What do you think of Aquinas’s five ways to show God exists?

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Aquinas's Proofs 1 - FIRST MOVER:
Some things are in motion, anything moved is moved by another, and there can't be an
infinite series of movers. So there must be a first mover (a mover that isn't itself
moved by another). This is God. 2 - FIRST CAUSE: Some things are caused, anything caused
is caused by another, and there can't be an infinite series of causes. So there must be
a first cause (a cause that isn't itself caused by another). This is God. 3 - NECESSARY
BEING: Every contingent being at some time fails to exist. So if everything were
contingent, then at some time there would have been nothing -- and so there would be
nothing now -- which is clearly false. So not everything is contingent. So there is a
necessary being. This is God. 4 - GREATEST BEING: Some things are greater than
others. Whatever is great to any degree gets its greatness from that which is the
greatest. So there is a greatest being, which is the source of all greatness. This is
God. 5 - INTELLIGENT DESIGNER: Many things in the world that lack intelligence act for
an end. Whatever acts for an end must be directed by an intelligent being. So the world
must have an intelligent designer. This is God.

This question will
get you more response if you put it on the discussion board instead of posting it here. 
I've included the proofs above, and just off the top of my head, I would say that his
arguments are cyclical and they seem paradoxical.  However, on closer look, he is using
much of what science uses today to prove certain laws.  For instance, for every action
there is an equal reaction.  Aquinas says essentially the same thing in Proofs 1 and 2.
Proof 3 also seems true via circular logic.  There has never been "nothing" unless you
believe in the Big Bang theory, but even so, since the "bang" there has never again been
absolutely nothing.    We have also assigned a hierarchy to living things in the
universe.  Is it not true that we consider humans to be above all other living things on
earth?  What about living things not on the earth?  Are they above us? I think Aquinus
agrees there are, and he defines this as God. In addition, Aquinas believes that there
is an intelligent being who created all life.  How else can you explain the complexities
of the human body, the ecosystem, the solar system, and the way life works in general on
this planet?  Of course, Aquinas didn't live to see the harm human have caused to earth
with all of our factories, pollution, and non-green living, either, although I doubt
that would change his mind as to the existence of
God.

When two dice are thrown what is the probability that the sum is 8.

We assume that each face of the dice number is numbered
serially from 1 ,2,3,4,5,6.

When the two dice are thrown ,
one if the 36 ordered pairs can occur:

(1 ,1) ,
(1,2)......(1,6),

(2,1) , (2, 2)
....(2,6),

(3,1) , (3,2)
......(3,6)

................................

...............................

(6,1)
, (6,2) ........(6,6)

So a total of 8 can occur in follwing
pairs:

(2 ,6) , (3,5) ,(4,4) , (5 , 3) ,(6,
2)

So there are 5 pairs of occurence of dice showing up
faces when the serial number on the faces adds up 8, as against 36 possible pairs of
numbers showing up.

So the probability of the event of
showing the sum of the numbers on the face equal to 8 is
5/36.

How does Dracula reflect on Victorian era?

There are many examples of Victorianism in Stoker's work. 
The work does a good job in establishing and supporting the gender stratification of
Victorian society. The idea that men are to save women, who are essentially damsels in
distress, is a powerfully evident one.  Johnathan and his colleagues are there to save
Mina from the dark forces.  This helps to bring out the idea that men are at the top of
this hierarchy.  Another Victorian element that is present is the distinct conception of
right and wrong.  Dracula is seen as the force of evil or what is wrong in the word,
while Johnathan and the others are shown to be the forces of good.  In this collision of
ideals, the forces of good win over that which is evil.  Similar to Victorian Society,
there is a distinct and singular representation of good and evil, and this order is
reaffirmed through the novel.

Comment on his use of literary technique in composition of the short story.

The primary literary technique that unifies his stories is
Poe’s concept that the short story should produce a powerful, single impact, usually
involving something bizarre or horrible.  Another major technique showing Poe’s great
skill is his manipulation of point of view. Half of his stories demonstrate Poe’s
concern with a consistent and reliable narrative voice. “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of
Amontillado” both feature a first-person narrator who is a major participant or mover;
“The Fall of the House of Usher” introduces a first-person narrator who is a major
observer; and “The Masque of the Red Death” uses a third-person limited narrator. Each
of the stories may be studied for the effects of Poe’s control over point of view. The
other half use a delusional, unreliable, and mainly homicidal narrator.  Another
unifying topic is Poe’s uses of setting and detail, ranging from the particular to the
symbolic, from the ordinary to the macabre.

I need to write an essay about hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia... I need a definition and how it affects people?

It seems that we now have a society that suffers from this
condition, does it not?  People abbreviate titles, work jargon, terms that apply to
their avocations, etc.  Soooo....What about writing a humorous essay about this
phobia?  Perhaps you could launch your essay with a quote about brevity, employing it
satirically.  For instance, "Brevity is the soul of wit" can become "Brevity is the soul
of the witless." Then, you can demonstrate how making acronyms and abbreviated words is
a guise for those who lack vocabulary, as outside the workplace where such acronyms are
in use, they are unable to understand well-composed sentences.  Or, it may be a way of
preventing stuttering as there are only one or two-syllable words
spoken.

Such a long, ridiculous-looking word just cannot be
taken seriously, can it? 

Discuss the melodramatic element in Jane Eyre.

First things first. I do not think Jane Eyre is an utterly
melodramatic novel. It is more the Victorian emphasis on emotions or feelings that
charges the text of the novel with certain elements of
melodrama.

The stereotypical aspects of the various stages
of Jane's life from her state of bondage in Gateshead hall, her sevre oppression in the
school where she is sent in the Lowood episode--all have melodramatic colourings. The
way the characters are built with contrasting patterns as in Jane and Helen in Lowood
have melodramatic aspects. The moment of Helen's death and Jane's presence alongside her
and the incarceration within the red room earlier in Gateshead Hall are pertinent
examples.

The Gothic experience in Thornfield Hall,
especially the violent colour symbolism associated with Bertha, the sequence of Bertha's
death and the burning of Thornfield Hall, Rochester's disability are still melodramatic
markers in the novel.

simplify the expression square root 45 + 2 square root 500

To simplify the expression squre root of 45+ 2square root
of 500.

Let E = sqrt45
+2sqrt500.

So we have find in the value of E  simple form.
We take term by term for simplification:

First term
sqrt45:

sqrt45 =
sqrt(9*5)

sqrt45 =
(sqrt9)(sqrt5)

sqrt45 =
3sqrt5.........................(1)

The second term
2sqrt500:

2 sqrt500 = 2*sqrt(100*5) = 2*(sqrt
100)(sqrt5)

2sqrt500 =
2*10sqrt5

 2sqrt100 =
20sqrt5...........(2).

From (1) and (2) we get the value of
E by addtion:

E = sqrt45 +2 sqrt500 =
3sqrt5+20sqrt5

sqrt45+2sqrt500 = 3sqr5+20
sqrt5.

sqrt45+2sqrt500 =
(3+20)sqrt5

sqrt45 +2sqrt500 =
23sqrt5.

Therefore the 23sqrt5 is the simple form of
sqrt45+2sqrt500.

"Love is the anchor of soul." Is it a simile or metaphor? Explain.

This is a metaphor and not a simile.  The brief reason is
because it does not contain the word "as" or the word "like."  If it were a simile, it
would say "Love is like an anchor for the soul."

Both a
metaphor and a simile compare one thing to another.  In this case, love is being
compared to an anchor.  Presumably, love is supposed to keep a soul safe and make it
stay in the right place just like an anchor does.  But a metaphor does this directly. 
In this case, it says "love is."  If it were a simile, it would say "love is
like."

So both figures of speech are doing more or less the
same thing, but one does it directly (simile) and the other does it
indirectly.

For the Romantics, nature and imagination are the most important elements.Discuss this with references to the poems "Rime of the Ancient Mariner,"...

I guess I have to diverge a bit from the phrasing of the
question.  I think that Romantics were not able to separate the embrace of
individuality, the love of nature, moral structure, exploration of the imaginative
powers of the self, establishment of artistic autonomy, and the exploration of the
subjective in the world into a hierarchical fashion.  They all seemed to converge into
forming the Romantic creed of beliefs and values.  Even in the poems featured, I find it
difficult to establish one idea as more dominant than other elements.  Certainly,
Coleridge's poem features nature and a sense of moral imagination being expanded, but
there is an equal emphasis on being able to identify a structure that governs human
behavior in the killing of animals.  This is as prevalent as nature and imagination. 
Wordsworth's ode to maturation is just as dependent on nature and imagination as it is
on the lauding of the personal with "the child as the father of the man."  The works
from Keats and Shelley are just as concerned with the role of the artist and how the
artist conceives the universe and his/ her individual setting just as powerfully as
imagination and nature galvanizes them.

