Momaday says that the Kiowas believed they "entered the world through a hollow log." Explain what this phrase means.

According to The Way to Rainy Mountain, this phrase means that the Kiowa tribe of Native Americans has a very interesting creation myth. When one speaks about the "hollow log" in relation to the Kiowa tribe, one is speaking about the very first of the twenty-four numbered sections in Momaday's book. Further, one is speaking about the mythological voice in that first section. (Keep in mind that each section contains three voices: mythological, historical, and personal.) The general Kiowa creation myth is that the Kiowa tribe originated inside the earth and emerged onto the surface through a hollow log. Why is the Kiowa tribe so small? The answer to this question is found within the myth as well: a pregnant Kiowa woman got stuck in the log; therefore, the rest of the tribe remained within the earth.  This mythological story connects to the history of the tribal name. The word "Kiowa" actually means "coming out."  Momaday goes even further in his personal voice to talk about the first time he "came out" onto the great plains in order to discover his tribe's story.

How ozone layer shield us from the ultra violet radiation from the sun?

Stratospheric ozone (O3) protects us from harmful ultra-violet radiation of Sun. The short wavelength UV radiations can cause skin cancer and cataract. When UV radiations interact with ozone molecules, the high energy of the radiation is used to break ozone molecule into an oxygen molecule and an oxygen atom. 

`O_3 + UV -> O_2 + O`

The produced oxygen gas and oxygen atom again react to form ozone molecules at those high altitudes. 

This protective layer is currently under attack by various chemicals we use. It was found few decades ago that commonly used refrigerant such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) react with ozone and destroy it. This leaves this shield weakened and has eventually resulted in ozone hole. The use of many such chemicals has now been banned and we are trying to protect this protective barrier.

Hope this helps. 

Why is Da-duh so frightened of the narrator's stories of New York?

Da-duh seems to be concerned and frightened by the stories about New York for a couple of reasons.  First of all, even though she tries to convince the narrator that there is no place like Barbados, she seems to have some regret about not seeing the many places in the world outside her homeland.  She may feel some sort of jealousy for her granddaughter’s ability to experience and see things Da-duh could never imagine. She continuously tries to catch her granddaughter in lies, but sees in the narrator’s face that she is telling the truth. The world of Brooklyn, New York is beyond Da-duh’s imagination, and in many ways, she wants to experience it.  She is so insistent on proving that Barbados is the most wonderful place in the world until she realizes that there are marvels in Brooklyn, New York as well.

In addition, Da-duh realizes that the world has moved on, and she no longer feels like she belongs in the new, modern, industrial world of the present.  She is from another time and way of life, and she doesn’t fit in with a society that has electricity and planes that fly overhead. She says in the story when the narrator tells her that she beat up a white girl, “Oh, the lord, the world’s changing up so I can scarce recognize it anymore.”

Her daily naps staring out the window can show her desire to see and learn more, but also her understanding that she doesn’t really belong in the modern age.  She, in a sense, gives up and dies realizing that her generation has served its purpose and that the new world is for the young like her granddaughter.

At the end of the story, the narrator dreams of the sugar cane and tall palm trees that Da-duh showed her.  Da-duh would have been proud that she had this effect on her granddaughter’s life and desires, and perhaps, Da-duh didn’t realize the profound influence and love for Barbados that she cultivated in her granddaughter.

What are the flaws of the British system of government according to the authors of the Declaration of Independence? What ought government to be...

The Declaration contains a litany of grievances that set forth the American colonies' reasons for a separation from Great Britain, but one of the most important reasons is stated in the Declaration's first paragraph and often goes ignored, or at least not adequately considered:

. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

The revolutionary part of this section is not that "all men are created equal," by which the framers of the Declaration really meant all white men who own property are created equal, but that governments exercise their powers because of "the consent of the governed."

