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And in the End: Data Mining PROOF of Coming 2012 Calamity!

Joe Maglitta | Date: 09-09-09 | Comments

Data mining validates the 2012 doomsday predictions. If this disturbs you, read on � or chill with "The Beatles Rock Band."

In case you�ve been so excited by today�s release of �The Beatles Rock Band� or just haven�t had a chance yet to freak out about the global cataclysm prophesied for 2012 (and the inevitable crimp it will put on IT service-level agreements), great news!

The History Channel, purveyor of all things Nostradamus, plans a rebroadcast of "Doomsday 2012: The End of Days" today (09/09/09) at noon and 6 p.m. EDT. Angry Mayan gods, huge spikes in help desk calls, epic caffeine withdrawal�it�s all here in sensational schlockumentary glory.

Less sleep-deprived readers may recall how this blog first alerted IT and business professionals to the host of operational inconveniences sure to result from the end of the world and history as we know it. If even a tenth of the dire predictions are true, it won�t be fun. Instead of calling up your bookmarked copy of the piece, you can use mine here.

But there�s another new reason I recommend�no, implore!�you to watch (or at least record) this latest installment. According to a trailer for the show, there�s now real, honest to goodness, data-based, scientific proof that validates the spookily similar 2012 doomsday predictions by the Hopi, the I Ching, Merlin the Magician and, of course, the N-Man himself, Nostradamus.

Specifically, the shows features footage and comments from The Web Bot Project�a massive data mining effort cooked up a decade ago to predict stock market ups and downs. Web bots crawl the Web seeking trends based on keywords and relations to others. A linguistic tool then analyzes meaning. Now making �massive scans of the Internet as a means of forecasting the future ... [the project] has turned up the same dreaded date: 2012� as Doomsday. Digital entrail reading? Maybe. But maybe NOT! The truly disturbed can find more info here. If you�re pressed for time, this 2-minute video will open your eyes.

1,198 days and counting. Don�t say I didn�t warn you.

The Song You Make Is Equal to the Song You Fake

If all this talk bums you out, cool. Chill with some bright, bouncy pop tunes and trippy psychedelic video gaming. I speak, of course, of "The Beatles Rock Band," unleashed on the world today.

Heck, if creation ends in three years, the embarrassment of singing karaoke off-key while stroking a violin-shaped plastic device controller doesn�t seem all that bad.

Last month The New York Times Sunday magazine did a long piece on "The Beatles Rock Band" and its maker, Harmonix. It was pretty interesting. Predictably, most real musicians decried fake music making. Others heralded a new era in participatory entertainment. I�m not sure who�s right, though I�m pretty sure John would have laughed (all the way to the bank).

Still, the whole phenomenon got me thinking: We all know this genre, and its cousin Wii. Are there other non-entertainment applications that could benefit from this quasi-participatory sort of play-along?

I�d love to hear your ideas.