Racism At The Institute On Race And Poverty - 1344 Words

Jordan Reber Mr. Bergmann Senior English P3 28 August 2015 Racism in America According to the Institute on Race and Poverty (IRP) in 2000 a white individual making the same income annually as any other race has a seventy-eight percent chance of owning a home, and only a twenty-two percent chance of having their credit denied on a loan, however, minorities like Blacks and Hispanics have a significantly lower chance of both. (Lawrence, and Keleher 3). In fact, Blacks with those same specifications only have a forty-eight percent chance to own a home, and an astounding forty-five percent chance to have their credit denied on a loan. Meanwhile, Hispanics have a forty-six percent chance to own a home, and a thirty-percent percent chance of having their credit denied. While this may seem overtly discriminatory with just a glance, one must first delve into what those numbers actually mean, and the details went into creating those numbers, as well as take a peek into the institution that created those numbers before jumping to the conclusion that it is empirically racist. Recently, racism has exploded into the spotlight worldwide, and especially in the United States of America with stories of racially motivated police brutality and a supposed â€Å"race war† taking center stage. All this coming forty-seven years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sought to end racial tension and racist governmentShow MoreRelatedRace Class Gender 456 Final Exam1311 Words   |  6 PagesL.ADKINS RCG 456 FINAL EXAM L. Adkins Race Class Gender 456 Final Exam Laura Adkins DSU Student â€Æ' L. Adkins Race Class Gender 456 Final Exam 1. Elaborate Noel’s theory on the contact situation of race relations (20 pts). Sociologist Donald Noel’s hypotheses state, â€Å"If two or more groups come together in a contact situation characterized by ethnocentrism, competition, and a differential in power, then some form of racial or ethnic stratification will result (Healey O Brien, 2015, p. 104)Read MoreThe Role Of Institutional Racism During Bridging The Racial Divide1731 Words   |  7 PagesThe role of institutional racism in bridging the racial divide There is now an African-American president in the White House and there is now no visible trace of slavery in America. Racism, in the eyes of the majority is nonexistent. There is a wide assumption that minorities, especially blacks have progressed to the point where job and income equality is no longer a debate. The majority does not think of racism as a serious problem just because enough progress had been madeRead MoreRacism And Racism Essay971 Words   |  4 PagesIs it racism or economics which hinders many African American communities from progressing economically in the 21st Century? This research proposal will address this question by examining the social and psychological impact caused by racism and the economic impact it’s had on the African American community. This proposal will further investigate whether the emotional scars of slavery continue to hamper African American progress or if racism is actually the cause. The economic cost of discriminationRead MoreRacial Discrimination Against Minorities Within The American Workforce Essay1677 Words   |  7 Pageswithin the American workforce is evident. Structural racism is the cause of why qualified minorities lacking opportunities, while lesser-qualified White-Americans are hired. This paper will discuss what structural racism is, how it plays into racial discrimination against qualifieded minorities, what can be done to prevent further racial profiling, and briefly touch on the adverse effects racial prejudice has on the economy. Keywords: structural racism, qualified minorities, racial discrimination DemographicsRead MoreRacism Is Defined As An Ideology Of Racial Superiority1384 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Racism is defined as an ideology of racial superiority followed by discriminatory and prejudicial behavior. Racism can come in many forms such as racial profiling; hating someone for the color of their skin, workplace discrimination, and the stereotypical notion that one race has superior work ethics than another. No matter the origin, racism can have long lasting effects on its victims and the community. We will look how the psychological impact of racism affects the victim mentallyRead MoreBrown vs. Board of Education: Case Study1745 Words   |  7 Pagesviolates the Fourteenth Amendment rights of individuals. The Fourteenth Amendment ensures equal access to services and equal protection under the law. In the words of the court: Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical facilities and other tangible factors may be equal. The word tangible is used because when the case was argued in the Topeka courtroom, the judgeRead MoreThe Documentary Crude, By Joe Berlinger1371 Words   |  6 Pages grocery delivery company FreshDirect began plans to build their new headquarters and a fueling station along the South Bronx waterfront, a district which is 39% Black and 60% Hispanic according to the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems. Environmental racism is usually not the overt racism, discrimination, or stereotyping that is splayed out across the media through newspapers and television screens, attracting national attention. Instead, it is more subtle and hidden, such as the placementRead MoreAn Article Published By Arthur C. Brooks, A Writer For1697 Words   |  7 Pagessocial mobility. African Americans who are born in the bottom quintile of the wealth distribution â€Å"have a 50% chance of being stuck at the bottom and a 4% chance of making it all the way up to the top.† (Is America 1:40-2:48). Because of underlying racism and environmental factors, African Americans are not as socially mobile as the white majority in America. In an article which proves the barriers limiting success for immigrants, Zenen Jaimes Perez explains that undocumented immigrants’ â€Å"path to higherRead MoreDifferent Types of Racial Discrimination Essay2563 Words   |  11 Pages What is racism and does it still exist? According to Merriam Dictionary, racism is â€Å"a belief that is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.† Every day, many people experience the harsh act of racism in different forms such as: racial slurs, harassment, or through more obvious acts which are the effects of institutional racist practices. However, something really easy to pin point is that these actsRead MoreA Brief Note On Reverse Racism And Affirmative Action1699 Words   |  7 PagesWe often hear people say things like â€Å"Oh, this person only got into that university because of they’re black† or â€Å"that person only got the promotion because people feel sorry for him or her.† This is a classic example of reverse racism. The most common case of reverse racism is when Caucasian people claim that policies like affirmative action gives people of color an advantage over them. However this is not true at all; what affirmative action was meant to do is allow minorities an equal opportunity

My Letter The Investigative Personality - 967 Words

My three letter RIASEC code is IRC. The first letter represents the investigative personality. My preferred work environment as an investigative person is in a fairly unstructured environment where I can be left alone to explore problems that attract my curiosity. My management style is very lenient, I would like to present my problems to my employees and give them the freedom to follow through. Some of the suggested occupations that interest me are biologist, psychologist, and dental hygienist. The second letter of my RIASEC code stands for the realistic personality. My preferred work environment as a realistic person is in a place where I can tackle concrete problems and obtain tangible results and do not hate to engage in a lot of social interaction. The management style of a realistic type is preferring to solve a problem myself instead of spending time to explain it to someone else. One of the suggested occupations for a realistic person that I might enjoy is an occupational the rapist. The final letter of my RIASEC code stands for the conventional personality. My preferred work environment as a conventional person would be being a part of a large organization. My management style is very relaxed because I do not enjoy leadership positions. A few conventional careers that interest me are secretary, banker, and dental assistant. My reported personality type according to the results of the Myers-Briggs Type indicator is ISTP. I completely agree with my four letter codeShow MoreRelatedPhase 2747 Words   |  3 PagesKnow Your Personality Dr. John Holland created a theory and inventory to help describe personality types that can be used to identify occupations that are best suited for a particular personality type, or â€Å"Holland Code.† It is important to remember that, as with any personality inventory, this is only an approximation, and the information that is gathered from this exercise should be used in conjunction with the additional information that is covered in this course. Your Holland Code is onlyRead MoreJohn L Holland Developed A Test921 Words   |  4 Pagesproducing three letter codes to describe types. Holland believed there were six basic traits that combined to make a person’s personality. The six traits are Conventional, Enterprising, Social, Realistic, Investigative, and Artistic. Three letter codes, derived form the first letter of each of the three highest related traits, are shown after the test is taken (Rayman, 2008). My personality type from this test was ACS, Artistic, Conventional, and Social (Rounds). Artistic was my highest score, andRead MoreHolland Theory and Application1324 Words   |  6 PagesVandehey, 2012). The Holland theory is based on identification of people environ ment, skills, and values leading into six occupational categories known as ‘RIASEC’ (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) (Bolles amp; Figler, 1999). Although each category is consider a unaltered type of personality most clients will not fit into just one type. Holland’s theory assigns them a set of two or three of the types (Anderson amp; Vandehey, 2012). The first of Holland’sRead MoreCognitive Education Program1036 Words   |  5 PagesI have always had a passion for helping others. I can’t remember a time in my life where seeing my actions allow someone else grow and succeed didn’t bring my heart joy. Due to this deep desire to influence and change other’s lives, I hope to graduate from UTD with my degree in Cognitive Science and pursue law. With these degrees, I hope to help children all across the nation by creating curriculum and changing the rules of the education system through policy. Though nothing can stop me from becomingRead MoreSelecting The Occupation : Medical And Clinical Laboratory Technologist1675 Words   |  7 Pagesgov/ooh/healthcare/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technologists-and-technicians.htm#tab-3 https://www.cacareerzone.org/profile/29-2011.00 http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2011.00 Values My top work values are security, health, achievement, lifestyle, and high income. I believe that majority of my top work values will be satisfied with the career. For security, this career has a great job outlook and it is expected to continue to grow. In fact, it is projected to group 14% from 2014 to 2024Read MoreMy Results And Observations From The Four Career Profile981 Words   |  4 Pagesto summarize my results and observations from the four career profile activities. Those four career profile activities are Interests, Personalities,Values, and Skills. All four of these topics help define who you are, what you are good at, and what actions you will take. For the first career profile activity, Interest, I will be talking about my results from my three letter code(RIASEC) and my SDS(Self-Directed Search) assessment. For the second career profile activity, Personalities, I will be talkingRead MoreI Am An Active Learner946 Words   |  4 Pagesinventory presented my style evenly between visual and verbal learners, I couldn’t agree with this more. The reason that is, is because for me to completely fathom a topic it must be not only displayed in at least one visual form, but also verbally rationalized. Also, it turns out that I am both a sequential and global learner, this explains why in some cases I immediately grasp the big picture while in other cases I have to go through a problem step-by-step. Fortunately, my CFNC results, for bothRead MoreThe Physics Of Aerospace Engineering Essay1574 Words   |  7 Pagesor even to possibly line up a job after college. He also told me that it is the best way to gain hands on experience of different concepts that you learn in the classroom as an engineer. The Holland code for Aerospace Engineering is Realistic, Investigative, Enterprising. It is a very math oriented major with nearly all of the major’s courses being math courses. Students need to be able to grind out complex problems for hours on end and stay focused on the task at hand. These qualities fit in veryRead MoreWho I Am I?895 Words   |  4 Pagesabout ourselves we start to see new things in ourselves. We also learn aspect of our personality that we didn’t know were there. Throughout the process of trying to figure out where am I going? I’ve come to know who I am in a deeper form. I’ve come to the realization of what type of personality I have by taking one of many personality tests. This consisted of the two-letter: sj and the four-letter: estj. These personality tests help me identify what type of person I would be described as ahnd into whatRead MoreJohn Holland Personality Theory Essay901 Words   |  4 PagesPersonality is an influential trait that if utilized for career matching, could potentially increase productivity at a job or even equate to a successful career choice. If an individual’s personality has characteristics of a certain trait, such as creativity or idealism, it would be a good idea to get into a career that emphasizes this trait and maximizes that potential. In career counseling there are many theories that are acceptable for utilization in client-counselor relationships, but one in