In Chapter 40, How does Abel Magwitch resemble Joe? Identify at least four characteristics they share.Can you give proof?

1. Both Joe and Magwitch are
the surrogate parents of Pip. In Ch.7 we read of how Joe came to adopt
Pip:

I said to
her, 'And bring the poor little child. God bless the poor little child,' I said to your
sister, 'there's room for him at the
forge!'"

Similarly, in Ch.40
Magwitch remarks,

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"And this," said he, dandling my hands up and
down in his, as he puffed at his pipe; "and this is the gentleman what I made! The real
genuine One! It does me good fur to look at you, Pip. All I stip'late, is, to stand by
and look at you, dear
boy!"

2.
However, Pip is always embarrassed by both Joe and Magwitch and would prefer not to have
any contact with both of them in London city. In Ch.27 when Joe writes to him saying
that he is coming to London to visit him, Pip says:

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Let me confess exactly, with what feelings I
looked forward to Joe's coming.

Not with pleasure, though I was bound
to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a
keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly
would have paid
money.

Similarly, throughout
Ch. 40 Pip wishes that Magwitch had never come to meet him in London and he does his
best to keep Magwitch's presence in his room a secret:

He
was to remain shut up in the chambers while I was gone, and was on no account to open
the door.

3. Both Magwitch and
Joe do not how to eat elegantly using a fork. In Ch.27 Pip is embarrassed by Joe's table
manners:

Then
he fell into such unaccountable fits of meditation, with his fork midway between his
plate and his mouth; had his eyes attracted in such strange directions; was afflicted
with such remarkable coughs; sat so far from the table, and dropped so much more than he
ate, and pretended that he hadn't dropped it; that I was heartily glad when Herbert left
us for the city.

Similarly,
in Ch.40 Pip is repulsed by the Magwitch devours his
food:

He ate
in a ravenous way that was very disagreeable, and all his actions were uncouth, noisy,
and
greedy.

4.
The clothes that both of them wear when they are in London do not suit them. In Ch. 27
Pip describes Joe as,

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As to his shirt-collar, and his coat-collar,
they were perplexing to reflect upon - insoluble mysteries both. Why should a man scrape
himself to that extent, before he could consider himself full
dressed?

Similarly, in Ch.40
Pip remarks on Magwitch's dress in the following
manner,

Next
day the clothes I had ordered, all came home, and he put them on. Whatever he put on,
became him less (it dismally seemed to me) than what he had worn before. To my thinking,
there was something in him that made it hopeless to attempt to disguise him. The more I
dressed him and the better I dressed him, the more he looked like the slouching fugitive
on the marshes.

Is -5 a rational or irrational?

A rational number is a real number that can be expressed
in the form of fraction p/q, where both p and q are any integers. These integers can be
either positive or negative. However, q cannot be equal to
zero.

Since -5 can be expressed as the fraction  -5/1, it
is a rational number.

Opposite of rational number is
irrational number that cannot be expressed in the form p/q. This means that irrational
numbers can not be represented with absolute accuracy as decimal numbers with limited
digits. Some example of irrational numbers are Pi, square root of 2, cube root of 3, and
cube root of 11. Please note that irrational numbers cannot be expressed correctly as a
fraction

What does the "pig lady" symbolize in Atonement by Ian McEwan?

Part Two of Atonement, by Ian McEwan,
is told from the perspective of Robbie Turner, a soldier during World War II. It is
1940, and the British soldiers are retreating after a defeat; they are making their way
across France, dodging persistent attacks from German fighter
planes. 

In the beginning, "before the sight of a corpse
became a banality," Robbie travels uneasily with two other men, both of whom outrank
him. He is wounded, though he does not tell the others, and this wound is the cause of
some delirium. On their journey, the trio sees many grotesque and horrific things,
including civilian casualties of war. Turner is often delirious and reveals things about
his unusual past; the other two men are never quite sure if what he is saying is
true.

They finally arrive at Dunkirk, on the English
Channel, but they are forced to wait, as there are more than twenty thousand other
soldiers waiting for the same thing. The three men are in a back alley and ask an old
woman for some water. She is suspicious and insists that they must first catch her pig.
Though the other two are reluctant, Turner (in his delirium) somehow believes that she
has a kind of control over his fate, and he does as she asks. After he traps and returns
the pig to her, the woman gives the men food and drink. His colleagues find his behavior
odd, but since it ends well their suspicions are
allayed.

This is a rather insignificant incident in the
scope of this complicated novel; however, there is a significance to this episode.
Because this entire section is told from Turner's perspective, the reader is not certain
whether he is suffering from delirium or not. Neither are his companions. Their reaction
to Turner's rather odd behavior reminds us that we cannot take everything Turner says in
his narrative as complete or accurate truth--a consistent theme in this
novel. 

What overall feeling do you get when you read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce?

The overall feeling that I get from reading this story is
one of regret.  Even though I think that the South's cause in the Civil War was evil, I
cannot help but feel bad for Farquhar.

In the story, I come
to identify with Farquhar.  I feel happy for him when he falls in the water and is,
seemingly, alive.  I feel sorry for him when I find out that he committed his crime only
after he was sort of conned into doing it by the Union soldier who was, himself,
breaking the laws of war (by going around dressed as a
Confederate).

Because of these touches, I feel sympathy for
Farquhar and I feel regret at the end of the story when I find he is
dead.

In The Souls of Black Folks, what role does DuBois see for education?

W.E.B. DuBois a gifted writer, educator, and advocate to
the African American race, graduated from Harvard University  in 1890 and later attended
the University of Berlin. Later, in Philadelphia he embarked on a research project in
the seventh ward slums looking for a "cure" to the prejudice against colored people. He
taught sociology at Atlanta University for thirteen years before becoming the head of
research at the NAACP.

Dr. DuBois was a staunch advocate
for social reform and the education of the "colored" race. He was a firm believer in the
concept that the colored man can change his circumstances through training and
education.

The role of education according to DuBois was
one of social change, he felt that a better educated black man could work to achieve an
equal footing in the world with his white counterparts. He felt that education could
solve the problems of bigotry, inequality, and
discrimination.

The Enduring
Vision/Clark/p. 228-230

Is there such a thing a pelvic splanchnic ganglion and if so what does it do?I heard about it on a show. In the show it caused major diahrrea when...

The short answer to your question is YES.  If you have
ever taken anatomy or human health and reproduction, this would be covered in the
textbook.

One word that might have you tripped up is
"ganglion."  In short, ganglion refers to a group of nerve cell bodies.  The "pelvic
splanchnic ganglion" is more commonly referred to as the pelvic splanchnic
nerves.

These nerves generally start
at the base of the spine and run down to the walls of the rectum.  They are responsible
for the control of the pelvic and genital organs.  To put it bluntly, they tell the body
when it needs to go to the bathroom (both functions) as well as control sexual functions
like erections.

As for causing diarrhea when stimulated - I
think that part might be a little contrived.  In order to have diarrhea - you would have
to start with liquid bowels.  I'm also not sure there is a legitimate way to "stimulate"
them in order to cause an instant reaction.

What is NPO, relating to the medical field?

NPO is an acronym for non per os (Latin) or nothing by
mouth. This means the patient should receive absolutely nothing by mouth, no food or
drink. There are many reasons and circumstances that warrant a physician's order of NPO.
Say for example, someone has nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The gut needs rest until
the offending cause is eliminated by the body. The last thing this person needs is to
try to eat, most people that are nauseated get further nauseated if they try to
eat.

Another example of when NPO is appropriate is
preoperatively. If a person is going to receive general anesthesia, the gut should be
empty to try to prevent aspiration of stomach contents postoperatively. Anesthetics very
commonly cause nausea and vomiting in a high percentage of people, not to mention the
emotional component to having surgery. Some people will vomit after surgery because of
the emotional stress of the situation.

Solve 3x^3 - 21x^2 + 36 x =0

To solve 3x^3-21x^2+36x =
0

We factor the
left.

3x(x^2-7x+12) =
0............(1)

We take
x^2-7x+12

We split the middle tern -7x = -4x and -3x  such
that their product is equal to the product o first and last term , that is, x^2 and
12.

x^2-7x+12

x^2-7x+12=x^2-4x-3x+12

x^2-7x+12=x(x-4)-3(x-4)

x^2-7x+12=(x-4)(x-3)

Therefore 
3x^3-21x^2+36x = 0 could be rewritten as:

3x(x-4)(x-3) =
0.

Therefore by zero product rule we
get:

x = 0 , x-4 = 0 , x -3 =
0.

x = 0 , or x = 4 , or x = 3.

