How can I summarize chapter two of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness after the Digital Explosion ("1984 Is Here, and We Like It")?

Chapter Two of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness after the Digital Explosion is entitled "1984 Is Here, and We Like It."
The chapter opens with a description of the London suicide bombing that occurred on three subways and one bus on July 7, 2005, during the G8 Summit. The terrorists responsible were caught on surveillance cameras, although this did not stop the attack. 
We then receive a description of the Orwellian world imagined in the novel 1984, which seems childish in comparison to the reality of today's intense tracking technology. What's even more disturbing about this is that we are in love with the world we live in--a world in which we are always "on" and have accepted our loss of privacy in exchange for "efficiency, convenience, and small price discounts." We actively participate in the documentation of our private moments and accept the presence of "the gaze" within our lives. We even enact our own version of a watching "Brother" by checking up on those around us through the Internet. 
This is the result of how quickly the digital explosion happened; the speed of this development has blurred our understanding of privacy and numbed our shock over the invasion of it. Cheap consumer goods, such as cellphones, aided in this shift as well, particularly with the addition of cameras in cellphone technology.
We are able to use these devices in many ways. While they are effective in helping document crimes so that they may be more quickly resolved, it also causes seemingly insignificant moments in our lives to be magnified and used against us. This has created a sort of citizen-oriented, vigilante-style justice--for better or for worse. This does not even begin to touch another huge related issue: the fact that these cameras help contribute to our digital footprint through the storage of such data as Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), dates, times, etc. The same can be said for devices with GPS, which when in your possession can trace you anywhere in the world. 
Another relatively new technology is RFIDs, which though developed for record-keeping purposes, could easily be abused for snooping and marketing. Event data recorders (EDR), or "black boxes," track information about speed, braking time, turn signal use, and seat belts to establish responsibility in the case of automobile accidents. Even laser printers can be used for tracking, and parking garages that snap photos of our license plates can be used to track our time spent in the vicinity.
With the explosion of digital footprints comes great risk. Sensitive data can now fit in small sources and be easily accessed from anywhere in the world. Clustering algorithms allow us to determine who contacts who and when those points of contact occur. Allegedly "de-identified" data may be simply "re-identified." These technologies mean that our confidentiality is being quickly erased.
So how or why did our privacy get away from us? As has been expressed, our gadgets are a component of this. However, the problem is much messier than that and is largely tied up in how willingly we give away information about ourselves thinking that the benefit of doing so outweighs the costs. Doing so can save us time (like the sensors at toll booths for Fast Track passes); it can save us money (through the use of loyalty cards which give us discounts but track our individual purchases); it provides us with convenience (like the creation of suggested products on online marketplaces like Amazon); it plays into our desire to exhibit ourselves (particularly through our willing divulgence on social media platforms). Simply put, we don't know any other way to live. 
Our desire to know everything about those around us also reaffirms this issue. The accessibility of public documents and the development of databases that let us explore the bad deeds of our friends, family, and neighbors for a nominal fee operates as a low-grade form of spying.
This voyeuristic curiosity makes us more comfortable with the presence of Big Brother and the fact that we really are being watched and tracked at all times. Cell phones may be reprogrammed so that their microphones can be turned on remotely, and the rise os biometric data may very well eliminate the need for ID cards because we could already so precisely be pinned down.  Big Brother is no longer just the government but corporations as well.
While the Privacy Act of 1974 limited the methods with which the government may collect data on individuals, the terrorist attacks of September 11th brought these policies into question. The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established shortly thereafter and "Total Information Awareness" (TIA) became a priority and a method to sidestep the Privacy Act. The key to this approach was through data mining and profiling system development. 
These technological and social changes reinforce each other and are highly related to our lifestyle choices. The dawn of credit card culture, email culture, web culture have reinforced these changes. The "right" to be left alone is slipping away from us, as is the control we have over our information. At the end of the day, our desire to be connected to others and the channels through which we choose to do so allow us to "buy in" on losing our privacy. 

What the does the novel The Canterville Ghost teach you?

Oscar Wilde's novella The Canterville Ghost is both a ghost story and a parody of this kind of suspenseful tale. In this story, the ghost of the title attempts to haunt an American family staying at a grand estate in Britain called Canterville Chase. The Otis family refuses to heed Lord Canterville's warnings that the mansion is haunted, and though the ghost tries his best to scare the family, they are not unnerved in the least by his best efforts.
From this story, two lessons can be learned. First of all, sometimes, serious change requires genuine understanding. When the daughter of the family, Virginia, tries to talk with the ghost, she finds out more about his story and she ends up being able to help him find peace. Second of all, the story proves that rational thinking has its rewards. The Otis family sticks to the commitment they made to stay in the mansion, even when the ghost makes scary noises. Mr. Otis very reasonably asks it to oil its noisy chains. By suggesting a solution and making a clear request, Mr. Otis keeps his focus on his objective and accomplishes what he set out to do: stop the noise.

This question seems to be directed at individual readers; therefore, individual reader responses are going to vary a bit. For example, my own young children would probably learn the most from the twins in this story. My kids would learn that playing practical jokes on people/ghosts is great fun.
I think most readers are likely to learn a valuable lesson from Virginia Otis. While Sir Simon annoys most of the Otis family and the family does everything possible to make Sir Simon's haunting ineffective, Virginia Otis is the one family member to start from a place of compassion. Rather than antagonizing him, Virginia seeks to empathize with the ghost. This lesson in empathy is a valuable thing. She feels badly for Sir Simon and his situation, but she isn't afraid to let him know that his actions while alive were quite horrible.

"It is very wrong to kill any one," said Virginia, who at times had a sweet puritan gravity, caught from some old New England ancestor.

It's Virginia's care that ultimately wins the day, and it's because she takes the time to have a conversation with the ghost and is willing to do something helpful for him. She demonstrates a wonderfully loving and caring heart for someone that initially is presented as an enemy to the family, and I think there is a solid lesson in that for readers.

"The Canterville Ghost" is a short story that teaches an important lesson beneath what seems at first to be merely a funny tale.
In the story, the typical ghost story is turned upside down. Instead of scaring the American family that moves into the English Canterville Hall, the family scares the ghost. Being Americans in England, they don't take seriously the idea of ghosts haunting houses. 
Wilde humanizes Sir Simon, the ghost. Sir Simon is not, as is normal in ghost stories, simply a scary monster. He also is not a buffoon. Virginia, the daughter in the story, comes to understand that he is a suffering being with feelings and desires who wishes to atone for murdering his wife. Virginia treats Sir Simon with compassion. By interceding for him by praying, she enables him to go his final rest.
The story teaches that we shouldn't label beings who seem different from us as monsters. We also shouldn't subject them to cruel jokes. Instead, we should try to understand their needs and treat them with kindness and compassion. 

Calculus: Early Transcendentals, Chapter 4, 4.4, Section 4.4, Problem 64

You need to evaluate the limit, hence, you need to replace 1 for x:
lim_(x->1) (2 - x)^(tan((pi*x)/2)) = (2-1)^oo = 1^oo
You need to use the logarithm special technique but first you need to define the followings:
f(x) = (2 - x)^(tan((pi*x)/2))
Taking logarithms both sides yields:
ln f(x) = ln (2 - x)^(tan((pi*x)/2))
ln f(x) = ((tan((pi*x)/2))) * ln (2 - x)
Taking the limit:
lim_(x->1) ln f(x) = lim_(x->1)((tan((pi*x)/2))) * ln (2 - x) = oo*0
lim_(x->1)((tan((pi*x)/2))) * ln (2 - x) = lim_(x->1) (ln (2 - x))/(1/((tan((pi*x)/2))) = 0/0
You may use that 1/((tan((pi*x)/2))) = cot((pi*x)/2)
lim_(x->1) (ln (2 - x))/(cot ((pi*x)/2))
You may use l'Hospital's rule:
lim_(x->1) (ln (2 - x))/(cot ((pi*x)/2)) = lim_(x->1) ((ln (2 - x))')/((cot ((pi*x)/2))')
lim_(x->1) ((ln (2 - x))')/((cot ((pi*x)/2))') = lim_(x->1) (-1/(2-x))/(-(pi/2)csc^2((pi*x)/2)) = (-1/1)/(-pi/2) = 2/pi
Hence, evaluating the limit, yields lim_(x->1) (2 - x)^(tan((pi*x)/2)) = e^(2/pi).

How does Florens's character change from the beginning of A Mercy to the end?

Florens begins the novel as a slave girl who is distraught over the way that her mother has rejected and abandoned her. To clarify, Florens believes that her mother had sold her to Jacob Vaark to settle a debt, a fact which haunts Florens in both waking and sleeping life; she also believes that her mother cares more about Florens's brother than she does about Florens.
Florens, thus, starts out as a wild and emotionally unsteady girl. In the process of falling love with—and later being rejected by—the blacksmith, Florens begins to form an identity of her own. Florens eventually must journey to seek out the blacksmith once more in order to send him on a quest to treat Jacob's wife, Rebekka, who has fallen ill. When the blacksmith returns, he hits Floren; however, she hits him back with a pair of tongs and flees his house. 
By the end of the novel, Florens learns that her mother gave her up to protect her from experiencing the same abuse and rape that her mother had while living as a plantation slave in the South. This revelation helps calm the tempest within Florens and allows her to embrace herself and her identity:

From all those who believe they have claim and rule over me. I am nothing to you. You say I am wilderness. I am. Is that a tremble on your mouth, in your eye? Are you afraid? You should be.

Why did Chaucer write the Canterbury Tales? What was his motive? What messages did we want to send? How do these messages remain important today?

