Foundation by Isaac Asimov Essay Example for Free

Foundation by Isaac Asimov Essay Foundation is the first novel in Isaac Asimovs Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into The Foundation Series). Foundation is a collection of five short stories, which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951 which, together, form a single plot. Foundation saw multiple publications—it also appeared in 1955 as part of Ace Double D-110 under the title The 1,000-Year Plan. Four of the stories were originally published inAstounding Magazine (with different titles) between 1942 and 1944, and the fifth was added when they first appeared in book form. A further two books of short stories were published shortly after, and decades later, Asimov wrote two further sequel novels and two prequels. Later writers have added authorized tales to the series. The Foundation Series is often regarded as one of Isaac Asimovs best works, along with his Robot series. Plot summary Foundation tells the story of a group of scientists who seek to preserve knowledge as the civilizations around them begin to regress. The Psychohistorians (0 F.E.) (First published as the book edition in 1951) Set in the year 0 F.E., The Psychohistorians opens on Trantor, the capital of the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire. Though the empire appears stable and powerful, it is slowly decaying in ways that parallel the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Hari Seldon, a mathematician and psychologist, has developed psychohistory, a new field of science and psychology that equates all possibilities in large societies to mathematics, allowing for the prediction of future events. Using psychohistory, Seldon has discovered the declining nature of the Empire, angering the aristocratic members of the Committee of Public Safety, the de facto rulers of the Empire. The Committee considers Seldons views and statements treasonous, and he is arrested along with young mathematician Gaal Dornick, who has arrived on Trantor to meet Seldon. Seldon is tried by the Committee and defends his beliefs, explaining his theories and predictions, including his belief that the Empire will collapse in 500 years and enter a 30,000-year dark age, to the Committees members. He informs the Committee that an alternative to this future is attainable, and explains to them that creating a compendium of all human knowledge, the Encyclopedia Galactica, would not avert the inevitable fall of the Empire but would reduce the dark age to one millennium. The skeptical Committee, not wanting to make Seldon a martyr, offers him exile to a remote world, Terminus, with others who could help him create the Encyclopedia. He accepts their offer, prepares for the departure of the Encyclopedists and receives an imperial decree officially acknowledging his actions. The Encyclopedists (50 F.E.) (published May 1942 as Foundation) Set in 50 F.E., The Encyclopedists begins on Terminus, which has no mineral resources but one region suitable for the development of large city, named Terminus City. The colony of professionals, devoted to the creation of the Encyclopedia, is managed by the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Galactica Foundation, composed solely of scientists. The affairs of Terminus City itself are handled by the citys mayor, Salvor Hardin, who is virtually powerless due to the influence of the Board of Trustees. However, Hardin does not accept the status quo, which he believes puts Terminus in danger of political exploitation by the neighboring prefects of the Empire, which have declared independence and severed contact with Trantor. Hardin, recognizing the imminent downfall of imperial power due to the loss of the Empires outermost region, decides that the only way to ensure Terminuss continued survival is to pit the four neighboring kingdoms against one another. Hardin manages to avoid an attempt by the Kingdom of Anacreon to establish military bases on Terminus and to take advantage of nuclear power, which Terminus retains but which the Four Kingdoms do not. Hardin succeeds in diverting Anacreon from its initial goal and furthers his goal of the establishment of a stable political system on Terminus. Hardins efforts, however, are still resisted by the Board of Trustees and its chairman, Dr. Louis Pirenne. To remove this obstacle, Hardin and his chief advisor, Yohan Lee, plan a coup detat designed to remove the Board of Trustees from its politically powerful position on the same day that, in the citys Time Vault, a holographic recording of Hari Seldon is programmed to play. The recording will contain psychohistoric proof of Hardins success or failure; Hardin realizes that his coup is a great gamble due to the possible case that his beliefs are incompatible with Seldons original goals. The next day in the Time Vault the holographic video of Hari Seldon appears. He is in his wheelchair and his voice is old and soft. He reveals that the Encyclopedia Galactica is a distraction intended to make the colonys creation possible. The true purpose of the Foundation is to form one nucleus of a Second Galactic Empire and shorten the predicted