Develop a sense of the importance of integrity and ethics in small Essay

Develop a sense of the importance of integrity and ethics in small business ownership - Essay Example This paper will discuss the importance of ethics and integrity in small business enterprises. Research asserts that small-business investors substantially rely on ethical codes in the business setting. For example, the aspect of ethics in matters regarding finance should not be overlooked. This is because such businesses rely on accounting ethics. In case the business owners are not conscious about financial recordkeeping practices, then, they are likely to face tremendous challenges. In addition, they are exposed to risks related to fraud if they do not uphold ethics and integrity in the business (Petryni, 2008). Recently, some of the small businesses have implemented the code of ethics which is normally entailed in the policies of the organization. This code of ethics is normally a statement of values which defines the organization. In most cases, the code of ethics usually addresses issues related to conflict of interest, competition data, assets of the company and employee practices. Furthermore, integrity also forms a crucial part in business since; lack of integrity in the organization leads to poor development of the firm (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2012). Contrarily, there are some businesses which do not uphold the integrity and the code of ethics. In such cases, the business is said to run under unethical practices. There are several unethical practices that are practiced in most of the small businesses. One of the most prominent unethical practices is the lack of compassion. According to empirical studies, most of the workers in small business firms are usually exposed to unethical treatment (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2012). For example, most small companies offer medical covers for its employees especially if the company operates in risky circumstances. In case an employee is injured while in the line of duty, he or she must be

Gabriel Oak Essay Example for Free

Gabriel Oak Essay How do you account for Bathshebas choice of husband when she could have married either Gabriel Oak or William Boldwood? Bathsheba married Troy because he offered her an exciting lifestyle full of lust and venture. On the other hand, she rejected Oak and Boldwood because they offered her a secluded life of security in a traditional living. The book was written in episodes for a Victorian magazine. People of the times expected a happy ending, Hardy wanted to please his readers but incorporate the hardships of life at the same time. He structures the book so that Bathsheba is dragged through her misfortunes and undeserving men, whilst throughout the duration of the book the readers still feel that Bathsheba should ultimately be in wedlock with Gabriel. This is clever of Hardy because despite the tragedy of death there is love to sooth the mind. In the time in which the book was written, men and women were only allowed to be together if the Lady has a chaperone, this was the socially accepted thing. Therefore, if a man got a woman pregnant it would be unacceptable of him not to marry her. Hardy felt that women were treated badly in the eyes of society. He felt that when women were married, the behaviour and character of the man they were married to shaped their lifestyles. In the Victorian period, women who did not marry found it very hard in society. They depended on their own financial security and were looked down upon because they were not married. He felt that women were swept up in the excitement of new love and lust and when they were married without true love, they would regret the mistake for the rest of their lives. Scarlet fever was the nickname for the obsession that the local girls had for the officers in the regiment who settled in their town, their scarlet coats being the basis of this nickname. Hardys Aunt Martha was in fact one of the victims of Scarlet fever. She ran off with a cavalryman, John Breton Sharpe. This may have been his inspiration for the character of Troy: attractive and exciting on the outside but fickle and insecure on the inside. When Troy and Bathsheba first meet, in chapter 24, the corner of her dress gets caught in his spur and as they struggle