It is difficult to ascribe motives to authors, even those living who can speak to their works. Multiple factors, both intentional and less so, shape a work. With works as old as Chaucer's, the difficulty of pinpointing a motive or a meaning is even more difficult, since we are always imposing at least a few of our own world views on these texts. We can, however, describe qualities that make sense of the creation of a work like The Canterbury Tales in 1390 England, using some biographical details as well.
Chaucer wrote this work later in his life, leaving it unfinished when he died. The idea of a collection of tales, within the frame narrative (stories with a story), was already popular. Boccaccio's Decameron was highly popular and Chaucer almost certainly knew this Italian work that details an aristocratic escape from the plague, made more tolerable though story-telling. Chaucer adapts the concept to an English pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket, in Canterbury. This adds both a religious and a somewhat political aspect, as Becket was an early and significant English saint, murdered by a king who overstepped his authority.
The general prologue to this work contains two other medieval genres: the reverdie and the estates satire. The first 18 lines of the prologue comprise a rich reverdie passage (regreening or spring awakening) that links the idea of pilgrimage to the need for spiritual "regreening": the last line declares that the pilgrims traveling on pilgrimage to "seek" Becket in thanks for his intervention when they were "sick." All who travel are in some way spiritually sick, and that sense of incompleteness sets the pilgrims in search of comfort. The rest of the prologue is a description of the many pilgrims, from all the feudal estates and with varying degrees of moral propriety. In each of the estate groups we find pilgrims who are unwilling to fulfill the duties of their role in society and who do minor to major damage on the fabric of their society. The social satire of people not staying in place, of wandering (or to use a common medieval pun, becoming errant) is an overarching theme throughout the work.
Next, as we move into the tales proper, we can match the stories to the storyteller to find further elements of irony. The Prioress tells a wholly raw and anti-Semitic tale. The Knight struggles to stay on task in a conventional Romance of Thebes story (beginning with the classical story of Creon) and his style seems marked by PTSD from his many Crusades, The Wife follows her rhetorically brilliant prologue , which is an attack on medieval misogyny and the state of marriage, with a sentimental romance in which the rapist knight gets all that he can want.
In each of the ironic situations, as well as the plausible pairings of tale to teller, we can infer that Chaucer was hoping to alert his readers to their own and others need to seek reform for the good of the social order as well as their own spiritual health.
It is also a very funny work that would likely have even further secured Chaucer's reputation as England's supreme medieval poet.

Many scholars believe that Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales as a satire, which is a work of literature that exposes the flaws in society in order to teach a lesson about these flaws.
At this time in medieval history, society was split up into three levels called estates: the Church made up one estate, while the Nobles and the Peasants made up the other two. Each estate had a specific role to play, and each estate is well-represented in The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer satirizes members of each estate by poking fun at their failures and their dishonesty; for example, the Friar, a member of the Church estate who is supposed to be pious and a good role model for his fellow citizens, is a total hypocrite, and the Wife of Bath, who claims to be a devout reader of Scripture, fails to live by the religious readings she pretends to adore and admire.
Many scholars belive that satire is always relevant, as there will always be corrupt persons in positions of power who are using their strength for personal gain. Satirists are responsible, now more than ever, to shine a light on these situations so that the public becomes aware of these abuses of power and more able to do something about them.

How might strong identification with, and loyalty to, an in-group result in discrimination against members of an out-group?

We all have friends and people with whom we enjoy socializing. I think we would all agree that having friends is a good thing. Unfortunately, though, there can be a downside to this normal aspect of human sociability.
Imagine that you work in an office and enjoy running. You make friends with a group of runners in the office and you all gradually get in the habit of meeting a few times a week for a morning run and breakfast. One of the members of the group is a manager. One day, the manager is given a plum new project and asked to recommend a project lead. There are two qualified people. One is a member of the running group and one is not. Even if the runner was more qualified that the non-runner, many employees might still see promoting the runner as in-group favoritism, leading to resentment and a toxic environment. Even worse, not just non-runners but the disabled might feel excluded by their being an "in-group" of runners in the office. 
Even worse, many in-groups might be limited by gender or economic circumstances. Women, and many people of color, are not welcome at men's clubs. Single parents might not be able to afford gold weekends or might prefer to spend time with children. The problem is that informal mentoring and networking often goes on within these informal settings, leading to outsiders being passed over for important promotion or opportunities or missing out on useful career advice. 

In The Namesake, what were the generational differences that Gogol faced with his birthday party, food, and name?

In The Namesake, Gogol's perspective about his name, birthday party, and Bengali food differs from his parents. The generational divide is clear, and it contributes much to Gogol's distress.
In chapter 4, Gogol has two birthday parties for his fourteenth birthday. His mother, Ashima, cooks a veritable feast for the Bengali celebration. Meanwhile, the American-style birthday party is a tamer affair. Ashima and Ashoke (Gogol's parents) serve commercial pizza, store-bought frosted cake, ice-cream, and hot dogs to Gogol's classmates.
Although Gogol prefers American cuisine, he holds off on the food. It is the Bengali-style birthday party that most distresses him. The text tells us that close to 40 guests come from 3 different states. The families come with young children, and Gogol notes disdainfully that Bengalis do not "believe in babysitters."
After the Bengali-style birthday party (complete with Bengali food), Gogol does not object when most of his presents are set aside for his cousins. The presents include calculators, dictionaries, and "ugly sweaters." Later, Gogol is presented The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol by his father. However, Gogol sees little value in Ashoke's present. He would have much preferred The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or even a replacement copy of The Hobbit.
The generational divide is clear. Gogol does not understand his parents any more than they understand him. His Bengali culture expects him to focus primarily on academic performance and material success. Gogol faces a lot of parental pressure: his father wants him to study engineering at MIT. However, deep inside, Gogol is just a typical male American teenager. He is curious about girls and has experimented with smoking pot.
Because of cultural constraints and habits, Ashoke does not share his real reason for giving Gogol the book. He does not want to ruin Gogol's birthday with a discussion about death: to Bengalis, birthdays are about life. Gogol does not comprehend the significance of his father's gift. Additionally, Ashoke also notices that Gogol has neglected the cassette of classical Indian music that he gave him a while ago.
In regards to language, Gogol's parents speak to him in Bengali. For his part, Gogol much prefers to communicate in English.
In truth, Gogol is ambivalent about the birthday parties and food because he feels that he is not fully American or Indian. Although his mother holds an American-style birthday party to please him, Gogol knows that it is difficult for her to comprehend his preoccupation with a foreign way of life. Later, during his family's eight-month stay in Calcutta, Gogol (and his sister, Sonia) end up craving hamburgers, pepperoni pizza, and cold glasses of milk.
Gogol's name means very little to him: it is neither American nor Indian. Instead, its obviously Russian flavor causes him discomfort when others question its origin.
Gogol faces the challenge of navigating the differing generational perspectives about his name, birthday parties, and Bengali (versus American) food.

How would you compare and contrast Sam and Curtis in the novel Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman?

On the face of it, it would seem that Sam and Curtis don't have an awful lot in common. Sam is an elderly Jewish gentleman and Curtis is a young African-American; Sam is a fairly unprepossessing individual and Curtis is a physically strong, imposing presence in the neighborhood.
But in keeping with the overall theme of the novel, their shared commitment to making a success of the community garden brings them together, giving them a common purpose in life which they otherwise wouldn't have. In the process, Curtis's proximity to the soil brings him down to earth, both literally and figuratively, giving him a much-needed sense of humility. As for Sam, his feet have long been planted firmly in the soil, so to speak. He's always approached the world in a spirit of humility, always striving to make it a better place. What he's now trying to do in this little corner of a rough neighborhood in Cleveland is a microcosm of what he's been attempting his whole adult life: to get people to talk to each other.

Sam is a seventy-eight year old Jewish man who spends his life promoting peace and attempting to bring different individuals together. Since Sam is too old to work in the garden, he hires and pays a Puerto Rican boy to do the work. Curtis is twenty-eight years old and is known throughout the community for his massive muscles. Curtis begins planting tomatoes to show his ex-girlfriend, Lateesha, that he still has feelings for her. After noticing that some people have been stealing his tomatoes, Curtis gives a homeless teenager named Royce the job of protecting his plants in exchange for some food and a sofa to sleep on. Although Sam is much older than Curtis and they do not share the same race or reasons for working in the community garden, both characters are caring, sensitive individuals. Both characters also help other people in the community by giving them jobs. Similar to how Sam pays the Puerto Rican boy to work in the garden, Curtis gives Royce the job of protecting his plants.

What does playing with the word order do for the poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town"?

Ordinarily, a scrambled or unusual word order slows down the reader as he moves through the poem.
In this poem, this is especially true of the second line, "(with up so floating many bells down)." It is almost impossible to read through the first stanza quickly, because we are brought up short by the baffling syntax of that line. However, it is obvious from the parentheses and lack of commas that this second line is supposed to be read quickly, all in one breath, as it were.
The result is that instead of trying to let our brains get meaning from the line, we read it almost like a chant, as much (or more) for the sound and rhythm as for the meaning.
This tendency is reenforced when we hit the next line, which instead of being a grammatical sentence or phrase, is simply "spring summer autumn winter." This too is a chant—in fact, many of us remember chanting these four words, in this order, when we were learning the names of the seasons.
By the time the reader reaches line 4, he has been notified that this is going to be a poem with a nice, clear rhythm, in which the sound of the words is just as important as their meaning, and easier to determine. By this time, the reader will probably be reading the poem in a steady chanting rhythm, almost as if casting a spell.
After the first stanza, there is no line that is quite as puzzling, grammatically, as "with up so floating many bells down" (except when the same line occurs again). Although the author continues to use words in slots that do not match their expected part of speech, (e.g. "wish by spirit and if by yes"), the steady chanting rhythm of the poem will carry the reader through these potentially confusing bits, allowing them to cast their spell. Meanwhile, the parts of the poem that actually tell anyone's and noone's story are grammatical enough that we can tell what is happening. The grammatical story emerges in between the bits of chant, like a view emerging out of mist.
Finishing the poem, we are left with a somewhat fuzzy impression of the story it has told. The fuzziness is because of the many instances where the "wrong" part of speech is used. This fuzziness gives us the impression that we have glimpsed a world we don't quite understand, or perhaps we have seen the world through a perspective we are not used to—that of someone who explains things in an unconventional way and sees beauties that others often miss.
Speaking of which, we have very many clear snapshots of the beauties of nature. You do not have to understand the odd grammar to get a very clear impression from the line "bird by snow and stir by still."
Overall, the odd use of words and word order in the poem works together with the strong chanting rhythm and the beautiful, clear nature words to cast a spell on the reader.

Calculus of a Single Variable, Chapter 5, 5.8, Section 5.8, Problem 7

Let's recall the definitions: tanh(x) = (sinh(x))/(cosh(x)), se ch(x) = 1/(cosh(x)). Also, cosh(x) = (e^x + e^(-x))/2 and sinh(x) = (e^x - e^(-x))/2.
Now the left side of our identity may be rewritten as
tanh^2(x) + sec h^2(x) = (sinh^2(x) + 1)/(cosh^2(x)).
While it is well-known that sinh^2(x) + 1 = cosh^2(x), we can prove this directly:
sinh^2(x) + 1 = ((e^x - e^(-x))/2)^2 + 1 = ((e^x)^2 - 2 + (e^(-x))^2 + 4)/4 =
=((e^x)^2 + 2 + (e^(-x))^2)/4 =((e^x + e^(-x))/2)^2 = cosh^2(x).
This way the left side is equal to 1, which is the right side. This way the identity is proved.

How are the Analects and the Bhagavad Gita related according to their intentions and thoughts?

