What happens to the housing market in the case of rent control?

Rent control is the classic example, used in practically
every textbook, of a price ceiling.  Price ceilings always (according to economists)
lead to a shortage of the good or service on which they are
placed.

To see a graphic representation of why this is,
please follow the amosweb.com link below.

If you look
there, you will see that a price ceiling is placed (if it is to do any good) under the
equilibrium price and quantity.  When this is done, the new price (the one set by the
rent control) will cross the demand curve at a quantity that is much higher than the
quantity at which the line crosses the supply curve.  This (demand > supply) is
the definition of shortage.

If you think about this, it
makes sense.  If you artificially lower the price of something, more people will want it
(because it's cheap) and fewer people will want to sell it (because they make less money
when the sell it).  This leads to a shortage.

What plan is devised by Truth and her uncle to locate Robert up north and why are they blindfolded in Who Comes with Cannons?

Truth and her uncle plan to travel north on the
Underground Railroad to locate Robert and bring him back home. Truth, who speaks with an
Illinois accent, will accompany her uncle on the dangerous quest to be his spokesman, as
his Southern accent will arouse suspicion above the Mason-Dixon line. The Underground
Railroad, which is a network of safehomes connected by brave individuals sympathetic to
the abolitionist cause, is by necessity a secret operation. Great care is taken to
preserve this secrecy, and it is for this reason that Truth and her uncle are
blindfolded during their journey. It is important that the two Friends not know the
details of where the safehouses are on the journey, nor should they be able to identify
the people who help them on the way. By scrupulously keeping these details secret, the
operators of the Underground Railroad hope to avoid detection by the authorities, so
that they can continue their work of helping slaves escape to
freedom.

Truth and her uncle have heard that Robert is
being held in a Yankee prison in Elmira, New York. Truth's uncle wants to see for
himself that Robert is there, then he plans to appeal directly to President Lincoln, who
is known to be sympathetic towards Quakers, and who will hopefully secure Robert's
release. As things turn out, Truth and her uncle are attacked by an
angry, Quaker-hating mob in New York, and her uncle is injured badly enough that he
cannot continue on their mission. Truth presses on alone, and, with the invaluable help
of an escaped slave named Squire, she manages to get audiences first with Mr. Frederick
Douglass, and then with the President's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln appeals to
her husband on Truth's behalf, and the President gives Truth a letter, instructing the
establishment at Elmira to release Robert. Truth goes on to Elmira, where the
authenticity of the letter is confirmed. Robert is set free, and he and Truth return
home on the Underground Railroad.

In The Outsiders, why is Ponyboy worried that he did not call out for Darry while he was sick?

Remember that by the time we get to Chapter 10 there is a
pretty serious amount of tension between Ponyboy and Darry.  Darry is, of course, Pony's
big brother and he has been raising Pony and their other brother Sodapop ever since
their parents died.  Pony has felt that Darry is too harsh with him and they have been
kind of mad at each other.

So Pony is worried now that he
did not call out for Darry while he was delirious.  He is worried that Darry will think
that Pony does not love him or care about him.

Can you give a very brief summary of Paradise Lost?

John Milton's Paradise Lost is broken
up into three parts:

• Books 1-4 focus on
  Satan


• Books 5-8 focus on
  Christ


• Books 9-12 focus on Adam and
  Eve.

Milton believes in Monism (one God), so
Satan and Jesus are sons of God.  The epic poem begins with the (1) Fall of Satan from
Heaven: he is an anti-savior who wants to reap converts to Hell using his daughter Sin
and son Death.  The epic then moves on to the (2) creation of the world.  Next, (3) Man
(Adam) is instructed to beware of sin by the angel Raphael.  Then, (4) Adam and Eve sin
in the Garden.  This is the focus of the poem: the fall and eventual redemption of
mankind.  Jesus assumes the form of man to bridge the gap between man and God after the
fall.  Finally, (5) Adam and Eve are foretold their future by the angel Michael.  They
are led out of Paradise, but they are hopeful.  Overall, Milton champions the absolute
freedom of man and individual to choice: "to the pure, all things are pure; to the
impure, all things are impure."

What does the title Look Homeward, Angel mean?

Actually, the title "Look Homeward,Angel" comes from the
John Milton poem "Lycidas" with the line "Look homeward, Angel,/now, and melt with
ruth,"...the novel was originally supposed to be titled "Oh, Lost!" but Maxell Perkins
and others at Scribers veto-ed it.  The title now refers to the journey of the narrator
to reconcile the death and subsequent journey of the title
character.

Ultimately, it's a message of
hope.

In Hamlet, how does Polonius contribute to his fate by always playing the role of the "fox?"

Polonius meets his fate by being in the "wrong place at
the wrong time," but he is in that place because of his plan to spy on Hamlet as he and
Gertrude have a conversation in her private rooms.  This conversation is a "set-up" by
Polonius, Claudius, and Gertrude.  They hope that Hamlet may reveal what is making him
act in a manner so not like his former self. 

Throughout
the play, Polonius is determined to be in the know about the Hamlet situation.  He
claims to have the answer to Hamlet's madness when he says that Hamlet is mad because of
Ophelia's rejection of him.  He is determined to maintain that theory as the play
progresses, which is a sign of his desire to maintain his reputation for being right. 
At one point he even claims, "has there ever been a time when I have said, 'tis so' when
it proved otherwise?"  He wants to prove his theory so in Act 3 he sets up a
conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet where Claudius and Polonius will then spy on
them from a secret hiding place.  This scene with Gertrude at the end of Act 3 is the
the spy-session that does him in.  Hamlet, thinking that the noise from behind the arras
is Claudius, stabs through the curtain hoping to kill Claudius.  When he kills Polonius
instead he expresses very little remorse, calling Polonius a "wretched, rash, intruding
fool."  That seems to nicely sum up Polonius's character in this play. 
 

How do I tell if two line segments are intercepting?I have a line segment going from (2,2) to (3,5), and another going from (7,2) (3,0), which...

Two lines which are not parallel to each other are
intersecting. As your question mentions line segments there could be a possibility that
they don't intersect but if they are extended to form complete lines, they will
intersect if they are not parallel.

Let's take the lines
passing through the points you have provided. To calculate the slope of a line passing
through (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) we need to evaluate: (y2 - y1) / (x2 -
x1)

(2, 2) and (3, 5): the slope of the line through them
is (5 - 2) / (3 - 2) = 3.

(7, 2) and (3, 0): the slope of
the line through them is (2- 0)/ (7 - 3) = 2 / 4 =
1/2.

Therefore the lines passing through the
given sets of points are intersecting as the slopes are not
equal.