period of chaos to a mere thousand years, rather than thirty thousand years. After the video ends, the Board of Trustees admits they were wrong to Hardin and schedule a meeting to discuss their next action. Hardin smiles, knowing they would be giving orders no longer. Out there in Terminus City Yohan Lees men were already in control. In two days time Anacreon would be landing in force, but that was fine, in six months they would be giving orders no longer as well. Salvor Hardin had guessed the solution, and as Hari Seldon said, it was obvious. The Mayors (80 F.E.) (published June 1942 as Bridle and Saddle) Set in 80 F.E., three decades after the events of The Encyclopedists, The Mayors is set in a time where the Encyclopedia Foundations scientific understanding has given it significant leverage over the Four Kingdoms, though it is still isolated from the Galactic Empire. Exercising its control over the region through an artificial religion, Scientism, the Foundation shares its technology with the Four Kingdoms while referring to it as religious truth. Maintenance technicians comprise Scientisms priesthood, trained on Terminus. A majority of the priests themselves are unaware of the true importance of their religion, referring to advanced technology as holy food. The religion is not suppressed by the secular elite of the Four Kingdoms, reminscient of Western European rulers of the early medieval period, who use it to consolidate their power over the zealous populaces. Salvor Hardin, as Mayor of Terminus City, is the effective ruler of the Foundation, and has been reelected as mayor cont inuously since his political victory over the Encyclopedia Galactica Board of Trustees. However, his influence is suddenly checked by a new political movement led by city councillor Sef Sermak, which encourages direct action against the Four Kingdoms and a cessation of the scientific proselytizing encouraged by Hardins administration. The movement, whose followers refer to themselves as Actionists, is wildly popular, and Hardin is unable to appease Sermak and the Actionist leadership. The kingdom that is most concerning to the Actionists is that of Anacreon, ruled by Prince Regent Wienis and his nephew, the teenaged King Lepold I. Wienis plans to overthrow the Foundations power by launching a direct military assault against Terminus, making use of an abandoned Imperial space cruiser redesigned by Foundation experts to fit the needs of the elite Anacreonian navy. However, Hardin orders several secret technological devices to be incorporated into the ships design prior to its completion. Wienis plans to launch his offensive on the night of his nephews coronation as king and sole ruler of Anacreon. Hardin attends the coronation ceremony and is arrested, but has arranged with Anacreonian High Priest Poly Verisof, who is aware of the true nature of Scientism, to foster a popular uprising against Wienis. Convincing the Anacreonian populace that an assault against the Foundation and Terminus is blasphemous, Verisof leads an infuriated mob to the royal palace and surrounds it, demanding Hardins release. Meanwhile, the crew of the space cruiser mutinies against its commander, Admiral Prince Lefkin, Wieniss son. Lefkin confronts the mutineers and, captured, is forced to broadcast a message to Anacreon demanding Wieniss arrest and threatening a bombardment of the royal palace if that and other demands are not met. Wienis, maddened by his failure, orders Hardins execution, but his royal guardsmen refuse to obey him. Attempting and failing, due to a protective energy field, to kill Hardin personally, Wienis commits suicide. Hardin is proven correct again upon his return to Terminus City by another Seldon recording, set to play at this date. Though Actionists continue to hold a significant amount of power, an attempt to impeach the mayor fails and his popularity is renewed among the citys residents. It is also confirmed by Hari Seldon that the Foundations immediate neighbors, the Four Kingdoms, will now be virtually powerless and incapable of resisting Scientisms advance. The Traders (About 135 F.E.) (published October 1944 as The Wedge) The events of The Traders are set around 135 F.E., at a time during which the Foundation has expanded greatly and has sent out officially sanctioned Traders to exchange technology with neighboring planets for what amounts to greater political and economic power. Master Trader Eskel Gorov, also an agent of the Foundation government, has traveled to the worlds of Askone, where he hopes to trade nucleics. Gorov, however, is met with resistance by Askones governing Elders due to traditional taboos that effectively ban advanced technology. Gorov is imprisoned and sentenced to death; the Elders refuse Foundation requests for clemency. Trader Linmar Ponyets is ordered by the Foundation to try and negotiate with the Elders, and travels to the central Askonian planet. Ponyets meets with the Elders Grand Master and deduces that, though he is determined to have Gorov executed, he may be willing to exchange the captive for a suitable bribe, which Ponyets realizes would be a sum of gold. Ponyets clumsily fashions a