What are "eggmobiles" in The Omnivore's Dilemma?

In "The Ominovore's Dilemma," author Michael Pollan discusses many farming techniques and practices which are utilized by one Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in rural Virginia. Mr. Salatin believes in using practices that observe animals' activities in nature and seek to emulate them in a farm setting. Salatin's egg-laying chickens are housed in a mobile trailer-style structure known as an "eggmobile." The eggmobile is essentially a chicken coop that can be moved around in order to best mimic a chicken's natural movement. This rectangular contraption on wheels is capable of housing about 400 laying hens. It features nesting boxes lined up from the inside, which allows the farmer to retrieve eggs from the outside. Chicken wire is placed at a distance around it so as not to let the chickens escape, and they are able to come and go as they please. When they need to be fed, a trailer hitched to the eggmobile slowly pulls them over to the pasture where the cows were three to four days earlier. 

This is beneficial to both the land and the chicken, as it is unhealthy to both to remain in one area for long. Salatin moves the eggmobiles four days after the cattle graze and deposit manure in an area. This allows the chickens to feed on the fly pupae that inhabit the manure. In fact, the chickens naturally get 15% of their feed from this practice, just as they might in a  natural setting. So, not only are they getting essential food for a healthy diet by moving around in the eggmobile, but by scratching for pupae, they are also depositing cow manure across the pasture, which is essential for healthy grass and plants to grow. 

In Animal Farm, how does Orwell's vocabulary effectively describes the morning after the revolution?

Orwell's words describe, in general, the awe the animals experienced when they realized that the farm was in their control. Orwell wrote the following in chapter two:

But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembering the glorious thing that had happened, they all raced out into the pasture together. A little way down the pasture there was a knoll that commanded a view of most of the farm. The animals rushed to the top of it and gazed round them in the clear morning light. Yes, it was theirs—everything that they could see was theirs! In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement. They rolled in the dew, they cropped mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich scent. Then they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm and surveyed with speechless admiration the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the spinney. It was as though they had never seen these things before, and even now they could hardly believe that it was all their own.

Then they filed back to the farm buildings and halted in silence outside the door of the farmhouse. That was theirs too, but they were frightened to go inside. After a moment, however, Snowball and Napoleon butted the door open with their shoulders and the animals entered in single file, walking with the utmost care for fear of disturbing anything. They tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak above a whisper and gazing with a kind of awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their feather mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet, the lithograph of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room mantelpiece. They were just coming down the stairs when Mollie was discovered to be missing. Going back, the others found that she had remained behind in the best bedroom. She had taken a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs. Jones's dressing-table, and was holding it against her shoulder and admiring herself in the glass in a very foolish manner. The others reproached her sharply, and they went outside. Some hams hanging in the kitchen were taken out for burial, and the barrel of beer in the scullery was stove in with a kick from Boxer's hoof, otherwise nothing in the house was touched. A unanimous resolution was passed on the spot that the farmhouse should be preserved as a museum. All were agreed that no animal must ever live there.

The word 'glorious' in the first line tells us the Rebellion was seen as something magnificent, a spectacular event which filled the animals with wonder and admiration when they realized it had actually happened. The animals just had to see for themselves what they had achieved, which is why they had to get to a higher point to take in all they had won. Once the animals did that, they were overcome with ecstasy and celebrated their success by dancing and jumping. They were excited and just had to experience everything as if it were something new.

Orwell informs us the animals' perspectives change completely. They were like newborn babes. Things which had previously seemed unimportant, boring, or mundane suddenly took on significance. These things were now theirs to own and control. That is why the grass tasted sweeter and the earth smelled richer. The animals explored the entire farm and saw everything with new eyes, unable to believe everything was really theirs.

When they went to the farmhouse, the animals' fear stopped them from entering. The place had achieved a significance which held them in awe, as this was the home of their previous tyrant, the one who controlled their destiny. Once they were inside, the animals displayed an innate respect for the place and did not speak, walking silently from room to room. The house almost achieves the status of a shrine. Orwell describes individual pieces of furniture from the animals' point of view, showing they saw ordinary items as things akin to holy relics.

Orwell then takes a sudden break from the serious mood and relates something very ordinary—Mollie's vanity. This indicates that those with materialistic ideals never see any value in things except when it enhances their own self-worth, a trait later adopted by the pigs to emphasize their arrogance and conceit. We then return to a somber mood when Orwell describes the discovery of the hams and their burial. To some readers, the description may come across as a piece of black humor because humans usually just see a piece of ham as meat. For the animals, however, the hams are evidence of man's brutality. What was left of their slaughtered comrades had to be treated with dignity and had to be interred with solemn respect.