Both of these works involve a master and a disciple. In both works, the master gives instruction to the disciple and answers the disciples questions. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is the master and Arjuna is the disciple. Both works are concerned with how an individual fits into the larger society through their relationships. In both works, the master instructs the disciple to honor their duties and social responsibilities. The Bhagavad Gita and the Analects give special attention to the parent–child relationship, the teacher–student relationship, and the king–subject relationship. The works emphasize that a well-functioning society depends upon socially harmonious relationships.
Both works also discuss the art of ruling. The master gives instruction to the king and governing lords. Both works explore themes of justice, fairness, virtue, and righteousness. The aim of both the Analects and the Bhagavad Gita is to help the disciple grow into a just and honorable ruler.

Find all solutions of the equation in the interval [0, 2π). sin(x/2)+cosx-1=0

Hi! To solve this equation we need to express cos(x) in terms of sin(x/2). It is a well-known formula: cos(x) = cos^2(x/2) - sin^2(x/2) = 1 - 2sin^2(x/2).
Now denote sin(x/2) as u and obtain an equation for u: u + 1 - 2u^2 - 1 = 0, or u - 2u^2 = 0, or u(1 - 2u) = 0.
This gives u = 0 or u = 1/2. Now recall that u = sin(x/2) and solve for x the equations sin(x/2) = 0 and sin(x/2) = 1/2.

There is the only solution for sin(x/2) = 0 on [0, 2 pi) , x_1 = 0 (x/2 = k pi , x = 2k pi ).
There are two solutions for sin(x/2) = 1/2 on [0, 2 pi) , x_2 = pi/3 and x_3 = (5 pi)/3.
(x/2 = pi/6 + 2k pi or x/2 = -pi/6 + 2k pi ).

So the answers are x_1 = 0 , x_2 = pi/3 and x_3 = (5 pi)/3.

(5/2,0) Write the standard form of the equation of the parabola with the given focus and vertex at (0,0)

A parabola opens toward to the location of focus with respect to the vertex.
When the vertex and focus has same y-values, it implies that the parabola opens sideways (left or right). 
When the vertex and focus has same x-values, it implies that the parabola may opens upward or downward. 
The given focus of the parabola (5/2,0) is located at the right side of the vertex (0,0). Both points has the same value of y=0 .
Thus, the parabola opens sideways towards to the right side of the vertex. In this case, we follow the standard formula: (y-k)^2=4p(x-h). We consider the following properties:
vertex as (h,k)
focus as (h+p, k)
directrix as x=h-p
Note: p is the distance of between focus and vertex or distance between directrix and vertex.
From the given vertex point (0,0) , we determine h =0 and k=0 .
From the given focus (5/2,0) , we determine h+p =5/2 and k=0 .
Applying h=0 on h+p=5/2 , we get:
0+p=5/2
p=5/2 
Plug-in the values: h=0 ,k=0 , and p=5/2 on the standard formula, we get: 
(y-0)^2=4*5/2(x-0) 
y^2=10x  as the standard form of the equation of the parabola with vertex (0,0) and focus (5/2,0) . 

What happens in chapters 1 and 2 of Triangle by David Von Drehle?

Textbooks usually remember the Triangle Fire as a turning point in the movement for improving worker safety conditions in the United States. It is a seminal event in the Progressive Era, which includes many such reform movements. The young women who perished in the Triangle Fire were victims, but the horror of the event led to reforms. In Triangle, von Drehle demonstrates that the injustices at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and indeed in the garment industry more generally, did not begin or end with the fire. In the first two chapters, for instance, he begins to explain why the event at Triangle was "the crucial moment in a potent chain of events" that led to state and national reform. He does this by showing the potency of the forces arrayed against factory workers, as well as the beginnings of a political reform movement. In the first chapter, he discusses the background. The beating of Claire Lemisch by a career criminal named Charles Rose exemplifies the ways in which New York politics, local law enforcement, and the brutal competition between factories conspired against the predominately young, female, immigrant labor force. The role of Tammany Hall, headed by Richard Croker, in squelching worker radicalism and bourgeois reform, is highlighted.
The second chapter details the outbreak of the strike itself. In 1909, a major strike occurred, one rooted in the working conditions in the garment industry, which ranged from the abysmal (sweatshops) to the barely tolerable (factories like the Triangle itself). The largely immigrant workforce worked for long hours, under tight supervision, and in extraordinarily tedious jobs. Part of this was borne of increasing competition among the owners of the factories, who were themselves mostly immigrants. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, the owners of the Triangle firm, were immigrants, but far from having sympathy for their workers, they instead ruled their factory with an iron fist. Their behavior, and that of people like them, led to the outbreak of a strike in which the Triangle workers emerged as prominent figures. Indeed, as von Drehle makes clear later in the book, one of the reasons the tragic fire had such resonance was that the Triangle factory and its workers were already well-known for their roles in the strike.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Xw4fjRQFusQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Triangle+fire+that+changed+America&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNhs3XovvYAhUC0oMKHRYyBOsQ6AEIKTAA

The opening chapters of the book are called "The Spirit of the Age" and "Triangle." In short, both chapters are meant to present the corruption at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory before the fire begins.
The first chapter is called "Spirit of the Age" because of the horrible corruption it highlights. The very first words are that "burglary was the usual occupation of ... Charles Rose" who was hired to beat up a female strike leader named Clara Lemlich.

[Clara represents] the drive for women’s rights (and other civil rights), the rise of unions, and the use of activist government to address social problems.

The chapter focuses on the character of Clara, her family, and her job in the clothing industry as a low-wage earner turned protester. The brutal physical attack on Clara ordered by Charles sets the scene. The environment that follows is one the pits the employers against the workers.
In the second chapter, the character of Kline says he is "sick of the slave driving" at the Triangle. Kline wants more money and improved conditions. Any worker who sides with Kine is ordered to leave, but no one moves. During the course of chapter 2, the original standoff by Kline threatens to turn into a full-blown strike. "Progressive women" (like Clara from the first chapter) are being hauled off to jail by Tammany cops, and political corruption is allowing this to happen. Issac Harris and Marcus Blanck, the owners (the "Shirtwaist Kings"), begin the press releases to halt the coming strike from the "shirtwaist union." By the end of chapter 2, a confrontation "becomes inevitable." Blanck and Harris demand to form an "EMPLOYERS MUTUAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATION" (purposely written in all capital letters) in order to counteract the forming union.
These chapters are important because the eventual flames at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire would trap and then kill some of the strikers working the hardest to change labor laws and horrible conditions for workers. Why would the fire kill so many? All but one of the fire exits are locked to prevent both theft and unauthorized breaks by workers.

A rancher has 200 feet of fencing to enclose two adjacent rectangular corrals, what dimension should be used to so that the enclosed area will be a maximum?

We have 200 linear feet of fencing to enclose 2 adjacent rectangular corrals and we want to maximize the enclosed area. Let l be the length and w the width (see attachment) so:
P=2l+3w andA=lw
200=2l+3w ==>2l=200-3w ==>l=100-3/2w
A=lw=w(100-3/2w)
We are asked to maximize the area:
(1) Using algebra we see that A(w) is a parabola that opens down with intercepts at 0 and200/3. The vertex is at w=100/3 so A=2172.2.
(2) Using calculus we find the derivative of A with respect to w to be 100-3w which is zero at w=100/3 and the function has a maximum atw=100/3. The value of the function is A(100/3)=2172.2
The maximum area is 2172.2 sq ft and the dimensions are w=100/3 ft and l=50 ft

f(x)=1/(2+x)^3 Use the binomial series to find the Maclaurin series for the function.

Recall a binomial series  follows: 
(1+x)^k=sum_(n=0)^oo _(k(k-1)(k-2)...(k-n+1))/(n!)x^n
or
(1+x)^k = 1 + kx + (k(k-1))/(2!) x^2 + (k(k-1)(k-2))/(3!)x^3 +(k(k-1)(k-2)(k-3))/(4!)x^4+ ...
To evaluate given function f(x) =1/(2+x)^3 , we may apply  2+x = 2(1+x/2) .
The function becomes:
f(x) =1/(2(1+x/2))^3
Apply Law of Exponents: (x*y)^n = x^n*y^n at the denominator side.
1/(2(1+x/2))^3=1/(2^3(1+x/2)^3)
                = 1/(8(1+x/2)^3)
Apply Law of Exponents: 1/x^n = x^(-n) .
f(x) = 1/8(1+x/2)^(-3)
Apply the binomial series on (1+x/2)^(-3) . By comparing "(1+x)^k " with "(1+x/2)^(-3) " the corresponding values are:
x=x/2 and k =-3
Then,
(1+x/2)^(-3) =sum_(n=0)^oo _((-3)(-3-1)(-3-2)...(-3-n+1))/(n!)(x/2)^n
=1 + (-3)x/2 + ((-3)(-3-1))/(2!) (x/2)^2 + ((-3)(-3-1)(-3-2))/(3!)(x/2)^3 +((-3)(-3-1)(-3-2)(-3-3))/(4!)(x/2)^4+...
=1 -(3x)/2 + ((-3)(-4))/(2!) (x^2/4) + ((-3)(-4)(-5))/(3!)(x^3/8) +((-3)(-4)(-5)(-6))/(4!)(x^4/16)- ...
=1 -(3x)/2 +12/(2!) (x^2/4) -60/(3!)(x^3/8) +360/(4!)(x^4/16)- ...
=1 -(3x)/2 +(3x^2)/2 -(5x^3)/4 +(15x^4)/16- ...
Applying (1+x/2)^(-3) =1 -(3x)/2 +(3x^2)/2 -(5x^3)/4 +(15x^4)/16- ..., we get:
1/8(1+x/2)^(-3)=1/8*[1 -(3x)/2 +(3x^2)/2 -(5x^3)/4 +(15x^4)/16-...]
                    =1/8-(3x)/16 +(3x^2)/16 -(5x^3)/32 +(15x^4)/128- ...
Therefore, the Maclaurin series  for  the function f(x) =1/(2+x)^3 can be expressed as:
1/(2+x)^3=1/8-(3x)/16 +(3x^2)/16 -(5x^3)/32 +(15x^4)/128- ...

How did World War I change the way in which wars are fought?

