What are some quotes in Fahrenheit 451 about Mildred's laziness?

Mildred’s laziness is an example of the lack of engagement among people in Montag’s society.

In Montag’s society, people drive fast and watch a lot of television.  They do not form deep relationships with each other, and they certainly do not care much for each other.  Montag's wife Mildred is the perfect example of this.  She is lethargic and insensitive.

For example, every night Mildred lays in a stupor listening to her seashells.  She is completely unaware of the world around her.

The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning. There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea, had not gladly gone down in it for the third time. (Part I)

Montag feels disconnected from Mildred.  She is more interested in the comatose state than him.  She watches television or listens to the music.  They barely talk, and there is nothing like actual love between them.  She even tried to kill herself, but suicide attempts are common in Montag’s culture.  People see no reason to live.

Montag feels as if he has no connection to Mildred, because she is more interested in the imaginary television people than in him.

Well, wasn't there a wall between him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally not just one, wall but, so far, three! And expensive, too! … No matter when he came in, the walls were always talking to Mildred. (Part I)

The television is society’s way of keeping people controlled.  They are so entranced with the television people that they forget to live their own lives.  This is the way most people operate.  Books have been outlawed, but initially they were just no longer needed.  People had everything else, they did not need mental stimulation.  The government decided that thinking was dangerous.  People would be happier without it, and easier to control.

Unlike Mildred, Montag craves more.  She is perfectly happy to live with the fake families on the television and drown herself in music.  He wants to have actual interactions with people and experience the full spectrum of human emotions. It is what turns him into an outlaw.  He is curious about living with more.

What are the contributions made to aviation by a) William Piper b) Harry Houdini

William T. Piper, Sr. was an aviation industrialist early in the history of the industry.  He served in the Army during the Spanish-American War then returned to the oil business in Pennsylvania.  When the oil industry in that state began to wane, Piper ended up investing in an airplane manufacturing company.  He eventually owned the company and began manufacturing airplanes with the Piper Aircraft Corporation in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania in the 1930's.  During the second world war, his popular aircraft model "Cub" became popular with the military (the military models were nicknamed "Grasshoppers") in both Europe and the Pacific.  After the war, he became known as the "Henry Ford of the aviation industry" by mass producing affordable small airplanes and offering low cost flying lessons with the purchase of one.  He is credited with greatly expanding the personal aircraft industry in the latter half of the 20th century.

Harry Houdini is better known as a popular magician and escape artist at the turn of the century than as a figure in the aviation industry.  At the height of his career he was an avid fan of flying.  He got his pilot's license, purchased an aircraft, and even hired a full time mechanic to work on it.  He does hold the record for making the first controlled plane flight in Australia in March of 1910, completing a flight of about six miles in seven and a half minutes less than seven years after the Wright brothers made their famous first flight in the US.  He was the first pioneer aviator to capture his achievement with film cameras.

What is the "near libel" which Jem puts in the front yard? How do Miss Maudie and Atticus react to it?

When it snows in Maycomb, Jem and Scout decide to build a snowman in the front yard. They begin to build it, and then decide to model the snowman after Mr. Avery, their quirky neighbor. When Atticus sees their snowman, he can immediately tell it is supposed to be Mr. Avery. He tells Jem that he has "perpetrated a near libel here in the front yard" (Chapter 8). He lightheartedly implores his son to change the snowman's appearance to make him look less like Mr. Avery. Atticus suggests that Mr. Avery may be unhappy if he sees the snowman.

Jem has the idea to change the snowman into a snow woman. He runs over to Miss Maudie's house. He borrows her hat and hedge trimmers and puts them on the snowman. Miss Maudie sees what Jem has done, and scolds him with a smile on her face.

What topics did Edgar Allan Poe write about during his career?

Edgar Allan Poe was interested in many, many topics and wrote about them during his writing career. Though he did write about "death, gloom, despair, and mental illness," as you said, he also had other interests. His gothic or dark stories were about murder as in "The Tell Tale Heart," and revenge as in "The Black Cat and "The Cask of Amontillado." He wrote about the plague in "The Mask of the Red Death," and torture in "The Pit and the Pendulum." Probably Poe's most famous work was a poem, "The Raven," about the loss of his lover and questions about the afterlife. 