On the whole, Orwell's descriptions accurately emphasize how the animals were overwhelmed by their achievement and their new position on the farm. The animals became masters of their own destinies. The greatest irony, however, is that all their glory would soon be trampled into the very same dust that they, at this point, admire so much. The corrupt and greedy pigs will betray the other animals and systematically destroy everything they achieved.

What is Jonathan lwegbu's attitude toward life? Please illustrate with examples from the text that show his attitude. Why did Jonathan mistrust...

Jonathan Iwegbu is the protagonist in Chinua Achebe’s short story “Civil Peace.” This story was written shortly after a three-year-long civil war in which Nigeria’s Ibo people attempted and ultimately failed to separate themselves from Nigeria to establish their own nation. With this kind of background, it might be easy to write a protagonist who is angry, bitter, or vengeful. But in Iwegbu, we get a character who is the opposite of those things. Instead, he is an optimistic, grateful, industrious, resilient man of faith who understands what truly has value and in whose hands his life lies.

Achebe (1971) introduces readers to Iwegbu in the first sentence: “Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself extraordinarily lucky.” He also tells us that “happy survival” is part of Iwegbu’s character and that "[h]e had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings—his head, his wife Maria’s head, and the heads of three out of their four children." We know immediately that Iwegbu has lost one child in the war, yet we find him not angry but grateful for those who survived. Iwegbu is also blessed to still have his bicycle, which he nearly lost during the war. He was able to bribe the “officer” trying to take his bike with money he had set aside for firewood. He buries the bicycle until the war is over. He is amazed when he finds it still serviceable, and declares, “Nothing puzzles God” (Achebe, 1971). This is a phrase repeated three times in the text, and it can be understood as, “God knows best.” Iwegbu seems to live his life in accordance with this belief.

In addition to being grateful, Iwegbu is industrious. He uses his bicycle to start a taxi business. He supports his children in selling mangoes to soldiers’ wives and his wife in making and selling akara balls to neighbors. When he has saved some money, he opens up a bar “for soldiers and other people with money" (Achebe, 1971). Instead of mourning what he has lost, instead of sitting around waiting for his situation to change, Iwegbu works harder and begins to remake a life for himself and his family.

Another of the miracles Iwegbu discovers, and presumably part of the reason he believes himself to be so blessed, is that his house, although in the middle of a war zone, has survived mostly intact. Although “the doors and windows were missing and five sheets off the roof,” Iwegbu asks, “But what is that?” and sets about picking up pieces of wood and soggy cardboard and hiring a “destitute carpenter with one old hammer, a bent plane, and a few bent and rusty nails” to repair the damage to their home (Achebe, 1971). He realizes again that he is blessed when he discovers that many with whom he worked pre-war had nowhere to return; they sleep in the dirt outside the company offices and scrounge what food they can. Even when his ex gratia money is stolen, Iwegbu tells his sympathetic neighbors, “I count it as nothing” and reminds them that nothing puzzles God. He also makes the point that he did not have that money the day before, or the week before, and it has no value  compared to other things he could have lost. True to his character, Iwegbu and his family pick up and begin again; without complaining he straps his demijohn to his bicycle, his wife begins making akara balls, and his son rinses out beer bottles. Readers understand that life will go on in “happy survival” (Achebe, 1971) for Jonathan Iwegbu.

How does El Nino affect the world?

El Nino is a term that is used to describe the increase in the surface water temperature of the central Pacific Ocean.  This occurs when north-easterly trade winds which serve to keep the surface of the water cool are weakened.  The area of ocean affected is a large area of water that when warmed, has a significant effect on the weather systems throughout the world.   

El Nino results in more rainfall in parts of South America and the southwest United States.  In addition, there is an increase in hurricane activity.  Furthermore, El Nino increases high pressure over much of Europe resulting in drier weather with higher temperatures.  The weather in Canada is warmer than usual when an El Nino event occurs.  Moreover, snowfall is reduced in central U.S. states.

These weather changes can produce significant changes in agriculture for the year in which the event occurs.  Furthermore, it can have an effect on the abundance and price of many commodities and goods; this can have a significant effect on developing countries.  Deadly storms may be more likely to occur in some places throughout Earth.  In addition, countries face a significant financial burden as a result of the aforementioned occurrences.  

How is "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown" portrayed through the character of Macbeth?

When Macbeth murders Duncan, he can no longer go back to the point when his conscience was more or less clear. He has stepped into the realm of darkness, where he is tortured by his thoughts of insecurity and doubt. The witches' prophecy becomes engraved in his mind, and he cannot help but remember the witches said Banquo's sons would inherit the throne one day. This news greatly perturbs him:

They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. 

