Marketing Analysis on Google Inc Essay

With the objective of â€Å"To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful† (Google, 2012), Google expands its business to strive towards becoming the leader of internet-related provider, in particular in Internet research and advertising technology. The company has expanded nationally and globally, providing its search service in a large number of different languages and countries through its own unique strategy. The report starts with a discussion about the market Google is operating in, how Google smartly manages its internationalisation and globalization strategy according to its own market position in different stage. Followed by the comment on whether its diversification strategy appropriate across the whole international market. The report then will evaluate this strategy mainly focus on the aspect of the potential to damage its own brand, especially based on the case of their failure expansion in the Chinese market. Then the report will look at impact for the market as Google fully enter the Android market, Google’s business model in terms of reating revenue will be described and processed by the critique of whether the model would be sustainable in the long term. The report finally will define the market Google operate in and how it enters into android market will be explained in detail. Additionally, there are some recommendations provided in terms of its sustainable development through the whole report. ? Defining the market which Google Inc’ operates in? The market in which Google operates in is collaborative and interactive; Google has acquired and merged with different companies, which have given it a competitive edge over other firms. It recently acquired Motorola and this brought a lot of speculation as to whether it could handle the hardware business without any prior experience or necessary skills According to the case (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012), Google had no skills in the supply chain, monitoring physical stock or achieving efficiencies. However such acquisitions have benefited Google because it has been able to have more reach as it can now target mobile users with the new hardware business. Other companies it has collaborated with are HTC and T-Mobile on implementing the Android platform. Competition The environment is also quite competitive. Having to face giants like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook means that Google has to be highly adaptable and maintain their market share by being more aggressive in their marketing strategies. (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012), Google says that their acquisition of Motorola will be able to intensify the competition. Motorola’s purchase will fully bring Google into the mobile market as they will now have hardware for their operating system Android, Also Motorola will strengthen the patenting of Google as they have more than 17,000 patents in their name. Apple and other mobile providers might feel threatened by this move. (Rusli and Miller, 2011) Diversification More to this, Google has not focused on its core business of being a search engine rather it is diversifying and looking for new opportunities for growth. Google has expanded into other segments such as maps and Google scholar, in the communications section there is Gmail and an enterprise segment where cloud computing and Google docs are involved, social networking among others. This means that Google is not only able to reach a wider audience but that it is able to spread risks. Diversification means that in case one area of their business fails they have an alternative to rely on. (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012) Innovation Google’s survival could be attributed to its highly innovative structure. It has a culture of being innovative and an atmosphere that encourages employees to bring new ideas and creativity. However, Google must keep on innovating in order to outdo their competitors and to keep at pace with the changes in the highly volatile global environment (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012) Infrastructure Together with all the companies that Google has acquired, they also have data centers and servers which it uses to create its web presence and to store information. These infrastructures increase reliability and make information access faster. Google Inc’ had a total of 90,000 servers by 2010 and they invested heavily on technology this gives Google a good platform. Pg. 4 Some of it is virtual for example cloud computing. (Tangirala and Debapratim, 2012) ? What’s internationalization and globalization strategy? In which way Google is going? Internationalization strategy is a development strategy that enterprises want to offer their products and services outside their home country, it usually reflected in the form of greater existence in different locations around the world. That is why internationalization also refers as international expansion (Stephen and Karin, 2002). Internationalization strategy is a development planning during the process of internationalized operation and management, which is designed to give the assistance of improving company’s competitiveness and environment adaptability. Corporations have adopted this strategy view overseas market separately. They treat the markets differently due to various markets’ features. Globalization strategy refers to the procedures of global integration, which incorporate the international operations and markets into a united strategic entity (Stephen and Karin, 2002). Corporations that use this strategy are generally powerful multinational enterprises, they attempt to monopolize markets in their own industries. However, if using this strategy inappropriately, it is more likely to have a detrimental effect on the whole company. The merit of globalization strategy is that companies can concentrate their efforts in building competitive advantages by leveraging capabilities and coordinating activities through boundaries. Which like a double-edged sword, the demerit is that it is hard to coordinate between each subsidiary as well as between headquarter and subsidiaries, because each host country has their own business characteristics. According to the collected evidences Google tends to be relying on the globalization strategy. To begin with, as mentioned above, one reason for companies adopting a globalization strategy is that they want to monopolize the market in their own industry. Definitely, Google achieved this goal. In October 2011, Google accounts for 82. 4% of the worldwide desktop search engine market share. Furthermore, in 2008, Google shifts its international marketing structure form representation offices to Research and Development center, and then to partnerships with other enterprises, which reflected that Google gradually integrated the competitive advantages from the alliance partnership and improved its own capabilities (Ronen, 2009). In addition, Google has many R&D centers worldwide. For instance, if the software was R&D in Israel, this software is not only specialized in Israel market, but also launched globally by using different languages. Therefore it is clear that Google did not focus on localizing their products or services for different markets nowadays. Finally, globalization is focusing on building united competitive advantage. In order to keep its competitive edges, Google transfers and share outcomes of technology innovations within various R&D centers, and with alliance partnerships to connect the operation nd management activities from different counties and locations. Google’s retrieval from china, impacts upon globalization plan. According to the list of info-facts (2012), China is the second most powerful country in the world. And in Fleming’s (2010) report, â€Å"U. S. , China, and India will be the three most powerful countries in 2025†. These illustrate that China is a hugely influential nation around the world. Moreover, China has more than 500 million internet users (Efrati & Chao 2012), and the number is still increasing. China is a market which cannot be ignored. Google’s retreat from the Chinese market has definitely impacted upon Google’s overall global expansion strategy. Most of the Asian countries have strong regional relationship and China has a widely impact on them. As we all know, eastern countries are in high context cultures, but, Google is from a low context culture which is totally different from high context culture. Their ways of running a business are quite different. It seems that if Google cannot operate successfully in China, it cannot operate well in other Asian countries either, such as Japan and Korea. And this will deeply impact its global expansion strategy. As the picture (adapted from Chardonneau’s slides) shown in appendix 1, Asia owns the biggest internet market, and Google’s coverage in Asia is so weak. If Google still wants to achieve its global expansion strategy, it has to come into the Asian market and first of all, Google needs to solve the problem in China. In fact, Google’s quit in China offers its competitors a good opportunity to enter into the Chinese market. After all, not all the international companies are unable to handle the operation problems in China. Since Google announced its retreat, its market share has declined 5% and its biggest competitor in China, Baidu has increased by 50% (Powell 2010). Other internet companies like Microsoft, Sohu and Tencent where all benefit from this great opportunity which offered by Google (Powell 2010). Cultivating your competitors will obviously diminish your own benefits. More and more powerful competitors will absolutely hamper Google’s global expansion. In addition, they need to keep putting efforts to the beta test before they aunch any new products into new market, especially in the Asian market. It needs to customize it according to different market to satisfy local consumers. As discussed above, one of the main reasons why Google failed in the Chinese market was because it did not use ICP, which is a compulsory for all websites operating in China (Zhou, 2009). ? Diversification strategy working in the international market The multi-diversification strategy is generally appropriate a cross the whole international market. This strategy is being used in different markets, while the only difference is whether it more focus on direct-diversification or indirect-diversification that depends on the intensity of competition on the core products. Briefly, since 2004 Google’s endeavor mainly focuses on encouraging innovation by bottom-up through the whole company. It acquires innovative companies to diversify into new areas or to add value to existing technologies and services (Kotelnikov, 2012). From â€Å"personalized web†, â€Å"Google News†, â€Å"Website Optimizer† to acquire technology to put up online display and banner advertisements by buying out â€Å"DoubleClick†. Followed by the direct diversification, Google, starts to expand its new product line through indirect diversification strategy. For instance, Google enters the social networking space through launching â€Å"Orkut†, â€Å"Google Checkout† then was launched as a payment gateway for online buyers and â€Å"Google Chrome† which is a representor of a desktop browser, see appendix one. Firstly, in the current global market, Google’s diversification strategy take the development of its core products as a priority. It makes a great contribution on perfecting its core competency—search engine, which is the most profitable product. Additionally, it also increases the reputation of â€Å"innovation† for Google all over the world. Multi-products line adds more values for the consumers will become the main competitive advantages for Google in the long-term in the international market. Therefore, the benefit of diversification strategy is to protect current market share and attract potential customers by World of Mouth. Particularly, Google launches early nd often in small beta tests before releasing new products into the market, with many markets becoming more and more competitive as a result of new competitors from global or deregulated markets, those who innovate best will win in the future (Kotelnikov, 2012). Secondly, while even through the company put great efforts to add more value on its core products, the competitors also come up with substitute products, for example, â€Å"Powerset† from Microsoft and â€Å"Search Monkey† just launched by Yahoo attack the weakness of Google, providing a much flexible search engine. Google needs to add up more new product lines to create and exploit economies scope. In particular, â€Å"Baidu† whose market share in China is up to 78. 3%, while only 16. 7% of â€Å"Google’s Hong Kong Site†(Baidu, 2012). Google can use its direct-diversification strategy, which pays attention on internal growth of search engine to increase its market share in the market, which doesn’t have a strong competition, such as Australia. The indirect – diversification strategy should be used in the market that already has some strong competitors such as China, Korea. It is certain that the risk of this diversification strategy is there is a huge investment in the new businesses and the majority of the new businesses haven’t started making profit for Google. However, take current global market trend into consideration, the strategy will work in the long term in the international market. If we look closely at year 2009, revenue from ads on their sites accounted for 83% of the total. Compared to 2008, this item represented 90% of Google’s total income. Nevertheless, the growth rate of these â€Å"windfall† is, so far, relatively modest (Sebastian, 2010). Thinking of Google, what product stands out? But are there too many? Is Google too ubiquitous now is an arguable question in recent years? â€Å"I think that, ultimately, we do have too many products and we need to condense them,† Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search, said Friday at the SXSWi conference in Austin (Matt McGee, 2011). According to the map of Google’s product in the appendix, Google products now covered in many different fields such as search engine, social network, music, mobile system etc. But there is people say † As Google Becomes More Ubiquitous, They Get More Sloppy † (Jeff Y, 2012) â€Å"Google is taking information from almost all of your Google services † (Tsukayama, 2012). It was very serious privacy issue and been intensely discussed. † Google makes its money by selling yourself; by knowing where you live, what videos you like watching, and your entire search and surfing history, Google sells targeted advertising to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per year. Selling you is 96% of Google’s revenue stream. ( Anthony, 2011). Google was not obligated to pay a fine for doing so but the brand was damaged to some extent. Google also faces the risk from failed product or services. â€Å"It comes down to having too many things going on at once. At Google, quality control is slipping. † (Jeff Y, 2012). For example, Google lunched Google Buzz in February 2010, it was considered a threat to Facebook and twitter but it’s been shut down very soon in November 2011 by Google because of the lack of users and the late show in the market compare with twitter. The failure of Google buzz damaged not only the real money but also the trust and confidence of consumers toward the brand. (Rob, 2010) Besides, with too many successful products, customers may lose what the brand Google really represents which is also a risk of brand damage. â€Å"We’re very aware that our business is based on the trust of users and if damaged then that’s the worst thing we could do. † The new privacy director said. (Google, 2010) But will all these factors really hurt Google? The answer is uncertain. As we can see from the Googleland map in appendix , Google’s main product is always the search engine and they use all the other products to support it. â€Å"Today, with approximately 70 percent domination of the global search market, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnivorous and ubiquitous Google keeps upping the ante to stay on top of the search engine game. â€Å"(Callari, 2012) Therefore some people argued that as long as people still use and trust the Google search engine, the Google brand will not be hurts seriously. Google’s foray into Android market, all around impact. In this section, we will focus more on Google’s capability after it has bought Motorola and gain access to becoming one of mobile phone providers with its own Android OS. After Google has bought Motorola, there are a few implications to mention here. First of all Google will be the owner of all patents from and therefore will be of a great support for Google when their mobile phone enters the market where Apple is a dominant player (Reisinger, 2011). During the launch of a new phone company is most likely to be sued by their competitor arguing over the originality of the phone. Therefore after having Motorola as a patent support Google may save a lot of money in this aspect. Secondly is that Google now has a capacity to create and manufacture their own mobile phone and tablet PC. The benefits of buying Motorola also extends to the field of hardware that Motorola has been in for sometimes, what Google has bought to it self is the hardware manufacturing ability, ranging from TV top box, internet TV to internet router and live stream (Bryant, 2011). Therefore again apple will have to be careful since now Google has a potential to fight Apple not just in the field of mobile phone but also as a TV top box provider i. . Google TV (Purdy, 2011). Thirdly it is not clear that when the new Motorola, Google phone is released, it will come with the newest Android OS or not. But move to buy motorolla to gain access to manufacturing capability can really affect Google’s android mobile partner. One clue to this argument is current news about Samsung, which has been Google’s main Android phone provider, has announced that its mobile phone in a short future will also feature the windows operating system (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2012). Although the news said it was all about Samsung providing more variety to the consumer, but it can also be thought of an uncertainty avoidance move by Samsung who might feel an aggressive move by Google coming into the hardware market. Perhaps besides Google and Motorola as the two winners from the incident, Microsoft surprisingly might gain benefit from this incident (Wortham, 2012). This move from Google is actually what Microsoft is hoping for because besides Google, the only well know non-phone maker operating system is the â€Å"windows 8† from Microsoft. The moment of changes to watch out for is the time that Google’s partners feel that they are indeed competing against Google instead of having Google as their partner (Wortham, 2012). Microsoft windows 8 here will then act as a preferable alternative operating system for those ex-Google’s partners to adopt. So what will happen in short-long run for the market? In the short run it will not change much because the majority of the mobile phone relies on Android OS. Breaking off partnership with the OS they rely on is really not a good idea in the short run. Also since by law after closing the deal that Android will still remain free for another five years (Waugh, 2011). In the long run the story may be entirely different. It is expected that mobile phone manufacturers may start thinking about an alternative plan according to Google’s moves. If Google still keeps its promise that buying Motorola is just for its own defense, then it is still a great idea to have such a big company as your support (Wortham, 2012). How does Google create revenue? To scrutinize the business model of Google Inc, one impressive feature in this model is that Google offers free resource to the end user. Analyzing the reasons behind it, Google’s philosophy is to share information universally and make it accessible globally (Google, 2012). Thus, the characteristic of free is a necessary catalyst which accelerates Google to become the largest search engine company around the world. By doing this, advertisers have become the main income rather than the end users.

