In "An Astrologer's Day," what details and techniques does Narayan use to describe the astrologer?

The astrologer is an impressive character. As the narrator says, if he had stayed in his village

...he would have carried on the work of his forefathers--namely, tilling the land, living, marrying, and ripening in his cornfield and ancestral home.

But when he was forced to flee the village, he was able to develop a whole new personality and survive in a densely populated urban environment by using his intelligence. The story suggests that many people who live in primitive rural conditions could likewise develop all sorts of hidden talents if they had the opportunities. 

The astrologer lives by his wits. He knows how to put on a show to attract passers-by, and he knows what to tell them, even though he is well aware that he has no mystical knowledge. He has no education and is probably illiterate. But he has "street smarts," "moxie."

He had a working analysis of mankind's troubles: marriage, money, and the tangles of human ties. Long practice had sharpened his perception.

He only collects small coins for his consultations, no doubt because most of the people who stroll in the park for recreation have little extra spending money. It is apparent that he must sit for long hours in order to collect enough to keep himself and his family alive from day to day.

...his eyes sparkled with a sharp abnormal gleam which was really an outcome of a continual searching look for customers, but which his simple clients took to be a prophetic light and felt comforted.

Money is of great importance to him in his precarious profession. In addition to his superior intelligence, he is courageous and determined. When he is dealing with Guru Nayak and his life is in imminent danger, the astrologer still insists on haggling over money. He brings every single coin home to his wife so that she can buy food for the family. Evidently he is a devoted husband and father.

"An Astrologer's Day" is a study in the vicissitudes of life and of one type of adaptation. The astrologer would have been an ignorant peasant if he had remained in his village, but the big city forced him to adapt to entirely new conditions, and he managed to find a niche in which to survive, marry, and reproduce. He is a survivor. We can identify with him because we all have to learn to survive in this world by adapting to our environment.

Based upon information in the text and through informed speculation, what does Miss Brill look like in Katherine Mansfield's story "Miss Brill"?

Miss Brill is probably a woman who is slightly past middle age because she seems rather old-fashioned, wearing a necklet that she has owned for some time. She also ranks other people that she sees as either "young" or "old."

In the story that is told from the perspective of Miss Brill, the reader notes when Miss Brill goes to the park to listen to the Sunday concert that she observes: "The young ones, the laughing ones who were moving together, they would begin...."
Later, Miss Brill alludes to the very "old invalid gentleman" to whom she reads the newspaper four times a week. This activity suggests that Miss Brill is older because usually young people do not want to read to really old people, nor do they have the time. Also, her association with this man suggests her connection to an era that is now obsolete. Further, when the old gentleman asks if she is an actress because of the way that she reads, Miss Brill smooths the newspaper as if it were a manuscript of a play and says with kindness, "Yes, I have been an actress for a long time." This remark may have the hidden meaning that for years she has pretended to be someone she is not because she has not married or has no children. She may even have called herself an actress because she has accomplished little that is significant in life.

After a while, as Miss Brill listens to the music and hears something "so beautiful--so moving..." her eyes fill with tears in her sentimentality, an emotion usually more reflective of a woman who is, at least, middle-aged. Also, she thinks to herself:

Yes, we understand, we understand, she thought--though what they understood she didn't know.

Then, when the "boy and girl" sit down where the "old couple" had been, the middle-aged Miss Brill notices that they are infatuated with each other. In her romantic mind, she thinks, "They were beautifully dressed; they were in love. The hero and heroine, of course...." as she sings along, soundlessly to the music being played.

Miss Brill then hears the girl tell her boyfriend, "No, not now....Not here, I can't." The boy asks her why not. "Because of that stupid old thing at the end there?" the boy asks. "Why doesn't she keep her silly old mug at home!" And, the two laugh at the little fur of which she has always been so proud.
Hurt by the young couple's remarks and giggles, Miss Brill returns to her "room like a cupboard" without stopping as she usually does for a "tiny present" for herself at the bakery. Once in her room, she sits for some time without moving. Finally, she puts away her obsolete little fur in the little box and she thinks that "she heard something crying." Such sentimentality is usually indicative of an older person who was young in another era. 

Would you argue that the areas (i.e. Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa) can properly be called non-western? Why or why not? Would...

Huntington defines Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa as non-western. He writes, "Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition, and, most important, religion" (page 25). He states that economic modernization and social changes have weakened the nation-state and have made religion more important in helping people define their identities, leading to fundamentalist forms of religion. Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are partly non-western. It could be argued that they are also western in many ways, as parts of these regions also follow Christian religious traditions, which are western. In addition, their histories and languages are in part western, as the recent history of the world is interconnected, and western languages, particularly English, are now spoken almost everywhere. However, religious differences remain in these regions, particularly the Middle East. Latin America is more western in its orientation, as it has western religious traditions (mainly Catholicism), languages, and recent history.

