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Issue 570
SNIPPETZ ASKS: DO YOU GOOGLE? by Lindsey Harrison “I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearing every authority which stood in their way.” – Thomas Jefferson Think back 20 years. If someone asked you to “google” the name of an actor in a movie, you wouldn’t have had a clue what they were asking. Today, the term has become so ingrained in our everyday language that the Merriam Webster dictionary actually recognizes it as a word. Although the official grammatical definition of “google” is a verb meaning to use the search engine Google to obtain information about something on the World Wide Web, Internet users often say they’re going to google something even if they don’t use Google to search for it. Internet users have plenty of choices for search engines such as Bing, Yahoo! and Yandex but given Google’s status as the most often used search engine in the world, they may still be choosing Google the majority of the time. Where did Google come from? The seeds of the idea that would eventually become Google began on the campus of Stanford University in 1995. The founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, met while Brin showed prospective student Page around the campus. The following year, both Brin and Page were computer science graduate students at Stanford and put their heads together on revamping the search engine. Thus, BackRub (Google’s original name) was formed. The pair operated BackRub, a “web crawler” designed to transverse the web to locate information on the university’s servers for over a year before the university kicked them off for using too much bandwidth to operate. In 1997, Page and Brin decided to come up with a more meaningful name for their search engine. They decided on Google, which is a play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term for the number that represents the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. They found this name fitting as it reflects their mission to organize a possibly infinite amount of information found on the web into one place. How it got started The Google that we know and love today wouldn’t have been possible if not for the $100,000 investment by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. Bechtolsheim wrote the check in August 1998 for a non-existent company, Google Inc. Shortly thereafter, Page and Brin moved from their digs on the Stanford campus to Susan Wojcicki’s garage. Using Bechtolsheim’s funds, they filed for incorporation and that was that. That same year, PC Magazine wrote that Google was the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Site for 1998. By 1999, the company had moved out of Wojcicki’s garage and had a whopping eight employees. By the end of the year, the company would tout a 500 percent increase in employees, bringing the total to 40. Google has a sense of humor On April 1, 2000, Google made a big announcement; however, it was completely false. The company claimed that they were launching MentalPlex, a program that would allow you to visualize your search results and the program would read your mind to show them to you. These April Fools’ Day jokes became a yearly tradition for the company. Other April Fools’ Day jokes included:
Also in 2000, Google announced that it had become the world’s largest search engine, boasting over one billion URLs (Uniform Resource Locator’s) in its index. This announcement was true and Google remains the largest search engine. What does Google look like now?
The most recently-added program is called Snapseed, which is likened to the Facebook application Instagram. Both allow you to edit, crop, sharpen, lighten, adjust color saturation and add vintage filters (just to name a few) to your photos. The unofficial numbers from the second quarter of 2012 indicate Google has upwards of 34,000 permanent employees. I want to be first! Google is a fully automated search engine, which means you don’t need to do anything to show up on a search. The program uses software called “spiders” to sift through the web on a regular basis and pick out sites to add to the index. Thus, your search results are chosen. It is estimated that almost 90 percent of people using a search engine won’t look past the first page. So how can a website optimize its location on the search results page? There is no way to guarantee a better ranking on a Google search. It is a coveted spot nonetheless because when a user performs a search, they click on the top result most often, up to 42 percent of the time. The more clicks that result gets, the more relevant the website appears to be. There are most definitely ways around Google’s ranking system, providing a site a better location when it may not be accurate. This practice is known as “black hat optimization” and is a big no-no in the world of search engines. When a Google search is performed, a series of algorithms are used to rank the most relevant search results at the top of the page, with the results becoming less and less relevant as you move down the page. One of the ways a site is deemed relevant is the amount of other sites that link to it. Google essentially measures a site’s popularity based on those links. In “black hat optimization,” a person or company pays to have links placed on hundreds or even thousands of other sites all over the Web, which ultimately lead back to their website. Based on the amount of links that site has, Google thinks the site is more relevant and the site appears as one of the top search results regardless of the true relevance to the search. The penalty? The site sinks drastically in Google’s search results. Money, money, money….MONEY As with any other company, Google has to make money somehow. The answer: ads. In 2000, Google launched AdWords, a do-it-yourself program that allows advertisers to post their ad on Google sites. Since then, Google has updated to AdSense but the premise remains the same. It is estimated that about 85 percent of Google’s net revenue comes from running ads on Google sites. Another 10 percent comes from ads running on other non-Google sites. The remaining 5 percent comes from other avenues like Google Apps subscriptions. Uh oh, Google Google has had its fair share of bad press. It was recently hit with a $22.5 million fine by the Federal Trade Commission, which charged Google with bypassing privacy settings and using cookies to track users of another search engine, Apple Safari. In addition to the fine, Google was required to disable all cookies it placed on affected users’ computers. Google Snippetz
Issue 571 - 10/8/2012
SNIPPETZ BELIEVES IN AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY! by Lindsey Harrison 
“You won’t believe on All Hallow Eve,