How does Marvell use metaphysical conceit in his poems?On the light of Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" & "Definition of Love".

First of all, to make sure we are on the same page, I
define metaphysical conceit as an attitude that is expressed through a rhetorical
argument, like a thesis while using striking or unusual examples. This approach allows
the poet the opportunity to be witty proposing something absurd or indecent. The play
about the poem makes the reader drop their guard to see the issue from a fresh
perspective.

In "To His Coy Mistress" he warms his audience
with the hyperboles of time and space noting her ability to play hard to get. He
compares the length of time he's waited to forever:

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"Love you ten years before the
Flood

And you should, if you please,
refuse

til the conversion of the
Jews.

He notes that he is
willing to allow his love to grow for a long time, but after a while, time can become
too long: he spends a stanza on how time can turn into death if they aren't careful.
This is how he keeps the poem light and witty.

His
ulitimate proposal or thesis comes in lines 33-46. He here uses light in several ways.
First, he notes her "youthful hue" and the brilliance of her skin again as he says "at
every pore with instant fires." This use of light paints her as a glowing piece of
perfection. Often, light is used to reveal truth, here he notes how light reveals her
beauty. Finally, after he makes great advances and suggestions to get together and
"sport" while there is yet time, he notes the passage of time through the image of the
sun going and going and going:

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Thus, though we cannot make our
sun

Stand still, yet we will make him
run.

These are two
interpretations of the metaphysical conceit approach to light in "To His Coy Mistress".
His ultimate proposal is to the expression of love or sex and the absurd suggests of
time and space and death build up to his opportunity to present her as light and their
relationship as light by the time he makes his great proposal.

How do social institutions contribute to the problem of poverty?

You can argue that social institutions contribute to the
problem of poverty by creating a system that perpetuates that problem.  Let's look at
this from two ideological perspectives.

A liberal might say
that the public schools contribute to poverty.  Liberals would say that public schools
are underfunded (especially in poor areas).  They would say, therefore, that
underfunding leads to poor students getting an inferior education.  This education makes
it harder for them to escape poverty.

A conservative might
say that the social institution of big government helps to cause poverty.  Such a person
would say that our big government gives welfare type benefits to people and thus
encourages them to avoid work and to avoid behaviors that would be likely to bring them
out of poverty.

So our social institutions of education and
government can be said to contribute to the problem of poverty.

What is bargaining and the diferent stages in bargaining

Obviously it depends very much on what kind of bargaining
you are talking about whether it is a child bargaining with a parent for more ice cream
or a later bed time or a giant union bargaining with a corporation about salaries and
benefits.

But in some ways, they must all start with an
offer and a counter offer.  Once two positions are established, either side can make
compromises in order to come closer to an agreement.  Of course who makes the
compromises depends in large part on who is in the position with the most power at the
start of the negotiations.

Once the sides get close enough
together to strike a deal, an agreement or bargain is reached.

In Lord of the Flies, how does Jack appear on the beach and who takes responsibility for the events on the island at the end of the novel?

At the end of the novel, naval officers arrive to rescue
the boys and return them to civilization.  Upon their arrival, the naval officers ask
who is in charge on the island.  Jack, who struggled against Ralph for power for the
entire novel (and who was described as a hunter, a leader, and a savage), begins to take
responsibility, but stops:

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A little boy who wore the remains of an
extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of
spectacles at his waist, started forward, then changed his mind and stood
still.

It's important to note
that with this description of Jack, Golding essentially renders Jack powerless.  He is
no longer a fearless leader; he is no longer a hunter who wants, in the worst way
possible, to be in charge.

Instead, Ralph, the "fair" boy
who longs for order, states that he is in charge.  It is Ralph who understands the
gravity of the situation in which he and the others have found themselves, and further,
he understands the innocence he has lost in the process of surviving on the
island:

Ralph
wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air
of the true, wise friend called
Piggy.

What was the significance of the boys' ages? What might these ages represent in society today? What do these ages say about teenagers in general?

Golding most likely chose preteen boys to show a more
rapid decline into savagery.  Older children, or adults even, would be more conditioned
to act a certain way, more inclined to mimic the laws and civilized behavior of their
past.

Golding's children have been taught by their parents,
but they are very immature.  They see the island as fun and games.  Ralph at first does
not take his leadership seriously.  Through the boys' experience on the island, Golding
shows their rapid devolvement into savagery as well as Ralph's painful loss of innocence
and growing maturity.

There are roughly three age groups.
 We have the older ones who are close to the age twelve:  Ralph, Jack, and most likely
Piggy.  We have the middle ones, who are around ten:  the twins, Roger, Robert, and
Simon. And then we have the littleuns, who are  six and
under:

The
smaller boys were known know by the generic title of "littluns."  The decrease in size,
from Ralph down, was gradual; and though there was a dubious region inhabited by Simon
and Robert and Maurice, nevertheless no one had any difficulty in recognizing biguns at
one end and littluns at the
other.

As typical of
neighborhood groups of children, the oldest and the largest becomes the leader.  In this
case, Ralph fits this description.  We are not told Jack's age, but Ralph we do know is
broader than Jack.

Since these characters are not quite
teenagers, I'm not sure if Golding is making a point about teenagers in general, but I
do think he is portraying quite aptly the dynamics of group interaction.  We have the
leader--Ralph.  We have  organizers and confidantes:  Piggy and Simon, and we a
challenger, aggressor, or trouble-maker:  Jack.  In groups we often have those who are
uninvolved or apathetic in the decision-making.  In this case, these are the littluns.
 Golding's characters reflect the roles of most social groups whether it be a school
club, a classroom, a church congregation, or town.

The
various tiers of ages also show the eternal power struggle.  The power struggle between
Jack and Ralph will be echoed in the middle children and later in the younger ones.  In
other words, Jack is not the sole cause of conflict on the island.  Behind Jack is
Roger, waiting for his chance to be the aggressor.  The littluns, it is suggested, will
have a similar dynamic.  In this way, Golding shows us that the enemy is not something
that we can hunt and kill, that it is within us.  The conflicts that the children face
are those that all groups face:  power struggles, apathy, conflicting priorities, lack
of teamwork, and dissension.

What are the main characteristics of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's nature?

Above all, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is curious and energetic, as
most mongooses are. He spends much of his time hunting snakes--another trait of most
mongooses--but he also enjoys a nap at times. Inexperienced at the beginning of the
Kipling short story, Rikki--whose name comes from the sound he makes--survives several
battle with snakes and becomes wise to their ways. Because he was saved by the human
family, he has no fear of them, and he gains their love and respect after saving their
lives more than once. He is a heroic character, saving the humans, battling the cobras,
and ridding the area of his deadly enemies.

log_10(x^3-1)-log_10(x^2+x+1)=-2

Let's solve the problem trying another approach. First,
we'll write the value 2 from the right side as it
follows:

-2 = -2*1

We'll
substitute the factor 1 by the equivalent log_10 (10).

-2 =
-2*log_10 (10)

We'll use the power rule of
logarithms:

-2 = log_10
(10)^-2

Now, we'll re-write the equation substituting -2 by
the log_10 (10)^-2:

log_10(x^3-1) - log_10(x^2+x+1) = -
log_10 (10)^-2

We'll subtract log_10(x^2+x+1) both
sides:

log_10(x^3-1) = log_10(x^2+x+1) - log_10
(10)^-2

We'll spply the quotient rule of logarithms, to the
righht side (the difference of logarithms is the logarithm of
quotient):

log_10(x^3-1) = log_10
[(x^2+x+1)/(10)^-2]

Now, because  the bases are matching,
we'll use the one to one property of logarithms:

(x^3-1) =
[(x^2+x+1)/(10)^-2]

But 10^-2 = 1/10^2 =
1/100

(x^3-1)
= 100[(x^2+x+1)]

We'll re-write the difference of cubes
from the left side:

x^3 - 1 =
(x-1)[(x^2+x+1)]

Now, we'll re-write the
equation:

(x-1)[(x^2+x+1)] =
100[(x^2+x+1)]

Now, we'll divide by [(x^2+x+1)] both
sides:

x-1 = 100

We'll add 1
both sides:

x =
100+1

x =
101

Scout is growing up and coming of age. Explain her feeilings now about: Their former games concerning Boo Radley Her desire to see Boo in person...

It's difficult to answer this question without knowing
which chapter(s) you're studying, but based on some of your words ("growing up," "coming
of age," "former games," "previous activities"), I'll respond with the assumption that
you're referencing Part 2 of the novel. 