A Woman of No Importance, Final Act free essay sample

Wilde uses many dramatic effects throughout the play to shock and amuse the audience and many of them can be seen in this final scene. The fact that this conversation between Mrs Arbuthnot and Lord Illingworth takes place in Mrs Arbuthnot’s house, her personal space and territory puts her at an advantage and it shows that Lord Illingworth is surrendering his usual control over his situations By Lord Illingworth referring to Mrs Arbuthnot as ‘Rachel’ we are again made aware that we are listening to two people who have a strong past relationship. She calls him ‘George Harford’ while he uses her name far less often that in the persuasive Act 2. During this scene, Lord Illingworth speaks with awareness of the legal situation, he knows he can never make Gerald legitimate but he is willing to leave him property â€Å"What more can a gentleman desire in this world? † and Mrs Arbuthnot’s response of â€Å"Nothing more, I am quite sure† turns this in to a class confrontation. When Mrs Arbuthnot says â€Å"I told you I was not interested, and I beg you to go. † this is a threat to conventional society and the audience would have been shocked by this. She treats Lord Illingworth as he once treated her, in purely financial terms and she tells him that Gerald no longer needs his money, â€Å"You come too late. My son has no need of you. You are not necessary. † She then goes on to explain to him that Gerald and Hester are in love and they don’t need his money because Hester already has money of her own. Lord Illingworth asks where they will go and Mrs Arbuthnot’s reply â€Å"We will not tell you, and if you find us we will not know you. You seem surprised. What welcome would you get from the girl whose lips you tried to soil, from the boy whose life you have shamed, from the mother who dishonor comes from you? † is very melodramatic and it also relives the fact that Lord Illingworth tried to kiss Hester and this is when Gerald found out that he was his father, â€Å"Lord Illingworth you have insulted the purest thing on Gods earth†. This leaves Lord Illingworth to admit that he wants Gerald, â€Å"Rachel, I want my son. † Wilde uses many props in this scene, the main one being the letter Gerald has written to Lord Illingworth imploring him to marry his mother. The audience know what is written in the letter before Lord Illingworth does and this adds drama and tension because the audience are waiting for the big reveal and to see what happens. This letter also links back to the letter that Lord Illingworth sees in Act 2 and says â€Å"What a curious handwriting! It reminds me of the handwriting of a woman I used to know years ago. † and his dismissal of it so simply. The stage direction of ‘Mrs Arbuthnot watches him all the time’ is very important because she wants to see his reaction. Ironically his proposal of marriage after reading Gerald’s letter uses similar language to Mrs Arbuthnot’s when explaining to Gerald why she would refuse him, for her marriage would be a ‘sacrifice’ and for Lord Illingworth it would be a ‘surrender’. For Mrs Arbuthnot to say this at this point in the play would have been very uncommon for the time because the audience would be expecting a happy ending, for the fallen women to marry the father of her child or for it to end like a melodrama, in tragedy. For the first time, Mrs Arbuthnot is triumphant against Lord Illingworth with the repetition of his own words when she says, â€Å"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely if ever do they forgive them. † Lord Illingworth is clearly surprised at this response and then resorts to cruelty. His parting speech creates an exciting climax as the censorship of the time wouldn’t allow anyone to say the word ‘bastard’ on the stage. Wilde’s stage direction of Mrs Arbuthnot’s use of the glove â€Å"Mrs Arbuthnot snatches up glove and strikes Lord Illingworth across the face with it† is a very good use of a prop because in the time this play was written a glove was a very masculine item and being hit with one was a sign of violence and confrontation. The audience is allowed a shock, due to the word about to be spoken and then they get a relief as the taboo is maintained by Mrs Arbuthnot cutting Lord Illingworth off before he can finish his sentence because she will not let him say the word because she doesn’t want to hear him say this about her beloved son. The villain is punished and Mrs Arbuthnot’s respectability is ma intained. All of this is typical of a melodrama and we the audience now feel something has been accomplished. Wilde’s use of stage directions are very well placed and are very dramatic, especially the last few lines of this scene when Mrs Arbuthnot ‘falls sobbing on the sofa’ and it reinforces that this play is a melodrama because people are not usually this dramatic in normal everyday life. Gerald and Hester now return to Mrs Arbuthnot and we have the image of ‘a man and a woman in a garden’ which has been mentioned previously throughout the play and is a sign of sex and fertility and in this scene it shows the audience the image of a new family emerging. Due to Hester having changed her views from believing that women who have children outside of the laws of marriage should be punished, â€Å"A woman who has sinned should be punished, shouldn’t she? † And that the children should also carry this shame, â€Å"Yes, it is right that the sins of the parents should be visited on the children. It is a just law. It is God’s law. † to her now saying â€Å"I was wrong. Gods law is only love. † Because she is in love with Gerald and has managed to listen and understand all of the things that Mrs Arbuthnot has had to face to bring up Gerald alone. At the end of the play when Gerald sees the glove lying on the floor Mrs Arbuthnot picks up and changes the title line of the play and once again mirrors Lord Illingworth’s statement about seeing the letter from Mrs Arbuthnot, â€Å"Oh! o one. No one in particular. A Man of no importance. † Unmarried and defiant she enters into a fresh and better world although the 19th century attitudes to marriage are still upheld in a way because even though she has won against Lord Illingworth and she has managed to keep Gerald and now has the love and respect of Hester the audience are still left with the image of them being exiled to America, where they have less strict views on illegitimacy and have more freedo m.

Video Games As Art Essay Example For Students

Video Games As Art Essay Steven Spielberg spoke out on video games last month at the EA Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. I think the real indicator, he said, will be when somebody confesses that they cried at Level 17. Spielberg was talking about video games and art, and the increasingly less absurd question of are-they-or-arent-they. The mere fact that U.S.C. has a Game Innovation Lab is probably an indicator that something is afoot, but Im here to accept Spielbergs challenge and come clean. A video game made me cry. The game is called Halo, and it wasnt actually Level 17; it was Level 5. I had been slugging it out for what seemed likeand probably washours with a bunch of aliens in an icy canyon. Just as all hope was fading, I seized an alien aircraft and made my escape. I sailed up into the darkening sky with light snow sifting down around me. Moody music, like something from Carmina Burana, swelled in the background. The sounds of battle faded beneath me in the dusk. It was like the end of Platoon, and I was Charlie Sheen. Then the waterworks started. We will write a custom essay on Video Games As Art specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Listen: I am a grownup, no-dorkier-than-average person. I dont consider myself susceptible to hysterics (my eyes remained miraculously dry throughout The Terminal, Mr. Spielberg). So what happened on Level 5? Right now video games are the worlds largest cult phenomenon. Those who play them (fully half of all Americans ages 6 and up) love them, and those who dont play them regard them with virulent distaste. Its time that changed. Those of you in the latter group, if you have any curiosity about the future of your own culture, and if you havent already put down this magazine in favor of Flaubert or croquet or whatever, take a look at three new video games that expand our notions of what a video game can do. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (for PlayStation2) sounds like a game that glorifies delinquency, juvenile and otherwise. And it does. But its also an extraordinary experiment in interactive storytelling. You play a playa,a Snoop-style gangbanger wandering through a vast, absurdly detailed virtual version of California. Theres no hard-and-fast narrative. You go where you wish and do what you like, and the game makes things interesting accordingly. This is something thats possible in no other medium. San Andreas combines the richness of art with the freedom of real life to create something entirely new, totally unclassifiable and really, really cool. Ive already confessed my unmanly affection for Halo, which may be the single most perfect video game ever made. Halo 2 (for Xbox) hits stores Nov. 9, and it offers more of the same adrenalized, flawlessly orchestrated, hyper-realistic combat (the new game lets you rock two weapons simultaneously, John Woostyle, which is not actually that useful but hella fun), but its real genius lies in its architecture. Its staged like Wagnerian opera: you fight through vast, Olympian structures, combating mind-hurtingly titanic forces, and the effect is precisely that mixture of awe and terror and wonder that the philosopher Edmund Burke called the sublime. The original Half-Life borrowed technology from hard-core shoot-em-ups and used it to spin an absorbing tale about a scientist on the run from scary-gross interdimensional aliens. This had never been done before. Half-Life 2 (PC), which arrives Nov. 16, after six years of work, is one of the most frighteningly atmospheric games Ive ever seen. Humanity came out of its interdimensional scrap holding the silver medal, and now we live in an alien-run police state enforced by collaborationist thugs and towering three-legged monstrosities. Long, ringing silences, too bright sunlight and empty streets deepen the sense of Orwellian despair. .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 , .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .postImageUrl , .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 , .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:hover , .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:visited , .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:active { border:0!important; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:active , .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95 .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u40e7b71ad8ec7d1885e59ba62d966c95:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Lets All Stay In School EssayArt is generally supposed to mean something, although its not always easy to say what. Whatever these games mean to the people who play themwhom, ah, ever they may bethey mean a lot. Fifteen years ago, video games were barely more than a cottage industry, if by cottage you mean the sticky back corner of a strip-mall bowling alley. Last year game sales hit $7 billion, in the same exclusive ballpark as movies (about $9 billion). We should count ourselves lucky. The video game is a brand-new medium, and we get to see it evolve from the very beginning. Are video games art? Nobody knows yet, but the cool thing is, were the ones who get to decide. Should games be like Hollywood? Or like interactive novels? Or maybe the NBA is the model? China already sponsors a national video-gaming team, and ESPN is covering the launch of Halo 2. So grab a joystick, sink back into the couch, and get in on Level 1. I promise, nobody has to know. Just keep some tissues handy.

Black Empowerment in America essays

Black Empowerment in America essays These two articles on the past and future of black empowerment in America. My topic is something of a fairly new nature and these two articles really touch on the essence of the point of my would be research paper. The first touches on the past of black empowerment and further extended my knowledge of significant events such as the civil rights movements and in particular the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The second hits on the current and future issues in black empowerment. For instance the need to not ignore the race card when it comes to political action, because its still very prevalent. The first article was titled The politics of black empowerment; the transformation of black activism in urban America, by James Jennings. The main point of his article was to illustrate how important the issue of race has played in voting in America. He gave the examples of the post reconstruction era in the early to mid 1900s and the civil rights movement. He analyzed the similar intimidation tactics used in both periods and how both periods were important for black empowerment. He also analyzed the impact of the Voting Rights Act of !965 and the ramifications of government intervention in the area of civil rights. He concluded that not only representation is necessary for black empowerment, but power to decide an individual destiny. The second article titled: The struggle for black empowerment in New York City; beyond the politics of pigmentation. It was written by Dale Rogers Marshall. He is trying to point out that although blacks have come a long way in terms of voting and political power, the fact of race cannot be ignored in the realm of politics. He isnt saying that race should be an important aspect of how one votes, but he points out several sets of election statistics that show that it is. He also points out in his analysis of racial lines playing a part in voting the 60s era; as d ...

Introduction to the Human Genome Project

Introduction to the Human Genome Project The set of nucleic acid sequences or genes that form the DNA of an organism is its genome. Essentially, a genome is a molecular blueprint for constructing an organism. The human genome is the genetic code in the DNA of the 23 chromosome pairs of Homo sapiens, plus the DNA found within human mitochondria. Egg and sperm cells contain 23 chromosomes (haploid genome) consisting of around three billion DNA base pairs. Somatic cells (e.g., brain, liver, heart) have 23 chromosome pairs (diploid genome) and around six billion base pairs. About 0.1 percent of the base pairs differ from one person to the next. The human genome is about 96 percent similar to that of a chimpanzee, the species that is the nearest genetic relative. The international scientific research community sought to construct a map of the sequence of the nucleotide base pairs that make up human DNA. The United States government started planning the Human Genome Project or HGP in 1984 with a goal to sequence the three billion nucleotides of the haploid genome. A small number of anonymous volunteers  supplied the DNA for the project, so the completed human genome was a mosaic of human DNA and not the genetic sequence of any one person. Human Genome Project History and Timeline While the planning stage started into 1984, the HGP didnt officially launch until 1990. At the time, scientists estimated it would take 15 years to complete the map, but advances in technology led to completion in April of 2003 rather than in 2005. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided most of the $3 billion in public funding ($2.7 billion total, due to early completion). Geneticists from all over the world were invited to participate in the Project. In addition to the United States, the international consortium included institutes and universities from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, China, and Germany. Scientists from many other countries also participated. How Gene Sequencing Works To make a map of the human genome, scientists needed to determine the order of the base pair on the DNA of all 23 chromosomes (really, 24, if you consider the sex chromosomes X and Y are different). Each chromosome contained from 50 million to 300 million base pairs, but because the base pairs on a DNA double helix are complementary (i.e., adenine pairs with thymine and guanine pairs with cytosine), knowing the composition of one strand of the DNA helix automatically provided information about the complementary strand. In other words, the nature of the molecule simplified the task. While multiple methods were used to determine the code, the main technique employed BAC. BAC stands for bacterial artificial chromosome. To use BAC, human DNA was broken into fragments between 150,000 and 200,000 base pairs in length. The fragments were inserted into bacterial DNA so that when the bacteria reproduced, the human DNA also replicated. This cloning process provided enough DNA to make samples for sequencing. To cover the 3 billion base pairs of the human genome, about 20,000 different BAC clones were made. The BAC clones made what is called a BAC library that contained all the genetic information for a human, but it was like a library in chaos, with no way to tell the order of the books. To fix this, each BAC clone was mapped back to human DNA to find its position in relation to other clones. Next, the BAC clones were cut into smaller fragments about 20,000 base pairs in length for sequencing. These subclones were loaded into a machine called a sequencer. The sequencer prepared 500 to 800 base pairs, which a computer assembled into the correct order to match the BAC clone. As the base pairs were determined, they were made available to the public  online and free to access. Eventually all the pieces of the puzzle were complete and arranged to form a complete genome. Goals of the Human Genome Project The primary goal of the Human Genome Project was to sequence the 3 billion base pairs that make up human DNA. From the sequence, the 20,000 to 25,000 estimated human genes could be identified. However, the genomes of other scientifically significant species were also sequenced as part of the Project, including the genomes of the fruit fly, mouse, yeast, and roundworm. The Project developed new tools and technology for genetic manipulation and sequencing. Public access to the genome assured the entire planet could access the information to spur new discoveries. Why the Human Genome Project Was Important The Human Genome Project formed the first blueprint for a person and  remains the largest collaborative biology project that humanity ever completed. Because the Project sequenced genomes of multiple organisms, scientist could compare them to uncover the functions of genes and to identify which genes are necessary for life. Scientists took the information and techniques from the Project and used them to identify disease genes, devise tests for genetic diseases, and repair damaged genes to prevent problems before they occur. The information is used to predict how a patient will respond to a treatment based on a genetic profile. While the first map took years to complete, advances have led to faster sequencing, allowing scientists to study genetic variation in populations and more quickly determine what specific genes do. The Project also included the development of an Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) program. ELSI became the largest bioethics program in the world and serves as a model for programs that deal with new technologies.