For King George III and other monarchs in Europe in the latter quarter of the 18thC., the most radical statement made in the Declaration was not that the King or Parliament had instituted unjust taxes--although that did make the average merchant colonist mad--but that colonists in America were arguing that a ruler governs not by divine right, which was the prevailing belief at the time, but that the people had the power to consent to be ruled by someone.  This sentiment rattled the cages of every monarch from Great Britain to Russia because it undermined the foundation of their right to rule.

After undermining the concept of Divine Right, the Declaration sets forth the specific injustices of Great Britain against the American colonies, beginning with Great Britain's failure to consent to laws that benefit American colonial commerce and ending with the accusation that Great Britain has created unrest among the indigenous people and the colonists.  The Declaration's list of grievances comprises the whole of Great Britain's failure to govern its American colonies properly and, more important, fairly.

As a last comment, I will add that several of the founding fathers came to the conclusion that it made no sense for a small island (Great Britain) to rule a vast continent like America--and this was even before anyone knew exactly how vast America really was.

What age of person does the First Ghost look like in A Christmas Carol?

The first ghost looks both old and young at the same time.

Fitting the changing nature of the past, where memories are murky, the Ghost of Christmas Past has an interesting look.  It is described by Dickens as both old and young at the same time, and both man and woman.  The ghost is everyone.

It was a strange figure—like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions. (Stave 2)

Waiting for the ghost, Scrooge is nervous as a result of Jacob Marley’s prediction that three ghosts will visit him.  He does not know what to expect, and when the first appointed hour comes, he is exceedingly nervous.  The first ghost appears to him through his bed curtains, and has an odd appearance almost as if it is glowing.  The description goes on to explain how the ghost’s physical features are contradictory.

Its hair … was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same…. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. (Stave 2)

The ghost glows almost like a candle, and is wearing white.  It’s varying and contradictory appearance reflects our view of and memory of the past.  As the ghost takes Scrooge through his journey, he shows him the events in his past that have most made him the man he is in the present.  Some are pleasant, and some are almost unbearable.

Scrooge’s second ghost, The Ghost of Christmas Past, makes a big impression on him.  He was already baffled by Marley’s shackles, and now he is confused by the ghost’s inconsistent features.  Yet the ghost shows him things he needs to see but does not want to, so eventually Scrooge can take no more and puts out his light.  It will do little good, for the next ghost is coming!  By the time Scrooge meets with the Ghost of Christmas present, he is already reflective.

does pure water boil at hundred degrees everywhere on earth?

No. Water boils at 100 deg Celsius at sea level. At higher elevations, water boils at lower temperatures. 

Boiling begins at the point when a liquid begins to vaporize (turn into a gas). This can only begin to occur when the vapor pressure of the liquid is at least equal to the surrounding air pressure.

Air pressure decreases as elevation increases, so less vapor pressure is required before vaporization begins. Vapor pressure increases with increasing heat. So this results in lower boiling points. 

Conversely, water boils at higher temperatures below sea level, because the air pressure is increased. 

It is important to note that it is not just water that behaves this way. All liquids will experience different boiling points at different physical elevations.

How do the nucleotides in DNA pair?

DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule that contains all the genetic material within a cell. DNA molecules contain information required for production of proteins that enable cells to carry out their various functions. DNA molecules have double-helical structure and such structures are composed of monomeric units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide has contain a 5-carbon sugar (called pentose), a nitrogenous base and phosphate groups. There are 4 different nitrogenous bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). Nucelotides are connected to each other by covalent bonds, in each strand of DNA. These covalent bonds occur between the 3' carbon atom of a pentose sugar to that o 5' carbon atom on an adjacent sugar. The two strands of DNA are connected to each other by base-pairing. A always pairs with T and C always pairs with G, and this base-pairing connects the two DNA strands together and gives it a double-helical structure.

Hope this helps. 

What four things did Atticus do that Jem and Scout had never seen before?