As the novel's
focus shifts from the children's fascination (or even obsession) with Boo Radley to the
Tom Robinson trial in Part 2, Scout seems to care less and less about seeing Boo.  In
chapter 15, Scout says, "Dill asked if I'd like to have a poke at Boo Radley.  I said I
didn't think it'd be nice to bother him... (148)--a sign that she realizes the futility
of their attempts to catch a glimpse of Boo and also the fact that Boo probably enjoys
his privacy. 

More importantly, chapter 26 gives readers
invaluable information into Scout's moral development.  In a passage of narration, Scout
says,

The
Radley Place had ceased to terrify me, but it was no less gloomy, no less chilly under
its great oaks, and no less uninviting.  Mr Nathan Radley could still be seen on a clear
day, walking to and from town; we knew Boo was there, for the same old reason--nobody'd
seen him carried out yet.  I sometimes felt a twinge of remores, when passing by the old
place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur
Radley--what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering
greetings on the end of a fishing-pole, wandering in his collards at
night?

A few paragraphs
later, Scout voices "a stray desire just to have one good look at Boo Radley before
[she] died."  In response, Atticus says,

readability="12">

You aren't starting that again, are you?...If
you are, I'll tell you right now: stop it.  I'm too old to go chasing you off the Radley
property.  Besides, it's dangerous.  You might get shot.  You know Mr. Nathan shoots at
every shadow he sees, even shadows that leave size-four footprints.  You were lucky not
to be killed.

This response
by Atticus shocks and quiets Scout, as she was sure that Atticus believed his own report
that Mr. Radley had shot at a "prowler" in the above-mentioned
incident. 

As Scout notes, so much had happened regarding
the Tom Robinson trial that Boo Radley was one of the last subjects on her
mind.   

Please explain Lady Macbeth's speeches in Act 1 Scene 5 of Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's strongest women and
is often considered a villain of the play.  In an odd way, that's high praise, as this
important function was usually reserved for a male character in the
play.

We first meet her in Act I, scene V.  She is reading
a letter from Macbeth, in which he describes his prophetic meeting with the witches. 
"Hail, king thou shalt be!" is all the motivation that Lady M needs to decide that her
husband should become king sooner rather than later:

readability="11">

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt
be

What thou art promised:  yet I do fear thy
nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human
kindness...

And, in
recognizing her husband's weakness, a kind heart, Lady M. sets herself up as the driving
force behind a plot to kill the present king, Duncan, while he sleeps in their home that
night.

In her famous lines (39-55), she invokes whatever
magic it might take to give her the strength and courage of a man (implying that her
husband lacks this) to get the job done -- which is
murder.

Come,
thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of
hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it
makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the
dark,

To cry, 'Hold,
hold!

She sets herself up as
a villain here, invoking the forces of Hell and cautioning those of Heaven to stay out
of her scheme.

Macbeth arrives and she not only greets him
by the titles he owns (Glamis and Cawdor), but also calls him "Greater than both
hereafter."  She wastes no time in telling Macbeth that Duncan will never leave their
home alive ("O, never/Shall sun that morrow see!").  While Macbeth isn't convinced of
her hastily described plan, Lady M, is clearly in charge -- "Leave all the rest to
me."

What are some literary elements used in Rick Riordan's novel The Last Olympian?

Like most effective authors, Rick Riordan almost
inevitably uses a variety of literary devices in his works. The opening pages of his
novel The Last Olympian, for example, employ a number of different
literary techniques, including the
following:

• A surprising, puzzling
  opening, as in the first sentence of the book:
  

readability="5">

The end of the world started when a pegasus
landed on the hood of my
car.

This kind of opening
catches us off guard, piques our interest, and makes us curious to read
further.

• First person
  narration, as in the sentence already quoted.  Readers tend to have a
  natural curiosity about the experiences of other persons, especially if those
  experiences are described by the persons involved. In first person narration, we learn
  not only about events but about the personalities and values of the persons involved in
  those events.


• Characters to whom the
  intended audience can relate. The first paragraph of the novel makes it
  clear that the book will be narrated by a teenager, and teenagers are obviously the
  intended audience for this book.


• Informal,
  colloquial, realistic language, as when the narrator
  says,

readability="9">

Now, I know you’re thinking that was
really irresponsible of him, blah, blah, blah . .
.

In phrasing such
as this, the narrator directly addresses readers, thus
helping to give the book an intimate, direct, and highly personal
tone. The narrator speaks in language that seems familiar,
unintimidating, and relaxed.  His language is the opposite of stiff and pompous and
makes the narrator seem a realistic human
being.

• Vivid, precise
  imagery, as when the narrator
  notes,

readability="7">

Rachel’s red hair was pulled back in a ponytail,
and she wore a white blouse over her swimsuit. I’d never seen her in anything but ratty
T-shirts and paint-splattered jeans before . .
.

Such phrasing helps us see
and imagine whatever is being described and is much more effective than abstract, vague
phrasing.

• Liberal use of
  dialogue, as in the conversation between the narrator and Rachel in the
  first few pages.  Dialogue helps bring the characters to life, helps characterize them
  by implication rather than by overt statement, and contributes to the book’s sense of
  vitality and complexity of perspective.

These
are just a very few of the literary techniques Riordan uses in his novel, but they are
important examples because they are the very first techniques the prospective reader
encounters.

Do you think is ok for corporations to hire only the best qualify white males when the best candidates are white males?

So you are asking if companies should hire the people who
are best qualified even if that means they only hire white men?  If so, I think that
that is appropriate so long as they have objective criteria for hiring that are clearly
relevant to the jobs.

What I mean by this is that I believe
that the people who are best qualified should be hired.  But I am not always sure that
it is easy to tell who is truly the best qualified.  For example, how do you determine
who is best qualified to be a teacher?  Is it the person with the experience?  Is it the
person who went to the best college?  Is it the person who comes across best at the
interview?  How do you know?

So it is the same with
businesses.  If they have some clear way to determine who is best qualified and end up
only hiring white males, fine.  But if their criteria are not so great and they are
hiring based on hunches and such, then I would worry if they end up hiring all white
males.

What is the mother's situation in Terranova's poem "Rush Hour"?

We must infer the mother’s situation, but it seems clear
that she is economically dependent on the husband who has been assaulting her and the
children. She cannot appeal for help, much as she might like to, because she would lose
this support and also because she supposes that her husband would seek her out and
become more severe in his abuse. The irony of the raised arm is that the sign for a
blessing is the same as it would be for a blow. In addition, the raised arm is the sign
made when a person, in this case the husband, pledges his word of honor. The husband
made that pledge in the ceremony of marriage, but he is renouncing the pledge by
committing violence against the members of his family. The references to the gesture of
the raised hand should create interesting thoughts within the
reader.

Can you give me some examples of how Tom Sawyer comes of age in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

I think there are many examples of Tom coming of age. When
he gets the boys to whitewash the fence, using reverse psychology, because he doesn't
want to do it. How many present day kids could do that? He falls in love with Becky and
imagines and stages his own death, quite a thinker. The later engagement to Becky and
Tom's admission of a prior relationship shows
honesty.

After the murder of Dr. Robinson, the boys swear
to remain silent. The later rafting away exemplifies guts and fortitude. When he
exonerates Muff at the trial is another excellent example of his honesty and wanting to
do the right thing. Later when he hides in the caves with Becky, even though some would
say this depicts his childish nature by hiding, I think it is another example of him
having courage and certainly coming of age.

Is King Lear "more sinned against than sinning"? ACT V in King LearThis line is from Act III, scene ii, line 60.

I have made note in your question as to the actual
location of the quote.  It is crucial to analyzing the quote to understand where in the
play Lear makes this observation about himself.  Is he reflecting after long struggling
and learning of lessons about life, or is he reacting in a self-pitying, momentary
reaction  to an immediate event?

The context of the quote
is the middle of the storm on the heath in Act III as Lear is condemning those who have
committed crimes (his daughters) and proclaiming that they be brought to justice.  His
condemnation and finger pointing here is in direct contrast to later (IV, vi) with
Gloucester, when he is much more contemplative about his situation, observing
that:

See how
yond justice rails upon yond simple thief?  Hark, in thine ear.  Change places, and
handy-dandy, which is the justice and which is the
thief?

But here in Act III,
he is still vengeful and desires justice/punishment for the crimes he believes have been
committed against him.  Later, in Acts IV and V, he sees more clearly how
interchangeable the idea of "guilt" is and also understands he himself to be a "foolish,
fond old man."

So, it seems to me that the question of
sinned and sinning is merely in the eye of the beholder, and, for Lear, it depends on
the perspective he has (or has not) about the common human nature we all share,
including being sinners.

Besides maintaining the status quo of kleptocracy, how else does religion in a practical sense serve society? Guns, Germs, and Steel chapter 14...