Media Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media Law - Essay Example This report provides some insight into the dynamics of these treaties and conventions and explains how they can and will facilitate the expansion of this company into foreign territory. The advancement of modern technology has changed global mobility in such a way that the concept of free and open markets have given rise to a form of â€Å"deterretorialization†.1 The transnational trade regime has been altered by this new age of globalization to the extent that world trade is no longer constrained by borders.2 Treaties and Conventions have been attempting to harmonize international commercial activities.3 Some of these Treaties and Conventions are relevant to this company’s plans to expand into foreign territories and will impact upon the employment contracts, contracts for the sale of its products outside of the UK and protection of intellectual property across borders. Expansion into the European Community will not have any real consequences since the UK is already bound by the harmonization that characterizes the UK. The primary goal of the Treaty Establishing the European Community if one of unity and harmony. Article 2 of the Treaty provides as follows: â€Å"The Community shall have as its task, by establishing a common market and an economic and monetary union and by implementing common policies †¦a harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of economic activities, a high level of employment and of social protection, equality between men and women, sustainable and non-inflationary growth, a high degree of competitiveness and convergence of economic performance, a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the raising of the standard of living and quality of life, and economic and social cohesion and solidarity among Member States.†4 In accordance with the principles set forth in Article 2 of the Treaty of Rome, Articles 23-31 provides for the free movement of goods within the European

Pre-lecture response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pre-lecture response - Essay Example In effect, the Southerners favored retrogressive practices and opposed governmental policies such as taxation whenever they perceived them as an attack on their agrarian practices. The Southern states stood their ground in opposing State Rights that gave the federal government the authority to regulate slavery. Specifically, the reason for this was that slaves were the primary source of labor in the cotton fields. According to the Southern representatives, there was no solution to the slavery business. Notably, the Southerners through William Cobb, Georgia Congressman asserted that by abolishing slavery â€Å"you have kindled a fire which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, which seas of blood can only extinguish† (151). Specifically, the reason for this was that slavery was an essential institution and economic engine for the economy of the US and other countries like Britain that depended on the Southern-grown cotton for their industries. On the other hand, the north was more political matures and expressed a high level of modernization in the way the representatives addressed political and social differences. In particular, slavery was a major factor in the division between the regions as the Northern section supported the abolishment of the practice and the freedom to the slaves. In practice, several Northern Tycoons demonstrated their willingness to support the end of slavery. In particular, the admission of Missouri raised great concern due to its slavery policies. Specifically, New York Congressman James Tallmadge suggested amendment of the constitution â€Å"that all children born within the said state (Missouri) after the admission thereof into the Union shall be free at the age of 25 years†

Developmental Psychology Essay Example for Free

Developmental Psychology Essay 1.1. Nature – nurture Nature refers to the inherited (genetic) characteristics and tendencies that influence development. It is the abilities that are present at birth, as well as any abilities determined by genes. On the other hand, nurture is the processes caused by our environment that influences our development. Everything is learned through our interactions with our environment and as a result of our experiences. In the past, hereditary and environmental factors were considered to be operating separately from each other. It was one or the other nature (hereditary) or nurture (environment). Today it is generally agreed that hereditary and environment are both important factors; development is a combination of both. Example: Average longevity is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. To increase your chances of a long life you need to come from a family with a history of individuals who lived to a ripe age (genetic factors). Environmental factors; such as diseases, toxins, lifestyle and social class are also important factors that influence longevity. A person who makes poor lifestyle choices and live in an impoverished area will decrease his/her chances of a long life. Therefore it can be said that both nature and nurture play a role in a person living to a ripe age. 1.2. Stability – change The stability versus change concept explores how much of ones behaviour is consistent and how much is changeable over a lifespan. Simply put, we can ask whether development is best characterized by stability (for example, does a behaviour or trait such as shyness stay stable in its expression over time?) or change (could a persons degree of shyness fluctuate across the life span?). Stability at a basic level is vital for us to recognize that we are still the same person as we grow older. But we also like to believe that our characteristics are not set in stone, that we can change ourselves if we want to. Psychoanalysts believe that personality traits developed in the first 5 years predict adult personality. Change theorists argue that personalities are modified by interactions with family, experiences at school, and acculturation. Example: Costa and McCrae (1994; 1997) have investigated whether the traits that make up the five-factor model remain stable across adulthood and came to the general conclusion that personality traits remain stable after age 30. If a 30 year old woman worried excessively about whether or not her husbands salary was enough to make mortgage payments, then she also is likely to be worried about having saved enough for her childrens college tuition when she is 45 and is likely to be worried about the adequacy of her husbands pension income at age 70. Since Costa and McCrae suggest that personality traits remain stable through adulthood a high degree of neuroticism, as reflected by a consistent and excessive level of anxiety and worry, is likely to persist and find new focal points over time. However, there is evidence that change can be found in personality trait development across the adult life span. Allemand et al. (2008) found that the way people differ in their personality becomes more pronounced with older age. Furthermore, other studies (Donnellan Lucas, 2008) found that extraversion and openness decrease with age whereas agreeableness increases with age (Blanchard-Fields Cavanaugh, 2011, p. 321). 1.3. Continuity – discontinuity The continuity versus discontinuity controversy deals with the question of whether development is a gradual, smooth progression from conception to death (continuity), or a series of distinct and abrupt shifts (discontinuity). Continuity focuses on quantitative changes in number or amount, such as changes in height and weight. Discontinuity focuses on qualitative changes in kind, structure, or organization. An example of continuity is: Infants who have satisfying emotional relationships with their parents typically become children with satisfying peer relationships. And they will eventually become adults with satisfying relationships with others. An example of discontinuity: After spending most of adulthood trying to ensure the success of the next generation and to leave a legacy, older adults turn to evaluating their own lives in search of closure and a sense that what they have accomplished has been meaningful. 1.4. Universal versus context-specific development This concerns whether or not there is one path of development or several. Example: David Schmitt and colleagues (2004) investigated whether one’s attachment style may have a major influence on how one forms romantic relationships. The results showed that 79% of the cultural groups studied demonstrated secure romantic attachments, but that North American cultures tended to be dismissive and East Asian cultures tended to be high on preoccupied romantic attachment. Overall, Schmitt and colleagues concluded that although the same attachment pattern holds across most cultures, no one pattern holds across all of them. East Asian cultures in particular tend to fit a pattern in which people report that others do not get as emotionally close as the respondent would like, and that respondents find it difficult to trust others or to depend on them.

The Adventurous Character Tom in Mark Twains The Adventures of Tom Saw

The Adventurous Character Tom in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The needle pricked the finger to let the blood drip on to the peace of pine shingle to finalize the oath that was to keep them "mum" (76) about the murder they had just witnessed. Mark Twain's book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1985) takes place in the mid 1800's and tells the adventures of Tom Sawyers adventures. The adventures started out with Tom and his friend, Huckleberry Fin, sneaking out and accidentally being witnesses to a murder. They then promise to never tell a word of it. Throughout the book they forgot about the murder and decide to go and play pirates and search for gold, but a trial about the murder finally comes, and it is haunting Tom because an innocent person, Muff Potter, is about to be executed. Tom opens his mouth to tell who the murderer was and then both Tom and his friend are in danger of being the next victims, but fate catches up with the murderer and he starves in a cave when the door is locked shut. The novel's finale is Tom and Huck finding the chest of gold, which made them both prosper with wealth. Throughout the novel, Twain uses a great approach to making the novel a very good read because of the fascinating characterization of Tom Sawyer. The dominant techniques that Twain uses to characterize Tom as an adventurous young man are his appearance, his thoughts, what others think of him, his actions, and his speech. Tom's appearance is the first element that enhances his character. His appearance is always changing. Tom starts most days looking like a cleaned up young man in nice clothes, but it usually never failed that through Tom's adventures of his rough play, fighting, mischief or swimming his clothes would end t... ...t example because if a person were in a fight they wouldn't say "You say enough when you have had enough." The use in the story makes it more realistic. Another good example of Tom's speech is when he was talking about the money that the robbers had got. He said, " 'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was. Dog'd if I don't, Huck" (169). This is another good example because Tom was really excited when he stated this, so he wouldn't worry about good speech and grammar. Twain did a very good job of characterizing Thomas Sawyer. To do this he effectively used the techniques of characterization including appearance, his thoughts, what others think of him, his actions, and his speech to formulate a very interesting exploiting character. Work Cited Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985.

Car Rental Business plan Essay

The purpose of this business plan is to raise $300,000 for the development of a car rental agency while showcasing the expected financials and operations over the next three years. The Car Rental Agency Inc. (â€Å"the Company†) is a New York based corporation that will provide the rental of economy, standard, and luxury automobiles in its targeted market. The Company was founded in 2009 by John Doe. 1.1 Products and Services As mentioned above, the Car Rental Agency will be actively engaged in the rental of economy class, standard, and luxury vehicles for tourists and vacationers within its targeted market. A bulk of the Company’s revenues will come from the daily rental charges for vehicle usage. The business will also recognize revenues from the sale of insurance services and gasoline charges to customers. At the onset of operations, the Company intends to have a leased fleet of 30 vehicles. The third section of the business plan will further describe the services offered by the Car Rental Agency. 1.2 The Financing Mr. Doe is seeking to raise $300,000 from as a bank loan. The interest rate and loan agreement are to be further discussed during negotiation. This business plan assumes that the business will receive a 10 year loan with a 9% fixed interest rate. 1.3 Mission Statement The Car Rental Agency’s mission is to become the recognized leader in its targeted market for renting affordable vehicles to the general public on a daily basis. 1.4 Mangement Team The Company was founded by John Doe. Mr. Doe has more than 10 years of experience in the automotive industry. Through his expertise, he will be able to bring the operations of the business to profitability within its first year of operations. 1.5 Sales Forecasts Mr. Doe expects a strong rate of growth at the start of operations. Below are the expected financials over the next three years. 1.6 Expansion Plan The Founder expects that the business will aggressively expand during the first three years of operation. Mr. Doe intends to implement marketing campaigns that will effectively target individuals, tourists, and business travelers within the target market. 2.0 Company and Financing Summary 2.1 Registered Name and Corporate Structure The Car Rental Agency, Inc. The Company is registered as a corporation in the State of New York. 2.2 Required Funds At this time, the Car Rental Agency requires $300,000 of debt funds. Below is a breakdown of how these funds will be used: 2.3 Investor Equity Mr. Doe is not seeking an investment from a third party at this time. 2.4 Management Equity John Doe owns 100% of the Car Rental Agency, Inc. 2.5 Exit Strategy If the business is very successful, Mr. Doe may seek to sell the business to a third party for a significant earnings multiple. Most likely, the Company will hire a qualified business broker to sell the business on behalf of the Car Rental Agency. Based on historical numbers, the business could fetch a sales premium of up to 4 times earnings. 3.0 Products and Services Below is a description of the car rental services offered by the Car Rental Agency. 3.1 Daily Car Rentals The primary source of revenue for the business will come from the direct daily rental of the Company’s fleet of approximately 30 vehicles. The Company will have three tiers of rentals including economy, standard, and luxury. Management expects that 75% of all rentals will fall into the economy or standard class. A limited number of luxury vehicles will be held on the lot for wealthy tourists and business travelers. Daily charges to clients will range from $49 to $99 per day depending on the type of vehicle they intend to rent. 3.2 Insurance Fees and Ancillary Services In addition to daily charges made to vehicle renters, the Company will earn secondary streams of revenue from the sale of additional insurance. This is an important secondary steam of revenue for the business as sales of additional car insurance will generate substantial gross margins for the Car Rental Agency. Additionally, the Company will charge substantial fees to customers that do not return the vehicles with full gas tanks. Approximately 25% of the Company’s aggregate revenues will come from the sale of insurance and gas fees. 4.0 Strategic and Market Analysis 4.1 Economic Outlook This section of the analysis will detail the economic climate, the car rental industry, the customer profile, and the competition that the business will face as it progresses through its business operations. Currently, the economic market condition in the United States is in recession. This slowdown in the economy has also greatly impacted real estate sales, which has halted to historical lows. Many economists expect that this recession will continue until mid-2009, at which point the economy will begin a prolonged recovery period. However, Car Rental Agencies typically operate with a strong degree of economic stability as business travelers will continue to need vehicles for their business trip needs. 4.2 Industry Analysis Within the United States, there are more than 5,000 companies (that operate one or more locations) that provide daily car rental services to the general public. Each year, these businesses aggregately generate more than $20  billion dollars of revenue and provide jobs to more than 120,000 people. Aggregate payrolls in each of the last five years have exceeded $3.1 billion. This is a mature industry, and the future expected growth rate is expected to equal that of the general economy. As mentioned above, despite the currently high gasoline prices, the industry will continue to remain profitable as business travelers will continue to require rented vehicles during their business trips. 4.3 Customer Profile In this section of the analysis, you should describe the type of customer you are seeking to acquire. These traits include income size, type of business/occupation; how far away from your business is to your customer, and what the customer is looking for. In this section, you can also put demographic information about your target market including population size, income demographics, level of education, etc. 4.4 Competitive Analysis This is one of the sections of the business plan that you must write completely on your own. The key to writing a strong competitive analysis is that you do your research on the local competition. Find out who your competitors are by searching online directories and searching in your local Yellow Pages. If there are a number of competitors in the same industry (meaning that it is not feasible to describe each one) then showcase the number of businesses that compete with you, and why your business will provide customers with service/products that are of better quality or less expensive than your competition. 5.0 Marketing Plan The Car Rental Agency intends to maintain an extensive marketing campaign that will ensure maximum visibility for the business in its targeted market. Below is an overview of the marketing strategies and objectives of the Car Rental Agency. 5.1 Marketing Objectives †¢ Establish relationships with airports and travel agents surrounding the target market. †¢ Implement a local campaign with the Company’s targeted market via the use of flyers, local newspaper advertisements, and word of mouth advertising. †¢ Develop an online presence by developing a website and placing the Company’s name and contact information with online directories. 5.2 Marketing Strategies Mr. Doe intends on using a number of marketing strategies that will allow the Car Rental Agency to easily target tourists and business travelers coming to the target market. These strategies include traditional print advertisements and ads placed on search engines on the Internet. Below is a description of how the business intends to market its services to the general public. The Car Rental Agency will also use an internet based strategy. This is very important as many people seeking local services, such as car rental agencies, now the Internet to conduct their preliminary searches. Mr. Doe will register the Car Rental Agency with online portals so that potential customers can easily reach the business. The Company will also develop its own online website, which will include functionality for people to book and pay for vehicle rentals directly through the Company’s online platform. This marketing feature is common to most companies that rent cars to the general public. The Company will also place advertisements on major travel portals such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. Mr. Doe will also develop relationships with local travel agents that will make arrangements for rentals among people that are traveling through the target market. 5.3 Pricing In this section, describe the pricing of your services and products. You should provide as much information as possible about your pricing as possible in this section. However, if you have hundreds of items, condense your product list categorically. This section of the business plan should not span more than 1 page. 6.0 Organizational Plan and Personnel Summary 6.1 Corporate Organization 6.2 Organizational Budget 6.3 Management Biographies In this section of the business plan, you should write a two to four paragraph biography about your work experience, your education, and your skill set. For each owner or key employee, you should provide a brief biography in this section. 7.0 Financial Plan 7.1 Underlying Assumptions †¢ The Car Rental Agency will have an annual revenue growth rate of 16% per year. †¢ The loan will have a 10 year term with a 9% interest rate. †¢ The Owner will acquire $300,000 of debt funds to develop the business. 7.2 Sensitivity Analysis In the event of an economic downturn, the business may have a decline in its revenues. However, among business travelers, renting a car is a necessity. As such, the Car Rental Agency will be able remain profitable despite a drop off in tourist activity. 7.3 Source of Funds 7.4 General Assumptions 7.5 Profit and Loss Statements 7.6 Cash Flow Analysis 7.7 Balance Sheet 7.8 General Assumptions 7.9 Business Ratios Expanded Profit and Loss Statements Expanded Cash Flow Analysis

