Buy a Baseball America`s Favorite Game Essay Online

Purchase a Baseball America's Favorite Game Essay Online Paper about Baseball As spring comes in, when the magnificence of the earth wakes up once again, the incomparable American game starts in North America and Canada. It is far beyond a ball game played between two groups of at nine players on a precious stone formed field †with bases, gloves, bats and balls, a hill, soil on in infield, grass in the outfield, and individuals in the stands. Baseball is a round of elegant physicality, knowledge, and class. Now and again, baseball resembles an expressive dance, a presentation and a brain game, a round of chess. It’s altogether different than †even better than â€that merciless game called American football, not to be mistaken for soccer. Baseball is unmistakably more accommodating in nature than football, which is a brutish round of viciousness excessively like war. Baseball is a gentleman’s game, a reasoning keeps an eye on game of minds, quality, endurance, speed, and reflex. Likewise, baseball, which is said to have developed from the British game cricket, was made in New England around the hour of the American Civil War, played by Union troopers to involve their personal time, to presumably occupy them and help in helping them keep their mental soundness when not battling. It requires fixation and rivalry, so it was a useful device in uniting them to accomplish something fun and pleasant. Next came proficient baseball classes in different pieces of the nation, in urban communities in many states in America. After some time, in some structure, individuals all over were playing the extraordinary game †regardless of whether for the sake of entertainment on pastures or on a level, soil field. At that point it turned into an onlooker sport throughout the mid year months. Late evenings implied for baseball throughout the day, and individuals started paying cash to see games. It is as yet thusly today. They were paying cash to see the best neighborhood players go up against the best players in different areas, districts or towns. From that point forward, since the turn of the 21st century, baseball has been a staple of American life, culture, and society. This might be the explanation baseball is called, on numerous occasions, â€Å"America’s Favorite Pastime.† Today, Major League Baseball has become the expert on proficient baseball in the United States †and has become a multi-million-dollar organization (if not a multi-billion-dollar one). Itsâ games and other retail things pull in a huge number of Americans consistently, and the expert class fan base stretches out to South America, Canada, Europa,â and Asia. Itsâ players †Major League Baseball players †make a huge number of dollars a year, through agreements with each group, which is basically an enormous organization, and through arrangements with sports gear organizations, supporters, and other such things. That is a great deal of cash for somebody to play a game that was played for entertainment only by fighters in the Civil War, a game played by kids on long summer days. Over the most recent a long time since the game was made, baseball †the real game itself †likely hasn’t changed excessively. It despite everything includes similar thoughts and requires a similar language, similar fundamentals of the game, itsâ basic standards and rules and principles and prerequisites. In any case, the game has without a doubt changed. A significant issue in American expert baseball these past couple decades has been the utilization of execution upgrading drugs, similar to steroids, among the game’s best and most celebrated players. For somebody who grew up adoring these players and needing to copy them, it tends to be a genuine killjoy to think they are human and error prone ones at that, too human to even think about being saints and to do brave things. They are just individuals who could play a straightforward game to the point they could get paid to do it day in and day and for a considerable length of time at once. It has become an indu stry and not only a game. That game has changed †and not really to improve things.

Study Of The Term Gifted In America History Essay

The most punctual known reference of the term skilled in America can be followed back to 1868. It was in St. Louis in 1868 that the supervisor of schools in St. Louis made endeavors to tended to the guidance of capable understudies. In 1901 a school in Worster, Massachusetts was the main school to offer a specific school for the talented. Inquisitively bounty, the accompanying significant advancement in the historical backdrop of the talented in America must get down in Europe, as the improvements there had an effect upon the fit issue of the historical backdrop of the skilled in America. In 1905, two Gallic research laborers, Binet-Simon, made a technique for dissecting higher mental processes.2 The Binet-Simon â€Å" preliminary was utilized to help place school-matured children who were intellectually hindered. â€Å" 3 After the Binet-Simon preliminary in France, three significant improvements in the historical backdrop of the talented in America happened from 1916-1918. The fi rst of the three significant improvements happened in 1916. In spite of the fact that the competent undertaking of this paper, the â€Å" History of Gifted in America, † obviously includes the skilled in America, it must get down with this European milepost of the work contended in France in light of the fact that the Binet-Simon preliminary, â€Å" the principal reasonable insight graduated table † 4, would be thusly reexamined by an American research laborer by the name of Lewis Terman, who is also called the â€Å" male parent † of the capable guidance movement.5 The adjustment would consequently be known as the Stanford-Binet preliminary in 1916.6 The change of the Binet-Simon preliminary by Terman brought about the commended classification, I. Q. or then again IQ. The accompanying significant improvement in the historical backdrop of the talented in America includes the Great War. Subsequent to being pushed into the fog of the Great War by the Zimmerman Note, a finding was made by military functionaries in America to utilize two preliminaries â€Å" to quantify the fitness of nonreader, under-trained, or non-English discourse creation recruits and voluntaries, † for the war,7 ( of which Lewis Terman played a cardinal capacity as well.8 ) In 1917, the alpha and the Beta preliminaries were utilized by the military. Fitting to a site entitled ASVAB, â€Å" In 1917-1918, the Army alpha and Beta preliminaries were grown with the goal that military bosses could hold some progression of the capacity of their powers. The Army Alpha was a gathering controlled preliminary that deliberate verbal capacity, numerical capacity, capacity to follow waies, and comprehension of data. The Army Beta was a non-verbal inverse number of the Army Alpha. â€Å" 9 The third significant achievement I the field of the skilled in America happened in 1918. It was in 1918 that Lulu Stedman set up a â€Å" chance room † for skilled understudies inside the University Training School at the Southern Branch of the University of California. â€Å" 10 During the mid-twentiess, four accomplishments added to the improvement of the historical backdrop of the skilled in America. With the finish of aiding in the innovative movement of an arrangement of meritocracy, which is a â€Å" cultural request dependent on evaluated degrees of local capacity † ,11 in 1921Lewis Terman led the longest running longitudinal overview of around 1500 students. Terman ‘s expectation for convey oning the overview was to refute the conviction â€Å" that skilled children were immature in nonintellectual nations. â€Å" 12 Ultimately, Terman inferred that skilled children exceeded expectations in scholarly nations and were genuinely secure.13 The second advancement in the nation of the talented in America happened one twelvemonth thusly. In 1922, Leta Hollingsworth of Columbia University, an advocator for working with capable understudies in New York, opened a â€Å" Opportunity classification in P.S. 165 in New York City † 14. The acc ompanying two occasions concerned distributions of the two research laborers referenced supra. In 1925 Lewis Terman distributed Genetic Studies of Genius which reasoned that â€Å" a ) subjectively unique in schools, B ) fairly better truly and genuinely in contrasting with typical students, certificate Celsius ) higher-up in scholastic points in contrasting with the mean understudies, nutrient D ) sincerely steady, e ) best when guidance and family unit esteems were held in high regard by the family unit, and degree Fahrenheit ) limitlessly factor in blend with the figure of attributes showed by those in the studyaë†â ¦ † 15 The second work was distributed by Leta Hollingsworth in 1926. Hollingsworth ‘s work was entitled the Gifted Child: Their Nature and Raising and was viewed as the main content release on capable guidance. Ten mature ages thusly Hollingsworth built up P.S. 500, the Speyer School which was engaged after providing guidance for talented Children.16 In spite of the fact that a bunch of research laborers were striving to pass on taking care of the talented in America, the start of the Cold War would launch the issue of the skilled in America to the head of a considerable lot of the issues standing up to the state during the 1950s and sling the American specialists into the treatment of the talented in America. In 1950 J.P. Guilford tested â€Å" an examination of insight as a multidimensional idea † , and the â€Å" National Science establishment Act provid ( erectile brokenness ) government support for research and guidance in arithmetic, physical logical order, and innovation. â€Å" 17 In 1954, the â€Å" National relationship of Gifted children † was set up under the main of ann Issacs, in add-on to the assurance of Brown v. Leading group of Education which finished the â€Å" separate yet equivalent † theory in education.18 after the fruitful propelling of the Sputnick ballistic container in 1957 by th e Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United States had to focus its going to on its â€Å" human capital † and the territory of guidance in America. The United States started to pass large measures of capital with an end goal to put â€Å" the most brilliant and talented understudies who might exceed net gain from a propelled math, logical order, and building. â€Å" 19 the accompanying twelvemonth, the â€Å" National Defense Education Act † flagged the main full graduated table venture by the government experts in the nation of the skilled in America.20 In 1972 the Marland Report gave a proper meaning of skill and recommended that schools embrace a definition which would remember scholastic and judicious enrichment for add-on to driving capacity, visual capacity and psychomotor ability.21 In 1974, the â€Å" Office of the Gifted and Talented † was given authority status.22 Approximately ten mature ages along these lines another examination, gave by the Secretary of the Department of Education announced that the United States of America was at risk because of a â€Å" rising tide of averageness that undermines the actually in the future of the country.23 In 1988 a solid backer of the talented in America, United States Senator Jacob Javitz was perceived in a section which, bearing his name tried to gracefully capital for inquire about â€Å" into the best plans to help capable students † in America and by putting â€Å" understudies from hapless foundations, non-English † talking foundations and ‘the debili tated to participate in capable guidance. â€Å" 24 Ten mature ages after the â€Å" State at Risk † study gave by the United States Department of Education, another examination was given by the United States Department of Education entitled â€Å" National Excellence † . In this 1993 investigation sketch how America disregarded skilled students in the state and offered a few suggestions on the most proficient method to proceed.25 In 1998, â€Å" the National relationship for Gifted Children distributed a papers entitled â€Å" Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Plan Standards † to gracefully advise in seven cardinal nations to design helping talented and capable understudies † 26 At long last, in the Twenty first century the â€Å" No Child Left behind rule law was established. This law adequately reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. â€Å" The Javitz plan is remembered for NCLB, and extended to offer competitory statewide awards. † The meaning of the term talented was changed.

Hip-Pop Konnecting Souls

Hip-Pop Konnecting Souls Konnecting Souls Franck II Louise Company Hip-Hop and New Technologies: A Talk and Demonstration Part of the series Hip-Pop in French: Contemporary Theater, Film, Dance, Comics and Graphic Arts Sponsored by MIT Foreign Languages and Literatures, the MIT Contemporary French Studies Fund, MIT Center for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies Wednesday, October 4 7pm Kresge Little Theater, MIT Free and open to the public Co-Sponsored by the Cultural Services of the Consulate General of France in Boston A choreographer and composer, Franck II Louise is a pioneer of the French hip-hop scene. He combines music and dance in a highly original manner and the musicality of movement lies at the heart of his work. He is presently preparing a new creation titled Konnecting Souls which will have its premiere in Paris at the end of October, using live motion capture equipment to generate sounds. Fitted with sensors linked to a musical interface, the dancers compose the music of the show in real time and are becoming musical instruments. The usual process of dance / music creation is turned on its head: here, both dance and music come into being simultaneously. For this stop in Boston, during a lecture/demonstration, Franck II Louise will present his process, the technologies involved, and excerpts of his new piece. View more information about Franck II Louise Company at http://www.f2louise.com/. For more French events at MIT: http://web.mit.edu/mit-france/ This should be awesome, and I will post pics if I manage to take any

Fun Facts About Hermit Crabs

The Federal Reserve s Goal Essay - 897 Words

The Federal Reserve’s goal is to keep the national inflation rate at 2 percent. This change is seen when buying groceries. The price of milk goes from $2 to $2.04. This can prove costly when the 2 percent is added over time. So, why is inflation out pacing minimum wage? The answer, because it will do harm to employees and business owners. Supporters of an increase in minimum wage, the McDonalds employees that demand $15 per hour, argue that they need a â€Å"living pay†. They state that it will bring workers out of poverty and will have little negative effects. There is evidence to support this claim. One of them being that when the minimum wage increased from $6.25 to $7.25, there was no immediate negative affect. Research done by PolitiFact states that, â€Å"the poverty line is $11,670 for a one-person household, $15,730 for a two-person household, $19,790 for a three-person household, $23,850 for a four-person household, and up from there†(Louis). Therefore, increasing the minimum wage would set every worker above the poverty line. However, this is only if all the workers keep their job. According to Paul Samuelson, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, the problem lies in the decrease of jobs that an increase of minimum wage will create. Samuelson argues, â€Å"What good does it do a black youth to know that an employer must pay him $2 an hour if the fact that he must be paid that amount is what keeps him from getting a job†(Henderson). Samuelson states that increasing minimumShow MoreRelatedThe Federal Reserve s Goal887 Words   |  4 PagesThe Federal Reserve’s goal is to keep the national inflation rate at 2 percent. This change is seen when buying groceries. Th e price of milk goes from $2 to $2.04. This can prove costly when the 2 percent is added over time. So, why is inflation out pacing minimum wage? The answer, because it will do harm to employees and business owners. Supporters of an increase in minimum wage, the McDonalds employees that demand $15 per hour, argue that they need a â€Å"living pay†. Furthermore, they state that itRead MoreThe Federal Reserve : The Central Bank Of The United States1526 Words   |  7 Pages The Federal Reserve Introduction The Federal Reserve, also known as the Fed is the central bank of the United States. The system was created on December 1913 during the reign of President Woodrow Wilson. It was during this time that President Woodrow signed the Federal Reserve Act, incorporating it into the law. The Congress was behind the creation of the Federal Reserve with the ultimate goal of making it safer and more reliable to keep the money. The Congress was also compelled to establishingRead MoreThe Tour Of Federal Reserve Houston Branch1510 Words   |  7 PagesThe fed tour The tour of Federal Reserve Houston branch was so interesting. After that tour, I was impressive by the Fed’s function. As the textbook mentioned, The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States and is responsible for setting monetary policy and regulating the banking system. [1] So the Fed has play extremely important role in the national economic. Many countries has their own central bank, such as England established their central bank in 1694, japan establishedRead MoreEconomics Analysis : The Federal Reserve Essay1717 Words   |  7 Pagesof the Federal Reserve† a mere recital of the economic policies of government all over the world is calculated to cause any serious student of economics to throw up his hands in despair (pg, 74). The Federal Reserve is now in the business of enforcing the United States government’s drug laws, even if that means making a mockery of both state governments’ right to set their drug policies and the Fed’s governing statutes. A Federal Reserve official who played a key role in the government s responseRead MoreThe Federal Reserve Is The Central Banking System Of The United States1364 Words   |  6 Pageshe Federal Reserve is the central banking system of the United States, which controls the monetary policy of the US (Hubbard). When first conceived in 1913 its prima ry function was to protect banks, but, in part due to the Great Depression, the role the Federal Reserve plays in the economy has evolved into something much more influential. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chair from 2006-2014, said in a speech in 2002 while he was still just a board member regarding the Federal Reserve’s role inRead MoreMonetary Policy Of The Federal Reserve System1187 Words   |  5 PagesMost people don’t understand Economic growth or what takes place in the economy with regard to inflation, unemployment, or interest rates. These things are all regulated by the central bank called the Federal Reserve System. 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It now does much more for example it supervises and regulates banks, maintains the stability of the financial system and provides financial services to depositoryRead MoreThe Federal Reserve Transparency Act1492 Words   |  6 PagesWhen discussing various issues affecting the federal government, transparency issues have to be put on the front line because the Federal Reserve’s should have one of the most transparent systems. The Federal Reserve transparency act was formulated in order to ensure that there is transparency in the federal reserves through making the federal government publicize mo st of the financial institutions that it offers loans to and the organizations which use the open market operations in order to purchaseRead MoreImpact Of Gdp On Consumer Spending939 Words   |  4 Pagesinside of a nation s outskirts in a particular time period, however GDP is normally figured on a yearly premise. 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Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER FIVE SPEAKER Free Essays

SPEAKER Trantor! For eight thousand years, it was the capital of a large and mighty political entity that spanned an ever-growing union of planetary systems. For twelve thousand years after that, it was the capital of a political entity that spanned the entire Galaxy. It was the center, the heart, the epitome of the Galactic Empire. We will write a custom essay sample on Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER FIVE SPEAKER or any similar topic only for you Order Now It was impossible to think of the Empire without thinking of Trantor. Trantor did not reach its physical peak until the Empire was far gone in decay. In fact, no one noticed that the Empire had lost its drive, its forward look, because Trantor gleamed in shining metal. Its growth had peaked at the point where it was a planet-girdling city. Its population was stabilized (by law) at forty-five billion and the only surface greenery was at the Imperial Palace and the Galactic University/Library complex. Trantor’s land surface was metal-coated. Its deserts and its fertile areas were alike engulfed and made into warrens of humanity, administrative jungles, computerized elaborations, vast storehouses of food and replacement parts. its mountain ranges were beaten down; its chasms filled in. The city’s endless corridors burrowed under the continental shelves and the oceans were turned into huge underground aquacultural cisterns – the only (and insufficient native source of food and minerals. The connections with the Outer Worlds, from which Trantor obtained the resources it required, depended upon its thousand spaceports, its ten thousand warships, its hundred thousand merchant ships, its million space freighters. No city so vast was ever recycled so tightly. No planet in the Galaxy had ever made so much use of solar power or went to such extremes to rid itself of waste heat. Glittering radiators stretched up into the thin upper atmosphere upon the nightside and were withdrawn into the metal city on the dayside. As the planet turned, the radiators rose as night progressively fell around the world and sank as day progressively broke. So Trantor always had an artificial asymmetry that was almost its symbol. At this peak, Trantor ran the Empire? It ran it poorly, but nothing could have run the Empire well. The Empire was too large to be run from a single world – even under the most dynamic of Emperors. How could Trantor have helped but run it poorly when, in the ages of decay, the Imperial crown was traded back and forth by sly politicians and foolish incompetents and the bureaucracy had become a subculture of corruptibles? But even at its worst, there was some self-propelled worth to the machinery. The Galactic Empire could not have been run without Trantor. The Empire crumbled steadily, but as long as Trantor remained Trantor, a core of the Empire remained and it retained an air of pride, of millennia, of tradition and power and – exaltation. Only when the unthinkable happened – when Trantor finally fell and was sacked; when its citizens were killed by the millions and left to starve by the billions; when its mighty metal coating was scarred and punctured and fused by the attack of the â€Å"barbarian† fleet – only then was the Empire considered to have fallen. The surviving remnants on the once-great world undid further what had been left and, in a generation, Trantor was transformed from the greatest planet the human race had ever seen to an inconceivable tangle of ruins. That had been nearly two and a half centuries ago. In the rest of the Galaxy, Trantor-as-it-had-been still was not forgotten. It would live forever as the favored site of historical novels, the favored symbol and memory of the past, the favored word for sayings such as â€Å"All starships land on Trantor,† â€Å"Like looking for a person in Trantor,† and â€Å"No more alike than this and Trantor.† In all the rest of the Galaxy – But that was not true on Trantor itself! Here the old Trantor was forgotten. The surface metal seas gone, almost everywhere. Trantor was now a sparsely settled world of self-sufficient farmers, a place where trading ships rarely came and were not particularly welcome when they did come. The very word â€Å"Trantor,† though still in official use, had dropped out of popular speech. By present-day Trantorians, it was called â€Å"Hame,† which in their dialect was what would be called â€Å"Home† in Galactic Standard. Quindor Shandess thought of all this and much more as he sat quietly in a welcome state of half-drowse, in which he could allow his mind to run along a self-propelled and unorganized stream of thought. He had been First Speaker of the Second Foundation for eighteen years, and he might well bold on for ten or twelve years more if his mind remained reasonably vigorous and if he could continue to fight the political wars. He was the analog, the mirror image, of the Mayor of Terminus, who ruled over the First Foundation, but how different they were in every respect. The Mayor of Terminus was known to all the Galaxy and the First Foundation was therefore simply â€Å"the Foundation† to all the worlds. The First Speaker of the Second Foundation was known only to his associates. And yet it was the Second Foundation, under himself and his predecessors, who held the real power. The First Foundation was supreme in the realm of physical power, of technology, of war weapons. The Second Foundation was supreme in the realm of mental power, of the mind, of the ability to control. In any conflict between the two, what would it matter how many ships and weapons the First Foundation disposed of, if the Second Foundation could control the minds of those who controlled the ships and weapons? But how long could he revel in this realization of secret power? He was the twenty-fifth First Speaker and his incumbency was already a shade longer than average. Ought he, perhaps, not be too keen on holding on and keeping out the younger aspirants? There was Speaker Gendibal, the keenest and newest at the Table. Tonight they would spend time together and Shandess looked forward to it. Ought he look forward also to Gendibal’s possible accession some day? The answer to the question was that Shandess had no real thought of leaving his post. He enjoyed it too much. He sat there, in his old age, still perfectly capable of performing his duties. His hair was gray, but it had always been light in color and he wore it cut an inch long so that the color scarcely mattered. His eyes were a faded blue and his clothing conformed to the drab styling of the Trantorian farmers. The First Speaker could, if he wished, pass among the Hamish people as one of them, but his hidden power nevertheless existed. He could choose to focus his eyes and mind at any time and they would then act according to his will and recall nothing about it afterward. It rarely happened. Almost never. The Golden Rule of the Second Foundation was, â€Å"Do nothing unless you must, and when you must act – hesitate.† The First Speaker sighed softly. Living in the old University, with the brooding grandeur of the ruins of the Imperial Palace not too far distant, made one wonder on occasion how Golden the Rule might be. In the days of the Great Sack, the Golden Rule had been strained to the breaking point. There was no way of saving Trantor without sacrificing the Seldon Plan for establishing a Second Empire. It would have been humane to spare the forty-five billion, but they could not have been spared without retention of the core of the First Empire and that would have only delayed the reckoning. If would have led to a greater destruction some centuries later and perhaps no Second Empire ever The early First Speakers had worked over the clearly foreseen Sack for decades but had found no solution – no way of assuring both the salvation of Trantor and the eventual establishment of the Second Empire. The lesser evil had to be chosen and Trantor had died! The Second Foundatianers of the time had managed – by the narrowest of margins – to save the University/Library complex and there had been guilt forever after because of that, too. Though no one had ever demonstrated that saving the complex had led to the of the Mule, there was always the intuition that there was a connection. How nearly that had wrecked everything! Yet following the decades of the Sack acrd the Mule came the Golden Age of the Second Foundation. Prior to that, for over two and a half centuries after Seldon’s death, the Second Foundation had burrowed like moles into the Library, intent only on staying out of the way of the Imperials. They served as librarians in a decaying society that cared less and less for the ever-more-misnamed Galactic Library, which fell into the desuetude that best suited the purpose of the Second Foundationers. It was an ignoble life. They merely conserved the Plan, while out at the end of the Galaxy, the First Foundation fought for its life against always greater enemies with neither help from the Second Foundation nor any real knowledge of it. It was the Great Sack that liberated the Second Foundation – another reason (young Gendibal – who had courage – had recently said that it was the chief reason) why the Sack was allowed to proceed. After the Great Sack, the Empire was gone and, in all the later times, the Trantorian survivors never trespassed on Second Foundation territory uninvited. The Second Foundationers saw to it that the University/Library complex which had survived the Sack also survived the Great Renewal. The ruins of the Palace were preserved, too. The metal was gone over almost all the rest of the world. The great and endless corridors were covered up, filled in, twisted, destroyed, ignored; all under rock and soil – all except here, where metal still surrounded the ancient open places. It might be viewed as a grand memorial of greatness, the sepulcher of Empire, but to the Trantorians – the Hamish people – these were haunted places, filled with ghosts, not to be stirred. Only the Second Foundationers ever set foot in the ancient corridors or touched the titanium gleam. And even so, all had nearly come to nothing because of the Mule. The Mule had actually been on Trantor. What if he had found out the nature of the world he had been standing on? His physical weapons were far greater than those at the disposal of the Second Foundation, his mental weapons almost as great. The Second Foundation would have been hampered always by the necessity of doing nothing but what they must, and by the knowledge that almost any hope of tinning the immediate fight might portend a greater eventual loss. Had it not been for Banta Darell and her swift moment of action. And that, too, had been without the help of the Second Foundation? And then – the Golden age, when somehow the First Speakers of the time found ways of becoming active, stopping the Mule in his career of conquest, controlling his mind at last; and then stopping the First Foundation itself when it grew wary and overcurious concerning the nature and identity of the Second Foundation. There was Preem Palver, nineteenth First Speaker and greatest of them all, who had managed to put an end to all danger – not without terrible sacrifice – and who had rescued the Seldon Plan. Now, for a hundred and twenty years, the Second Foundation was again as it once had been, hiding in a haunted portion of Trantor. They were hiding no longer from the Imperials, but from the First Foundation still – a First Foundation almost as large as the Galactic Empire had been and even greater in technological expertise. The First Speaker’s eyes closed in the pleasant warmth and he passed into that never-never state of relaxing hallucinatory experiences that were not quite dreams and not quite conscious thought. Enough of gloom. All would be well. Trantor was still capital of the Galaxy, for the Second Foundation was here and it was mightier and more in control than ever the Emperor had been. The First Foundation would be contained and guided and would move correctly. However formidable their ships and weapons, they could do nothing as long as key leaders could be, at need, mentally controlled. And the Second Empire would come, but it would not be like the first. It would be a Federated Empire, with its parts possessing considerable self-rule, so that there would be none of the apparent strength and actual weakness of a unitary, centralized government. The new Empire would be looser, more pliant, more flexible, more capable of withstanding strain, and it would be guided always – always – by the hidden men and women of the Second Foundation. Trantor would then be still the capital, more powerful with its forty thousand psychohistorians than ever it had been with its forty-five billion – The First Speaker snapped awake. The sun was lower in the sky. Had he been mumbling? Had he said anything aloud? If the Second Foundation had to know much and say little, the ruling Speakers had to know mere and say less, and the First Speaker lead to know mist and say least. He smiled wryly. It was always so tempting to become a Trantorian patriot – to see the whole purpose of the Second Empire as that of bringing about Trantorian hegemony. Seldon had warned of it; he had foreseen even that, five centuries before it could come to pass. The First Speaker had not slept too long, however. It was not yet time for Gendibal’s audience. Shandess was looking forward to that private meeting. Gendibal was young enough to look at the Plan with new eyes, and keen enough to see what others might not. And it was not beyond possibility that Shandess would learn from what the youngster had to say. No one would ever be certain how much Preem Palver – the great Palver himself – had profited from that day when the young Kol Benjoam, not yet thirty, came to talk to him about possible ways of handling the First Foundation. Benjoam, who was later recognized as the greatest theorist since Seldon, never spoke of that audience in later years, but eventually he became the twenty-first First Speaker. There were some who credited Benjoam, rather than Palver, for the great accomplishments of Palver’s administration. Shandess amused himself with the thought of what Gendibal might say. It was traditional that keen youngsters, confronting the First Speaker alone for the first time, would place their entire thesis in the first sentence. And surely they would not ask for that precious first audience for something trivial – something that might ruin their entire subsequent career by convincing the First Speaker they were lightweights. Four hours later, Gendibal faced him. The young man showed no sign of nervousness. He waited calmly for Shandess to speak first. Shandess said, â€Å"You have asked for a private audience, Speaker, on a matter of importance. Could you please summarize the matter for me?† And Gendibal, speaking quietly, almost as though he were describing what he had just eaten at dinner, said, â€Å"First Speaker, the Seldon Plan is meaningless!† Stor Gendibal did not require the evidence of others to give him a sense of worth. He could not recall a time when he did not know himself to be unusual. He had been recruited for the Second Foundation when he was only a ten-year-old boy by an agent who had recognized the potentialities of his mind. He had then done remarkably well at his studies and had taken to psychohistory as a spaceship responds to a gravitational field. Psychohistory had pulled at him and he had curved toward it, reading Seldon’s text on the fundamentals when others his age were merely trying to handle differential equations. When he was fifteen, he entered Trantor’s Galactic University (as the University of Trantor had been officially renamed), after an interview during which, when asked what his ambitions were, he had answered firmly, â€Å"To be First Speaker before I am forty.† He had not bothered to aim for the First Speaker’s chair without qualification. To gain it, one way or another, seemed to him to be a certainty. It was to do it in youth that seemed to him to be the goal. Even Preem Palver bad been forty-two on his accession. The interviewer’s expression had flickered when Gendibal had said that, but the young man already had the feel of psycholanguage and could interpret that flicker. He knew, as certainly as though the interviewer had announced it, that a small notation would go on his records to the effect that he would be difficult to handle. Well, of course! Gendibal intended to be difficult to handle. He was thirty now. He would be thirty-one in a matter of two months and he was already a member of the Council of Speakers. He had nine years, at most, to become First Speaker and he knew he would make it. This audience with the present First Speaker was crucial to his plans and, laboring to present precisely the proper impression, he had. spared no effort to polish his command of psycholanguage. When two Speakers of the Second Foundation communicate with each other, the language is like no other in the Galaxy. It is as much a language of fleeting gestures as of words, as much a matter of detected mental – change patterns as anything else. An outsider would hear little or nothing, but in a short time, much in the way of thought would be exchanged and the communication would be unreportable in its literal form to anyone but still another Speaker. The language of Speakers had its advantage in speed and in infinite delicacy, but it had the disadvantage of making it almost impossible to mask true opinion. Gendibal knew his own opinion of the First Speaker. He felt the First Speaker to be a man past his mental prime. The First Speaker – in Gendibal’s assessment – expected no crisis, was not trained to meet one, and lacked the sharpness to deal with one if it appeared. With all Shandess’s goodwill and amiability, he was the stuff of which disaster was made. All of this Gendibal had to hide not merely from words, gestures, and facial expressions, but even from his thoughts. He knew no way of doing so efficiently enough to keep the First Speaker from catching a whiff of it. Nor could Gendibal avoid knowing something of the First Speaker’s feeling toward him. Through bonhomie and goodwill – quite apparent and reasonably sincere – Gendibal could feel the distant edge of condescension and amusement, and tightened his own mental grip to avoid revealing any resentment in return – or as little as possible. The First Speaker smiled and leaned back in his chair. He did not actually lift his feet to the desk top, but he got across just the right mixture of self-assured ease and informal friendship – just enough of each to leave Gendibal uncertain as to the effect of his statement. Since Gendibal had not been invited to sit down, the actions and attitudes available to him that might be designed to minimize the uncertainty were limited. It was impossible that the First Speaker did not understand this. Shandess said, â€Å"The Seldon Plan is meaningless? What a remarkable statement! Have you looked at the Prime Radiant lately, Speaker Gendibal?† â€Å"I study it frequently, First Speaker. It is my duty to do so and my pleasure as well.† â€Å"Do you, by any chance, study only those portions of it that fall under your purview, now and then? Do you observe it in microfashion – an equation system here, an adjustment rivulet there? Highly important, of course, but I have always thought it an excellent occasional exercise to observe the whole course. Studying the Prime Radiant, acre by acre, has its uses – but observing it as a continent is inspirational. To tell you the truth, Speaker, I have not done it for a long time myself. Would you join me?† Gendibal dared not pause too long. It had to be done, and it must be done easily and pleasantly or it might as well not be done. â€Å"It would be an honor and a pleasure, First Speaker.† The First Speaker depressed a lever on the side of his desk. T here was one such in the office of every Speaker and the one in Gendibal’s office was in no way inferior to that of the First Speaker. The Second Foundation was an equalitarian society in all its surface manifestations – the unimportant ones. In fact, the only official prerogative of the First Speaker was that which was explicit in his title he always spoke first. The room grew dark with the depression of the lever but, almost at once, the darkness lifted into a pearly dimness. Both long walls turned faintly creamy, then brighter and whiter, and finally there appeared neatly printed equations – so small that they could not be easily read. â€Å"If you have no objections,† said the First Speaker, making it quite clear that there would be none allowed, â€Å"we will reduce the magnification in order to see as much at one time as we can.† The neat printing shrank down into fine hairlines, faint black meanderings over the pearly background. The First Speaker touched the keys of the small console built into the arm of his chair. â€Å"We’ll bring it back to the start – to the lifetime of Hari Seldon – and we’ll adjust it to a small forward movement. We’ll shutter it so that we can only see a decade of development at a time. It gives one a wonderful feeling of the flow of history, with no distractions by the details. I wonder if you have ever done this.† â€Å"Never exactly this way, First Speaker.† â€Å"You should. It’s a marvelous feeling. Observe the sparseness of the black tracery at the start. There was not much chance for alternatives in the first few decades. The branch points, however, increase exponentially with time. Were it not for the fact that, as soon as a particular branch is taken, there is an extinction of a vast array of others in its future, all would soon become unmanageable. Of course, in dealing with the future, we must be careful what extinctions we rely upon.† â€Å"I know, First Speaker.† There was a touch of dryness in Gendibal’s response that he could not quire remove. The First Speaker did not respond to it. â€Å"Notice the winding lines of symbols in red. There is a pattern to them. To all appearances, they should exist randomly, as even Speaker earns his place by adding refinements to Seldon’s original Plan. It would seem there is no way, after all, of predicting where a refinement can be added easily or where a particular Speaker will find his interests or his ability tending, and yet I have long suspected that the admixture of Seldon Black and Speaker Red follows a strict law that is strongly dependent on time and on very little else.† Gendibal watched as the years passed and as the black and red hairlines made an almost hypnotic interlacing pattern. The pattern meant nothing in itself, of course. What counted were the symbols of which it was composed. Here and there a bright-blue rivulet made its appearance, bellying out; branching, and becoming prominent, then falling in upon itself and fading into the black or red. The First Speaker said, â€Å"Deviation Blue,† and the feeling of distaste, originating in each, filled the space between them. â€Å"We catch it over and over, and we’ll be coming to the Century of Deviations eventually.† They did. One could tell precisely when the shattering phonemenon of the Mule momentarily filled the Galaxy, as the Prime Radiant suddenly grew thick with branching rivulets of blue – more starting than could be closed down – until the room itself seemed to turn blue as the lines thickened and marked the wall with brighter and brighter pollution. (It was the only word.) It reached its peak and then faded, thinned, and came together for a long century before it trickled to its end at last. When it was gone, and when the Plan had returned to black and red, it was clear that Preem Palver’s hand had been there. Onward, onward â€Å"That’s the present,† said the First Speaker comfortably. Onward, onward Then a narrowing into a veritable knot of close-knit black with little red in it. â€Å"That’s the establishment of the Second Empire,† said the First Speaker. He shut off the Prime Radiant and the room was bathed in ordinary light. Gendibal said, â€Å"That was an emotional experience.† â€Å"Yes,† smiled the First Speaker, â€Å"and you are careful not to identify the emotion, as far as you can manage to fail to identify it. It doesn’t matter. Let me make the points I wish to make. â€Å"You will notice, first, the all-but-complete absence of Deviation Blue after the time of Preem Palver – over the last twelve decades, in other words. You will notice that there are no reasonable probabilities of Deviations above the fifth-class over the next five centuries. You will notice, too, that we have begun extending the refinements of psychohistory beyond the establishment of the Second Empire. As you undoubtedly know, Hari Seldon – although a transcendent genius – is not, and could not, be all-knowing. We have improved on him. We know more about psychohistory than he could possibly have known. â€Å"Seldon ended his calculations with the Second Empire and we have continued beyond it. Indeed, if I may say so without offense, the new Hyper-Plan that goes past the establishment of the Second Empire is very largely my doing and has earned me my present post. â€Å"I tell you all this so that you can spare me unnecessary talk. With all this, how do you manage to conclude that the Seldon Plan is meaningless? It is without flaw. The mere fact that it survived the Century of Deviations – with all due respect to Palver’s genius – is the best evidence we have that it is without flaw. Where is its weakness, young man, that you should brand the Plan as meaningless?† Gendibal stood stiffly upright. â€Å"You are right, First Speaker. The Seldon Plan has no flaw.† â€Å"You withdraw your remark, then?† â€Å"No, First Speaker. Its lack of flaw is its flaw. Its flawlessness is fatal!† The First Speaker regarded Gendibal with equanimity. He had learned to control his expressions and it amused him to watch Gendibal’s ineptness in this respect. At every exchange, the young man did his best to hide his feelings, but each time, he exposed them completely. Shandess studied him dispassionately. He was a thin young man, not much above the middle height, with thin lips and bony, restless hands. He had dark, humorless eyes that tended to smolder. He would be, the First Speaker knew, a hard person to talk out of his convictions. â€Å"You speak in paradoxes, Speaker,† he said. â€Å"It sounds like a paradox, First Speaker, because there is so much about Seldon’s Plan that we take for granted and accept in so unquestioning a manner.† â€Å"And what is it you question, then?† â€Å"The Plan’s very basis. We all know that the Plan will not work if its nature – or even its existence – is known to too many of those whose behavior it is designed to predict.† â€Å"I believe Hari Seldon understood that. I even believe he made it one of his two fundamental axioms of psychohistory.† â€Å"He did not anticipate the Mule, First Speaker, and therefore he could not anticipate the extent to which the Second Foundation would become an obsession with the people of the First Foundation, once they had been shown its importance by the Mule.† â€Å"Hari Seldon†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and for one moment, the First Speaker shuddered and fell silent. Hari Seldon’s physical appearance was known to all the members of the Second Foundation. Reproductions of him in two and in three dimensions, photographic and holographic, in bas-relief and in the round, sitting and standing, were ubiquitous. They all represented him in the last few years of his life. All were of an old and benign man, face wrinkled with the wisdom of the aged, symbolizing the quintessence of well-ripened genius. But the First Speaker now recalled seeing a photograph reputed to be Seldon as a young man. The photograph was neglected, since the thought of a young Seldon was almost a contradiction in terms. Yet Shandess had seen it, and the thought had suddenly come to him that Stor Gendibal looked remarkably like the young Seldon. Ridiculous? It was the sort of superstition that afflicted everyone, now and then, however rational they might be. He was deceived by a fugitive similarity. If he had the photograph before him, he would see at once that the similarity was an illusion. Yet why should that silly thought have occurred to him now? He recovered. It had been a momentary quaver – a transient derailment of thought – too brief to be noticed by anyone but a Speaker. Gendibal might interpret it as he pleased. â€Å"Hari Seldon,† he said very firmly the second time, â€Å"knew well that there were an infinite number of possibilities he could not foresee, and it was for that reason that he set up the Second Foundation. We did not foresee the Mule either, but tie recognized him once he was upon us and we stopped him. We did not foresee the subsequent obsession of the First Foundation with ourselves, but we saw it when it came and we stopped it. What is it about this that you can possibly find fault with?† â€Å"For one thing,† said Gendibal, â€Å"the obsession of the First Foundation with us is not yet over.† There was a distinct ebb in the deference with which Gendibal had been speaking. He had noted the quaver in the First Speaker’s voice (Shandess decided) and had interpreted it as uncertainty. That had to be countered. The First Speaker said briskly, â€Å"Let me anticipate. There would be people on the First Foundation, who – comparing the hectic difficulties of the first nearly four centuries of existence with the placidity of the last twelve decades – will come to the conclusion that this cannot be unless the Second Foundation is taking good care of the Plan – and, of course, they will be right in so concluding. They will decide that the Second Foundation may not have been destroyed after all – and, of course, they will be right in so deciding. In fact, we’ve received reports that there is a young man on the First Foundation’s capital world of Terminus, an official of their government, who is quite convinced of all this. – I forget his name†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Golan Trevize,† said Gendibal softly. â€Å"It was I who first noted the matter in the reports, and it was I who directed the matter to your office.† â€Å"Oh?† said the First Speaker with exaggerated politeness. â€Å"And how did your attention come to be focused on him?† â€Å"One of our agents on Terminus sent in a tedious report on the newly elected members of their Council – a perfectly routine matter usually sent to and ignored by all Speakers. This one caught my eye because of the nature of the description of one new Councilman, Golan Trevize. From the description, he seemed unusually self-assured and combative.† â€Å"You recognized a kindred spirit, did you?† â€Å"Not at all,† said Gendibal, stiffly. â€Å"He seemed a reckless person who enjoyed doing ridiculous things, a description which does not apply to me. In any case, I directed an in-depth study. It did not take long for me to decide that he would have made good material for us if he had been recruited at an early age.† â€Å"Perhaps,† said the First Speaker, â€Å"but you know that we do not recruit on Terminus.† â€Å"I know that well. In any case, even without our training, he has an unusual intuition. It is, of course, thoroughly undisciplined. I was, therefore. Not particularly surprised that he ad grasped the fact that the Second Foundation still exists. I felt it important enough, however, to direct a memo on the matter to your office.† â€Å"And I take it from your manner that there is a new development?† â€Å"Having grasped the fact that we still exist, thanks to his highly developed intuitive abilities, he then used it in a characteristically undisciplined fashion and has, as a result, been exiled from Terminus.† The First Speaker lifted his eyebrows. â€Å"You stop suddenly. You want me to interpret the significance. Without using my computer, let me mentally apply a rough approximation of Seldon’s equations and guess that a shrewd Mayor, capable of suspecting that the Second Foundation exists, prefers not to have an undisciplined individual shout it to the Galaxy and thus alert said Second Foundation to the danger. I take it Branno the Bronze decided that Terminus is safer with Trevize off the planet.† â€Å"She might have imprisoned Trevize or had him quietly assassinated.† â€Å"The equations are not reliable when applied to individuals, as you well know. They deal only with humanity in mass. Individual behavior is therefore unpredictable and it is possible to assume that the Mayor is a humane individual who feels imprisonment, let alone assassination, is unmerciful.† Gendibal said nothing for a while. It was an eloquent nothing, and he maintained it just long enough for the First Speaker to grow uncertain of himself but not so long as to induce a defensive anger. He timed it to the second and then he said, â€Å"That is not my interpretation. I believe that Trevize, at this moment, represents the cutting edge of the greatest threat to the Second Foundation in its history – a greater danger even than the Mule!† Gendibal was satisfied. The force of the statement had worked well. The First Speaker had not expected it and was caught off-balance. From this moment, the whip hard was Gendibal’s. If he had any doubt of that at all, it vanished with Shandess’s next remark. â€Å"Does this have anything to do with your contention that Seldon’s Plan is meaningless?† Gendibal gambled on complete certainty, driving in with a didacticism that would not allow the First Speaker to recover. He said, â€Å"First Speaker, it is an article of faith that it was Preem Palver who restored the Plan to its course after the wild aberrance of the Century of Deviations. Study the Prime Radiant and you will see that the Deviations did not disappear till two decades after Palver’s death and that not one Deviation has appeared since. The credit might rest with the First Speakers since Palver, but that is improb – â€Å"Improbable? Granted none of us have been Palvers, but – why â€Å"Will you allow me to demonstrate, First Speaker? Using the mathematics of psychohistory, I can clearly show that the chances of total disappearance of Deviation are too microscopically small to have taken place through anything the Second Foundation can do. You need not allow me if you lack the time or the desire for the demonstration, which will take half an hour of close attention. I can, as an alternative, call for a full meeting of the Speaker’s Table and demonstrate it there. But that would mean a loss of time for me and unnecessary controversy.† â€Å"Yes, and a possible loss of face for me. – Demonstrate the matter to me now. But a word of warning.† The First Speaker was making a heroic effort to recover. â€Å"If what you show me is worthless, I will not forget that.† â€Å"If it proves worthless,† said Gendibal with an effortless pride that overrode the other, â€Å"you will have my resignation on the spot.† It took, actually, considerably more than half an hour, for the First Speaker questioned the mathematics with near-savage intensity. Gendibal made up some of the time by his smooth use of his MicroRadiant. The device – which could locate any portion of the vast Plan holographically and with required n either wall nor desk sized console – had come into use only a decade ago and the First Speaker had never learned the knack of handling it. Gendibal was aware of that. The First Speaker knew that he was. Gendibal hooked it over his rigth thumb and manipulated it with his four fingers, using his hand deliberately as though it were a musical instrument. (Indeed, he had written a small paper on the analogies.) The equations Gendibal produced (and found with sure ease) moved back and forth snakily to accompany his commentary. He could obtain definitions, if necessary; set up axioms; and produce graphics, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional (to say nothing of projections of multidimensional relationships). Gendibal’s commentary was clear and incisive and the First Speaker abandoned the game. He was won over and said, â€Å"I do not recall having seen an analysis of this nature. Whose work is it?† â€Å"First Speaker, it is my own. I have published the basic mathematics involved.† â€Å"Very clever, Speaker Gendibal. Something like this will put you in line for the First Speakership, should I die – or retire.† â€Å"I have given that matter no thought, First Speaker – but since there’s no chance of your believing that, I withdraw the comment. I have given it thought and I hope I will be First Speaker, since whoever succeeds to the post must follow a procedure that only I see clearly.† â€Å"Yes,† said the First Speaker, â€Å"inappropriate modesty can be very dangerous. What procedure? Perhaps the present First Speaker may follow it, too. If I am too old to have made the creative leap you have, I am not so old that I cannot follow your direction.† It was a graceful surrender and Gendibal’s heart warned, rather unexpectedly, toward the older man, even as he realized that this was precisely the First Speaker’s intention. â€Å"Thank you, First Speaker, for I will need your help badly. I cannot expect to sway the Table without your enlightened leadership.† (Grace for grace.) â€Å"I assume, then, that you have already seen from what I have demonstrated that it is impossible for the Century of Deviations to have been corrected under our policies or for all Deviations to have ceased since then.† â€Å"This is clear to me,† said the First Speaker. â€Å"If your mathematics is correct, then in order for the Plan to have recovered as it did and to work as perfectly as it seems to be working, it would be necessary for us to be able to predict the reactions of small groups of people – even of individuals – with some degree of assurance.† â€Å"Quite so. Since the mathematics of psychohistory does not allow this, the Deviations should not have vanished and, even more so, should not have remained absent. You see, then, what I meant when I said earlier that the flaw in the Seldon Plan was its flawlessness.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"Either the Seldon Plan does possess Deviations, then, or there is something wrong in your mathematics. Since I must admit that the Seldon Plan has not shown Deviations in a century and more, it follows that there is something wrong with your mathematics – except that I detected no fallacies or missteps.† â€Å"You do wrong,† said Gendibal, â€Å"to exclude a third alternative. It is quite possible for the Seldon Plan to possess no Deviations and yet for there to be nothing wrong in my mathematics when it predicts that to be impossible.† â€Å"I fail to see the third alternative.† â€Å"Suppose the Seldon Plan is being controlled by means of a psychohistorical method so advanced that the reactions of small groups of people – even perhaps of individual persons – can be predicted, a method that we of the Second Foundation do not possess. Then, and only then, my mathematics would predict that the Seldon Plan should indeed experience no Deviations?† For a while (by Second Foundation standards) the First Speaker made no response. He said, â€Å"There is no such advanced psychohistorical method that is known to me or, I am certain from your manner, to you. If you and I know of none, the chance that any other Speaker, or any group of Speakers, has developed such a micropsychohistory – if I may call it that – and has kept it secret from the rest of the Table is infinitesimally small. Don’t you agree?† â€Å"I agree.† â€Å"Then either your analysis is wrong or else micropsychohistory is in the hands of some group outside the Second Foundation.† â€Å"Exactly, First Speaker, the latter alternative must be correct.† â€Å"Can you demonstrate the truth of such a statement?† â€Å"I cannot, in any formal way; but consider. – Has there not already been a person who could affect the Seldon Plan by dealing with individual people?† â€Å"I presume you are referring to the Mule.† â€Å"Yes, certainly.† â€Å"The Mule could only disrupt. The problem here is that the Seldon Plan is working too well, considerably closer to perfection than your mathematics would allow. You would need an Anti-Mule – someone who is as capable of overriding the Plan as the Mule was, but who acts for the opposite motive – overriding not to disrupt but to perfect.† â€Å"Exactly, First Speaker. I wish I had thought of that expression. What was the Mule? A mutant. But where did he come from? How did he come to be? no one really knows. Might there not be more?† â€Å"Apparently not. The one thing that is best known about the Mule is that he was sterile. Hence his name. Or do you think that is a myth?† â€Å"I am not referring to descendants of the Mule. Might it not be that the Mule was an aberrant member of what is – or has now become – a sizable group of people with Mulish powers who – for some reason of their own – are not disrupting the Seldon Plan but supporting it?† â€Å"Why in the Galaxy should they support it?† â€Å"Why do we support it? We plan a Second Empire in which we – or, rather, our intellectual descendants – will be the decision makers. If, some other group is supporting the Plan even more efficiently than we are, they cannot be planning to leave the decision – making to us. They will make the decisions – but to what end? Ought we not try to find out what kind of a Second Empire they are sweeping us into?† â€Å"And how do you propose to find out?† â€Å"Well, why has the Mayor of Terminus exiled Golan Trevize? By doing so, she allows a possibly dangerous person to move freely about the Galaxy. That she does it out of motives of humanity, I cannot believe. Historically the rulers of the First Foundation have always acted realistically, which means, usually, without regard for ‘morality.’ One of their heroes – Salvor Hardin – counseled against morality, in fact. No, I think the Mayor acted under compulsion from agents of the Anti-Mules, to use your phrase. I think Trevize has been recruited by them and I think he is the spearhead of danger to us. Deadly danger.† And the First Speaker said, â€Å"By Seldon, you may be right. But how will we ever convince the Table of this?† â€Å"First Speaker, you underestimate your eminence.† How to cite Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER FIVE SPEAKER, Essay examples

Stricter Laws on “Gun Control” free essay sample

In the state of Texas, a shooting took place on September 6, 2013. A 46 year-old man, who was identified as Brian Cloninger, shot an 8 year-old African-American, Donald Maiden Jr. , in the face. Prior to the shooting, Cloninger was seen waving his gun at people (Edwards). This incident and other similar incidents enraged our nation and have bought to citizens’ attention about how laws covering the sale of firearms should be made stricter. Too many people with mental illnesses are being allowed to buy firearms, and this problem only seems to be getting worse. Gun control is one of the biggest social issues at this moment, and yet guns are still getting in the wrong hands because laws for background checks are not as strict as they should be. Gun laws on background checks should be stricter, because guns are still getting unto the hands of mentally unbalanced people. Background checks will prevent the mentally unstable to be able to buy guns easily. We will write a custom essay sample on Stricter Laws on â€Å"Gun Control† or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When 46 year-old Brian Cloninger shot 8 year-old Donald Maiden Jr. , he had no motive for shooting the poor kid in the face. When asked if he shot 8 year-old Donald in the face by a witness; Cloninger said â€Å"Yes I shot that kid in the face† with no remorse in his attitude. Brian Cloninger could have a mental illness because no one, but absolutely on one, would shoot an 8 year-old boy in the face ever. A person would have to be mentally ill to commit such a crime against an innocent 8 year-old boy, but there will always be individuals like Cloninger that are unstable to think normally. A similar case that happened in Washington, D. C was due to an emotionally defanged person owning a gun. A former navy reservist killed 12 people in a mass shooting at a secure military facility. After the gunman was killed by authorities, the gunman was identified as Aaron Alexis, 34, who was working for a military subcontractor (Miller). Aaron Alexis thought he was being bombarded by low-frequency microwaves and also reported hearing voices (Miller). It is clear that Alexis was showing symptoms of untreated or undertreated paranoia. If these similar incidents keep on happening innocent people are going to keep dying because mentally ill people cannot be  responsible for a gun. Of course, making the laws stricter won’t stop all the gun violence that is happening, but if stricter laws on background checks mean that it is going to be harder for mentally unstable people to have access to guns, it will affect the amount of gun related crimes. This incident and other similar incidents have happened frequently and are still happening. Almost every week I hear about a shooting incident on the news that occurred at schools, colleges, or streets. I would say most of the shooting incidents occurred in schools where innocent little kids are shot. For this reason, firearms need to be restricted from people that cannot be responsible for possessing a gun. Easy availability of guns encourages gun use. Individuals with criminal backgrounds and mental health issues should not have easy access to guns. Children, especially, should not have access to guns. Individuals who own guns should be required to secure them with trigger locks or other devices. People who own guns should also be required to have training in the safe use of firearms as a condition of ownership. Having better gun control laws could help reduce incidents like this. Some people might not agree that having stricter gun control laws will decrease the amount of gun crimes going on in the world. People against stricter gun control laws might say that, for criminals that commit gun crimes and break laws, will always find a way to get their hands on a gun. They will get the guns illegally even if gun control becomes stricter. Strict gun control laws will only take away guns from those who need them to protect themselves. Background check laws will not prevent people from buying guns. People that do not have a mental illness or criminal records will be fine with purchasing a gun and therefore can protect themselves and their family. Someone against these stricter laws might also say the vast majority of violent crime in the United States (and the rest of the world) only occurs in areas that have excessive gun control laws; thereby denying law-abiding citizens the ability to protect themselves. Of course, stricter laws for gun control won’t reduce all the gun crimes going on, but it will be harder for mentally unstable people to have access to a gun. The advocates against gun control seem to be closed minded in their opinions. It is bit misleading in suggesting gun control won’t reduce to some extent gun violence. People break laws, but fewer people will shoot up a place, if they did not have access to a gun in the first place. Crime will decreases as the penalties and oversight of gun increases. If you go to jail for twenty years for illegally buying an assault rifle, then that is an obvious disincentive to doing the action. There are, however, gun supporters that feel that there are enough restrictions on gun control. The NRA, National Rifle Association, is against background checks and remains the main obstacle in changing gun laws. â€Å"What gun control proponent are trying to do is close the so-called gun show loophole,† which allows many private purchases, many of which occur at gun shows, not to have undergo federal background checks. Any purchase by a federally licensed dealer-whether at a store or at show- must undergo such a cheek† (Bohn). Bohn states that The Law Center of Prevent Gun Violence estimates 40% of gun purchases in the U. S. each year are through private sales, the ones that do not undergo background checks. These are a few reasons why guns are still getting into the wrong hands. One reason is because private purchasers do not go through a background check. To push against stricter laws background checks the NRA even handed out flyers saying â€Å"NO to ‘Universal’ Background Checks†. By doing so the NRA is gaining members who are going against stricter laws on background checks. Stricter background checks will decrease the gun crimes that are committed by dangerous people like mentally ill people and criminals. The deadliest weapons should be regulated. America has proven time and time again that they can no longer uphold to the amendment, and all the foolish murders, all because there was a gun available at hand.

Rankle

Rankle Rankle Rankle By Maeve Maddox A reader declares: I rankle Or get rankled when I hear someone, usually, an athlete, is under rated. What does this mean? The question asks about the term underrated, but this post will focus mainly on rankle. First, the verb underrate: underrate: to estimate at too low a value or worth. Ex. Research shows men tend to overrate themselves and women underrate themselves. Further explanation of underrate does not seem necessary. The reader is correct in the observation that the term is frequently used in reference to athletes. For example, a Google search brings up several lists of â€Å"the most underrated sports figures†: 10 Most Underrated Athletes of All Time The 25 Most Underrated Sports Superstars of All Time The List: Underrated all-time athletes 10 of the most underrated sports stars of all time The 5 Most Underrated Athletes The 25 Greatest Underrated NBA Players of All Time Now, to rankle. Taken into English from Old French, the verb rankle initially meant â€Å"to fester† or â€Å"to suppurate.† A wound that rankled was in the process of rotting. Over time, the word has dwindled in figurative use to mean to annoy or to irritate. Rankle conveys a sense of ongoing emotional hurt or bitterness. The verb may be used transitively or intransitively. Here are examples of current use: After less than three months on the job, LePage has already managed to rankle more constituencies with his bluntness than any Maine governor in recent memory.- Deseret News Christie’s Cowboys Support Rankles Some New Jersey Residents- Wall Street Journal My father didn’t get his due. That still rankles.- Shadaab Khan $10 bill change rankles descendant of Alexander Hamilton- New York Times [Rod] Serling was not just another freelancer and he rankled at the perceived affront to his work- Jeannot Szwarc Are you rankled by your cankles? A new liposuction treatment may help- Daily Mail Note: The word cankle is a new one on me. Word flags it as a misspelling. Cankle does not appear in the OED or on the Ngram Viewer, but Merriam-Webster offers a citation from The Philadelphia Inquirer dated 2001 and defines cankle as: a wide, thick, or fat ankle that appears indistinguishable from the lower calf. Cankle is a portmanteau: calf + ankle. As for rankle, It’s a good word to convey a festering annoyance of long duration. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†Hyper and HypoUsing Writing Bursts to Generate Ideas and Enthusiasm

Women Needed Consider a Career in Trucking

Women Needed Consider a Career in Trucking Take a closer look at the faces behind the wheels of our nation’s trucks and you may notice a growing change- women truckers! This welcome addition to our nation’s professional trucking workforce comes at the perfect time, as more drivers are retiring than are getting into truck cabs and a shortage of qualified drivers threatens the industry. AllTruckJobs.com helps shed some light on an exciting new career option for women. Although the overall percentage of truckers who are women is still relatively low, this is a positive trend, and one that hopefully will continue to grow in the coming years. And there’s every reason to believe it will, thanks to the proactive efforts of such organizations as Women in Trucking (WIT), and trailblazing women such as Caitlin Welby, CEO of RFX global trucking; in addition to breaking industry boundaries for women, they’re helping to change the perception that trucking is bad for the environment- an important consideration f or many young job hunters entering the workforce.If you’re a woman who’s considering her options for her next job, don’t let stuffy traditions and outdated modes of thinking limit your options. Explore the world of professional truck driving- it just might lead to your next great job!Fresh Faces in Trucking: Solutions to Driver ShortagesRead More at www.alltruckjobs.com

Is There an Inherent and Morally Required Connection Between Love and Essay

Is There an Inherent and Morally Required Connection Between Love and Sex - Essay Example The paper provides a brief philosophic discussion of what love and sex are and reevaluates the significance of the love-sex connection in philosophy. Keywords: sex, love, philosophy, connection, morality. Is There an Inherent or Morally Required Connection between Sex and Love? Philosophy is one of the most interesting sources of information about reality and life. Philosophy provides a unique channel for self-reflection and analysis of the most controversial aspects of the social, economic, and cultural reality. The value of philosophy is not only in the questions it raises but in the answers it provides and the analytical and systematic nature of the philosophic method (Halwani, 2010). It would be fair to say that philosophy reacts to the emerging issues, to understand their nature and provide possible solutions. The topic of sex and love has long been a matter of hot philosophic debate. Most world religions, especially in the western world, treat sex without love as inacceptable a nd immoral. In the meantime, the postmodern world is moving toward greater rationality in all life decisions, including sex. Sex provides physical pleasure and creates an atmosphere of intimacy, for which many people long. In the postmodern reality, there is no required connection between love and sex; there is nothing immoral in pursuing sexual desire, if it is mutual; love can add intensity to sexual relations but it is not mandatory in physical contacts among humans. Humans consider themselves as higher creatures. They have mind, cognition, and language which no animals have. They also have a unique capacity to be in love and love others. This is why love is often believed to be a mandatory component in the sexual relations among humans. However, the connection between love and sex is not simple but multidimensional. It involves a broad range of feelings, from pure sexual desire, to the feeling of victory, intimacy, and love. In the postmodern world ruled by rationality and reaso n, love gives place to other mundane considerations, and sex without love is no longer considered immoral. Yet, to clarify why the connection between love is neither required nor relevant, we first need to understand the nature of love and the philosophic implications of sex and sexual desire. Sex remains one of the most controversial aspects of philosophy, morality, and ethics. Thousands of people keep to a belief that sexual desire is immoral, if it is not linked to attraction and love. Others claim that sex is empty without feeling. Whatever the reason, the nature of sex, especially plain sex, in philosophy raised different interpretations. Basically, sexual love was always considered as inferior to platonic love (Goldenberg et al., 1999). The latter presupposed that people who engaged in sexual intercourse had greater moral goals, namely procreation, and based their sexual desires on the constant exchange of other, non-sexual beliefs, interests and experiences. Religions in all parts of the world supported this view, trying to equate the nature of chastity with the meaning of virtue (Goldenberg et al., 1999). In the non-western world, sex is favored and desired in marriage but not beyond it; Indian and African cultures treat sex as an indispensable component of people’s daily lives. At the beginning of the postmodern era, sex has acquired new philosophic coloring, being both the

How does a post colonial reading of Jane Eyre expose the authors deep Essay

How does a post colonial reading of Jane Eyre expose the authors deep anxiety regarding the idealogy of imperialism - Essay Example Jane’s Experiences The character of the protagonist Jane Eyre is the center of a struggle that is purely based on class. As an orphan, Jane suffered the consequences of poverty even though she is educated. Getting meager income from being a governess, she found herself in a low social standing -- hence, powerless. As a woman, she also experienced the vicious treatment from men in a patriarchal society (Morris, 1999). Due to these experiences, Jane identified herself with the millions in fervent yet in silent revolution against such inequalities. By studying her dialogues, it can be observed that Jane compared herself to a champion for the slaves who struggled hard for the attainment of freedom and the eradication of oppression, in a very indirect way. In her own terms, she fought against the notion that men are superior to women, and attempted to subdue that men's unjust treatment towards the women can always be justified. Although Jane acknowledged the fact that the social an d economic as well as cultural inequalities are realities that she needed to embrace, she remained firm in her belief that a time will come when ‘people will be liberated from such hell-like conditions’ (Glen, 1997). A feminist in her own right, Jane remarked: Women suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (Dunn & Bronte, 2001, p.99) Britain’s Colonial Rule The Victorian era marked Britain’s international expansion of power, wealth and culture. The empire, which included India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong Gibraltar, Rhodesia and several islan ds in the West Indies and various colonies in the African coast, was the biggest in the world during the period. Generally, the prevailing attitude of the British about the view that the English was destined to rule the world and that they had the supreme responsibility to instill culture to the ‘uncivilized’ was a key factor in its exploration and subjugation of peoples. This was heavily examined by Bronte, which can be gleaned from her works particularly in Jane Eyre (Berg, 1987). Although the author distanced herself on the issue of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, she still tackled slavery in some of her works. In the novel, Jane eventually inherited the wealth of her uncle which was derived from Madeira, a fictitious British colony. In an honorable manner, she divided the amount and the estates she obtained among her cousins. However, it should be pointed out that because of this inheritance sourced from slave colonies, Jane obtained the freedom that she longed for ( Bell, 2008). Mr. Rochester, Jane’s husband, was depicted to have worked and found his fortune in the West Indies. There, he found himself attracted to a half-Creole and Jamaican-raised Bertha who he saw

The Success of the First Crusade

The Success of the First Crusade The first crusade was a military expedition by European Christians to regain the holy lands and occurred in 1095. It was viewed as an unprecedented success by historians of the day and by contemporary historians. The reasons for this great success, if it can be named great at all, are numerous. From Pope Urban IIs fiery call to arms at the Council of Clermont, to the lack of preparation from the Turks, there are many reasons for this success. Indeed the extreme faith displayed by the crusaders, the quality of their leaders, and the allies which they gained during their extensive journey were further factors which contributed to their success. After receiving the call for military aid from Alexius I, the Byzantine Emperor in 1095, Pope Urban II seized upon this opportunity for him to renew Papal control and influence in the east and to reunite the churches of Rome and Constantinople. Through his highly charismatic sermon given on 27th November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, Urban was able to arouse enthusiasm from the clergy and nobles present for a Holy War on the Muslims in the east. They then went out to their diocese and spread the command of a call to arms from God. This call to arms created a huge influx of people from all works of life and they were all keen to embark on this pilgrimage to the holy land. This was a good thing as more people would mean a larger army for which to defeat the Muslims with. However a lot of people who showed enthusiasm for this pilgrimage were not knights or trained soldiers but were ordinary men, women and children, and so they can be seen as more of a hindrance than of help. On the o ther hand, by there being women, usually wives, on the journey they would have undoubtedly helped the men on this hazardous journey by providing them with the necessary motivation needed to complete this pilgrimage. However the crusaders did not answer the call for arms from Pope Urban likely; they knew that it would be an arduous journey. But for most it was their undoubted faith which made them embark on this journey and it was faith which was a key factor that carried them to Jerusalem. Until recently it has been thought that one of the main motives for people embarking on the crusade was power and profit which could be gained in the supposedly lucrative east. But contemporary historians now believe that a lot of the crusaders were just devout Christians and wished to secure their place in heaven which the Pope had stated would happen if they liberated Jerusalem from the infidel. Faith is a powerful tool; it can make people push beyond their limits and to achieve unattainable goals, as is stated by Setton and Baldwin ‘without zeal and a burning faith it could never have been achieved and hence it was definitely a positive factor in helping the success of the crusaders. The crusaders wer e from all different parts of Europe and spoke many different languages. It was their belief in achieving the one aim of capturing Jerusalem that made them work effectively together as a fighting force. This can be seen when the crusaders captured Antioch. As soon as they captured Antioch, after a gruelling siege of seven months, the crusaders themselves were besieged by an army of Kerbogha of Mosuls. The crusaders were hungry and tired. Furthermore their morale was dangerously low, they were fighting night and day to keep the besiegers out, and just when they thought that all was lost a minor monk called Peter Bartholomew claimed to have discovered the holy lance in the city. This was enough of a sign to give the crusaders faith that they would win and made them fight on. On June 28th they defeated Kerboghas forces. This is a prime example to prove that it was their faith which encouraged the Crusaders to go forth and to face the enemy head on instead of giving up. The first crusaders were indeed many but they were in foreign lands, far away from home and without a reliable source of supplies and so it was important for them to make allies within the region. Though there were some troubles between the crusaders and the Byzantines, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I was very willing to help the crusaders with supplies, a small military force and engineers. The engineers were extremely useful and necessary for the building of siege engines from which they made the capture of towns much easier. Hence the alliance with Alexius was a necessity for the success of the crusade. A further asset to the crusaders was the help from the Armenians. With their help some of the crusaders were able to conquer Edessa and hence form the first of the crusader states called the County of Edessa of which Baldwin was their ruler. Also it was an Armenian guard who Bohemond bribed at Antioch to open the cities gates. Furthermore, it was also an Armenian commander who help ed the crusaders capture Jerusalem by surrendering his tower on the main walls to them. Otherwise the crusaders quite possibly would have had to have gone through a lengthy siege in which many of them would have died. Baldwin of Boulogne also had an Armenian called Pakrad on his staff whom he relied on for advice on the area and the diplomatic stance between states and rulers. Another main ally who the crusaders had but were not as prominent was the Christian people who were already there. They tried their best to help the crusaders by giving them what provisions they could spare and by trying to help overthrow the garrisons of towns of which the crusaders were trying to capture. But there is evidence that a lot of Christians within these Muslim states were quite content with their Muslim overlords and so were not keen in helping a foreign army even if it was a Christian one. Another key factor which can be seen during the first crusade is that of the competency of the crusaders leadership. The crusaders were in the hands of experienced princes whom had seen combat in various wars. This can be seen through the tactics which they employed, such as them used on June 30th 1097 when Bohemonds army was surrounded by a Turkish army. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy performed an ingenious diversion of crossing the mountains to flank the enemy and come up on their rear, ‘which caused them to flee in panic and confusion'[1]. But even though the crusaders leaders were highly skilled at leading they were not always a unifying force. There was a growing tension between Raymond and Bohemond. But other than that there was not much quarrelling within the army itself. Some of the main leaders were driven to a degree by their own ambition and this sometimes led to atrocities occurring. An example of this is the massacre of 300 Norman troops who Baldwin of Boulogne had forced to camp outside the walls of his newly captured town of Tarsus because he did not trust them and hence they were slaughtered by the towns former garrison under nightfall. But through all of the bad decisions, most of the time when they were needed to unify and attack together they did just that. They worked as one army, even if they disagreed on tactics when they assaulted and besieged major cities such as Antioch and Jerusalem. Indeed the assault on Jerusalem was impeded time wise by the arguing between the leaders over who should be given Antioch, but when they eventually got there the remaining princes worked together to gain success. But the fact that most of the princes true ambitions lay in their own personal gain is shown by Bohemond who selfishly never took any further part in the crusade after becoming Prince of Antioch. He never even went to Jerusalem. This was a major reason in why it took so long for the crusaders to take Antioch, because Raymond had wanted t o storm the city but Bohemond refused and wanted to besiege it even though there wasnt enough troops to encircle the city. Bohemonds decision to siege was due to his own greed; he wanted Antioch for himself and so wanted it intact. The siege was perhaps harder on the crusaders than the defenders as they quickly ran out of food which led to desertion and cannibalism. Even though these blasphemous events were occurring, Bohemond still held the siege which shows that he didnt care much about the religious side to the crusade but by taking Antioch he did succeed in completing his own agenda and furthered the crusaders cause. One of the most important reasons for the success of the first crusade was the disunity within the Muslim nations in and around the holy land and their underestimation of the threat to which the crusaders posed. During the time of the first crusade, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were all under Muslim control. But they were politically and, to some extent, culturally fragmented and hence this would have certainly contributed to the success of the first crusade. These differences can be seen through the internal rivalry which had been going on between competing territories. Anatolia and Syria were controlled by the Sunni Seljuks, and used to be unified in one big empire but in 1092 Malik-Shah, the Seljuk sultan, died and his sons quarrelled over who would succeed him. So the sultans once large empire was split between the competing sons. Hence when the crusaders came marching through, these states were on the whole more concerned with consolidating their own territories and gai ning control of their neighbours, than with cooperating against the crusaders. There was also a failure to react quickly enough to the crusading threat by the Turks and the rest of the Muslim states. During the Peoples crusade The Turkish king Kilij Arslans capital, Nicaea was situated close to where the crusaders were based. He was happy enough to watch them ravage the countryside but as soon as they threatened his city he easily defeated them. This easy defeat of the Christian forces lulled him into a false sense of security. When he heard that another Christian force had amassed at Constantinople he assumed that it would be of the same type of incompetent soldiers as before and so took the majority of his army to attack a rival state, ‘he had not foreseen that the crusading army would be so strong'[2]. This same sort of misconception of the crusading forces was common among many of the Muslim leaders, and hence played a major part in the success of the first crusade. This can be proven by the failure of the second crusade. It contained around the same amount of people as the first crusade but by this time the Muslim leaders were more prepared and swiftly defeated the crusaders in two battles[3]. Even though the main reason for the success of the first crusade was the disunity between the Muslim states, all of the factors mentioned contributed to the crusades success. The crusaders allies played their part in helping the crusaders to succeed in their goals. Also the faith of the people played a major part. Their faith cannot be underestimated, it kept them going and forced them onwards to Jerusalem; it was their faith which stopped them from turning back even when they were dying from starvation and disease. It was ultimately their faith which drove them to succeed. Bibliography Asbridge, T. S. , The First Crusade: A New History,(London, 2004). Baldwin, M. W. ed. , A History of the Crusades Volume I: The First Hundred Years, (Philadelphia, 1958), pp. 177 343. Phillips, J. P. , The First Crusade: Origins and Impact, (Manchester, 1997). Phillips, J. P. , ‘Who Were the First Crusaders?, History Today 47:5 (Manchester, 1997), pp. 16-22. Riley-Smith J. , The Crusades: Idea and Reality 1095-1274, (London, 1981). Riley-Smith, J. , The First Crusade and the idea of crusading, (London, 1986). Rochester, R. W. , Military Operations in the First Crusade 1097-1099 A.D.,(Liverpool, 1955). Runciman, S. , The First Crusade, (Cambridge, 1980). Wolf, K. B. , ‘Crusade and Narrative: Bohemond and the Gesta Francorum, Journal of Medieval History 17 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 207-16. [1] M. W. Baldwin, ed. , A History of the Crusades Volume I: The First Hundred Years, (Philadelphia, 1958), p. 293. [2] M. W. Baldwin, ed. , A History of the Crusades Volume I: The First Hundred Years, (Philadelphia, 1958), p. 289. [3] J. Riley-Smith , The Crusades: Idea and Reality 1095-1274, (London, 1981), p. 14.

Becoming a Better Negotiator

Over the past 8 weeks there has been a lot that I have learned about myself as a person with inner reflection in my negotiation style. Negotiation is a skill that I thought people have to be born with. Although people can be born better suited with negotiation skills; the skill is also a craft that can be taught and learned. People must be able to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and build off their strengths to become a better negotiator.Lewicki, Saunders and Barry (2011) state that while some people may look like born negotiators, negotiation is fundamentally a skill involving analysis and communication that everyone can learn. I think that the questionnaires that I took really amplified what I need to work on as a negotiator. Negotiation is a part of everyday life for everyone, in home life and in personal life and becoming a better negotiator can impact our lives positively in both. This paper will reflect and summarize what I learned about myself doing both questionnair es and how I plan on improving my negotiation skills using this class going forward.QuestionnairesThe first questionnaire is called The Personal Bargaining Inventory. This questionnaire helps clarify the perceptions of one’s self on different dimensions of negotiation; from how a person should or â€Å"ought† to negotiate, power and deception, cooperation and competition, and winning and losing. The second questionnaire is called Communication Competence Scale. This scale is a diagnostic tool to help one determine their level of communication competence.Communication competence is defined as the ability  to enact both appropriate and effective messages in any communication setting. The Personal Bargaining Inventory asked twenty three questions rating my own behavior and twenty seven questions rating people’s behavior in general, on a scale of 1-7, 1 being strongly uncharacteristic and 7 being strongly characteristic (Lewicki, Saunders, & Barry, 2009). Both of these questionnaires make you look at yourself and gauge how we feel about our own behavior in negotiation and communication.It also makes us reflect on how we believe others should act and behave in negotiation. These are both great exercises for someone to use if they want to figure out exactly what they need to work on to become a better negotiator. Some of the questions asked about ethics; such as lying to get what we want, taking advantage of someone, and being accountable about the things we say in conversation and in negotiation. One must be completely honest when taking these questionnaires. Both of these questionnaires helped me reflect on myself and what I think of myself.About MeMargaret J. Wheatley said â€Å"without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful†. I think these questionnaires help with my own personal reflection. I have always been told that I am antagonistic and this is somethi ng that I need to work on. These questionnaires only backed up that assessment. A couple of the questions in particular stuck out to me. I had to be honest with myself, which helped opened up my eyes and helped me realize this truth. In the Personal Bargaining Inventory question number 21 was eye opening; â€Å"in any competitive situation, I like to win. Not just win, but win by the biggest margin possible†.I ranked myself truthfully at a 7, strongly characteristic. I hate to lose. I don’t know of anyone that does, but I really hate it. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I lose, or team I root for loses. It affects my attitude and really upsets me. I love to win. They say a win is a win, but in negotiation concessions must be made. Keeping this behavior could end up hurting my negotiation strategies in life. I must be willing to compromise more.The second question came in the Communication Competence Scale, â€Å"generally, I think about how others might  i nterpret what I say†. I need to choose my words more carefully when dealing with people. I don’t usually think about what I say before saying it, and sometimes people may interpret those things negatively. These questionnaires really helped me reflect on myself as a negotiator and as a person. Everyone could benefit from using them.Get BetterAs seen above there is room for me to improve and become a better negotiator. We all should try and become more well rounded people in our lives, to become morally and ethically responsible as well as better negotiators. I believe that I can become a better leader in life and at work if I am able to become a better negotiator. I can do better for my family and I can do better for myself. There are ten best practices to use for negotiators. I will use these ten practices to improve my skills and craft my negotiation style. Those ten practices are the following:1.Be prepared. 2.Diagnose the fundamental structure of the negotiation. 3. Work the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) 4.Be willing to walk away. 5.Master the paradoxes. 6.Remember the intangibles. 7.Actively manage coalitions. 8.Savor and protect your reputation. 9.Remember that rationality and fairness are relative. 10.Continue to learn from the experience.I have a real life experience that just happened to me that these ten practices would have helped me with. I had set up a meeting with a customer and I expected just to introduce myself to these guys and let them know that I was new to the area. I wanted to show face to them and let them know that I was here to help. Well that was part of what happened. These guys took me and put me in a conference room and asked me a million questions about my company and what I would do for them. I feel I did okay in this situation, but had I been able to prepare for this negotiation I might have done a  better job.Practice 1 and 10 are what I will take away the most from this to learn from. Had I k nown that this introduction would have been more than just that, I would have prepared better for some of the questions they asked. I am new to this position and I will be able to walk away from this experience with something to work on. I tried my best to keep all questions in a positive light and try and make the meeting as personal as possible. This negotiation was not for a contract, but more or less for an opportunity that could lead to one. I laid a lot of my cards out on the table to let them know that I wanted to build trust. There were three guys in the meeting.Two of them specifically said that all they cared about was price, while the third said, â€Å"I don’t give two (curse)’s about price, all I care about is what you are going to do for me, I care about service†. This helps me in the future going forward with these guys, being able to address what is the most important thing to them when it comes to doing business with me and my company. This custo mer has all the power and they know it. All I want to go out and earn their business. I am a vendor to them and there are other vendors that can offer the same services as I can, what can I do to earn their business? I need to make my experience personal with them and try and build a personal relationship. Building trust in negotiation is one of the biggest and most important things in business.Once I get the opportunity to build this trust and earn this work I can then go into the negotiation faze of an MRO contract. MRO stands for Maintenance, Repair and Operations. We write out these contracts for loyal customers that basically take the negotiation out of our work. We set the prices and the services provided for the customer that we don’t need to earn or negotiate, we need to basically â€Å"keep them happy† until the contract runs out. They are set for 5 years and are fair and rational for both us and the customer.If I am able to get to the point of a negotiation f or a MRO contract, it would look really good to my supervisors and I could become one of the youngest managers in our company. I must take a plan of action to see things from my opponent’s perspective and keep in mind the intangibles that go into negotiation. Leaders must be credible and trustworthy (Bednarz 2011). Learning to become a better negotiator and person would definitely make me a better leader for my family and my company.In conclusion, this class has taught me a lot about negotiation and myself in the process. There are steps and processes that anyone can take that can train and help turn this into a skill. Negotiation is not the easiest thing in the world to do. No one is born with the same personality, and negotiation is a skill (like sports or music) that can be born with in certain people. But like sports and music, negotiation is a craft that can be worked, learned, exercised and honed. We must always get ready and be prepared prior to a negotiation. We must also learn from all our negotiations in life so that we can get better.