What lots of fun we can make, With apples to bob, And nuts on the hob, And a ring-and-thimble cake.” – Carolyn Wells With the onset of fall last month on Sept. 22, minds often wander to all things autumnal. Apples often rank right up there with pumpkins, falling leaves, cool weather and holidays that are right around the corner. And about 25 percent of an apple’s volume is air, which makes them float…and makes it easier to bob for them this time of year. But did you know that October is National Apple Month? National Apple Week was founded 1904 and later expanded to encompass the entire month of October. Naturally, the purpose is to boost apple awareness and hopefully bolster the apple industry. But that still begs the question: What is so great about the apple? An Apple by Any Other Name is…a Rose? Apples are actually a member of the rose family and sizes range from a little bigger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit, depending on the variety. There are 7,500 varieties grown globally and about 2,500 of those are grown in the U.S. With such a large variety of types, there are bound to be differences to make each type stand out from the others. Aftertaste happens to be one such difference. Some have the aftertaste of pears, citrus, cloves, cinnamon, coconut, strawberries, grapes or pineapple. It’s no wonder the apple is so versatile for cooking. Diced pork and Matian apples was the oldest recipe on record containing the apple. It dates back to the third century, although it is said to have come from the mind of a man named Apicius, who lived 200 years prior to that. Apples, apples, everywhere!! Evidence has shown that apples were discovered as suitable for human consumption as far back as 6,500 B.C. and possibly even earlier. The apple tree is said to have originated somewhere between the Caspian and Black Seas. Apples were an integral part of life in the Persian Empire, grown not only for their delicious taste but also for their beauty. The Greeks followed suit after acquiring dominance over the Persians; and following that, the Romans discovered their appeal. Cultivating them became as much an art as a science. Raising apples hit a downslope along with the decline of the Roman Empire, only to be rekindled during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century. England and France got on board with the Italians; and early settlers coming to the Americas brought their own varieties of apples. Until then, the Americas only had crab apples. Legend Has It… Aside from the apple’s voyage through time, it also appears in many different religious and folklore stories. In the Bible, the apple appears several times. Probably the most notable is the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are the first man and woman that God created. He gave them a home in the Garden of Eden where they could eat whatever they wanted as long as it wasn’t apples from the Tree of Knowledge. However, Eve is tempted by a serpent to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, hearing that it will make her more like God. She does, then gives the apple to Adam who also eats the fruit. For disobeying God, the pair is exiled from the Garden, never to return. In fact, the term Adam’s Apple refers to the lump in a man’s throat, said to be a piece of the apple he ate from the tree of Knowledge. The apple also shows up in mythology. It symbolizes desire and temptation, probably stemming from stories about Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and marriage, who is often depicted with an apple in her hand. Atalanta was forced to marry once she was beaten by Hippomenes in a footrace, thanks to Aphrodite’s help. The goddess supplied Hippomenes with three golden apples, which he used to distract Atalanta by throwing them in her path whenever she took the lead. The Story of Johnny Appleseed More recently is the legend of Johnny Appleseed. In reality, this man’s name was John Chapman from Leominster, Mass. Chapman lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s and gradually made his way to the Ohio Valley, where this story primarily is centered. It is said that Chapman was a missionary and apple tree nurseryman who made his way around the now-Ohio and Indiana regions, planting seeds, caring for apple trees and teaching farmers about apple cultivation. Supposedly, Chapman wore a coffee bean sack for a tunic and a cooking pot on his head during his travels. Did we mention he was supposed to have been barefoot the entire time…even during winter? Over the course of his lifetime, it is said that he planted thousands upon thousands of apple trees. Does an Apple a Day Really Keep The Doctor Away? Aside from the “Forrest Gump”-esque laundry list of apple foods, (apple pie, apple crisp, apple cider, candied apples, caramel apples, apple wine, apple butter, etc.), apples are actually a pretty powerful fruit. The appeal of the apple as a healing food can be traced back to (guess who?) the Greeks. It was a custom to serve apples, among other fruit, at the end of a meal to aid in digestion. The saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” may actually be a good rule to live by. Research has shown that apples have been linked to helping with weight loss to cancer to heart disease and type 2 diabetes. More recent studies are beginning to see a link between apples and apple products and the improvement of Alzheimer’s disease and possibly even decreasing the risk of developing it. What makes apples so special? Unlike many fruits, which are still highly recommended as part of a healthy, balanced diet, apples maintain much of their nutritional benefits for as long as 200 days after harvesting. Here are some of the important nutrients found in apples:
The Crowd Has Spoken With so many types of apples to be had, what are the most popular varieties? In the U.S. the top spot goes to the Red Delicious. The runner up, Gala, is followed by Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, McIntosh, Rome, Empire, Braeburn and Idared. Other Fun Apple Snippetz
Don’t Forget the Wine…or the Cider Apple cider is a traditional fall drink that is essentially apple juice that has not been strained or pasteurized for preservation purposes. Its origins date back to at least 55 B.C. where English villagers showed off their drink to the Romans. Apple wine, on the other hand, is a fermented form of cider that is mainly found in German-speaking countries and referred to as Apfelwein. The Internet likes to boast the ease with which apple wine can be made, but the lack of a fermentation bin and 4-5 weeks of patience might affect the ease of creating this drink. Issue 572
SNIPPETZ SAYS "I LOVE LUCY" TOO! by Lindsey Harrison “I’m happy that I have brought laughter because I have been shown by many the value of it in so many lives, in so many ways.” – Lucille Ball On October 15, 1951, the country was introduced to Lucy Ricardo, the loveable lead character of the television show “I Love Lucy.” Fifty-five years later, the accident-prone, fiery redhead remains a T.V. icon that can’t be rivaled. The actress behind it all, Lucille Ball, has reached a level of stardom few others will ever reach. And it all started with a failed attempt to make a name for herself at a New York City drama school. Lucy’s Humble Beginnings Lucille Desiree Ball was born on Aug. 6, 1911 in Jamestown, N.Y. Long before she donned the hard-to-ignore red hair that would become her trademark, young Lucille was a brown-haired girl struggling to find her place in the world. Her father, Henry Ball, died from typhoid fever when she was just three years old. Her mother Desiree was pregnant with Ball’s younger brother Fred at the time and had to work several jobs to support herself and her family. Desiree eventually remarried when the children were still young and moved with her new husband Ed Peterson to Detroit from Jamestown. Ball and her brother remained behind in the care of their grandparents in Celoron, N.Y. Ball reunited with her mother at age 11, and at age 15, convinced Desiree to let her attend the John Murray Anderson/Robert Milton School of Theater and Dance in New York. Ball was no star pupil, constantly being upstaged by fellow student Bette Davis. Several accounts indicate that Ball’s mother was encouraged to remove her daughter from the school because Ball just didn’t have what it took. While her time at the drama school did pose a setback, Ball didn’t let it defeat her. She used her looks and the name Diane Belmont to secure modeling jobs in New York after returning from Celoron, but was forced to go back when she developed rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 17. Her mother nursed her back to health, a three-year period in which Ball had to relearn how to walk. Ever the persistent woman, Ball headed back to New York where she finally secured a part as a Chesterfield Cigarette Girl. In 