Like a snake lying in wait, earnings growth for the tech sector in the Year of the Snake is going to strike where the market least expects it.

FORBES: Year Of The Snake Investment Guide: Bigger TV Screens, Data Bulge Ahead

It is here that you will find the depiction of the churning of the Ocean of Milk: Various deities taking part in what at first appears to be tug-of-war, but is in fact a search for a potion that will confer eternal life, a process that involves churning the sea with the help of an enormous snake.

BBC: Millennium mayhem at Angkor Wat

LONDON, England (CNN) -- For someone trapped under rubble after an earthquake the sight of something resembling a snake wriggling towards them would probably be the last thing they would want to see.

CNN: Snake robots slither to the rescue

"We should let the people of the Northwest decide the fate of Snake River salmon, " said Scott Faber, a spokesman for American Rivers.

CNN: Snake River dam resolution called unfair

But by the time of the snake's launch in April 1972, rising inflation made it a sitting target for speculators.

ECONOMIST: EURO BRIEF: Snakes and ladders | The