Blog: October 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

What is happening in the park later that evening and who is involved?

In Part One, Chapter Two, the reader learns that an execution is due to take place that evening in the park:

Some Eurasian prisoners, guilty of war crimes, were to be hanged...This happened about once a month and was a popular spectacle.

These public executions are, thus, a constant presence in the lives of the citizens of Oceania. Even children are encouraged to attend and this explains the excitement and over-zealous behaviour from the Parsons...

In Part One, Chapter Two, the reader learns that an execution is due to take place that evening in the park:

Some Eurasian prisoners, guilty of war crimes, were to be hanged...This happened about once a month and was a popular spectacle.

That the party practices such violence in public is representative of the extent of its control. Executions are visual reminders of the consequences of rebellion and thus act as a strong deterrent to people like Winston. It is interesting to note that the park is the setting for a chance encounter between Winston and Julia in Part Three, Chapter Six, after their imprisonment in the Ministry of Love and 'reintegration' in society. The park is therefore a symbol of the party's power and its unfaltering ability to weed out rebellion and transform it into love for Big Brother.

One airplane travels due north at 300 km/h, while another travels due south at 300 km/h . Are their speeds the same? Explain.

Yes, the airplanes are traveling at the same speed of 300 km/h, one towards the north and the other towards the south.

Speed is the ratio of distance traveled to time taken, or,

speed = distance/time

Yes, the airplanes are traveling at the same speed of 300 km/h, one towards the north and the other towards the south.

Speed is the ratio of distance traveled to time taken, or,

speed = distance/time

In the given case, the planes are moving at 300 km/h in different directions. One of the planes will travel 300 km towards north in 1 hour, while the other plane will travel 300 km towards south in the same amount of time. Using the relation between distance, time and speed, we can see that both the planes have the same speed (of 300 km/h).

However, if we are calculating the relative speed of planes (that is, how fast is one plane moving with respect to the other), then each plane is traveling at 600 km/h, relative to the other.

Hope this helps.

When do we learn that the stranger's full name is Victor Frankenstein? Why do you think Shelley withholds this information for so long?

We first learn Victor Frankenstein's full name at the beginning of Chapter 5, when he receives a letter addressed to him from Elizabeth Lavenza, his cousin and future (intended) wife.

I think there are a number of possible reasons for this delay:

We first learn Victor Frankenstein's full name at the beginning of Chapter 5, when he receives a letter addressed to him from Elizabeth Lavenza, his cousin and future (intended) wife.

I think there are a number of possible reasons for this delay:

First, not knowing someone's name is very alienating. Our names feel integral to our identities and so refusing to call someone by their name is ultimately dehumanizing. Perhaps Shelley is commenting on Victor's apparent lack of humanity by refusing to name him for so long. Such a move draws further attention to the way in which his "human nature turn[ed] with loathing from [his] occupation" when he was digging up bodies and visiting morgues in order to supply himself with parts for his experiment.

Second, she might also refuse to name him to point out the inhumane way he treats his "creature" once it comes to life. After having stared at this creature for months on end, in witnessing him come to life, Victor says that "no mortal could support the horror of [his creature's] countenance," literally placing himself outside the realm of humans (who would not have been able to handle it). Simply abandoning his creature to the elements is both cruel and ultimately traumatizing to the creature himself.

Third, Victor never names the person he makes (another way in which he dehumanizes his creation), and Shelley goes to great lengths later in the novel to show readers just how similar Victor and his creature really are: starting with good intentions, wanting to help humanity, etc. Not naming him until later places readers in the same position regarding his namelessness as we are when it comes to the creature. It's just one more way in which they are so alike (both are monstrous and both are good -- this duality is key to human nature in this book).

Friday, October 30, 2015

How was the Latin American Revolution different compared to Haitian, American, and the French? What did the Latin American Revolution accomplish...

It is important to view the differences in context with regards to the events that took place in the different revolutions and the revolutionaries involved. The Latin American Revolution should be viewed in plural because there were different revolutions each led by different revolutionaries with differing ideologies.

The Latin American Revolutions differed with the French Revolution because Latin America was dealing with colonialism and imperialism by foreign countries. The French Revolution was by the people...

The Latin American Revolutions differed with the French Revolution because Latin America was dealing with colonialism and imperialism by foreign countries. The French Revolution was by the people against the French monarchy and not external interference by other countries. The French Revolution was fought to overthrow the King while the Latin American Revolutions were fought to gain independence.

Some of the revolutionaries such as Simon Bolivar differed with ideals of the American, Haitian and the French Revolutions to establish democratic republics. A section of the Latin American Revolutionaries gravitated towards British system of monarchy and administration. They did not believe democracy would work in their countries.

After the Latin American Revolution, the church gained dominance while in the French Revolution the church lost its authority.

In the Haitian Revolution, the colonists presented little opposition compared to the violently opposed independence of Latin American countries by the colonists.

Why did Atticus choose to defend Tom even though no one else wanted him to?

In Chapter 9, Scout asks her father why he is defending Tom Robinson when the community believes that he shouldn't be defending a Negro. Atticus tells Scout that the main reason he decided to defend Tom was because he wouldn't be able to hold up his head in town, represent Maycomb in the legislature, or tell his children what to do anymore. In Chapter 11, Scout insists that Atticus must be wrong, and he explains to her that Tom's case "goes to the essence of a man's conscience" (Lee 66). Atticus says that he couldn't live with himself if he didn't defend Tom to the best of his abilities. He says,

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience" (Lee 66).

Atticus is a morally upright individual who is forced to follow his conscience instead of popular opinion. He would not be able to live with the guilt of not defending Tom Robinson. Despite the opinions of others, Atticus follows his heart and does the right thing by defending Tom.

Do you personally believe that you contribute to global warming?

I know that even though I'm conscious of my carbon footprint and try to minimize it, I contribute to carbon emissions that cause global warming and climate change. I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't.

Transportation is one way in which people contribute to global warming, and probably the biggest. I ride a bicycle to work and for errands and drive a fuel-efficient car when I do drive, but I'm still burning some fossil fuel. I also contribute to carbon emissions by using other forms of transportation such as flying. Products that I buy must be transported to the retailer, using fossil fuel and creating emissions. Some of the employees of the businesses I frequent arrive at work via fossil fuel transportation. Motor vehicle exhaust is the biggest source of greenhouse gases worldwide.

Electricity is also a source of carbons emissions, as some electricity in the U.S. is produced from burning coal. I live in an area that produces hydroelectricity, but the nature of the electrical grid is such that we all contribute to climate change by using electricity from the grid. In addition, electricity is needed to produce products that we all use.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Who lived in the Great House at Uppercross ?

In Persuasion, Anne must stay with her sister, Mary, at Uppercross Cottage in the village of Uppercross when her father and sister, Elizabeth, retire to Bath.

While Uppercross Cottage is the home of Charles and Mary Musgrove, The Great House, about a quarter of a mile away, is home to Charles' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove. The inhabitants of the Great House also include Henrietta and Louisa, nineteen and twenty years old respectively, who have...

In Persuasion, Anne must stay with her sister, Mary, at Uppercross Cottage in the village of Uppercross when her father and sister, Elizabeth, retire to Bath.

The Great House is significant in Chapter Seven, as it is meant to be the venue for Anne's first meeting with Captain Wentworth after eight years. Anne does not, however, meet Wentworth at the Great House dinner because she stays behind to care for Mary's son, who has injured himself in a fall. The next day, Anne and Captain Wentworth meet at Uppercross Cottage, an awkward meeting which proves eventful and which foreshadows the couple's eventual reconciliation and marriage as the novel meets its conclusion.

How does family loyalty affect Kino's actions in either negative or positive ways in The Pearl by John Steinbeck?