1933, Ball had her first on-screen appearance as a walk-on in Broadway’s “Thru a Keyhole.” That same year, she was cast as one of the 12 Goldwyn girls in the Eddie Canter movie “Roman Scandals," directed by Busby Berkeley. After that, Ball acquired her first speak role in 1935 and the lead in a project in 1936 that never made it to Broadway due to the sudden, untimely death of the lead male actor. For the next 15 years, Ball remained in the periphery of the television and film industry. Enter Desi Arnaz It is said that when Ball met Cuban-born actor/musician Desi Arnaz in 1940, her dress was torn and she had a black eye after shooting a fight scene for the movie in which they both appeared, “Dance, Girl, Dance.” Arnaz didn’t notice her until after she had gussied up a bit and threw on some makeup. He is quoted to have said, “That’s a hunk o’ woman.” Ball is quoted to have said, “It wasn’t love at first sight. It took a full five minutes.” Just a few months later, the couple married at the Byram River Beagle Club. Both Ball and Arnaz lied about their ages on the marriage certificate, with Ball claiming to be younger and Arnaz claiming to be older. Arnaz was just 23 when they married, while Ball was 29 and at the time, it was a social faux pas for her to be older than Arnaz. Two years later, Ball became a redhead, and the color would become her signature in the years to follow. Those years were rough on the young couple, whose schedules often had them on opposite sides of the country. Deciding the best way to save their marriage would be to work together rather than separately, the couple negotiated with CBS to turn the radio comedy “My Favorite Husband” into a television show. Ball, who had the starring role in the radio comedy, refused to be a part of the show without Arnaz. In 1950, CBS eventually caved, signing over the rights and creative control over the series to the couple. Ball and Arnaz formed the production company Desilu Productions and the following year, “I Love Lucy” debuted. For the six years the show aired, it never ranked lower than third in the ratings scale. Breaking Down Barriers “I Love Lucy” was an innovative show in more ways than one. It was the first show to use the three-camera production technique that is still used in sitcoms today. This technique calls for overhead lighting which eliminates the need for filming to be stopped in order to adjust the lighting when using various camera angles. With no stop-start to the filming, the show was able to be filmed in front of a studio audience for the first time in television history. The show also featured the first interracial couple, compliments of Arnaz’s Cuban roots. And the couple also highlighted rather than downplaying Ball’s real-life pregnancy with their son, Desi Jr in 1953 (their daughter Lucie was born two years prior). The couple incorporated the pregnancy into the series, which was the first time in history that an obviously pregnant woman was playing a pregnant woman. The word ‘pregnant’ was still yet to be allowed in telecasts such as this. Ball was the first woman to head a production company (Desilu Productions), which produced several well-known series such as “Star Trek,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” She eventually bought out Arnaz after their divorce in 1960 and the company was officially hers alone. The Woman Behind The Genius Ball was the antithesis of her character in “I Love Lucy.” She is said to have been serious, level-headed and a perfectionist to the core. Television audiences were none the wiser, thanks to meticulous scripting on the part of the writers. While viewers saw antics that appeared to have been ad-libbed, in reality Ball rehearsed each scene to perfection. Her on-screen partner in crime, Vivian Vance who played Lucy’s best friend Ethel Mertz, mirrored Ball’s perfectionism and the pair were often said to have overcome mediocre writing with their seemingly off-the-hilt acting abilities. Ball’s divorce from Arnaz was followed by her marriage to Gary Morton. While she continued acting in several different sitcoms such as “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy,” none achieved the infamy that came with “I Love Lucy.” Three years after her last role as a homeless woman in the made-for-TV movie “Stone Pillow,” Ball suffered a ruptured aorta after undergoing open heart surgery. She died April 26, 1989. Lucy Snippetz
Issue 573
SNIPPETZ RISES TO THE TOP. GOING UP?: ELEVATORS by Lindsey Harrison 
“If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the Up button.”
– Sam Levenson Chances are, if you have ever gone to a hospital, office building, hotel or any building consisting of more than two floors, you’ve taken an elevator. For some, this means a convenience that is often taken for granted. But for Snippetz, it’s a chance to wow you readers with a wealth of elevator knowledge that might leave you taking the stairs or might make you look at your next elevator ride in a whole new light. In September, Snippetz took a look at skyscrapers and naturally elevators came on our radar. But what’s the deal with elevators anyway? How did someone decide that a little metal box that moved people from floor to floor was even possible? Well, here’s how. Developing the technology They don’t exactly qualify as the elevators we know and love today, but as far back as 2900 B.C., it is theorized that primitive lifting mechanisms were used to build structures such as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Around 236 B.C., the Greeks threw their hat into the ring with the development of the Archimedean screw, invented by none other than mathematician, physicist and inventor Archimedes. The device utilized a crank to lift water and other light materials to otherwise unreachable heights. In 100 B.C., teams of men powered a crane with a block and tackle device that was used to lift the materials used to build the Tomb of the Haterii in Rome. Developing the material An advance in metallurgy (a technique discovered a few thousand years earlier) lead to combining copper and tin to produce a stronger product – bronze. The possibility of creating systems able to handle much heavier loads thanks to stronger components was no longer just a pipe-dream. It wasn’t until between 2500 and 1000 B.C. that iron came on the scene in the Middle East, providing yet another milestone in the development of structures such as elevators. Modern elevators are constructed using steel which was discovered in India but through the years the crucible steel technique was lost. In 1740, Benjamin Huntsman of England rediscovered the technique and developed Sheffield steel. Who developed the modern elevator? Aside from the 19th century systems developed for hauling materials in factories, mines or warehouses, an “ascending room” designed to take paying tourists to a platform above London was developed by two architects, Burton and Hormer in 1823. With public safety and peace of mind at the forefront of his inventions, along came Elisha Graves Otis in 1853. While Otis didn’t invent the elevator, the braking systems used in modern elevators were his design. Those systems increased public confidence in the elevator and without them, it is unlikely that passengers would have climbed into the first public elevator in 1857. The elevator was installed by the Otis Elevator Company (owned by none other than Otis himself) in a five-story department store owned by E.W. Haughtwhat & Company of Manhattan. In 1880, German Werner von Siemens built the first electric elevator. How does it all work? At its core, an elevator is simply a compartment attached to a system that raises and lowers it. Naturally, there are many other elements such as safety devices and control mechanisms necessary to make a modern elevator run (and for passengers to