to untangle themselves he is very bold and brazen to her. He makes flirtatious comments that appeal to her vanity, Thank you for the sight of such a beautiful face! Although Bathsheba is flattered by his compliments, she does not know how to handle his over confident behaviour and is eager to get away because she is alone with a single man in the dark; with a reputation to uphold. She suggests that he is only entangling her dress further so that he can keep her there, O, tis shameful of you; you have been making it worse on purpose to keep me here you have! After he finally looses the dress from his spurs, he is even as daring as to make a reference to marriage, I wish it had been the knot of knots, which theres no untying! This makes her even more desperate to get away and on her retreat he makes another remark that makes him ever more attractive to Bathshebas vane nature, Ah, Beauty; good-bye! When Bathsheba, returns home, she learns from Liddy that Troy is high-born and very intelligent; He was brought up so well, and sent to Casterbridge grammar school for years and years. , Hes a doctors son by name and an earls son by nature Nobility of blood will outshine even in the ranks and files. Already, Bathsheba is attracted to Troys Redcoat exterior and his bold flirtatious manner. At their next meeting, Troy succeeds in dazzling Bathsheba with his witty remarks about men and their love for women; Probably some one man on an average falls in love with each ordinary woman such a woman as you a hundred men will always covet and once again he showers her with compliments; I would rather have curses from you than kisses from any other woman. Troy finally achieves to bewitch Bathsheba in chapter twenty-eight. When Bathsheba and Troy meet in the ferns, Troy impresses her with his skill with a sword. He tells her that the sword he is using is blunt when really it is razor sharp; No edge! This sword will shave like a razor. Troy takes the liberty of slicing a caterpillar that had settled on Bathshebas chest and cutting a stray lock of her hair. At this point, Hardy may have been influenced by the poem written by Alexander Pope called The Rape of the Lock. In this poem, Pope writes about a man named Lord Fermor, who cuts a lock of hair from the Lady Arabella except for the loss of your hair, which I shall always name in reverence. This is a symbol of sexual achievement. Later on in the book, we found out that Troy is also in the possession of a lock of Fanny Robins hair, so this would lead us to suspect that Troy regards this as trophy collecting or personal reminders of all the women he has seduced. Troy is the first man to kiss Bathsheba and this has a definite impact on her. The minutes interval had brought the blood beating into her face And enlarged emotion to a compass which quite swamped thought He had kissed her. After this event, Troy travels to Bath and Bathsheba follows him for many reasons. One of these reasons is that when she is on the road one afternoon, she meets Farmer Boldwood. He is obsessively in love with her and shouts at her, threatening Troy and cursing his name; Ill punish him be he soldier or no if he were one hundred men Id hose whip him. Bathsheba is very frightened for Troy and thinks long and hard about what to do in her trivial situation. She decides to go to Bath. She will warn Troy not to come back and to see him one last time before she end their relationship; Her plan was now to drive to Bath during the night, see Sergeant Troy in the morning before he set out to come to her, bid him farewell and dismiss him. Although this seemed like the best thing to do to save anyone from getting hurt, Bathsheba talks with Gabriel about the reasons for her ultimate commitment to Troy; I went to Bath that night with the full intention of breaking off my engagement to Mr. Troy Well I was alone in a strange city, and the horse was lame I saw, at last, when it was too late that scandal might seize hold of me for meeting alone him in that way. I was coming away when he suddenly said he had that day seen a woman more beautiful than I, and that his constancy could not be counted on unless I at once became his And then between jealousy and distraction I married him. Here we see one of the main reasons that Bathsheba married Troy he made her desperately jealous by manipulating her emotions.