The totality of Kino’s life is his wife and child, and he is satisfied with this. To make a life for the three of them, and any other children that may come, is all he focuses on. With the finding of the pearl, however, he begins to think of what he can provide for them. It is these dreams that change his life, from protecting his family to protecting the pearl. Even though the pearl means a new life, he begins to do more protecting of the pearl, even striking his wife Juana when she tries to throw it back into the sea. To Juana, the pearl has brought evil. It is true that in the presence of the pearl, Juana thinks that the swelling in Coyotito’s arm from the scorpion sting is fading, but it is the change in Kino that frightens her. Rejecting the pearl merchants’ offers, he keeps the pearl, perhaps to sell in the city. When he kills a man, he intends to flee to safety. He does not want to take Juana and the baby with him, feeling that they would be safer remaining with Juan Tomas and his family. Yet she comes with him, pursued by men to capture him. The result is tragedy for his family.

How does Brinker impact the other boys at Devon, and how does he make them feel more "complete"?

Brinker impacts the other boys at Devon in a way that is completely opposite to the way that Finny impacts that boys. While Finny is spontaneous and free spirited, Brinker is more reserved. While Finny finds ways to go around the letter of the law, Brinker is much more interested in following the letter of the law and having justice be served. You could even illustrate Finny's and Brinker's dichotomy with the seasons. Finny is...

His impact on the boys is through his sense of justice. He has a strong moral compass and guides the boys in that regard. Sometimes his moral compass and desire for justice is a bad thing though. He is the boy that leads the case against Gene, which ends up destroying a friendship and ultimately leads to Finny's death. He also impacts the boys with his view of the war. When the novel begins, all of the boys assume that Brinker will be the first to join the military and go to war. But as the novel progresses and Brinker matures, his view of the war becomes much more jaded and pessimistic. That in turn affects how the other boys view the war as well.

As for how he makes the boys feel more complete, I believe he does that by acting and being a strong, rule following leader. Without Brinker the group is a loosely held together group of boys. They are friends, but Brinker brings a sense of purpose and direction to the boys. If you think of the group like a single body, Brinker completes the body by being the head. Finny would be the heart, but Brinker is most definitely the head.

What is an explanation of Planck's Constant in layman's terms?

Max Planck was a physicist who lived during the early 20th century. He concluded that the transfer of energy must work differently at the subatomic level. At the subatomic level, things are VERY small. This includes the particles that make up atoms such as electrons.

Planck suggested that energy at the subatomic level must be transferred as small “packets” instead of being transferred continuously. These packets of energy are called quanta. Quanta are said to be discrete which means that they are individual units and cannot be divided into smaller packets. When we are talking about light energy, quanta are called photons.

As the investigation into the structure of the atom continued, a constant was identified that was able to relate the energy of a photon of light to the frequency of its wave.

The frequency of a wave is equal to the number of wavelengths of the wave that pass a given point in one second. One wavelength is equal to the distance between two adjacent crests of the wave. This constant was named “Planck’s constant” in honor of Max Planck.

Planck’s constant is symbolized by the small letter “h” when it is used in equations. It is equal to 6.63 x 10-34 J•s. The letter “J” stands for the energy unit joule. The letter “s” stands for the time unit seconds.

The equation that uses Planck’s constant to relate energy and frequency is: E = hf. In this equation, “E” stands for energy, “f” stands for frequency, and “h” stands for Planck’s constant. This means that you can calculate the energy of a photon of light by multiplying its frequency by Planck’s constant.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Use particle theory to explain how each factor(3) affects dissolving?

A solution contains a solute dissolved in a solvent. A solid substance is soluble when its particles form attractions to the solvent particles that are stronger than the attractions between solute particles and stronger than the attractions between solvent particles. If the solute-solvent interactions are weaker than the solute-solute or solvent-solvent interactions the substance won't dissolve.

Here are some factors that increase the rate of dissolving:

Stirring or shaking: When a liquid containing soluble solid...

Here are some factors that increase the rate of dissolving:

Stirring or shaking: When a liquid containing soluble solid particles is stirred or shaken, the rate of collisions between the solute and solvent particles increases and new intermolecular attractions are established faster.

Temperature: Most solid salutes are more soluble at higher temperatures. This is because the particles move faster at higher temperatures, resulting in more frequent collisions between solute and solvent particles.

Particle size/surface area: A solid substance that is in the form of fine particles dissolves faster than large chunks because it has more surface area in contact with the solvent particles. For example, table salt dissolves faster in water than rock salt because the same mass of table salt has more surface area exposed to the water so more solvent and solute particles collide.

At what level of organization does life begin?

A major theme in biology is that of the organization of living things according to increasing levels of complexity.

The smallest possible unit of organization where life occurs is at the cellular level.

Cells are the building blocks of living things which perform life functions necessary to maintain the life of the organism. They can grow, reproduce, carry out metabolism, respiration, excretion to name a few life processes.

Although various molecules can be found within...

A major theme in biology is that of the organization of living things according to increasing levels of complexity.

The smallest possible unit of organization where life occurs is at the cellular level.

Although various molecules can be found within cells that comprise the matter of cells, those chemicals are not "alive" in the sense that they cannot perform life processes. And, when these molecules are constructed into organelles--tiny membrane-bound structures in cells that do different jobs, organelles are not alive on their own merit--together they help a cell to stay alive.

If we follow the level of complexity from simplest to most complex it is:

molecules-organelles-cells-tissues-organs-systems-organism-population-community-ecosystem-biosphere

The living cells group together into functional tissues that perform jobs. These in turn make up organs, which form functional groups known as systems. All the systems comprise a living, multicellular organism and perform specialized functions. A similar group of organisms is known as a population, and different populations living together comprise a community. The community along with the nonliving environment is the ecosystem. All the ecosystems where life exist form the biosphere, the largest level of organization on Earth.

Keep in mind that not all living things are multi-cellular. For unicellular organisms then, the smallest component that is alive would the be cell. Cells are the common denominator as the smallest part of a living thing, whether unicellular or multi-cellular that carries out life processes.

What were the consequences of the Atlantic Slave Trade?

While slavery existed in Africa long before the Atlantic Slave Trade, the escalation of the practice in the Seventeenth Century had a lasting impact on the continent. The human costs of the trade were staggering. While it is difficult to place a number on the carnage and estimates vary widely by source, the death toll of the slave trade is in the millions. With the exception of a few powerful regional rulers, the slave trade had an inherent negative impact on the economy of West Africa. Since male slaves were in the most demand, the continent lost a significant labor source as slaves were exported. The social impact of the loss of males the patriarchal cultures led to a loss of cultural identity. The slave trade also created competition between different groups in African that led to warfare. Another legacy of the slave trade was that in introduced the concept of foreign intervention in the political affairs of Africans by more powerful outside forces. This legacy would continue during the period of colonization and still is practiced in Africa today through large multinational corporations.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Battle of the Bulge is best described as ____ ?

There are many possible ways to describe the Battle of the Bulge. I do not know what specific words your teacher wants to use to describe the battle. My first choice for how to describe this would be to say that the Battle of the Bulge was Germany’s last-gasp attempt to avert defeat in WWII.

The Battle of the Bulge began in December of 1944. Months before, the Allies had invaded Europe in the D-Day...

The Battle of the Bulge began in December of 1944. Months before, the Allies had invaded Europe in the D-Day landings in Normandy. Over the rest of 1944, they had pushed towards Germany. The Germans were clearly in danger of losing the war.

The Battle of the Bulge was Germany’s last effort to stave off defeat. Hitler believed that he could launch a major offensive that would split the British and the American armies apart. Hitler hoped that this would lead to discord between the Allies. He also hoped that it would make their strategic position untenable. Both of these factors would encourage them to make peace rather than trying to conquer Germany and force them to surrender unconditionally. The massive offensive succeeded for a while, but strong Allied resistance held the attack until weather improved, allowing Allied air power to help destroy the German advance.