transmuter that will convert iron into gold. The Grand Master informs Ponyets that others who have attempted this have failed and have been punished with execution for both their attempt and for their failure; Ponyets succeeds and convinces the Grand Master that the gold is appropriate for Askonian religious decoration, which pleases the Elders. Councilor Pherl, the Grand Masters protà ©gà ©, appears to be wary of Ponyets. Meeting with the Councilor, Ponyets discovers that Pherl is instead quite willing to work with him, if only due to the chances of eventually attaining the Grand Mastership himself. Pherl, from a different ethnic background than traditional Grand Masters and a young man, believes that a stable supply of gold will be able to dramatically increase his power, and Ponyets provides him with the transmuter. It appears that the friendly Pherl will ascend to the Grand Mastership, while Gorov is released quickly. Ponyets discusses his success with Gorov, who criticizes his techniques due to what he perceives as Ponyetss lack of morality. Ponyets replies by reminding Gorov of an alleged statement made by Salvor Hardin: Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right! The Merchant Princes (About 155 F.E.) (published August 1944 as The Big and the Little) Set around 155 F.E., The Merchant Princes takes places against the backdrop of a powerful Foundation, which has subjugated the neighboring Four Kingdoms and expanded its commercial and technological empire throughout numerous stellar systems. However, it continues to meet resistance, and three Foundation vessels have vanished near the planets of the Republic of Korell, a nation suspected of independent technological development. Master Trader Hober Mallow is assigned to deal with Korell and also to investigate their technological developments and find the missing ships. Those who have assigned this mission to Mallow, Foreign Secretary Publius Manlio and the Mayors secretary, Jorane Sutt, believe that a Seldon Crisis is underway; they fear that domestic tensions caused by the great autonomy given to Traders and shaky foreign relations may give rise to a nuclear conflict involving the Foundation. Sutt and Manlio, believ ing that they can weaken the Traders by staging an embarrassing diplomatic incident, plant an agent aboard Mallows ship. The agent, a respected Trader, invites a Foundation missionary onto the ship once it reaches Korell. Such missionaries are forbidden to enter Korell, and an angry mob immediately surrounds the ship, demanding the missionary. This rapid response in a remote location arouses Mallows suspicions, and Mallow gives the missionary to the mob, despite the frantic intervention of the agent. Later, Mallow meets with Korells authoritarian ruler, Commdor Asper Argo, who appears friendly and welcomes Foundation technological gifts. Argo refuses to allow Scientism on Korell, and Mallow agrees not to encourage missionary work in the Republic. Mallow is invited to tour a steel foundry belonging to Korells government, where he notes guards carrying atomic handguns. He is surprised to discover that these weapons bear the markings of the Galactic Empire, which the Foundation assumes has fallen by this time. Mallows discoveries lead him to believe that the Empire may be attempting to expand into the Periphery again, and has been providing weapons to client states such as Korell. Leaving the Republic and his ship, he journeys alone to the planet Siwenna, which he believes may be the capital of an Imperial province. He finds Siwenna a desolate and sad place, and meets the impoverished patrician Onum Barr in the latters isolated mansion, which is slowly crumbling. Barr, a former provincial senator and a leading citizen, had served in the Imperial government on Siwenna during a fairly stable time several decades earlier, before a series of corrupt and ambitious viceroys who each harbored dreams of becoming Emperor. After the previous viceroy rebelled against the Emperor, Barr participated in a revolution that overthrew the viceroy. However, the Imperial fleet also sent to remove the viceroy wanted to conquer a rebellious province even if it was no longer in rebellion, and began a massacre that claimed the lives of all but one of Barrs children. Mallow is tried for murder upon his return to Terminus, due to turning over the Foundation missionary to the mob. However, he is able to convince the court that the missionary was in fact a Korellian secret policeman who played a part in the conspiracy against the Traders manufactured by Sutt and Manlio. Acquitted, Mallow is received with delight by the population of Terminus, which will almost undoubtedly select him as Mayor in the elections scheduled to take place in the following year. To prepare for the election, Mallow engineers the arrest of Sutt and Manlio, and eventually takes office. However, he is soon faced with tensions between the Foundation and Korell, which declares war on the Foundation, using its powerful Imperial flotilla to attack Foundation ships. Instead of counterattacking, Mallow takes no action, waiting until the lack of Foundation goods forces Korell to surrender.

