Computers

Computers 

1) Computers didn’t get there (several) start(s) for simple human entertainment. I mean, last time I checked, most people tend to hate doing maths. In fact, that was why computers were invented in the first place: to solve mathematical issues that affected the world.

2) In 1822, Charles Babbage created a machine to compute number tables. The entire effort was funded by the government, but, Babbage failed in his attempts. His steam-run engine and numbers didn’t ever seem to - at the time- fit together. However, Babbage did build another machine called the Analytical Engine, several years later. This machine did nearly the same thing that his original design was theorized to do, except this one actually worked.

3) Alan Turing is considered to be the father of modern computers. Born in 1912 in London, England, Turing was a smart kid. Attending a boarding school for his high school education, Turing became deeply enthralled in the subjects of maths and science. For college, he attended Cambridge University, wrighting his dissertation on the limited theory. After getting his first degree, Turing constructed what is considered to be the first modern computer before going to Princeton University to get his PhD in mathematics and cryptology. When World War two came around the government found itself in bit of a crunch. See, the Nazi’s had this system of communication that basically told all of their agenda, that the British couldn’t crack. The code itself was called Enigma and in a last ditch attempt to make a machine capable of calculating such a code, the British government hired Turing. Being an absolute genius, Alan Turing lead the invention of the British Bombe, an electromagnetic device that managed to successfully crack the Nazi code. Later he would create the Turing test, a theory that mathematics will never be able to prove, etc. However, despite his accomplishments in the world of mathematics and science, societal rules did not favor Alan Turing. In 1952, Allen was arrested for being gay, something that was illegal in Britain at the time.

4) The first universal computer was - arguably - created by Alan Turing in 1933. The machine, dubbed latter as the Turing machine, was a device constructed as a calculating device. It’s body held a tape that was able to move back and forth. On each tape there would be little squares and the tape squares would move through a scanner-like mechanism. Now each tape would have a number (1 or 0) and the tape itself served as the machines way of storing information. As the machine read the squares it acted as a sort of plugboard system to give results, those results would then be stored throughout the paper.

5) Main memory storage components in computers started when a teacher and a student collaborated on a project to make a calculating machine that would hold calculations for a certain amount of calculations. Together, Professor J.V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built a machine that can hold the calculations for 29 numbers. A couple years earler Attsonoff had tried to build another computer by himself. His computer didn't contained gears, cogs, or shafts, but his attempts failed.

6) Now computers made from paper and scanners is great and all, but let's be honest, digital computers are better. The first digital computer was attempted by two different professors at the university of Pennsylvania in 1942-43. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert built an electronic numerical integrator and calculator with much success. This accomplishment is what started the making of digitalized computers.

7) Let’s add a woman into the mix now... Grace Hopper was born in 1906 in New York City. During world war two, Hopper joined the U.S. Navy and was recruited for their construction of the Mark 1. The Mark 1 was Harvard students construction of an electromagnetic computer to help the war efforts. When the war was over, Hopper continued to work with computers and soon found herself leading a team of computer engineers on a quest to create computer language. Through her efforts, the team created COBOL, the first computer language ever.

8) The computers that we use on a regular basis wouldn't be the same without a mouse or keypad would they? A computer with a hard shell and a mouse was created in 1963 by a man by the name of Douglas Engelbart. Now Engelbert presented the prototype of this machine to the scientific and mathematical population with a hope of impressing them, and boy did his invention do just that. Not only did the computer have a mouse but the screen had a graphical user interface to it.

9) Who doesn’t love a good floppy disk? The floppy disk was invented 1974 through a team lead by Alan Shubert. A floppy disk is a storage unit made out of a thin, flexible, electromagnetic storage medium. The floppy disk can be read through a floppy disk drive and the reason that they are so great is that they were basically the first hard drives.

10) Lastly, the modern computer wouldn’t be as it is today without Steve Jobs. The creation of apple was a revolutionary feat in the realm of computer technology and the company has brought about the invention of so much of the 21’st century technology. However, Steve Jobs started the whole company off with his companion Steve Wozniak when the two opened the first Apple store and released the Apple 1, the first computer to have a single circuit board.

The Theory of Relativity

Theory of relativity

The theory of relativity was conceived by Albert Einstein. His theory took the already complex world of Quantum Physics and added another level. Quantum Physics as a whole is the study of subatomic particles, Einstein focused in on a small part of such of a vast concept breaking his contributions to Relativity into two different theories.

In 1905 Einstein published his first article on Special Relativity, the first work of his many publications on what became known as the theory of relativity. In this article, Einstein relays how to interpret motion between different inertial frames (or the relativity of places moving at a constant speed to each other). With special relativity, Einstein focused only on special cases of motion - hence the name- his theory only applying when both objects are in motion in uniform. With experiments that proved both theory's wrong, Einstein created a new theory using two important physics laws as his guide.