In this way, the Battle of the Bulge, which can also be called the largest single battle American troops have ever been involved in, can be described as Germany’s last-gasp attempt to avoid losing WWII.

What are some examples of figurative language in the Odyssey?

One type of figurative language that is used often in The Odyssey is personification. Personification is when animate or human-like qualities are given to an inanimate object or concept. For example, saying "the flowers danced in the wind" is personification. The flowers are being personified: they are not actually dancing, but their movement is being likened to dancing.

In The Odyssey, we can see multiple examples of personification. Dawn is frequently personified throughout the...

In The Odyssey, we can see multiple examples of personification. Dawn is frequently personified throughout the epic. Here is one such example:

"As soon as rose-fingered early Dawn appeared..."

Of course, dawn, the break of day, does not actually have fingers, but Dawn is often described as having fingers, which is a human-like quality.

Another example of personification comes in Book IX:

"...we saw a cavern yawning above the water..."

The cavern is not actually yawning, as a human does, but the opening of the cavern is more vibrantly described by personifying it with the verb "yawn."

There are certainly more examples of personification that can be found throughout the Odyssey, as Homer employed it often, but here are just two examples.

What were some superstitious beliefs about women in Shakespeare's time?

A lot of superstitions regarding women in Shakespeare's day had to do with social deviancy and witchcraft. Unmarried women, especially those who were old, were often suspected of being witches. There were very few occupations available to women in Elizabethan England outside of being a wife and mother, so a woman who was not either was considered a little strange. Many women practiced folk healing to support themselves in the absence of a job or...

Women's reproductive biology had a lot of superstitions, as well. From the Medieval Period onward, a menstruating woman was believed to have a terrible influence about her. Folklore from around England and other parts of Europe dictated that a menstruating woman's touch would kill plants, prevent bread from rising, and cause all manner of food to spoil. At the same time, most Elizabethans were of the opinion that the menstrual cycle was both natural and healthy. The dominant theory of health in Shakespeare's time involved the Four Humors-- four fluids which circulated about the body and were in constant flux. Too much or too little of any one was bad for the health, and it was believed that menstruation was simply a woman's way of letting off a little excess blood every month.

With regards to Shakespeare's work, women were considered bad luck on the stage, and so women's roles in plays were acted by young boys. I suspect that the belief about women on stage being bad luck had far more to do with the social dynamics of the time than any superstition. In Shakespeare's time, women were believed to be inferior to men in all but one respect-- they could bear children. In anything else a woman did, she was not as good as a man, and this would have applied to the performing arts as well. Of course, theatre and acting did not have the air of luxury that they carry today. Actors were considered to be very low class people, and theatres were pits of moral degeneration. Sex workers often waited outside of theatres for a client to come by, and a woman on stage might have been taken as a sex worker. This could cause all sorts of social unrest, regardless of whether she actually was a sex worker or not. Though the Shakespearean theatre was a dirty place of generally low morals, I think Elizabethan people would still have been outraged to believe that a sex worker was performing on stage and receiving their money.

What do the silhouettes on the wall suggest about the family?

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," the silhouette on the wall is the most haunting image Ray Bradbury presents because it shows the instant a nuclear blast killed the unsuspecting family. Each member of the family was in the middle of some activity: the father was mowing the lawn ("the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn," the mother was gardening ("Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers."), and a boy and girl were playing catch with a ball ("a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down.").

This image helps Bradbury develop his theme that nuclear annhilation will destroy everyone. And that this annhilation can happen at any time.

This image also helps explain the absence of people in the house. It explains why the food the house makes goes uneaten and the cards go unplayed. In addition, the absence of people makes the house meaningless.

In general, this idea of a silhouette after a nuclear blast comes from reports of nuclear shadows on walls after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Why did Stevenson decide to set The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Victorian London? Provide a quotation from Chapter 1 for support.

I think it is likely that Stevenson sets his novella in Victorian London because, in this era, there was such monumental concern about morality, the potentiality for good and evil within each of us. The work of Charles Darwin had characterized human beings as just another species of animal, driven by instinct and urges just as every other animal is. The work of Sigmund Freud had essentially reduced human beings and human behavior to our sexual desires. Works like these made it seem all the more necessary to police morality, and the potential difference between what one could observe versus what was going on behind closed doors made many uncomfortable.

In other words, it was entirely plausible to think that a man who presented to all the world a scrupulous and upright persona could, underneath that facade, actually be devoid of morality. Thus, when Mr. Enfield explains to Mr. Utterson why he refers to a particular home as the "Black Mail House," his way of accounting for the strange occurrences he's observed is characteristic of this era. He describes once seeing a horrible little man emerge from that door and trample a little girl. The man would have continued on, but passers-by stopped him and insisted that he offer some financial remuneration to the child's family. This horrid man disappeared into the door of this house and emerged shortly thereafter with a check signed by a reputed local doctor. Mr. Enfield says that the little man

"was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of [those] fellows who do what they call good. Black mail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth."

Therefore, Mr. Enfield automatically attributes this strangeness to the belief that Dr. Jekyll must have some skeletons in his closet, some indiscretion(s) from his past that he would wish to hide, and this terrible man must know it and be using the information to blackmail him. To leap to such a conclusion might seem strange to us, now, but it seems to make perfect sense to Enfield, and to his auditor, Mr. Utterson.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Why are producers essential for all living things?

Producers are the original source of food for all living things. Since food is necessary for energy production and thus the sustenance of life, producers are essential to all living things. Green plants are the dominant producer on Earth. They contain a pigment, known as chlorophyll, which enables them to carry out the process of photosynthesis in the presence of sunlight. During photosynthesis, the following reaction takes place and food is produced in the form...

`6 CO_2 + 6 H_2O + sunlight -> C_6H_12O_6 + 6 O_2`

The food generated is utilized by all living things and is broken down in the process of cellular respiration, to generate energy, as per the following equation:

`C_6H_12O_6 + 6 O_2 -> 6 CO_2 + 6 H_2O + ATP`

This energy is used for day to day operations of living things (such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, etc.).

Producers are at the base of every food chain as the original source of energy for primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers.

Thus, producers are essential to all living things.

Hope this helps.

Scientists have determined the ages of rock samples from other places in the solar system. Why are rock samples from other parts of the solar...

Scientists assume that the Earth and other solid planets and moons formed at about the same time as each other. It has been difficult to determine the age of the Earth itself directly because of the disruption caused by plate tectonics, and the resulting melting and recycling of the rocks. From rock samples collected on the moon, and from meteorites that have been found on Earth that can be dated using radioactive isotopes, scientists feel...

...The best age for the Earth (4.54 Ga) is based on old, presumed single-stage leads coupled with the Pb ratios in troilite from iron meteorites, specifically the Canyon Diablo meteorite.

In other words, the radioactive decay of the minerals in these meteorites helps to date the age of the Earth--as well as the rest of the solar system-- to 4.53 and 4.58 billion years ago. The Canyon Diablo meteorite is the name given to the meteorite that created the Barringer Crater near Flagstaff, Arizona.

In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," why do you think O'Connor made the children so obnoxious? Would the result have...

It is quite possible that the children and their behavior in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" are, in part, responsible for the story's outcome.

There is no question that the youngsters are obnoxious. When the grandmother tries to convince her son to change the location of their vacation the night before they leave, John Wesley (her grandson) tells the older woman:

If you don't want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home?

June Star, the boy's sister, is equally nasty and disrespectful:

She wouldn't stay home for a million bucks...Afraid she'd miss something. She has to go everywhere we go.

The grandmother never stops talking, but neither do the children. The older woman chatters on incessantly and even tells her son how to drive. John Wesley criticizes Tennessee as a "hillbilly dumping ground." They are all childish as they argue back and forth. The commentary taking place in the back of the car creates a tense and anxious mood. It is increased when the children begin to fight. John Wesley and June Star get into a disagreement and...

...they began to slap each other over the grandmother.