Ontological or Epistemological Organisational Structure

Ontological or Epistemological Organisational Structure Organizations Structure: Modern / Symbolic and Post- Modern perspectives There are many different ways at looking at organizations, with each way producing a different insight, knowledge, and perspective. Depending on the ontological as well epistemological assumptions, different theories and perspectives may seem to apply better. The essay will focus on the similarities and differences between the theories through the models of social structure in an organization. From the philosophical ontological point of view, the modernist sees the material and social world as consisting of structures that exist, regardless of individual awareness. For example, the hierarchy of an organization is regarded as a social fact even if people are not aware of it. â€Å"Organizations †¦ should work like machines, using people, resources, as their parts. With the key design of building â€Å"the best† machines to keep organizations productive.† (Han van Diest. 2008) As such, the modernist approach to an organization can be considered as a well designed, structured entity. Operating organizational success is considered to be the result of well-organized systems that keep people / machines busy and costs under control. (Han van Diest. 2008) On the other end of the spectrum, the postmodernist would argue that the social world external to individual support is made up of nothing more than mere names, concepts and labels which are then used to form a structured reality. (Burrell and Morgan 1979) Supporters of the postmodernist argue that organizations are ‘imagined entities. â€Å"A core idea in postmodernism is that we are always making sense of our omniscient reality through a pair of imaginative glasses glasses based on such factors as our present desire in a given situation, our past experiences, our values and culture, our understanding of what is real, and so forth. It is never possible to take the glasses off altogether and view the world impartially.† (Inkeles A. 1983.) Taking a more balanced stand in the spectrum, a symbolic interpretive perception would be that social reality is created through communicative interaction between groups of people. Social reality is not a reality or set of facts existing prior to human activity. We create our social world through our language, symbols and behavioral actions. (Steven R Corman, Marshall Scott Poole 2000) As expressive forms representative of human consciousness, organizations are understood and analyzed not mainly in economic or material terms but in terms of their expressive ideas and symbolism. (Smircich 1983: 347-8). (Hatch, Mary J. and Cunliffe, Ann L., 2006) Structure of an Organization: While defining an organization from nuts and bolts point of view such as objects, buildings and elements, one of the key aims of a modernist perspective is to measure the organizational social structure to find out how to improve and contrive the ideal organization. (Hatch, Mary J. and Cunliffe, Ann L., 2006) Through research and past studies of various organizations, it was found that there is a strong relationship between the internal/external environment and the social structure of an organization in both a cross-tabulated or correlated way. Influences may include the size or bureaucratic structure of the organization. (Lex Donaldson 2001). The organizational environment has a direct effect on organizational structure, such that unstable environment produce an organic structure system that can react and adapt more quickly, while in the opposite scenario, produces a mechanistic system. The better the match, the higher the effectiveness of the organization. (e.g., Burns Stalker, 1961; Pennings,1975). (Shmuel Ellis, Tamar Almor, Oded Shenkar 2002) The modernist also views the organization through its social structuration. As routines, habits and rules are developed through the mutual interaction and influences between the workers and organization, a structural system is created, re-created and mediated within the organizationa. Realizing that the agency and its structures are both conditions and outcomes of the actions of human action, social relations and practices within the organization (Cohen, 1989, Giddens, 1984), social structure is therefore viewed not a â€Å"dead† entity, but a social construction created and maintained by social practices. (Jennifer Wheeler-Brooks 2009) Again, although the organization structure provides the setting, in which workers fulfill and complete their daily task, the relationship between them, is not cast in stone, as employees remain as knowledgeable, responsive workers who have the ability to choose their own behaviors and thus either continuing or modifying the organization through their actions and behavior. It is also important to note that the modernists view on social structure comprises three mutually supportive dualities of structures and agency (workers), namely signification, domination, and legitimation. Although these three are inseparable in practice (Giddens, 1979, 1984), (Giddens, 1979, 1984), they may be analyzed separately. Structures of signification are institutionalized interpretive schemes that allocate meaning to peoples actions, such as beliefs, and language. Structures of legitimation are organization norms, constituted in the tacitly understood moral and social obligations (Clegg, 