World War I wasn't just the first world war, it was the first total war. Total war is when all parts of society are mobilized for the fight. Shoe and rubber cement factories turn into gun and ammunition factories. The economy becomes war-based. Families ration food, and able-bodied men strap on weapons and head to the front.
Because it was a total war, governments became centralized during World War I, and they had two big jobs. First, the government needed to make sure the war had public support. After all, it's kind of hard to get people stoked about rationing breakfast cereal if they don't believe in the cause. Second, the government needed to make sure the economy was ready for war. To that end, they didn't just have to win over the hearts and minds of the people; they also had to win over their wallets and purses.
That's where propaganda came in. Posters in Great Britain, for example, reminded families of the importance of food rations, proclaiming "The kitchen is the key to victory. Eat less bread." During World War I, governments also engaged in censorship—both to protect their own troops and to hide the nastiest details of combat from the public. Soldiers' letters home from the trenches were frequently censored so that their locations, the kind of weapons they were using, and who had died were left out.
World War I was also different from previous conflicts because most of the countries involved filled out their militaries using conscription, which is when men—and, during World War I, it was only men—are drafted into the military. A draft does two things: It increases the size of the army and increases it quickly, and it beefs up overall participation in the war effort. For some countries, like Germany, conscription was the status quo. In August 1914, for example, their army ballooned from 800,000 troops to over 3.5 million troops in less than two weeks. Great Britain, on the other hand, refused to use conscription to fill its ranks—until World War made it clear that, if they wanted to stay militarily mighty, they needed a draft.
Picking up a gun wasn't the only way citizens helped. Women dove headfirst into the workforce back home, taking over jobs vacated by men who'd gone to the front, keeping the agricultural sector growing (literally), and manufacturing guns, ammo, and other wartime supplies. People who didn't particularly want to support their country in the world's first global war were forced to participate, too, such as the prisoners and colonial soldiers who were forced to fight for the good of the empire.
Ultimately, World War I established industrial capability as the centerpiece of a nation's ability to triumph on the battlefield. It made it clear that, if a country wanted to enter the fray, they needed their whole population behind the war effort, cranking out resources left and right, faster than you can say "Man, total war sounds terrible."
Many of those resources, specifically on the weapons side of things, were new and improved for World War I, and they changed the entire way war was waged. Machine guns, for example, weren't new in 1914, but they were relatively new to the battlefield. Because they had better range and aim than the unwieldy rifles and bayonets that came before them, the use of machine guns led to trench warfare. Old-school attacks were virtually useless. Instead of getting turned into Swiss cheese like Sonny Corleone at the toll booth, soldiers dug trenches, settled in, and tried to hold their position. As a result, combat in World War I became a massive network of trenches. Picture an ant farm, only fortified with barbed wire, mortars, and machine gun nests. Predictably, these trenches were riddled with diseases, too, thanks to the abundance of rotten food, stagnant water, dead bodies, and no good way to dispose of waste.
As trench warfare trended in World War II, both sides chose their weapons accordingly. In addition to machine guns and artillery, flamethrowers and grenades both figured heavily into the struggle. Flamethrowers, which were primarily used by the German army, were portable, efficient, and a handy way to wipe out all enemies in a trench without destroying the trench itself. While slightly messier, grenades were super-easy to use and just as efficient. If chucking a grenade into an enemy trench didn't kill everyone inside, it almost certainly injured them. First used by the Germans, grenades were later adopted by the British and the French as well.
While armies incorporated machine guns, flamethrowers, and grenades in new ways for World War I, they weren't new inventions. Tracer bullets were, though. Since most of the combat in World War I took place at night, these glow-in-the-dark bullets were created to help troops shoot. Each bullet contained flammable material that released a phosphorescent trail behind it when discharged, and they were a massive improvement on randomly firing your weapon into the black of night.
One of the nastiest battlefield practices established by World War I was the use of poison gas. The Germans were first to incorporate it into their strategy, but ultimately everybody followed suit. First came chlorine gas. Then came phosgene, which was responsible for 85% of all poison gas deaths in World War II. In the end, it's mustard gas that's most synonymous with World War I, though. While it wasn't as deadly as phosgene, mustard gas caused a host of nasty symptoms, from blisters and burns to swollen eyes and internal bleeding.
Between trenches, the average World War I battlefield was a no man's land. Literally; that's what they called it—because no man in his right mind would step foot out on that turf filled with land mines, barbed wire, and machine gun fire. Still, soldiers needed some way to encroach upon their enemies if World War I was ever going to end.
Enter the tank. Essentially a giant, metal, heavily-fortified car with tough-as-nails treads, tanks made crossing no man's land a breeze. Being outfitted with a mounted gun or two didn't hurt, either. They moved stegosaurus-slow, but without tanks, the stalemates caused by trench warfare may've gone on indefinitely.
Airplanes helped armies overcome the challenges of trench warfare, too. Initially, they were used to gather intel: pilots could cruise behind enemy lines, take a look around, and then fly home and tell everybody what they saw. Then somebody said, "Hey, I bet we could put a gun on that." By the end of World War I, fighter planes were used for a variety of jobs, from supply carriers to long-range bombers. Perhaps more importantly, they showed the military capabilities of the airplane to the world—a preview that would have an even greater impact on World War II.
In the end, World War I gave the globe its first glimpse of modern warfare. In a word, it was scary—not just because of phosgene and flamethrowers, but because, in total war, no one is safe. When everyone's involved in the fight, everyone's a target. Previously, wars had largely been fought by professional soldiers. Now they were being fought by friends and family, and that rubber cement factory turned munitions factory was a target. Ditto for the nearby school and your favorite sandwich shop.
World War I introduced the elements of uncertainty and irresolution to warfare, too. The world had seen wars with higher casualty-counts per country, and there would be more global war, but World War I was a war that nobody wanted in the first place, and that everybody believed would be short and sweet—or as sweet as global conflict can be. In actuality, it was a war with no conclusive victories that strangled the global economy and all but etched "To be continued" across the ravaged battlefields of Europe.

World War I changed the ways wars are fought. In World War I, there were many new weapons that were introduced into combat. The Browning machine gun was used, which was a more powerful and more accurate weapon than had previously been seen in combat. Chlorine gas was a new weapon that could harm people in a chemical manner. This led to the introduction of gas masks to help protect the soldiers that might be exposed to this form of chemical warfare.
New technologies were used in the air, on land, and on the seas. The use of the submarine changed the method of naval warfare. The submarine was designed to attack by surprise and to strike fear into the hearts of those people who were traveling by water, shipping products by sea, and serving in the navy. Convoys were used by the Allies to help combat the use of the submarines by the Germans. Airplanes were introduced in World War I, suggesting that they would have a much greater role in future wars. The use of tracer ammunition allowed a gunman in an airplane to see where his shots were going. Tanks were also introduced as a weapon in World War I. When World War I began, soldiers were using horses. Tanks, airplanes, and submarines were being dominantly used by the time World War I ended.
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/inside-story/articles/2014/8/5/world-war-i-fouryearsthatchangedtheglobeforever.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/daily-videos/how-wwi-changed-the-world-forever/

How could the following lines be paraphrased? taut throat, hell’s captive caught in the armsOf him who of all the men on earthWas the strongest.That mighty protector of menMeant to hold the monster till its lifeLeaped out, knowing the fiend was no use

Put simply, the monster Grendel, who is "hell's captive", is in the powerful death-grip of Beowulf. His throat is "taut", that is to say stretched out as Beowulf slowly strangles him. Beowulf has no intention of letting go; he's determined to hold on to the monster until he dies. ("[T]ill its life leaped out.")
We learn a lot about Beowulf from this brief extract. He's strong and powerful, someone strong enough to protect other men as well as taking on and defeating the most powerful of monsters. Indeed, Beowulf, this mighty Geatish warrior, isn't just strong; he's the strongest man in the whole world. He's just the right man, then, for killing Grendel. For he, and he alone, is capable of ridding the Danes once and for all of this savage monster that has terrorized them for so many years.

Paraphrasing the phrases from Beowulf’s battle with the beast Grendel simply put them into an easier to understand format. The scene describes Grendel being defeated by strangulation from Beowulf. A good paraphrase is as follows:
Choking, the demon beast is trapped in the strong arms of the strongest of all mighty men on Earth. The strong warrior who protects others holds the beast until his life is done, knowing the monster is unable to escape his grasp.
This paraphrase shows the chokehold in which Beowulf holds Grendel. He holds him tight until the monster chokes to death, because he knows that he is stronger and has Grendel in a hold from which he can not escape, thus saving Hrothgar and the villagers.

These lines describe Beowulf's battle with Grendel. Though Grendel is a powerful foe, Beowulf is stronger. Beowulf is also favored by heaven in comparison to Grendel, who is not only evil but damned, as suggested by the author's calling him "hell's captive." Such a descriptor suggests Grendel's plans are doomed to failure and he himself is doomed to ultimate defeat by the forces of good.
In contrast, Beowulf is described as a strong protector of the weak. His victory over Grendel is assured too, when we see it proclaimed that Beowulf is "meant" to crush Grendel to death and save the lives of the innocent as a result.
Altogether, this passage highlights the battle between good and evil in the poem, particularly the inevitable triumph of good in the struggle (even if the last third of the poem muddies the waters a little with Beowulf's Pyrrhic victory over the dragon and his people's fears of annihilation without him there to protect them anymore).
Paraphrased, these lines might look something like this: "Grendel, hell's captive, was caught in the grip of Beowulf, the world's strongest man. Beowulf, the mighty protector of men, was destined to hold Grendel until he crushed him to death."

This quote begins at line 788, in the midst of Beowulf's fight with Grendel. One of the difficulties in summarizing lines, rather than sentences or sections, of Beowulf or poetry of its lineage is the fact that many lines repeat or reflect upon information in the previous ones, so that they appear as sentence fragments or redundancies when viewed out of context (such as "taut throat").
"Hell's captive" refers to Grendel, in the sense that he is a damned creature and, considering the poem's strong Christian moralism, implying that he is disfavored and cursed. 
The following lines simply describe and reiterate Beowulf's strength and role as a protector. Finally, they detail his intentions; to literally wrestle Grendel to death, or, more likely, to crush the life out of him.
So, these lines might be paraphrased as follows:
"Grendel, that hellish creature, was caught in Beowulf's grasp. Because of his great strength and protective instinct, Beowulf had no intention of letting Grendel go until he had crushed the monster to death." 
 
http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html

Calculus: Early Transcendentals, Chapter 6, 6.2, Section 6.2, Problem 17

You need to evaluate the volume using the washer method, such that:
V = pi*int_a^b(f^2(x) - g^2(x))dx
You need first to determine the endpoints, hence you need to solve for y the following equation, such that:
y^2 = 1 - y^2
2y^2 = 1 => y^2 = 1/2 => y_(1,2) = +-(sqrt2)/2
V = pi*int_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2) ((3 - y^2)^2 - (3 - 1 + y^2)^2)dy
V = pi*int_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2) (9 - 6y^2 + y^4 - 4 - 4y^2 - y^4)dy
V = pi*int_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2) (5 - 10y^2)dy
V = pi*(int_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2) 5dy - int_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2) 10y^2dy)
V = pi*(5y|_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2) - 10y^3/3|_(-(sqrt2)/2)^((sqrt2)/2))
V = pi*(5((sqrt2)/2+(sqrt2)/2) - 10/3(2sqrt2/8 + 2sqrt2/8))
V = pi*(5sqrt2 - 10*sqrt2/6)
V = (20*pi*sqrt2)/6
V = (10*pi*sqrt2)/3
Hence, evaluating the volume of the solid obtained by rotating the region bounded by the given curves, about x = 3, yields V = (10*pi*sqrt2)/3.