When they stop for something to eat at Red Sam's, June Star is, not surprisingly, nasty to Sam's wife, who has tried to make polite conversation. When the family gets on the road again, it has become hot. The heat and close confines of the car even make the reader uncomfortable! As they continue to drive, the grandmother recalls a home she once visited nearby that she would like to stop and see again. She knows that her son will not be agreeable, but the more she talks about it, the more she wants to see it. So she deceitfully elicits the help of the children by making up lies and leading them to believe that there is a secret panel and a treasure inside the house.

"There was a secret panel in this house," she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, "and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found..."

John Wesley is beside himself with excitement at the prospect of seeing such a place and he begins to ask his father to stop there.

"We never have seen a house with a secret panel!" June Star shrieked. "Let's go to the house with the secret panel! Hey Pop, can't we go see the house with the secret panel!"

The grandmother chimes in, encouraging her son to find the house. He firmly says no.

The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the house with the secret panel. John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mother's shoulder and whined desperately into her ear...

The uncontrollable children continue to complain that they are never allowed to do anything that they want to do. The baby starts to scream and...

John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney.

At this point, Bailey (the children's father) stops the car and begins to yell. He tells everyone to shut up—but the grandmother pushes her son once more, telling him that the stop would be "educational" for the youngsters.

By now the atmosphere in the car has reached a fevered pitch. The baby is screaming, the kids are kicking or whining, it is hot outside, and the grandmother has simply continued nagging her son in the same manner she started the night before.

Bailey finally agrees, against his better judgment, to turn around and take the turnoff as the grandmother directs. Bailey might have been able to ignore his mother's nagging had it only been her voice he had to listen to. However, he has heard the children complaining and fighting, and now they have turned their unruly and disrespectful attention on him. For a little peace and quiet (we can infer), he agrees to the demands of the three most inflexible and obnoxious people in the car.

Suddenly the grandmother realizes she has made an enormous mistake—the house she remembers is not in Georgia, but actually in Tennessee. When it comes to her that they are not only in the wrong place, but (even worse) in the wrong state, she startles the cat she has hidden in the backseat. It jumps onto Bailey's shoulder causing the car to veer out of control and turn over. It is only because Bailey follows his mother's directions that this occurs. Unable to drive the car, they are stranded. It is there that the Misfit finds them.

Had the children been quietly sitting in the back seat reading and playing nicely, we can assume that Bailey would never have changed direction. While the grandmother is seriously responsible, the children's behavior is also a factor in this tragedy. Otherwise, the family members would never have been placed in this dangerous situation that leads to their deaths.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Write based on the reading, what was everyday life like in the 14th century England for the serfs and the nobility? How were the common people's...

The story opens with Crispin recounting the events of his mother's burial. Our young protagonist is only thirteen, but for a boy living in 14th century England, he soon finds his life becoming more complicated than he would like. As matters stand, The Black Plague or The Great Mortality of 1348 has wiped out at a third of Europe's population. Whole villages in England have been reduced to ghost towns, with fields lying fallow and fires left untended at hearth-sides.

Meanwhile, Crispin is now bereft of both his parents. To make matters worse, the village steward, John Aycliffe, has just declared him a wolf's head; any man may kill him at will and be held blameless for the act. The steward has Crispin's hut torn down and has Father Quinel, the parish priest and the boy's only friend, murdered. Not only is Crispin burdened with questions about his birth and identity, he now has no one he can depend on. Fearing for his life, he takes the priest's advice and tries to run to one of the towns 'with its own liberties' in order to secure his freedom from servitude.

As the story continues, Crispin's personal struggles represent but a microcosmic slice of the overarching political and sociological turmoil threatening 14th century England. At the time, the oppressed were beginning to question the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and the nobility. Reformers like John Wycliffe proclaimed the singular authority of God and argued that the priesthood had become corrupt and unfit to hold the scepter of rule over religious matters.

The poor resented being forced to work on their lord's lands for two or three days a week without pay. They also chafed over arbitrary rules which saw them having to acquire permission for every necessary liberty. For example, the story highlights the fact that the lands in Stromford and surrounding areas are owned by Lord Furnival. In his absence, all authority is ceded to the steward, John Aycliffe. Every serf working Lord Furnival's lands from dawn to dusk is paid a pittance for his labor. The text highlights the difference in lifestyles between the nobility and the serfs.

There, on the river's law, tree-lined banks, stood our noble's house - Lord Furnival's manor - the grandest house I knew. It was where the steward had lived for many years in the absence of the knight. With stone walls two levels high and small windows, the manor was to me like a castle, high, mighty and impenetrable. Inside - I had never been allowed to enter, but I'd been told - was an arched hall with a long trestle table and benches, several sleeping rooms and a chapel. On the walls hung pictures of saints, along with ancient battle shields. The lower level was a large storage place meant for the wheat and other foods the village produced.

Everything - from the woods, the cottages, the manor house, the mill, the roads, the growing lands, the common, even the mum itself to the tiny crofts behind our cottages used for planting herbs and roots - everything belonged to Lord Furnival, who held it in the King's name. Indeed the steward said we belonged to our lord as well. Like all villagers, we were required to ask the steward's permission to be excused from work if ill, to grind our wheat or bake it, to buy or sell, to travel from our parish, to many, even to baptise our children.

Not only did the mill grind our wheat and barley - at a cost - it contained the ovens where we villagers, by the steward's decree, baked our bread, which required yet another fee.

To read more, please refer to:

Life in the Middle Ages for the nobility and serfs.

Feudalism and Medieval Life.

Serfs also had to work on the Church's lands for free several times a week. In addition, the Church instituted an oppressing tithing system on the poor; this, combined with dehumanizing labor on manorial lands prompted the serfs to eventually rise up in defense of their trampled rights.

You can read about the Peasants Revolt of 1381 here.

For life lessons that Crispin has learned, compare Bear and Crispin's opinions about faith and fate. You can then analyze how Crispin changes his mind about long held suppositions after the events of the last few chapters.

All these things ... your cross, your prayers. As God is near - and surely He always is - He needs no special words or objects to approach Him.

'But this cross -' I began. He cut me off. ‘I know what it is. It's made of lead, made in countless numbers during the Great Death. Never blessed, they were given to the dying as false comfort. They're as common as the leaves and just as sacred.'

'Crispin, as Jesus is my witness, churches, priests – they’re all unneeded. The only cross you need is the one in your heart.'

But what vexed me most was his saying that every man should be master of himself. If I knew anything, it was that all men belonged to someone. Surely God Himself put us all in our places. Lords to rule and fight. Clergy to pray. All the rest - like me - were on earth to labour, to serve our masters and our God.

In A Modest Proposal, what is the problem in Dublin, Ireland in the 1700s?

In a nutshell, the problem in Dublin circa 1700 (and the problem Jonathan Swift wrote about in A Modest Proposal) was extreme poverty. The narrator of the compact Proposal specifically highlights the plight of poor families with many children, and also the generally low rate of employment in Ireland at the time of the essay's composition. This poverty led to many social problems, and the narrator points out that lack of gainful employment has forced...

Swift's satirical proposal (the cannibal consumption of Ireland's young) is meant to combat both this extreme poverty and hunger, as eating children will simultaneously reduce the cost of raising a family while also providing a reliable food source. This suggestion is, of course, appalling, but it's also brilliant as a literary device, as it symbolically represents the fact that Great Britain, a primary cause influencing Ireland's poverty, was figuratively devouring Ireland's impoverished population.

Friday, October 23, 2015

`f(x) = 2 sin(x) - sin(2x), [0, pi]` Find the average value of the function on the given interval.

The average value on an interval is the integral on this interval divided by the length of the interval.

The length is `pi` . The integral is

`(-2cos(x)+1/2 cos(2x))|_0^pi=2+1/2+2-1/2=4.`

So the average value is `4/pi.`

The average value on an interval is the integral on this interval divided by the length of the interval.

