Movies and Readings: This week I watched a program on the History Channel about the Salem witch trials. Two points raised during the program were particularly interesting. The narrator pointed out that most accusers were from poorer families while the accused were predominantly from wealthier families. It was as if the Puritans equated material success with being in league with the devil. I still find it amazing that colonists who fled Europe because of religious persecution could themselves be so religiously intolerant. I suppose it is the same aspect of human nature that makes a person who was abused as a child more likely to become a child abuser themselves but I still find it to be a psychological mystery. Another point raised in the program was the fact that the Salem witch trial period actually became the pivotal event that convinced American jurists to turn away from the traditional English common law precept that a defendant was guilty until proven innocent and introduce the now commonly held precept that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. It's a shame, though, that over twenty innocent people had to lose their lives before the rest of society woke up to the injustice of it.

It was also pointed out that scholars today still disagree over the catalysts for these tragic events. Robin Cook, in his novel "Acceptable Risk", put forth the premise that perhaps the entire episode was fueled by ergot poisoning in the grain supply. This made for a very interesting story and really may not be all that far out of the realm of possibility. As a physician, Robin Cook is well versed in the symptoms of ergot poisoning including convulsions and hallucinogenic episodes. There had been a poor harvest and perhaps colonial housewives were "scraping bottom" in their damp basement grain bins. This may also account for the fact that the afflicted were members of poorer families. Wealthier colonists would have had other sources of food available. Scientists have theorized that ergot may have been a factor in the illnesses that afflicted the Egyptians during times of famine. Historians say that Moses cautioned the Israelites in Egypt to avoid wheat from the moldy edges of the graineries. Maybe the Purtians should have read their Old Testament a little more closely.

Technology: I became aware this week of an enhancement to the Internet Explorer web browser called "flyswat". It is available free from http://www.flyswat.com. I found it to be an amazing "deep navigation" tool that could prove to be quite valuable for web researchers although one of my fellow web designers found it potentially quite problematic for web vendors. The product dynamically creates links on web pages based on an index that apparently combines something like Yahoo's topic index with a dictionary of words and phrases. For example, if a web page mentions "El Cid", flyswat underlines the phrase El Cid and creates a drop down list of related links including a biography of the historical person, as well as places where you can buy the video starring Charlton Heston. For research purposes I would find this an invaluable aid. Not all web page designers would link the phrase to a biography or movie review and this type of information would be helpful for many people. I think it would be extremely helpful as a way to add in depth information to documents that are "published" by users of word processing programs that "save as HTML" and have little or no understanding of HTML and would probably not include hyperlinks. My fellow web designer pointed out how catastrophic this could be on an e-commerce site. If Flyswat solicits paid placements for their index, a person browsing an antiques site could see a link about Queen Anne furniture that references a competitor's web page. This is a valid concern. How sites become indexed by Flyswat is a mystery as nothing is described on the company's home page and there doesn't seem to be a procedure to submit your site for consideration. So, I have written to the company to verify how the index is, in fact, developed. This technology is obviously powerful, but like many powerful tools, it could become a two-edged sword. It could be a terrific research aid but may need to be blocked from e-commerce sites.

Another interesting technology introduced this past week is a product called "KnowAll". It is touted as a Natural Language query tool that integrates "Organic Intelligence" into the software to create an application that "understands" the context and intent of a question, not just processes simple text pattern matches. As someone extremely interested in artificial intelligence I couldn't help but be intrigued by this concept. However, my first experiences with the product have been less than successful. My first question: "Why did Cato hate Julius Caesar?" met with the response that the system has not yet mastered "why" queries. So, I tried again. "What was the relationship between Cato and Julius Caesar?" KnowAll began searching the web and I could tell it was on the right track because I saw web pages with Caesar and 54 B.C. and things like that in their titles. However, after only a few minutes, my machine hung and a yellow green line appeared across my display about 1/8 inch below the edge of my Windows desktop. Turns out it was a hard crash. I had to reboot and run scandisk to recover. However, not to be daunted by this setback, I tried again only asked a much simpler question "Where can I find a picture of Vercingetorix?" KnowAll asked me to clarify a category for Vercingetorix and I selected Person, and under that heading I selected Historical Figure. Again it raced off to the net to find my answer and again I could tell it was on the right track because of the web page titles I was seeing (Celts, etc.) but again my machine crashed after a few minutes. I have sent a message to tech support about my problem. It could just be my machine or Windows registry. Unfortunately, I can't install it on another machine to find out without getting another electronic key since the program assigns a unique site code each time you install it. Apparently, the founders of KnowAll have never heard of what a marketing disaster it was for Lotus 1-2-3 to have such restrictive installation schemes back in the 80s.