1989). Structures of domination are the institutionalized acquisition of power (Giddens, 1984). This can be in the form of, resources domination involving the structured distribution of material resources, such as products, services including right of access and deployment of such resources, as well as institutionalized authority relationships. (Giddens, 1984; Whittington, 1992) By concentrating on the discontinuities and changing patterns of behavior and relationships of an organization, one cannot help but question and probe deeper on the relationship between agency and structure. (Giddens 1979; Reed 1997). (Paula Jarzabkowski 2008) It can therefore also be said that formal structures have symbolic as well as action producing attributes. Structures can become injected with socially shared meanings, and thus, apart to their functional roles, can serve to share and bring information about the organization both internally and externally. A symbolic interpretation can therefore help provide a new and different perspective into the causes and consequences of structure within an organization. (Tolbert and Zucker, 1996, p. 177). (Van de Ven, Andrew H.; Dooley, Kevin; Holmes, Michael E. 2004) The symbolic interpretive perceives that the emergence of the organization social structure needs to include social interaction and human consciousness through social practices, routines and community interaction. Through the build up of ideas, knowledge and actions of people, a routine is birth and rebirth in response to new experiences observed. (Levitt and March, 1988) Routines may include organizational rules, roles, conventions, strategies, structures, cultural practices and capabilities. (Martin Schulz 2002) It is therefore incorrect to think of organizations as only departments or system units. Interpersonal correspondence is the crux of any organization as it creates structures and foundations which can then affect what needs to be done, who to do it and what to do after that. (Robert Lawrence Heath, Jennings Bryant 2000) Organizations are adaptable to their environments in ways such as creating jobs for specific occasions, purposes or people and evaluating and deciding to continue or discontinue the job, based on the new requirement and knowledge acquired. (Miner (1987, 1991). (Martin Schulz 2002) The Symbolic interpretive views the social structure of an organization through the process of knowledge transference within the organization. (Davenport and Prusak, 1996; Choo, 1998) Knowledge, symbolism and best-practice transfers within and between organizations is not a one-sided activity, but an ongoing process of sharing, involving trial and error, feedback, and the mutual adjustment of both the sender and receiver of knowledge. (Szulanski, 1996; Powell, 1998; Kaeser, 2001). (Georg von Krogh 2003) It is also viewed that the chief feature of human organization is the use of language and symbolism (including the attribution of meaning to things and making sense of the world). (Robert Cooper 1989) From the Symbolic interpretive perspective, language such as the use of words, shared vocabulary, the way workers speak about their organization, use of â€Å"slangs† and jargons can also be used to define the social structure within the organization. Such groups of people, â€Å"Communities of practice†, bond together due to similar passion for their skills and knowledge, and through regular interaction in order, develop a tacit understanding and meaning with one another, thus enhancing the social structure within an organization. (Etienne Wenger, Richard Arnold Mcdermott, William Snyder, 2002) The foundational perspectives of postmodernism are that the individuals in the organization do not have an independent consciousness but needs inter-communication with others to develop an identity. Meanings are not given prior to communication but arise from it and are context-dependent; meanings, structure and language are considered temporary due to the ever-changing environment and developments. (Bart Nooteboom, 1992) Where modern organizations favour bureaucratic structures that emphasis on roles, rules and procedures, postmodern organizations prefers a more democratic approach and views that are informal and based on mutual agreement. Comparing to modern organizations that favour separation of functions and departments, postmodern organizations favour de-differentiation of those elements. This allows the creation of multi-skilled worker that can break traditional structural boundaries and inflexible work processes. (Steve May, Dennis K. Mumby 2004) The social structure of an organization is viewed simply as a reflection of the built commitment of individuals to help develop a set of â€Å"rules† for the organization in order to survive in the ever changing postmodern era. (Jim Barry, 2000) Drawing much from the philosophies of language of (the later) Wittgenstein (1976) and de Saussure (1979), in Postmodernism, communication rather than consciousness is viewed as the backbone of knowledge, and hence the philosophy of language occupies a central position. Words are not longer interpreted as names of objects or properties (meanings, concepts) that are given prior to language unlike in the Symbolic interpretive perspective. (Bart Nooteboom, 1992) Language reveals the organizational reality by showing that it is a process that involuntarily includes its internal differences and conflicts. The social structure