The length is `pi` . The integral is

`(-2cos(x)+1/2 cos(2x))|_0^pi=2+1/2+2-1/2=4.`

So the average value is `4/pi.`

In the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, what is the mood throughout paragraphs 1-11?

Edgar Allen Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart" has a beginning that immediately pulls the reader in. A lot of that is due to the mood and tone set by the unreliable narrator.

Quick explanation of terms:

The mood of a story is how the story is making the audience feel. A scary story will have a frightening mood, a love story might have a romantic mood, etc.

The tone of a story is how the narrator feels about the subject. Think of this like someone's tone of voice. If someone says, "Wow, what an interesting story!" when you say something, your reaction will be much different if they are using a sincere, honest tone than if they are using a sarcastic tone.

Now, in the beginning of "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator uses a strong tone, which helps to create the mood. The narrator's tone seems to be manic, or overly excited. Readers will notice the way the first few paragraphs are written. There are a number of exclamation points and repeated words: "It's true! Yes I have been ill, very ill," and "Listen! Listen and I will tell you how it happened." These two examples from the first two paragraphs of the story suggest a person who is so excited to tell his story that he is stumbling over words and yelling.

This manic tone creates an uneasy or unsettling mood in the reader. As you read all the repeated words and exclamation points, you wonder what has this guy so worked up. It could be something positive, but some of the words he is using make you think not. For example, he is trying to convince you that he is not insane: "why do you say that I am mad?" Furthermore, it seems like he is actually insane when you hear his claims: "I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!" (paragraph 2).

As the story continues, the narrator describes his actions. Again, both the actions the narrator is taking and the frantic, obsessive tone he uses to describe them heighten the sinister, threatening mood of the story. For instance, he compares the old man's eye to "the eye of one of those terrible birds that watch and wait while an animal dies, and then fall upon the dead body and pull it to pieces to eat it" (paragraph 3).

There are a ton of examples to use as evidence for the mood of this story. One more quick tip though—when identifying a mood or a tone of a text, the more specific you can be, the better. I used to tease my middle school students—everything they read was either "happy," "sad," or "creepy." Notice how I avoided the word "creepy" to describe "The Tell-Tale Heart"? Use a thesaurus to get the perfect word to precisely describe the way the story is making you feel—it will help make your analysis deeper.

If the difference between the dry bulb temperature and wet bulb temperature is 0°C, what is the relative humidity?

The relative humidity is 100%. The device you are describing is called a psychrometer, two thermometers, one with a wick on the end of it.
The two thermometers are attached to a sling, or a stick, devised for the scientist to wet the wick, producing a "wet" thermometer. The scientist then swings the device for a few minutes, long enough for the air to cause the water in the wick of the wet thermometer to evaporate. The evaporation produces a cooling effect. The scientist subtracts the wet bulb reading from the dry bulb reading. The greater the number of degrees difference, the less water vapor is in the air, which means the relative humidity is lower. In other words, there is more room for the liquid water molecules to evaporate into gaseous water molecules. So the relative humidity is lower.

In this case, however, there was NO difference between the readings of the wet bulb and the dry bulb thermometers. This means there is absolutely no room at this temperature for water to evaporate, indicating the humidity of the air is saturated, or full. So the relative humidity is 100%.

What consonant sound appears in every line of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"?

The consonant sound of the letter "s" is in every line. This is often called sibilance. In this poem, the sibilance creates a swooshing sound similar to a sleigh, or wind in the trees—think of the hushed sounds you have heard while alone in the snow. This brings up Frost's use of the "w" sound as well. It is not in every line, but when it is prevalent, it creates a certain mellow, calm mood. "W" is a "glide," and glides often flow into a vowel sound. The glides are easy and flow gently. However, friction begins to form in the second stanza as harder consonants are used. These hard consonants trip up the tongue, and I'm sure that Frost included these harder consonants is to show the struggle that exists below the gentle surface of this poem. The consonant sounds, along with a close reading of the setting and imagery, create the depth of this poem. Think about times when you have wanted to be alone in the woods; now couple that emotion/mood with the symbolism of the woods being the unknown or the subconscious.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

How does Scrooge react to the two children who emerged from the ghost's robe?

When the Ghost reveals the two children hiding underneath his robes to Scrooge, Scrooge reacts with (quite understandably!) deep revulsion. These children are described by Dickens as "[y]ellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish..." and as "monsters... horrible and dread."

While Scrooge initially tries to conceal his disgust by calling them "fine children" and inquiring if they are the progeny of the Ghost, he is so overcome by their appearance that he cannot bear to lie.

The...

The Ghost informs Scrooge that these children--named Ignorance and Want--are the offspring of mankind and cautions Scrooge to be cautious in their presence. These figures serve as representations of the great afflictions of humanity and the source of our suffering. The Ghost encourages Scrooge to see beyond the naïveté of his questioning ("Have they no refuge or resource?") and to consider the places where the pain of humanity--a pain that Scrooge is too privileged and isolated to recognize in others--may be found: the prisons and workhouses.

While the Ghost and his companions disappear shortly thereafter, this is clearly a significant moment for Scrooge in that he is gaining critical awareness of the plights of the less fortunate.

1. Describe role of American woman & minorities during WWII 2. Was Japanese internment a "fair" wartime policy?

We request that you only post one question at a time here . Therefore, I will answer one of these questions—your second.

People can have different opinions on the fairness of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American people on the West Coast during WWII. I will give arguments each way and let you decide which argument makes more sense.

On the one hand, we can say that this internment was “fair” largely because, as...

We request that you only post one question at a time here . Therefore, I will answer one of these questions—your second.

On the one hand, we can say that this internment was “fair” largely because, as the saying goes, “all’s fair in love and war.” Put less flippantly, the idea here is that governments must sometimes do things during war that would not be “fair” in normal times. The Japanese internment was one of these things. Looking at this episode from our vantage point far in the future, we do not understand how frightening this time was. The Japanese had surprised us by attacking Pearl Harbor, so why might they not surprise us by attacking the West Coast? This was particularly worrisome as Japan was winning victories all across the Pacific. In this situation, it was “fair” to do anything necessary to protect our country. We could not know whether the people we interned were loyal Americans and we had no time to check them each out. This was fair because it was something done in a time of emergency. Moreover, it was fair because the internment was not brutal. We did not treat the internees well, but we also did not treat them in anywhere near the same way that people in German concentration camps, for example, were treated.

On the other hand, we can say that this policy was terribly unfair. There is no evidence that any Japanese-American ever helped Japan in any way. Even if there had been such evidence, that is no reason to intern a whole population of people. This would be similar to putting all Muslims in America today in camps for fear that they would commit terrorist attacks. Even though WWII was a major emergency, that is not a good reason for us to have forgotten that we are a country of laws. We take away people’s liberty only when they, themselves, have committed crimes, not when we think that people “like them” might commit crimes. The internment was not brutal, but it was economically brutal and it was dehumanizing. The internees typically lost practically everything they owned when they were interned. They were treated as if they were enemies within their own country. This was not physically brutal, but it was clearly wrong.

Which of these arguments makes more sense to you?

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

What techniques did Shakespeare use to convey a world of corruption in the play Hamlet?

Shakespeare employs a few techniques when building this motif of corruption. Corruption and its partner, disease, is one of the most overarching motifs we see in the play. An examination of the characters' dialogue reveals the heavy use of imagery to underscore Hamlet's frustration about the state of Denmark and the players therein.

There is something rotten in the state of Denmark (1.4)

Here Marcellus, not Hamlet as many misquote, is commenting about the...

There is something rotten in the state of Denmark (1.4)

Here Marcellus, not Hamlet as many misquote, is commenting about the riotous revelry ensuing at the midnight hour in the castle. His frustration and disgust at King Claudius's new reign are apparent. He implies, through his appeal to the olfactory sense, that Denmark has fallen into a state of rot and putrescence through the moral corruption of the king and his new queen.