feel safe enough to ride in them!). There are two major elevator designs used currently: hydraulic elevators and roped elevators. Hydraulic elevators Hydraulic elevators use a hydraulic ram to lift the car (the compartment you ride in). The ram is simply a fluid-driven piston mounted inside a cylinder that moves up and down to move the car. Typically, the fluid used is oil. A pump, powered by an electric motor, forces the fluid from a holding tank into a pipe that leads to the cylinder. If the valve is open, the fluid will run the system taking the path of least resistance and head back to the tank. But if the valve is closed, the fluid can’t move back into the tank and instead is forced into the cylinder, causing it to fill and push the piston upward, making the elevator car ascend. In order to keep the car from rising past the floor the passenger wants, a control system sends a signal to the motor to gradually shut off the pump, decreasing the flow of fluid into the cylinder. The fluid already in the cylinder can’t get out, but no more is coming in so the piston and the car come to a stop. The weight of the piston and the car together help the system work in reverse so that the car can move back down the elevator shaft. The valve is opened by a solenoid switch so that the fluid can move back into the tank and piston and car descend. To keep everything from slamming into the floor, the control system closes the valve to cushion the landing. Roped elevators In this most popular design, the elevator car is raised and lowered using traction steel ropes. The ropes are attached to the car and looped through a grooved pulley called a sheave. The sheave grips the ropes so when the sheave moves, the ropes move with it. The sheave is powered by an electric motor so when the motor turns one way, the sheave raises the car. When it moves in the other direction, the sheave lowers the car. The ropes are also connected to a counterweight that hangs on the other side of the sheave. The counterweight will perfectly balance with the elevator car when the car is about 40 percent full. The purpose? With a perfect balance on either side of the sheave, it takes very little force to tip the balance and make the car move. Both the car and the counterweight run on guide rails attached to the sides of the elevator shaft to keep the car from swinging side to side. Now, are they safe? Aside from systems that monitor the speed of the elevator car to determine if it’s moving too fast, elevators are equipped with other safety backups. They include: electromagnetic brakes; automatic braking systems at the top and bottom of the shaft; and (if all else fails) a heavy-duty shock absorber system at the bottom of the shaft, just in case. Contrary to what movies may have you believe, the only known occurrence of an elevator car falling due to a snapped cable (aside from a fire or structural collapse) happened in 1945 when a B25 Bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. One engine of the bomber flew into the shaft and landed on the elevator car, causing the cable to snap and the car to fall. The car was slowed marginally by the safety devices but somehow both women inside the car survived. Elevators are said to be safer than cars. On average, 26 people die in elevators each year in the U.S. The same number of car deaths is reported every five hours. Most of the elevator-related injuries occur to the people who install and maintain them. Other fun elevator snippetz
Issue 574 - 10/29/2012
SNIPPETZ IS ALL WRAPPED UP WITH MUMMIES! by Lindsey Harrison 
“Hark! Hark to the wind! ‘Tis the night, they say, when all souls come back from the far away – the dead forgotten this many a day!”
– Virna Sheard It’s that time of year again, when ghouls and goblins of all shapes and sizes wander the streets on Halloween night in search of tricks or treats. Among them, you’ll probably find a mummy or two. The process of mummification is enough to make your skin crawl, but the idea of a corpse wrapped in linen lurching around in your front yard might make you reconsider leaving your porch light on for trick-or-treating children. Snippetz digs in to find all about mummies and possibly shed some light on this ancient ritual for the dead. Why, oh why, did they mummify? Although mummification has taken place all over the world, both intentionally and unintentionally, most people think of the Egyptian variety. However, the first mummification rituals took place in northern Chile by the Chinchorro people. The process was drastically different from the Egyptian rituals, and the motivation was believed to be more for the families of the deceased. Evidence indicates the mummified bodies were kept as statues, possibly as a way to honor the memory of their loved one before it was buried. The Egyptians used mummification as a way to preserve the lifeless body in the most life-like way possible. The reason? Egyptians believed the mummified body was the home for the person’s spirit which is identified by three specific parts – the Ka, Ba and Akh. Each part of the spirit was equally important to the Egyptians. The Ka is said to be linked to the physical body of the person in life, thus it is linked to the corpse in death. If the corpse is destroyed, the Ka is destroyed…and that’s bad. For Egyptians, preserving the corpse ensured that the spirit, in its three parts, would live on. Without the corpse, there is no spirit and there is no life beyond death. The evolution of Egyptian mummification Mummification is just like any other activity in that it evolved into a better, more advanced and effective process through trial and error. In the beginning, it is said that Egyptian mummification came about by accident, when they buried their dead in the hot, dry desert sand. With no casket or similar type of container to provide the necessary environment for decomposition to occur, the bodies dried out and were preserved in a relatively life-like form. Eventually the Egyptians became concerned about the state in which their dead were “living,” fearing that they were not comfortable just lying under a bunch of sand. They constructed boxes made of wicker (and eventually wooden boxes) to make the corpse more comfortable, but they soon came to realize that without the dehydrating properties of the dry, hot sand, decomposition occurred. Their loved ones became skeletons and that’s not what they wanted. Through trial and error, the Egyptians eventually learned how to mimic the preservation that the hot desert sand provided, giving them a way intentionally and effectively to preserve their dead. They realized that decomposition begins inside the body starting with the organs. In order to keep the organs from decomposing, they simply took them out. Egyptians also used natron, a natural salt found in the region to help dry up any moisture and preserve the body. This process is known as embalming. The embalming process The embalming process is elaborate and gruesome, but a necessary evil when preserving a corpse. It involves the removal of the brain tissue through the nose; removal of the organs through a slit in the left side of the abdomen; and the removal of the lungs through a hole in the diaphragm. The organs were washed, coated in resin, wrapped in strips of linen and put into jars called canopic jars to allow them a safe passage to the world beyond. The Akh was said to go along for final judgment, then pass on to the afterlife. With the body void of all organs except the heart (in most cases), which was considered to be the center of a person’s emotions and thoughts, the body was washed and purified with palm wine. The embalmers stuffed the body with linen and incense, then covered it with natron powder to remove any remaining moisture. The body was left for anywhere between 30-45 days, then the