The conflict between the western and Islamic world, as Huntington pointed out, has been going on for over 1,300 years (page 31). Increased immigration from the troubled Middle East to Europe and other areas of the west has only worsened this tension and increased forms of racism. Therefore, for the short term, it seems like the situation between civilizations will be one of conflict; however, it is difficult to predict if increased immigration to the west will eventually result in making the west more comfortable with Islam. Therefore, it is unclear whether conflict is inevitable in the long term. In addition, our relationships with China seem to be improving over time, resulting in more cooperation than conflict. 

What is the fate of Mrs. De Ropp?

Mrs. De Ropp dies when she is attacked by Conradin's polecat-ferret, Sredni Vashtar. The story of how she dies is faithfully described by the author and is presented as a case of poetic justice.

Accordingly, when Mrs. De Ropp demands to know if Conradin is keeping guinea pigs in the tool-shed, he doesn't apprise her of the truth. So, she marches down to the shed to see for herself, after she retrieves the key from Conradin's bedroom. It is clear that Mrs. De Ropp aims to clear out any offending articles she finds in the shed.

Meanwhile, Conradin watches her from the dining-room window. He prays that Sredni Vashtar will rise up against his oppressor. However, even as he prays, Conradin despairs that his nemesis will ever be defeated. He imagines that, after she finds Shredni Vashtar, her triumph over him will be complete. The gardener will be tasked with carrying away Conradin's prized pet, and he, Conradin, will once more be subject to Mrs. De Ropp's "pestering and domineering and superior wisdom" until he succumbs to an early death.

However, his hopes rise when he sees not Mrs. De Ropp emerge from the shed but the ferret:

Hope had crept by inches into his heart, and now a look of triumph began to blaze in his eyes that had only known the wistful patience of defeat. Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean of victory and devastation. And presently his eyes were rewarded: out through that doorway came a long, low, yellow-and-brown beast, with eyes a-blink at the waning daylight, and dark wet stains around the fur of jaws and throat.

The "wet stains" allude to the fact that Mrs. De Ropp has not survived her encounter with Shredni Vashtar. This fact is further confirmed by the maid's screams and someone's pitiful lamentation about not being able to break the news to the "poor child."

What are positive and negative lessons about love learned from the characters in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night?

Twelfth Night is one of the greatest plays ever written about love. Many of the characters do gain new insights through losing their hearts. And while Shakespeare certainly doesn’t set out to be didactic, audiences listening to his words may also learn some very human truths. Are these “lessons” positive or negative? That depends on your perspective. There’s a lot to be said on this topic. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Viola: The first thing we learn about Viola is that she and her brother Sebastian have just been shipwrecked. Viola has been miraculously rescued, but she’s in anguish at the thought that her beloved brother may have drowned. Because she cares so much, she must struggle with this terrible dread until almost the end of the play.

Viola hatches a scheme to disguise herself as a young man (“Cesario”) and join the court of Duke Orsino, the ruler of Illyria. In her very first scene, Shakespeare foreshadows the fact that she is going to fall in love with her new employer. When she hears the duke’s name, Viola recalls her father mentioning it to her long ago:

VIOLA
Orsino! I have heard my father name him:
He was a bachelor then.
                                        [I.ii]

In what context, we wonder, did Sebastian Senior mention Orsino to his young daughter, and inform her that the duke was unmarried? Could it be that he was considering Orsino as a possible husband for Viola?

Viola does fall for the duke, and finds herself trapped in a dilemma: she can only serve him as long as she maintains her disguise, but as long as Orsino believes she’s a boy, he will never see her as a woman. Even worse, Orsino is infatuated with Olivia, and sends “Cesario” off to woo the beautiful countess on his behalf. The devoted Viola finds herself using all her eloquence to persuade Olivia to marry the man whom Viola herself loves.

If Viola didn’t know it before, her experiences in Illyria teach her that deep love makes us vulnerable to pain. One reason her character is so appealing is that, despite all the suffering that she experiences, she continues to love Sebastian and Orsino with absolute devotion.

Olivia: Olivia, too, is already grieving at the start of the play. She’s in mourning for her father and her brother, who have both died recently. While we may suspect that she’s using her bereavement as an excuse to keep Orsino at arm’s length, there’s no reason to think that her grief isn’t real:

VALENTINE
The element itself, till seven years' heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.
                                                   [I.i]

Olivia herself has never been in love. She finds Orsino’s suit irritating, and she has no real empathy for him. Viola finds Olivia’s coolness infuriating:

VIOLA
Love make his heart of flint that you shall love;
And let your fervor, like my master's, be
Placed in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty.
                                                [I,v]

Little does Viola realize that Olivia has just fallen in love with “Cesario,” believing him to be a man. (It’s interesting to note that Olivia speaks in prose — that is, ordinary language rhythms rather than iambic pentameter — up until halfway through her first scene with Cesario. There, she switches into blank verse, and continues that way until the end of the play. This is  Shakespeare telling the actor (and us), “Here is the moment when Olivia falls in love and everything changes.”)