Ealry Film :: essays papers

Ealry Film Being able to capture motion has occupied the human psyche sine primitive times. This is evident through the Lascaux cave paintings which depict buffalo with multiple legs in a attempt to represent the animal running. Other simple innovations also led to the motion picture, these ‘optical toys’ demonstrated the eye’s persistence of vision. These ‘toys’ grew more advanced, but lifelike motion could not be achieved until the photographic process was nearly perfected. In the 1870’s Eadweard Muybridge was successful in capturing the complete motion of a horse galloping. This was the first step in bringing pictures to life. The next invention came from a Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, who devised a thin, flexible, plastic base he called celluloid, on which could be put photosensitive material. George Eastman was the first to market this celluloid film, and in 1890 Thomas Edison and William Dicksom successfully tested the Kinescope. The first motion picture captured and copyrighted on this Kinescope was titled â€Å"The Sneeze†, which is simply a man sneezing. Edison continued to make short films in his studio, nicknamed the Black Maria. His shorts usually were comprised of people performing vaudeville acts as a form of sideshow attraction. These films would be viewed in Kinescope parlors, from large wooden boxes with a eyepiece on top. On the other side of the Atlantic, in France, the Lumieres brothers improve on Edisons Kinescope, and create the Cinematograph, a smaller more portable camera, that can film and view motion pictures. With this new Cinematograph, the Lumieres brothers were able to film and then project the product for an audience. They filmed what was around them, daily life for upper-middle class Europeans, their first was a whole group of people leaving a factory at the end of a work day. Simple, but for its time it was amazing, seeing live people walking around and moving just as they normally would, but on a big screen! These types of films became the Lumieres trademark, slice of life documentary work that would be shown in front of audiences. One of the Lumieres films: Arrival of a Train in the Cioat Station, was a train coming straight for the camera on an angle, that terrified the viewers. Edison continued to make films, under his own, controlled conditions. Although both Edison and the Lumieres, saw the motion picture as nothing more than a sideshow act and both filmed very documentary-esque work, each had their own criteria for filming.

Marcus Ang Is A Member From The Field Sales Section Essay

Marcus Ang is a member from the field sales section. His sales performance in the recent months has been below target in contrast to his outstanding sales in the past years. Marcus blames it on the poor economic situation, however the other sales staff seem to able meet their target. How should Madam May May attribute Marcus’s performance? First of all, Madam May May has to know about what happened to Marcus. What causes him to blame the poor economic situation while the other sales staff still be able to meet their target. As we learn from the organization behavior, we know that employee’s behavior will affect the performance of an organization. According to Fritz Heider and H.H. Kelly, they stated that people’s behavior is affected by internal and external factors. On the other hand, Kelley’s attribution theory refers to three types of factors which are distinctiveness, consensus and consistency. Distinctiveness is about whether the subordinate’s behavior occur during the performance of this task only? Next, consensus is like whether this behavior unusual for the subordinate’s peers? Then, consistency is about if this behavior unusual for the subordinate in other situations? In this situation, Madam May May should first consider about the factor of consensus. As Marcus cannot be able to hit the target while other are able to reach their target. Next Madam May May should consider about locus of control dimension, which mean whether the primary cause of the behavior is a characteristic of the subordinate, or a characteristic of the situation. Second ,stability dimension whether the subordinate is likely to remain stable or unstable? The crossing of the locus of control and stability dimensions produces four casual factor that a leader can utilize to explain a subordinate’s behavior, ability , task difficulty , luck ,chance, effort.