stuffing was removed and replaced with resin-soaked linen and other materials to help it maintain its shape. Finally, it was sewn back up. That’s a wrap! Following embalming, bodies were wrapped in linen, usually beginning with the hands and feet. Each finger and toe was wrapped individually. The head, legs, arms and torso followed. The body was then wrapped entirely together. Throughout the process, the embalmers said spells and placed protective amulets within the wrappings. Between each layer of wrapping, the linen was coated with a hot resin to help the wrapping stick together. Signed, sealed and delivered Following the wrapping of the mummy, the Egyptians attached a funerary mask over the face of the body. The mask could be either a likeness of the face of the deceased or the face of an Egyptian god. The idea was that the spirit would be able to identify the right body in the myriad tombs by finding the correct mask. Thus completed, the mummy was place in a suhet, which is essentially a coffin shaped and decorated to look like the deceased. The “ceremony of the mouth” was performed to allow the dead the ability to speak, hear, taste, see and touch in the world beyond. This explains why mummies were routinely buried with food; personal items of value, furniture and the like so that the deceased person would have access to all the creature comforts. Don’t you curse at me! What would a tomb be without a curse to ward off raiders? These curses were inscribed on the outside of tombs for just that reason. A typical curse is said to read, “As for anybody who shall enter this tomb in his impurity, I shall wring his neck as a bird’s.” There may be something to this curse idea, especially when you consider Howard Carter and his excavation team from 1922. They unearthed King Tutankhamen’s tomb and supposedly upon entering the tomb, a cobra swallowed Carter’s lucky canary. In the years that followed, several members of his team died, thought to have been victims of the curse. The cause may be more biological than metaphysical, however. Mold spores from the food the mummies were often buried with could possibly have been disturbed when the tomb was opened. Raiders and excavators alike could have become sick or even died after breathing them in. Happy Halloween, mummy! While plenty of civilizations over time have been fascinated with mummies, it was only after a book called “The Mummy” was published in 1821 that the mummy became a fixture in horror stories. Probably more notable than that is Boris Karloff’s interpretation of the mummy in the 1923 Universal Pictures production of “The Mummy.” Never before had the jerky, staggering mummy been portrayed, but Karloff’s contribution to the image still reigns supreme. Mummy Fun Snippetz
Issue 575 - 11/5/2012
SNIPPETZ TRAVELS TO CAMELOT KING ARTHUR: TRUTH OR MYTH? by Lindsey Harrison 
For hundreds of years, rumors, myths and legends have surrounded the story of King Arthur and Camelot. Even Walt Disney jumped on board with the animated film, “The Sword and the Stone.” But is it truth or is it myth? Historians have been debating the facts for centuries. Snippetz decided to take a look for ourselves…and here’s what we’ve found.
The Myth About The Man As you can imagine, there are several renditions that describe King Arthur’s rise to power and his incredible life as an almost god-like figure. The basic premise remains the same, and the story goes like this: It all began with a lie. Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon was the king of England and he fell in love with another man’s wife named Igraine. With Igraine’s husband away at war, Uther begged a favor from his magician Merlin to change Uther’s appearance so that Igraine would think he was her husband. Uther seduced her and from that union, Arthur was born. Uther gave his son over to a man named Sir Ector. Arthur was raised as Sir Ector’s son and brother to the man’s biological son, Kay. Following Uther’s death, there was no king to rule England. As a way to determine who would be the next King of England, Merlin used his magical powers to insert a sword in a huge boulder and said that whoever could remove that sword would be the next king. Naturally, many attempted the feat, but it was young Arthur, a teenager at the time, who was able to draw the sword from the stone. Merlin crowned Arthur King of England. As kings will do, Arthur found a woman he wanted to marry, Guinevere. As a dowry, Guinevere’s father presented King Arthur with the infamous Round Table. In the upcoming years, the Round Table would be the place where the king and his knights would sit and discuss matters. But what would a story like this be without an affair? Lancelot, one of King Arthur’s most trusted and skilled knights, had his sights set on the queen. Guinevere returned his affection and the two got caught up in an affair that lead the couple to flee the kingdom. King Arthur followed with the intent of catching the pair and left his kingdom under the rule of his son/nephew Mordred. It appears that Arthur was also adulterous and had an affair with his half-sister Morgan Le Fay, resulting in the birth of Mordred. Mordred did not want to give up the kingdom to Arthur upon his return. The pair fought and King Arthur killed Mordred but sustained fatal wounds. Arthur commanded Sir Bedivere to throw his sword, Excalibur back into the lake where he had received it from the Lady of the Lake. He was carried away on a barge to the isle of Avalon where some say he died and others say he remains, alive and intent on returning to take his place as King. Was He Or Wasn’t He? It has been said that Arthur may not have been a real-to-life human, but rather a mythical creation. Early Celtic mythology often refers to his immortality, superhuman strength and abilities, and unusual friends such as giants and wizards. The basic summary of the legend certainly contains trappings of a myth, but a grain of truth remains in many of the less fantastical aspects of the story. There are definite references to an “Arthur” in several historical writings, dating back as far as 600 A.D., possibly earlier. It is unclear if the man or men named in these writings is the King Arthur of legend. Two writings in particular point to King Arthur’s existence; “History of the Britons” written by Nennius in 829-830 A.D.; and “History of the Kings of Britain” written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136. These writings have caused some dissention between more contemporary historians simply based on the fact that each was written at least 300 years after the supposed existence of King Arthur. However, many agree that King Arthur in fact, did exist. The Knights of the Round Table As with the legend of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table also have created discord among historians. Did they exist? If so, how many were there? The answer is that no one really knows for sure. But the general consensus seems to be that there were knights who attended sessions around the Round Table alongside the king. The following represent those who consistently appear on the lists of the Knights of the Round Table:
What About Camelot? Deeply entrenched in the legend about King Arthur is the legend about his castle, Camelot. According to legend, the castle took five years to build and upon completion, Arthur and Guinevere were to wed. Whether or not the story about King Arthur is true, historians seem to be in agreement about this part of the legend: Camelot didn’t exist. Camelot was first mentioned in a poem from the 1170s. In previous historical writings, it is nowhere to be found. While the existence of Camelot the castle has largely been debunked, the idea that King Arthur must have had some kingdom to rule has left historians to speculate where that might have been. There is general agreement that one likely place is Caerleon, England. Another is Cadbury Castle in Somerset, England. Both places seem to be described in several historical writings, but neither is referred to directly. Excalibur Not to be confused with the hotel in Las Vegas, this was a sword said to be wielded by King Arthur. One legend says the sword was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake and that he alone was to use it. Another points to Excalibur as the sword that Arthur pulled from the stone in order to be crowned King. Either way, the stories seem to converge when they describe Arthur handing over the sword after killing Mordred. As he lay dying, King Arthur told Sir Bedivere to throw the sword back into the lake from where it came. Sir Bedivere tried several times to dispose of the sword per Arthur’s instructions, struggling because he felt it was a great shame to get rid of such a powerful sword. Finally, Bedivere succeeds and the Lady of the Lake reaches out to grab Excalibur and drag it back down to the depths of the enchanted lake. King Arthur Snippetz
Issue 576
SNIPPETZ DIALS UP A BIT OF TELEPHONE TRIVIA by Deborah Stumpf "One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingies. A gracious good morning to you. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" -Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the Phone Company Operator Remember the days of live telephone operators? It wasn’t that long ago that advanced technology made live operators obsolete and replaced them with those warm and fuzzy computers. It was Sept. 1, 1878 that the first female telephone operator, Emma M. Nutt (pictured above), was hired by the Telephone Dispatch Company of Boston, Mass. Up until that time, teenage boys were hired as telephone operators which proved to be a poor decision made by the phone company. Apparently, boys were too boisterous, smoked excessively, played dice, participated in horseplay, used profane language amongst themselves and with the public, and were generally not inclined to provide good customer service! Hiring Emma Nutt was a complete success for the Telephone Dispatch Company. So much so that by the end of her first day they hired her sister Stella and continued to hire women for the job. Emma loved her job so much that she stayed with it for 33 years. Over time the operators became so familiar with their customers that they were requested to provide wake-up calls, acted as timers when the cake needed to come out of the oven and provided babysitting services for a parent who could leave the house with the phone lying close by a crib. Ma Bell In order to entice young females to accept jobs as telephone operators, the phone company positioned itself as being protective of the young women who would come to work. Hence, the nickname “Ma Bell.” Only unmarried women between the ages of 17 and 26 were accepted for the job and were treated very much like children – they had to ask permission to go to the bathroom, take a break or even get a drink of water. They were punished for being even slightly late for work. They were also paid much less than the boys that worked as operators, only about $7 per week for 60 plus hours of work. The Telephone Has Come A Long Way Baby Where would we be today without the telephone? We’ve gone from operators manually connecting talking parties by switchboard cables to outside cable to cordless phones, cell phones and fax machines. Even though Alexander Graham Bell was credited with the invention of the telephone, Elisha Gray applied for the same patent on the exact same day – Feb. 14, 1876. Gray was only two hours later than Bell. She successfully built the electromagnet receiver in 1874, but it was Bell who designed a workable transmitter. On March 6, 1876, Bell called to his assistant in another room using his new device, “Come here, Watson, I want you.” The rest, as they say, is history beginning with the Bell Telephone Company, which later became AT&T. Elisha Gray founded Western Electric, which became one of the Bell Telephone Company’s major competitors. Western Union was not to be left out of the competitive frenzy as it was already in the communications business with its telegraph system. All three companies’ systems were incompatible with each other while they competed in the communications business. In Great Britain, Thomas Edison received a patent for the receiver called the electro-motograph. This was a crank style phone that required continuous cranking to keep the line open. In 1880, Bell’s transmitter and Edison’s receiver were combined. Reach Out and Touch Someone Permanent outdoor telephone wiring covered only three miles when it was first strung in 1877, ushering in the beginning of the first commercial telephone service in Hartford, Conn. In 1883, the first telephone system, called an exchange, connecting two cities was between Boston and New York. In 1906, Dr. Lee De Forest began working on amplifying radio waves and installing ‘audions’ at points along the telephone wires to amplify sound waves. The Bell Company purchased the rights to his patents in 1913 and installed long distance service between New York and San Francisco. William Gray of Hartford, Conn. patented the first coin operated pay telephone in 1889. We see less and less of them in the 21st century given the emergence of the cellular telephone. The familiar rotary dial phones were replaced by the touch-tone system in 1941. Due to the expense of these phone systems, they were only used in a central switching office until the early 1960’s when they were finally introduced into home phone systems. This faster form of dialing was introduced to the public at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. Cordless phones were introduced around 1980, but did not become popular until the 1990’s due to poor reception and sound quality. There were only 10 channels allowed by the FCC and a buyer was assigned one channel when purchasing the telephone. Once the telephone was hooked up at home, it would search for a base, which could easily be a neighbor’s. You could have a three-way conversation with neighbors who might be on the same frequency. You could also make long distance calls while using your neighbor’s base. Guess who got the bill for that? This might not be considered being a good neighbor. When the higher frequency 900 MHz phones were introduced, they cost nearly $500 each. It took until the year 2000 before one could purchase a cordless phone for under $100. Moving Along The mobile telephone was installed in New York City police cars as early as 1924 and the first commercial service began in 1946 using radio frequencies. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created in 1934, it regulated radio frequencies and determined that only essential agencies were given frequency priority, such as emergency services. There was not much interest or competition in mobile technology due to the limits placed by the FCC. It wasn’t until 1978 that AT&T started testing a cell system which was based on an automatic switching system that would transfer a call from cell to cell as a vehicle moved. The demand for mobile/cellular service was so high that there were one million cell phone users by 1987. Brain Cells In 2011, there reportedly were over 800 million smartphone users. What do people do on a smartphone? Well, just about everything. It would have been hard for many of us to imagine that one day we would be using our telephones to take photographs, surf the Internet, shop, play games, research job openings, read the newspaper and send text messages. Some Ringing Snippetz
Issue 577 - 11/19/2012
SNIPPETZ GOBBLES UP SOME THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS by Lindsey Harrison 
“May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey plump.