One of Harper Lee's major themes throughout the novel deals with gaining perspective. There are several scenes throughout the novel that relate to this theme, and portray Scout and Jem witnessing their father behave in unfamiliar ways. In Chapter 10, Jem and Scout are shocked to see their father shoot and kill Tim Johnson, the rabid dog, in one shot. They had never witnessed their father shoot a gun before, and are awestruck at his marksmanship abilities. In Chapter 13, Atticus attempts to teach his children about their family history. Atticus is nervous and unsure as to what to say because his sister, Alexandra, had put him up to it. Scout comments that her father never talked like this or had thoughts like this before. Atticus' stern tone and insistence on discussing their family history were behaviors Jem and Scout had never witnessed before. In Chapter 20, during Atticus' closing remarks, the children view two behaviors from Atticus that they had never seen before. Before Atticus begins his closing remarks, he unhitches his watch and chain, takes off his coat, loosens his tie, and unbuttons his vest. Scout and Jem are horrified and think their father is getting undressed. In reality, Atticus is just making himself comfortable and acting casually to appeal to the jury he is about to address. The second thing the children witness is Atticus perspire. Scout comments that Atticus was one of those people who never sweat before, and this was something new to the children. The are simply witnessing their father physically reacting to the stressful environment and sweltering Alabama heat.

What is the significance of forest and village in Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter?

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, the forest and village serve to intensify the figurative differences between the two settings. The village, Puritanical in nature, is severe and unforgiving. Hester settles as far as she can from the center of town, and when she walks through the village, it is typically characterized as cold and harsh. 

The forest, on the other hand, is natural, unruly, and wild. Puritans during this era equated the forest with Native Americans, who would emerge from the forest when interacting with the Puritans. Because of their intolerance, the forest therefore quickly became associated with evil and the Devil; this is Pearl is so consistently compared favorably with the forest, and why it is the site for some of Hester's most significant interactions with both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. 

In what way does Jem break the one remaining code of childhood in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

Jem broke one of the last remaining codes of childhood when he told Atticus about Dill running away from home, showing that he was thinking like an adult because he knew that Dill’s mother would be worried.

When they first met Dill, Scout and Jem found out that his father was not in the picture.  Dill was shipped off to his Aunt Rachel every summer, which was good for Scout and Jem, but also made him feel unwanted.  The first time Dill did not come, it was because his mother remarried.  Dill felt like he finally had found a father replacement.

Scout found Dill hiding under her bed.  He wove them a story about being chained in the basement by his stepfather and fed peas through the ventilator by a passing farmer until he ran away and joined a small animal show.  It was a typical Dill whopper, designed to hide the pain that Dill really felt about being ignored by his stepfather.  Scout wasn’t going to tell anyone he was there, but Jem was older and realized that their father had to be told.

“You oughta let your mother know where you are,” said Jem. “You oughta let her know you’re here…”

Dill’s eyes flickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall.

“Atticus,” his voice was distant, “can you come here a minute, sir?” (Ch. 14) 

Although Scout said that Jem broke the childhood code in telling on Dill, and they were mad at Jem at first, she told Dill not to stay mad at him.  Jem did what he thought he had to do.  Dill told her that he wasn’t mad.  He understood that Jem told on Dill for his own good.  When they were alone, Scout asked Dill why he ran away. 

By this time I was, but lazily so. “Why’d you do it?”

No answer. “I said why’d you run off? Was he really hateful like you said?”

“Naw…” (Ch. 14)

Dill says that he ran away (by stealing money from his mother’s purse and taking a train) because he felt that he was not wanted.  His mother and stepfather would go off into the next room together and leave him alone.  His stepfather did not spend any time with him.  He felt lonely, and the fantasy of a stepfather did not play out.

This incident of Jem breaking the childhood “code” demonstrates again the distance in maturity between Scout and Jem.  Scout wants to keep Dill’s secret in solidarity, but Jem realizes that Dill’s mother is worried about him.  After Jem turns Dill in, Scout understands why, but she still resents it.

What is the Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, and Falling Action of "One Thousand Dollars"?

• Exposition

A "decidedly amused" Bobby Gillian leaves the offices of Tolman & Sharp where he is given an envelope containing $1000.00, a sum willed to him by his uncle. He has been told that he must render an account for how he spends this sum as soon as he disposes of it. Gillian finds this "a confoundedly awkward amount"; so, he sets out to ask advice on how to spend this money at the men's club.

