Can anyone tell me the extent of Ashoka's empire?

Ashoka's empire encompassed almost the whole of the Indian
sub-continent. Geographically, it stretched from present day Afghanistan and Pakistan to
Bangladesh.  Alexander the Great had conquered a great deal of India; but when he
withdrew, this left a power vacuum that was filled by Ashoka's grandfather,
Changdragupta Maurya. This was the beginning of the Mauryan dynasty. After his death,
Ashoka conquered the remainder of the sub-continent in a campaign that was quite bloody.
The bloodshed caused him to dedicate himself to
Buddhism.

Ashoka’s empire crumbled almost immediately after
his death in 232 B.C.E., largely due to economic difficulties. The cost of maintaining
an army (which was largely inefficient) outpaced revenue; and subsequent emperors
attempted to compensate for the loss by debasing the currency (reducing the gold or
silver in the coin without reducing its face value.) The Mauryan Empire disintegrated c.
185 B.C.E., after which local rulers ruled a series of localized
kingdoms.

How do Frankenstein and Blade Runner explore aspects of humanity?

Both of these texts are very similar in the way that they
ask serious questions about what it means to be human through profoundly muddying the
waters in the creation of creatures who are not human yet at the same time show many
characteristics of being human. In both texts, the replicants and the creature are made
by humans. The texts explore different facets of human experience constantly causing us
to question how we are differentiated from other forms of life. In a sense, the creature
and the replicants seem to be difficult to separate from humans. Both are able to have
emotions and to feel longings and passions within them. Both are able to love and are
shown to need the warmth of human companionship. Both are shown to be able to dream and
to have desires.

In addition, it is possible to argue that
the replicants and the creature are shown to be more "human" than the actual humans that
they interact with. Let us not forget the cruel and chilling way in which Josephine was
condemned to death in Frankenstein, and the way that the replicants are hunted down one
by one and cruelly slaughtered in cold blood by Blade Runner's such as Dekkard. Such
texts then serve to seriously question our ideas about humanity and what makes us human,
suggesting, perhaps, that we may not be that "human" after all.

Prove this identity: tan x = (sin (x + 2pi))/(cos(x - 2pi))

tan(x) = sin(x+2pi) /
cos(x-2pi)

We will use trigonometric identities to prove
the equality.

We know
that:

sin(a+ b) = sina*cosb+
cosa*sinb

==> sin(x+2pi) = sinx*cos2pi +
cosx*sin2pi

==> sin(x+2pi) = sinx*1 + cosx* 0 =
sinx,..........(1)

Now we know
that:

cos(a-b) = cosa*cosb-
sina*sinb

==> cos(x-2pi) = cosx*cos2pi +
sinx*sin2pi

                      = cosx*1 + sinx*0 =
cosx.............(2)

Now, from (1) and (2) we conclude
that:

sin(x+2pi)/cos(x-2pi) = sinx/cos x = tanx
.........q.e.d

==> Then we prove that
tanx = sin(x+2pi)/cos(x-2pi)

I need a quote that helps prove "being different" in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, preferably something about Tom Robinson or Boo Radley.

Boo Radley is certainly the most unusual character in
To Kill a Mockingbird, but there are a few other eccentric citizens
who can more easily be found on the streets of
Maycomb. 

BOO RADLEY.  Boo is
never seen until the final chapters of the story. He is a recluse, hiding in the Radley
house until darkness falls, when he makes his unseen rounds of the neighborhood. Gossip
runs rampant about Boo around town--he eats squirrels, poisons pecans, and peeks in
windows. But in the end, he shows an unexpected heroic side when he comes to the aid of
his neighbors.

readability="6">

His face was as white as his hands... his cheeks
were thin to hollowness... his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind... His
hair was dead and
thin...

DOLPHUS
RAYMOND.  A wealthy white man who lives with his black mistress, Dolphus
ranks second only to Boo as a subject of town gossip. He is misunderstood and he likes
it that way. He deliberately weaves about the town, pretending to be drunk as he sips
from a straw in a bottle hidden by a paper sack.

readability="7">

As Mr. Dolphus Raymond was an evil man, I
accepted his invitation reluctantly... I had a feeling that I shouldn't be here
listening to this sinful man... but he was
fascinating.