Few people know that Edgar Allan Poe wrote what we would call dark comedy. An example of this is "The Angel of the Odd," a story about a drunk. Additionally, he wrote "The Balloon Hoax," which was published as an article in the New York Sun in the mid 1800's. People thought it was true, but it was completely made up by Poe.  

Along with horror and mystery, Poe also wrote adventure stories!  "A Descent into the Maelstrom" was about three fishermen encountering a hurricane.

Then, there was a love story called "Eleonora," possibly based on his great love for Virginia, his wife.

Poe was a man of great talent, whose stories and poems inspired many other writers throughout the years.

Where is Michael Pollan's, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, farm located in Virginia? I want to plan a visit.

The author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan, probably does not want drop-by visits by readers of his nonfiction book. As with most authors, however, you can contact him directly about potentially scheduling a visit or meeting, or maybe just a phone call, through his publisher, in this case, Penguin Publishing Group. Write to:

Michael Pollan

c/o: Penguin Publishing

375 Hudson St
New York, NY 10014

You can send a letter to Pollan at this address and there is a good chance he will respond. He is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and maintains an office there. The university website provides the following contact information for Professor Pollan:

121 North Gate Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-5860
USA

Email
pollan@berkeley.edu

Website
http://michaelpollan.com

Telephone
+1 510 642-8240

Fax
+1 510 643-9136

Finally, it should be noted that the farm in Virginia to which you are probably referring is the Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, which sits in the Shenandoah Valley near the border with West Virginia. Polyface Farm is owned by Joel Salatin, who welcomes visitors to his spread where he specializes in sustainable agriculture. Below is a link to Salatin's homepage, where he provides detailed information on how to get to his farm:

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

The address is 43 Pure Meadows Lane, Swoope, VA, 24479. 

What are possible titles for a thesis about how a single mother might ensure the future of her child?

There are a number of different formats for titles. When you write a title, the main thing to be sure of is that it reflects certain aspects of the thesis. One way to do this is to use a multi-part title. For example, a title for a thesis about mothers and children might be: "Mother and Child: The Bonds of Influence." A title like this can reflect the thesis and hint at the conclusion without saying too much about your findings. In other words, you don't want your title to close down the essay, but you want it to prompt your reader and drive them to continue reading. The title above might make the reader ask, "What are the bonds of influence? Where do these bonds lie?" and so forth.

In "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, what are the different types of persuasive techniques used? Provide concrete examples from the text.

Any analysis of Jonathan Swift's “A Modest Proposal” must deal with the fact that the essay is first and foremost a satirical piece. Swift is using the essay to create a farcical situation in which the speaker (who is not intended to represent Swift himself) seems to be advocating the eating of children as a means to alleviate suffering, over-crowding, and a bothersome lower class.

Because Swift does not really mean what he is saying, the primary technique used in the essay is irony. Irony is something surprising or unexpected, often the last thing a reader would expect to encounter. When Swift opens the essay with a description of the problems associated with urban poverty, the reader is expecting some sort of logical proposal to improve the situation. That is not what he gets. 

The speaker takes his time to build his case, using other persuasive techniques such as 

• Statistics—in paragraph six the speaker calculates the number of children born annually to poor parents.


• Bandwagon—in paragraph two the speaker starts off with “I think it is agreed by all parties” and then goes on to state that there are too many poor children and a solution to the problem needs to be found.


• Logical Appeal—in paragraph four the speaker claims to have a solution that will not only save poor parents the expense of raising children, but will actually bring them money.

It is not until paragraph nine that the speaker finally unveils his grand idea:

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.

From this point forward, everything becomes intensely ironic, as the speaker builds his case for this preposterous idea. Swift's intent is to use his speaker to highlight the dispassionate cruelty of the ruling British and the practical coldness of the scientific elite of the Enlightenment period.