Because “kleptocracy” is not a term used much outside of
Guns, Germs, and Steel, and because that book discusses the ways in
which religion supports kleptocracy, I assume that your question is from Diamond’s
book.  I have edited and moved it accordingly.  If my assumption is correct, the answer
to your question can be found on p. 278 in the book.

On p.
278, Diamond says that there are two ways that religion can be of use to society, other
than simply helping to maintain the status quo of the kleptocracy.  First, religion
helps allow people who are not related to one another to live together in peace.  At the
beginning of Chapter 14, Diamond talks about how hard it is for unrelated people (and
people who have no personal ties) to live together without violence.  Religion reduces
this problem.  It gives people something that binds them together (they both have the
same religion) and therefore makes violence less likely.  Second, Diamond says, religion
gives people a reason to sacrifice themselves for the community as a whole.  They will
be more willing to die for their community in war if they believe that God (or the gods)
supports that community.  If religion makes people more willing to die for their
community, the community will be more powerful in military
terms.

These are the two reasons that Diamond gives for why
religion serves society other than by simply supporting the
kleptocracy.

Identify the speaker, plot and significance of the following quotes from The Great Gatsby1. "Look here, old sport, you've got to get somebody for...

Both of these quotes are said by Gatsby - sort of. The
first one, Nick imagines Gatsby saying at his funeral. Nick has been going crazy trying
to "get people" to come to Gatsby's funeral. He calls up everyone he thinks should come,
and they all make excuses. So he is looking at Gatsby's dead body and imagining Gatsby
talking to him and saying, "Look here, old sport, you've got to get somebody for me.
You've got to try hard. I can't go through this alone" (meaning he cannot go through his
funeral alone).

The second quote is also said by Gatsby. He
is talking to Tom. He is trying to convince Tom that Daisy never loved him. Nick, Jordan
and Daisy are all there listening as Gatsby goes on a type of rant, telling Tom that
Daisy never loved him. He encourages Daisy to agree with him, to tell Tom the same
thing. At first Daisy does tell Tom she never loved him, but Tom presses her. He reminds
her of intimate times that they had at the beginning of their marriage, and finally
Daisy breaks down. She tells Gatsby, "I love you now, isn't that enough?" But it isn't
enough for Gatsby. He wants to know that she never loved Tom, but Daisy finally admits
that she can't say this -- she did love him once.

In The Miracle Worker, what does Annie mean by "words, why, you can see five thousand years back in a light of words"?

I can see your conundrum if you take these words out of
context.  It's best to look at the context if you would like to find out the full
meaning.  First, this is spoken by Annie at the moment when she expects the Kellers to
return to retrieve Helen from the little cottage where Annie has been able to teach
Helen alone for a couple of weeks.  Annie is upset that they are demanding Helen's
return before Annie has succeeded in imparting the precious gift of words and language. 
In her frustration Annie exclaims:

readability="25">

I wanted to teach you--oh, everything the earth
is full of, Helen, everything on it that's ours for a wink and it's gone, and what we
are on it, the--light we bring to it and leave behind in--words, why, you can see five
thousand years back in a light of words, everything we feel, think, know--and share, in
words, so not a soul is in darkness, or done with, even in the grave.  And I know, I
know, one word and I can--put the world in your hand--and whatever
it is to me, I won't take
less!

In full from this
paragraph, it becomes clear that Annie wants to open up the world for Helen, ... not
just the gift of language but fleeting moments in time and nature, history, feelings,
... in order to lift the darkness in Helen's life.

More
specifically, in regards to the partial sentence you mention, Annie is speaking about
history.  How (oh how!) would Helen EVER know anything about history without
understanding words?  And yet the use of language would allow her to "see five thousand
years back" by the simple use of words!  And oh how the stubbornness of Annie is evident
as she wants it to be Annie and Annie alone to teach it to Helen! 
Such frustration is evident here!

In immune response, how is the secondary response to an antigen different from the primary response?

Primary immune response is when your body is first exposed
to an antigen, the first time it comes in contact with that foreign material. An antigen
is anything that is recognized as non-self, so it ranges from pollen to bacteria or
viruses.

The primary immune response takes 5-10 days to
effect the antigen, since it has to find the correct antibodies to eliminate the
antigen.  This response is also called the innate or non-specific immune
response.

Once your body has "found" the antibody, it will
store some of the cells as B cells that stay in your lymph nodes.  This is so when your
are exposed to the antigen again, and it travels through your lymphatic system, it will
reach an antibody that recognizes it, and your body doesn't need to make brand new
antibodies--it just needs to start cloning the antibody that matches that antigen.  This
is the secondary response, and it generally only takes 3-5 days for a system-wide
response, since you already have the antibody, it just needs to pick up the antigen
before it starts dividing into new cells.

The T cells are
generally used in the primary response to the antigen, since cytotoxic T cells kill
whatever they touch, while the more specific B cells are used in the secondary response,
since they are honed in to that antigen already, and will not kill off healthy,
self-cells.

Do you think a rating that evaluates managers on personality factors such as aggressiveness, leadership, and attitude makes sense?

The quality of leadership is always desirable in managers.
Therefore it is definitely meaningful to evaluate all kinds of managers in all kind of
situations on leadership. Only caution to be used is that there is no clear cut way to
assess the leadership quality. As a matter of fact of fact there are different possible
leadership styles. In a particular set up, one leadership style may be more appropriate
than others. Therefore it is important to select appropriate criteria and method for
assessing leadership performance of
managers.

Aggressiveness is not necessarily a desirable
quality in all managers. Like leadership the aggressiveness can take different forms and
some of these forms may be undesirable in managers. Thus It would be better to assess
manages on qualities like initiative, drive, and persistence, which come quite close to
what may be considered a desirable forms of
aggressiveness.

The term attitude is too general. It is not
possible to evaluate managers for just attitudes. What is possible is to identify
specific attitudes desirable in managers in specific organization and position, and
evaluate them against these. However, attitudes are important because they impact other
qualities like leadership, initiative, and empathy that directly shape performance of
managers. Therefore, evaluation against attitude is required only when some important
type of attitude is not covered by other traits. For example an organization engaged in
environmental protection may consider it important to assess attitude of its managers
and other employees towards importance of environment.

Summarize Montesquieu's view of liberty in The Spirit of the Laws, what does he view as the greatest threat to liberty and how is it kept in...

I would say that Montesquieu's primary fear of the loss of
liberty resided in the structure of government.  Being true to the Enlightenment,
Montesquieu approached the problem of freedom from an institutional point of view.  His
argument was the freedom and liberty are in greater danger when government is only one
body through which all power flows.  His solution was to create a government where
different bodies carried out different functions, with each being indispensable to the
other.  This meant that freedom and liberty could be protected because power was divided
relatively equally amongst different branches.  In this light, the structure of
government is what connects to liberty and freedom.

Whats Helen's teacher salary in The Miracle Worker?

Helen's teacher, Annie Sullivan, receives a salary of
twenty-five dollars a month (Act I, Scene 3).

Annie has
been living at the Perkins Institute in Boston, where she has recovered partial sight
after having been rendered blind by trachoma. She has been recommended to the Kellers as
a "suitable governess" for Helen, and is preparing to depart for the Kellers' home in
Alabama. Annie is a feisty, strong-willed individual, prone to speaking her mind even
when exercising tact would be more acceptable. As Mr. Aganos, Annie's counselor at
Perkins, briefs her about Helen and the job to which she is going, he cautions her to
use more discretion in situations than she has in the past. He tells
her,

"Annie,
be - humble...it is not as if you have so many offers to pick and
choose."

The salary which
Annie is being offered is actually quite generous, but Mr. Aganos warns her that her job
will be difficult. He says,

"No one expects you to
work miracles, even for twenty-five dollars a month."

What causes led John Proctor to make his final decision as to his fate and what effects does this choice have on others? I am having trouble...

In my opinion, John Proctor is "right with God" when he
makes his final decision. He has by this time apologized to his wife for his sin against
her and she in turn has apologized for keeping a cold house. Of course he has petty sins
that Parris would deem necessary of restitution like poor church attendance, but these
are of ill-importance to the man Proctor is and has
become.

Proctor is relieved of the sin in his affair. He
will not heap on top of that freedom from sin, the sin of a lie. This lie is what the
magistrates are asking him to tell. They want him to confess to the crime of witchcraft,
something he has not even done. Even the pastors try to get him to say the lie knowing
it's a lie just to spare his life for the sake of his wife.  Because he will not do this
he will die. Thus, he is content to die because of a righteous act. Even in the
magistrates still see him as a sinner, they are ignorant of the truth. If all the
God-stuff of Puritan theology is true he would be going to heaven anyway, a better
place.