Imagery is Shakespeare's primary technique for expressing corruption. When examining the branch of physical corruption, that of sexual immorality, in the relationship of Claudius and Gertrude, he also explores moral corruption in those who have any contact with Claudius, as he manipulates and pulls all who are under his rule away from their moral compass. Hamlet says of Claudius that he is a "canker in our nature" that is destroying the beloved legacy of Hamlet senior.

Additional images of maggots or worms feeding on flesh, talk of poison and its effects on the body, and numerous comments about disease riddle the play, making corruption a primary focus of Shakespeare's famous work.

In Macbeth, what does the line "Fair is foul and foul is fair" mean?

This line comes from Act I, Scene I, and it is chanted by the three witches as they await the end of the battle. At first glance, this line is a paradox since it is not possible for something to be "fair" (nice) and "foul" (horrible) at the same time. However, this paradox is central to understanding what the witches truly mean: by using this line, they are warning the reader that everything is not...

As the play progresses, the relevance of this line becomes more apparent and is proven true through the character of Macbeth. On the surface, Macbeth is the ideal thane: he is loyal to the king and fights bravely in battle. But Macbeth is quickly and easily seduced by the prophecy that he will become king, and he soon begins planning Duncan's murder. Therefore, Macbeth seems to be "fair," but he is really quite the opposite.

What kind of language does Harper Lee use to describe the Cunninghams in the book To Kill a Mockingbird and how does it link to the economic...

Lee's language is respectful in describing the Cunninghams and this reflects an overall respect for those who suffered through the Great Depression.

We learn about the Cunninghams early in the book when Scout has a run-in with Walter at school. In trying to describe the Cunninghams' economic status compared to their own, Atticus explains to Scout and Jem:

"The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them the hardest" (Ch.2).

We learn that...

Lee's language is respectful in describing the Cunninghams and this reflects an overall respect for those who suffered through the Great Depression.

"The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them the hardest" (Ch.2).

We learn that the Cunninghams pay for services with food when they are able to, as they have so little money. Lee describes them as dignified people who work for what they earn and pay for what they take. They do not accept charity or hand-outs. This relates to the Great Depression because farmers and country folk were hit very hard, but they did not expect hand-outs either. They often had large pieces of land to take care of and if no one had the money to buy their products, they could not easily go and make money elsewhere. They resorted to living off of their land or going hungry and making ends meet or trading in whatever ways they could to get by, just like the Cunnighams. Many farms were in rural and poor areas already, so the economic downturn meant that the farmers and small towns suffered even more.

Atticus and Jem both treat the Cunninghams with respect and seem to understand that the circumstance is not the same as the person.

What are Mrs. Jones' character traits in the story "Thank You, Ma'am"?

In the short story "Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes, Mrs. Jones, the main character, demonstrates that she is a tough, yet sincere and honest woman. One of my favorite descriptions of her comes from the very first sentence. Hughes writes, "She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails."

Immediately after Roger attempted to steal that large purse, Mrs. Jones asked, "Now aren't you ashamed...

Immediately after Roger attempted to steal that large purse, Mrs. Jones asked, "Now aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Following her line of questioning, it was clear that Roger just wanted to be let off the hook, but she insisted on teaching him a lesson. This shows that she is tough (but) because she wanted to ensure that Roger would learn from his mistakes and never steal again.

Just before dragging Roger to her house, Mrs. Jones said, “You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong." When they arrived at her home, she made him clean himself up a bit and even made him some dinner. This shows her as sincere because she almost becomes a motherly figure to Roger; this is especially important, because we learn that he doesn't have any family. By being a role model, Mrs. Jones is one step closer to achieving her goal of ensuring that Roger doesn't make a mistake again.

Towards the end of the story, Mrs. Jones admits to Roger, "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God, if he didn’t already know.” Through this revelation, Mrs. Jones continues to be a role model to Roger by showing him that he doesn't have to continue living the way he does. This makes her an honest person because she didn't have to admit to her past mistakes to him, but by doing so, she was able to connect to him on another level.

While we know Roger never sees Mrs. Jones again, I think it's safe to bet that she had an influence on the rest of his life due to her tough, compassionate mannerisms.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

What are two aspects of U.S Imperialism that Twain disagrees with?

Twain most clearly and famously criticizes imperialism in his 1901 essay "To the Person Sitting in Darkness". He criticizes the imperialistic activities of several countries, including Germany and Great Britain in the satirical essay, but since the question refers to American imperialism, this answer will focus on his American critique.

First, he claims that American behavior in the Philippines, which William McKinley and Congress had decided to annex after American victory in the Spanish-American War...

First, he claims that American behavior in the Philippines, which William McKinley and Congress had decided to annex after American victory in the Spanish-American War "liberated" it from American control, was contrary to American principles. Rather than annexing the islands, Twain contends, the United States should have liberated them, warning foreign powers not to meddle with them. But the United States did not do this, because they were tempted to play the "game" of imperialism that characterized relations among European powers. The result was a brutal war in the Philippines, one which raged on even as Twain was writing.

Second, Twain basically argues that imperialism is motivated by greed, not any desire, stated by missionaries and imperialists, to bring the blessings og "civilization" to people "sitting in darkness". Twain mocks these pretensions of what he calls the "Blessings of Civilization Trust" (a reference to the large monopolies that dominated the American economy at the time), arguing that in the end, imperialism is about exploiting poor, colonial peoples for the profit of rich nations.

Why does Victor choose Orkney Islands as the place where he will work?

Victor's entire project of creating the monster is one that he toils over mostly in isolation from the very beginning. When he became consumed by the occult science he was studying and the progress he was making in his work, he noted in Chapter 4:

"I knew well, therefore, what would be my father's feelings; but I could not tear my thoughts from my employment, loathsome in itself, but which had taken an irresistible hold of my imagination. I wished, as it were, to procrastinate all that related to my feelings of affection until the great object, which swallowed up every habit of my nature, should be completed."

Since he knew that his father (and likely other friends and family members) would dismiss his work as crazy, obsessive, and dangerous, he hid his work away from them in order to complete it.

Later, once the monster has come to life and begun to exact its revenge after being abandoned by systematically murdering Victor's loved ones, the monster demands that Victor create for him a partner, and then the monster and his wife will seclude themselves never to be seen by mankind again.

To create the monster's bride, Victor chooses a remote spot. In Chapter 19, he explains:

"Having parted from my friend, I determined to visit some remote spot of Scotland, and finish my work in solitude. I did not doubt but that the monster followed me, and would discover himself to me when I should have finished, that he might receive his companion.

With this resolution I traversed the northern highlands, and fixed on one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene of my labours. It was a place fitted for such a work, being hardly more than a rock, whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves. The soil was barren, scarcely affording pasture for a few miserable cows, and oatmeal for its inhabitants, which consisted of five persons, whose gaunt and scraggy limbs gave tokens of their miserable fare. Vegetables and bread, when they indulged in such luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from the main land, which was about five miles distant."

While there is some evidence at this point that Victor, knowing the monster is following him, is trying to create some distance between it and his family and loved ones (including his best friend Clerval who he was just travelling in Scotland with), but I'd argue that his picking such a remote and secluded spot mirrors the isolation in his early attempts.

Victor knew others would judge him harshly and try to interfere with his work, so his pride and obsession compelled him to keep it secret. Now, he still hasn't admitted to anyone what he's done, and the shame and guilt at the consequences of his actions (the death of his loved ones at the hands of his creation) continue to force him to work in seclusion because of fear of being found out and, therefore, having to truly admit the evil of what he's done.

how is parallelism being used in the poem The Soldier by rupert brooke

Parallelism is defined as using elements in sentences that are grammatically similar or identical in structure, sound, meaning, or meter. For example, referring to Brooke’s poem:

“That there’s some corner of a foreign field/That is forever England. There shall be/In that rich earth a richer dust concealed”

Try reading this sentence out loud to hear what it sounds like. There is a cadence to “that” and “there” that is being repeated. Also, “rich” and “richer” are used to the same effect.