Metin

ZEE: She’s a 19 year-old girl, suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. She is a quick-tempered, disorganized, untidy but clean girl. Although she tries to make others believe that she is a   liberal, in fact she is traditional. She has a strong sense of personal ethics. She can’t keep abreast of all innovations immediately. She suffers from insomnia at nights so she watches films when she can’t sleep. She’s addicted to cigarettes, but doesn’t drink alcohol. She’s passionately fond of her father and she has a tattoo showing her father’s date of birth on her leg. But she doesn’t show this to her father. She doesn’t answer telephone calls. Most of the time she rings it off before the other person speaks. HALUK: He is Zee’s 78 year-old father. He lives in Turkey. He is a childish man. He still watches the cartoon Tom & Jerry every morning. He’s trying to keep up with technology in order to prove that he isn’t old. He’s not a narrow minded man; on the contrary, he’s innovative in the same way as young people and thinks in the same way with them. The fact that he   ZEE was born to him in his old age makes him care for her very much. Though he knows that his daughter loves him, he also wants affection from her. He calls her daughter at least ten times a day. HILARY ZANETICH: She is the closest friend of ZEE. She was born in New Jersey. She is blond, tall and plump. She doesn’t mind her physical appearance, except at nights when she goes out. She wears the same clothes at school everyday. She’s quite a flexible and a positive person. Although she believes that ZEE is a hypochondriac and crazy, she loves her very much. All the time she says that their friendship has improved her character in many ways. Her flexibility makes HILARY extremely funny. The fact that she never minds anything sometimes gets her into trouble. The first person that ZEE asks about America is HILARY. However, as Hilary’s general knowledge is not sufficient, she calls her mother each time after Hilary’s answers. YAMAN GAZIOGLU: He is the closest Turkish boy friend of ZEE. He is very keen on girls, especially American blond girls. His most noticeable feature is that while he is speaking English, he applies direct translations from Turkish. For that reason, he usually talks about what ZEE can understand. (He translates Turkish idioms into English, but they make sense to no one except for ZEE.) Turkey is against America. As images of Turkey come from the international map, ZEE explains about Turkish people and the general features of Turkey   that have been left behind. When the camera-shot moves away from Turkey and starts to approach America, we see luxury shops, automobiles, and elite people shopping and having dinner in Merrick Park, where Zee lives. Following these images, the camera is slowly directed to Zee’s bedroom. Meanwhile, we grasp from Zee’s words that she wants to be far away from her American life style even for only one day. Starting the day. The first place we meet Zee is her bedroom. Cigarette ends at the bedside of Zee, burying her head in her pillow, a great many dresses on the floor and DVDs draw our attention. A film is already on the TV with low volume. There are pictures of her father and his letters to her on the walls. Her father’s call wakes Zee up. Her father, whose computer has already been locked, calls Zee to ask for her help. However, he doesn’t listen to what ZEE says and does what he wants. Zee, fed up with her father’s advice and warnings, hangs the phone up. Meanwhile she is called again by Blockbuster so that she will return the DVDs she rented from them. As she can’t go on sleeping, she calls the hairdresser to have her hair done. But she can’t have an appointment since a customer has sued   the hairdresser. Extremely disappointed Zee deals with her hair by herself, gets dressed and goes out. Traffic monster. While she is driving slowly towards school   listening to music at the highest volume, she almost runs into an car trying to overtake a slower vehicle. She has to swerve to the right and runs into the garden of a house. She immediately looks at the number plate of the automobile and,   shaking   all over,   calls the police.   But the police cannot help Zee as neither she nor her car is injured. They say to her, that’s life. 4) Accusation Zee goes to her French lesson with a Turkish friend and her teacher makes them get out of the class. The teacher tells Zee that she will punish her and expel her from school as Zee helped a friend with his homework. Zee explains to her teacher that she’s still trying to get used to American school system, adding that in Turkey helping one’s friends with their homework is not considered such a bad thing. After that, the teacher excuses Zee by pointing out that she mustn’t do it again. 5) For those buying one, the second is free of charge. Zee goes shopping with her American friend Hilary in their one and a half hour break. The salesman tries to persuade her by saying that if she buys two more underclothes from Victoria Secret shopping center, a freezer will be given to her free of charge. The attitude of the salesman makes Zee angry. 6) Post- it When Zee comes back to school, she can’t find a parking place in the enclosed car-park of the school, so she has no chance out of parking on the meters. But she has no coins at that moment and she knows that her automobile will be towed away if she parks there as she hasn’t paid the fines she already has. She first hesitates but decides to park her car there as soon as she realizes that she’ll be late for her class. She gets out of   her car and   writes the following note on a post-it, putting it on the parking meter; â€Å"I’m sorry, but I have no coins. PLEASE DO NOT PULL MY AUTO AWAY, I WILL BE BACK WITHIN TWO HOURS.†Ã‚   She then sticks it on the windshield.   

To kill a mocking bird Essay

To kill a mocking bird Essay To kill a mocking bird Essay Be Yourself - Ellen Bailey Why would you want to be someone else When you could be better by being yourself Why pretend to be someone you are not When you have something they haven't got Cheating yourself of the life you have to live Deprives others of that only which you can give You have much more to offer by being just you Than walking around in someone else's shoes Trying to live the life of another is a mistake It is a masquerade; nothing more than a fake Be yourself and let your qualities show through Others will love you more for being just you Remember that God loves you just as you are To Him you are already a bright shining star Family and friends will love you more too If you spent time practicing just being you. I chose this text because I felt that this is a concept myself and other people in the world today are failing to understand. I myself, try to be someone else I’m not, like a celebrity or someone I aspire to become. Lots of times I tend to question my identity. I sometimes ask myself questions like ‘who am I?’ or ‘do I have any purpose in life?’, ‘why do I look like this?’ or ‘I’m I truly worth a lot†. Sometimes I try to escape reality by becoming someone else, trying to become that person instead of being myself. Because of these doubts that I feel, I am easily influenced by around me, especially the media. Sometimes, I feel that if I don’t change, people would not be able accept me for who I am but accept me by becoming someone or something else. I think the message the author tries to demonstrate in the poem is self image. Self image is how are person perceives themselves. The author tries to tell the audience that having a negative self image is wrong and lowers a person’s self esteem. In todays society people tend to be criticized on how they look, how their personality is or their racial or ethnic features. People are strongly affected by what they see on tv. Magazines are normally filled with picture of thin and beautiful young women and muscular young males. People are influenced by these images and try to be like their favorite stars. These images that are shown by the media, are an illusion created by makeup, hours of styling and photography. People also try to change themselves to suit the likes of others. People aren’t always accepted by others in society because of the way the look or their personality. They try to make themselves into something they aren’t, to suit the

Earths Elliptical Path Around the Sun

Earth's Elliptical Path Around the Sun Earths motion around the Sun was a mystery for many centuries as very early sky watchers attempted to understand what was actually moving: the Sun across the sky or Earth around the Sun. The Sun-centered solar system idea was deduced thousands of years ago by the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos. It wasnt proved until Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proposed his Sun-centered theories in the 1500s, and showed how planets could orbit the Sun. Earth orbits the Sun  in a slightly flattened circle called an ellipse. In geometry, the ellipse is a curve that loops around two points called foci. The distance from the center to the longest ends of the ellipse is called the semi-major axis, while the distance to the flattened sides of the ellipse is called the semi-minor axis. The Sun is at one focus of each planets ellipse, which means that the distance between the Sun and each planet varies throughout the year.   Earths Orbital Characteristics When Earth is closest to the Sun in its orbit, it is at perihelion. That distance is 147,166,462 kilometers, and Earth gets there each January 3. Then, on July 4 of each  year, Earth is as far from the Sun as it ever gets, at a distance of 152,171,522 kilometers. That point is called aphelion. Every world (including comets and asteroids) in the solar system that primarily orbits the Sun has a perihelion point and an aphelion. Notice that for Earth, the closest point is during northern hemisphere winter, while the most distant point is northern hemisphere summer. Although theres a small increase in solar heating that our planet gets during its orbit, it doesnt necessarily correlate with the perihelion and aphelion. The reasons for the seasons are more due to our planets orbital tilt throughout the year. In short, each part of the planet tilted toward the Sun during the yearly orbit will get heated more during that time. As it tilts away, the heating amount is less. That helps contribute to the change of seasons more than Earths place in its orbit. Useful Aspects of Earths Orbit for Astronomers Earths orbit around the Sun is a benchmark for distance. Astronomers take the average distance between Earth and the Sun (149,597,691 kilometers) and use it as a standard distance called the astronomical unit (or AU for short). They then use this as shorthand for larger distances in the solar system. For example, Mars is 1.524 astronomical units. That means its just over one-and-a-half times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Jupiter is 5.2 AU, while Pluto is a whopping 39.,5 AU.   The Moons Orbit The Moons orbit is also elliptical. It moves around Earth once every 27 days, and due to tidal locking, always shows the same face to us here on Earth. The Moon doesnt actually orbit Earth; they actually orbit a common center of gravity called a barycenter. The complexity of the Earth-Moon orbit, and their orbit around the Sun results in the apparent changing shape of the Moon as seen from Earth. These changes, called phases of the Moon,  go through a cycle every 30 days. Interestingly, the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth. Eventually, it will be so far away that such events as total solar eclipses will no longer occur. The Moon will still occult the Sun, but it wont appear to block the entire Sun as it does now during a total solar eclipse. Other Planets Orbits The other worlds of the solar system that orbit the Sun have different length years due to their distances. Mercury, for example, has an orbit just 88 Earth-days long. Venuss is 225 Earth-days, while Marss is 687 Earth days. Jupiter takes 11.86 Earth years to orbit the Sun, while Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto take 28.45, 84, 164.8, and 248 years, respectively. These lengthy orbits reflect one of Johannes Keplers laws of planetary orbits, which says that the period of time it takes to orbit the Sun is proportional to its distance (its semi-major axis). The other laws he devised describe the shape of the orbit and the time each planet takes to traverse each part of its path around the Sun. Edited and expanded by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Intro to business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Intro to business - Assignment Example This all new process will reduce the cost of production greatly and make this fuel economical for the consumers as well. The shell had in the past suffered from a production stoppage due to the fire eruption at their Bintulu, Malaysian plant in 1997. This resulted in the discontinuity of the Gas to Liquid process because at that time only one plant of the Shell was operational. But now they have developed a new GLT plant that is ten times more in its production capacity, as compared to the Malaysian plant, in Doha, Qatar. By the way it is the world’s largest GLT plant, Shell’s forty years of research has paid back to them in an impressive manner. Qatar has the largest reserves of natural gas in the world as well. Second thing the Shell should use cheap transportation methods in order to make it (fuel) affordable for the people globally. Natural gas is mostly available in the remote areas and it costs a lot to transport the final product from those areas to the reach of the people. The Shell should also switch to the direct production method for GLT. This will help them to reduce their production cost greatly. This reduction in production cost would be then transferred to the ultimate consumers. Over the last forty years Shell has poured billions of dollars in their new GLT technology in order to provide efficient and cost effective fuel alternative to the people. Five year time to judge the success or failure of this project is like a pinch of salt in flour. These sort of projects require sometime to reach the breakeven and also in reaping profits. GLT will be really fruitful for the Shell because of the price hike of petroleum products globally. Moreover they know that they will harvest success as more and more people are becoming conscious to minimize their footprints on the planet

Poverty in relation to Child Welfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Poverty in relation to Child Welfare - Essay Example ldren provided clear resolutions to provide public assistance through financial aid for various individuals and families requiring the support in identified needs. The impetus of federal and state legislators to design social welfare programs stem from the factors contributing to poverty in the United States. Poverty has always been considered a social dilemma afflicting people from diverse backgrounds. It has always been an intriguing and challenging concern due to the multitude of factors that interplay and contribute to its existence. People could be misguided that poverty does not exist in a progressively developed country such as the United States. However, this social stigma pervades people from the lowest income levels despite the economic condition of the country they reside. In this regard, in view of the contention that â€Å"poverty is one of the major risk factors of child abuse and neglect†, the essay aims to provide a brief summary of the history of social welfare programs developed to address the issue of poverty. Likewise, the discourse would seek to identify, from among the proffered programs, the most effective one in alleviating poverty and improving children’s welfare. Poverty is generally defined as â€Å"the state of living in a family with income below the federally defined poverty line† (About.com: Economics, 2010, par. 1). The U.S. Census Bureau (2010) defines poverty, to wit: â€Å"Following the Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive 14, the Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty.   If a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty.   The official poverty thresholds do not vary geographically, but they are updated for inflation using Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).   The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not

Facebook and the Web 2.0 Business Model Term Paper

Facebook and the Web 2.0 Business Model - Term Paper Example While all these avenues have their strengths in the business environment, they also have their own shortcomings that have negative consequences for the public and the business as well. Subjecting Facebook and the web 2.0 business models to a political economic analysis will expose their impact on the business environment. The web 2.0 business model is one of the opportunities that the business world has taken advantage of from the dynamism of the web technology. As Shuen (2008) points out, the web 2.0 is a new platform for advanced business development that is by far much superior to its predecessor the web 1.0 platform. As opposed to the web 1.0 platform that was static and one-sided, this new web platform is more interactive and allows both the marketers and the customers to interact. The adoption of this new technology has a wide range of benefits to a business system. One benefit of this platform is associated with the ability for an organization to develop a concentrated website that contains all business details and product descriptions. This way, the organization can roll out its products to the customers on the internet. Given that the internet is an international platform, the business can attract customers from all over the world and push its products to the target customers in the market. H ence, the platform directly benefits the organization by increasing the number of customers by capturing a wider geographical scope. Another benefit associated with the web 2.0 platform is its ability to provide a user-interactive page that allows the customers to provide their feedback and recommendations. For an organization to survive within its marketing niche, it should have a better understanding of its target customers by learning about their tastes and preferences.  In conclusion, the Facebook and the web 2.0 business models are superior business weapons with a wide range of opportunities and benefits. Through the internet platform, organizations can use these models to advertise, launch their products, conduct market research and obtain customer feedbacks on their products. In brief, this is an advancement of the web 1.0 era when online business was limited and unviable.  