• Rising Action

After arriving at the men's club, Gillian talks to the cynical Old Bryson, who has himself sequestered in a corner with a book in the hope of being left alone. His cryptic reply to Gillian's request for suggestions on how to spend this inherited $1000.00 is for the young man to give his chorus girl friend a diamond necklace. Or, he adds sardonically, Gillian could move to Idaho: "I advise a sheep ranch, as I have a particular dislike for sheep."

Realizing that his conversation with Bryson is a waste of time, Gillian phones for a cab and goes to the Columbine Theatre where he offers Miss Lotta Lauriere "a little thing in the pendant line," but she rejects his offer because her friend received a more expensive necklace from Tiffany's the other night. So, Gillian departs, asking the cab driver what he would do with a thousand dollars. But, he is dissatisfied with the driver's answer, so Gillian gets out of the cab and talks with a blind man. This man's response is nothing that Gillian accepts, either. Next, Gillian has the cab take him to the law office where he asks lawyer Tolman if Miss Hayden, the ward of his late uncle, was left anything other $10 and a ring as have the others. "Nothing," replies Mr. Tolman.

Gillian returns to his uncle's house where he finds Miss Hayden. He tells her that he has just come from Tolman & Sharp's where he has been given another thousand for Miss Hayden because of an "amendment or postscript or something." Gillian also tells her, "...you know I love you." But, Miss Hayden gathers the money and replies, "I am sorry."

Disappointed, Gillian asks if he may write a note before leaving. On the paper he writes his account of the money he has received,

Paid by the black sheep, Robert Gillian, $1000 in account of the eternal happiness, owed by Heaven to the best and dearest woman on earth.

Then, Gillian returns to the law offices.

Gillian returns to the law offices where the two old lawyers pull from a safe a codicil to his uncle's will which bequeaths to Gillian $50,000.00 if he has spent the first sum unselfishly; if he has not, the sum is to go to Miss Hayden.

• Falling Action

When Gillian hears this, he quickly snatches from Mr. Tolman's hand the envelope with his record of how he has spent the $1000.00, and he tears it into pieces. He tells the lawyers,

"I lost the thousand dollars on the races. Good-day to you, gentlemen."   

• Resolution

When they hear Gillian, lawyers Tolman and Sharp mournfully shake their heads as they feel that Gillian has continued what his uncle termed "reprehensible dissipation."

Whistling as he departs, Gillian feels good about his act of love for Miss Hayden.

Where are each of the five senses addressed/appealed to in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The five senses--sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste--are the foundations upon which all good imagery is built. Authors like Harper Lee use them usually during descriptions of different settings and characters, but they can also be found in dialogue as people experience new and exciting things. Such is the case in this story as Lee describes life through a little girl's eyes.

Sight - One of the biggest mysteries in the novel is who lives in the decrepit old house in the neighborhood. Lee paints a great picture in the following passage:

"The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away . . . [and] johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance" (8).

Notice the mix of colors and other specific adjectives used to describe different pieces of the lot. This is a perfect visual!

Sound - Speaking of the Radley place, part of the lore is that a 33 year-old Boo Radley stabbed his father one day with a pair of scissors. Scout explains,

"Mrs. Radley ran screaming into the street that Arthur was killing them all, but when the sheriff arrived he found Boo still sitting in the livingroom, cutting up the Tribune" (11).

Lee makes it easy to picture an old woman running out into the street screaming for her life in a quiet lazy town. This image would certainly scare little children with images of screaming in their heads. 

Touch/Physical Feeling - After the stabbing incident, the sheriff decides to lock Boo in the courthouse because the jail would be too dangerous for him. But they eventually move him back home because of the following:

". . . some of the town council told Mr. Radley that if he didn't take Boo back, Boo would die of mold from the damp" (11).

The image of "mold" and "damp" covers sight and touch because seeing and feeling mold in an old damp, and probably cold, basement doesn't make one feel very comfortable. 