In another example:

“A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware/Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam”

Take a look at the verbs used in this line: “bore,” “shaped,” “made aware.” Each is in the same tense which is a good indicator of parallelism. To give an example that is NOT parallelism, the line would read:

“A dust whom England bore, shaping, making aware, gave, once, her flowers, to love, her ways to roam.”

See how the tense of the verbs changed? Some are present tense, while others are past tense. The poem doesn’t sound as musical formatted this way. But, in Brooke's poem, he is careful to use the past tense to maintain parallelism, and overall, give a more enjoyable reading experience. However, “to love” and “to roam” is another example of parallelism. Here is a last example for you:

“Give somewhere back the thoughts by England Given/In hearts at peace, under an English heaven”

It is clear that “given” and “heaven” are rhymes. But, the meter in which this poem is written is what lends itself to parallelism. That means this stanza qualifies as parallelism because of how similar both words sound. The entire poem follows a similar pattern or structure which, essentially, makes this poem in and of itself, a parallelism.

Monday, October 19, 2015

How does O. Henry’s use of irony create a humorous tone?

My favorite use of irony in "The Ransom of Red Chief" is the verbal irony that happens at the end of Bill and Sam's letter to Ebenezer Dorset.

These terms are final, and if you do not accede to them no further communication will be attempted.

Two Desperate Men.

Remember that Bill and Sam are two "hardened" criminals that have kidnapped a child. They are dangerous men presumably because they are desperate enough to...

My favorite use of irony in "The Ransom of Red Chief" is the verbal irony that happens at the end of Bill and Sam's letter to Ebenezer Dorset.

These terms are final, and if you do not accede to them no further communication will be attempted.

Two Desperate Men.

Remember that Bill and Sam are two "hardened" criminals that have kidnapped a child. They are dangerous men presumably because they are desperate enough to try anything . . . including kidnapping. At least that's the message that would be sent if the kidnappers were anybody other than Bill and Sam and the victim was anybody other than Johnny Dorset. In this case, Bill and Sam are desperate to get rid of Johnny. They are at their wits end. They are scared of Johnny and desperate to escape his enthusiasm.

The other irony that is humorous to me is situational irony. I mentioned before that Bill and Sam are criminals that are willing to kidnap a young boy. They should be cruel enough to control and scare little Johnny Dorset. That's what readers would expect to happen; however, the absolute opposite is what happens. Bill and Sam actually cower from Johnny and have zero control over this kid. Ironically enough, they don't get any ransom money. In fact Bill and Sam end up paying Ebenzer to take his kid back. So for all of their trouble, Bill and Sam actually lost money. That story is hilarious, because everything that happens is ironic.

The most common atomospheric gas is

The atmosphere refers to the layer of gases surrounding Earth.

The composition of the atmosphere contains the following gases. Nitrogen makes up 78 percent of the atmosphere which is its largest component. Next is oxygen which comprises 21 percent. The last 1 percent can be subdivided into the following gases-argon, carbon dioxide, neon and helium.

The atmosphere is very important because its layers each have significant features that help the Earth in various ways. The...

The atmosphere refers to the layer of gases surrounding Earth.

The atmosphere is very important because its layers each have significant features that help the Earth in various ways. The troposphere-layer nearest the Earth's surface is where weather events occur as well as winds. The stratosphere contains the ozone layer which protects Earth from harmful high-- energy radiation. The mesosphere has temperatures that decrease to the lowest in the atmosphere and the thermosphere has very hot temperatures nearly 1000 degrees C. Finally, there is the exosphere, the outermost layer which extends into outer space.

It is interesting to note that although carbon dioxide is a fraction of 1 percent of the atmosphere, it plays a role in keeping the planet warm and in recent years, the slight increase of carbon dioxide has led to global warming. It is also interesting to note that oxygen, which aerobic organisms depend on, is not the largest component of the atmosphere.

What are five main points of Major's speech in Animal Farm?

In Chapter One of Animal Farm, Major gives a speech to the other animals on Manor Farm. As Major states, he is coming to the end of his life and he wishes to pass on some pearls of wisdom before it is too late. In essence, this speech has five main points:

Firstly, that the lives of animals are "miserable, laborious, and short." In other words, the animals of England are bred for the...

Firstly, that the lives of animals are "miserable, laborious, and short." In other words, the animals of England are bred for the purpose of work and, as a result, do not experience any "leisure" or pleasure during their short lives.

Secondly, that man is the source of all suffering in the animal world. Man steals the produce of the animals and is the "only creature that consumes without producing." In other words, man has created an unequal division between himself and animals: he profits from animals but only gives them back enough to survive.

Thirdly, that "no animal escapes the cruel knife." Once an animal has outlived its usefulness, man will kill it. As Major says, when the dogs grow "old and toothless," for example, the farmer will tie a brick around their necks and drown them in the nearest pond.

Fourthly, that rebellion against man is the only way to ensure that animals have a better life. Major does not know when this rebellion will come, but he believes that it is inevitable; that "sooner or later justice will be done."

Finally, that "man serves the interest of no creature but himself." According to Major, man cannot be trusted and that the destruction of man is the only way to improve the lives of animals.

Major's rousing speech causes a "tremendous uproar" in the barn. He has succeeded in inspiring the animals to rise up against Mr. Jones and to accept the view that "whatever goes on two legs is the enemy." But, this rebellion will have important consequences on the fate of Manor Farm and all who dwell inside it.

What are some examples of national protests?

Recent examples in the United States of national protests would be the current Black Lives Matter protests of police brutality, the Occupy Wall Street protests of economic inequality, and the Antiwar protests against military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although it could also be argued that these are also examples of international protests, they all, most certainly, had domestic roots in the United States.

Black Lives Matter began in 2013 as a social media response...

Black Lives Matter began in 2013 as a social media response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for shooting an unarmed black (male) teen to death. By 2014 demonstrations began in New York and Ferguson -- as a continued response to the criminal justice system that structurally perpetuates racism - and further spread, by the summer of 2015, to cities across the country, including Chicago, Cleveland, Madison, San Francisco/Oakland, Newark, Cincinnati, Austin, Baltimore, Sacramento, Minneapolis, and many more.

Occupy Wall Street, although seemingly local with a slogan that references its origins in New York, the protests targeted at the concentration of financiers and bankers particular to Wall Street in late 2011 - soon spread across 600 separate sites in the US alone. Unsurprisingly emerging on the heals of the 2008 recession and the bail out of the big banks, students and the working class alike mobilized together in the name of the 99% - as a juxtaposition to the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 1%. Antiwar protests against the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2001 have mobilized in cities that include New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Austin, Colorado Springs, Seattle, Philadelphia, Chicago, and others. Although these protests peaked in 2003 and consisted of 36 million protests worldwide (at its largest), demonstrations of fluctuating size have also continued into the present. Interestingly, these contemporary antiwar protests are also reminiscent of what is still considered the largest national (political) demonstration in the US, the Anti-Vietnam War protests of 1969.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

How does subplot help the main plot in King Lear?

Shakespeare's intent is to show how one generation gradually supplants the generation that bore and nurtured it. The subplot deals with meles, whereas the main plot deals with females. This suggests a universality to the theme. Keats speaks of "hungry generations" treading down the older generations in his "Ode to a Nightingale." This is really what King Lear is about. The characters and their stories are only rather extreme examples of a general rule.