Defense Information System

Defense Information System (DIS) refers to a military global protected telecommunication network that simplifies the conveyance of information in a worldwide space. It is driven by transmission requirements, security demands, and geographical needs of the targeted end-user groups (Soomro 2016). Centrally, it is designed and managed to provide a long-haul information transfer. Furthermore, it is configured to provide a more sophisticated point –to-point exchanged voice and data, teleconferencing video and image services. The DIS offers an integrated operational standard user services to satisfy the connectivity requirements. It is a digital-based defense strategy, that facilitates access to vital information across the globe through efficiently designed services such as information assurance, data services, multinational sharing of information and computer hosting. Moreover, DIS forms a key spectrum of military force operations which include defensive tactics, humanitarian efforts, offensive tactics as well as counterterrorism (Stahl, 2008). The ultimate goal of Defense information system is to help in achieving information governance by providing an effective infrastructure that may be of an advantage to the user in a combat.On the other hand, ethics refers to the prescribed code of conduct which are morally justified to administer the defense information system. Major ethical issues involved herein include privacy of information, Access to information, information accuracy and right to Intellectual property. Rapid growth in information technology through its improved dimensions for communication, computation, surveillance, retrieval and storage has sounded an alarm on privacy matters (Kizza, 2007). This is to say that, the unethical retrieval of data and access to information by unauthorized persons has greatly threatened the privacy of integrated security systems networks. Therefore, principles of ethics agitates for protection of privacy policies in relation to access of every sensitive information. Information accuracy is another ethical issue of concern. Upholding to an inaccurate information is misleading hence, it is a sole responsibility of the defense information system to be vigilant in pursuing the accuracy of its information. Imperatively, they should be certain that their information are based on facts as opposed to fiction (Stahl, 2008). The final ethical issue in defense information system is the right of intellectual property. This forms the most complex right faced by many in the contemporary society and the military is not an exemption. Substantial ethical concerns surrounding this stem from the information traits which makes it transferable. Any Defense Information system information is believed to be costly (Stahl, 2008). Furthermore, once produced, it is easier to copy and transfer to others. This makes it difficult to safeguard such information due to its intangible nature. It is worth noting that several institutions such as copyrights and patents have come in to managed and protect the rights of intellectual properties. The worldwide process is narrowing the space steadily as a result of what Kant describes as the public use of reason. Information Technology has greatly improved the effectiveness of the Defense Information System. It has enabled quick decision making through enabled rapid access to functionalities of creating, finding, using and sharing of the needed information. Quicker access to information by commanders from anywhere has also improved control and commanding. Additionally, it has also accelerated the speed of actions thus heightened the ability to coordinate all security issues across the globe. Other expeditious contributions of information technology on DIS includes improved cyber security, improved information security postures, as well as the defense effectiveness. However, the state territory is privately constrained by certain interests which differ from the individual reflection concerning the general subjects in a public domain. The greater disparity therefore emanates from the free public use of internet and other media due to their enormous private control. Since information is provided on demand in our cloud computing era, access to web-based tools by users via browsers has led to abstraction of customer details, which has raised questions of privacy and transparency. Ethics in relation to privacy of information for both individuals and organizations have been heavily affected negatively as a result of technology (Mingers, 2010). On this aspect, cyberspace has posted more security threats to nation-states in a context of increased dependency of worldwide networks and computer based interactions. Cyber-attacks, scams, image manipulations, infringements to computer systems and copying particular unauthorized software demonstrates the unethical practices facing the defense information system unit. It is therefore imperative for stiff ethical measures to be put in place to hasten security of the nation states with the advancements in technology. Contemporarily, no state agency can apply control to privacy to prevent the exposure of one's close secrets to others (Zizek, 2013). Regarding to the larger size of data, computers have failed to interpret and register multi-millions of data therefore making it difficult to detect suspicious message making state communication of information more unsafe. However, the defense information system has not been much helpful due to increased illegal malpractices according to Snowden and other whistleblowers. On this regard, denouncing of the public authorities and engaging in public use of information has greatly threatened the secrecy of individuals (Snowden, 2013). In conclusion, defense information system is a telecommunication network enabled system designed to simplify the transfer of information across the globe. It was majorly implemented by the military operational forces in United States which include defensive tactics, humanitarian efforts, offensive tactics as well as counterterrorism. The ultimate goal was to achieve control of information by providing an effective infrastructure for users in a combat and to improve on the general security across the globe. However, ethical issues in defense information system include Privacy of information, accuracy of information, access to information and the Property right. Despite of the drawbacks, DIS has remained focused to work with the new technological innovations and achieve their set missions.

The theme of the display will be representative examples of Saints and Martyrs created during the Reformation, the theme is to display the notion of the Catholic Church as the one true church separate and distinct from the Protestantism. Art works developed in the Catholic Church at this time were to be unique and focus on specific aspects of the Catholic dogma. The art pieces I have selected are strong examples of the beliefs of the time that art should focus on: Jesus Christ, Mary the Virgin Mother, Saints, and martyrs. This exhibition would be a balanced representation, as it shows an uplifting painting in The Dream of Saint Catherine as well as the suffering of those who, literally, gave up their lives for their faith in the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew and in Saint Sebastian, showing both central figures suffering for what they believed in and the splendor of angels taking Saint Sebastian to his savior. The use of vivid colors interspersed with blacks and grays was typical and used to draw the viewer closer to see what lies in the darkness of the images. The viewers should learn that art of this time was limited, somewhat, in terms of subject and content, but was unlimited in each artist’s different rendition of the Saints and Martyrs of the day. I chose this topic and these images because they are excellent examples of the church’s vision of what constituted appropriate art at the time, â€Å"prior to the Reformation, the Catholic Church was considered elitist, rather than a place for the masses. The Counter-Reformation changed this approach and the Catholic Church tried to be open and transparent to all audiences. Art was a way to teach both the literate and illiterate about Christianity† (Crocker Art Museum).   The Catholic Church’s view of what was acceptable and expected in art, was, in many ways,   prescriptive, i.e., pious individuals were to be a main focus to encourage piety in those who gazed upon it. It forced the artist to meet the criteria established by the church, to include what subjects were favored, how the images should be direct and compelling in the narration and should be presented in a clear manner, without unnecessary embellishments. Finally, the art was to be simple enough tha t ordinary people could easily understand the story being portrayed, to the extent possible. The three pieces fit together as a collection because they represent the subjects giving up something for their faith. Saint Catherine gives up the possibility of being a wife and a mother through her imaginary marriage to Christ. This sacrifice is reinforced by the images of Mary and the infant Christ accompanied by angels both in the forefront and in the darker portions of the painting. Saint Sebastian is an image of the saint’s â€Å"state of emotional transport and transcendence of bodily pain.† He is accompanied by angels that are supporting him, representing the notion that he is not alone. Get high quality custom written essay just for $10 The angels appear to be taking Sebastian to a better place as a reward for his suffering and persecution of being a Christian under the reign of Diocletian. The last painting, Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, is another representation of someone giving up their lives for their church, but it is slightly different in that Bartholomew is alive in every sense of the word and although he is a sympathy inducing subject, he does not dwell in the suffering, but looks towards heaven. â€Å"The viewer is meant to empathize with Bartholomew, whose body seemingly bursts through the surface of the canvas, and whose outstretched arms embrace a mystical light that illuminates his flesh. His piercing eyes, open mouth, and petitioning left hand bespeak an intense communion with the divine; yet this same hand draws our attention to the instruments of his torture, symbolically positioned in the shape of a cross.† The three pieces placed together represent the artist’s interpretation of ev ents in a manner that comes across as almost three dimensional. The figures in each of the paintings, particularly the main figure, appears as though they could burst off the canvas with ease. The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria was painted by Logovico Carracci, c 1593. Lodovico was the oldest of the three Carracci’s from the family of Bolognese artists who are recognized as having â€Å"inaugurated the age of the baroque.† His work was in high demand due to the fact that his depictions of Saints were known for eliciting piety in those who laid eyes upon his work. The piece was completed when Carracci was about 38 years old. The painting at one time was even owned by the French Royal Family. The figure of Saint Catherine asleep was based on an ancient Roman statue. Saint Sebastian by Tanzio De Varallo. Tanzio da Varallo (Antonio d’Enrico) was born c. 1575 in Varallo in the mountains north of Milan and orphaned at 11 when he moved to live with his brothers who were working on the Sacro Monte, where he first received his artistic training. In 1600 he was given permission to go to Rome for the Jubilee Year. There is strong evidence he traveled to Naples and Venice, where he continued to work and study. He died in Varallo Sesia in 1633. De Ribera was a Spanish Tenebrist painter. A great deal of his best known work was done in Rome, Italy, and Naples where he finally settled. This painting was done while he was living in Naples. Little is written about the specific reasons for each piece, other than the pious nature of the subjects and the similarities to paintings made by each artist in the time period. The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1593, exemplifies the goals of the Guidelines for Church art following Council of Trent: Be clear, intelligible, realistic, to be an emotional stimulant to the faithful, emphasis on the mystical, and a tool for instructing the illiterate. The image is of Saint Catherine dressed in the finest of clothes sound asleep accompanied by two angels, Mary and infant Jesus looking down at her spiritually and supportively. The colors, where they are used, are bright and inviting, and the darker portion of the painting is mystical as the shadows seem out of proportion, â€Å"at the same time, the quirky folds and pleats cascading down Catherine’s garments impart a vertiginous sensation — the dizziness of sleep.† Rely on professional writers with your college paper and take a load off your mind. Relax while we are working on your essay. Your peace of mind is just one click away

METHODOLOGY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

METHODOLOGY - Essay Example Research Design A research design is critical in establishing the outlay upon which data analysis will occur. A research design aids in achievement of the research objectives through a purposeful articulation of the overall theme of the research (Katherine, 1998, p.2). In addition, the research design helps in explaining the reason for which a particular kind of data is necessary for the research (Kiecolt & & Nathan, 1985, p.6). The design helps in showing the intended use of the data in a way that seeks to attain the research objectives. The research design for this research seeks to marry the objectives of research with the practical possibilities that are achievable from our chosen method of data collection. This research makes use of both quantitative and qualitative secondary data to unravel elements in the data that reveal information consistent with our research aims. By a combination of authentic secondary data sources, our methodology will help use comprehensively fulfill th e intended research objectives. ... the secondary data used in this research are government records, industry data sources, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, journal publications, books, annual reports, magazines, and company data. Specifically, the research uses data touching on various aspects of shareholder rights in UK, US and China. Some of the data discussing shareholder issues include books on corporate governance discussing companies, and other sources exploring the place of shareholders. Information needed Secondary sources help in identifying related areas of research, which require further inquiry. In addition, secondary data sources outlining the legal frameworks upon which shareholders base their actions undergo careful analysis regard to each of the three countries under study. For the achievement of this purpose, sources of data from professional corporate regulatory bodies such as the ICSA and GAAP form a constituent part of the research framework. With the use of such sources of da ta, we can comprehend the legal groundwork on which shareholders can operate. In consideration of the research objective, which emphasizes the use of real life cases from companies from each of the three countries, three companies, one from each country goes under scrutiny for this analysis. The case studies help us to gain a more intimate understanding of shareholder behavior, and legal realities the shareholders face for each of the three countries. In particular, secondary data from three companies aid in achievement of this objective: Balfour Beatty Plc. of UK, KBR of the US, and CNOOC limited from China. For the research to display a more encompassing perspective on the issues under consideration, the research also enlists the use of company data and annual reports to identify details