May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump. May your yams be delicious and your pies take the prize, and may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off your thighs!” – Anonymous Every family has their own traditions. When it comes to Thanksgiving, turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and relatives (both wanted and unwanted) are usually central to the celebration. But what would a Thanksgiving celebration be without giving thanks? Snippetz looks into the array of traditions Thanksgiving brings for people around the country. Thanksgiving Day Origins We all know the story about the Pilgrims who sailed from Europe to the new World in search of religious freedom. Their ship, the Mayflower set sail on Sept. 6, 1620. After weeks of travel, they reached land at Plymouth Rock in present-day Massachusetts. During the winter following their colonization in North America, the Pilgrims were hit hard by harsh weather. It is said that nearly half of the original colonists died during that winter. The help of a Native American tribe, the Wampanoag, provided the Pilgrims with the know-how to survive. They learned to fish, hunt and grow crops like corn and pumpkins. The autumn of 1621 brought a bountiful harvest and William Bradford, the Governor of the colony, wanted a way to show thanks for the crops and for the help the Native American tribes provided. He organized a three-day celebration to include a feast with a variety of wild game such as geese, ducks and venison, as well as different grains like corn and barley. Games, races and general shenanigans followed. Thanksgiving days were proclaimed at various times over the next several years. Once it was in response to rain after a severe drought. Another time, it was for a period of good fortune the Pilgrims experienced. It’s said that around 1789, President George Washington declared a day of thanks which caught on in several cities and states. These locations often celebrated in the fall. However, apparently not everyone was on board since times were still very tough for a good portion of the nation. Eventually the idea spread to other parts of the country and by the time of the Civil War, it is said that it was very popular. The official designation of a “day of thanks” came around the end of 1863 by President Lincoln who assigned it to the last Thursday of November. In 1941, the day became an official national holiday as declared by Congress. Where’s The Turkey? Arguably, the most notable tradition of Thanksgiving is the main course: turkey. While it isn’t clear whether or not the original Thanksgiving Day included turkey, mainly because the Pilgrims used the term “turkey” to describe any kind of wild fowl, it has certainly become a staple in modern times. But what about all those ducks and chickens who want a piece of the action? Thanks to Louisiana, those particular birds can have a special place at the Thanksgiving table too, if you so desire, as part of a Turducken. A Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. Nothing beats a bird inside a bird inside a bird. West Coast dwellers might not see a turkey at all on Thanksgiving. Dungeness crab season starts in early November, making it a likely alternative. Or perhaps you’ll just rub your turkey in coffee as they sometimes do in Hawaii. Or what about deep fried turkey? The popularity of that particular method has risen in recent years, although be warned: about 1,000 fires are started each year due to deep fried turkey incidents. Stuffing, Stuffing, Who’s Got The Stuffing? If you’re from the South, it’s likely that you’re used to cornbread stuffing gracing your Thanksgiving Day table. But many other parts of the country prefer to use white bread as their main stuffing ingredient. Equally popular throughout the country is the addition of turkey giblets, oysters, apples or chestnuts to name a few. Blue 42, Set, Hike! The first intercollegiate football game to be held on Thanksgiving Day was in 1876. The first National Football League game to take place on Thanksgiving was in 1934 and featured the Chicago Bears battling the Detroit Lions. The Lions have made it a tradition of playing a game on this same holiday ever since, with the exception of a six-season gap between 1939 and 1944, compliments of the second World War. The only other team to routinely play on Thanksgiving is the Dallas Cowboys, who began their tradition in 1966, missing only the years 1975 and 1977. You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog… In several states including North and South Carolina, Virginia, Thanksgiving Day means it’s time for “The Blessing of The Hounds.” This tradition, dating as far back as the seventh century, is said to bless the hound dogs used in a fox hunt before they are turned loose. According to folklore, Saint Hubert, who prior to being deemed a saint is said to have been a bit on the ornery side, had a spiritual revelation one morning before he set out on a hunt. Subsequently, he is said to have dedicated his life to God and developed the tradition of blessing the hounds before they set out on their hunt. This tradition was first brought to the United States on Oct. 1, 1927. Mrs. Walter C. White is credited with its introduction, having borrowed the idea from France. I Just Want To Say “Thanks” Bottom line: Thanksgiving Day is about giving thanks for what you have. Many families around the country include their own twist on how this is done. Some do a round robin where each member tells what they are thankful for. Others have each guest write it down on a piece of paper and throw them all in a hat. Then they draw each piece out one at a time, read it aloud and try to guess who wrote what. Some even let their guests write what they are thankful for on the table cloth so the memories can last year after year. Thanksgiving Day Snippetz
Issue 578
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: SNIPPETZ LOOKS INTO TELEVISION SHOWS THAT NEVER AIRED by Lindsey Harrison “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.” – Horace Greeley Have you ever watched the premiere of a television show, only to wonder how in the world that story concept got the green light? Be it a reality TV show about drunken housemates looking for love on the Jersey Shore or a comedy about six friends who meet in a coffee shop, somewhere along the line, those concepts were approved for general population viewing. But what happens to the shows that don’t quite make the grade? Snippetz investigates those close calls, possibly shedding some light onto what went wrong. In the beginning… It is said that the five main American TV networks – ABC, The CW, FOX, CBS and NBC – get up to 500 pitches for new show concepts every summer. From these pitches, each network will choose somewhere between 25 and 70 of those ideas and request scripts for them. By the beginning of the next year, the networks will have pared down the field to about 10 to 20 different concepts and shoot pilot episodes of them. The pilot is a standalone episode that is filmed and shown to network executives, and sometimes test audiences, with the intention of gauging how successful the concept would be if it was made into a series. The contemporary practice is to use a demo (a shorter version of a pilot which is almost never aired) as a way to save time. The demo’s purpose is the same: to highlight the concept, writing and casting. If it is well-received, the show moves on to the next step in the production process. If it isn’t, the network has two options: fix the problems they find if they think the overall concept is viable; or drop the idea completely. Once the network executives have picked which shows they want to air based on the demos or pilots, those same executives meet up to exhibit their new show to advertisers. This is called the “upfronts.” This is the all-important time when advertisers buy ad time “up front” for the shows they feel will be a hit in the fall season. Hit… We all know what happens to the ideas that get aired; they become the new TV shows we see in the spring. Generally speaking, these shows are slated to run for 13 episodes in the fall season. If it gets picked up for a full season, it will run for 22 episodes. Once that show reaches 100 episodes, it can be placed into syndication, meaning the show’s rights are sold to another network (or perhaps re-orked by the same network) so that it can be shown outside of the regularly scheduled time, i.e. reruns. A show’s success can be measured in a variety of ways such as the type and amount of advertising, critical reviews and time slot placement. The Nielsen ratings are really the end-all, though. Weekly ratings are published and if the ratings are good, a network will likely extend the show to run through a full season or sign it on for a second season. If the ratings are bad, the network usually cans the show and throws in a replacement show to finish out the season. As with the upfronts, “sweeps” week takes place in May and features all new episodes of shows with major plot development, twists, turns and whatever other gimmicks a network can come up with to increase their show’s ratings. Doing well in the ratings during sweeps week can almost guarantee the show will get signed on for more episodes. …or miss But what happens to those shows that don’t make the cut? Naturally, they don’t get aired. And that’s where the fun begins…here is a taste of some of the “cast-off” shows and often it’s not hard to see why.