Furthermore, the subplot is really necessary because the main plot has more or less stalled. Nothing is happening. King Lear disowns both his daughters and goes out into the open country to live like a vagabond. His daughters make no effort to persuade him to return to the shelter they are willing to provide if he accedes to their terms. There is a standoff in the conflict between Lear and his daughters. This is dramatically dangerous. It risks losing audience involvement. This is where the subplot involving Gloucester and his two sons is needed. Edmund wants to take over everything his father owns, including his title. He writes his own sentiments in a letter but attributes them to his naive brother Edgar.

'This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the
best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness
cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the
oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our
father would sleep till I waked him, you should half his revenue for
ever, and live the beloved of your brother. I.2

Edmund's treatment of his father parallels what Goneril and Regan have done to Lear. Soon Gloucester will find himself out in the cold, just like Lear. There will be a very poignant meeting between these two old men in Act 4, Scene 6. It is both sad and funny. Life is a tragedy. Life is a comedy. It always has been. Like a lot of old men, Lear and Gloucester discuss the human condition from the point of view of old age.

Only the man who attains old age acquires a complete and consistent mental picture of life; for he views it in its entirety and its natural course, yet in particular he sees it not merely from the point of entry, as do others, but also from that of departure. In this way, he fully perceives especially its utter vanity, whereas others are still always involved in the erroneous idea that everything may come right in the end.
Schopenhauer

Lear and Gloucester have lost everything. They have been pushed aside. Nobody cares about them. So they are both philosophical about life. They do not talk about their offspring, because their children are only examples of a general rule. They are more interested in the general rule itself. They talk about humanity as a whole and about the meaninglessness of life. This is where Shakespeare states his thesis, which is the guiding light of the whole play.

What energy conversion takes place in the bulb of the flashlight?

In order to understand what energy conversion takes place in the bulb of the flashlight, one must first look at how a flashlight operates. In a flashlight, batteries serve as the main source of energy for powering the bulb. Energy is stored in the batteries in the form of chemical energy. Once the flashlight is turned on, it creates a completed circuit running from the positive end to the negative end of the batteries, with the bulb located in between in the circuit. The completion of this circuit causes electrons to start flowing from the positive end of the battery, or batteries, towards the negative end. This electron flow changes chemical energy stored in the battery into electrical energy. As electrical energy flows through the flashlight circuit, it crosses the bulb. The bulb is typically made of a "tungsten filament, or light emitting diode". The law of conservation of energy generally states that energy can not be created or destroyed. Therefore, when electrical energy flowing through the circuit of the flashlight heats up the bulb, it is converted into both light energy and thermal energy, producing the light of a flashlight. It is important to realize that this emitted light and thermal energy are no longer present in the circuit leading to less overall energy in the system. This is the reason that batteries in a flashlight eventually die and must be replaced. Hope this helps!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

What does March like about Grace and Marmee?

March is first drawn to the slave woman named Grace. He meets her when he is a young man working as a peddler in the southern United States. Grace is a slave to Mr. and Mrs. Clement, who are plantation owners. She is literate, which is unusual for a slave. Grace has learned to read by a sort of necessity, because her mistress had wanted someone to read poetry to her. March admires her kind and tender disposition. She is a beautiful woman and March is physically attracted to her. Grace later states that she feels he likes the idea of her more than her as a person:

He loves, perhaps, an idea of me: African, liberated. I represent certain things to him, a past he would reshape if he could, a hope of a future he yearns toward.

March later leaves and goes north. It is there that he meets Marmee, the daughter of a minister. She is spirited and has strong opinions. March is in awe of her brilliant mind. Like himself, Marmee is a dedicated abolitionist, which he admires. She is courageous and even helps slaves escape north via the Underground Railroad. She has a sharp temper when challenged, which March believes he can help her to control. He describes her temper as "the lawless, gypsy elements of her nature."

What were the political and social causes of the French Revolution?

The central motivation for the French Revolution was inequality, in a few different senses.

There was political inequality, as the monarchy granted extreme power to an individual family while denying political representation for the vast majority of the population.

There was economic inequality, as the distribution of wealth had become so extreme that a handful of people were enormously wealthy while the majority were in poverty.

There was social inequality, as the social classes (royalty, nobility, peasantry, merchants) were rigidly defined and often in conflict with one another.

During the same period, a rising educated middle class was forming, and they became involved in learning and spreading ideas of liberty and equality from what we now call the Enlightenment. They were growing increasingly intolerant of these long-standard injustices, and increasingly confident that they had the power to rectify them. (This is a general pattern, actually; revolutions happen not when oppression is at its worst, but when it just barely starts to get better. When oppression is at its worst, the inequality seems inevitable and revolution seems impossible. But when people see that things could have been better all along, they often rise up to make it so.)

But these inequalities might have found some resolution without a violent revolution were it not for two major triggering events.

The first was an economic crisis, triggered by irresponsible budgeting by the monarchy as well as poor crop yields that year. There was widespread unemployment and food shortages.

The second was the American Revolution, which actually had two major effects. The first was that it was very expensive---a lot of the irresponsible government spending by the monarchy was actually involved in supporting the war in the United States. The second was that it was successful---the US successfully broke away from the monarchy in Britain and began to set up a new democratic government. So, the French revolutionaries thought, "Why can't we?"

What opinion do the other characters have of Bill in the "Ransom of Red Chief?"

Because of the detached first person narration of O. Henry's story "The Ransom of Red Chief," determining any opinions that characters have for each other is more a matter of assumption than certainty. The characters who Bill interacts with to any significant degree are the boy, "Red Chief"; Sam, the narrator; and Ebenezer Dorset, the boy's father.

Sam seems to view Bill as slightly less intelligent and talented than himself. Sam comes up with...

Sam seems to view Bill as slightly less intelligent and talented than himself. Sam comes up with the ideas and assigns Bill his role, fully expecting Bill to comply. Sam seems to believe Bill is too squeamish about handling the boy, for he states that Red Chief "terrorized [Bill] from the start." The narrator's description of the way Bill cries out in fear when nearly being scalped suggests that he thought Bill was not as brave in the face of danger as he could have been:

They were simply indecent, terrifying, humiliating screams, such as women emit when they see ghosts or caterpillars. It’s an awful thing to hear a strong, desperate, fat man scream incontinently in a cave at daybreak.

At one point, Sam fears for Bill's sanity, and when he agrees to pay the ransom, he does so because Bill "had the most appealing look in his eyes I ever saw on the face of a dumb or a talking brute."

Similarly, Red Chief must sense that Bill is easily manipulated and not very intelligent, making him all the more brutal and persistent in the torments he subjects Bill to.

Finally, Mr. Dorset realizes that Bill is completely terrorized by the boy, so when Bill asks him how long he can hold off the child, the man bluffs that he can probably only contain him for ten minutes. Dorset is easily able to outwit the petty criminals because he recognizes the lack of intelligence and wisdom in both Sam and Bill.

Again, the reader must consider the biased perspective of the story when it is told only from Sam's perspective. Sam makes himself look better by emphasizing Bill's fear, weakness, and lower intelligence. Part of the irony of the story is that Sam shares in those same faults to a great degree.

Friday, October 16, 2015

How is the setting used to explore the theme of prejudice?

The setting of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small town in Alabama during the 1930's. During this period, Jim Crow laws were enforced to segregate African Americans and Caucasians throughout the South. Jim Crow laws restricted many civil rights by mandating that African Americans use separate public facilities. Racism was prevalent throughout the white population during this period, and discrimination against African Americans was commonplace. African Americans occupied the bottom rung of society and were treated with contempt by the majority of the population. Harper Lee chooses the fictional town of Maycomb to explore the theme of prejudice by creating characters who hold views similar to those of real Southern citizens following the period of Reconstruction. This setting allowed Harper Lee to devise situations that illuminate the Southern prejudice of the 1930's. Maycomb is an isolated, nostalgic country town that is resistant to change. Community members reminisce about the Confederacy and hold racist views. African American's rights were not fully realized until the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Harper Lee distinctly chose an instrumental time period and place to present the important precursor to the Civil Rights movement.