Economic Model Of Price Determination In A Market Economics Essay

Economic Model Of Price Determination In A Market Economics Essay As an economic model of price determination in a market, the relationship between supply and demand is a topic being discussed for a long time. We may think of demand as a force which tends to increase the price of a good, and also that supply as a force which tends to reduce the price. According to the microeconomics theory, the price P of a product is determined by a balance between production at each price (supply S) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand D).It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity. When the two forces balance one another, the result will be that the price neither rise nor fall, but stay stable. This is the analogy that leads us to think of the stable or natural price in a particular market. It is called the equilibrium price. As we know, iPhone now has attracted great attention and become a heated topic. Here, we take it for example: if every consumer wants and can afford an iPhone, and APPLE Company is willing to provide each of them one iPhone, the demand and supply is in equilibrium status. In addition to the theory above, is there any relation among supply demand and the market? How to measure the relation? Is there anything else to measure the functions of supply and demand in market? Or they have some links when influencing the market? There are three theses concerning this topic for further discussion. The first thesis I have chosen is written by David Huffman. The author insists that supply and demand is measurable. (Another thesis I introduce below is the opposite: ) He tries to resort to retail Market Place to addresses these questions because he thinks the database of Retail Market Place can provide a direct comparison between retail sales and consumer spending by industry and it can therefore measures the gap between supply and demand. In his thesis, he holds the view that there are two ways by supply or demand to measure activity in a retail market. The article is mainly divided into three parts to probe into this topic: Market Supply (Retail Sales); Market Demand (Retail Potential); The Leakage/Surplus Factor (Supply and Demand). One point must be emphasized is that Leakage in an area represents a condition where a markets supply is less than the demand. For such factors, it seems that to measure the market by using supply and demand as a tool is doable and useful. There is another thesis by an anonymous author also discusses the relation of supply, demand and market. Ordinarily, there always exist different price levels where individual buyers and sellers are satisfied so that the sum total will create a market or equilibrium price. But in reality, there will be some exceptions, because a market price is not a fair price to all participants in the marketplace. Not only when there is no increase in the quantity of product demanded, but also when there is a shift in demand due to changing consumer preferences will influence the market price and reach a new equilibrium. So does the reaction to the short run or long run changes. The charts below are separately describing change in equilibrium price and shift in demand. In most regions, iPhone is not only a cell phone but more than an apparatus of making telephone calls and writing text messages. iPhone has been a symbol of some players, and people distinguish their identity from using iPhone: They have a keen sense of popularity; They enjoy being a member of their circle and they like communicating with real friends or net friends; They eagerly break the tradition and desire something newà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Though the price of iPhone is high enough to restrain most consumers, many people choose iPhone for proving themselves different. Such relation of supply and demand decides that iPhone occupies in the High End of the market. If the price of iPhone decreases, on one hand, it will surely attract more consumers, but on the other hand, many previous buyers will quit because iPhone is no longer unique and rare. But in the article written by JUSTIN WOLFERS in 2009, the author argues that supply and demand are difficult to measure. At the very beginning of the article, the author raises the question of Catherine Rampell, Does lowering the price of broadband increase its use, which brings a research and a series of data and diagram trying to figure out the demand curve. However, the reality is always beyond the theory only in the textbook. Sometimes to our surprise, the result is different though the source of data is the same. The author gives an example to illustrate it: a supply-obsessed economist were interested in asking Does increasing use of broadband raise its price? so that he might examine data on broadband prices and adoption rates. He expects to see more broadband correlated with higher prices because the supply curve is upward sloping but undoubtedly the result will be opposite for a demand-obsessed economist. As we know, there are many types of factors taking effect. On one hand, the determinants of supply include production costs, the technology of production, the price of related goods, firms expectations about future prices, number of suppliers, etc. On the other hand, the determinants of demand comprise income, tastes and preferences, prices of related goods and services, expectations and number of Buyers. Whats more, it is believed that factoring in of Marketing also has something to do with the curves because marketing drives demand in some way. In a wide variety of historic and current examples, we find more and more evidence that with shifts in demand or in supply causing changes in price and quantity, we can explain changes in quantities as well as prices as the equilibrium of supply and demand. The changes in price and quantity are coordinated in many ways that can be not only understood but also predicted, at the premise that we understand the theory of supply and demand. As the topic of the article, the author thinks that the factors influencing the equilibrium are far more complicated so Supply and Demand Are Hard to Measure. To some extent, that is because prices and quantities are determined by both supply and demand. The author has a new idea that nationality has influence and it indeed makes a difference. It is pointed out that prices and quantities differ across countries, which breaks the traditional theory of If both curves were the same in every country, broadband prices and use would be the same in every country. Some people may even argue that income skews the opportunity cost of broadband ownership. It seems strange that iPhone sells extraordinarily well Mainland China. Maybe you will surprise that in such a developing Asian country, though a small portion of people can lead a tremendous change. Its true, and its certain that China has been the greatest purchasing power only after the USA on luxury goods, let along iPhone. Consequently, what makes supply and demand hard to measure is the reality: the world is indeed a mixture of both cases. The author owes this to an identification problem, with a bit sense of humor, which arises precisely because prices and quantities are determined by both blades of the supply and demand scissors. The example of iPhone indeed proves that demand and supply are hard to measure. Many people bought iPhone not because they need it but for other reasons. Some bought for keeping up with the latest trend, some bought because other people recommended, some bought for showing off, and some bought for having a tryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Here comes the consequence of over demand. Whats more, if the APPLE Company restricts the supply so that iPhones seem scarce to consumers, many people will squeeze and swarm forward to get simply one iPhone, even late at night before its release. Some luxury companies also promote their articles in limited edition and as a result supply and demand is unequal. We can bring the same example to every day life. If we compare the price of water to the price of diamonds, there is a dramatic difference. The price of water is very cheap and we use it everyday, not only for drinking, but also for washing cars, watering plants, and for flushing the toilets. Most importantly water is crucial for our life. Diamonds on the other hand, has no significant influence to our lives other than showing off. Diamonds are for sure luxury products, but its components are simply carbon. If we assume that the price of water is extremely expensive, would we still use water to wash our cars or flushing the toilets? If the price of diamonds are as cheap as water, will people still ware it on their fingers or as an engagement gift? It all comes down to the theory of scarcity. Water is cheap simply because its easy to get and the world has sufficient of it, diamonds are expensive because it takes millions of years to form and its hard to find. Generally, there is still something worth digesting after reading and some problems remain unsolved. With much doubt, some readers raised a list of questions. For instance, supply and demand curves must be linear? If supply and demand curves shift around in different geographical regions, or in different periods of time, then shall we get to assume that economic equilibrium is well-defined? Whether the author assumes the shifts occur because of how preferences are distributed or because preferences change, it seems that theres no guarantee that exchanges are approaching an efficient allocation of resourcesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The three theses above have a sequence from concrete to abstract. In fact, in the marketplace, it is rarely possible for supply and demand to go the path we have designed. On one hand, supply and demand can be used to describe and measure the market, but on the other hand, for the factors are numerous, the curve is a result of price and quantity as well as a combinat ion of demand and supply, and surely these reasons make the relationship of supply and demand hard to measure.

Subarctic phenomena :: weather

Subarctic phenomena Aurora Borealis The aurora has long fascinated people in northern latitudes. The aurora was subject to much mythology amongst Northern cultures. The first attempts to research the scientific origin of the aurora took place in the 18th century, when it was concluded that the aurora is related to magnetism. The aurora occurs in the high latitude regions of the arctic and antarctic. The auroras of the north and south are related and named aurora borealis and aurora australis. The aurora is primarily seen in the sparsely populated high latitude part of the northern hemisphere, though on occasion can be seen in lower latitudes. The aurora australis is not seen as often as the aurora borealis, because it takes place in a very sparsely populated part of the globe. Solar Wind Solar wind is a plasmic-like substance that originates and the Sun. Solar wind travels approximately 200 to 1500 km per second. Solar plasma consists primarly of ionized hydrogen and helium, which travel as protons and electrons. The protons are positively charged and electrons negatively charged and carry magnetic energy. Magnetosphere Earth (and other planets with a magnetic field) has magnetosphere around its atmosphere. The magnetosphere is a non-spherical area around the planet consisting of ions and electrons (plasma). The solar wind coming from the Sun is deflected by the magnetosphere. Notice the shape of the magnetsophere in the diagram below, that the magnetosphere facing the Sun covers a much smaller area than the other side of Earth. The shape is determined by the flow of solar wind and Earth's magnetic field. How the aurora is formed Auroras are formed when solar wind approaches Earth and is deflected by the magnetosphere. Since the plasmas in the solar wind and in the magnetosphere conduct electricity, and the moving solar wind causes a change in the magnetic field an electric current is induced in the plasmas. The phenomenom itself occurs at Earth's ionosphere, which occurs when the electric current flows through the ionosphere between the north and south poles. When this happens, the ionosphere acts as an ohmic resistor in which there is a voltage difference between the two poles (up to 200,000 V during the most intense auroras). Ice Fog What is it? Fog in the general sense of the word a cloud that is very close to the ground (such that it decreases visibility). Fog consists of water droplets suspended in air and occurs when water vapor is condensed.

Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER THIRTEEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY Pelorat wrinkled his nose when he and Trevize re-entered the Far Star. Trevize shrugged. â€Å"The human body is a powerful dispenser of odors. Recycling never works instantaneously and artificial scents merely overlay – they do not replace.† â€Å"And I suppose no two ships smell quite alike, once they've been occupied for a period of time by different people.† â€Å"That's right, but did you smell Sayshell Planet after the first hour?† â€Å"No,† admitted Pelorat. â€Å"Well, you won't smell this after a while, either. In fact, if you live in the ship long enough, you'll welcome the odor that greets you on your return as signifying home. And by the way, if you become a Galactic rover after this, Janov, you'll have to learn that it is impolite to comment on the odor of any ship or, for that matter, any world to those who live on that ship or world. Between us, of course, it is all right.† â€Å"As a matter of fact, Golan, the funny thing is I do consider the Far Star home. At least it's Foundation-made.† Pelorat smiled. â€Å"You know, I never considered myself a patriot. I like to think I recognize only humanity as my nation, but I must say that being away from the Foundation fills my heart with love for it.† Trevize was making his bed. â€Å"You're not very far from the Foundation, you know. The Sayshell Union is almost surrounded by Federation territory. We have an ambassador and an enormous presence here, from consuls on down. The Sayshellians like to oppose us in words, but they are usually very cautious about doing anything that gives us displeasure. – Janov, do turn in. We got nowhere today and we have to do better tomorrow.† Still, there was no difficulty in hearing between the two rooms, however, and when the ship was dark, Pelorat, tossing restlessly, finally said in a not very loud voice, â€Å"Golan?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"You're not sleeping?† â€Å"Not while you're talking.† â€Å"We did get somewhere today. Your friend, Compor†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Ex-friend,† growled Trevize. â€Å"Whatever his status, he talked about Earth and told us something I hadn't come across in my researches before. Radioactivity!† Trevize lifted himself to one elbow. â€Å"Look, Golan, if Earth is really dead, that doesn't mean we return home. I still want to find Gaia.† Pelorat made a puffing noise with his mouth as though he were blowing away feathers. â€Å"My dear chap, of course. So do I. Nor do I think Earth is dead. Compor may have been telling what he felt was the truth, but there's scarcely a sector in the Galaxy that doesn't have some tale or other that would place the origin of humanity on some local world. And they almost invariably call it Earth or some closely equivalent name. â€Å"We call it ‘globocentrism' in anthropology. People have a tendency to take it for granted that they are better than their neighbors; that their culture is older and superior to that of other worlds; that what is good in other worlds has been borrowed from them, while what is bad is distorted or perverted in the borrowing or invented elsewhere. And the tendency is to equate superiority in quality with superiority in duration. If they cannot reasonably maintain their own planet to be Earth or its equivalent – and the beginnings of the human species – they almost always do the best they can by placing Earth in their own sector, even when they cannot locate it exactly.† Trevize said, â€Å"And you're telling me that Compor was just following the common habit when he said Earth existed in the Sirius Sector. – Still, the Sirius Sector does have a long history, so every world in it should be well known and it should be easy to check the matter, even without going there.† Pelorat chuckled. â€Å"Even if you were to show that no world in the Sirius Sector could possibly be Earth, that wouldn't help. You underestimate the depths to which mysticism can bury rationality, Golan. There are at least half a dozen sectors in the Galaxy where respectable scholars repeat, with every appearance of solemnity and with no trace of a smile, local tales that Earth – or whatever they choose to call it – is located in hyperspace and cannot be reached, except by accident.† â€Å"And do they say anyone has ever reached it by accident?† â€Å"There are always tales and there is always a patriotic refusal to disbelieve, even though the tales are never in the least credible and are never believed by anyone not of the world that produces them.† â€Å"Then, Janov, let's not believe them ourselves. Let's enter our own private hyperspace of sleep.† â€Å"But, Golan, it's this business of Earth's radioactivity that interests me. To me, that seems to bear the mark of truth – or a kind of truth.† â€Å"What do you mean, a kind of truth?† â€Å"Well, a world that is radioactive would be a world in which hard radiation would be present in higher concentration than is usual. The rate of mutation would be higher on such a world and evolution would proceed more quickly – and more diversely. I told you, if you remember, that among the points on which almost all the tales agree is that life on Earth was incredibly diverse: millions of species of all kinds of life. It is this diversity of life – this explosive development – that might have brought intelligence to the Earth, and then the surge outward into the Galaxy. If Earth were for some reason radioactive – that is, more radioactive than other planets – that might account for everything else about Earth that is – or was unique.† Trevize was silent for a moment. Then, â€Å"In the first place, we have no reason to believe Compor was telling the truth. He may well have been lying freely in order to induce us to leave this place and go chasing madly off to Sirius. I believe that's exactly what he was doing. And even if he were telling the truth, what he said was that there was so much radioactivity that life became impossible.† Pelorat made the blowing gesture again. â€Å"There wasn't too much radioactivity to allow life to develop on Earth and it is easier for life to maintain itself – once established – than to develop in the first place. Granted, then, that life was established and maintained on Earth. Therefore the level of radioactivity could not have been incompatible with life to begin with and it could only have fallen off with time. There is nothing that can raise the level.† â€Å"Nuclear explosions?† suggested Trevize. â€Å"What would that have to do with it?† â€Å"I mean, suppose nuclear explosions took place on Earth?† â€Å"On Earth's surface? Impossible. There's no record in the history of the Galaxy of any society being so foolish as to use nuclear explosions as a weapon of war. We would never have survived. During the Trigellian insurrections, when both sides were reduced to starvation and desperation and when Jendippurus Khoratt suggested the initiation of a fusion reaction in†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He was hanged by the sailors of his own fleet. I know Galactic history. I was thinking of accident.† â€Å"There's no record of accidents of that sort that are capable of significantly raising the intensity of radioactivity of a planet, generally.† He sighed. â€Å"I suppose that when we get around to it, we'll have to go to the Sirius Sector and do a little prospecting there.† â€Å"Someday, perhaps, we will. But for now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yes, yes, I'll stop talking.† He did and Trevize lay in the dark for nearly an hour considering whether he had attracted too much attention already and whether it might not be wise to go to the Sirius Sector and then return to Gaia when attention – everyone's attention – was elsewhere. He had arrived at no clear decision by the time he fell asleep. His dreams were troubled. They did not arrive back in the city till midmorning. The tourist center was quite crowded this time, but they managed to obtain the necessary directions to a reference library, where in turn they received instruction in the use of the local models of data-gathering computers. They went carefully through the museums and universities, beginning with those that were nearest, and checked out whatever information was available on anthropologists, archaeologists, and ancient historians. Pelorat said, â€Å"Ah!† â€Å"Ah?† said Trevize with some asperity. â€Å"Ah, what?† â€Å"This name, Quintesetz. It seems familiar.† â€Å"You know him?† â€Å"No, of course not, but I may have read papers of his. Back at the ship, where I have my reference collection†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We're not going back, Janov. If the name is familiar, that's a starting point. If he can't help us, he will undoubtedly be able to direct us further.† He rose to his feet. â€Å"Let's find a way of getting to Sayshell University. And since there will be nobody there at lunchtime, let's eat first.† It was not till late afternoon that they had made their way out to the university, worked their way through its maze, and found themselves in an anteroom, waiting for a young woman who had gone off in search of information and who might – or might not – lead them to Quintesetz. â€Å"I wonder,† said Pelorat uneasily, â€Å"how much longer we'll have to wait. It must be getting toward the close of the schoolday.† And, as though that were a cue, the young lady whom they had last seen half an hour before, walked rapidly toward them, her shoes glinting red and violet and striking the ground with a sharp musical tone as she walked. The pitch varied with the speed and force of her steps. Pelorat winced. He supposed that each world had its own ways of assaulting the senses, just as each had its own smell. He wondered if, now that he no longer noticed the smell, he might also learn not to notice the cacophony of fashionable young women when they walked. She came to Pelorat and stopped. â€Å"May I have your full name, Professor?† â€Å"It's Janov Pelorat, miss.† â€Å"Your home planet?† Trevize began to lift one hand as though to enjoin silence, but Pelorat, either not seeing or not regarding, said, â€Å"Terminus.† The young woman smiled broadly, and looked pleased. â€Å"When I told Professor Quintesetz that a Professor Pelorat was inquiring for him, he said he would see you if you were Janov Pelorat of Terminus, but not otherwise.† Pelorat blinked rapidly. â€Å"You – you mean, he's heard of me?† â€Å"It certainly seems so.† And, almost creakily, Pelorat managed a smile as he turned to Trevize. â€Å"He's heard of me. I honestly didn't think†¦ I mean, I've written very few papers and I didn't think that anyone†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He shook his head. â€Å"They weren't really important.† â€Å"Well then,† said Trevize, smiling himself, â€Å"stop hugging yourself in an ecstasy of self-underestimation and let's go.† He turned to the woman. â€Å"I presume, miss, there's some sort of transportation to take us to him?† â€Å"It's within walking distance. We won't even have to leave the building complex and I'll be glad to take you there. – Are both of you from Terminus?† And off she went. The two men followed and Trevize said, with a trace of annoyance, â€Å"Yes, we are. Does that make a difference?† â€Å"Oh no, of course not. There are people on Sayshell that don't like Foundationers, you know, but here at the university, we're more cosmopolitan than that. Live and let live is what I always say. I mean, Foundationers are people, too. You know what I mean?† â€Å"Yes, I know what you mean. Lots of us say that Sayshellians are people.† â€Å"That's just the way it should be. I've never seen Terminus. It must be a big city.† â€Å"Actually it isn't,† said Trevize matter-of-factly. â€Å"I suspect it's smaller than Sayshell City.† â€Å"You're tweaking my finger,† she said. â€Å"It's the capital of the Foundation Federation, isn't it? I mean, there isn't another Terminus, is there?† â€Å"No, there's only one Terminus, as far as I know, and that's where we're from – the capital of the Foundation Federation.† â€Å"Well then, it must be an enormous city. – And you're coming all the way here to see the professor. We're very proud of him, you know. He's considered the biggest authority in the whole Galaxy.† â€Å"Really?† said Trevize. â€Å"On what?† Her eyes opened wide again, â€Å"You are a teaser. He knows more about ancient history than – than I know about my own family.† And she continued to walk on ahead on her musical feet. One can only be called a teaser and a finger-tweaker so often without developing an actual impulse in that direction. Trevize smiled and said, â€Å"The professor knows all about Earth, I suppose?† â€Å"Earth?† She stopped at an office door and looked at them blankly. â€Å"You know. The world where humanity got its start.† â€Å"Oh, you mean the planet-that-was-first. I guess so. I guess he should know all about it. After all, it's located in the Sayshell Sector. Everyone knows that! – This is his office. Let me signal him.† â€Å"No, don't,† said Trevize. â€Å"Not for just a minute. Tell me about Earth.† â€Å"Actually I never heard anyone call it Earth. I suppose that's a Foundation word. We call it Gaia, here.† Trevize cast a swift look at Pelorat. â€Å"Oh? And where is it located?† â€Å"Nowhere. It's in hyperspace and there's no way anyone can get to it. When I was a little girl, my grandmother said that Gaia was once in real space, but it was so disgusted at the†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Crimes and stupidities of human beings,† muttered Pelorat, â€Å"that, out of shame, it left space and refused to have anything more to do with the human beings it had sent out into the Galaxy.† â€Å"You know the story, then. See? – A girlfriend of mine says it's superstition. Well, I'll tell her. If it's good enough for professors from the Foundation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  A glittering section of lettering on the smoky glass of the door read: SOTAYN QUINTESETZ ABT in the hard-to-read Sayshellian calligraphy – and under it was printed, in the same fashion: DEPARTMENT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. The woman placed her finger on a smooth metal circle. There was no sound, but the smokiness of the glass turned a milky white for a moment and a soft voice said, in an abstracted sort of way, â€Å"Identify yourself, please.† â€Å"Janov Pelorat of Terminus,† said Pelorat, â€Å"with Golan Trevize of the same world.† The door swung open at once. The man who stood up, walked around his desk, and advanced to meet them was tall and well into middle age. He was light brown in skin color and his hair, which was set in crisp curls over his head, was iron-gray. He held out his hand in greeting and his voice was soft and low. â€Å"I am S. Q. I am delighted to meet you, Professors.† Trevize said, â€Å"I don't own an academic title. I merely accompany Professor Pelorat. You may call me simply Trevize. I am pleased to meet you, Professor Abt.† Quintesetz held up one hand in clear embarrassment. â€Å"No no. Abt is merely a foolish title of some sort that has no significance outside of Sayshell. Ignore it, please, and call me S. Q. We tend to use initials in ordinary social intercourse on Sayshell. I'm so pleased to meet two of you when I had been expecting but one.† He seemed to hesitate a moment, then extended his right hand after wiping it unobtrusively on his trousers. Trevize took it, wondering what the proper Sayshellian manner of greeting was. Quintesetz said, â€Å"Please sit down. I'm afraid you'll find these chairs to be lifeless ones, but I, for one, don't want my chairs to hug me. It's all the fashion for chairs to hug you nowadays, but I prefer a hug to mean something, hey?† Trevize smiled and said, â€Å"Who would not? Your name, SQ., seems to be of the Rim Worlds and not Sayshellian. I apologize if the remark is impertinent.† â€Å"I don't mind. My family traces back, in part, to Askone. Five generations back, my great-great-grandparents left Askone when Foundation domination grew too heavy.† Pelorat said, â€Å"And we are Foundationers. Our apologies.† Quintesetz waved his hand genially, â€Å"I don't hold a grudge across a stretch of five generations. Not that such things haven't been done, more's the pity. Would you like to have something to eat? To drink? Would you like music in the background?† â€Å"If you don't mind,† said Pelorat, â€Å"I'd be willing to get right to business, if Sayshellian ways would permit.† â€Å"Sayshellian ways are not a barrier to that, I assure you. – You have no idea how remarkable this is, Dr. Pelorat. It was only about two weeks ago that I came across your article on origin myths in the Archaeological Review and it struck me as a remarkable synthesis all too brief.† Pelorat flushed with pleasure. â€Å"How delighted I am that you have read it. I had to condense it, of course, since the Review would not print a full study. I have been planning to do a treatise on the subject.† â€Å"I wish you would. In any case, as soon as I had read it, I had this desire to see you. I even had the notion of visiting Terminus in order to do so, though that would have been hard to arrange†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Why so?† asked Trevize. Quintesetz looked embarrassed. â€Å"I'm sorry to say that Sayshell is not eager to join the Foundation Federation and rather discourages any social communication with the Foundation. We've a tradition of neutralism, you see. Even the Mule didn't bother us, except to extort from us a specific statement of neutrality. For that reason, any application for permission to visit Foundation territory generally and particularly Terminus – is viewed with suspicion, although a scholar such as myself, intent on academic business, would probably obtain his passport in the end. – But none of that was necessary; you have come to me. I can scarcely believe it. I ask myself: Why? Have you heard of me, as I have heard of you?† Pelorat said, â€Å"I know your work, S. Q., and in my records I have abstracts of your papers. It is why I have come to you. I am exploring both the matter of Earth, which is the reputed planet of origin of the human species, and the early period of the exploration and settlement of the Galaxy. In particular, I have come here to inquire as to the founding of Sayshell.† â€Å"From your paper,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"I presume you are interested in myths and legends.† â€Å"Even more in history – actual facts – if such exist. Myths and legends, otherwise.† Quintesetz rose and walked rapidly back and forth the length of his office, paused to stare at Pelorat, then walked again. Trevize said impatiently, â€Å"Well, sir.† Quintesetz said, â€Å"Odd! Really odd! It was only yesterday†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Pelorat said, â€Å"What was only yesterday?† Quintesetz said, â€Å"I told you, Dr. Pelorat – may I call you J. P., by the way? I find using a full-length name rather unnatural† â€Å"Please do.† â€Å"I told you, J. P., that I had admired your paper and that I had wanted to see you. The reason I wanted to see you was that you clearly had an extensive collection of legends concerning the beginnings of the worlds and yet didn't have ours. In other words, I wanted to see you in order to tell you precisely what you have come to see me to find out.† â€Å"What has this to do with yesterday, S. Q. ?† asked Trevize. â€Å"We have legends. A legend. An important one to our society, for it has become our central mystery†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Mystery?† said Trevize. â€Å"I don't mean a puzzle or anything of that sort. That, I believe, would be the usual meaning of the word in Galactic Standard. There's a specialized meaning here. It means ‘something secret'; something only certain adepts know the full meaning of; something not to be spoken of to outsiders. – And yesterday was the day.† â€Å"The day of what, S. Q. ?† asked Trevize, slightly exaggerating his air of patience. â€Å"Yesterday was the Day of Flight.† â€Å"Ah,† said Trevize, â€Å"a day of meditation and quiet, when everyone is supposed to remain at home.† â€Å"Something like that, in theory, except that in the larger cities, the more sophisticated regions, there is little observance in the older fashion. – But you know about it, I see.† Pelorat, who had grown uneasy at Trevize's annoyed tone, put in hastily, â€Å"We heard a little of it, having arrived yesterday.† â€Å"Of all days,† said Trevize sarcastically. â€Å"See here, S. Q. As I said, I'm not an academic, but I have a question. You said you were speaking of a central mystery, meaning it was not to be spoken of to outsiders. Why, then, are you speaking of it to us? We are outsiders.† â€Å"So you are. But I'm not an observer of the day and the depth of my superstition in this matter is slight at best. J. P. ‘s paper, however, reinforced a feeling I have had for a long time. A myth or legend is simply not made up out of a vacuum. Nothing is – or can be. Somehow there is a kernel of truth behind it, however distorted that might be, and I would like the truth behind our legend of the Day of Flight.† Trevize said, â€Å"Is it safe to talk about it?† Quintesetz shrugged. â€Å"Not entirely, I suppose. The conservative elements among our population would be horrified. However, they don't control the government and haven't for a century. The secularists are strong and would be stronger still, if the conservatives didn't take advantage of our – if you'll excuse me – anti-Foundation bias. Then, too, since I am discussing the matter out of my scholarly interest in ancient history, the League of Academicians will support me strongly, in case of need.† â€Å"In that case,† said Pelorat, â€Å"would you tell us about your central mystery, SQ. ?† â€Å"Yes, but let me make sure we won't be interrupted or, for that matter, overheard. Even if one must stare the bull in the face, one needn't slap its muzzle, as the saying goes.† He flicked a pattern on the work-face of an instrument on his desk and said, â€Å"We're incommunicado now.† â€Å"Are you sure you're not bugged?† asked Trevize. â€Å"Bugged?† â€Å"Tapped! Eavesdropped! – Subjected to a device that will have you under observation – visual or auditory or both.† Quintesetz looked shocked. â€Å"Not here on Sayshell!† Trevize shrugged. â€Å"If you say so.† â€Å"Please go on, SQ.,† said Pelorat. Quintesetz pursed his lips, leaned back in his chair (which gave slightly under the pressure) and put the tips of his fingers together. He seemed to be speculating as to just how to begin. He said, â€Å"Do you know what a robot is?† â€Å"A robot?† said Pelorat. â€Å"No.† Quintesetz looked in the direction of Trevize, who shook his head slowly. â€Å"You know what a computer is, however?† â€Å"Of course,† said Trevize impatiently. â€Å"Well then, a mobile computerized tool†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Is a mobile computerized tool.† Trevize was still impatient. â€Å"There are endless varieties and I don't know of any generalized term for it except mobile computerized tool.† † – that looks exactly like a human being is a robot.† S. Q. completed his definition with equanimity. â€Å"The distinction of a robot is that it is humaniform.† â€Å"Why humaniform?† asked Pelorat in honest amazement. â€Å"I'm not sure. It's a remarkably inefficient form for a tool, I grant you, but I'm just repeating the legend. ‘Robot' is an old word from no recognizable language, though our scholars say it bears the connotation of ‘work.† â€Å"I can't think of any word,† said Trevize skeptically, â€Å"that sounds even vaguely like ‘robot' and that has any connection with ‘work.† â€Å"Nothing in Galactic, certainly,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"but that's what they say.† Pelorat said, â€Å"It may have been reverse etymology. These objects were used for work, and so the word was said to mean ‘work. ‘ – In any case, why do you tell us this?† â€Å"Because it is a firmly fixed tradition here on Sayshell that when Earth was a single world and the Galaxy lay all uninhabited before it, robots were invented and devised. There were then two sorts of human beings: natural and invented, flesh and metal, biological and mechanical, complex and simple†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Quintesetz came to a halt and said with a rueful laugh, â€Å"I'm sorry. It is impossible to talk about robots without quoting from the Book of Flight. The people of Earth devised robots – and I need say no more. That's plain enough.† â€Å"And why did they devise robots?† asked Trevize. Quintesetz shrugged. â€Å"Who can tell at this distance in time? Perhaps they were few in numbers and needed help, particularly in the great task of exploring and populating the Galaxy.† Trevize said, â€Å"That's a reasonable suggestion. Once the Galaxy was colonized, the robots would no longer be needed. Certainly there are no humanoid mobile computerized tools in the Galaxy today.† â€Å"In any case,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"the story is as follows – if I may vastly simplify and leave out many poetic ornamentations which, frankly, I don't accept, though the general population does or pretends to. Around Earth, there grew up colony worlds circling neighboring stars and these colony worlds were far richer in robots than was Earth itself. There was more use for robots on raw, new worlds. Earth, in fact, retreated, wished no more robots, and rebelled against them.† â€Å"What happened?† asked Pelorat. â€Å"The Outer Worlds were the stronger. With the help of their robots, the children defeated and controlled Earth – the Mother. Pardon me, but I can't help slipping into quotation. But there were those from Earth who fled their world – with better ships and stronger modes of hyperspatial travel. They fled to far distant stars and worlds, far beyond the closer worlds earlier colonized. New colonies were founded – without robots – in which human beings could live freely. Those were the Times of Flight, so-called, and the day upon which the first Earthmen reached the Sayshell Sector – this very planet, in fact – is the Day of Flight, celebrated annually for many thousands of years.† Pelorat said, â€Å"My dear chap, what you are saying, then, is that Sayshell was founded directly from Earth.† Quintesetz thought and hesitated for a moment. Then he said, â€Å"That is the official belief.† â€Å"Obviously,† said Trevize, â€Å"you don't accept it.† â€Å"It seems to me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Quintesetz began and then burst out, â€Å"Oh, Great Stars and Small Planets, I don't! It is entirely too unlikely, but it's official dogma and however secularized the government has become, lip service to that, at least, is essential. – Still, to the point. In your article, J. P., there is no indication that you're aware of this story – of robots and of two waves of colonization, a lesser one with robots and a greater one without.† â€Å"I certainly was not,† said Pelorat. â€Å"I hear it now for the first time and, my dear SQ., I am eternally grateful to you for making this known to me. I am astonished that no hint of this has appeared in any of the writings†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It shows,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"how effective our social system is. It's our Sayshellian secret – our great mystery.† â€Å"Perhaps,† said Trevize dryly. â€Å"Yet the second wave of colonization – the robotless wave – must have moved out in all directions. Why is it only on Sayshell that this great secret exists?† Quintesetz said, â€Å"It may exist elsewhere and be just as secret. Our own conservatives believe that only Sayshell was settled from Earth and that all the rest of the Galaxy was settled from Sayshell. That, of course, is probably nonsense.† Pelorat said, â€Å"These subsidiary puzzles can be worked out in time. Now that I have the starting point, I can seek out similar information on other worlds. What counts is that I have discovered the question to ask and a good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed. How fortunate that I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Trevize said, â€Å"Yes, Janov, but the good SQ. has not told us the whole story, surely. What happened to the older colonies and their robots? Do your traditions say?† â€Å"Not in detail, but in essence. Human and humanoid cannot live together, apparently. The worlds with robots died. They were not viable.† â€Å"And Earth?† â€Å"Humans left it and settled here and presumably (though the conservatives would disagree) on other planets as well.† â€Å"Surely not every human being left Earth. The planet was not deserted.† â€Å"Presumably not. I don't know.† Trevize said abruptly, â€Å"Was it left radioactive?† Quintesetz looked astonished. â€Å"Radioactive?† â€Å"That's what I'm asking.† â€Å"Not to my knowledge. I never heard of such a thing.† Trevize put a knuckle to his teeth and considered. Finally he said, â€Å"S. Q., it's getting late and we have trespassed sufficiently on your time, perhaps.† (Pelorat made a motion as though he were about to protest, but Trevize's hand was on the other's knee and his grip tightened – so Pelorat, looking disturbed, subsided.) Quintesetz said, â€Å"I was delighted to be of use.† â€Å"You have been and if there's anything we can do in exchange, name it.† Quintesetz laughed gently. â€Å"If the good J. P. will be so kind as to refrain from mentioning my name in connection with any writing he does on our mystery, that will be sufficient repayment.† Pelorat said eagerly, â€Å"You would be able to get the credit you deserve – and perhaps be more appreciated – if you were allowed to visit Terminus and even, perhaps, remain there as a visiting scholar at our university for an extended period. We might arrange that. Sayshell might not like the Federation, but they might not like refusing a direct request that you be allowed to come to Terminus to attend, let us say, a colloquium on some aspect of ancient history.† The Sayshellian half-rose. â€Å"Are you saying you can pull strings to arrange that?† Trevize said, â€Å"Why, I hadn't thought of it, but J. P. is perfectly right. That would be feasible – if we tried. And, of course, the more grateful you make us, the harder we will try.† Quintesetz paused, then frowned. â€Å"What do you mean, sir?† â€Å"All you have to do is tell us about Gaia, S. Q.,† said Trevize. And all the light in Quintesetz's face died. Quintesetz looked down at his desk. His hand stroked absent-mindedly at his short, tightly curled hair. Then he looked at Trevize and pursed his lips tightly. It was as though he were determined not to speak. Trevize lifted his eyebrows and waited and finally Quintesetz said in a strangled sort of way, â€Å"it is getting indeed late – quite glemmering.† Until then he had spoken in good Galactic, but now his words took on a strange shape as though the Sayshellian mode of speech were pushing past his classical education. â€Å"Glemmering, S. Q. ?† â€Å"It is nearly full night.† Trevize nodded. â€Å"I am thoughtless. And I am hungry, too. Could you please join us for an evening meal, S. Q., at our expense? We could then, perhaps, continue our discussion – about Gaia.† Quintesetz rose heavily to his feet. He was taller than either of the two men from Terminus, but he was older and pudgier and his height did not lend him the appearance of strength. He seemed more weary than when they had arrived. He blinked at them and said, â€Å"I forget my hospitality. You are Outworlders and it would not be fitting that you entertain me. Come to my home. It is on campus and not far and, if you wish to carry on a conversation, I can do so in a more relaxed manner there than here. My only regret† (he seemed a little uneasy) â€Å"is that I can offer you only a limited meal. My wife and I are vegetarians and if you are meat-eating, I can Only express my apologies and regrets.† Trevize said, â€Å"J. P. and I will be quite content to forego our carnivorous natures for one meal. Your conversation will more than make up for it – I hope.† â€Å"I can promise you an interesting meal, whatever the conversation,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"if your taste should run to our Sayshellian spices. My wife and I have made a rare study of such things.† â€Å"I look forward to any exoticism you choose to supply, S. Q.,† said Trevize coolly, though Pelorat looked a little nervous at the prospect. Quintesetz led the way. The three left the room and walked down an apparently endless corridor, with the Sayshellian greeting students and colleagues now and then, but making no attempt to introduce his companions. Trevize was uneasily aware that others stared curiously at his sash, which happened to be one of his gray ones. A subdued color was not something that was de rigueur in campus clothing, apparently. Finally they stepped through the door and out into the open. It was indeed dark and a little cool, with trees bulking in the distance and a rather rank stand of grass on either side of the walkway. Pelorat came to a halt – with his back to the glimmer of lights that came from the building they had just left and from the glows that lined the walks of the campus. He looked straight upward. â€Å"Beautiful!† he said. â€Å"There is a famous phrase in a verse by one of our better poets that speaks of ‘the speckle-shine of Sayshell's soaring sky.† Trevize gazed appreciately and said in a low voice, â€Å"Vie are from Terminus, S. Q., and my friend, at least, has seen no other skies. On Terminus, we see only the smooth dim fog of the Galaxy and a few barely visible stars. You would appreciate your own sky even more, had you lived with ours.