His wife, although pregnant and a mother of other
sons, is happy for John in his contentment with his righteous relationship with God. She
will miss his help terribly raising these boys. These boys will miss having a father.
The town, in turn, will see the irrationality and the hysteria these girls caused adults
to have.

Rewrite the following sentence so that related ideas are expressed in similar or parallel structures.Weather forecasters predicted a hurricane, and...

This is a compound sentence, and the first clause is cast
in active voice ('forecasters predicted') while the second clause is in passive voice
('plans were developed by').

This sentence is fine as it
is, but if one wished to make the clauses parallel, one would have to cast both in
active voice:

Weather forecasters
predicted a hurricane, and local authorities
developed emergency
plans.

OR both in passive
voice:

A hurricane was
predicted by weather forecasters, and emergency
plans were developed by local
authorities.

As you should be able to
see, both of these latter sentences are less interestingly composed than the original,
which demonstrates that parallel structure is not always the best
style.

(log 2 x^2)^2 + log 2 x -18 = 0

The equation `(log_2 x^2)^2 + log_2 x -18 = 0` has to be
solved

`(log_2 x^2)^2 + log_2 x -18 =
0`

Use the property of logarithm, log a^b = b*log a. This
gives:

`(2*log_2 x)^2 + log_2 x -18 =
0`

Now take the square of the first
term

`2^2*(log _2x)^2 + log_2 x -18 =
0`

Let `y = log_ 2x`

4y^2 + y
- 18 = 0

4y^2 + 9y - 8y - 18 =
0

y(4y + 9) - 2(4y + 9) = 0

(y
- 2)(4y + 9) = 0

y = 2 and y =
-9/4

Now `y = log_2 x`

`log_2
x = 2`

x = 2^2 = 4

`log_2 x =
-9/4`

x = 2^(-9/4) which is approximately
0.21022

The solution of the equation is x = 4 and x =
0.21022

Can you help me annotate the poem "An Anthem" by Sonia Sanchez?"an anthem" is the whole title of the poem.

Annotation is very personal in that it is the reader's
transaction with the text. Each reader will come to a text with his/her own life
experiences and background knowledge, for that reason, each reader will want to
highlight a different aspect of the text. As a general rule for those beginning to use
annotation, you may want to underline/highlight interesting words/phrases. You may want
to circle unknown vocabularly. You may want to question what the text means by writing a
note in the margins, or you may use marginal notes to jot down ideas you have about
meaning, or literary elements. In the reference links, I am linking an article by Dr.
Robert Adler, about how to mark a book.

Regarding Sonia
Sanchez's poem, it is best to begin one stanza at a time. (Annotations will be
bolded)

Our vision is our
voice         --Alliteration. Their goal is
their guide.
we cut through the country
where madmen
goose step in tune to Guernica. --Guernica was bombed during the Spanish
Civil War in the 1930s.

we are people made o
fire
we walk with ceremonial breaths
we have condemned talking
mouths. -Condemned talking mouths? They don't want to hear other's voices?
Mouths - Guernica -- perhaps referring to the Pablo Picasso
painting?

we run without legs
we
see without eyes
loud laughter breaks over our heads. -Must be
the Picasso painting, it fits the image. This is an ekphrastic poem,
then.

This is a sample
of how to annotate, but as stated earlier, it is best to do this with your own voice,
because only you will be able to interpret what you know; however, I hope this will help
guide you in the direction you should be looking. (Second link is to an image of
Picasso's painting of Guernica.)

Captain Beatty's name correlates to the word "beatific", meaning "joy or happiness." Why is he appropriately named in an ironic sort of way?

I do not know that I buy this as a reason for him being
named this, but here's how I would answer this question:

If
you think about Captain Beatty, he is anything but happy.  He is clearly conflicted
between what his job demands of him and what he really wants to be like.  He is so
conflicted that he ends up pushing Montag into killing him with the flamethrower.  This
is clearly not a happy person and so it would be pretty ironic to name him after joy or
happiness.

I believe that Beatty is unhappy because he
secretly loves books and thinking.  To me, the proof comes in how well he knows books. 
He can quote from all kinds of books and he even understood the old woman's quote about
"play the man, Master Ridley" which seems pretty obscure.  I don't believe he would have
memorized all that stuff if he didn't love it and agree with it.

How do you find the norm of a vector?What a norm looks like compared to the vector graphically.

The  definitions  for the norm of different  types of
norms could be combined and given as below:

Let  v  be an n
dimensional vector  such that v = (x1,x2,x3,...xn).

Then 
the pth norm of v  is given by ||v||p = | {|x1| ^p+|x2|^p+|x3|^p+......|xn|^p}^(1/p)
.

Example:

v =
(3,4).

To find the first two norms of the vector
v.

||v||1 = {|3|+|4|} =
7

||v||2 = {|3|^2+|4|^2} ^(1/2) = 
5.

Background of "Sir Gawain and The Green Knight".

I am assuming that you are asking for the "pre-story"
behind this piece of literature.  According to this story, Gawain is one of the knights
among Arthur's crew.  They are in the midst of a meeting when The Green Knight appears
and challenges Arthur.  Gawain stands up to take the challenge in place of Arthur which
shows his loyalty, honor, and bravery.

Now, the reader
comes to understand later that The Green Knight has come to teach Arthur and his knights
a lesson.  Apparently, before this story takes place, events have occured which are
evidence that the knights of the Round Table have been slacking in their
chivalry--honor, bravery, generosity, protection of the weak, etc.  We don't have a
whole lot more than that as far as background for this particular Arthur
legend.

At any rate, Gawain is sent on a quest which lasts
for one year where he is to seek and find the Green Knight's home and allow him to cut
off Gawain's head as Gawain did when the Green Knight visited Camelot.  In the process,
Gawain is put to a test while staying at the home of a country gentleman (who,
unbeknownst to Gawain, is The Green Knight) which includes trading whatever the other
has received during the course of the day each evening.  The gentleman goes hunting,
Gawain is left at home with the gentleman's wife who attempts to seduce him and gives
him kisses as well as a green sash which will protect its wearer from harm.  Gawain
gives the gentleman the kisses, but keeps the sash as he is afraid of the Green Knight's
axe--Gawain will not be able to pick up his head, tuck it under his arm, and ride off as
the Green Knight did on their first meeting.

The Green
Knight chastises Gawain for not telling the truth about the sash and for flinching when
he first swung his axe.  In the end, the two knights are friends and leave each other's
company with plans to meet each other for New Year's meals in the future.  Gawain
returns to Camelot to educate the rest of the Round Table knights about his lesson and
to reiterate their pledges to exercis chivalry at all times.

In "Unfinished Masterpieces" by Anita Coleman, how does the narrator characterize Dora?

The speaker points out Dora’s ability as an artist and
sculptor, and William’s clear ability as a storyteller and raconteur. The implication of
“Unfinished Masterpieces” is that economic and racial conditions prevented both these
characters from developing their talents and therefore from making artistic
contributions equal to their native abilities. In fact, William boasts of never having
worked at anything for anyone. Both characters are hence “unfinished masterpieces”
because of the deprivation that both experienced. Both Dora and William may be seen as
symbols of blacks and also, more generally, of people who have been denied the rights
and opportunities to develop their skills and their humanity.

What are the relations of Act 2:1 and 2 to the rest of the play in Macbeth?

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 2:1 and
2 are the culmination of what comes before, and the catalyst for what's to
follow.

The witches' predictions, Macbeth's and Lady
Macbeth's interest in the predictions, the idea that what appears fair is really foul,
and ambition all lead to the assassination of Duncan in scenes one and two of act
two. 

And from that assassination come the deaths of
Banquo, Macduff's family, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth himself.  From that assassination
come Lady Macbeth's guilt, Malcolm uniting with Macduff, and Macduff's killing of
Macbeth. 

The assassination of Duncan is the defining act
of the play.  The themes of the play are introduced before the assassination (ambition,
the unnatural, fair is foul, equivocation, gender roles, etc.), and expanded on and
played out after.  The killing of a king and kinsmen is an act from which there is no
going back.  From that point on, Macbeth is forced to safeguard his position, and
forced, in his mind, to eliminate all threats to his reign. 

Who are the members of the Tea Party? How does their class inform their opinions?

The Tea Party is a very loosely organized political and
social movement at the time.  They have no clear boundaries in terms of exactly what
their platform is because they are not organized or led on a national level, so defining
them in a forum such as this becomes exceedingly difficult.  I'm speaking in
generalities here, so take these with a grain of salt, and realize that they do not
quantify or qualify the movement as a whole.

