What happened in Bosnia during unipolar world order?

In Bosnia a major ethnic conflict erupted between 1992 and 1995. The war happened because of the break-up of the Yugoslavia and the major combatants were the militaries of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat factions within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The variety of ethnic and religious groups within Bosnia and Herzegovina were at odds because the Bosnian Serbs, who were Christian, wanted their own republic. The Bosnian Serbs were supported by the government of Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic. A terrible feature of the war was the ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak Muslim and Croat population. All sides of the conflict were guilty of committing war crimes, however, and sixty people were convicted of war crimes after the fight.

It is hard to estimate the death toll of the war, but the Research and Documentation Center estimates the number at close to 100,000. The war was especially brutal towards women with an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 women, the majority of whom were Bosnian, being raped during the conflict. Over two million people were displaced throughout the course of the conflict, making it the most deadly conflict since World War II.

What are three characteristics of the Ewells as described in Chapter 17 in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In Chapter 17 of To Kill a Mockingbird, we get a good description of the Ewell's background and living conditions during their testimony at the trial and through Scout’s narration.  As Scout is watching the proceedings, she gives the readers a little information about the Ewells.  She tells us that they are always on welfare, and they live near the black shanty town behind the town dump.  She also says that they forage for food, water, and furniture in the dump.  We also learn through Heck Tate’s testimony that Mayella shows signs of being beaten when he investigates the crime in which Tom Robinson is accused.  Sheriff Tate asks her who beat her, and she identifies Tom Robinson.  As readers, we know that Tom didn’t do it; it is Bob Ewell who abuses her and forces her to lie. 

Scout also gives us insight into the Ewell’s living conditions by describing how the children have worms and diseases caused by their poverty and filthy house.  Scout even notes that one time when she went with Atticus to discard their Christmas tree in the dump, she noticed how clean and neat the black homes were but how dirty and untidy the Ewell property was.  She remembers seeing a row of dirty faces pressed against the window as they passed the house.  The Ewell children live a terrible existence with horrific living conditions and an abusive father who does not care if they are educated.  The children never get the opportunity to attend school, much like Burris Ewell shows at the beginning of the novel. 

In the chapter, Scout also describes Bob Ewell as a “little bantam cock of a man.”  This description implies that Ewell is a mean, uncaring man who feels he is better than everyone else.  The Ewells are the epitome of “white trash” in the town of Maycomb.

Describe an experiment which you could use to support the theory behind positive phototropism. You will need to ‘cut’ your plant.

Phototropism is the movement of plant in response to light. Positive phototropism refers to movement towards light, while negative phototropism means movement of plant away from the light. It has been observed that leaves exhibit positive phototropism, while roots exhibit negative phototropism. The positive phototropism means that the shaded part of the leaves grow faster than the non-shaded or illuminated portion. We can observe the positive phototropism using an experiment. We can recreate the experiment conducted by Darwin and Boysen-Jensen. 

Take two pots containing grass seeds and allow them to grow. In the initial phases, only coleoptiles come out of soil and the leaves break out of these coleoptiles later on. The coleoptile is a hollow sheath covering of the leaf. In one of the pots, cover the coleoptile with an opaque covering and you will observe that no phototropism is there (no bending towards light). Remove the opaque covering and cut the tip of coleotile. In absence of the tip, there is no phototropism (in fact, the growth stopped). At the same time, you can observe the positive phototropism in the other pot (control sample). From this experiment, you can see that the tip of coleoptile has something to do with phototropism. In fact, the tip releases an auxin (a chemical that controls cell elongation in the stem) and in absence of the tip, the plant is unable to exhibit phototropism.  

Hope this helps. 

From Judith Ortiz Cofer's "American History," what common interests and conditions help to develop a friendship between Elena and Eugene?

Elena and Eugene are both minorities at Public School No. 13 in Judith Ortiz Cofer's short story "American History." Elena is a Puerto Rican girl and Eugene is a Caucasian from Georgia, but they both live in Paterson, New Jersey on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was shot. As far as personal interests are concerned, though, both Elena and Eugene enjoy reading books. In fact, Eugene enjoys sitting at his kitchen table to read and Elena would like to read in his kitchen as well. She would like to talk with him about his home state of Georgia because she starts reading Gone with the Wind. She thinks that she could understand the book better if she spoke with Eugene about the history of slavery in Georgia.

"I didn’t believe such a world had ever really existed, and I wanted to ask Eugene some questions since he and his parents, he had told me, had come up from Georgia, the same place where the novel was set" (Lines 128-130).