Companies must develop effective Crisis Communication techniques to Essay

Companies must develop effective Crisis Communication techniques to respond to problems or dangers - Essay Example Crises Communication is considered as the sub speciality of the profession related to public relation designed for defending or protecting an organization from facing any kind of public challenge associated with its reputation (Greenberg and Elliott, 2009). The challenges may arise in the form of any criminal allegation, investigation or inquiry from the government agency, any sort of media inquiry, violation of rules and regulations associated with the environmental conditions etc. In today’s world of social media, it is certain that every company will face crisis. The question is when the crisis is going to take place. The combined effort of millions of common people playing the role of ‘citizen journalists’ along with infinite number of different online platforms guarantees the organizations that they would be victimized by someone, by means of spreading damaging message, which are often rumours. If somehow those rumours are found to be true then the companies can be put to defensive corner before they can gather relevant evidences in their own favour. When there is an emergency, then it becomes very important for the organizations to communicate. ... Thus, the most important component in this situation is to prepare for the crisis communication plan, which would enable the organization to clearly communicate to the internal as well as external stakeholders. The organizations should be able to respond accurately, promptly and confidently in such a case of an emergency. The audiences must be reached by these organizations suffering due to crisis for satisfying them with the information that they require. The image and reputation of the organizations can have a positive or negative impact based on the public perception related to this crisis. Thus, in order to face this crisis situation and maintain its reputation it becomes very important for the organizations to plan for an effective crisis communication strategy which would enable them to satisfy the customers, employees and other stakeholders with sufficient justification for the incident. Understanding the audiences properly is very important for the organizations suffering fro m crisis situation. It helps in reaching to these audiences with the most effective communication plan which would satisfy them. There exist many potential audiences who want information at the crisis situation and also after its occurrence. The main challenge that remains for the organization is identifying these potential audiences, determining their needs for the information and then identifying that whether the organization is able to communicate and explain to these audiences. The potential audiences for the organizations include customers; employees; news media; community; the management, investors and directors of the company, government officials etc. The organizations find that public importance is highly significant with advancement of technology and public

The brief and frightening reign of Phil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The brief and frightening reign of Phil - Essay Example In this case, people are focused on stripping the natural resources of Inner Horner (Saunders and Saunders 15). Additionally, the political leadership of the location becomes power-hungry, which leads to grisly political murders in order to hold onto power. The demagogic Phil seizes the chance to assume power of both Outer and Inner Horner. Phil uses unethical strategies such as ruthlessness, flattery and deceit in order to assume to power. The story by Saunders points to human tendencies towards political and social ruthlessness in order to gain power. In order to highlight these tendencies, Saunders uses allegories and symbolism to express his purpose. The symbolism and allegories used in the story represent real world events. Question 1 Saunders’ main purpose in writing the novel is to highlight human tendencies. The story aims to highlight mass hysteria and series of injustices following the assumption to power of power-hungry and tyrannical Phil. Saunders uses symbolism t o describe Phil and the people of Inner Horner, and allegory to describe outer and inner Horner. For instance, Saunders states that Phil is a despot in a fabulous country in Horner. The citizens of this country are cockamamie fusions of organic substance and machine parts. The author uses symbolism by using elements, animals, places and colors in order to represent Horner and Phil. For instance, Saunders states that Carol, â€Å"an Inner Hornerite who resembled a gigantic belt-buckle with a blue dot affixed to it, as if a gigantic belt buckle had been stapled to a tuna fish† motivated Phil to device senseless and cruel systems of leaderships (Saunders and Saunders 22). The author aims to expose the nature of rulers as jealous and power hungry people. According to the author, citizens of a country deserve leaders they can trust. These leaders should act as reflections of the society. The systems used by Phil focused on depressing citizens through unsustainable tax regimes, gen ocide and harassment (Saunders and Saunders 31). This compares events in Horner to recent events in countries such as Bosnia and Iraq. Saunders used symbolism by using abstract characters. Additionally, he uses allegory to create the setting of the story. For instance, the characters in the story are not strictly humans though the story uses the term human. The characters have three arms, legs, unique mechanical parts and organic matter. They have other features such as antlers and additional brains, â€Å"one on the side of his neck and one on his hip† (Saunders and Saunders 42). Allegory is seen when the author describes inner Horner as a small place that only one Inner Hornerite could fit. This means that the other Inner Hornerite had to wait for their opportunity to live in their country. Question 1b This story connects with the ideas of genocide and harassment. Leaders use genocide and harassment to oppress citizens or people deemed as threats to their leadership. Philâ €™s ascent to leadership was motivated by jealous. He aimed to deprive the region of its natural resources in order to deprive its habitats their livelihood. Phil was jealous because Outer Horner was not blessed with the natural resources of inner Horner. As a result, he organized supporters from Outer Horner and hired giants in order march to power. He began by instituting unsustainable tax regimes and relentless mining of the natural resources (Saunders and Sa

English as a Foreign Language in the Saudi Schools Essay

English as a Foreign Language in the Saudi Schools - Essay Example With reference to its effect on student first language oral communication, the study concludes that this is an important issue worth investigation. In 2004, driven by its aims to improve education and cope with achievements in science and technology, the Saudi government decided to initiate a program to begin teaching English as a foreign language to students in the in sixth grade. It was an initial step toward its ultimate goal to teach English in all elementary grades. The resolution was possibly based on the belief that English is the language of the globalized world economies, and that young people would not only benefit from speaking the language but could learn it more easily at a younger age. The general consensus among experts is that younger minds absorb other languages easier than do adults. In the light of this, the paper attempts to measure attitudes of Saudi students in Brighton towards EFL. The paper also formulates recommendations on EFL in the Saudi elementary state schools and invites further discussion of and research into this issue. The following historical background frames the discussion. Since the country has never been colonized by a foreign power, the exact date of or the situational emergence of English in Saudi Arabia is unknown. However, some researchers claim that when oil was found in the 1930s, English emerged with the arrival of American oil companies and their employees. Later, the Saudi government took the initiative and officially introduced and approved the use of English in the country.  

Benefits of Reading and Studying Literature Essay

Benefits of Reading and Studying Literature - Essay Example By dipping into the rich variety of novels, stories, poems, and plays etc, a reader achieves great pleasure and the kind of entertainment that allows him to use his imagination to visualize the story within his own mind. The endless supply of horrors, mysteries, comedies, and tragedies has contributed to the development and progress of the societies and cultures. Secondly, literature makes immense contribution to the improvement of one's knowledge sphere by providing information about various aspects of life. Literature unlocks the culture of the past to the contemporary readers provides the modern society wisdom about life. "Critical thinking skills can be strengthened through the reading of literature, and literature invites students to learn about new cultures. Furthermore, literature can teach students to learn more about themselves and about their own culture." (Irvine, 72) Thus, literature allows one interpret one's own life and emotions and contributes to the growth of humanit y. Thirdly, literature helps one in improving one's knowledge and functions as a system of learning. Literature gives room for personal interpretation and such a personalized reading can ensure the best transmission of knowledge. Therefore, literature ahs great influences on the improvement of personal life as well as the development of the societies and it reminds us of the incredible richness of our culture.

Explain the doctrine of precedent Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Explain the doctrine of precedent - Assignment Example Vertical application of the doctrine of precedent involves inferior courts applying decisions from superior courts in their rulings. Horizontal judicial precedent occurs when a court considers judgments of earlier judges or judges from other courts at the same level of the judicial structure. Superior courts can overturn decisions from other lower courts (Gerhardt, 2008). There are two main types of judicial precedents namely binding precedents, persuasive precedents. Binding precedents are mandatory judicial precedents that lower courts must abide by when making their rulings. Lower courts have to honor these precedents and apply them in their rulings. This mandatory authority usually comes from higher courts such as the Supreme Court (Gerhardt, 2008). Persuasive precedents are those that a judge can rely upon for guidance when making a ruling but need not necessarily apply them. These include decisions by lower courts or other courts in the same level of the judicial structure, obiter dicta statements of higher courts, and courts in other jurisdictions. This policy is very important for promoting justice, which is the main concern of the judiciary. I agree wholly with the relevance and importance of the doctrine of precedent because it plays a very important role in the judicial system of any common law jurisdiction by ensuring predictability of the legal system, maintaining stability, and promoting rational application of the law. Judicial precedent ensures stability of the legal system by maintaining the status quo of the legal system. The fact that Judges are required to uphold earlier decisions in their judgments makes it difficult for the legal system to be overturned or changes from time to time by unprofessional judges. This stability gives the law certain credibility and maintains public trust in the judicial system (Gerhardt, 2008). Without this doctrine, it will be difficult to control the legislative power of courts and authority of

Arthur Miller uses Alfieri for Dramatic Essay Example for Free

Arthur Miller uses Alfieri for Dramatic Essay In the second part of his speech, Alfieri brings about a notion of tragedy, Another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same complaint and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. This gives the audience a hint as to what is going to come ahead. The fact that Alfieri speaks in the third person indicates that the calamity has already happened and he was powerless to stop it. The idea of fate and destiny and destiny is also brought about. When Eddie, the protagonist of the play is introduced the scenario of a typical Greek tragedy is set up. Eddie is a good person but he has a flaw; his obsessive love for his niece, Catherine. If he is then put in an appropriate circumstance where his weakness is tested, he is likely to encounter tragic circumstances. The next time Alfieri addresses the audience the story has already been put into context. The audience are unaware of Eddies love for his niece and he could be easily mistaken as an over protective father. Eddie pays for her typing lessons and has ambitions for her to rise to a different class. You aint all the girls. He is proud of her looks, yet concerned she will attract the wrong sort of men. The heads are turning like windmills. In addition Eddie finds it difficult to admit that Catherine has become an independent woman. I guess I just never figured that you would grow up. This Alfieri soliloquy helps the plot to progress. Again he uses the past tense, reminding us that he is recalling something which has taken place. Eddie is described as good and hardworking man, the audience can therefore sympathise and even like him. However Eddie has a fate and destiny which he cannot control. Towards the end of this short appearance, Alfieri notifies us on the arrival of the cousins and the play again unfolds. Subsequently we meet Alfieri who again mentions Eddies destiny. Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny. Yet again we are given the impression that Eddie is a good person and is someone you would expect to have a fairly normal life. A man works, raises his family, goes bowling, eats, gets old, and then he dies. However we are reminded as Alfieri closes his speech that Eddie does have a flaw and as a result there will be devastating consequences. As a result of which, the audience are left in suspense and uncertainty as to what is to come ahead. There was a trouble that would not go away. His next appearance is one of the most important in the play. Alfieri begins by saying how he is acquainted with Eddie and his family, which helps to put his relationship with the husky, middle-aged longshoreman into context. He then reveals that Eddie came to visit him in the first instance. I remember him now as he walked through my doorway his eyes were like tunnels. Which indicates that Eddie was out of control and looked fierce. Alternatively this could make the audience feel concerned towards his actions and what is to come next. It is the first time in the play that Alfieri transforms from being a narrator to actually a part of the action. As an actor taking part in the action, both his language and behaviour are more formal. In terms of language, Alfieri is more articulate and elevated; his sentences consist of professionalism and throughout this scene he is the voice of reason and sanity as opposed to the prejudiced and hurt Eddie. However Eddie is aggravated by Alfieris clear and focused attitude towards the law, as Eddie cannot differentiate between the law and the justice of the vendetta. But the law is very specific The law does not.