1)  Tea Party
members support fiscal responsibility - that is, less spending, balanced
budgets

2)  They are, in general, overwhelmingly
Republicans and disaffected Republicans.  They are also overwhelmingly
white.

3)  The vast majority, I would bet, did not vote for
nor currently support President Obama or his policies

4) 
They claim to be Constitutional purists, wanting the government to act only according to
its specific original mandate.

You'll find more Tea Party
support in traditionally red, or Republican areas of the country - specifically, the
Bible Belt of the Southern states, the farming Midwest, Eastern Washington, Eastern
Oregon and Eastern California, Texas and Utah.  There are pockets elsewhere but this is
their base.

Fox News organization has incubated the Tea
Party movement, and helped them to secure funding through private and political interest
groups.  They get consistent news coverage, regardless of the size of their events, and
the anti-Obama meme often originates for them from that same news
source.

What are the townspeople’s reactions to Chillingworth’s lodging in the same house as Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter?

According to the story, the townsmen accepted and
respected Chillingworth because he was educated, and because he showed an accentuated
interest in the man whom the town loved and admired the way they would venerate God
himself.  Yet once Chillingworth' true intentions began to take place (which was to find
Dimmesdale out as his wife's lover), his action spoke louder than
words.

At first, his
expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now, there was something ugly and
evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed . . . it grew to be a wisely
diffused opinion, that the Reverend . . . was haunted either by Satan himself, or
Satan's emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.
(1224)

Therefore,
the townspeople felt that Chillingworth was haunting Dimmesdale, but what they do not
know is that the reason why Dimmesdale is allowing himself to be haunted is because he
is guilty, and because Chillingworths other mission was basically to drive Dimmesdale to
insanity so he would confess who he really was.

Should both civil and criminal court cases be proven in the same manner?

I assume that you are talking about standards of proof in
the two kinds of cases.  In the US, a prosecutor must prove the defendant's guilt beyond
a reasonable doubt (in a criminal case).  By contrast, a plaintiff must only prove that
there is "clear and convincing evidence" that the defendant in an important civil case
is culpable.  I think that it is important to have differences between the two kinds of
cases.

The reason I think this is that criminal cases are
clearly more important than civil cases.  In a criminal case, the defendant can go to
prison or even be executed.  This ought to have a higher standard of proof than would be
required if all that was at stake was money.  It is not to say that money is
unimportant, but it surely is less important than being sent to
prison.

So, I think there should be different standards of
proof since criminal cases have so much more impact on the lives of the
defendants.

How are laws and decision made in autocracy and democracy?Compare and contrast the two forms of government.

Democracy is a form of government that is supposed to be
run by the people. However in practice the government is formed of representatives
elected elected by the government. The way people are elected and the way they run the
government is determined by a constitution, which itself is adopted on the basis of
support of people for it.

The constitution of a democratic
government is formulated with a view to guarantee some minimum fundamental rights to the
people, and to ensure that the representatives elected to form the government truly
represent the choice of the people.

The constitution also
has guidelines laid down for carrying out the work of government, including making of
laws, so that the people elected to run the government act truly in the interest of the
people. At the same time consideration is also given to the need for speed and
decisiveness in decision making and action. Of course no constitution in the world is
perfect, and to some extent the government may be formed by the people that are not
really the best suited for the job. Also these representatives may, to some extent, act
against the best interest of the people, in order to further their own selfish
interests.

The law making in democracy is generally done on
the basis of formal discussions and debate by elected representatives, followed by
voting by them. Any law passed must conform to the broad guidelines of the constitution,
and if a law does not meet this requirement, it can be challenged in a court of law and
repealed.

Autocracy is a form of government in which one
person has absolute power to take all the decision relating to government of a nation or
a kingdom. This includes the power to formulate laws and to decide action in any matter.
An autocrat is not prevented from taking any action by any law imposed by others. Thus
the autocrat may act as per his or her will, without following any law. However,
autocrats may also formulate and implement specific laws. They are free to decide the
nature of any such laws. However they may choose to take advice from others in
formulating the laws they enforce.

Autocracy is a form of
government in which one person holds supreme power.  This individual cannot be
restricted, according to law, by any institution or group of citizens from doing
whatever he or she wishes.  However, some of these leaders have used the appearance of
public accountability and elections to conceal their
autocracies.

Who or what are Clark and Poindextar in the book The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963?

The Watson children attend Clark Elementary School, and
Byron shortens the name of the school to "Clark" when speaking of it. Poindexter is a
name which is associated with a stereotypical "nerdy" person, someone who is highly
intelligent, and considered very "uncool" because of this. Kenny is an avid reader whose
precociousness has been recognized by a number of the teachers at the school. These
teachers draw attention to his intellectual abilities, having him read to the older
children, and using him as an example to shame his older brother Byron, who does not
share his reputation as a model student. Unfortunately, the extra attention given to
Kenny because of his academic prowess does not endear him to the other students, and he
is the object of much teasing because of it. Kenny is called a variety of unkind
nicknames referring to his nerdiness, including "Poindexter," "Professor," and
"Egghead."

When the schoolbus arrives to pick up the
children every morning, Byron and his trouble-making friend Buphead sometimes do not get
on it, slipping away and ditching school. When Byron makes his escape, he usually says
to Kenny as he walks by, "Give my regards to Clark, Poindexter." As explained above,
"Poindexter" is his derogatory name for Kenny, and "Clark" is the name of the school;
Byron is telling Kenny arrogantly to in effect say "hello" to the school for him that
day, because he will not be there to do it himself (Chapter 2).

What is the significance of Comrade Ogilvy in Orwell's 1984?

Winston Smith's work at the Ministry of Truth is to
rectify or update  the historical record so that it corresponds with previously
published newspaper articles. A case in point is Comrade Ogilvy. He is entirely
Winston's creation, invented to replace Comrade Withers, an Inner Party member whom Big
Brother had awarded with the Order of Conspicuous Merit, Second Class, but who has since
fallen into disgrace and been vaporized. Rather than complicate Big Brother's panegyric,
Winston decides to lift Withers clean out of history and replace him with a fictitious
character, Ogilvy. For this reason he is a flawless patriot and Party member whose 'only
goals in life were the defeat of Eurasia, and the hunting down of enemy spies,
saboteurs, thoughtcriminals, and traitors'. In fact, Ogilvy, who did not exist in the
past, but is called into existence in the present, can be considered a caricature of the
world of Big Brother. And herein lies the significance of Comrade Ogilvy. His world,
where a man can disappear from history, but a fictional character can appear in history
at the stroke of a pen (or Winston's speakwrite!), is above all else stamped with
arbitrariness. In this world, reality is no longer written about.
Rather, it is the written record - at the behest of the Party - which creates
reality.   

Who is Edgar Allan Poe?

Edgar Allan Poe is often considered to be the father of
the horror or thriller genre.  He wrote extremely suspenseful and dark stories.  Poe is
known for creating eerie and macabre, yet intelligent, literature.  Symbolism and mood
played major roles in his writings; his use of imagery was powerful and was often aided
by his talented use of word choice and description to add to readers'
experience. 

Poe lived a troubled life.  The loss of loved
ones, including his parents (at an early age) and wife, as well as problems with
gambling, drinking, and other issues is assumed to have greatly influenced Poe's writing
style and focus.  He lived a dark life and wrote dark
pieces. 

Eventually, Poe was found in a delirious condition
on the street; he died shortly after.  Modern medical professionals have suggested that
he may have died of rabies.  At any rate, he left behind some of the world's best known
short stories (and poems), as well as great literary legacy.  Some of his best known
works are "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Black Cat, and "The
Masque of the Red Death."

What are some points to remember about Hamlet when writting a passage analysis on Shakespeare's Hamlet?

These ideas might help:

1.
 Establish the context of the passage.  Try to determine how the passage fits into the
play as a whole.  Does it come at the beginning, middle, end?  Is it a "first"?  For
instance, is it the first time we see Hamlet  and Ophelia together on stage?  Is it
Hamlet's first soliloquy? Is it a "last"?  The last time we see Ophelia on stage?  The
last episode of spying in the play?

2.  Relate the passage
to overriding themes of the play:  family honor, effects of revenge on the avenger,
betrayal, action versus inaction, death, madness.

3.
 Determine what kind of speech is being addressed: soliloquy, ceremonial or public
speech, dialogue.

4.  Consider characters who are on stage
who may not have speaking parts.

5.  Address the structure
of the passage.  Is it in prose (usually indicative of madness or feigning madness)? Is
it in verse form?

6.  How is the passage itself organized?
Does it involve shifts in tone?  Does it move from dialogue to soliloquy?  Contemplation
of inaction to a plan for action? Or vice versa? Is it arranged as  a philosophical
argument in which the pros and cons of a decision are addressed, as in Hamlet's "To be
or not to be" soliloquy?