Issue 579
ARMAGEDDA-WHA? SNIPPETZ INVESTIGATES THE HYPE ABOUT 2012 DOOMSDAY PREDICTIONS by Lindsey Harrison “It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.” – R.E.M. Predictions about the date the world will end are nothing new. But if we are expected to believe every doomsday prophecy that comes our way, the world would definitely have ended on Oct. 21, 2011 following American Christian radio host Harold Camping’s prediction. And according to Camping, the best of the best, God’s chosen people, would have been taken up to heaven during the Rapture which he predicted to take place on May 21, 2011. Unless we’re missing something, the Rapture never happened and the world obviously didn’t end. So what’s with all the predictions citing 2012 as the year the world ends? Snippetz looks into the Armageddon predictions for 2012 and wonders, is this the end of the world as we know it? The Original Miss Cleo Michel de Nostredame, more commonly known as Nostradamus, is one of the more popular doomsday prophets, dating back to 16th century France. Although he was a physician and astrologer, Nostradamus probably made his biggest mark with his writings. Originally titled “The Prophecies of Michel Nostradamus,” this particular assemblage of writings contained about a thousand quatrains or four-lined verses organized into sets of a hundred. These works were later called “The Centuries.” In these works, Nostradamus claims to have been able to predict the future using a potent combination of astrological analysis and divine inspiration. These predictions focused not only on events that were supposed to occur in the near future but also in the very distant future. It is said that if these quatrains, which were mostly written in French with some Latin, Italian and Greek sprinkled in for good measure, are interpreted correctly, it is evident that many of his predictions have come true. Naturally, this leads some people to believe that there could be more correct Nostradamus predictions to come. So what did he “correctly” predict? Believers claim that he predicted the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. They also claim he predicted the fall of the Nazi regime. Some claim that Nostradamus predicted the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Supposedly an email was circulated that claimed to be one of Nostradamus’s works that spoke to Two Brothers (the twin towers, presumably) torn apart by Chaos in a City of God (again, presumably New York), with a fortress that endures (the Pentagon) and a great leader that succumbs (President George W. Bush). It was later determined that this email was completely fabricated. Nostradamus never wrote such a quatrain and it was eventually attributed to a student at Brock University in Canada who wrote on essay showing how easily you could “predict the future” through vague, general images. Sort of like modern horoscope predications you’d find in the paper. There’s Something About 2012 Probably the most widely known is that of the Mayan calendar’s supposed prediction of the world ending on Dec. 21, 2012. The Mayan calendar is broken into different cycles of day counts, known as the Great Cycle. This cycle lasts 1,872,000 days or about 5,125 years. The assumption is that the date the current Great Cycle ends, Dec. 21, 2012, will be the day the world ends. However, it is said that there are no Mayan inscriptions or writings indicating that the world will end on this day. In fact, it is said that the end of this Great Cycle will simply denote the beginning of a new Great Cycle, sort of like our New Year’s Eve rolling over into the next year on our calendar. Another doomsday prediction centers around the idea of the mysterious Planet Nibiru (or Planet X or Hercubolus, depending on who you talk to). In this prediction, the wayward planet is set to smash into Earth in December 2012. However, it is said that if such a planet did exist, we would all have seen it by now because it would be one of the brightest “stars” in the sky. Not to mention the obvious distorting properties its gravity would have on other planets’ orbits, especially ones that are supposed to be close by, such as Earth. The prediction that Earth’s North and South poles will flip in polarity, causing a magnetic reversal of Earth’s rotational direction, is another 2012 doomsday event. Supposedly, when this occurs in (you guessed it) December 2012, the reverse in the rotation will cause catastrophic events worldwide. This flip-flop in polarity is said to be likely since Earth’s polarity is said to shift each year, sometimes up to 25 miles from its previous location. However, a complete flip is said to be infrequent and the most recent occurrence is thought to be about 780,000 years ago. And this flip did not cause Earth to spin in the other direction; that is said to be impossible. This polarity prediction seems to have spawned another doomsday scenario involving solar flares. Supposedly, a giant hole will be left in the atmosphere when the poles reverse which will allow solar flares, which are a common occurrence now, to reach the Earth with disastrous effects. However, since the poles shift relatively frequently and solar flares aren’t exactly unheard of, if this situation was indeed catastrophic, it would’ve already occurred. Of course, one good theory leads to another, which brings us to solar flares and “space weather” in general. It is said that the sun is on an 11-year cycle, the peak of which (known as the solar maximum) will occur in…wait for it…2012! This solar maximum is said to cause gigantic solar flares which have the capacity to reach Earth and, again, cause catastrophes worldwide. This theory is said to be false for a number of reasons. The first is that this peak is not supposed to occur until 2013. Second, the strength of the next solar maximum is actually anticipated to be lower than the average solar maximum. And lastly, solar flares cannot damage the Earth’s surface, although the same can’t be said for satellites and the like. Planetary alignment has gotten other doomsday believers up in arms as well. Some believe that the planets will align in December, 2012 and that cataclysmic events will follow. However, it’s said that every year in late December, the Earth, Sun and the center of the Galaxy all align (for the most part) with no real disastrous affect to speak of, and that an alignment of the planets wouldn’t effect Earth anyway. Let’s not forget the Web Bot Project’s predictions. If Nostradamus could predict events, then why can’t a computer? Here’s why: the Web Bot Project (which was originally developed to predict stock market activity in the 1990s) is a specific type of computer software that scans the internet for commonly used keywords, phrases or other frequently chatted-about topics. Sounds a bit like the way a Google search works… Anyway, the project’s developers, Clif High and George Ure, claimed that this same program could predict the future. They claimed that these bots predicted 9/11, saying it had foreseen a “world-changing event” occurring in the months following June 2001. Other believers have claimed that the bots predicted Hurricane Katrina. And, of course, the bots have supposedly predicted a catastrophic event happening on none other than Dec. 21, 2012. Naturally, critics have come forth to say the predictions are vague, general descriptions that one can easily fit into events that have already happened. Also, knowing that certain keywords or phrases are considered more “relevant” due to how often they are searched, critics say this tricks the system into making a 2012 doomsday seem more likely. See You On December 22! While it’s unlikely that doomsday believers will change their minds based on what we say here, even the Bible states that no man can ever know when the end of the world will come. So, we say bring on December 21 and we’ll be waiting for you on the other side! |
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