Why is Antonio unconcerned about his ships at sea in The Merchant of Venice?

Antonio is a wealthy merchant with several ships out to sea. While he is cash poor at the moment, he is certain that at least one of his ships will make it back to Venice. At that point, he can easily take care of his loan to Shylock.
Bassanio is concerned at the terms of the loan agreement Antonio has made with Shylock, which allows Shylock a pound of Antonio's flesh if he should fail to repay the loan. Antonio, however, pooh-poohs these worries. He says to Bassanio:


Within these two months—that’s a month before
This bond expires—I do expect return
Of thrice three times the value of this bond.


Antonio says he has a wide margin of time and several opportunities for the money to come in before the loan is due.

Part of Antonio's confidence may arise from the fact that he has always been successful and can't really imagine the kind of disaster that might befall him.

What was the impact of Totalitarianism on theatre during World War II?

Theater, like all the arts, was used as a tool of propaganda in totalitarian societies such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Everyone involved in the theater had to be politically reliable; they had to join professional organizations established and controlled by the state. Anyone considered politically suspect would be barred from these organizations and thus unable to make a living in their chosen profession. All plays had to be strictly vetted by the appropriate propaganda department before they were allowed to be produced. Anything that could vaguely be interpreted as departing from the official Party line was censored or removed altogether.
In practice, this meant that creativity practically dried up. As the authorities considered political reliability much more important than talent, theaters of totalitarian societies became crowded with third-rate works by Party hacks chosen solely for their ideological fanaticism. There was no room for experimental or daring works that might challenge the audience to see the world in a different way. Totalitarian regimes only want the people they control to see things from their own perspective; no one else must be allowed to present alternative ideas, and that especially includes artists.
Not all plays had to be overtly political, however. Hitler's propaganda chief Goebbels understood very well that audiences would much rather be entertained than subjected to political messages. As the war progressed, and it became clear that Nazi Germany was heading for defeat, growing numbers of Germans flocked to the theater and the cinema to indulge in escapist entertainment to take their minds off the developing catastrophe.

According to James Madison, why does America have a republic instead of pure democracy?

In his essay "Federalist No. 10," James Madison lays out his feelings about direct democracies and republican governments. In this essay, he describes his arguments for the benefits of a republic—which the United States has—over that of a pure democracy and defends the notion as described in the Constitution, which was written only two months earlier. Madison contends that the country was built as a republic because a pure democracy would lead to too many problems in a nation the size of the United States.
First off, Madison writes that a pure democracy, where the people rule directly, would have "no cure for the mischiefs of faction." In other words, people would make decisions based too much on self-interest, or the interests of their specific group, and not for the greater good of the country as a whole. Specifically, Madison was concerned that the unpropertied class might work to take and redistribute the property of the propertied class if left unchecked by representatives. More generally, Madison argues, by electing representatives, our leaders will hopefully make decisions based on the wisdom and love of country for which they were elected, something that the general populace might lack.
Madison continues to argue the virtue of a representative government in a large republic. Unlike a small democracy, in a large republic such as the United States, representatives can

extend [their] sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other.

So it is clear from his writing that James Madison supported the representative republic as laid out in the Constitution. He thought the form of government to be more sustainable over the long run and suitable for a country with the size and composition of the young United States.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp

"I grew up with music, you know, much more than with any other language. In a way the music I grew up with saved my life.” How does the story "Sonny's Blues" support this statement?

In this story by James Baldwin, the narrator's brother, Sonny, is a jazz pianist. He has also struggled with heroin addiction. His decision to devote himself to music was very different from the path of the narrator, who had enlisted in the military.
Although the brothers had their differences, family losses bring them back together. The older brother decides once more to help Sonny when he comes out of a stay in a drug rehabilitation hospital. This time, however, he takes a further step to really understand him, through the music that means so much to him. Perhaps because his own pain has recently been so acute—he has been grieving over his young daughter's death—he experiences a revelation. Sonny's playing shows him that the blues own Sonny, and he owns the blues. More importantly, this music is the suffering of everyone, and also the easing of that suffering. Both brothers find salvation in the music.

What type of virus was altered to cure cancer?

This is actually one of the biggest differences between the book and the film. In the book, the plague is caused by unknown means, but in the film, it is caused by a virus. This virus is a measles virus that was genetically re-engineered as a cure for cancer. Though it initially proved successful, it quickly developed into a lethal strain that killed most of the population and turned the remainder into zombies. The only reason that Dr. Robert Neville survives is because, as a virologist, he has been exposed to these types of viruses and developed an immunity against them.
To find out more about what is known in the film as the Krippin Virus, you can watch the opening scene of the movie where Dr. Alice Krippin (played by Emily Thompson) explains how they discovered it and tried to use it as a cure for cancer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3xY6Ffy_wE

Why is Goodman Brown the protagonist in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Three good signs that Young Goodman Brown (YGB) is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" are as follows:1. He is the central focus of the story. As readers, we experience all the action as it relates to him. We stay with him throughout the entirety of the story. When the traveler in the woods outside of Salem leaves YGB's side, we don't follow him. Instead, Hawthorne always keeps us alongside YGB.2. The omniscient narrator focuses attention solely on the inner workings of YGB himself. Although we see YGB's wife, Faith, at the start of the story, we remain outside, observing her actions, rather than experiencing them through her. With YGB, we are given insight into his inner thoughts and emotions.3. The entirety of the action happens to YGB. He is the one who goes on the journey and is changed by his decision to do so. He is the character that has the opportunity for redemption and chooses not to take it at any point in his journey. Beyond his initial interaction with Faith and his subsequent withdrawal from the community at the end of the tale, his actions are things that can be said to have truly occurred; every character interaction in the woods could have been part of a dream he was having. He is the one that ends up doomed.For these reasons, and a number of others, Young Goodman Brown is clearly the protagonist of "Young Goodman Brown."

Why did Islam spread?

Islam spread rapidly after the death of the prophet Muhammed. During the Rashidun caliphate, the rule of the first four caliphs or successors to Muhammed, the new religion spread far and wide through military conquest, trade, pilgrimage, and missionaries.
Many of the communities that came into contact with Islam for the first time welcomed it as a stabilizing factor. For instance, the neighboring Byzantine and Sasanian Empires had been significantly weakened by years of war with the Turks. This weakness gave Arab Muslims an opening, an opportunity to provide the subject peoples of these empires with peace and stable government.
As well as achieving a string of military victories, the Rashidun caliphate was able to unite the disparate Arab tribes into a cohesive political force. Though this alliance proved only temporary, it lasted long enough to allow Islam to spread throughout the Arabian peninsula, thus providing a strategic launchpad for incursions into neighboring territories.