and black island?
It’s Cethera, someone tells us.
The land of our songs, the banal El Dorado of all the old boys.
Look, after all, it isn’t much of a place. Charles Boudelais, poem excerpt; viz reverse of Vaughan’s Ninth Assembly of Figures
An island is a fixed and finite piece of geography, and usually the whole place has been carved up and claimed. Paul Theroux
Fertile golden islands,
Floating on a silver sea. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world. Horizon: The Mystery of Easter Island, BBC 2003
There are hundreds of thousands of islands, each one a world in miniature, a microcosm of our living planet. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s2e1, BBC 2016
The world’s entire population of pygmy sloths is isolated on a speck of land no bigger than New York’s Central Park. ibid.
The island of Komono in Indonesia: home to dragons. Ten feet long and weighing an impressive one hundred and fifty pounds, these are the largest living lizards on the planet. ibid.
Christmas Island in the Indian ocean … ruled by crabs. Their ancestors came from the sea but most have now adopted a land-based existence. ibid.
Sicily is picture-postcard, a huge island, the largest in the Mediterranean. Mediterranean with Simon Reeve III, BBC 2018
Sicily’s rural population has been falling for decades. ibid.
Promotional shoot Fyre festival the Bahamas: The biggest event in a decade, I promise you. Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened, co-founder, Netflix 2019
Now the event’s co-founder is facing up to 20 years in prison. ibid. News
A small island in the Bahamas? It was probably the most difficult place you could do it. ibid. promotional associate
They booked the festival during the busiest weekend in the year. ibid. dude
Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison and agreed to a lifetime ban on serving as a corporate officer or director. ibid.
So when an opportunity presents itself to get out of your parents’ basement and go be part of something that’s culturally relevant, you’re going to absolutely jump at that. Fyre Fraud, opening scene, Hulu 2019
The whole thing is wrapped in sex appeal. ibid. dude
It’s an absolute circus. I don’t know what’s going on. ibid. lass
People like to see rich millennials get scammed. ibid. sceptic
So Billy goes island shopping. ibid. dude
An impossible thing to do. ibid. sensible dude
Those villas to not exist. ibid. observant dude
Giant volcanic rock walls rise up from the sea. Just how were these giant structures built and why? … One of the world’s most baffling sites. Ancient Aliens s12e23: The Mystery of Nan Madol, History 2017
Today much of Nan Madol is hidden beneath dense vegetation … An 11-square-mile complex consisting of more than 100 man-made islands standing upon a submerged coral reef. ibid.