Physics Law Number One: The Principle Of Relativity: The laws of Physics don’t change even when objects move in an inertial frame of reference. This theory got its kick start during the time of Aristotle when the Greek philosopher said that heavy objects faster than light objects. Then Galileo discovered that, in fact, Aristotle was wrong, objects move with the same acceleration depending on their velocity.Using these principles Newtonian mechanics added on other concepts, the law of motion, gravitation, the law of an absolute time. Then two scientists, Joseph Larmor and Hendrik Lorentz, discovered that Maxwell's equation was correct and Einstein used this discovery to construct Special Relativity.

Maxwell’s Equation: how electric and magnetic charges are generated and altered by each other's charges and currents. This theory was created mathematician James Clerk Maxwell. Hi equations, mixed with the Lorentz force, began the foundations for classical electrodynamics, classical optics, and electric circuits.

Physics Law Number Two: The Principle Of The Speed Of Light: This law is pretty simplistic, the speed of light is the same to all observers no matter what the observers relative motion is. Seems pretty easy, no matter if you are on a boat and your friend is on Jupiter, the speed of light will remain the same. So Einstein took this law, looked at it for a little bit, and then he said, “You know what, I’m gonna make this fit into my whole Special Relativity thing,” [not a direct quote] and then he did it. According to Einstein's theory of Special Relativity light in a vacuum (a special case) moves at 299,792,458 m/s, and also, no one can go as fast as the speed of light.


Now, Einstein's Special Relativity provided the data for one of his biggest theories, time space. Up until Einstein's thought experiment about time and space being one connected unit, scientists had just assumed that the two were very separate entities. It's easy to think that time and space, neither of which seem to be similar, are dependent on each other, let alone connected to each other. However, Einstein had this big idea that maybe the two were very much connected, time and space weaved together. To understand space-time, think of this thought experiment: you are in a spaceship and you are shooting a laser beam at the mirror in front of you, to you the laser is moving at the speed of light. Now if another spaceship comes by carrying Alice she will see the laser two, but her laser will be moving at what looks like a different speed because she herself is moving at a different speed. However, if you take the measurements the laser is moving at the same speed.

Einstein's theory of general relativity was published in 1915. The theory itself focuses on geometric gravitation. With his earlier theory of Special Relativity uniting space and time into one entity called space-time, Einstein applied general relativity to theorize that gravity was bending space-time. To do so Einstein constructed a set of field theories, including one that defined the way that gravity responds to matter in space-time.

In the wake of his research on general relativity, Einstein introduced another principle into his work, the principle of covariance. The principle of covariance states that the laws of physics have to stay the same in all coordinate systems. Imagine a spaceship moving at a constant speed. The principle of covariance states that the space-time coordinates of gravity have to be the same as the space-time coordinates of the spaceship.

Alright, let's talk about geometric space-time and how it works. If you took everything out of space-time it would theoretically be completely flat. Now, using the principle of covariance, when objects are put into space-time curves around it. Let’s go back to the spaceship. If you are in a spaceship in empty space then from inside the spaceship space-time would appear to be curving around you. The same happens with planets and stars, the sun is obviously the biggest star near earth so in the orbit of the planets around the sun, the sun is the main center for space-time curvature and the planets follow the path made from its curve.



Now that we have covered the basics of the theory of relativity, how about we focus on a brief summary of Einstein as a person - well, at least as a respected scientist. Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879, his family was Jewish and he had a tutor from Poland. The tutor was a med student and liked to tell Einstein and his siblings about science and Einstein took a big liking to the subject, so much so that when he was in his teens he wrote his first essay on the topic called, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields." Since Einstein clearly loved science, he continued it as a profession. His career really took off with his idea of tiny particles having a whole lot of energy (E=mc2) and later the theory of relativity. In 1921 Einstein won the noble prize, then he was inducted into the "Pour le mérite", then he fled from the Nazis, then he was honored by a whole ton of science communities. On April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, Einstein died, but he will always be remembered as one of the most influential men in science.

How Einstein left his desk on the day he died. 

It becomes very present towards the end that the theory of relativity is different than Newtonian gravitation. Newton found gravity, at least, he found a tug that objects exert on to each other, the bigger the object the harder the tug, and Newton's equations still remains used today. In fact, most every human observation from earth can be calculated precisely through Newton's equations. There was a flaw in Newtons plan though, see, Newton's gravity didn’t have a visual form, he left that open for people’s own interpretation. That was what Einstein started with. See Einstein had this dream about gravity, except it wasn’t gravity, it was space-time and it’s geometric curves that form through the principle of covariance in general relativity. Einstein's theory of relativity disputes how Newton's entire theory works, but, nevertheless, Newton's equations stay steady.