7.  Look at the figures of speech
in the passage or images or motifs that are prevalent throughout the play:  disease,
rottenness, garden, for example.  Be sure to relate a discussion of these to the ideas
presented in the passage.

8.  Pay attention to sound
devices such as alliteration, assonance, monosyllabic lines that serve to highlight key
words and ideas.

9.  Be sure to address the first and last
lines of the passage.

10.  Consider the passage's impact on
the audience.  What reaction does the audience have upon viewing or reading this scene?
 Does it change our feelings toward the characters or their situation?  Does it create
more pathos? Less?

11.  Lastly, what would be lost if this
passage were cut from a production of the play.

You may
structure your analysis as you see fit, but I would suggest that you begin with a
general introduction stating the context of the passage, its major purposes.  Then
discuss the passage more or less in a linear fashion, perhaps even dividing the passage
into thirds and discussing how each third contributes to the overall purpose of the
piece.  Shakespeare arranged the passage in a logical way, and following his arrangement
to guide your remarks is a sensible way to attack such an
assignment.

Discuss Paradise Lost 1 as a epic poetry.

Here is a list of the most common characteristics of an
epic.  Milton clearly follows the conventions of this form of
literature.

1. Long narrative poem,
   usually written in blank verse.  Paradise Lost
   certainly is a long story -- not only a retelling of the Adam and Eve story,
   but establishing the back-story of Satan's loss of heaven and his plans for revenge.  It
   also has several sections of text discussing the future of man's place in the world and
   a flash-forward of sorts of events up to the Christ's coming into the world.  The epic
   is written in blank verse which is unrhymed iambic
   pentameter.


2. Starts "in medias res"
   which means 'in the middle of the action."  While the epic is ultimately
   the story of Adam and Eve, it starts in the middle of Satan being thrown out of heaven
   along with his band of rebel angels. 
   


3. Starts with an address to a
   muse.  In this Christian poem, the muse is not a traditional Greek diety,
   but the "Heavenly Muse."


4. Uses an elevated
   style.  This long poem has very challenging language and the sheet number
   of allusions on the first page illustrate the difficulty and majesty of the subject
   matter that Milton is undertaking.  He claims to be explaining "the ways of God to
   man."  To make such a claim requires the language and sophistication to back it up.
   Another element of the elevated style is the use of epic similes -- long, extended
   similies.  An example from book 9 compares Satan's movement as the snake in the garden
   to a ship that is being very carefully navigated through the water to reach its ultimate
   goal.


5. Tells the story of a cultural
   hero.  While the story starts with Satan, the heroes of the story are
   Adam and Eve.  Even though they have the tragic fall from grace and are banished from
   Paradise, it is through them and their actions and attitudes that man is to learn about
   God's love.


6. Reflects the society in which
   it was written.  Milton is writing in a time of great change in the
   Christian world.  England has separated from the Roman Catholic Church and the
   Protestant religion has taken a firm hold throughout Europe. Book 12 in particular
   addresses some of the issues of the Christian church, but the ultimate message is that
   Christians live with God's forgiveness and guidance through prayer.  This clearly
   reflects Milton's society in mid 1600's. 
   

Find the value of x for the inequality to hold. Log 3 (x^2 + 1) =

We'll start by imposing the constraints of existance of
logarithm function.

x^2 + 1>0, which is true for any
value of x

and

2x + 5 >
0

We'll add -5 both
sides:

2x>-5

We'll
divide by
2:

x>-5/2

So, for the
logarithms to exist, the values of x have to belong to the interval (-5/2,
+inf.)

Now, we'll solve the inequality. For the beginning,
we notice that the bases of logarithms are matching and they are >1, so the
direction of the inequality remains unchanged, if we'll apply the one to one property of
logarithms:

x^2 + 1 =<2x +
5

We'll move all terms to one
side:

x^2 - 2x + 1 - 5 =<
0

x^2 - 2x - 4 =< 0

To
solve the inequality above, first we have to calculate the roots of the equation x^2 -
2x - 4 = 0.

After that, we'll write the expression in a
factored form as:

1*(x-x1)(x-x2) =<
0

So, let's apply the quadratic formula to calculate the
roots:

x1 =
[2+sqrt(4+16)]/2

x1 =
(2+2sqrt5)/2

x1 =
2(1+sqrt5)/2

x1 =
1+sqrt5

x2 =
1-sqrt5

The inequality will be written
as:

(x - 1 - sqrt5)(x - 1 + sqrt5 ) =<
0

Now, we'll discuss the
inequality:

- the product is  negative if one factor is
positive and the other is negative:

x - 1 - sqrt5 >=
0

We'll add 1 + sqrt5 both
sides:

x > = 1 +
sqrt5

and

x - 1 + sqrt5
=< 0

x =< 1 -
sqrt5

The common solution is the empty
set.

Now, we'll consider the other
alternative:

x - 1 - sqrt5  =<
0

x =< 1 +
sqrt5

and

x - 1 +
sqrt5 >= 0

x >= 1 -
sqrt5

So, x belongs to the interval [1 - sqrt5 , 1 +
sqrt5].

Finally, the solution of the
inequality is the inetrval identified above: [1 - sqrt5 , 1
+ sqrt5].

Describe how the following are illustrated in the picture of Dorian Gray youth, mortality, good vs evil and art and culture

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, youth is illustrated as a
delicate state which leaves us at any moment, and its loss is a symbol of disgrace. This
is why Dorian became adamant that he would not want to age, and wished that the picture
would. It is also illustrated as an omen of disaster. It is disturbing in the story how
characters who had aged in more than 20 years suddenly find Dorian walking around and
not having aged. That is an element of terror, and what makes the story
scary.

Mortality is illustrated in the death of Basil and
his posterior cremation by Dorian's indebted friend. It is disregarded as a romantic
process. When Sybil Vane killed herself, Harry said he was glad to live in a time and
place where things so intense are able to happen. Dorian dismissed it as a rebirth for
himself, and used it as a symbol of sacrifice (which he would never
do).

Good vs. Evil is illustrated in Basil and Harry. Basil
shows a true and honest love for Dorian, and he protects and cares for him. Harry has
the evil side which tempts and lures Dorian into sin.

Art
is seen as a revealer of the artist, but then as a concealer of the artist. When Basil
laid "all of himself" onto the picture, he feared that he had said "too much" about his
admiration for Dorian. Yet, as the suppressed paragraph of Dorian Gray that was read at
the Old Bailey during Wilde's trials, he ended up admitting that "form and color is just
form and color" and that art helps the artist actually protect himself from the world
outside.

Culture is entirely left to the upper classes. The
theatre is for the rich, but acting is for the poor. The so-called "Idle Classes" are
the epitome of a life through contemplation, and not laziness. Philanthropy is seen as
an unnecessary waste of intellect. All these are cultural factors inherent to the rich,
and are all represented by Harry himself

What are the major differences between the novel and the movie Fried Green Tomatoes?

One major difference between the book and the film is that
while the novel explicitly presents the relationship between Idgie and Ruth as lesbian,
the movie is more ambiguous. This initially drew criticism from gay and lesbian
activists because they felt that director Jon Avnet had not clearly defined the
relationship between the two women to make the content more acceptable to Hollywood
standards of the 1990s. In spite of this controversy, the film went on to win a 1992 Gay
and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Award. The following link takes you to an
interesting review of the movie which also discusses its representation of
sexuality

href="http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC39folder/FrGreenTomatoes.html">http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC39folder/FrGreenTomatoes.html

You
can also have a look at viewers' comments in this
blog

href="http://www.afterellen.com/blog/trishbendix/retro-reviewing-video-blog-fried-green-tomatoes">http://www.afterellen.com/blog/trishbendix/retro-reviewing-video-blog-fried-green-tomatoes

What do we mean by 'selective breeding'?Explain?

Selective breeding is the process of choosing only some
animals to breed from a group. Imagine a farmer who has 25 cows. He wants to breed them
for the next generation. But he wants big, fat cows that give lots of milk and meat. So
he chooses the biggest, fattest bull and the milkiest cows and he selectively breeds
those. He does not breed his skinny
cows or aggressive bulls. So the next generation of his herd of cows is bigger and
fatter and milkier and more gentle.

Then, from that new
generation he selects the biggest, fattest bull and the milkiest cows and he selectively
breeds those....

Now repeat this many times. Generation
after genration of farmers select the cows and bulls which have the charecteristics that
they want until we have the modern cow, a very fat and milky peaceful animal which
produces the most meat and milk. 

(Selective breeding is
mankind's use of Natural Selection, a process of evolution.)