Smell - A fun image about smell is when Dill stops to analyze the Radley place and the following discussion emerges:

"We had strolled to the front year, where DIll stood looking down the street at the dreary face of the Radley Place. 'I--smell--death,' he said. 'I do mean it,' he said, when I told him to shut up.

'You mean when somebody's dyin' you can smell it?'

'No, I mean I can smell somebody an' tell if they're gonna die" (36).

This is a fun passage because death does smell, but these kids probably don't know what that really is or means.

Taste - For the first snowfall that Scout experiences, she goes out and catches a flake on her tongue:

"I stuck out my tongue and caught a fat flake. It burned.

'Jem, it's hot!'

'No it ain't, it's so cold it burns'" (65).

Imagery is a great way to convey human qualities to textual descriptions. This helps readers to identify  with the story on a deeper level because they have to pull from personal experience to comprehend what characters are experiencing. Luckily, Lee is one of the best at accomplishing this task.

What does the Mechanical Hound represent in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury?

The Mechanical Hound represents the society's advancements in technology, it's priority to hunt down criminals and to inflict capital punishment, and Captain Beatty's power and authority to execute whomever he wants. The Hound is quite a technologically advanced machine because it operates as follows:

"It's calculators can be set to any combination, so many amino acids, so much sulphur, so much butterfat and alkaline" (26).

This means that anyone's amino acids could be programmed into the Hound and be the next target for killing. The government must have spent a lot of money to create and maintain killing machines like the Hound. This suggests that they value swift punishment without a trial when finding and punishing people with books is concerned. The Hound is only used on those who resist arrest, but there's no talk of a trial on either account, which also shows their no-tolerance policy for book owners.

The Hound is also controlled by Captain Beatty for this fire station. That means that he can program it to find, capture and kill anyone whose information it is given. Montag feels like Beatty must have input some of his own information because the Hound growls at him sometimes. When Montag asks him about this, Beatty says, "It doesn't think anything we don't want it to think" (27). This is a clue that Beatty probably has given the Hound Montag's genetic information. As a result, Montag wonders if Beatty knows about the books he is hiding at his home.

Ultimately, the Mechanical Hound represents the strong arm of the law (Beatty's) against those who own books. It is also an intimidation tool as well as a killing machine. It's too bad that money and technology of that sort is wasted on innocent people who just want to read, rather than on manic drivers who hit people every day on their roads. Montag even says, "That's sad. . . because all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that's all it can ever know" (27). Montag knows it is a robot/machine, and it doesn't have feelings, but the technology seems to be wasted on killing book owners rather than something more productive.

What did John O'Sullivan think America stood for?

O'Sullivan is most famous for his famous assertion that it was the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States to expand throughout the North American continent to the Pacific. This vision was closely tied to his understanding of what America stood for. 

O'Sullivan was a vocal advocate of what has become known as "American exceptionalism." He thought that the United States was different than any other nation because it was founded upon democratic principles. He claimed that, unlike European powers, the United States had no entrenched aristocracy, and had only fought wars, he claimed, in defense of liberty. As he said in his essay "The Great Nation of Futurity," published in the United States Democratic Review in 1939:

Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the cynosure of our union of States...We move onward to the fulfillment of our mission--to the entire development of the principle of our organization--freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality.

Yet for all this, we should understand that O'Sullivan's vision of American exceptionalism was highly racialized. As mentioned above, he thought this vision of American progress entitled the nation to take over lands inhabited and controlled by allegedly inferior Mexicans and, for that matter, Native Americans (a point made in a 1845 essay entitled "Annexation"). He looked forward to the day when slavery would be eliminated, but as much to get rid of African-Americans as to end the institution itself. O'Sullivan's view of America, then, was that it was a white man's democracy, and that its commitment to individual rights and liberty for white men made it, to borrow the title of his essay, "The Great Nation of Futurity."

See the links below for unabridged copies of the two O'Sullivan essays mentioned in this response.