How can we say that Pamela is the hero of the story?

When the Viscount Medardo is split in two during a battle against the Turks, his good and evil halves take a life of their own. The people of Terralba soon find themselves suffering under the actions of both Medardos. Pamela, a peasant girl, becomes engaged to the evil Medardo. The good Medardo challenges the evil Medardo to a duel for Pamela's hand in marriage and both are wounded in the process. After the duel, both Medardos are reunited into one, becoming a whole person again.
A major theme of this book revolves around the dichotomy of good and evil. The author shows the importance of balance and wholeness through Pamela. Because of her desire for a complete person as a husband, Pamela reunites the split Viscount Medardo and also brings stability back to Terralba as a result.

What were the lasting effects of Reconstruction?

The Civil War (1861–1865) was by far the bloodiest in the nation's history. Reconciliation of the North and the South was not an easy undertaking. Reconstruction (1865–1877) was, at best, only a partial success.
Abraham Lincoln had wanted to reconcile with Southerners and take them back into the Union as effortlessly as possible. But Congress opposed him, and Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 before he could implement his plan.
After Lincoln had been killed, there was a virulent quarrel between Congress and the man who had replaced Lincoln, Andrew Johnson. Congress wanted to punish the South and protect and aid its former slaves. In 1868, Johnson was almost impeached.
Public opinion in the North grew weary of Reconstruction. Although most Northerners wanted freedmen to play a role in the postbellum South, they were not willing to keep troops there in perpetuity to safeguard the rights of freedmen.
The South disliked the military occupation it endured during Reconstruction. Also, former slaves were subject to black codes and the Ku Klux Klan. After Reconstruction had ended in 1877, the South implemented systematic segregation which remained in place for a century. Blacks in the South were deprived of most of their rights.
Reconstruction did not bring the North and South together. The two sides still disagreed on what caused the war. The war had some beneficial results too: The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were an important legacy of Reconstruction. Slavery was dead. But there is still a lasting sense of division today. That division is evident in electoral maps showing how the North and South vote in presidential elections.

The most significant lasting effect of Reconstruction was that the issues of racial equality and civil rights were effectively ignored at the national level for the better part of a century. Although Reconstruction was ostensibly concerned with these issues, it lacked the sustained political energy required to make a positive lasting impact on the lives of African Americans.
The changes that took place during Reconstruction were broad, rather than deep. African Americans in the Southern states were allowed to vote and run for public office, but the underlying racial prejudice against them remained; if anything, it was even stronger than it had been before the Civil War. Even the most ardent supporters of Reconstruction didn't believe in racial equality; their attitudes towards race were disturbingly similar to those harbored by the vast majority of Southern whites.
As Reconstruction was a political measure which did not address the underlying issues, it was completely reliant on sustained commitment from policy-makers in Washington. Inevitably, this proved to be an inadequate foundation for Reconstruction. Over time, interest in the policy waned in the Northern states; people were tired of the issue and wanted to move on; and to put the matter bluntly, there were no votes in it for either party.
Gradually, then, African Americans in the South were abandoned to white supremacist state legislatures, who set about re-introducing the substance of slavery through the back door, by way of the segregationist Jim Crow laws. The actions of Southern governors and legislatures were matched at the Federal level by the indifference of senators, congressmen, and Supreme Court justices. The systemic injustice and repression that arose from this toxic combination festered on for the next hundred years or so, until with the Supreme Court, in the case of Brown v Board of Education (1954), and the US Congress, which passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Federal authorities finally began fulfilling the promise the Reconstruction project begun, but never fully completed, almost a century before.

How does Steinbeck create an ominous atmosphere in Chapter 2?

In Chapter Two, Steinbeck introduces the main characters who work and live on the ranch. Not only are characters introduced but also three of the important conflicts which threaten both George's and Lennie's friendship and George's dream of owning his own farm. The first event which portends later complications is when George and Lennie see the boss. Rather than remembering to keep quiet, Lennie repeats George's words about being "strong as a bull" and causes the boss to become suspicious of George:

"Now he's got his eyes on us. Now we go to be careful and not make no slips. You keep your big flapper shut after this." He fell morosely silent.

George's morose silence is a sign of his growing discontent with Lennie, who always seems to act inappropriately at the wrong time.
Second, Curley's appearance in the bunkhouse foreshadows the events in Chapter Three. He immediately seems to take a disliking to Lennie, sizing him up and insisting that he speak:

He glanced coldly at George and Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious. Lennie squirmed under the look and shifted his feet nervously..."By Christ, he's gotta talk when he's spoke to."

Later, Candy claims that Curley is often out to fight a bigger man in order to prove his mettle. Therefore, he proves an ominous threat to George's hopes that he and Lennie can "roll up a stake" for their future farm.
Finally, the intrusion of Curley's wife into the bunkhouse is another threat to George and Lennie. Lennie has a history of being fascinated with soft hair and fabric, and Curley's wife's appearance in the bunkhouse again seems to pique Lennie's interest. After George violently admonishes Lennie for looking at Curley's wife, the big man expresses his fears about working on the ranch and even tells George that they should leave:

Lennie cried out suddenly—"I don' like this place, George. This ain't no good place. I wanna get outa here."

George argues that they need the money and must stay. In retrospect, this is a mistake and these threats materialize into trouble in proceeding chapters.

Under what conditions does the poet expect to meet his death?

The poet expects to meet his death “when Spring comes back with rustling shade.” The refrain of the poem reinforces this expectation through the use of parallelism (specifically, anaphora, which repeats the opening part of a phrase in sentences which end differently). The poet expects his death to come in battle, “at some disputed barricade” or on a “scarred slope.” The militaristic imagery contrasting with the pastoral image of Spring bringing back “blue days and fair,” is symbolic of renewal.
Death in this poem is also personified not as a cruel being, but almost as a friend who will approach the poet with gentleness to “take his hand.” The idea of a rendezvous, or planned meeting, compounds this idea. The poet seems almost to look forward to the rendezvous he vows he “shall not fail,” as if it is inevitable and anticipated. The framing of the rendezvous perhaps suggests that death represents an escape from battle, its own kind of renewal.

What is the main problem in Rumble Fish?

By "main problem," I believe that the question is referring to the central conflict. I have to pick two central conflicts because they are woven together and equally central.
The first conflict is an external, man vs. society conflict. Like The Outsiders, Rumble Fish focuses on a protagonist from a lower class, poor part of town. He is a victim of circumstances in a lot of ways. His parents are not supportive or role models at all, and his family doesn't have strong finances. Consequently, Rusty has turned to gangs and violence. On one hand, he experiences a sort of kinship there, but on the other hand he knows that the gang world is dangerous and won't lead to anything good in the long term.
That leads to the second main conflict. Rusty has an internal conflict of trying to do right by his brother's advice. The Motorcycle Boy got out of the gang life, and Rusty idolizes his brother. Rusty wants to be like him, but Rusty struggles with finding the inner reserves to make the tough choices his brother did.

"The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths." What literary device is used in this quotation?

Imagery is one of the strongest devices available to a writer. Put simply, imagery allows the writer to string together words in a way that creates mental images, helping the reader visualize a scene or a metaphorical concept. In this quote, Bradbury uses the literary device of imagery to great effect.
The world is described as having once been "roomy," a comfortable piece of imagery that may awaken thoughts of a comfortable living area that one has all to themselves. However, the world has since become full of "eyes, elbows, and mouths." This obviously refers to human beings, but the use of these particular body parts can awaken a particular discomfort in the reader. With the imagery of the world as a "room" still in mind, one can now imagine it filled with people watching each other, bumping their elbows together uncomfortably, and hearing cacophonous noise from all of their mouths.

This quotation uses the literary device of synecdoche, a term which means that the part stands in for the whole. In this case, the words "eyes and elbows and mouths" are used to mean human beings. Obviously, humans consist of far more than these three body parts, but when we read those words, we understand that Beatty is talking about people.
He says that people moved away from reading books as the population grew larger and as other media were invented, such as photography, movies, radio, and television. Books were complex, Beatty argues, and people, who became a mass (hence his referring to them as undifferentiated eyes, elbows, and mouths) rather than individuals, started to wish for information that was much simpler than what a book might offer. Rather than deal with difficult texts, says Beatty, the masses wanted information to be simplified: "books leveled down to a sort of paste pudding norm." Following that, they didn't want books at all.

How could Frankenstein by Mary Shelley be compared to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, including important themes and quotes?

When answering this question, you should consider the themes of isolation and rejection in Frankenstein and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” In Frankenstein, Walton, Victor, and the creature are all isolated. Walton is isolated on ship because he has no friends. “I have no friend, Margaret (Letter 2),” he tells his sister. Victor isolates himself when he chooses to study reanimation. “And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time” (Chapter 4). The creature is similarly isolated when he is forced to roam alone in the mountains. When telling Victor his story, he concludes: “I am alone and miserable, man will not associate with me” (Chapter 16).
In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the Mariner tells a story of death and isolation to the Wedding Guest. After killing the albatross, the Mariner is left alone when all the other sailors die. “I looked upon the rotting sea, / And drew my eyes away; / I looked upon the rotting deck, / And there the dead men lay. / I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; / But or ever a prayer had gusht, / My heart as dry as dust.” The Mariner, who is at fault for the deaths of the men, must endure his guilt alone.
The theme of rejection also plays an important role in both the novel and the poem. In Frankenstein, the creature is rejected by his creator, by the cottagers, and by society as a whole. This rejection causes him to seek Victor relentlessly and ask him for a companion. He tells Victor: “I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?” (Chapter 17). In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the Mariner first rejects the Albatross: “'God save thee, ancient Mariner! / From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-- / Why look'st thou so?'--With my cross-bow / I shot the ALBATROSS.” Later, the Mariner is rejected by the rest of the crew. “Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks / Had I from old and young! / Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung.” The Mariner is rejected as a result of his actions. Rejection and isolation are related in both the book and the poem.

College Algebra, Chapter 3, 3.7, Section 3.7, Problem 66

$\displaystyle f(x) = 2 - \frac{1}{2} x$ is a one-to-one function. (a) Find the inverse of the function. (b) Graph both the function and its inverse on the same screen to verify that the graphs are reflections of each other in the line $y = x$.

a.) To find the inverse, we set $y = f(x)$.