Olivia now discovers what love really feels like, and she’s amazed:

OLIVIA
Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit,
Do give thee five-fold blazon: not too fast:
soft, soft!
Unless the master were the man. How now!
Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
Methinks I feel this youth's perfections
With an invisible and subtle stealth
To creep in at mine eyes.
                                      [I,v]

Olivia suffers less for love than some of the other characters do. Luckily for her, Viola’s twin Sebastian is available to step in and change places with his sister, giving Olivia a genuine “Cesario” to marry.

Orsino:  Does Orsino truly love Olivia? He tells us that he loves her for her beauty:

ORSINO
Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty:
Tell her, my love, more noble than the world,
Prizes not quantity of dirty lands;
The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her,
Tell her, I hold as giddily as fortune;
But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems
That nature pranks her in [i.e., her looks] attracts my soul.
                                                [II,iv]

Orsino’s relationship with “Cesario” is very different. The two of them spend time together, talking about life and love and their families. Because she is disguised as a boy, Viola is allowed to develop a type of relationship with Orsino that he would never ordinarily have with any woman. When he discovers at last who she truly is, Orsino is in no doubt that he loves her:

ORSINO
    If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,
    I shall have share in this most happy wreck.

   [ To VIOLA]

    Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times
    Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.

 . . .

    Give me thy hand;
    And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.
                                                       [V, i]

Thanks to those early discussions (and arguments) with “Cesario,” Orsino has learned how to love her in a way that he never loved the remote and lovely Olivia.

Malvolio:

OLIVIA:
Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio . . .
                                               [I,v]

Malvolio’s real love is his own vision of himself as a great and powerful gentleman. Like Narcissus, he falls for an insubstantial reflection of himself: a fantasy which Maria plays on to bring about his downfall. Because of his ambition, all of his personal relationships in the play are determined by status. He is not interested in Olivia for herself, but for the power and authority that marriage to her would bring him. By the end of the play, having been tricked and humiliated and terrified, Malvolio is bent on revenge. Has he learned anything? I see no evidence that he has. What do you think?

What is the difference between a laser light and an incandescent light?

An incandescent light is a more technical term for traditional light bulbs, which produce light via incandescence. This is the term for the light emitted by objects when they're heated, in the same way that some metals will glow when placed in a fire. Incandescent lights use a piece of wire, usually tungsten, and transmit electrical energy into the wire, heating it until it's hot enough to glow. Note that not all light bulbs are incandescent; in many places they're being replaced with various other types of bulbs, such as fluorescent lights, due to the poor efficiency and lifetime of incandescent bulbs.

The main point of comparison between an incandescent and laser light is in the characteristics of the light they emit. Emitted light is typically the result of electrons in an atom absorbing and releasing specific wavelengths of light. Tungsten is a relatively heavy element with many electrons, thereby providing many different energies that the atom can absorb and release. This is part of why the light they emit appears white; it is releasing many different colors at once, but if you looked at the tungsten spectrum you'd see many differently-colored lines, each of which corresponds to the energy released from a specific electron transition. 

Laser light, by contrast, is defined as light that is emitted as a single wavelength, and all of those wavelengths are being emitted in phase, and in the same direction. This produces a light that has a single color and a very tightly focused beam. In comparison to incandescent light, this would be like taking just one of those electron transitions from tungsten, and only allowing that particular electron transition to take place, and then filtering it. In fact, this is basically what a laser does; by only allowing specific energies to excite its "medium" (i.e. whatever the laser is using instead of a tungsten wire) it only allows certain wavelengths of light to be generated; it then filters the wavelengths so that only the ones in phase are emitted, and it does this through a very narrow lens that produces a tightly-focused beam. 

What is Pollan's central thesis in In Defense of Food?

Michael Pollan is regarded by many as a revolutionary in the food world of the United States. (His influence can be felt all throughout the world, though.) For Pollan, the big question is, "When we can eat everything, how do we know what we should eat?" In his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, he tackles this question head on, and expands upon these ideas with In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. 

Pollan argues in In Defense of Food that many people today, especially the majority of the United States, don't eat "real food." We eat "food-like substances--" that is, stuff that has been processed, refined, and had nutrition added back in such a way that it resembles food but it utterly different from something like a fresh tomato or whole beef steak. In the United States (and elsewhere), most of the food you find in a grocery store falls into the category of food-like substances. What we gain in preservation and regularity of a food item, we lose in nutrition, flavor, and sustainability. 

Pollan encourages people to reject the highly-processed diet which focuses on nutrition more than it focuses on whether a food is actually a real, healthful food item. He feels that Western culture has become so caught up in "nutritionism," equating it with health, that we might prefer a product that advertises a certain amount of nutritional quality rather than a food which naturally has the same. For example, people might be more inclined to eat crackers which advertise four grams of fiber per serving over a bowl of steamed cracked wheat.

Pollan's book rejects the industrial food complex and engineered foods while defending the tradition, health qualities, and environmental sustainability of eating whole, real foods. Pollan previously introduced us to the mantra, "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much." In this particular book, I feel he would alter this statement to begin with, "Eat real food."