MISSES
TUTTI & FRUTTI.  Only mentioned once
in the story (in Chapter 27), the sisters Sarah and Frances Barber were known as
"Tutti and Frutti" to those in Maycomb. Perhaps they were the oddest couple in Maycomb:
They were Republicans, Northern Alabamans, unmarried, deaf, and they had the only house
with a cellar in town.

readability="9">

... why they wanted a cellar, nobody knew, but
they wanted one and they dug one, and they spent the rest of their lives chasing
generations of children out of
it. 

What is the purpose of Chuck Close's grid in his work?

The use of the grid methodology in Close's work was quite
deliberate.  In replicating the chosen sample through the grid method, Close was able to
create multiple examples of a "picture within a picture."  Each grid contained its own
definition of color and when fit together, comprised a whole that made it difficult to
distinguish part from whole.  I think that the purpose here was twofold.  The first was
that Close wanted to forge the link between art and representation through pictures.  In
doing so, one is challenged by the notion of pictures versus art and Close's grid method
is able to make this happen.  From a symbolic point of view, there is something quite
profound about smaller pieces, insignificant by themselves, contributing to a larger
fabric or vision which is impossible without their composition.  I think that the Grid
method is one way in which Close was fairly radical for an artist.  The grid method is
something that art classes now use quite often in order to teach students about the
notion of composition and breaking down artistic barriers, even at the youngest of
stages.  This is something that Close was fairly effective at through his use of the
grid method.

Identify a conflict that pits a character against a force of nature in "The Interlopers."

Much of the conflict which happens in "The Interlopers" by
H.H. Munro (Saki) involves man and nature. While the story is about two men who
literally want to kill one another, the setting of the story (which includes the weather
as well as their surroundings) prepares the reader for their
enmity.

One clear conflict between man and nature in the
story is the weather. On the night in which the story takes place, there is a violent
storm. The narrator says it is so bad that the night creatures are not out and the rest
of the animals in the forest are running away rather than just taking shelter as they
normally do.

readability="10">

The roebuck, which usually kept in the sheltered
hollows during a storm-wind, were running like driven things to-night, and there was
movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to sleep through the dark hours.
Assuredly there was a disturbing element in the
forest....

It is this vicious
wind and storm which causes the tree to fall--the tree that traps Georg and Ulrich and
eventually makes them easy prey for the wolves, another force of
nature.

In Danticat's "Night Women," what does it mean that the heroine is caught between the day women and the night women?

In "Night Women," part of Krik?
Krack!, Danticat exposes the difficulties of women who must earn a living in
a country with sorely limited employment opportunities. The heroine, like many other
women in Haiti, chose to sacrifice her values, beliefs, and body in order to provide for
her young son and keep him fed and housed. As a result, she became a professional
prostitute; she became a member of the profession practice in the night; she became a
night woman.

However, her soul remained a woman of the day. Her
beliefs and values remained sacrosanct in her soul even if they were sacrificed in the
physical world. This is what Danticat means when she writes, through her heroine’s
thoughts, that the heroine is caught between the two worlds of day women and night
women.

The love and care she gives her young son is testimony that her
soul is still a woman of day, even though she wears her bright, blood-red scarf on the
streets during the day to attract customers, “suitors.” The fact that she tells her son
stories of ghost women who "ride the crests of waves while brushing the stars out of
their hair" while letting him sleep in his Sunday best testifies to her care and concern
to disguise this secret night life from her son.

This dichotomous
pull of necessity and inner essence is what Danticat's heroine means when she says that
she is caught between the day and night worlds of women. This is what the heroine means
when she answers her small son’s question, “Mommy, have I missed the angels again?” by
saying, “Darling, the angels have themselves a lifetime to come to us.”: her soul
remains in the day, so the angels will come to them eventually.