$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}

y =& 2 - \frac{1}{2} x
&& \text{Solve for $x$, add } \frac{1}{2} x \text{ and subtract } y
\\
\\
\frac{1}{2} x =& 2 - y
&& \text{Multiply both sides by } 2
\\
\\
x =& 2 (2 - y)
&& \text{Interchange $x$ and $y$}
\\
\\
y =& 2(2 - x)
&&

\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$


Thus, the inverse of $\displaystyle f(x) = 2 - \frac{1}{2} x$ is $f^{-1} (x) = 2 (2 - x)$.

b.)

What method Did the Spanish use to change native American culture

The Spanish used a number of techniques to change the culture of the indigenous peoples of the New World. Most obviously, they used conquest to exert their will and claim lands. The Spanish had superior tools and weapons, but also benefited from the natives being decimated by new diseases the Spanish inadvertently introduced. In conquering the lands of the natives, the Spanish instituted European economic, political, and justice systems over the Indians.
The Spanish also attempted to subvert the culture of the Indians by converting them to Christianity. They abolished the traditional religions of the Native Americans and forced them to worship a monotheistic God. Churches and missions were constructed throughout the New World to achieve this.
Another way that the Spanish abolished traditional native culture is through intermarriage. Unlike the English, who remained separated from the Indians, the Spanish intermarried and established a new ethnicity of people that would be called mestizos. This intermingling with the native population resulted in a blending of Spanish and Indian cultures which further destroyed ancestral native knowledge.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text7/text7read.htm

Why do liquids increase in volume when they change into gases?

Volume, in the context of matter, is the amount of space that is occupied by an object (matter). In some cases, the boundary of this space is evident. For instance, for a solid, the shape of the object dictates the space it occupies. It is a different case for fluids - or matter that flows - like gases and liquids. 
For fluids, the shape of the particular gas or the liquid is the same shape as the container. If you pour water from a water bottle to a bowl, the shape of the water changes from that of the water bottle to that of the bowl. The same is true for a gas. A gas inside a star-shaped balloon is star-shaped, and it is round in a round balloon. Liquids and gases take up the shape of the container because of the nature of the interactions in the atoms or molecules that make up the object. For solids the atoms/molecules are very tightly packed. This is not the case for liquids and gases where the molecules have more freedom.
A main difference between molecules in liquids and gases is that molecules in gases have a higher kinetic energy and hence more freedom. Liquids still have substantial interaction between its molecules. Imagine water being boiled. As the water heats up some of the molecules increase in kinetic energy due to increasing temperature and escape the liquid phase as water vapor. Molecules in a liquid (without boiling) are generally confined to a certain volume. Meanwhile, due to the kinetic energy in gases, the molecules occupy every available space. If I have 1L of a liquid and pour it into a 5L container, while it will take the shape of the new container, it will still be 1L. However, in the case of a gas, moving it from a 1L container to a 5L container would mean changing its volume from 1L to 5L - again, this is because the molecules of a gas are in a continuous random motion, and the lack of interaction between them gives them the ability to occupy and fill up the rest of the container.
This difference in the property of liquids and gases leads to the answer to your question. Gases occupy more volume than liquid because of the inherent properties of the atoms and molecules of a gas (according to the Kinetic Molecular Theory of Gases). The molecules do not interact with each other (hence no attraction to keep them in place as in solids and liquids) and they are in a continuous random motion allowing them to occupy the available space.
A slightly related concept is thermal expansion. As you heat up an object, it expands. This is because heating increases the temperature and gives the molecules more kinetic energy, and hence more motion. In solids, they vibrate more and move a little bit away from each other. The same applies for liquids and gases but with a more dramatic effect.

Is the amphitheater used in the same way in this kingdom as it was elsewhere?

We are told by the narrator of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" that the king in this story has adapted the amphitheater to a new purpose. The narrator puts it this way:

The arena of the king was built, not to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to widen and develop the mental energies of the people.

In other words, the narrator is comparing this amphitheater to those built by the Romans. The Roman amphitheaters or coliseums were famous as places people went to watch gladiators fight or Christians die by being fed to hungry lions. This story's king has a new idea. He turns his amphitheater into a hall of justice, where people are tried for their crimes by having to open one of two doors. If they are innocent, they are rewarded with a beautiful maiden to marry, if guilty, they are devoured by a hungry tiger.
In reality, though, this combination of spectacle and barbarism is not much different from what the Roman audiences saw.

In chapter 19, what does the slave say about the Dutch religion that upsets Candide?

In chapter 19, Candide meets a black slave missing his left leg and right hand. Candide asks him what happened. The slave explains that when you lose a finger in the mill on the sugar plantation, the custom is to cut off your hand, and if you run away, the practice is to cut off your leg. He has done both, which explains his missing limbs. He points out that the sugar Europeans eat is purchased with such misery. He then says that his parents sold him into slavery to a Christian slaveowner Vanderdendur. At Vanderdendur's Dutch church, he is taught that blacks and whites are all brothers and sisters descended from Adam. The slave feels that such a family treats its member cruelly. When Candide hears this story, he is so shocked that he gives up the philosophy of Optimism:

"Here is an end of the matter. I find myself, after all, obliged to renounce thy Optimism."
"Optimism," said Cacambo, "what is that?"
"Alas!" replied Candide, "it is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst."

This section, as we can see, continues Voltaire's theme of bitterly criticizing and satirizing religious hypocrisy.

In chapter 19 of Candide, our hero and Cacambo are in Surinam when they come across a black slave in rags lying on the ground. His left leg and right hand are missing, hacked off by his Dutch master as punishment for offending him. The slave's master professes to be a Christian. Indeed, the Dutch converted the slave to Christianity, and at church every Sunday, the slaves are taught that there is no difference between black people and white people; they are equally the children of Adam.
Candide is outraged by the blatant hypocrisy of the Dutch slave traders. They are supposed to be Christians; they claim to believe in racial equality but how they treat their slaves provides evidence to the contrary. They clearly do not practice what they preach. Like so many others, they fail to see the importance of living out their faith and living their life according to your religious values; they just talk about their to make themselves look and feel morally superior.

What does Cassius reveal to Casca immediately before Cinna enters

Act I, Scene III of this play is set against a backdrop of thunder, which reflects the conspiratorial nature of the discussions that take place within it between Casca and Cassius. Shortly before Cinna enters the scene—Cassius notes that he recognizes Cinna's footfalls, and that he is a friend—Cassius has just revealed to Casca that he has "moved already" (prevailed upon, or convinced) several "noble-minded" Romans to join him in an "honourable-dangerous" enterprise. The streets are empty on this night, with the "complexion of the element" (the weather) an accurate reflexion of the enterprise the noblemen are about to undertake. Cassius reveals that those who have taken Cassius's side "stay...in Pompey's porch," waiting for Cassius to collect them so that they can embark upon their mission.
Cinna himself is already aware of this information and is glad to hear that Casca has decided to join them in their enterprise.

In the story "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, describe the strange characteristics of the old man.

When Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda, first see the old man, he appears to them in the following way:




"He was dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth left in his mouth.... His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in the mud."

The old man appears forlorn and decrepit, and he wears inexplicable wings that are dirty and missing many of their feathers. His wings have also been attacked by parasites, and he smells like the outdoors, as any human would.
In addition, the old man speaks in an unintelligible language with "a strong sailor's voice," so Pelayo and Elisenda conclude that the old man is a castaway sailor. However, a neighbor believes the old man is an angel, even though the local priest finds out that the angel does not speak Latin. 
When a crowd comes to see the old man, who has been penned in a chicken coop, he does not pay them any heed and refuses all food except eggplant mush. Even when people throw stones at him and pluck out his feathers, he does not respond. The only time he is moved to action is when someone tries to brand him with an iron, and he wakes up, speaks in his strange language, and flaps his wings.
When a doctor examines the old man, the doctor thinks that the man has so much whistling going on in his heart and so many noises in his kidneys that it's a miracle that the old man is still alive. The doctor also can't fathom how the man can have wings that work so seamlessly. The old man can barely see out of his eyes, and he bumps into objects. He seems close to death but survives the winter and then begins to sprout feathers. After a great deal of time has passed, he flies off when the weather gets warmer. 

What does Stanley say to Zero in chapter 18 that is a sign of a hard heart?

Over the course of his long stay at Camp Green Lake, Stanley has toughened up in many different ways. As well as developing physical toughness, he's also developed something of a hard heart. You'd think that someone like Stanley, who's been mercilessly bullied by so many different people over the years, would display a little more kindness to other people. But by the time we've reached chapter 18 of Holes, Stanley's whole character appears to have changed, and not in a good way.
One night, Stanley is writing a letter home to his mom. Zero comes into the tent and eventually asks Stanley to help him learn how to read and write. But Stanley is not interested; he coldly tells Zero that he's sorry, but he doesn't know how to teach. Zero is not really asking for anything much, but Stanley won't even try to help him:

After digging all day, he didn't have the strength to try to teach Zero to read and write. He needed to save his energy for the people who counted.

And that's just it: Zero doesn't really count for Stanley anymore. Life at camp has hardened his heart as well as his muscles and hands.

Compare and contrast King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and Obama’s “A More Perfect Union.”

The greatest contrast between King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and President Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech is the context. As the title suggests, King wrote his letter while in jail during the 1963 campaign against segregation in Birmingham. Obama, on the other hand, delivered the "More Perfect Union" speech in Philadelphia while running for President in the spring of 2008. There are also significant differences in message and purpose. Then-Senator Obama was speaking under pressure to distance himself from remarks made by his former minister, Jeremiah Wright. As such, he emphasized his own multi-racial past, and, while refusing to disown Wright, undertook a conciliatory tone. King, on the other hand, was strident in his disagreement against liberal ministers who refused to support his direct action tactics in Birmingham. While both men make specific appeals to American history to buttress their arguments about freedom and liberty for all, King's letter is a challenge to all of those who argued that the movement for civil rights was progressing too quickly. Obama also pointed out the problems confronted by African American communities (though he compared these issues with those faced by working-class white families), calling on African Americans to continue to seek, along with whites, "a full measure of justice." So these two documents each draw on American ideals, and for similar reasons. But they are very different in tone, a result of the very different contexts in which they were written.
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/us/politics/18text-obama.html

Who is Rupi Kaur?

Rupi Kaur is a poet who initially self-published her own poems. She was born in India in 1992 but moved to Canada at a young age. Her work has reached the #1 spot on The New York Times Bestseller List. Her first book was published in 2014.
Kaur designs her own drawings and shares pieces of her poems along with the art. They're often shared on sites like Instagram and Tumblr.
Kaur says that her original plan was to publish individual poems, but they all felt like they belonged together and were really a single poem in many parts. She designed her first book using Createspace. The first test copy she ordered didn't seem right to her, but the second was perfect except for missing the bees on the cover.
Her first book was called Milk and Honey. The second was called The Sun and Her Flowers.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/meet-rupi-kaur-queen-of-the-instapoets-129262/

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/rupi-kaur-the-superpoet-of-instagram/article36516870/

What were the key social, economic, and political changes over time from the 1770s to the 1860s? How did debate about who is an American and arguments over America's destiny play into it? What about the changes wrought by the market revolution and the arguments over the role of the federal government?

The big social change between the 1770s and the 1860s in America would have to be the abolition of slavery.  After the Revolutionary War, many Northern states freed their slaves, but the South maintained slavery because it was an economic necessity to operate the plantations.  Slavery was the issue that divided the nation in 1861, leading to the Civil War.  After the war, the key social issue would concern what to do with the newly freed slaves and what rights they should have.  
Economically, the nation switched from a collection of small farms and shops to factories and large-scale agriculture.  This transition required large-scale infrastructure investment; this would bring up the issue of who would pay for these improvements.  The Whig Party led by Henry Clay and others created what they called the American System, which relied on federally sponsored infrastructure improvements funded by tariffs and a national bank.  The Democrats, initially under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, saw this as governmental overreach; he broke up the Bank of the United States, thus creating rampant speculation and poor banking practices that would lead to the Panic of 1837.  Economics was also tied to the slavery issue, especially since by 1860 the slaves in the country were worth more than all the railroads and banks combined.
Politically, the issue would be how to balance the power between the states and the federal government.  The Constitution solved this issue by giving the federal government some duties (such as lawmaking and establishing currencies and foreign relations), but the Tenth Amendment protects the rights of states.  The issue of secession came up before the Civil War during the Hartford Convention during the War of 1812 and the Nullification Crisis in which South Carolina, under the leadership of John Calhoun, promised to leave the Union rather than pay a tariff.  In both cases the rest of the nation pressured the potential breakaway states to stay.  By 1861, however, there was enough secessionist sentiment in the South to create a feeling that secession was the only way for the region to maintain its economic livelihood and culture.  
Your paper appears to be quite broad in scope.  If I were you, I would look at how slavery affected the nation economically, socially, and politically during these ninety years.  I think if you do this you can create a strong thesis that would make the paper cohesive.   

Does the U.S. government today meet the democratic, social, and deliberative mandates developed at its inception?

The democratic, social, and deliberative mandates developed at the inception of the U.S. are best expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which famously reads that everyone has "inalienable rights," including "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness." In addition, the document states that the power of government comes from the consent of the governed. These are mandates to give each person in the U.S. (though that was not what the founders intended at the time, as it was understood that only white men of property would have these rights) a say in the government and to allow them to live freely.
The U.S. government has evolved to grant Americans more of these mandates, as African-American men were given the right to vote with the 15th Amendment in 1870, and women were given the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920. However, it could be argued that there are still significant limitations on the power of each vote and the ability of people to live freely. For example, gerrymandering, or the process of creating voting districts by political entities, is regarded by some experts as reducing some people's voting power while increasing the powers of others. That is because many of these districts are created to maximize voting to support the incumbents and to create winner-take-all voting districts in which 51% of the electorate controls 100% of the vote (see the link below). Others might disagree with this idea.
In addition, many people believe that members of minority groups in the U.S. face discrimination to the extent that they cannot live freely. The federal government has been involved historically in helping minority groups, but critics feel that they have not done all they could. In addition, state and local governments across the country vary with regard to how much they help different groups access the rights due to all Americans. In this way, the government has not always met the mandates developed at its inception. 
https://www.fairvote.org/gerrymandering

Calculus and Its Applications, Chapter 1, 1.7, Section 1.7, Problem 94

Illustrate the $f$ and $f'$ of the function $f(x) = 1.68x \sqrt{9.2 - x^2}$ over the
given interval $[-3,3]$. Then estimate points at which the tangent line is horizontal.

If $f(x) = 1.68x(9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}$, then by using Chain Rule and Product Rule


$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
f'(x) &= 1.68x \cdot \frac{d}{dx} \left[(9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}} \right] + (9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}} \cdot \frac{d}{dx} (1.68x)\\
\\
f'(x) &= 1.68x \cdot \frac{1}{2} (9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2} - 1} \cdot \frac{d}{dx} (9.2 - x^2) + (9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}} (1.68)\\
\\
f'(x) &= \frac{1.68x}{2} (9.2 - x^2)^{-\frac{1}{2}} ( -2x) + (9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}} ( 1 .68)\\
\\
f'(x) &= \frac{-1.68 x^2}{(9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}} + 1.68 (9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}\\
\\
f'(x) &= 1.68 \left[ \frac{-x^2 + 9.2 - x^2}{(9.2 - x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}} \right]\\
\\
f'(x) &= \frac{15.456 - 3.36x^2}{(9.2- x^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$


Thus, the graph of $f$ and its derivative is



Based from the graph, the points at which the tangent line is horizontal (slope = 0) are
$x \approx -2.15$ and $x \approx 2.15$

Compare and contrast Robinson Crusoe and Oroonoko. Which character is a stronger example of an enlightened individual?

First, let us consider these quotes from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy regarding the "Enlightenment" movement in history.

[Immanuel] Kant identifies enlightenment with the process of undertaking to think for oneself, to employ and rely on one’s own intellectual capacities in determining what to believe and how to act.
The faith of the Enlightenment—if one may call it that—is that the process of enlightenment, of becoming progressively self-directed in thought and action through the awakening of one’s intellectual powers, leads ultimately to a better, more fulfilled human existence.

In the top quote, we see a focus on acting independently and relying on one's own abilities. The enlightened individual must think and act for himself, regardless of social influence. The bottom quote discusses the process of becoming enlightened by again focusing on being "self-directed."
Oroonoko is the better man. In modern terms, he is certainly more mature and more enlightened in his view of humans and society. However, his personality and the story we get about him do not espouse the characteristics that were regaled in the Age of Enlightenment. He does not go through a path of enlightenment. He begins that way. He serves to show the audience that the European prejudices against "savage" societies were inaccurate. As a character, he is exaggerated. "There could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome." He is perfectly formed; he did not have to work to become this way—he simply is this way.
Crusoe, on the other hand, is a work in progress and emotionally flawed. Clever and determined, he lacks empathy. He does possess the key qualities of the Enlightenment, however. He gives up the predetermined social path his father wants him to take, gives up the security of a stable job, and strikes out on his own to make his way in the world, to learn his own truths. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a key figure in the movement, said it best himself:

There exists one book, which, to my taste, furnishes the happiest treatise of natural education. What then is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny, is it Buffon? No—it is Robinson Crusoe.

If the philosopher responsible for the Age of Enlightenment considers Crusoe an ideal example of the movement, we have to accept his authority.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/

Oroonoko is a stronger example of an enlightened individual. He is the noble savage: an exemplary, idealized character with qualities of a true king. As a noble savage, he is born both intelligent and innocent. He looks on other people without hate and has a courageous if gentle and forgiving nature. His focus is often on the higher virtues in life: for example, he is able to forgive the captain who enslaves him because "it is worth my suffering to gain such a true knowledge both of you and your gods by whom you swear." 
The other slaves on the plantation greet him as a king when he arrives. He has the compassion and empathy to worry about his son being born a slave and the courage to lead a slave revolt. He does kill his wife, but he does so to save her from rape and humiliation, and does so with her consent. In his almost supernatural capacity to face his own cruel death at the hands of his slave owner with dignity and grace, and to inspire others, he reminds one of a later ideal character: Uncle Tom from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
From a literary point of view, Robinson Crusoe may be a more authentic or realistic character because of his flaws, but he is nevertheless less enlightened than Oroonoko, lacking Oroonoko's innate qualities of nobility and deep compassion. Robinson Crusoe's best qualities are largely outward: he is resourceful, rises to adversity, and builds a new life for himself in a dire situation. He amasses money, works very hard, and is careful care with his resources. Unlike Oroonoko, who grieves for days over Imoinda's death and is weakened by it, Crusoe seems somewhat callous about his own wife's death, and generally lacks deep feelings for other people. With his mind on practical matters, it's hard to imagine him saying his suffering is "worth" it to gain "true knowledge" of someone else's gods, as Oroonoko does. While Crusoe's adventures on the island help him to grow in his religious faith, he is never enlightened enough to see Friday or the cannibals as truly human or equal to a European like himself and thus worth knowing in their own cultural context or as people worthy of being treated as equals. He expects Friday to look up to him as a superior and to adapt to his English-style norms. 
Crusoe is everyman, an ordinary person, and we can love him for not trying to be more heroic than he is, and acknowledge that he does grow as he examines what has happened to him, but ordinary people, by definition, are not usually greatly enlightened. In contrast, as the kingly noble savage, born good, Oroonoko serves as an inspiration and critique of European values as he shows an interest in other cultures, rebels against slavery, shows forgiveness, mercy, and compassion, courageously leads a slave revolt, and faces a gruesome death with dignity.

How would you sum up in a few words the unacceptable and unnatural control that some countries' leaders and governments impose on their populations?

One word that describes a government that holds total control is a dictatorship.

A dictatorship is a type of authoritarianism, in which politicians regulate nearly every aspect of the public and private behavior of citizens. 

Perhaps the strongest dictatorship that has existed was that of the government of Nazi Germany. Under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, religion was controlled--Hitler said that Catholicism was fit only for slaves. Those who were considered inferior, mentally (those considered insane or severely mentally or physically challenged) or racially (i.e. Jews and Gypsies) were exterminated. The T4 Program was a program of forced euthanasia for many in psychiatric hospitals. Concentrations camps were responsible for the deaths of thousands.
Selective breeding also was encouraged.

The aim was the creation of the "Volk," a nation or people made up of the most superior of the human races.

Hitler hoped for a united German identity founded upon a superior race and total state leadership. 
Children were indoctrinated under Nazism. They were drilled in ideology from a young age. They marched and recited the creeds of the regime wearing swastikas on their arms.
http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/N/Nazism.aspx

https://www.reference.com/world-view/dictatorship-d72856592e963f3d

why do buddy and his Friend make fruitcake each year ?

I would say that there are two correct answers to this question.
They bake fruitcakes to hand out to "friends" as Christmas gifts.
They bake fruitcakes because it is a Christmas tradition.
Readers are told about the fruitcake baking tradition very early on in the story. We are told that it is November, and Buddy enters the kitchen. There is a woman standing there that sees Buddy and exclaims "it's fruitcake weather!" Buddy then introduces readers to who exactly this woman is.

