Stuff YOU Should Know
Sochi Prepares for the Olympics
Preparation for the Olympic Games often involves major improvements for its host cities. This means the construction of new venues, major updates of roads, telecommunication and transportation systems, as well as tourist amenities like new hotels and shopping. The city of Sochi, located in the Southern Federal District of Russia, is no exception. Sochi mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov is confident about his city’s readiness to host the 22nd Olympic Winter Games and its ninety-eight events in fifteen sports. At nearly $51 billion, preparation for these games have become the most expensive to date, and perhaps the most controversial. The Russian government has been criticized by environmentalists for a number of issues, including the dumping of construction waste on hillsides, polluting nearby rivers, and building structures on unstable foundations.
To become a host city for the summer or winter games, cities must apply or make a “bid” to the International Olympic Committee. For 2014, seven cities applied for consideration. Three were selected as official candidates – Pyeongchang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; and Sochi, Russia. Each of these cities received an exhaustive evaluation made up of specific criteria. Sochi was announced as the winner on July 4, 2007. The last time Russia hosted the Olympics was in the summer of 1980, in Moscow.
Dig Deeper Mayor Pakhomov said that the 2014 Olympic Winter games will “introduce a new, dazzling Russia to the world.” Do you think the country will be ready in time? Why or why not?
New Year, New You?
Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC2-2550]
Making resolutions at the beginning of the year has a long history. In a time before calendars existed, people used to consider spring the first of the year, to coincide with the Vernal Equinox and the “new life” that comes with early harvests. The early Babylonians made New Years promises to the gods to return borrowed objects and pay debts. Later, when the Romans changed their calendar to reflect January as the official start of the new year, the Romans made similar promises to the god Janus (the root of the word January). Once Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, “resolutions” took on a more specific moral quality, as a way to counter the wild celebrations held around New Years.
What Do You Think? Do you make resolutions at New Year’s? Why or why not? In 1723, American Theologian Jonathon Edwards made a list of 70 resolutions to be reviewed once a week. Pick one that is still relevant and resonates with you and explain why.
NSA’s Quantum Computer
Last year, the National Security Agency came under scrutiny when whistle-blower Edward Snowdon exposed details of a U.S. government surveillance program. This year, scrutiny of the spying organization continues with news of its desire to break through encryption systems. These include all of the security measures typically employed by banks, healthcare and government records designed to keep your personal information secure. To do this, the NSA has spent nearly $80 million developing a quantum computer under the project name Penetrating Hard Targets.
Breaking an encryption involves factoring the product of two large prime numbers. There are currently computers that are able to crack encryption codes, but are very limited and take an extraordinarily long time. In 2009, researchers were able to break through a standard encryption, but it took almost two years and more than a hundred computers working together to do so. The difference between a regular computer and a quantum computer is that a regular computer can only make one calculation at a time (using binary bits), while a quantum can make multiple calculations (using quantum bits). The problem is, quantum computers are incredibly fragile, requiring significant protection and complete isolation. If successful, a quantum computer could have many applications, including artificial intelligence.