Razhumikin's New Writeups

Quantum Cryptography (idea)

2005-05-29T19:11:46Z

In a human society composed of over six billion individuals, it is impossible that any one person will know and befriend a significant portion of the rest of the people on Earth, yet with our newly developed global communication networks, it is possible that a significant portion of the rest of the world will have access to the information one person is sending or receiving. Because people generally mistrust, if not loathe, those whom they do not know, the person who is communicating, hereafter referred to as "Alicia," very often must keep her information secret from the faceless masses who could potentially be trying to listen in on the answering machine message she is leaving for her cat, Roberto, while she is on vacation. This is why we have developed data encryption, which can save us from the horrible embarrassment of having videos of us trying to emulate the light-saber fight from The Empire Strikes Back being distributed to our co-workers, or our plans for our…

American Revolution (thing)

2002-03-17T06:24:08Z

Colonial America: Neglecting Parents, Problem Children

This essay was a history assignment, in which I was supposed to analyze the development of the American colonies and their relation to Britain in terms of Britain being parents and the colonies being children. (Same assingment as Chambey's, but I take it in a different direction than he did. These two writeups are good when compared and contrasted)

The parent-child relationship analogy is vital to the understanding of the conflict between England and its North American colonies. If one tries to look only at British North American policy at the time of the revolution and American reactions, it might very well seem that the Colonists were just a lot of rowdy barbarians. However, when one looks at the history of Britain's policy and views it in terms of the way a parent treats a child, the colonial revolutionaries' actions make much more sense. While the revolutionary colonists did act…

Viking (person)

2002-03-16T21:29:53Z

Culture

The Viking religion, or the Norse Mythology, is similar to most of the ancient polytheistic religions. Odin is the main god, there is also a creator, who is separate, yet the same god as Odin, a similar concept is in some of the Mesopotamian religions and in Christianity, with Christ being God's son and God. Another similarity to Christianity is Ragnarok, or The Gods' Damnation, or the Apocalypse.

The Norse ethics are extremely different from Christian values. Polygamy was practiced among the upper class; there are myths about Freya, who is not the goddess of fertility, but the goddess of sex, having orgies involving bestiality; and sometimes when a rich man died they would kill his wife to be buried with him. All the myths about the gods involve violence and alcohol in excess.

The gods were not the peoples motivation or serious…

British India (place)

2002-03-16T00:22:29Z

Chaos in India

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries various factors combined to start the downfall of the Mughal dynasty, which had ruled most of India with a steady hand since Babur (the Tiger) and Humayun in the sixteenth century. It started with gradual overspending which weakened their ability to fund a good defense, and the spark that really got the decline going was Aurangzeb's policy of intolerance of the Hindus and other non Muslims. This incited many revolts especially by the Sikhs and the Marathas.

Not long before these events the British East India Company (BEIC) had begun trading in India. It was originally a group of merchants wanting to take advantage of the new market. In 1601 Elizabeth gave them exclusive rights to trade in the Indies. The British decided to go in at that time because the power of Portuguese trade was seriously…

Ivan the Terrible (person)

2002-03-04T23:33:57Z

Ivan IV Grozny's nickname definitely described his reign well: "Awe-inspiring". Whether it was awful or awesome is another question. He did help start Russian expansion and consolidated its rule into a somewhat stable autocracy, but he also cruelly killed thousands in a brutal reign of terror similar to Stalin's. Though he may have been a paranoid schizophrenic and was extremely sadistic, he was a very intelligent and educated man. This combination proved to make for a very interesting and strange Czar of all the Russias. (6)

Ivan became the Grand Prince of Muscovy when he was only 3 years old upon the death of his father, Basil(Vasily) III in 1533. Because he was too young to rule, his mother Helena seized power and ruled as a regent for him. She was ambitious and tried to secure her power through various intrigues and murders of relatives and other people who might be power hungry. After about five years of this the leading Boyars (upper…

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (idea)

2002-03-04T22:01:48Z

The meaning of this passage really does not have to be dug into as deeply as it often is. It does have similarities to some of the more complicated theories which say that the eye of the needle is a specific place, but the significance does not need to be so hidden as in them. It really is not necessary to say that the eye of a needle is a small pass that is so hard to climb through, you have to take all your possessions off. The meaning can be seen when Jesus's statement is taken more literally, and when it is not a double metaphor.

While many common explanations present the biblical passage as being either mistranslated, or being a mixed metaphor, or a hyperbole, it can just as easily be taken for face value. It is impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle; likewise for the rich and the gates of Heaven. One might think, "There are plenty of nice Christians who just happen to be rich." However, as this statement illustrates, a…