Deception Is An Important Theme English Literature Essay

Deception Is An Important Theme English Literature Essay Sometimes deception can be unintended when the characters dont mean to lie, as in the play by Anton Chekhov, however in Henrik Ibsens play, the deceiver lies intentionally to protect the one she loves. The initial act of deception is shown when Nora deceives her husband and borrows money from Krogstad to save Torvalds life. She then continues lying to him intending to repay back the loan. Nora thinks it her duty to lie in order to protect her husband however this makes her vulnerable as a heroine to Krogstad who now blackmails her. This is an example of a dramatic irony since the readers and most of the characters except for Torvald, know what Nora has really done. Unlike her, Ranevsky, the main heroine of the Cherry Orchard doesnt deceive others but herself. Self- deception is a process of denying logical arguments and clear evidence. Here the themes of changing times and inability to accept change are explored. Madame Ranevsky wants to seek refuge in her childhood past from the despair of her present life, to remember the past and forget the present by refusing to face the reality. After spending five years abroad, she comes back to her beloved home. However she starts crying at the sight of [Her] nursery, [her] dear, beautiful nursery! she feels like a little girl. The nursery is a misnomer and it introduces a very nostalgic atmosphere, which brings up terrible memories of the death of Madames son, which she can not handle. She left Russia for Paris, to forget the memories of her husbands and sons deaths in the first place. When the time comes to auction the cherry orchard, Madam Ranevsky does not want to understand the seriousness of the situation. She does not believe that she can lose the orchard because of the luxury she used to live in, allowing herself everything and now she can not and does not want to accept the fact that she has to change that. The heroine realizes that she has lead a wrong lifestyle, she sinned and overspent, however she does not do anything to change that. She believes that everything will resolve itself. In a similar way, Nora believes that her act of deception was done for the greater good, since she was motivated by her husbands illness and had to save him and so she does not try to avoid any more lies and falsifications. As a matter of fact, she keeps deceiving Torvald, on small things such as eating macaroons and tiptoeing to listen at his door, because she feels the need to conceal the truth from her husband to save their marriage and this is the main source of the plot movement. Torvald in return deceives Nora by making her believe he loves her, he even says Do you know Nora, often I wish some terrible danger would threaten you, so that I could offer my life and my blood, everything for your sake. In reality he prioritizes his reputation before her and just regards her as his property. He only fantasizes about how perfect their life is, which is another example of self-deception. Its clear that their entire relationship is built upon lies and deception. Nora encourages her children to lie to Torvald when she says Dont talk to anyone about the strange gentleman. You hear? Not even to Daddy. By doing that she sacrifices her childrens innocence. Like Torvald, Madam Ranevsky tends to build a fence around herself by ignoring her emotions to create a happy world for herself. When she comes back home, she is restless, she says I cant sit still! I cant do it! [Jumping up and walking about in great agitation.] This happiness is more than I can bear. Laugh at me! I am a fool! My darling old cupboard! [Caressing a table.] My dear little table! . This makes her character ridiculous and from her kissing the bookcases and her reaction over her acquaintances deaths, we understand that she cannot handle anything real. As mentioned before, France was a place of refuge for Madame Ranevsky when she needed to escape and now that one of the most difficult stages of her life is over she does not seem to appreciate Paris. Once she is back to Russia she tries to forget her life there because her lover cheated on her and she is broke. Although later on she escapes from Paris to Russia. When she receives two telegrams from there she immediately tears them up without reading, and says They are from Paris. Ive done with Paris. However when she comes back to Russia, we see that she still hasnt forgotten her past in Paris, her unfaithful lover and the death of her child. Later on in the play, when she talks to Gayef she suddenly exclaims Look! Theres mamma walking in the orchardà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ in a white frock. There she is! One of the things about Madame Ranevsky hallucinating shows how disconnected she is from reality. Also, the composition and bearing of the hallucination reveal the nature of her disconnect ion. She seeks refuge in her past, her innocent childhood, and for her, the orchard is a symbol of her past- the fact that she fantasizes her mother in the orchard shows how disconnected she is from reality, confirming what she seeks. In a Dolls House, hope for freedom and independence motivates Nora to keep on lying and deceiving since we always tend to crave whatever we cant get. However she isnt the only character who lies and goes behind the back of her loved ones. Dr. Rank who is a family friend hides his true feelings for Nora from both Torvald and his wife. The only reason Nora actually finds out about how he truly feels, is when she tries to seek his help and she manages to see beneath the surface to his heart. This is how she finds out that he is secretly in love with her. On the other hand Dr. Rank seems to be very considerate and the only reason he deceives both his friends is because he tries to be a faithful friend to Torvald. He is trying really hard to be loyal but at the same time he can not stay away from Nora. Also he manages to expose Noras emotional immaturity and unwillingness to violate social conventions. Thus we cant be sure of whether his deception is intentional or not. Torvald, although it seems like he was the one deceived by both his wife and his friend, can be considered the one most guilty of the crime. Throughout the whole play, we see how he has deceived Nora into believing that their marriage is perfect, whilst in reality it was just his fantasy. The most important thing for him was to be able to keep up a proper appearance of moderation and appropriateness because the society he was brought up in is very judgmental and prejudicial. Like Ibsen, Chekhov presents a character who is also very concerned with looks and appearances. Lopakhin, an ex-peasant who is now a wealthy neighbor talks to the maid-servant, Dunyasha. Although he revels in his own economic situation, at the same time, he chides Dunyasha, by saying You are too refined, Dunyasha, thats what it is. You dress yourself like a young lady, and look at your hair! You ought not to do it, you ought to remember your place. He says that she is still of a low social standing. He is chiding her and telling her not to act like a lady, reminding her she is only the maid. This scene causes tension since there is this dichotomy as he is not quite comfortable with the new changes since he himself came from a peasant background. He almost contradicts what he is saying, which is another apparent example of self-deception. In conclusion, we see that deception is an important theme since its the main cause for characters to lose sense of reality and its also a catalyst of the climax. In the end of A Dolls House, Nora finally becomes more aware of how blind she was and walks out on her family to seek freedom and independence. Torvald on the other hand even at the end of the play, is still devoted to a mirage, an image of something that was never really there. At the end of The Cherry Orchard, Madame Ranevsky loses all her possessions together with the orchard and goes back to Paris, leaving behind everything that she thought she believed in. From this we learn, that deception is often triggered by the acceptance or disapproval of other people in society, since we tend to care too much about what everybody else thinks and thus try to blend in.

The Catcher In The Rye: Book Review :: essays research papers

The Catcher In The Rye: Book Review The Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, is a fictional novel that was first published in 1965. The novel takes place in New York City and in Pennsylvania over a duration of four days. This novel tells the story of an emotionally disturbed teenager who has been kicked out of a boarding school. The story is told from the point of view of a teenager who is the narrator of the story. The main character in this novel is Holden Caulfield. He is sixteen years old and serves as the narrator of this novel. Holden does not like anybody or anything around him. He is an emotionally troubled kid and has many problems with his life. Phoebe is Holden's little sister. She is ten years old and lives at home with their parents. Phoebe really admires and loves her big brother, Holden. This novel begins when Holden is in a mental hospital in California. The novel is a flashback of the events over a time period of four days. The flashback starts off when Holden gets kicked out of his boarding school, Pency Prep, because he is failing most of his classes. Holden decides to go into New York City for a couple of days until his parents will be expecting him home for Christmas vacation. Holden goes to bars and meets with friends during this time. On the third night, Holden decides to go and visit his sister, Phoebe. Phoebe is one of the only people that Holden actually loves. Holden talks to Phoebe about his life being a failure. He is trying to understand life and his place in the world. Holden decides that he wants to go see Mr. Antolini, an old teacher, to help him get a better understanding of his life. At Mr. Antolini's home, Holden discusses many of the problems that he is facing. Mr. Antolini tells Holden that he has to learn not to hate everyone around him. He has to learn to love people. Holden is told that he has to think about his future. He has to decide when he is going to start to take life seriously and apply himself in school. Holden's conversation with Mr. Antolini is the climax of the novel. This is the point of the novel when Holden starts to listen and understand his problems. He realizes that it is time he put his life back on the right track. The next day, Holden returns home to his family. Holden is taken directly to a

Epic of Beowulf :: Epic of Beowulf Essays

?Justification for the Abandonment and Solitude of Beowulf Beowulf is the classic tale of a mighty and heroic Geat leader who comes to an unpleasant and seemingly early end. Throughout his life, Beowulf had been an excellent leader and had led his army to many victories over many foes, of his land and of many others as well. At his peak, Beowulf was the mightiest warrior on all the earth: â€Å"There was no one else like him alive. In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful.† (297-298). Eventually, Beowulf would come to be ruler over many people. During this time he would defeat many enemies, two of which being Grendel and his mother. After their defeat, Beowulf and his people experienced a time of peace and prosperity which was enjoyed by all. He remained undefeated until the bitter end when he was defeated by the dragon in the underwater hell-like grave. Beowulf’s death marked the end of not only his reign, but also of the safety know by hi s people, and also the end of his kingdom. The reasons for his abandonment of his people and his insistence to fight alone are not clear, although many have theories as to why the great warrior chose the fate he did. The first topic at hand is why Beowulf chose to fight by himself, especially in the case of the dragon. Beowulf was a very valiant warrior who fought his greatest battles alone, or at least single-handedly. First of all, his battle against Grendel was brilliantly maneuvered in that he awakened from a complete slumber to slay the mighty Grendel and mutilate his body. Secondly, Beowulf battled against Grendel’s mother (who was excessively disturbed about the death of her beloved son) and won a triumphant battle. In both battles, Beowulf won by his own means and was very victorious in each occasion. The question could be raised as to why he chose to fight alone as opposed to having many skilled warriors to help him in his plight to defeat the evil in the world. One possible theory is that it is much more valiant to be the victor of a battle which you yourself have fought and won. This way, there is only one person who is capable of receiving credit for the battle which could help in later times as to the correctness of the tale. Epic of Beowulf :: Epic of Beowulf Essays ?Justification for the Abandonment and Solitude of Beowulf Beowulf is the classic tale of a mighty and heroic Geat leader who comes to an unpleasant and seemingly early end. Throughout his life, Beowulf had been an excellent leader and had led his army to many victories over many foes, of his land and of many others as well. At his peak, Beowulf was the mightiest warrior on all the earth: â€Å"There was no one else like him alive. In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful.† (297-298). Eventually, Beowulf would come to be ruler over many people. During this time he would defeat many enemies, two of which being Grendel and his mother. After their defeat, Beowulf and his people experienced a time of peace and prosperity which was enjoyed by all. He remained undefeated until the bitter end when he was defeated by the dragon in the underwater hell-like grave. Beowulf’s death marked the end of not only his reign, but also of the safety know by hi s people, and also the end of his kingdom. The reasons for his abandonment of his people and his insistence to fight alone are not clear, although many have theories as to why the great warrior chose the fate he did. The first topic at hand is why Beowulf chose to fight by himself, especially in the case of the dragon. Beowulf was a very valiant warrior who fought his greatest battles alone, or at least single-handedly. First of all, his battle against Grendel was brilliantly maneuvered in that he awakened from a complete slumber to slay the mighty Grendel and mutilate his body. Secondly, Beowulf battled against Grendel’s mother (who was excessively disturbed about the death of her beloved son) and won a triumphant battle. In both battles, Beowulf won by his own means and was very victorious in each occasion. The question could be raised as to why he chose to fight alone as opposed to having many skilled warriors to help him in his plight to defeat the evil in the world. One possible theory is that it is much more valiant to be the victor of a battle which you yourself have fought and won. This way, there is only one person who is capable of receiving credit for the battle which could help in later times as to the correctness of the tale.

Ah, Wilderness - Significance of the plays title Essay -- Ah Wildern

Ah, Wilderness - Significance of the play's title The title of the play, Ah, Wilderness, by Eugene O'Neill, plays a significant role in the understanding of the play. The "wilderness" is used as a metaphor for the period in a male's life when he is no longer a boy, but not yet a man. This play tells the story of the coming-of-age of Richard, and the evolution he undergoes while becoming a man. The "wilderness" used in the title is a metaphor for the years between childhood and manhood. Life, for a man, is like the woods. When one is a boy, he is in a clearing. Everything told by adults is taken as truth, and because of this trust the truth is clear. As one enters the in-between years, the truth is no longer as clear. The developing mind begins to question the notions held by those in control, parents in particular. This period is like a wilderness one must wander through. When one exits the woods, things once again become clear. One no longer feels the need to wander aimlessly through the darkness, and one usually returns to the truths instilled by parents. Richard begins the play as a boy on the verge of manhood. A studious youth, just beginning to sow the seeds of rebellion, he at first feels no need to rebel against things close at hand. This soon changes with a visit to his father from Richard's girlfriend's father. Richard has been sending poetry to Muriel, his girlfriend, and her father sees the subject matter of this poetry as inappropriate. Unbeknownst to Richard, Muriel has been coerced into writing a letter to him breaking off the relationship. Richard feels so heartbroken he rebels against everything. This moment is the point in which Richard enters the "wilderness." The perfect opportunity to prov... ...uneasy side glances, and steels himself for what is coming." Richard has come back around to his prior ways of thinking. He now states "(His head down humbly.) I know I was a darned fool" (844). Richard, in the course of the play, makes the transition from boyhood to manhood. As with most young men, Richard enters the "wilderness", a metaphor for the stage of rebellion, and exits with no lasting scars. Richard's father, like most parents, realizes that Richard has walked out of the wilderness and states, " . . . I don't think we'll ever have to worry about his being safe--from himself--again. And I guess no matter what life will do to him, he can take care of it now" (845). This statement shows the necessity of the wilderness to the evolution of man, and the importance of a father's understanding during this important stage of development. Ah, Wilderness - Significance of the play's title Essay -- Ah Wildern Ah, Wilderness - Significance of the play's title The title of the play, Ah, Wilderness, by Eugene O'Neill, plays a significant role in the understanding of the play. The "wilderness" is used as a metaphor for the period in a male's life when he is no longer a boy, but not yet a man. This play tells the story of the coming-of-age of Richard, and the evolution he undergoes while becoming a man. The "wilderness" used in the title is a metaphor for the years between childhood and manhood. Life, for a man, is like the woods. When one is a boy, he is in a clearing. Everything told by adults is taken as truth, and because of this trust the truth is clear. As one enters the in-between years, the truth is no longer as clear. The developing mind begins to question the notions held by those in control, parents in particular. This period is like a wilderness one must wander through. When one exits the woods, things once again become clear. One no longer feels the need to wander aimlessly through the darkness, and one usually returns to the truths instilled by parents. Richard begins the play as a boy on the verge of manhood. A studious youth, just beginning to sow the seeds of rebellion, he at first feels no need to rebel against things close at hand. This soon changes with a visit to his father from Richard's girlfriend's father. Richard has been sending poetry to Muriel, his girlfriend, and her father sees the subject matter of this poetry as inappropriate. Unbeknownst to Richard, Muriel has been coerced into writing a letter to him breaking off the relationship. Richard feels so heartbroken he rebels against everything. This moment is the point in which Richard enters the "wilderness." The perfect opportunity to prov... ...uneasy side glances, and steels himself for what is coming." Richard has come back around to his prior ways of thinking. He now states "(His head down humbly.) I know I was a darned fool" (844). Richard, in the course of the play, makes the transition from boyhood to manhood. As with most young men, Richard enters the "wilderness", a metaphor for the stage of rebellion, and exits with no lasting scars. Richard's father, like most parents, realizes that Richard has walked out of the wilderness and states, " . . . I don't think we'll ever have to worry about his being safe--from himself--again. And I guess no matter what life will do to him, he can take care of it now" (845). This statement shows the necessity of the wilderness to the evolution of man, and the importance of a father's understanding during this important stage of development.