† Quintesetz said gravely, â€Å"We appreciate it to the full, I assure you. It's not so much that we are in an uncrowded area of the Galaxy, but that the distribution of stars is remarkably even. I don't think that you will find, anywhere in the Galaxy, first-magnitude stars so generally distributed. – And yet not too many, either. I have seen the skies of worlds that are inside the outer reaches of a globular cluster and there you will see too many bright stars. It spoils the darkness of the night sky and reduces the splendor considerably.† â€Å"I quite agree with that,† said Trevize. â€Å"Now I wonder,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"if you see that almost regular pentagon of almost equally bright stars. The Five Sisters, we call them. It's in that direction, just above the line of trees. Do you see it?† â€Å"I see it,† said Trevize. â€Å"Very attractive.† â€Å"Yes,† said Quintesetz. â€Å"It's supposed to symbolize success in love – and there's no love letter that doesn't end in a pentagon of dots to indicate a desire to make love. Each of the five stars stands for a different stage in the process and there are famous poems which have vied with each other in making each stage as explicitly erotic as possible. In my younger days, I attempted versifying on the subject myself and I wouldn't have thought that the time would come when I would grow so indifferent to the Five Sisters, though I suppose it's the common fate. – Do you see the dim star just about in the center of the Five Sisters.† â€Å"That,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"is supposed to represent unrequited love. There is a legend that the star was once as bright as the rest, but faded with grief.† And he walked on rapidly. The dinner, Trevize had been forced to admit to himself, was delightful. There was endless variety and the spicing and dressing were subtle but effective. Trevize said, â€Å"All these vegetables – which have been a pleasure to eat, by the way – are part of the Galactic dietary, are they not, SQ. ?† â€Å"Yes, of course.† â€Å"I presume, though, that there are indigenous forms of life, too.† â€Å"Of course. Sayshell Planet was an oxygen world when the first settlers arrived, so it had to be life-bearing. And we have preserved some of the indigenous life, you may be sure. We have quite extensive natural parks in which both the flora and the fauna of Old Sayshell survive.† Pelorat said sadly, â€Å"There you are in advance of us, S. Q. There was little land life on Terminus when human beings arrived and I'm afraid that for a long time no concerted effort was made to preserve the sea life, which had produced the oxygen that made Terminus habitable. Terminus has an ecology now that is purely Galactic in nature.† â€Å"Sayshell,† said Quintesetz, with a smile of modest pride, â€Å"has a long and steady record of life-valuing.† And Trevize chose that moment to say, â€Å"When we left your office, SQ., I believe it was your intention to feed us dinner and then tell us about Gaia.† Quintesetz's wife, a friendly woman – plump and quite dark, who had said little during the meal – looked up in astonishment, rose, and left the room without a word. â€Å"My wife,† said Quintesetz uneasily, â€Å"is quite a conservative, I'm afraid, and is a bit uneasy at the mention of – the world. Please excuse her. But why do you ask about it?† â€Å"Because it is important for J. P.'s work, I'm afraid.† â€Å"But why do you ask it of me? We were discussing Earth, robots, the founding of Sayshell. What has all this to do with – what you ask?† ‘Perhaps nothing, and yet there are so many oddnesses about the matter. Why is your wife uneasy at the mention of Gaia? Why are you uneasy? Some talk of it easily enough. We have been told only today that Gaia is Earth itself and that it has disappeared into hyperspace because of the evil done by human beings.† A look of pain crossed Quintesetz's face. â€Å"Who told you that gibberish?† â€Å"Someone I met here at the university.† â€Å"That's just superstition.† â€Å"Then it's not part of the central dogma of your legends concerning the Flight?† â€Å"No, of course not. It's just a fable that arose among the ordinary, uneducated people.† â€Å"Are you sure?† asked Trevize coldly. Quintesetz sat back in his chair and stared at the remnant of the meal before him. â€Å"Come into the living room,† he said. â€Å"My wife will not allow this room to be cleared and set to rights while we are here and discussing – this.† â€Å"Are you sure it is just a fable?† repeated Trevize, once they had seated themselves in another room, before a window that bellied upward and inward to give a clear view of Sayshell's remarkable night sky. The lights within the room glimmered down to avoid competition and Quintesetz's dark countenance melted into the shadow. Quintesetz said, â€Å"Aren't you sure? Do you think that any world can dissolve into hyperspace? You must understand that the average person has only the vaguest notion of what hyperspace is.† â€Å"The truth is,† said Trevize, â€Å"that I myself have only the vaguest notion of what hyperspace is and I've been through it hundreds of times.† â€Å"Let me speak realities, then. I assure you that Earth – wherever it is – is not located within the borders of the Sayshell Union and that the world you mentioned is not Earth.† â€Å"But even if you don't know where Earth is, S. Q., you ought to know where the world I mentioned is. It is certainly within the borders of the Sayshell Union. We know that much, eh, Pelorat?† Pelorat, who had been listening stolidly, started at being suddenly addressed and said, â€Å"If it comes to that, Golan, I know where it is.† Trevize turned to look at him. â€Å"Since when, Janov?† â€Å"Since earlier this evening, my dear Golan. You showed us the Five Sisters, S. Q., on our way from your office to your house. You pointed out a dim star at the center of the pentagon. I'm positive that's Gaia.† Quintesetz hesitated – his face, hidden in the dimness, was beyond any chance of interpretation. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, that's what our astronomers tell us – privately. It is a planet that circles that star.† Trevize gazed contemplatively at Pelorat, but the expression on the professor's face was unreadable. Trevize turned to Quintesetz, â€Å"Then tell us about that star. Do you have its co-ordinates?† â€Å"I? No.† He was almost violent in his denial. â€Å"I have no stellar co-ordinates here. You can get it from our astronomy department, though I imagine not without trouble. No travel to that star is permitted.† â€Å"Why not? It's within your territory, isn't it?† â€Å"Spaciographically, yes. Politically, no.† Trevize waited for something more to be said. When that didn't come, he rose. â€Å"Professor Quintesetz,† he said formally, â€Å"I am not a policeman, soldier, diplomat, or thug. I am not here to force information out of you. Instead, I shall, against my will, go to our ambassador. Surely, you must understand that it is not I, for my own personal interest, that request this information. This is Foundation business and I don't want to make an interstellar incident out of this. I don't think the Sayshell Union would want to, either.† Quintesetz said uncertainly, â€Å"What is this Foundation business?† â€Å"That's not something I can discuss with you. If Gaia is not something you can discuss with me, then we will transfer it all to the government level and, under the circumstances, it may be the worse for Sayshell. Sayshell has kept its independence of the Federation and I have no objection to that. I have no reason to wish Sayshell ill and I do not wish to approach our ambassador. In fact, I will harm my own career in doing so, for I am under strict instruction to get this information without making a government matter of it. Please tell me, then, if there is some firm reason why you cannot discuss Gaia. Will you be arrested or otherwise punished, if you speak? Will you tell me plainly that I have no choice but to go to the ambassadorial height?† â€Å"No no,† said Quintesetz, who sounded utterly confused. â€Å"I know nothing about government matters. We simply don't speak of that world.† â€Å"Superstition?† ‘Well, yes! Superstition! – Skies of Sayshell, in what way am I better than that foolish person who told you that Gaia was in hyperspace – or than my wife who won't even stay in a room where Gaia is mentioned and who may even have left the house for fear it will be smashed by†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Lightning?† â€Å"By some stroke from afar. And I, even I, hesitate to pronounce the name. Gaia! Gaia! The syllables do not hurt! I am unharmed! Yet I hesitate. – But please believe me when I say that I honestly don't know the co-ordinates for Gaia's star. I can try to help you get it, if that will help, but let me tell you that we don't discuss the world here in the Union. We keep hands and minds off it. I can tell you what little is known – really known, rather than supposed – and I doubt that you can learn anything more anywhere in these worlds of the Union. â€Å"We know Gaia is an ancient world and there are some who think it is the oldest world in this sector of the Galaxy, but we are not certain. Patriotism tells us Sayshell Planet is the oldest; fear tells us Gaia Planet is. The only way of combining the two is to suppose that Gaia is Earth, since it is known that Sayshell was settled by Earthpeople. â€Å"Most historians think – among themselves – that Gaia Planet was founded independently. They think it is not a colony of any world of our Union and that the Union was not colonized by Gaia. There is no consensus on comparative age, whether Gaia was settled before or after Sayshell was.† Trevize said, â€Å"So far, what you know is nothing, since every possible alternative is believed by someone or other.† Quintesetz nodded ruefully. â€Å"It would seem so. It was comparatively late in our history that we became conscious of the existence of Gaia. We had been preoccupied at first in forming the Union, then in fighting off the Galactic Empire, then in trying to find our proper role as an Imperial province and in limiting the power of the Viceroys. â€Å"It wasn't till the days of Imperial weakness were far advanced that one of the later Viceroys, who was under very weak central control by then, came to realize that Gaia existed and seemed to maintain its independence from the Sayshellian province and even from the Empire itself. It simply kept to itself in isolation and secrecy, so that virtually nothing was known about it, anymore than is now known. The Viceroy decided to take it over. We have no details what happened, but his expedition was broken and few ships returned. In those days, of course, the ships were neither very good nor very well led. â€Å"Sayshell itself rejoiced at the defeat of the Viceroy, who was considered an Imperial oppressor, and the debacle led almost directly to the re-establishment of our independence. The Sayshell Union snapped its ties with the Empire and we still celebrate the anniversary of that event as Union Day. Almost out of gratitude we left Gaia alone for nearly a century, but the time came when we were strong enough to begin to think of a little imperialistic expansion of our own. Why not take over Gaia? Why not at least establish a Customs Union? We sent out a fleet and it was broken, too. â€Å"Thereafter, we confined ourselves to an occasional attempt at trade – attempts that were invariably unsuccessful. Gaia remained in firm isolation and never – to anyone's knowledge – made the slightest attempt to trade or communicate with any other world. It certainly never made the slightest hostile move against anyone in any direction. And then†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Quintesetz turned up the light by touching a control in the arm of his chair. In the light, Quintesetz's face took on a clearly sardonic expression. He went on, â€Å"Since you are citizens of the Foundation, you perhaps remember the Mule.† Trevize flushed. In five centuries of existence, the Foundation had been conquered only once. The conquest had been only temporary and had not seriously interfered with its climb toward Second Empire, but surely no one who resented the Foundation and wished to puncture its self-satisfaction would fail to mention the Mule, its one conqueror. And it was likely (thought Trevize) that Quintesetz had raised the level of light in order that he might see Foundational self-satisfaction punctured. He said, â€Å"Yes, we of the Foundation remember the Mule.† â€Å"The Mule,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"ruled an Empire for a while, one that was as large as the Federation now controlled by the Foundation. He did not, however, rule us. He left us in peace. He passed through Sayshell at one time, however. We signed a declaration of neutrality and a statement of friendship. He asked nothing more. We were the only ones of whom he asked nothing more in the days before illness called a halt to his expansion and forced him to wait for death. He was not an unreasonable man, you know. He did not use unreasonable force, he was not bloody, and he ruled humanely.† â€Å"It was just that he was a conqueror,† said Trevize sarcastically. â€Å"Like the Foundation,† said Quintesetz. Trevize, with no ready answer, said irritably, â€Å"Do you have more to say about Gaia?† â€Å"Just a statement that the Mule made. According to the account of the historic meeting between the Mule and President Kallo of the Union, the Mule is described as having put his signature to the document with a flourish and to have said, â€Å"You are neutral even toward Gaia by this document, which is fortunate for you. Even I will not approach Gaia.† Trevize shook his head. â€Å"Why should he? Sayshell was eager to pledge neutrality and Gaia had no record of ever troubling anyone. The Mule was planning the conquest of the entire Galaxy at the time, so why delay for trifles? Time enough to turn on Sayshell and Gaia, when that was done.† â€Å"Perhaps, perhaps,† said Quintesetz, â€Å"but according to one witness at the time, a person we tend to believe, the Mule put down his pen as he said, ‘Even I will not approach Gaia. ‘ His voice then dropped and, in a whisper not meant to be heard, he added ‘again.† â€Å"Not meant to be heard, you say. Then how was it he was heard?† â€Å"Because his pen rolled off the table when he put it down and a Sayshellian automatically approached and bent to pick it up. His ear was close to the Mule's mouth when the word ‘again' was spoken and he heard it. He said nothing until after the Mule's death.† â€Å"How can you prove it was not an invention.† â€Å"The man's life is not the kind that makes it probable he would invent something of this kind. His report is accepted.† â€Å"And if it is?† â€Å"The Mule was never in – or anywhere near – the Sayshell Union except on this one occasion, at least after he appeared on the Galactic scene. If he had ever been on Gaia, it had to be before he appeared on the Galactic scene.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"Well, where was the Mule born?† â€Å"I don't think anyone knows,† said Trevize. â€Å"In the Sayshell Union, there is a strong feeling he was born on Gaia.† â€Å"Because of that one word?† â€Å"Only partly. The Mule could not be defeated because he had strange mental powers. Gaia cannot be defeated either.† â€Å"Gaia has not been defeated as yet. That does not necessarily prove it cannot be.† â€Å"Even the Mule would not approach. Search the records of his Overlordship. See if any region other than the Sayshell Union was so gingerly treated. And do you know that no one who has ever gone to Gaia for the purpose of peaceful trade has ever returned? Why do you suppose we know so little about it?† Trevize said, â€Å"Your attitude seems much like superstition.† â€Å"Call it what you will. Since the time of the Mule, we have wiped Gaia out of our thinking. We don't want it to think of us. We only feel safe if we pretend it isn't there. It may be that the government has itself secretly initiated and encouraged the legend that Gaia has disappeared into hyperspace in the hope that people will forget that there is a real Star of that name.† â€Å"You think that Gaia is a world of Mules, then?† â€Å"It may be. I advise you, for your good, not to go there. If you do, you will never return. If the Foundation interferes with Gaia, it will show less intelligence than the Mule did. You might tell your ambassador that.† Trevize said, â€Å"Get me the co-ordinates and I will be off your world at once. I will reach Gaia and I will return.† Quintesetz said, â€Å"I will get you the co-ordinates. The astronomy department works nights, of course, and I will get it for you now, if I can. – But let me suggest once more that you make no attempt to reach Gaia.† Trevize said, â€Å"I intend to make that attempt.† And Quintesetz said heavily, â€Å"Then you intend suicide.†