Although Macbeth gains power when he takes the throne, in a way, he loses more. He loses his peace, compassion, and all sense of right and wrong. He becomes tormented by his insecurities and his belief that others will attempt to dethrone him. 

Macbeth takes the witches' prophecy too seriously and decides to kill Banquo and his son. This will lead to many more misdeeds on Macbeth's part because he has forever lost his common sense. He wants to get rid of anyone who could potentially harm him in any way. This will lead to his imminent downfall.

How would you explain the poem "Advice to My Son" by Peter Meinke?

In this poem, a parent--either a mother or father--provides guidance to a son about how to live life. In the first stanza, the parent suggests that the son must "live your days / as if each one may be your last" (lines 1-2). The son must realize that life can be fleeting and, unfortunately, can end at any time. However, at the same time, the son must "plan long range" (line 5). If the son survives, he must plan ahead so that his days resemble heaven more than hell.

The parent's advice in the second stanza follows along the same lines, as it involves suggestions that the son balance the practical with the beautiful. For example, the son must plant not only peonies and roses, which are for beauty alone, but also practical foods such as tomatoes, squash, spinach, and others. This idea is metaphorical. The parent means that the son must cultivate activities that are for beauty at the same time that he attends to practical matters in life. Similarly, the son should marry a beautiful wife but, in a practical vein, investigate the wife's mother before he marries to see that she has aged well and is a good person. The son can be soulmates with one person but just work practically alongside another. In the last two lines, the parent suggests that the son always have bread--the practical part of life--along with wine--the beautiful part of life. 

In "Everyday Use," how would you describe the way that Dee reacts to the food and objects in her mother’s house? Discuss Dee’s mother’s and...

It can be argued that Dee (Wangero) reacts to the objects and foods in her mother's house with seeming wonder and admiration. On the surface, Dee's bubbly demeanor is infectious; she is extravagant in her praise for the heirloom quilts, the churn top, and the dasher.

However, all is not as it seems. Dee's new alter-ego is Wangero, and she makes it known to her mother and sister that Wangero is unabashedly cosmopolitan, empowered, and enlightened. Alice Walker uses the character of Dee to portray those in the Black Power movement who, in the journey to rediscover their African heritage, unintentionally marginalize their African-American peers.

Although Walker understands the desire of those in the Black Power movement to reclaim their rightful legacy in Africa, she disagrees with their tendency to trivialize the sacrifices of African-Americans on American soil. Historical records indicate that a substantial number of African-Americans fought on the side of the North in the Civil War; still many others participated in peaceful resistance against the Jim Crow laws and others fought to secure freedoms for all during the two major world wars. In the story, Alice Walker alludes to African-American sacrifice by highlighting the rich history of the quilts:

In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jattell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War.

For her part, Dee (Wangero) decides to relegate her mother and her sister, Maggie, to the outer fringes of her new consciousness; to her, their seemingly wilful ignorance and dangerous sentimentalism offends her present sensibilities. Unmindful of Maggie's feelings, Dee aims to appropriate the quilts for herself, maintaining that Maggie will "probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use," if the quilts are left in her care. Maggie, quiet and patient, decides that she will not argue with her flamboyant and beautiful sister.

"She can have them, Mama," she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her. "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts."

Because of her injuries, Maggie has always taken a back seat to Dee's more extroverted personality; additionally, in light of Dee's new identity, Maggie finds herself intimidated into subservience. For her part, although Mama is proud of Dee, she is also irritated and hurt by Dee's assumed, superior attitude towards her and Maggie. Mama knows that Dee has always been materialistic; yet, coupled with her stubborn new focus on an idealized Africa, Mama fears that Dee has forgotten to cherish all that the African-American experience encompasses.

Dee wanted nice things.  A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she’d made from an old suit somebody gave me.  She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts.  Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time.  Often I fought off the temptation to shake her.  At sixteen she had a style all her own: and knew what style was.

Through Dee, Maggie, and Mama, Alice Walker makes the point that African-Americans should embrace all of their history, including the unpleasant parts. In the end, our sympathies may rest with Maggie and Mama, as they stand together in solidarity against Dee's encroaching arrogance and obvious contempt.

"You just don't understand," she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car.

"What don't I understand?" I wanted to know.

"Your heritage," she said, And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, "You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live, you'd never know it."

Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real smile, not scared. After we watched the car dust settle, I asked Maggie to bring me a dip of snuff. And then the two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed.