On what factors was the United States' claim to have a "manifest destiny" based?

The claim that the United States had this manifest destiny
was based on the fact that the US was the richest and most powerful country in the
Western Hemisphere by the mid-1800s when the phrase was introduced. By the 1840s, the US
had achieved this status.  It was also the only truly stable democracy in the hemisphere
(since Canada was still a colony of Britain at this point).  There was, to be sure, a
component of racism in this sentiment as well -- there was the idea that the US was rich
and prosperous because of the superiority of its governmental system, its religion and
its racial background.

Because of these factors, Americans
felt themselves to be superior to the other people and nations in their region.  They
felt that this superiority entitled them to expand their borders in a manifest
destiny.

Is there any relationship between the complexity of a fossil and its age?Please give specific examples to explain your answer.

Scientists from the University of Bath (United States)
come up with new evidence, which seem to confirm a new law of evolution: organisms
evolve in general to an increasing complexity. Of course, such a law of evolution would
seem logical if we accept the premise that life began in simple
forms.

As simply as that, in this case it can only be one
direction in evolution: towards a higher complexity. However, nothing prevents the
bodies to return to a simpler form, once a degree of complexity has been reached. Let us
not forget that all bodies which have evolved and survived until today, are complex.
Bacteria for example, are simple forms of life, but they have adapted very well in
today's complex environment.

Of course, there are no rules
without exceptions. An example is bodies living in habitats such as isolated marine
caves. They seem to regress in their evolution towards complexity. Another example is
some species of parasites.

The fossils of the Cambrian
have a high level of complexity, in the layers of Cambrian, fossils being found
easily.They are very numerous and very diversified. Cambrian fauna includes
representatives of all major groups of invertebrates, that still exists today. Species
alive today are easily recognizable, with all their characters, once they are met in the
strata in which they were fossilized. 

Cambrian strata are
exposing a sudden explosion of species. As the Cambrian strata are examined,
strata which are known to be the oldest containing fossil, we discover that many marine
species have existed at the time, very clearly differentiated from one another. The
world of that time was as complex as that of today. Some forms are different from those
of today, while others are very similar, and in some cases, even identical. In the
latter category are blue algae, sponges and marine worms, for
example.

Comment on the interesting use of punctuation in the poem "The Flower-fed Buffaloes."Mainly in lines 4 and 12.

Line 4 ends with a semicolon. Semicolons can be used to
join two independent clauses. In this case, lines 1-4 are joined to lines 5-8. The first
four lines describe the changes of the landscape; the buffaloes used to roam where the
trains now sing. Lines 5-8 add to the description of that
landscape.

Line 12 ends with a colon. Colons are usually
followed by a list or example that is related to the clause before it. Lindsay repeats
that the buffalo are gone with the amendment that some remnants of the past remain. The
buffalo are gone but the Blackfeet and Pawnees (like the prairie flowers) “lie
low.”

Lindsay uses the semicolon to join two similar but
independent clauses. He uses a colon rather than a semicolon in line 12 because he’s not
just comparing two clauses. He wants to emphasize that some things are gone but some
things still remain. This poem is about nostalgia but also hope in the future. The train
“sings” and the buffalo “bellow.” This connotes nostalgia for the past but an optimistic
look at the future. His point stands out more with a colon than with a semicolon or a
dash. The buffalo are gone and the landscape has changed: but the Blackfeet and Pawnees
still lie low.

What happens when Billy sees the movie going backwards in Slaughterhouse-Five?

Watching the war films in reverse, Billy Pilgrim sees war
as restorative and peaceful. The film's action, going backwards, becomes truly inverted.
Instead of planes shooting each other they suck bullets out of one another. Instead of
dropping bombs to destroy cities, planes suck the bombs into their cargo chambers and
make the cities safe. 

The bombers opened their
bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them
into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the
planes.… The steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United
States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the
cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals … [which] were then shipped
to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to
hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever
again.

This passage demonstrates at least two
things. First, the nature of warfare is subtly explored. War is seen to be mechanical
and rather blindly destructive. The machines of war are shown to be products of a
military-industrial system, "manned" by automatons. The violence of war is given a
plain-spoken, factual treatment (albeit in reverse). Second, the role of perspective is
emphasized. 

Perspective is a major thematic
element of the novel. Here we see an implied statement that if only we could look at war
differently, we may be able to avoid its horrors. If we could see the mechanisms of war
clearly, perhaps we could assert our humanity against its machines. These concepts are
only implicit, but are clearly present in the passage and can be found elsewhere in the
novel as well. 

What could be one type of literary criticism for Brave New World?

Brave New World can be viewed from
the following
perspectives:

Feminist: how
are women (Fanny, Lenina, and Linda) portrayed?  Why aren't they Alphas?  Why must they
take mandatory birth control?  Does this lead to happiness and
freedom?

Mythological /
Archetypal: Who plays the role of the Hero, Loner, Temptress, Spirit,
Benevolent Father, Comic Relief, Nemesis?  What do colors, shapes, numbers stand
for?

Marxist: What is the role
of socio-economic class system?  Why do the Alphas exploit the lower castes?  Is there
an unequal distribution of labor?

Freudian /
Psychoanalytic: Does John suffer from repression and Oedipal guilt?  Is
his suicide the result of his guilt over having a relationship with Lenina, a younger
version of his
mother?

Existential: how does
the society limit the choices and freedom of the individual?  What role does
individuality have in the face of cloning and genetic
engineering?

Historical: What
are the meanings behind all the names, allusions, and references to science in the
novel?  What does Huxely believe is the role of science and technology in
government?

Evaluate the limit of expression 4cosx-6sin^2x+3tan^2x. x-->x0 , x0=60 degrees

To evaluate the limit, we'll have to substitute x by the
value of x0, in the given expression.

lim
(4cosx-6sin^2x+3tan^2x) = 4cos 60 - 6*(sin 60)^2 + 3*(tan
60)^2

cos 60 = 1/2

sin 60 =
sqrt3/2

We'll raise to square both
sides:

(sin 60)^2 =
(sqrt3/2)^2

(sin 60)^2 =
3/4

tan 60 = sqrt 3

We'll
raise to square both sides:

(tan 60)^2 =
3

We'll substitute the values of the functions in the
expresison above:

lim (4cosx-6sin^2x+3tan^2x) = 4(1/2) -
6*(3/4) + 3*(3)

lim (4cosx-6sin^2x+3tan^2x) = 2 - 9/2 +
9

lim (4cosx-6sin^2x+3tan^2x) = (4 - 9 +
18)/2

lim (4cosx-6sin^2x+3tan^2x) = 13/2, for
x-> 60 degrees

Why does Jonas feel apprehensive in Chapter 1?why is he careful in chapter 1?

In chapter one of The Giver, Jonas is
feeling anxious. At first he thinks he is frightened, but realizes it is apprehension he
is feeling. The Ceremony of Twelve is coming up, and this is a big deal for all the kids
who are eleven. At this ceremony the kids will find out what their jobs will be, and
they will have these jobs until they have to go to the home for the old. Jonas is
apprehensive about what job will be chosen for him.

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He had waited a long time for this special
December. Now that it was almost upon him, he wasn't frightened, but he was...eager, he
decided. He was eager for it to come. And he was excited, certainly. All of the Elevens
were excited about the event that would be coming soon.
But there was a little
shudder of nervousness when he thought about it, about what might
happen.
Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That's what I
am.

This ceremony is the most
important part of a young person's life, and Jonas is well aware of that. Whatever job
they will be given at this ceremony, they will have until it is time for them to
"retire". Little does Jonas know that the job he gets is going to change his life
forever.