Japanese Imperialism

JAPANESE IMPERIALISM

Japan's imperialism was riddled with social Darwinism, they stroved for respect in every country that they imperialize, forcing the people to do so. Japan believed that they were the chosen people of Asia, deserving of all power. It was social Darwinism at its finest - a group of people placing themselves as the ultimate power of all. For the people of Japan that justified their imperialistic acts, believing that they were doing all of Asia a favor by taking control of their country. However for the people living in those imperialist countries it made Japanese ruthless, superiority beating out any sympathy for the natives. 

If the Japanese had anything they sure had nationalism. The belief that they were the best, or at least striving to be the best was what they were striving to be, kept the Japanese motivated. With the formation of the Mojo in Japan, there was a goal set for Japan to be the better of all nations, better technology, richest economy, more power. It was a goal to promote their nation setting them all up for the way that they imperialized, with pride for their country.

Korea was one of the places most affected by the Japanese imperialist movement, they were one of the areas that Japan hit hard. On the one hand, Japanese colonialism was often quite harsh. For the first ten years Japan ruled directly through the military, and any Korean dissent was ruthlessly crushed. Their rule lost a lot after a nationwide protest \, but there imperialist ruling was still brutal. Many Korean women were used as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, Korean citizens were abused, rights were denied, in 1939 there was even a law passed demanding that all names be turned into Japanese one.

Japan was full of raw material, the of export of which became huge after Japan ended there spurt of isolation. Hopping onto the industrialization band wagon ,Japan found itself easily able to produce goods and export them, quickly allowing them to rise to the top of the manufactured goods trade and became determined to assert itself as a great nation and not to suffer domination by the West as was China.

In 1868 the Tokugawa shôgun ("great general"), who ruled Japan in the feudal period, lost his power and the emperor was restored to the supreme position. The emperor took the name Meiji doubling Japan's empirical come back as the Meiji Restoration. During the time before the restoration there had been a shut down of exports from the area due to the lack of a proper leader and the fact that here was not enough goods for there to be given as an export. That stunt ended when the new empire was formed, coxed by the Americas to end their period of isolationism Japan found themselves with a reformed empire and a open trade route.

Military was a big contribute to the imperialistic ways of Japan. The Meiji empire was all about building up militaristic power, using that to impress other nations. To the Meiji rulers having a strengthen military was the number one, to command respect and become Asia’s super nation - it was why so much of then Mejie government way was aimed towards constructing the perfect army.

Japan's relations with its neighbors also changed after the Meiji Restoration. Reform-minded Samurai soldiers reflect the outcome of the shift back into the empire, like leading that came during Japan's reform. The reform itsellf involved a lot of borrowing, using western traditions as there own, reforming military structures, economic structures, and of course immperialism. This new ruling of Japan lead to the reformation of japanese natonalism and that only fueled them to join the great race of imperlization.

When Russia began to become a threat in the late 1800’s, Japan took that as a threat to their growing empire. Using the looming Russian empire as an opportunity for there nation, Japan began to strengthen military, looking at Korea as their front line of defence. War was on the verge between China and JApan and Korea found itself in an imperialized predicament with no option really open.

Power had brought Japan respect from fellow imperial powers, Britain found itself leaning towards Japan more. With Russian imperialism on the cusp of conquering english territory, Britain found itself against Japan, the U.S. doing so in their own respects. The U.S. made an order for there to be no talk of disrespect towards Japan. The Western --- started to move to the Japanese’s side.

The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, signed by Britain and Japan, on July 16, 1894, was a breakthrough agreement. The treaty deemed the end of the unequal treaties and the system of extraterritoriality in Japan. The treaty came into force on July 17, 1899.

From that date British subjects in Japan were subject to Japanese laws instead of British laws. This was the treaty that helped the Japanese gain the support of Britain, directing itself against Russian expansionism in the Far East. The treaty remained intact up until after World War One when Russia lost its political stamina and England nor Japan feared their imperialistic take over.

Karl Marx

KARL MARX

As one of the world’s most well-known philosophers, Marx is still important today because of his great contributions to the ways that the world works and concepts of how governments should be run. With his socialist ideals Marx helped pave way for future communist leaders, forming the Communist Correspondence which lead to the Communist League, writing numerous essays on socialism within society, Marx changed how socialist philosophies were thought of.

Born in 1818 in Germany, Marx was raised in a household of Jews - turned - Christians in attempt to get out of some rather unfortunate rules directed towards Jews. His parents were big supporters of the Prussian reforms raising Marx and his siblings on their beliefs. For his education Marx went to a Jesuit Gymnazium (Germany has three schools: Gymnazium, Realshule, and, Hauptschule. Gymnazium is the school system that allows students to go to college). There he was taught by a respected liberal until the school was shut down when he was in year eleven.