Eco Polo Essay

1) Identify the change in total revenue (the marginal revenue) from the fourth shirt per day. What price reduction was necessary to sell four rather than three shirts? Marginal revenue for the fourth shirt is $41 even though it price is $44. Price reduction is $1 which is from $45 to $44. 2) What is the change in total revenue from lowering the price to sell seven rather than six shirts in each color each day? The change in total revenue from selling seventh shirts rather than sixth shirts is $28.The marginal revenue of the seventh shirt is $28. The seventh shirt brings in $38.31, which is the selling price. 3) Break out the components of the $28 marginal revenue from the seventh unit sale at $38.31- that is, how much revenue is lost per unit sale relative to the price that would â€Å"move† six shirts per color per day? Selling the seventh shirt per day at a price of $38.31 required reducing the price from $40 to $38.31. Total revenue increased from $240 to $268, a $28 increa se. If the company charged $28 for the shirt, the last shirt yielded exactly the same revenue as its cost her. 4) Calculate the total revenue for selling 10-16 shirts per day. Calculate the reduced prices necessary to achieve each of these sales rates. The highlighted part of the table shows the prices and revenue for 10-18 shirts. 5) What number of shirts unit sales most pleases a sales clerk with sales commission-based bonuses? Sales personnel is targeted on receiving the commission from the product they sell ( a given percentage of sales revenue ). So, they would prefer the $24.07 price, where total revenue is $361 selling 15 shirts a day. 6) Would you recommend lowering price to the level required to generate 15 unit sales per day? Why or why not? The company should not lowering the price to generate 15 sales per day. By lowering the rpice, the company only face a loss of $59 ( $361-$420 ).This is absolutely not a profit maximization because MC>MR. 7) What is the operating profit or loss on the fifteenth shirt sold per color per day? What about the twelfth? The tenth? The marginal operating profit for the fifteenth shirt is $-28. For the twelfth shirt, the marginal operating profit is is $-18. For the tenth shirt, the marginal operating profit is $-12. 8) How many shirts do you recommend selling per color per day? What then is your recommended dollar markup and markup percentage? What dollar margin and percentage margin is that? Optimal (profit maximizing) is where MR=MC, which is at 7 shirt at the  selling price of $38.31 per shirt. The optimal dollar markup is $10.31, the optimal percentage markup is 36.83%, and the dollar margin and percentage margin are $10.31 and 26.91% respectively.

Foundation PART I THE PSYCHOHISTORIANS

1. HARI SELDON†¦ born in the 11,988th year of the Galactic Era; died 12,069. The dates are more commonly given in terms of the current Foundational Era as 79 to the year 1 F.E. Born to middle-class parents on Helicon, Arcturus sector (where his father, in a legend of doubtful authenticity, was a tobacco grower in the hydroponic plants of the planet), he early showed amazing ability in mathematics. Anecdotes concerning his ability are innumerable, and some are contradictory. At the age of two, he is said to have †¦ †¦ Undoubtedly his greatest contributions were in the field of psychohistory. Seldon found the field little more than a set of vague axioms; he left it a profound statistical science†¦. †¦ The best existing authority we have for the details of his life is the biography written by Gaal Dornick who. as a young man, met Seldon two years before the great mathematician's death. The story of the meeting †¦ ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA* * All quotations from the Encyclopedia Galactica here reproduced are taken from the 116th Edition published in 1020 F.E. by the Encyclopedia Galactica Publishing Co., Terminus, with permission of the publishers. His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before. That is, not in real life. He had seen it many times on the hyper-video, and occasionally in tremendous three-dimensional newscasts covering an Imperial Coronation or the opening of a Galactic Council. Even though he had lived all his life on the world of Synnax, which circled a star at the edges of the Blue Drift, he was not cut off from civilization, you see. At that time, no place in the Galaxy was. There were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets in the Galaxy then, and not one but owed allegiance to the Empire whose seat was on Trantor. It was the last halfcentury in which that could be said. To Gaal, this trip was the undoubted climax of his young, scholarly life. He had been in space before so that the trip, as a voyage and nothing more, meant little to him. To be sure, he had traveled previously only as far as Synnax's only satellite in order to get the data on the mechanics of meteor driftage which he needed for his dissertation, but space-travel was all one whether one travelled half a million miles, or as many light years. He had steeled himself just a little for the Jump through hyper-space, a phenomenon one did not experience in simple interplanetary trips. The Jump remained, and would probably remain forever, the only practical method of travelling between the stars. Travel through ordinary space could proceed at no rate more rapid than that of ordinary light (a bit of scientific knowledge that belonged among the items known since the forgotten dawn of human history), and that would have meant years of travel between even the nearest of inhabited systems. Through hyper-space, that unimaginable region that was neither space nor time, matter nor energy, something nor nothing, one could traverse the length of the Galaxy in the interval between two neighboring instants of time. Gaal had waited for the first of those Jumps with a little dread curled gently in his stomach, and it ended in nothing more than a trifling jar, a little internal kick which ceased an instant before he could be sure he had felt it. That was all. And after that, there was only the ship, large and glistening; the cool production of 12,000 years of Imperial progress; and himself, with his doctorate in mathematics freshly obtained and an invitation from the great Hari Seldon to come to Trantor and join the vast and somewhat mysterious Seldon Project. What Gaal was waiting for after the disappointment of the Jump was that first sight of Trantor. He haunted the View-room. The steel shutter-lids were rolled back at announced times and he was always there, watching the hard brilliance of the stars, enjoying the incredible hazy swarm of a star cluster, like a giant conglomeration of fire-flies caught in mid-motion and stilled forever, At one time there was the cold, blue-white smoke of a gaseous nebula within five light years of the ship, spreading over the window like distant milk, filling the room with an icy tinge, and disappearing out of sight two hours later, after another Jump. The first sight of Trantor's sun was that of a hard, white speck all but lost in a myriad such, and recognizable only because it was pointed out by the ship's guide. The stars were thick here near the Galactic center. But with each Jump, it shone more brightly, drowning out the rest, paling them and thinning them out. An officer came through and said, â€Å"View-room will be closed for the remainder of the trip. Prepare for landing.† Gaal had followed after, clutching at the sleeve of the white uniform with the Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire on it. He said, â€Å"Would it be possible to let me stay? I would like to see Trantor.† The officer smiled and Gaal flushed a bit. It occurred to him that he spoke with a provincial accent. The officer said, â€Å"We'll be landing on Trantor by morning.† â€Å"I mean I want to see it from Space.† â€Å"Oh. Sorry, my boy. If this were a space-yacht we might manage it. But we're spinning down, sunside. You wouldn't want to be blinded, burnt, and radiation-scarred all at the same time, would you?† Gaal started to walk away. The officer called after him, â€Å"Trantor would only be gray blur anyway, Kid. Why don't you take a space-tour once you hit Trantor. They're cheap.† Gaal looked back, â€Å"Thank you very much.† It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child, and there was a lump in Gaal's throat. He had never seen Trantor spread out in all its incredibility, as large as life, and he hadn't expected to have to wait longer. 2. The ship landed in a medley of noises. There was the far-off hiss of the atmosphere cutting and sliding past the metal of the ship. There was the steady drone of the conditioners fighting the heat of friction, and the slower rumble of the engines enforcing deceleration. There was the human sound of men and women gathering in the debarkation rooms and the grind of the hoists lifting baggage, mail, and freight to the long axis of the ship, from which they would be later moved along to the unloading platform. Gaal felt the slight jar that indicated the ship no longer had an independent motion of its own. Ship's gravity had been giving way to planetary gravity for hours. Thousands of passengers had been sitting patiently in the debarkation rooms which swung easily on yielding force-fields to accommodate its orientation to the changing direction of the gravitational forces. Now they were crawling down curving ramps to the large, yawning locks. Gaal's baggage was minor. He stood at a desk, as it was quickly and expertly taken apart and put together again. His visa was inspected and stamped. He himself paid no attention. This was Trantor! The air seemed a little thicker here, the gravity a bit greater, than on his home planet of Synnax, but he would get used to that. He wondered if he would get used to immensity. Debarkation Building was tremendous. The roof was almost lost in the heights. Gaal could almost imagine that clouds could form beneath its immensity. He could see no opposite wall; just men and desks and converging floor till it faded out in haze. The man at the desk was speaking again. He sounded annoyed. He said, â€Å"Move on, Dornick.† He had to open the visa, look again, before he remembered the name. Gaal said, â€Å"Where where† The man at the desk jerked a thumb, â€Å"Taxis to the right and third left.† Gaal moved, seeing the glowing twists of air suspended high in nothingness and reading, â€Å"TAXIS TO ALL POINTS.† A figure detached itself from anonymity and stopped at the desk, as Gaal left. The man at the desk looked up and nodded briefly. The figure nodded in return and followed the young immigrant. He was in time to hear Gaal's destination. Gaal found himself hard against a railing. The small sign said, â€Å"Supervisor.† The man to whom the sign referred did not look up. He said, â€Å"Where to?† Gaal wasn't sure, but even a few seconds hesitation meant men queuing in line behind him. The Supervisor looked up, â€Å"Where to?† Gaal's funds were low, but there was only this one night and then he would have a job. He tried to sound nonchalant, â€Å"A good hotel, please.† The Supervisor was unimpressed, â€Å"They're all good. Name one.† Gaal said, desperately, â€Å"The nearest one, please.† The Supervisor touched a button. A thin line of light formed along the floor, twisting among others which brightened and dimmed in different colors and shades. A ticket was shoved into Gaal's hands. It glowed faintly. The Supervisor said, â€Å"One point twelve.† Gaal fumbled for the coins. He said, â€Å"Where do I go?† â€Å"Follow the light. The ticket will keep glowing as long as you're pointed in the tight direction.† Gaal looked up and began walking. There were hundreds creeping across the vast floor, following their individual trails, sifting and straining themselves through intersection points to arrive at their respective destinations. His own trail ended. A man in glaring blue and yellow uniform, shining and new in unstainable plasto-textile, reached for his two bags. â€Å"Direct line to the Luxor,† he said. The man who followed Gaal heard that. He also heard Gaal say, â€Å"Fine,† and watched him enter the blunt-nosed vehicle. The taxi lifted straight up. Gaal stared out the curved, transparent window, marvelling at the sensation of airflight within an enclosed structure and clutching instinctively at the back of the driver's seat. The vastness contracted and the people became ants in random distribution. The scene contracted further and began to slide backward. There was a wall ahead. It began high in the air and extended upward out of sight. It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels. Gaal's taxi moved toward one then plunged into it. For a moment, Gaal wondered idly how his driver could pick out one among so many. There was now only blackness, with nothing but the past-flashing of a colored signal light to relieve the gloom. The air was full of a rushing sound. Gaal leaned forward against deceleration then and the taxi popped out of the tunnel and descended to ground-level once more. â€Å"The Luxor Hotel,† said the driver, unnecessarily. He helped Gaal with his baggage, accepted a tenth-credit tip with a businesslike air, picked up a waiting passenger, and was rising again. In all this, from the moment of debarkation, there had been no glimpse of sky. 3. TRANTOR†¦At the beginning of the thirteenth millennium, this tendency reached its climax. As the center of the Imperial Government for unbroken hundreds of generations and located, as it was, toward the central regions of the Galaxy among the most densely populated and industrially advanced worlds of the system, it could scarcely help being the densest and richest clot of humanity the Race had ever seen. Its urbanization, progressing steadily, had finally reached the ultimate. All the land surface of Trantor, 75,000,000 square miles in extent, was a single city. The population, at its height, was well in excess of forty billions. This enormous population was devoted almost entirely to the administrative necessities of Empire, and found themselves all too few for the complications of the task. (It is to be remembered that the impossibility of proper administration of the Galactic Empire under the uninspired leadership of the later Emperors was a considerable factor in the Fall.) Daily, fleets of ships in the tens of thousands brought the produce of twenty agricultural worlds to the dinner tables of Trantor†¦. Its dependence upon the outer worlds for food and, indeed, for all necessities of life, made Trantor increasingly vulnerable to conquest by siege. In the last millennium of the Empire, the monotonously numerous revolts made Emperor after Emperor conscious of this, and Imperial policy became little more than the protection of Trantor's delicate jugular vein†¦. ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA Gaal was not certain whether the sun shone, or, for that matter, whether it was day or night. He was ashamed to ask. All the planet seemed to live beneath metal. The meal of which he had just partaken had been labelled luncheon, but there were many planets which lived a standard timescale that took no account of the perhaps inconvenient alternation of day and night. The rate of planetary turnings differed, and he did not know that of Trantor. At first, he had eagerly followed the signs to the â€Å"Sun Room† and found it but a chamber for basking in artificial radiation. He lingered a moment or two, then returned to the Luxor's main lobby. He said to the room clerk, â€Å"Where can I buy a ticket for a planetary tour?† â€Å"Right here.† â€Å"When will it start?† â€Å"You just missed it. Another one tomorrow. Buy a ticket now and we'll reserve a place for you.† â€Å"Oh.† Tomorrow would be too late. He would have to be at the University tomorrow. He said, â€Å"There wouldn't be an observation tower or something? I mean, in the open air.† â€Å"Sure! Sell you a ticket for that, if you want. Better let me check if it's raining or not.† He closed a contact at his elbow and read the flowing letters that raced across a frosted screen. Gaal read with him. The room clerk said, â€Å"Good weather. Come to think of it, I do believe it's the dry season now.† He added, conversationally, â€Å"I don't bother with the outside myself. The last time I was in the open was three years ago. You see it once, you know and that's all there is to it. Here's your ticket. Special elevator in the rear. It's marked ‘To the Tower.' Just take it.† The elevator was of the new sort that ran by gravitic repulsion. Gaal entered and others flowed in behind him. The operator closed a contact. For a moment, Gaal felt suspended in space as gravity switched to zero, and then he had weight again in small measure as the elevator accelerated upward. Deceleration followed and his feet left the floor. He squawked against his will. The operator called out, â€Å"Tuck your feet under the railing. Can't you read the sign?† The others had done so. They were smiling at him as he madly and vainly tried to clamber back down the wall. Their shoes pressed upward against the chromium of the railings that stretched across the floor in parallels set two feet apart. He had noticed those railings on entering and had ignored them. Then a hand reached out and pulled him down. He gasped his thanks as the elevator came to a halt. He stepped out upon an open terrace bathed in a white brilliance that hurl his eyes. The man, whose helping hand he had just now been the recipient of, was immediately behind him. The man said, kindly, â€Å"Plenty of seats.† Gaal closed his mouth; he had been gaping; and said, â€Å"It certainly seems so.† He started for them automatically, then stopped. He said, â€Å"If you don't mind, I'll just stop a moment at the railing. I I want to look a bit.† The man waved him on, good-naturedly, and Gaal leaned out over the shoulder-high railing and bathed himself in all the panorama. He could not see the ground. It was lost in the ever increasing complexities of man-made structures. He could see no horizon other than that of metal against sky, stretching out to almost uniform grayness, and he knew it was so over all the land-surface of the planet. There was scarcely any motion to be seen a few pleasure-craft lazed against the sky-but all the busy traffic of billions of men were going on, he knew, beneath the metal skin of the world. There was no green to be seen; no green, no soil, no life other than man. Somewhere on the world, he realized vaguely, was the Emperor's palace, set amid one hundred square miles of natural soil, green with trees, rainbowed with flowers. It was a small island amid an ocean of steel, but it wasn't visible from where he stood. It might be ten thousand miles away. He did not know. Before very long, he must have his tour! He sighed noisily, and realized finally that he was on Trantor at last; on the planet which was the center of all the Galaxy and the kernel of the human race. He saw none of its weaknesses. He saw no ships of food landing. He was not aware of a jugular vein delicately connecting the forty billion of Trantor with the rest of the Galaxy. He was conscious only of the mightiest deed of man; the complete and almost contemptuously final conquest of a world. He came away a little blank-eyed. His friend of the elevator was indicating a seat next to himself and Gaal took it. The man smiled. â€Å"My name is Jerril. First time on Trantor?† â€Å"Yes, Mr. Jerril.† â€Å"Thought so. Jerril's my first name. Trantor gets you if you've got the poetic temperament. Trantorians never come up here, though. They don't like it. Gives them nerves.† â€Å"Nerves! My name's Gaal, by the way. Why should it give them nerves? It's glorious.† â€Å"Subjective matter of opinion, Gaal. If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown. They make the children come up here once a year, after they're five. I don't know if it does any good. They don't get enough of it, really, and the first few times they scream themselves into hysteria. They ought to start as soon as they're weaned and have the trip once a week.† He went on, â€Å"Of course, it doesn't really matter. What if they never come out at all? They're happy down there and they run the Empire. How high up do you think we are?† He said, â€Å"Half a mile?† and wondered if that sounded naive. It must have, for Jerril chuckled a little. He said, â€Å"No. Just five hundred feet.† â€Å"What? But the elevator took about â€Å" â€Å"I know. But most of the time it was just getting up to ground level. Trantor is tunneled over a mile down. It's like an iceberg. Nine-tenths of it is out of sight. It even works itself out a few miles into the sub-ocean soil at the shorelines. In fact, we're down so low that we can make use of the temperature difference between ground level and a couple of miles under to supply us with all the energy we need. Did you know that?† â€Å"No, I thought you used atomic generators.† â€Å"Did once. But this is cheaper.† â€Å"I imagine so.† â€Å"What do you think of it all?† For a moment, the man's good nature evaporated into shrewdness. He looked almost sly. Gaal fumbled. â€Å"Glorious,† he said, again. â€Å"Here on vacation? Traveling? Sight-seeing?† â€Å"No exactly. At least, I've always wanted to visit Trantor but I came here primarily for a job.† â€Å"Oh?† Gaal felt obliged to explain further, â€Å"With Dr. Seldon's project at the University of Trantor.† â€Å"Raven Seldon?† â€Å"Why, no. The one I mean is Hari Seldon. -The psychohistorian Seldon. I don't know of any Raven Seldon.† â€Å"Hari's the one I mean. They call him Raven. Slang, you know. He keeps predicting disaster.† â€Å"He does?† Gaal was genuinely astonished. â€Å"Surely, you must know.† Jerril was not smiling. â€Å"You're coming to work for him, aren't you?† â€Å"Well, yes, I'm a mathematician. Why does he predict disaster? What kind of disaster?† â€Å"What kind would you think?† â€Å"I'm afraid I wouldn't have the least idea. I've read the papers Dr. Seldon and his group have published. They're on mathematical theory.† â€Å"Yes, the ones they publish.† Gaal felt annoyed. He said, â€Å"I think I'll go to my room now. Very pleased to have met you.† Jerril waved his arm indifferently in farewell. Gaal found a man waiting for him in his room. For a moment, he was too startled to put into words the inevitable, â€Å"What are you doing here?† that came to his lips. The man rose. He was old and almost bald and he walked with a limp, but his eyes were very bright and blue. He said, â€Å"I am Hari Seldon,† an instant before Gaal's befuddled brain placed the face alongside the memory of the many times he had seen it in pictures. 4. PSYCHOHISTORY†¦Gaal Dornick, using nonmathematical concepts, has defined psychohistory to be that branch of mathematics which deals with the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli†¦. †¦ Implicit in all these definitions is the assumption that the human conglomerate being dealt with is sufficiently large for valid statistical treatment. The necessary size of such a conglomerate may be determined by Seldon's First Theorem which †¦ A further necessary assumption is that the human conglomerate be itself unaware of psychohistoric analysis in order that its reactions be truly random †¦ The basis of all valid psychohistory lies in the development of the Seldon. Functions which exhibit properties congruent to those of such social and economic forces as †¦ ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA â€Å"Good afternoon, sir,† said Gaal. â€Å"I I† â€Å"You didn't think we were to meet before tomorrow? Ordinarily, we would not have. It is just that if we are to use your services, we must work quickly. It grows continually more difficult to obtain recruits.† â€Å"I don't understand, sir.† â€Å"You were talking to a man on the observation tower, were you not?† â€Å"Yes. His first name is Jerril. I know no more about him. â€Å" â€Å"His name is nothing. He is an agent of the Commission of Public Safety. He followed you from the space-port.† â€Å"But why? I am afraid I am very confused.† â€Å"Did the man on the tower say nothing about me?† Gaal hesitated, â€Å"He referred to you as Raven Seldon.† â€Å"Did he say why?† â€Å"He said you predict disaster.† â€Å"I do. What does Trantor mean to you?† Everyone seemed to be asking his opinion of Trantor. Gaal felt incapable of response beyond the bare word, â€Å"Glorious.† â€Å"You say that without thinking. What of psychohistory?† â€Å"I haven't thought of applying it to the problem.† â€Å"Before you are done with me, young man, you will learn to apply psychohistory to all problems as a matter of course. ?Observe.† Seldon removed his calculator pad from the pouch at his belt. Men said he kept one beneath his pillow for use in moments of wakefulness. Its gray, glossy finish was slightly worn by use. Seldon's nimble fingers, spotted now with age, played along the files and rows of buttons that filled its surface. Red symbols glowed out from the upper tier. He said, â€Å"That represents the condition of the Empire at present.† He waited. Gaal said finally, â€Å"Surely that is not a complete representation.† â€Å"No, not complete,† said Seldon. â€Å"I am glad you do not accept my word blindly. However, this is an approximation which will serve to demonstrate the proposition. Will you accept that?† â€Å"Subject to my later verification of the derivation of the function, yes.† Gaal was carefully avoiding a possible trap. â€Å"Good. Add to this the known probability of Imperial assassination, viceregal revolt, the contemporary recurrence of periods of economic depression, the declining rate of planetary explorations, the. . .† He proceeded. As each item was mentioned, new symbols sprang to life at his touch, and melted into the basic function which expanded and changed. Gaal stopped him only once. â€Å"I don't see the validity of that set-transformation.† Seldon repeated it more slowly. Gaal said, â€Å"But that is done by way of a forbidden sociooperation.† â€Å"Good. You are quick, but not yet quick enough. It is not forbidden in this connection. Let me do it by expansions.† The procedure was much longer and at its end, Gaal said, humbly, â€Å"Yes, I see now.† Finally, Seldon stopped. â€Å"This is Trantor three centuries from now. How do you interpret that? Eh?† He put his head to one side and waited. Gaal said, unbelievingly, â€Å"Total destruction! But but that is impossible. Trantor has never been â€Å" Seldon was filled with the intense excitement of a man whose body only had grown old. â€Å"Come, come. You saw how the result was arrived at. Put it into words. Forget the symbolism for a moment.† Gaal said, â€Å"As Trantor becomes more specialized, it be comes more vulnerable, less able to defend itself. Further, as it becomes more and more the administrative center of Empire, it becomes a greater prize. As the Imperial succession becomes more and more uncertain, and the feuds among the great families more rampant, social responsibility disappears. â€Å" â€Å"Enough. And what of the numerical probability of total destruction within three centuries?† â€Å"I couldn't tell.† â€Å"Surely you can perform a field-differentiation?† Gaal felt himself under pressure. He was not offered the calculator pad. It was held a foot from his eyes. He calculated furiously and felt his forehead grow slick with sweat. He said, â€Å"About 85%?† â€Å"Not bad,† said Seldon, thrusting out a lower lip, â€Å"but not good. The actual figure is 92.5%.† Gaal said, â€Å"And so you are called Raven Seldon? I have seen none of this in the journals.† â€Å"But of course not. This is unprintable. Do you suppose the Imperium could expose its shakiness in this manner. That is a very simple demonstration in psychohistory. But some of our results have leaked out among the aristocracy.† â€Å"That's bad.† â€Å"Not necessarily. All is taken into account.† â€Å"But is that why I'm being investigated?† â€Å"Yes. Everything about my project is being investigated.† â€Å"Are you in danger, sir?† â€Å"Oh, yes. There is probability of 1.7% that I will be executed, but of course that will not stop the project. We have taken that into account as well. Well, never mind. You will meet me, I suppose, at the University tomorrow?† â€Å"I will,† said Gaal. 5. COMMISSION OF PUBLIC SAFETY†¦ The aristocratic coterie rose to power after the assassination of Cleon I, last of the Entuns. In the main, they formed an element of order during the centuries of instability and uncertainty in the Imperium. Usually under the control of the great families of the Chens and the Divarts, it degenerated eventually into a blind instrument for maintenance of the status quo†¦. They were not completely removed as a power in the state until after the accession of the last strong Emperor, Cleon H. The first Chief Commissioner†¦. †¦ In a way, the beginning of the Commission's decline can be traced to the trial of Hari Seldon two years before the beginning of the Foundational Era. That trial is described in Gaal Dornick's biography of Hari Seldon†¦. ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA Gaal did not carry out his promise. He was awakened the next morning by a muted buzzer. He answered it, and the voice of the desk clerk, as muted, polite and deprecating as it well might be, informed him that he was under detention at the orders of the Commission of Public Safety. Gaal sprang to the door and found it would no longer open. He could only dress and wait. They came for him and took him elsewhere, but it was still detention. They asked him questions most politely. It was all very civilized. He explained that he was a provincial of Synnax; that he had attended such and such schools and obtained a Doctor of Mathematics degree on such and such a date. He had applied for a position on Dr. Seldon's staff and had been accepted. Over and over again, he gave these details; and over and over again, they returned to the question of his joining the Seldon Project. How had he heard of it; what were to be his duties; what secret instructions had he received; what was it all about? He answered that he did not know. He had no secret instructions. He was a scholar and a mathematician. He had no interest in politics. And finally the gentle inquisitor asked, â€Å"When will Trantor be destroyed?† Gaal faltered, â€Å"I could not say of my own knowledge.† â€Å"Could you say of anyone's?† â€Å"How could I speak for another?† He felt warm; overwarm. The inquisitor said, â€Å"Has anyone told you of such destruction; set a date?† And, as the young man hesitated, he went on, â€Å"You have been followed, doctor. We were at the airport when you arrived; on the observation tower when you waited for your appointment; and, of course, we were able to overhear your conversation with Dr. Seldon.† Gaal said, â€Å"Then you know his views on the matter.† â€Å"Perhaps. But we would like to hear them from you.† â€Å"He is of the opinion that Trantor would be destroyed within three centuries.† â€Å"He proved it, uh mathematically?† â€Å"Yes, he did,† defiantly. â€Å"You maintain the uh mathematics to be valid, I suppose. â€Å"If Dr. Seldon vouches for it, it is valid.† â€Å"Then we will return.† â€Å"Wait. I have a right to a lawyer. I demand my rights as an Imperial citizen.† â€Å"You shall have them.† And he did. It was a tall man that eventually entered, a man whose face seemed all vertical lines and so thin that one could wonder whether there was room for a smile. Gaal looked up. He felt disheveled and wilted. So much had happened, yet he had been on Trantor not more than thirty hours. The man said, â€Å"I am Lors Avakim. Dr. Seldon has directed me to represent you.† â€Å"Is that so? Well, then, look here. I demand an instant appeal to the Emperor. I'm being held without cause. I'm innocent of anything. Of anything.† He slashed his hands outward, palms down, â€Å"You've got to arrange a hearing with the Emperor, instantly.† Avakim was carefully emptying the contents of a flat folder onto the floor. If Gaal had had the stomach for it, he might have recognized Cellomet legal forms, metal thin and tapelike, adapted for insertion within the smallness of a personal capsule. He might also have recognized a pocket recorder. Avakim, paying no attention to Gaal's outburst, finally looked up. He said, â€Å"The Commission will, of course, have a spy beam on our conversation. This is against the law, but they will use one nevertheless.† Gaal ground his teeth. â€Å"However,† and Avakim seated himself deliberately, â€Å"the recorder I have on the table, which is a perfectly ordinary recorder to all appearances and performs it duties well has the additional property of completely blanketing the spy beam. This is something they will not find out at once.† â€Å"Then I can speak.† â€Å"Of course.† â€Å"Then I want a hearing with the Emperor.† Avakim smiled frostily, and it turned out that there was room for it on his thin face after all. His cheeks wrinkled to make the room. He said, â€Å"You are from the provinces.† â€Å"I am none the less an Imperial citizen. As good a one as you or as any of this Commission of Public Safety.† â€Å"No doubt; no doubt. It is merely that, as a provincial, you do not understand life on Trantor as it is, There are no hearings before the Emperor.† â€Å"To whom else would one appeal from this Commission? Is there other procedure?† â€Å"None. There is no recourse in a practical sense. Legalistically, you may appeal to the Emperor, but you would get no hearing. The Emperor today is not the Emperor of an Entun dynasty, you know. Trantor, I am afraid is in the hands of the aristocratic families, members of which compose the Commission of Public Safety. This is a development which is well predicted by psychohistory.† Gaal said, â€Å"Indeed? In that case, if Dr. Seldon can predict the history of Trantor three hundred years into the future â€Å" â€Å"He can predict it fifteen hundred years into the future.† â€Å"Let it be fifteen thousand. Why couldn't he yesterday have predicted the events of this morning and warned me. ?No, I'm sorry.† Gaal sat down and rested his head in one sweating palm, â€Å"I quite understand that psychohistory is a statistical science and cannot predict the future of a single man with any accuracy. You'll understand that I'm upset.† â€Å"But you are wrong. Dr. Seldon was of the opinion that you would be arrested this morning.† â€Å"What!† â€Å"It is unfortunate, but true. The Commission has been more and more hostile to his activities. New members joining the group have been interfered with to an increasing extent. The graphs showed that for our purposes, matters might best be brought to a climax now. The Commission of itself was moving somewhat slowly so Dr. Seldon visited you yesterday for the purpose of forcing their hand. No other reason.† Gaal caught his breath, â€Å"I resent â€Å" â€Å"Please. It was necessary. You were not picked for any personal reasons. You must realize that Dr. Seldon's plans, which are laid out with the developed mathematics of over eighteen years include all eventualities with significant probabilities. This is one of them. I've been sent here for no other purpose than to assure you that you need not fear. It will end well; almost certainly so for the project; and with reasonable probability for you.† â€Å"What are the figures?† demanded Gaal. â€Å"For the project, over 99.9%.† â€Å"And for myself?† â€Å"I am instructed that this probability is 77.2%.† â€Å"Then I've got better than one chance in five of being sentenced to prison or to death.† â€Å"The last is under one per cent.† â€Å"Indeed. Calculations upon one man mean nothing. You send Dr. Seldon to me.† â€Å"Unfortunately, I cannot. Dr. Seldon is himself arrested.† The door was thrown open before the rising Gaal could do more than utter the beginning of a cry. A guard entered, walked to the table, picked up the recorder, looked upon all sides of it and put it in his pocket. Avakim said quietly, â€Å"I will need that instrument.† â€Å"We will supply you with one, Counsellor, that does not cast a static field.† â€Å"My interview is done, in that case.† Gaal watched him leave and was alone. 6. The trial (Gaal supposed it to be one, though it bore little resemblance legalistically to the elaborate trial techniques Gaal had read of) had not lasted long. It was in its third day. Yet already, Gaal could no longer stretch his memory back far enough to embrace its beginning. He himself had been but little pecked at. The heavy guns were trained on Dr. Seldon himself. Hari Seldon, however, sat there unperturbed. To Gaal, he was the only spot of stability remaining in the world. The audience was small and drawn exclusively from among the Barons of the Empire. Press and public were excluded and it was doubtful that any significant number of outsiders even knew that a trial of Seldon was being conducted. The atmosphere was one of unrelieved hostility toward the defendants. Five of the Commission of Public Safety sat behind the raised desk. They wore scarlet and gold uniforms and the shining, close-fitting plastic caps that were the sign of their judicial function. In the center was the Chief Commissioner Linge Chen. Gaal had never before seen so great a Lord and he watched him with fascination. Chen, throughout the trial, rarely said a word. He made it quite clear that much speech was beneath his dignity. The Commission's Advocate consulted his notes and the examination continued, with Seldon still on the stand: Q. Let us see, Dr. Seldon. How many men are now engaged in the project of which you are head? A. Fifty mathematicians. Q. Including Dr. Gaal Dornick? A. Dr. Dornick is the fifty-first, Q. Oh, we have fifty-one then? Search your memory, Dr. Seldon. Perhaps there are fifty-two or fifty-three? Or perhaps even more? A. Dr. Dornick has not yet formally joined my organization. When he does, the membership will be fifty-one. It is now fifty, as I have said. Q. Not perhaps nearly a hundred thousand? A. Mathematicians? No. Q. I did not say mathematicians. Are there a hundred thousand in all capacities? A. In all capacities, your figure may be correct. Q. May be? I say it is. I say that the men in your project number ninety-eight thousand, five hundred and seventy-two. A. I believe you are counting women and children. Q. (raising his voice) Ninety eight thousand five hundred and seventy-two individuals is the intent of my statement. There is no need to quibble. A. I accept the figures. Q. (referring to his notes) Let us drop that for the moment, then, and take up another matter which we have already discussed at some length. Would you repeat, Dr. Seldon, your thoughts concerning the future of Trantor? A. I have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next three centuries. Q. You do not consider your statement a disloyal one? A. No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty. Q. You are sure that your statement represents scientific truth? A. I am. Q. On what basis? A. On the basis of the mathematics of psychohistory. Q. Can you prove that this mathematics is valid'? A. Only to another mathematician. Q. (with a smile) Your claim then is that your truth is of so esoteric a nature that it is beyond the understanding of a plain man. It seems to me that truth should be clearer than that, less mysterious, more open to the mind. A. It presents no difficulties to some minds. The physics of energy transfer, which we know as thermodynamics, has been clear and true through all the history of man since the mythical ages, yet there may be people present who would find it impossible to design a power engine. People of high intelligence, too. I doubt if the learned Commissioners At this point, one of the Commissioners leaned toward the Advocate. His words were not heard but the hissing of the voice carried a certain asperity. The Advocate flushed and interrupted Seldon. Q. We are not here to listen to speeches, Dr. Seldon. Let us assume that you have made your point. Let me suggest to you that your predictions of disaster might be intended to destroy public confidence in the Imperial Government for purposes of your own. A. That is not so. Q. Let me suggest that you intend to claim that a period of time preceding the so-called ruin of Trantor will be filled with unrest of various types. A. That is correct. Q. And that by the mere prediction thereof, you hope to bring it about, and to have then an army of a hundred thousand available. A. In the first place, that is not so. And if it were, investigation will show you that barely ten thousand are men of military age, and none of these has training in arms. Q. Are you acting as an agent for another? A. I am not in the pay of any man, Mr. Advocate. Q. You are entirely disinterested? You are serving science? A. I am. Q. Then let us see how. Can the future be changed, Dr. Seldon? A. Obviously. This courtroom may explode in the next few hours, or it may not. If it did, the future would undoubtedly be changed in some minor respects. Q. You quibble, Dr. Seldon. Can the overall history of the human race be changed? A. Yes. Q. Easily? A. No. With great difficulty. Q. Why? A. The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia. To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as many people must be concerned, or if the number of people be relatively small, enormous time for change must be allowed. Do you understand? Q. I think I do. Trantor need not be ruined, if a great many people decide to act so that it will not. A. That is right. Q. As many as a hundred thousand people? A. No, sir. That is far too few. Q. You are sure? A. Consider that Trantor has a population of over forty billions. Consider further that the trend leading to ruin does not belong to Trantor alone but to the Empire as a whole and the Empire contains nearly a quintillion human beings. Q. I see. Then perhaps a hundred thousand people can change the trend, if they and their descendants labor for three hundred years. A. I'm afraid not. Three hundred years is too short a time. Q. Ah! In that case, Dr. Seldon, we are left with this deduction to be made from your statements. You have gathered one hundred thousand people within the confines of your project. These are insufficient to change the history of Trantor within three hundred years. In other words, they cannot prevent the destruction of Trantor no matter what they do. A. You are unfortunately correct. Q. And on the other hand, your hundred thousand are intended for no illegal purpose. A. Exactly. Q. (slowly and with satisfaction) In that case, Dr. Seldon Now attend, sir, most carefully, for we want a considered answer. What is the purpose of your hundred thousand? The Advocate's voice had grown strident. He had sprung his trap; backed Seldon into a comer; driven him astutely from any possibility of answering. There was a rising buzz of conversation at that which swept the ranks of the peers in the audience and invaded even the row of Commissioners. They swayed toward one another in their scarlet and gold, only the Chief remaining uncorrupted. Hari Seldon remained unmoved. He waited for the babble to evaporate. A. To minimize the effects of that destruction. Q. And exactly what do you mean by that? A. The explanation is simple. The coming destruction of Trantor is not an event in itself, isolated in the scheme of human development. It will be the climax to an intricate drama which was begun centuries ago and which is accelerating in pace continuously. I refer, gentlemen, to the developing decline and fall of the Galactic Empire. The buzz now became a dull roar. The Advocate, unheeded, was yelling, â€Å"You are openly declaring that† and stopped because the cries of â€Å"Treason† from the audience showed that the point had been made without any hammering. Slowly, the Chief Commissioner raised his gavel once and let it drop. The sound was that of a mellow gong. When the reverberations ceased, the gabble of the audience also did. The Advocate took a deep breath. Q. (theatrically) Do you realize, Dr. Seldon, that you are speaking of an Empire that has stood for twelve thousand years, through all the vicissitudes of the generations, and which has behind it the good wishes and love of a quadrillion human beings? A. I am aware both of the present status and the past history of the Empire. Without disrespect, I must claim a far better knowledge of it than any in this room. Q. And you predict its ruin? A. It is a prediction which is made by mathematics. I pass no moral judgements. Personally, I regret the prospect. Even if the Empire were admitted to be a bad thing (an admission I do not make), the state of anarchy which would follow its fall would be worse. It is that state of anarchy which my project is pledged to fight. The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop. Q. Is it not obvious to anyone that the Empire is as strong as it ever was? A. The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However, Mr. Advocate, the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen with the ears of psychohistory, and you will hear the creaking. Q. (uncertainly) We are not here, Dr. Seldon, to lis A. (firmly) The Empire will vanish and all its good with it. Its accumulated knowledge will decay and the order it has imposed will vanish. Interstellar wars will be endless; interstellar trade will decay; population will decline; worlds will lose touch with the main body of the Galaxy. ?And so matters will remain. Q. (a small voice in the middle of a vast silence) Forever? A. Psychohistory, which can predict the fall, can make statements concerning the succeeding dark ages. The Empire, gentlemen, as has just been said, has stood twelve thousand years. The dark ages to come will endure not twelve, but thirty thousand years. A Second Empire will rise, but between it and our civilization will be one thousand generations of suffering humanity. We must fight that. Q. (recovering somewhat) You contradict yourself. You said earlier that you could not prevent the destruction of Trantor; hence, presumably, the fall; ?the so-called fall of the Empire. A. I do not say now that we can prevent the fall. But it is not yet too late to shorten the interregnum which will follow. It is possible, gentlemen, to reduce the duration of anarchy to a single millennium, if my group is allowed to act now. We are at a delicate moment in history. The huge, onrushing mass of events must be deflected just a little, just a little It cannot be much, but it may be enough to remove twenty-nine thousand years of misery from human history. Q. How do you propose to do this? A. By saving the knowledge of the race. The sum of human knowing is beyond any one man; any thousand men. With the destruction of our social fabric, science will be broken into a million pieces. Individuals will know much of exceedingly tiny facets of what there is to know. They will be helpless and useless by themselves. The bits of lore, meaningless, will not be passed on. They will be lost through the generations. But, if we now prepare a giant summary of all knowledge, it will never be lost. Coming generations will build on it, and will not have to rediscover it for themselves. One millennium will do the work of thirty thousand. Q. All this A. All my project; my thirty thousand men with their wives and children, are devoting themselves to the preparation of an â€Å"Encyclopedia Galactica.† They will not complete it in their lifetimes. I will not even live to see it fairly begun. But by the time Trantor falls, it will be complete and copies will exist in every major library in the Galaxy. The Chief Commissioner's gavel rose and fell. Hari Seldon left the stand and quietly took his seat next to Gaal. He smiled and said, â€Å"How did you like the show?† Gaal said, â€Å"You stole it. But what will happen now?† â€Å"They'll adjourn the trial and try to come to a private agreement with me.† â€Å"How do you know?† Seldon said, â€Å"I'll be honest. I don't know. It depends on the Chief Commissioner. I have studied him for years. I have tried to analyze his workings, but you know how risky it is to introduce the vagaries of an individual in the psychohistoric equations. Yet I have hopes.† 7. Avakim approached, nodded to Gaal, leaned over to whisper to Seldon. The cry of adjournment rang out, and guards separated them. Gaal was led away. The next day's hearings were entirely different. Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick were alone with the Commission. They were seated at a table together, with scarcely a separation between the five judges and the two accused. They were even offered cigars from a box of iridescent plastic which had the appearance of water, endlessly flowing. The eyes were fooled into seeing the motion although the fingers reported it to be hard and dry. Seldon accepted one; Gaal refused. Seldon said, â€Å"My lawyer is not present.† A Commissioner replied, â€Å"This is no longer a trial, Dr. Seldon. We are here to discuss the safety of the State.† Linge Chen said, â€Å"I will speak,† and the other Commissioners sat back in their chairs, prepared to listen. A silence formed about Chen into which he might drop his words. Gaal held his breath. Chen, lean and hard, older in looks than in fact, was the actual Emperor of all the Galaxy. The child who bore the title itself was only a symbol manufactured by Chen, and not the first such, either. Chen said, â€Å"Dr. Seldon, you disturb the peace of the Emperor's realm. None of the quadrillions living now among all the stars of the Galaxy will be living a century from now. Why, then, should we concern ourselves with events of three centuries distance?† â€Å"I shall not be alive half a decade hence,† said Seldon, and yet it is of overpowering concern to me. Call it idealism. Call it an identification of myself with that mystical generalization to which we refer by the term, ‘humanity.'† â€Å"I do not wish to take the trouble to understand mysticism. Can you tell me why I may not rid myself of you, and of an uncomfortable and unnecessary three-century future which I will never see by having you executed tonight?† â€Å"A week ago,† said Seldon, lightly, â€Å"you might have done so and perhaps retained a one in ten probability of yourself remaining alive at year's end. Today, the one in ten probability is scarcely one in ten thousand.† There were expired breaths in the gathering and uneasy stirrings. Gaal felt the short hairs prickle on the back of his neck. Chen's upper eyelids dropped a little. â€Å"How so?† he said. â€Å"The fall of Trantor,† said Seldon, â€Å"cannot be stopped by any conceivable effort. It can be hastened easily, however. The tale of my interrupted trial will spread through the Galaxy. Frustration of my plans to lighten the disaster will convince people that the future holds no promise to them. Already they recall the lives of their grandfathers with envy. They will see that political revolutions and trade stagnations will increase. The feeling will pervade the Galaxy that only what a man can grasp for himself at that moment will be of any account. Ambitious men will not wait and unscrupulous men will not hang back. By their every action they will hasten the decay of the worlds. Have me killed and Trantor will fall not within three centuries but within fifty years and you, yourself, within a single year.† Chen said, â€Å"These are words to frighten children, and yet your death is not the only answer which will satisfy us.† He lifted his slender hand from the papers on which it rested, so that only two fingers touched lightly upon the topmost sheet. â€Å"Tell me,† he said, â€Å"will your only activity be that of preparing this encyclopedia you speak of?† â€Å"It will.† â€Å"And need that be done on Trantor?† â€Å"Trantor, my lord, possesses the Imperial Library, as well as the scholarly resources of the University of Trantor.† â€Å"And yet if you were located elsewhere , let us say upon a planet where the hurry and distractions of a metropolis will not interfere with scholastic musings; where your men may devote themselves entirely and single-mindedly to their work; ?might not that have advantages?† â€Å"Minor ones, perhaps.† â€Å"Such a world had been chosen, then. You may work, doctor, at your leisure, with your hundred thousand about you. The Galaxy will know that you are working and fighting the Fall. They will even be told that you will prevent the Fall.† He smiled, â€Å"Since I do not believe in so many things, it is not difficult for me to disbelieve in the Fall as well, so that I am entirely convinced I will be telling the truth to the people. And meanwhile, doctor, you will not trouble Trantor and there will be no disturbance of the Emperor's peace. â€Å"The alternative is death for yourself and for as many of your followers as will seem necessary. Your earlier threats I disregard. The opportunity for choosing between death and exile is given you over a time period stretching from this moment to one five minutes hence.† â€Å"Which is the world chosen, my lord?† said Seldon. â€Å"It is called, I believe, Terminus,† said Chen. Negligently, he turned the papers upon his desk with his fingertips so that they faced Seldon. â€Å"It is uninhabited, but quite habitable, and can be molded to suit the necessities of scholars. It is somewhat secluded† Seldon interrupted, â€Å"It is at the edge of the Galaxy, sir.† â€Å"As I have said, somewhat secluded. It will suit your needs for concentration. Come, you have two minutes left.† Seldon said, â€Å"We will need time to arrange such a trip. There are twenty thousand families involved.† â€Å"You will be given time.† Seldon thought a moment, and the last minute began to die. He said, â€Å"I accept exile.† Gaal's heart skipped a beat at the words. For the most part, he was filled with a tremendous joy for who would not be, to escape death. Yet in all his vast relief, he found space for a little regret that Seldon had been defeated. 8. For a long while, they sat silently as the taxi whined through the hundreds of miles of worm-like tunnels toward the University. And then Gaal stirred. He said: â€Å"Was what you told the Commissioner true? Would your execution have really hastened the Fall?† Seldon said, â€Å"I never lie about psychohistoric findings. Nor would it have availed me in this case. Chen knew I spoke the truth. He is a very clever politician and politicians by the very nature of their work must have an instinctive feeling for the truths of psychohistory.† â€Å"Then need you have accepted exile,† Gaal wondered, but Seldon did not answer. When they burst out upon the University grounds, Gaal's muscles took action of their own; or rather, inaction. He had to be carried, almost, out of the taxi. All the University was a blaze of light. Gaal had almost forgotten that a sun could exist. The University structures lacked the hard steel-gray of the rest of Trantor. They were silvery, rather. The metallic luster was almost ivory in color. Seldon said, â€Å"Soldiers, it seems.† â€Å"What?† Gaal brought his eyes to the prosaic ground and found a sentinel ahead of them. They stopped before him, and a soft-spoken captain materialized from a near-by doorway. He said, â€Å"Dr. Seldon?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"We have been waiting for you. You and your men will be under martial law henceforth. I have been instructed to inform you that six months will be allowed you for preparations to leave for Terminus.† â€Å"Six months!† began Gaal, but Seldon's fingers were upon his elbow with gentle pressure. â€Å"These are my instructions,† repeated the captain. He was gone, and Gaal turned to Seldon, â€Å"Why, what can be done in six months? This is but slower murder.† â€Å"Quietly. Quietly. Let us reach my office.† It was not a large office, but it was quite spy-proof and quite undetectably so. Spy-beams trained upon it received neither a suspicious silence nor an even more suspicious static. They received, rather, a conversation constructed at random out of a vast stock of innocuous phrases in various tones and voices. â€Å"Now,† said Seldon, at his ease, â€Å"six months will be enough.† â€Å"I don't see how.† â€Å"Because, my boy, in a plan such as ours, the actions of others are bent to our needs. Have I not said to you already that Chen's temperamental makeup has been subjected to greater scrutiny than that of any other single man in history. The trial was not allowed to begin until the time and circumstances were fight for the ending of our own choosing.† â€Å"But could you have arranged† â€Å"?to be exiled to Terminus? Why not?† He put his fingers on a certain spot on his desk and a small section of the wall behind him slid aside. Only his own fingers could have done so, since only his particular print-pattern could have activated the scanner beneath. â€Å"You will find several microfilms inside,† said Seldon. â€Å"Take the one marked with the letter, T.† Gaal did so and waited while Seldon fixed it within the projector and handed the young man a pair of eyepieces. Gaal adjusted them, and watched the film unroll before his eyes. He said, â€Å"But then† Seldon said, â€Å"What surprises you?† â€Å"Have you been preparing to leave for two years?† â€Å"Two and a half. Of course, we could not be certain that it would be Terminus he would choose, but we hoped it might be and we acted upon that assumption† â€Å"But why, Dr. Seldon? If you arranged the exile, why? Could not events be far better controlled here on Trantor?† â€Å"Why, there are some reasons. Working on Terminus, we will have Imperial support without ever rousing fears that we would endanger Imperial safety.† Gaal said, â€Å"But you aroused those fears only to force exile. I still do not understand.† â€Å"Twenty thousand families would not travel to the end of the Galaxy of their own will perhaps.† â€Å"But why should they be forced there?† Gaal paused, â€Å"May I not know?† Seldon said, â€Å"Not yet. It is enough for the moment that you know that a scientific refuge will be established on Terminus. And another will be established at the other end of the Galaxy, let us say,† and he smiled, â€Å"at Star's End. And as for the rest, I will die soon, and you will see more than I. ?No, no. Spare me your shock and good wishes. My doctors tell me that I cannot live longer than a year or two. But then, I have accomplished in life what I have intended and under what circumstances may one better die.† â€Å"And after you die, sir?† â€Å"Why, there will be successors perhaps even yourself. And these successors will be able to apply the final touch in the scheme and instigate the revolt on Anacreon at the right time and in the right manner. Thereafter, events may roll unheeded.† â€Å"I do not understand.† â€Å"You will.† Seldon's lined face grew peaceful and tired, both at once, â€Å"Most will leave for Terminus, but some will stay. It will be easy to arrange. ?But as for me,† and he concluded in a whisper, so that Gaal could scarcely hear him, â€Å"I am finished.†