We are cousins, very distant ones, and we have lived together—well, as long as I can remember.

Buddy's friend also claims that they have 30 cakes to bake. In the following paragraph, Buddy tells readers the following information.

It's always the same: a morning arrives in November, and my friend, as though officially inaugurating the Christmas time of year that exhilarates her imagination and fuels the blaze of her heart, announces: "It's fruitcake weather! Fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat."

It's clear to readers that Buddy and his friend have been keeping this fruitcake tradition for as long as Buddy can remember. To Buddy, Christmas time simply wouldn't be Christmas time without this annual event.
30 fruitcakes are a lot of fruitcakes, and it's clear from the story that Buddy and his friend love to do this project together every year; however, they can't possibly eat 30 fruitcakes themselves. They need some kind of reason to bake that many fruitcakes. Buddy tells readers this reason after the four days of fruitcake baking are completed. He says that the cakes are for "friends." The "friends" are not even necessarily good friends either. They bake the cakes in order to do a fun project together, and the cakes end up being a way to spread their Christmas cheer to the larger community.

In four days our work is done. Thirty-one cakes, dampened with whiskey, bask on windowsills and shelves.
Who are they for?
Friends. Not necessarily neighbor friends: indeed, the larger share is intended for persons we've met maybe once, perhaps not at all. People who've struck our fancy.

How did World War II affect Phillip and his family?

World War II has greatly affected Phillip and his family.  When the book begins, Phillip and his family are already living on the island of Curacao; however, this is not where Phillip was born.  The first part of Phillip's life was in the United States.  His father was an important employee for a gasoline refinery in Virginia.  He then took a job for a Dutch company on the island to help out their production process for the war effort.  Life on Curacao is not exactly a super safe place to be during this time.  When the book begins, Phillip tells readers that German U-boats have been spotted off the coast, and there have been reports of them attacking a nearby island.  Phillip and his family take some preventative protection measures like sleeping in different rooms and setting up blackout curtains.  School is also cancelled.  The dangers posed by the war continue to escalate, and Phillip's family decides that it is time to leave the island and head back to the United States.  They believe it will be safer there.  Unfortunately, the ship that they are on gets torpedoed, and Phillip gets stranded on a deserted island with Timothy.  Phillip is injured and loses his sight, and he has no idea if his family survived the attack or not.  

int cs ch(1/x)coth(1/x)/x^2 dx Find the indefinite integral

Those  1/x  under the hyperbolic cosecant and cotangent are irritating, let's change them to more appropriate y. Make the substitution 1/x = y, then x = 1/y and dx = -1/y^2 dy. The integral becomes
-int (cs ch(y) coth(y))/(1/y^2) (dy)/y^2 = -int cs ch(y) coth(y) dy =
|recall that  cs ch(y) = 1/sinh(y)  and  coth(y) = cosh(y)/sinh(y) |
= -int cosh(y)/(sinh^2(y)) dy.
The next substitution is u = sinh(y), then du = cosh(y) dy, and the integral becomes
- int (du)/u^2 = 1/u + C = 1/sinh(y) + C = 1/sinh(1/x) + C = cs ch(1/x) + C,
where C is an arbitrary constant.

The poem "Mirror" is strongly related to the theme of feminism. Justify this statement.

Mirror was written in 1961 by Sylvia Plath and published posthumously by Ted Hughes in 1971. The poem was written during a period of change in Plath's life; she was a new mother struggling with the realities of marriage, aging, and societal expectations. It is a personification poem with strong feminist influences that explores the perception of appearances, narcissism, and self-perception. Much of this feminist influence is driven by the time-period in which the poem was written; in the early 1960s the feminist movement was rapidly growing and an increasing number of women were challenging traditional gender roles and barriers.
In Mirror, Plath explores how identity is drawn from outward appearance. The speaker is the mirror itself, which states that "I have no preconceptions" and "I am not cruel, only truthful." The mirror implies that it is a neutral party; an object whose identity is drawn not from itself but from what is reflected in it. However, in the second stanza the reader is shown a different side to the mirror. As a woman searches for "who she really is" (i.e. her identify) in it, we see that the mirror is a far more controlling entity than portrayed in the first stanza. Unlike candles or the moon, who are "liars" that flatter the woman into seeing an idealized version of herself, the mirror claims to reflect "faithfully," revealing the woman's true identity and appearance. She returns to it daily to despair at the aging reflection; the reflection of the romantic girl of her youth has been replaced by a "terrible fish." She has lost her youth, a quality so highly prized in society. Under patriarchal expectations women are expected to be young and beautiful, existing like objects rather than complicated individuals. The mirror and the woman are reliant on each other; she is searching for an outward appearance that has been lost, while the mirror must exert its controlling force in order to build its own identity.
This tension has a strong feminist influence; the expectations placed upon women in society are complex and interwoven with rigid gender roles. Women lose worth as they age; the woman returns to the mirror daily in an attempt to find what she has lost. The focus on beauty not only affects self-confidence and exterior qualities but also the relationship to oneself. Feminism seeks to empower women to challenge this societal expectation and break free of the controlling power of societal expectations on their self-worth and appearance.

"The Mirror" by Sylvia Plath is strongly related to the theme of feminism for a number of reasons. Firstly, Plath wrote the poem in 1961, at the beginning of the Women's Liberation Movement. The poem, therefore, should be viewed in the context of the changing roles and social and political participation of women, which fuelled this movement.
In addition, the poem has a strong focus on what it is like to be a woman. In Stanza Two, for example, a woman uses the mirror to search for "what she really is." In other words, the mirror offers a window into the woman's identity. Note how this identity is changing: the woman is acutely aware of her aging reflection. This is important because it not only acts as a metaphor for the changing roles of women, as we see in the Liberation Movement, but it also reflects the social pressures on women with regard to their appearance. It could, therefore, be argued that Plath is suggesting that society only values women who are young and beautiful, an expectation which still exists today.

Does this poem and the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian have a theme in common?

There are certainly elements of commonality between Mora's "Legal Alien" and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Mora's poem centers around a Mexican American whose shared heritage makes it very difficult for him or her to feel a sense of belonging in either culture. Racial discrimination from "Anglos," as well as behavior from Mexicans, suggest that the speaker is "not Mexican enough," which creates a sense of internal tension that makes life extremely difficult. The bicultural experience of the speaker is an uncomfortable one, in which he or she can never be either "white enough" or "Hispanic enough."
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian shares the themes of racism and the tension faced by individuals who must live their lives between two cultures. The protagonist, Junior, self-identifies as an "Indian" rather than as a Native American, as if in defiance of those who would use the term against him. Forced to go to school with whites, he experiences racism there, but he also feels that his white-focused education is making it more difficult for him to view the reservation in the way he always has. He becomes ashamed of it, its poverty and rampant alcoholism, and feels himself attempting to be more white at school and more Native at home; he is no longer able to simply be himself.

What are three major areas of cost associated with white-collar crime? How would these costs apply to healthcare fraud and computer crime?

In addition to the easily measurable economic costs that white collar crime incurs by defrauding consumers, investors, and governmental agencies, there exist less easily measured but even more damaging long-term effects on society as a result of corruption and fraud. Chief among these pernicious effects is the erosion of trust among citizens toward institutions that are vital to the proper functioning of our democracy and economy. These institutions only function properly when the majority of citizens have trust in them.
For example, when Bernie Madoff defrauded thousands of investors out of their retirement savings in what turned out of be a giant Ponzi scheme, the damage to the net worth of individuals, companies, and charities that invested in Madoff's fund was immense. Yet when the public found out that Madoff had gotten away with his scheme for over a decade, despite numerous warnings from various investors and regulators at the SEC, many individual investors, already wary of the stock market following the Great Recession, came to believe that the entire financial system was rigged by the rich for the rich. Due to this scandal, along with the reckless, greedy behavior of many other major financial institutions at the time, a large portion of Americans pulled their savings out of the stock market when it was near its low, guaranteeing large losses. Many of these same people did not reinvest quickly or at all in the market, and as a result, they did not benefit from the enormous market recovery. Yes, the financial markets were full of bad actors, but the cumulative effect of the numerous investment banking, insurance, and mortgage scandals that rocked Wall Street and the economy as a whole had the effect of scaring off many individual investors who would have made their money back and then some, if only they had felt confident enough in the integrity of the system. By some accounts, the percentage of Americans invested in the stock market today versus in 2007 is actually lower.
An analogous phenomenon is currently at play with the college admissions cheating scandal. Rick Singer, the admitted ringleader of the cheating scandal, helped hundreds of wealthy students and their families to game the admissions system at top universities. This conspiracy of fraud probably denied hundreds of better-qualified students from gaining admission to top institutions such as Yale, Stanford, USC, and UCLA, among others. However, the effects of this white-collar criminal conspiracy will not end with the students who were directly affected by it.
The ripple effects are already becoming apparent. This debacle has convinced many Americans that the college admissions process is fixed. We do not yet know how many students might be dissuaded from applying to top colleges as a result of this scandal, but already this conspiracy has exacerbated the already growing distrust of higher education. That is particularly harmful to society because for those born into low socio-economic strata, getting a college education remains one of the most reliable avenues into the middle and upper middle classes.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/how-the-financial-crisisstill-affects-investors-1536361852

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/10/09/gallup-survey-finds-falling-confidence-higher-education

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/mar/24/bernard-madoff-whistleblower-harry-markopolos

White-collar crime is estimated to cost the country $300 billion each year, according to the FBI. The term "white-collar crime" was first coined in the 1930s, and, according to the FBI, "these crimes are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and are not dependent on the application or threat of physical force or violence" (see the link to the FBI website below). According to the FBI, the three major areas of cost associated with these crimes are that they can destroy people's personal savings, destroy companies, and cost investors money. These crimes can also cost taxpayers money to investigate and punish, and they can add to the costs of running governmental programs. 
One type of healthcare fraud is to steal patients' identifying information and to use it to get fraudulently reimbursed by the government or health insurance companies for providing services to these patients. The costs associated with this type of fraud are the damage to private companies, comprising personal health information, and costing taxpayers money by charging governmental programs for services that were not delivered. In addition, there have been examples (reported on the FBI's website) of doctors submitting millions of dollars in Medicare claims for surgeries or procedures that they did not commit. In this case, insurance companies are damaged, as are taxpayers who have to foot the bill for these governmental programs.
An example of a computer crime (reported on the FBI website) is advertising inexpensive pharmaceuticals that customers can order via the internet without a prescription. These drugs often turn out to be fakes or unapproved substances. The costs associated with this crime are to the customer, and the customer's health can also be affected by taking harmful or ineffective medication. Criminals can also hack into companies' websites, stealing their information. The cost associated with this crime is its destruction to the company. 
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime