The Virtual Union

Zurich, Switzerland – The Swiss have long been known for their genial nature, their picturesque architecture, and stunning landscapes. That beauty draws tens of thousands of tourists every year looking to indulge in a world that is almost a fantasy world made real. That, combined with liberal laws and secretive banking, as made the country one of the most respected countries in the world. Now though, if lawmakers have their way, all of that is about to change. Scrape TV

Sacramento, CA – There are few stories like the story that is the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Born in a very small Austrian town to a police chief father and homemaker mother, young Arnold grew up to be the greatest body builder ever, for a time the biggest movie star on the planet, married into an American dynasty, and eventually became Governor of one of the biggest economies on the planet. All that and his story is still not finished with likely still a few more years of incredible accomplishments on the horizon. Scrape TV

Celle, Germany – There has been many great and defining conflicts in human history. The Crusades, the Macedonian wars, the Mongol Conflicts, the U.S. Civil War are all examples of conflicts that altered the course of history and helped to forge the modern world as we know it. Of all of those battles though, there are few that, arguably, compare to the Second World War. That conflict, though still fresh in the scope of human history so fundamentally altered the course of history that it will likely come to be regarded as the most important in history. Scrape TV

Mountain View, CA - Arguably, Google is the most important and influential web companies ever. True, they were not the first big company. True, they simply improved on existing concepts. True, other companies laid the path that allowed Google to succeed. Despite all of that, Google’s success and dominance over so much of the web-based world means that their footprint over the format is huge, and that footprint has paved the way for the growth of the web in general, popularizing the medium and allowing other companies to flourish. Scrape TV

New York, NY – There’s little doubt that Michael Jackson was a one of a kind performer. His global popularity, almost unabated for forty years is testament to that; the fact that it has grown since his death is confirmation of that popularity. Since his untimely death in June, Jackson has been omnipresence in a way that he never enjoyed in life. With regular news articles still being published about every aspect of his life, and a sure-fire hit film just hitting theatre screens, Jackson’s success is likely to continue for a long time to come. Scrape TV

Brisbane, Australia – Throughout history we have invented tales of monsters. Whether to frighten people into obedience, with entities like Satan, or to simply evoke some kind of irrational fear, with beasts like Vampires, monsters have appeared throughout the historical record and continue to appear today. Of course, many monsters are man-made but a few either have existed or continue to exist in the natural world. Beasts such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Sabre-Toothed Tiger have haunted the imaginations of people for years. So too have living animals but none has had the power to evoke fear like the Great White Shark. Scrape TV

Hollywood, CA – It might not seem that way now, but Nicolas Cage is really one of the most unlikely of movies stars. First making his name in small movies with a very quirky charm, Cage’s career was certainly appearing to move in a different path than it has taken. And then 1996 happened. It was that year that Cage’s career changed forever. An Oscar win for ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ and a starring role in the Jerry Bruckheimer explosion fest ‘The Rock’ showed the paradigm of Nicolas Cage, and two paths for him to take, and he chose. Scrape TV

Hollywood, CA – Hollywood films have always played a little loose with the truth. Either for dramatic effect, or in order to more efficiently convey the tale, the condensing of a storyline is pretty much accepted in film. The same is often true in other forms of storytelling such as literature which often glosses over the more mundane aspects of a real life story in order to convey the essence of the tale more effectively. Such condensing of tales has come to be a standard despite protests from historians. Scrape TV

Kabul, Afghanistan – There is, perhaps, no place in the world that has seen more conflict than Afghanistan. Dating from at least the sixth century B.C.E. conquerors have attempted to hold onto the wild lands that make up the country and all have ultimately failed. Even great military leaders such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan found themselves challenged by Afghan geography and people. In the modern era, the country has seen invasions by two of the most powerful nations to ever exist, helping to damn one into history and tying the other one up for almost a decade. Scrape TV

Eagan, MN – With the recent mystery and controversy swirling around Northwest Airlines flight 188 the airline, and the FAA are falling under a great deal of scrutiny. That incident, in which the pilots overshot their landing zone by 150 miles after reportedly falling asleep, has brought a great deal of focus on the nature of air travel, the stress out on pilots, and the general safety of air flight in the United States. Scrape TV