Enrolling in the University of Bonn, seventeen year old Marx tried for a law degree. However his plan of getting a degree from Germany’s part school did not work out for Karl Marx as he was arrested during his freshman year for having a drunken bar fight, prompting his parents to transfer him to a different University. Moving to the University of Berlin, Marx, was introduced to the philosophy of G.W. F. Hegel, something he found - after a few semesters of --- - fascinating. At the university he was also introduced to philosopher Bruno Bauer, and his wife, Jenny von Westphalen.

Hegelianism: the thing every German teen was into. Based on the beliefs of Georg Hegel (hence the name), this philosophy was set on principles of Absolute. A thought movement based on history and logic, Hegelianism, caught on fast in Germany. Marx was just one in millions of supporters. George Hegel believed that everything should be based off of a series of what he claimed as “Absolutes”. This coined Absolute claimed itself as embracing total reality, that way, at least Hegel thought, nobody would be forgotten- a consideration of all of history.

Karl Marx as Prometheus

Wilhelm Weitling

Manuscript of Das Kapital

After graduating Karl got a job as editor of a Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal magazine in Cologne, Germany. Then Germany decided that they much rather preferred not to have a liberal magazine slamming their political decisions and the Rheinische Zeitung was shut down.To run away from a very ticked off government, Marx, went to France. In France he became acquainted with his good friend and partner Frederick Engels. The two where philosophy buddies, earning their reputation for life long essay places with their criticism on Bruno Bauer's philosophy -on of Marx’s old university friends. It was here where Marx became a communist instituting his new found philosophies within his series of writings, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

Being expelled from France by the Prussian Government, Marx took off to Brussels with Engels and his wife. In Brussels, Marx, found himself infatuated with yet another philosophy, Socialism. To Marx, socialism was a way of disbanding inequality, the answer to society's ever increasing bourgeoisie, and a chance to study a topic that fascinated him: historical capitalism and how its increase due to the industrial revolution will eventually collapse. This belief lead Marx to write the German Ideology, construct the communist correspondence committee , and write many other essays, the famed Communist manifesto among them.

The communist manifesto is an essay written in attempts to explain communist views and the underlying theme of the way that the communist movement works. Explaining the difference between the bourgeoisie (upper class) and proletariat (lower class) Marx shares his opinions on how the two social classes get divided and how communist ideals would deal with the inequality.

The Communist Correspondence Committee was a community founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in Brussels. The committee was aim around uniting socialist of March 03 1846, Marx gave a speech chastising  Wilhelm Weitling leveling of communism. Marx’s view of Scientific Communism influenced the committee's attributes in the movements to create a better workplace for people who strive for progression in the workplace. This committee paved way for the communist league.

A series that Marx began writing before his death was Das Kapital. This series expounded on his theory of the inevitable demise of a capitalist society. In Das Kapital,  Marx, establishes his theory on surplus value in labor and how that affects capitalist beliefs, claiming his purpose was to lay bare “the economic law of motion of modern society.” According to Marx it is not the population growth that is increasing unemployment, but capitalism instead, urging the use of communist philosophies to govern instead - the main point of his unfinished series.

Marxism: It takes a lot of effort to get a philosophy named after you, Karl Marx achieved that. With his ideals of how the classes should live together, Marx’s theories constructed Marxism. It is a philosophy based on his thoughts of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, how the two classes should live together in a way that would not be such a way of causing both of the parties to be so unequal to one another.

Vikings

The Vikings believed in the pagan Norse gods, with the broach to the left we see a bird of prey, this is often guessed to portray the Odin, the father of Thor. This broach is one of the first examples of how animals where used to represent humans in Viking art.

A Viking Broach, the design popular among the broaches of the era. It's simple yet, intrecite design skillfully etched into the circular pendant.

A brooch made of crystal and silver, the rose like shape causing controversy among historians as to what exactly it symbolizes.

The goat shape represents the god Thor. In the myths Thor, the thunder god, is said to be pulled by goats. This broach represents the god, yet again representing how the vikings used animals to preserve people and/or gods.

This silver and bronze crafted pin shows advancements in not only craftmanship skill but also, the technology of being able to stab a broach into something.

Continuing the trend of broach work found in the classical Viking age, the artifact to the left is a piece of a broach, originally much larger in size. In it's full form, the decoration would have covered a large surface, taking on a bow shape.   

With its elaborate open ring this broach is especially intricate. With its thermal shaped body, this is one of the heaviest broachs ever to be found.

Moving on from the broach, the artifact to the left is a pendent. Jewelery was quite a staple in the viking society, these pendants often crafted with gold, a circle pattern surrounding the center where a carving of a god is placed.

Completely separate from the many jewelry items, the Vikings where not shy with there ability to weld weapons. This is a sword cast of twisted iron and steel rods, thus creating a tough blade. Weapons of this sort were advanced for the time period, there crating of more bulky blades creating a different sort of weaponry to that of more delicate fighting tools.