Another similarity is the kids at school have nicknames for them. Eugene is called a "hick" and Elena is called "Skinny Bones." When they are seen together at school the kids put the two nicknames together and saying "Skinny Bones" and the "Hick" (Line 135). By the school kids branding them as outcasts together, they seem to become closer friends. It's too bad that Eugene's mother gets in the way of them becoming closer friends when she prohibits her from studying together.

I need help finding a specific example when Martin Eden was an outcast or outsider in Martin Eden by Jack London.

I think, perhaps, you are making this question seem harder than it actually is. Some of Martin Eden’s simple statuses in life lead to his being an outcast or an outsider.

For example, Martin Eden was an fatherless (or illegitimate) child of a traveling psychic. Both of these specifics lead to Eden being an automatic outcast. At that time, any illegitimate child (due to no fault of his or her own) was outcast by society. Further, having a parent who was a palm reader or fortune teller or psychic again puts the child at risk of being ostracized.

Further, both Jack London and Martin Eden grow up in the lower class. Again, this fact is an immediate factor in the character being outcast. Being in the lower class and experiencing extreme poverty in Oakland, California is going to ostracize both character and author from upper class life.

Finally, Martin Eden spends some time being a “hobo,” in that he is jobless and wandering in looking for adventure. During this time, he also becomes a prisoner due to his derelict behavior. This absolutely adds to Martin Eden’s outcast qualities. Being an outcast is almost in the definition of hobo in that a hobo is literally often cast out of homes where he begs for food.

Also consider that the self portrait of Martin Eden is also considered the self portrait of Jack London (the author). Even the first edition of the book contained an imagined image of Martin Eden with Jack London’s face. Just like Martin Eden, Jack London always found more adventure in life than in his education and writing.

What's the purpose of having two discussions of the crowing cock, Horatio's pagan one and Marcellus's Christian one, in "Hamlet"?

After being astonished by what he's just seen, Horatio reaches for any sort of explanation. He recalls an old folk belief that when ghosts walk the earth, they can only walk at night and must return to their graves with their bodies in the morning when the cock crows. He might have learned about it at the university, maybe in a class on ancient folklore. With no other explanation and the fact that the ghost really did behave in exactly that way, he has no choice but to consider the possibility that what he thought was simply a story might in fact be true. Otherwise, what just happened? It’s quite a thing to consider for a rational, scholarly fellow like Horatio.

Marcellus, on the other hand, is not a scholar, so when trying to calm himself after the terrifying experience, he reaches in a different direction: toward his faith, specifically the Christian belief that morning cocks crow all night on Christmas Eve, and that night ghosts and black magic are incapable of harming people (incidentally, this belief is not recorded anywhere except for right here in this play). It’s a comforting idea after such a frightening experience. They're both straining to make sense of what they've just seen through the prism of their own learning: Horatio relies on his university learning and Marcellus, who has no university education, looks instead to his faith.

What page of The Outsiders says that Cherry was the greasers' spy?

Dally tells Johnny and Pony that Cherry was a spy for the greasers because she gave them information.

Dally, Johnny, and Pony met Cherry at the movies.  Even though she was a Soc, they talked to her.  Cherry did not like Dally, and Johnny got him to leave.  Johnny and Pony spent time with Cherry and her friend Marcia. 

Johnny and Pony were not aware that Cherry had talked to Dally.

“…Two-Bit's a good fighter. Hey, I didn't tell you we got us a spy."

"A spy?" Johnny looked up from his banana split. "Who?"

'That good-lookin' broad I tried to pick up that night you killed the Soc. The redhead, Cherry what's-her-name." (Ch. 5)

The relationship between Cherry and the gang is a complicated one.  She became friends with Pony and Johnny, but when her boyfriend Bob saw them together he got upset.  She got in the car with him because she did not want a fight.  However, later that night Pony and Johnny were in the park when Bob and his friends jumped them.  Bob was drowning Ponyboy when Johnny killed Bob to save Pony.

Cherry was sad when her boyfriend died, but she also understood that he was a mean drunk.  She loved Bob, but was tired of the violence between greasers.  Dally explained that Cherry was in danger just talking to the greasers.

"She came over to the vacant lot the night Two-Bit was jumped. Shepard and some of his outfit and us were hanging around there when she drives up in her little ol' Sting Ray. That took a lot of nerve. Some of us was for jumping her then and there, her bein' the dead kid's girl and all, but Two-Bit stopped us. …” (Ch. 6)

Dally tells them that Cherry feels like the whole thing is her fault, including the rumble, because she was seen with Johnny and Pony that night.  She wants the fighting to end and is trying to prevent the rumble. 

Pony realizes that when trying to help them, Cherry is not being a Soc.  She is being a “dreamer.”  Cherry had told Pony that things are rough all over, meaning that Socs have problems too.  She liked Pony because he was deep.  Pony realized that they both saw the same sunset.