Land Freight Industry Analysis - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1740 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Logistics Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? 2. Analysis 2.1 Industry 2.1.1 Land Freight Industry Land freight industry is an industry which is all about transportation of goods on the land or road from one destination to another destination. Goods that are transported can be light items such as cotton and wool, small item such as button and paper clips and it can also be large item such as individual parts of some machines or it can be heavy item such as cements, sand, rocks and so on. Every day, we can see many types of trucks on road and highway carrying lots of goods depends on the truck size. Different size and height of a truck will decide the weight and size for the goods to be transported. The mainly products that are transported daily are dry foods, fresh food and vegetables, flowers and plants, packet or parcel, print products, textiles, building materials, raw materials for manufacture and so on. Usually the trucks will combine with sea, rail and air freight when there are international s hipments orders. 2.1.2 Analysis tools Types of shipment Under land freight industry, it is usually in the domestic shipping which mean it only transport or carry goods from one place to another within the same country. When the logistician received order from the customer, they will load the goods on the truck and sent it to the destination that customer requested. During the transportation process, it involved trucks and roads only and able to transport the goods by using roads from one state to another state within a country. Today, many land freight industry had already expanded and had the international shipping which sometimes using the bridge to cross among nations such as Malaysia to Singapore. Or else, logistician will have to consider about combination of land freight with air or sea freight in order for shipping the goods to the other nation in what we called international shipping. For example, when Malaysia needs to ship some goods to Korea or U.S, they canno t just depends on trucks but they will need to use either ship or plane in order to ship the goods across the sea between two nations. Types of Trucks As we know that, the main transportation vehicles in land freight industry are trucks. In Malaysia, there are several types of trucks categorised under 3 categories which are small trucks, medium trucks and heavy trucks. Under the small trucks category, there are mini trucks, pick-up trucks which is trucks with an open-top, rear cargo area at the back, panel trucks which are windowless trucks with no backseat, Cutaway van which is usually used to transport smaller or lighter cargo, and tow trucks which can sometimes be the medium trucks. The tow trucks are used to transport disabled or illegal parked motor vehicles to a specified location [Falco, 2011]. There are five types of tow trucks which differentiated based on its size and equipments. First is the Boom type of tow trucks which was equipped with an adjustable boom. Seco nd is the tow trucks equipped with hook and chain which is used to drag cars that have steel bumpers. Third are the trucks equipped with wheel-lift which is the improved form from hook and chain. Fourth is the flatbed truck, the entire back of a flatbed truck is fit with a bed and is able to move to the ground level. The fifth types is the Self-loader Snatcher, it is the combination of boom and wheel-lift to make a quick pickup without any hook to pick up the goods. The maximum weight that can carried by small trucks is only 7.5 tons. For the medium category, there are van, flatbed trucks, medium duty trucks, fire trucks, electric platform trucks which are electric powered trucks with a large flat surface for holding objects to be transport, and box trucks which is also known as cube truck, bob truck or straight truck [Falco, 2011]. Box truck is usually have 4m to 7m in length and usually have a garage door. All the goods can be loaded on the trucks through the door. It can also use as moving trucks to carry home appliances and furniture. The medium trucks can transport goods up to maximum 12 tons. The third category is the heavy trucks, the trucks under this category are concrete transport trucks, log carrier which is used to carry log, refrigerator truck which is equipped with air conditioner at the cargo area of the trucks and is usually use dto transport foods and beverages, semi-trailer truck which is a truck attached with one or more semi-trailers to carry goods, crane which is a truck equipped with chain, sheaves, and lift, tank truck which is designed to carry liquefied loads, dry bulk cargo or gases on the road, dump truck which is a truck that was designed for movable materials such as sand, dirt or rocks for construction [Falco, 2011]. A dump truck is usually equipped with an open-box at the back and the front part of the box is able to be lift up in order to move the material inside the box to the ground. There are several types of dump truck s such as standard dump trucks, transfer dumb trucks, truck and pup, super dumb trucks, semi-trailer end dumb truck, semi-trailer bottom dumb truck, double and triple bottom dumb truck and side dumb truck. The maximum capacity for the heavy trucks is up to 40 tons. Besides this three categories, there are 2 types of trucks which is out of category. First is the ballast tractor, it is designed to push or pull heavy or exceptionally large items and it is the heaviest class of on-highway trucks. Second is the heavy hauler, it consists of flatbed with multiple wheels which can carry up to 400 tons. All variety of trucks above will have more assortment of trucks with different size and design. 2.2 Current competitors Local competitor S.T.B Maju (M) Sdn Bhd was first founded in 1973 which operated as supplying labourers and machinery. It was operated by using forklifts for bulk cargo handling services at Port Klang. Today, S.T.B Maju (M) Sdn Bhd is only focusing more on transp ortation of raw materials in bulk for construction and other types of raw materials for production. For example, palm kernel products, soya bean meal, maize, coal, coke breeze, woodchips, sand and so on. S.T.B Maju (M) Sdn Bhd has their business at all the major port in Malaysia such as the Penang Port, Lumut Port, North Port and Kuantan Port. This company has provided services to several industries included the palm oil industry, feed mill industry, cement industry, iron or manganese ore industry and so on. They provide services such as warehousing, transportation, bulk cargo handling, stevedoring and supply of heavy machinery at several ports and factories. S.T.B Maju (M) Sdn Bhd declared that they are rich in engineering skills and have wide experiences that allow them to use special capabilities in every project delivering and they are confident in adding value to their customers at every stage of their operation process. With their own experience and technical skills, the y have created a 7à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ feet belt width hopper conveyor which is the only conveyor used to load by tipping trailer among the ports in West Malaysia. This had created a competitive advantage for the company if any of their customers require this type of conveyor since there is none of the other company possesses this type of conveyor. Besides that, they have also successfully come out with a wide selection of mobile conveyor and fleets of tipper lorries that equipped with the Global Positioning System (GPS) to allow goods tracking services during delivery. This is able to improve the security of the goods for the customers. The goods tracking services by using GPS is still not very common in Malaysia, even Tiong Nam Group is still have not develop this type of services so it had brought a large competitive advantages for S.T.B Maju company. Besides that, the transportation service provided is covering a not small range of products is giving the company some benefit since Tiong Nam Group does not involve in transporting sand, cement, rock and so on. International competitor Crane Worldwide Logistics (M) Sdn Bhd was first founded in 2007 that the first company was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the past 2 years, their company has expended and had added average one network partner to their system for each year. Crane Worldwide Logistic is not only covered land freight but also covered air and ocean freight for the Pacific Rim through their network in worldwide. The company has established the joint venture offices with more than 200 people all over the Far east, U.S, Central and South America, Europe and Australia at the end of 2009.The services provided by this company included custom clearance which is about tax, freight forwarding with marine insurance, domestic trucking, local delivery, logistic consulting and warehousing. Crane Worldwide Logistic company transported almost all kinds of goods. They have also involved hand carries services or counter to counter services for emergency shipments. Crane Worldwide Logistic companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s goal is to expand their business and company across the nations and they have seem to achieve their goal since they already have their business across several nations and has good relationship with most carriers serving the Pacific. The company has also provided several value added strategies such as supplier management program, benchmark productivity improvement, standardize performance criteria, evaluate quality service with commitment and so on. The process that the company is implementing now included the local facilities meeting, dedicated team assigned, IT testing, functional organization set-up, trial shipment testing and so on. The competitive advantages of Crane Worldwide Logistic are based on service quality, reliability, capability and competitive pricing offer. They have the confidence that they are able to provide a higher quality of services and they have the skills and abilities to ensure the service they provide will satisfy the customers. Besides that, most of their employees are bilingual in Chinese and English and they had upgraded all their hardware, technologies and IT system recently in order to provide the best services for their customers. By comparing to Tiong Nam Group, Tiong Nam will be less competitive advantage based on the technology part and it only focus more on land transport so it can be difficult if Tiong Nam Group want to expand across nations compare to Crane Worldwide Logistic company. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Land Freight Industry Analysis" essay for you Create order