Friday, January 24, 2020

Compare and Contrast 2Pac & Saint John the Baptist Essay -- Tupac Shak

Compare and Contrast 2Pac & Saint John the Baptist Although they lived in very different times, Tupac Shakur and Saint John the Baptist had many commonalities. Both became extremely famous for expressing what they believed. The media's portrayal of Tupac Shakur as a tattooed thug has focused public attention on his accused crimes instead of his music. This rapper, raised in Marin City, California, by a Black Panther mother, is more complex than his enemies like to admit. Shakur (who performs as 2Pac) was a talented lyricist with a gift for storytelling and getting his point across to our youth. He continued to grow as a writer on his hard-hitting album, â€Å"All Eyez on Me† which benefits from West Coast-style production by such artists as Dr. Dre. Recorded shortly after Shakur was released on bail from a prison sentence for sexual assault, the double album shows a relatively contemplative rapper who's ready to make peace with some of his demons. The following list of positive lyrics from Eyez and 2Pac's previous albums certainly doesn't make him a saint, but it does reveal surprising emotional depth: 1. "Life Goes On," All Eyez on Me : In one of the most touching moments on his new album, the rapper with "Thug Life" tattooed on his chest shows that he isn't insensitive to the loss of those he loves: "How many brothers fell victim to the streets / Rest in peace young niggaz / Is there heaven for a G? / Be a lie if I told ya that I never thought of death / My nigga, we the last one's left / And life goes on." 2. "Dear Mama," Me Against the World : An insightful 2Pac repents the stress that he's caused his mother: "Mama, I finally understand / For a woman it ain't easy trying to raise a man / You always was committed / A poor single mother on welfare / Tell me how you did it / There's no way that I can pay you back / But the plan is to show you that I understand. / You are appreciated." 3. "Keep Ya Head Up," Strictly 4 My Niggaz : With a kind of compassion that is rare from any performer - let alone a gangsta rapper - 2Pac advises: "Be real to our women / And if we don't we'll have a race of babies / Who hate the ladies / That make the babies / And since a man can't make one / He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one." Hard to believe this is the guy who wrote "Wonda Why They Call U Bitch." 4. "Brenda's Got a Baby," 2Pa... ... ghetto kids not believe in God. Why? So that's wrong religion -I believe in God, I believe God puts us wherever we want to be at. They didn't make sense that God would put us in the ghetto. That means he wants us to work hard to get up out of here.† Tupac’s notion as to where God puts us where we should be and that we shouldn’t have to go into a church to praise him and talk to him, it’s similar to St. John the Baptist lifestyle while living in the Desert of Judea. Even though the desert and the ghetto were different, that’s where they both came from. Both are very similar, because both didn’t have material things, only the necessities to live and sometimes not even that. Like 2Pac, John the Baptist didn’t live in the ghetto but he made due with the same provisions. He wore clothes that were made of camels’ hair, and his food consisted of locus and wild honey. In conclusion, this was overall an interesting assignment. I’ve learned that we don’t need depend on material things. Both people were humble and made due with what they had.. And both lived a hard, yet influential life. They tried to give back to the community as much as they could with their wisdom and views on life.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Western Farmers Dbq

From 1880-1906, western farmers were affected by multiple issues that they saw as threats to their way of life. The main threats to the farmers were railroads, trusts, and the government, because these institutions all had the power to drastically affect the ability of the farmers to make profits. Therefore, the farmers were not wrong to feel frustration toward those institutions when the institutions caused the farmers to live lives of increasingly extreme poverty.The main source of agrarian discontent with the railroads was a result of the rising railroad rates that made it increasingly difficult for the farmers to make a decent living by shipping their crops via freight trains. In a book called The Octopus, a farmer named Dyke planned to ship his hops and was shocked upon discovering that the railroad rate had increased from two cents per pound to five cents per pound, rendering him unable to make any profit at all (Document H).This practice of raising the railroad rates without w arning was unfair to the farmers and made it virtually impossible for any farmer to make a profit by shipping his crops. The farmers were also largely affected by the activity of trusts and banks and the control that trusts exerted on their particular lines of business. In a book by James B. Weaver the argument is made that trusts were in complete control of the situation, having power over both the producer of raw materials and the consumer of the products (Document F).In most cases, the farmers fell under both categories, and the trusts often took full advantage, buying raw goods from farmers at very low prices that made it very difficult for farmers to profit and selling back the completed goods at high prices the farmers could barely afford if at all. The Eastern banking conglomerates were especially powerful due to their ability to call in debts and repossess homes of the farmers. The picture in The Farmer’s Voice, a Chicago newspaper from the late 1880s, depicts the pow er an eastern banker held over the poor western farmers who are unable to pay their bills.The trusts did have an extremely high degree of control with little to no opposition, so the farmers were right to disapprove of trusts and call for legislation to disband them. The government’s actions concerning the inflation of the American dollar were extremely detrimental to the ability of the average farmer to make a living. In president William McKinley’s acceptance speech in 1896 (Document B), McKinley argues that free silver would decrease the value of money, and â€Å"no one suffers so much from cheap money as the farmers and laborers. The decrease in the value of money caused by inflation would make the farmers’ crops almost worthless. The farmers’ complaints regarding the government were valid due to the failure of the government to stop inflation, which is shown in the table comparing the population to the money in circulation (Document C). The amount o f money in circulation increased constantly from 1880 to 1895. It could be argued from the railroads’ point of view that if the prices weren’t increased to keep up with inflation, the railroads would be unable to make profit.In a testimony before the Senate Cullom Committee, George W. Parker, vice-president of the Cairo Short Line Railroad, testified that if the railroads kept their prices at constant levels, they would go bankrupt (Document G). However, the main problem with the railroads the farmers had was not necessarily the rising prices, but the fact that the prices rose without warning. It was extremely difficult to plan shipments and end up making profits. J. Lawrence Laughlin wrote that the farmers are wrong to blame the decrease in prices of wheat on the scarcity of gold (Document E).Laughlin claimed that such a decrease was simply a result of global overproduction of wheat. While he made a valid point, it did not change the fact that wheat prices were still extremely low and the government could still have been at fault. The farmers still had reason to be angry at the government due to the government’s failure to protect the farmers from such a global overproduction by implementing a tariff on foreign wheat and its failure to regulate railroads and trusts, leaving them free to excavate the pockets of the farmers as deeply as they pleased.It was certainly not easy being a western farmer in the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The farmers were complete slaves to the more powerful industries, especially the railroads. The farmers had valid reasons to be discontent with the circumstances. The railroads and other trusts had complete control of the markets and trade systems, while farmers faced constantly rising shipment prices and constantly decreasing crop prices and sales. The government simply stood idly by and watched the farmers be manipulated and taken advantage of by the titans of industry, forcing the farmers into increasingly severe poverty.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Catalysts Definition and How They Work

A catalyst is a chemical substance that affects the rate of a chemical reaction by altering the activation energy required for the reaction to proceed. This process is called catalysis. A catalyst is not consumed by the reaction and it may participate in multiple reactions at a time. The only difference between a catalyzed reaction and an uncatalyzed reaction is that the activation energy is different. There is no effect on the energy of the reactants or the products. The ΔH for the reactions is the same.​ How Catalysts Work Catalysts permit an alternate mechanism for the reactants to become products, with a lower activation energy and different transition state. A catalyst may allow a reaction to proceed at a lower temperature or increase  the reaction rate  or selectivity. Catalysts often react with reactants to form intermediates that eventually yield the same reaction products and regenerate the catalyst. Note that the catalyst may be consumed during one of the intermediate steps, but it will be created again before the reaction is completed. Positive and Negative Catalysts (Inhibitors) Usually when someone refers to a catalyst, they mean a positive catalyst, which is a catalyst that  speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction by lowering its activation energy. There are also negative catalysts or inhibitors, which slow the rate of a chemical reaction or make it less likely to occur. Promoters and Catalytic Poisons A promoter is a substance that increases the activity of a catalyst. A catalytic poison is a substance that inactivates a catalyst. Catalysts in Action Enzymes are reaction-specific biological catalysts. They react with a substrate to form an unstable intermediate compound. For example, carbonic anhydrase catalyzes the reaction:H2CO3(aq) ⇆ H2O(l) CO2(aq)The enzyme allows the reaction to reach equilibrium more quickly. In the case of this reaction, the enzyme makes it possible for carbon dioxide to diffuse out of blood and into the lungs so it can be exhaled.Potassium permanganate is a catalyst for the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen gas and water. Adding potassium permanganate increases the temperature of the reaction and its rate.Several transition metals can act as catalysts. A good example of platinum in the catalytic converter of an automobile. The catalyst makes it possible to turn toxic carbon monoxide into less toxic carbon dioxide. This is an example of heterogeneous catalysis.A classic example of a reaction that doesnt proceed at an appreciable rate until a catalyst is added is that between hydrogen g as and oxygen gas. If you mix the two gases together, nothing much happens. However, if you add heat from a lighted match or a spark, you overcome the activation energy to get the reaction started. In this reaction, the two gases react to produce water (explosively).H2 O2 ↔ H2OThe combustion reaction is similar. For example, when you burn a candle, you overcome the activation energy by applying heat. Once the reaction starts, heat released from the reaction overcomes the activation energy needed to allow it to proceed.