of the organization is always in disarray caused by threats and internal fighting. Organizations should therefore be viewed appropriately based on sense, intellect and logical context. This is very much unlike the modern thinking of the notion of an organization stability. (Robert Cooper 1989) However, despite the difference of â€Å"language† opinions, postmodernists still follow the fundamental social structure similar to that of the symbolic interpretive in that interaction between people does not arise from a fixed structural identity, but is formed through interaction between people. In the words of Lyotard: The self by itself does not amount to much, but it is not isolated. It is taken up in a tissue of relations which is more complex and mobile than ever. It always finds itself in a nexus in communication circuits, however small.(1979, p. 59, authors translation). (Bart Nooteboom, 1992) In conclusion, although the three perspectives differ in their interpretation and views on the dimension of an organizational structure, it can be agreed that all perspectives recognize the importance of the social structure of an organization as the key building block that forms the organization. Blau (1977: 1) â€Å"The study of social structure centres attention on the distribution of people among different positions and their social associations. Through the study of structural effects of the various perspectives, we are able to understand the spirit, character and characteristics of social structure within an organization, as well as the effects and outcomes it carries by looking at factors such as formal organization chart, differentiated positions within the structure, relationships among task-relevant roles, languages games used, differentiation, inter-communication, etc. Thus having a good understanding of the different perspectives and applying a mixture of different â€Å"theories† in the right context and environment will help to strengthen the organization as a whole and provide a better picture of what an organization is and why things are happening the way they are. Reference: Andrew H, Dooley, Holmes, Kevin, Michael E, Van de Ven, ‘Handbook of Organizational Change and Innovation Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2004. p 179. Bart Nooteboom, ‘A Postmodern Philosophy of Markets, Int. Studies of Mgt. Org., Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 53-76 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1992 Dennis K. Mumby, Steve May, 2004, ‘Engaging Organizational Communication Theory Research. Etienne Wenger, Richard Arnold Mcdermott, William Snyder, 2002, ‘A Guide to management knowledge: Cultivating Communities of Practice Georg von Krogh, 2003, ‘Knowledge Sharing and the Communal Resource Han van Diest, 2008, ‘Possibilities of Democratisation in Organisations. Social Epistemology Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 97-117 Hatch, Mary J. and Cunliffe, Ann L., 2006, ‘Organization Theory, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press: Oxford Inkeles A. ‘Exploring Individual Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983 Jennifer Wheeler-Brooks ‘Journal of Sociology Social Welfare, March 2009, Volume XXXVI, Number 1 Jennings Bryant, Robert Lawrence Heath, 2000, ‘Human Communication Theory and Research. Jim Barry, 2000, ‘Organizations and Management. Lex Donaldson, 2001, ‘The Contingency Theory of Organizations Martin Schulz, 2002, ‘Organizational Learning Oded Shenkar, Shmuel Ellis, Tamar Almor, 2002, ‘Structural Contingency Revisited: Toward a Dynamic System Model Paula Jarzabkowski, 2008, ‘Shaping strategy as a Structuration Process Robert Cooper, ‘Modernism, Post Modernism and Organizational Analysis 3: The Contribution of Jacques Derrida Steven R Corman, Marshall Scott Poole, 2000, ‘Perspectives on Organization Communication

Hamlets Procrastination :: William Shakespeare Hamlet

"To be or not to be", is Hamlet's most famous quotation. Hamlet is the protagonist of Shakespeare's. His father, king Hamlet, killed by his own brother, Claudius, then Claudius marries king Hamlet's wife, Gertrude, and won the kingship. Prince Hamlet who suffers from Oedipal Complex, felling in love with his own mother and considering father as a rival to his love, can't make his mind whether to kill his uncle and take his father's revenge or not. And ask this question from himself, because in one hand he knows that if he kill Claudius, his companions will kill him, in other hand his father's ghost appears to him and ask him to kill Claudius. He was in a dilemma. Hamlet's tragic flaw is his procrastination, Hamlet procrastinated only because of his fear of intimacy with his mother, he knows that Claudius was the only person separating him and Gertrude. Now this question would come to our mind that why does Shakespeare give so much prominence to the delay without clearly presenting th e reason for it? James k. Lowers in his Tragic Heroes argues that "Shakespeare's tragedy is a work of surpassing interest and genius, and the tragic hero is universally attractive and fascinating" (12). We must keep two things in mind. First, Shakespeare makes it clear that Hamlet is acutely aware of a delay. Second, Shakespeare also makes it clear that Hamlet himself is not sure why he delays. At the end of the eighteenth century, Goethe in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship proposed that Shakespeare means, in Hamlet, to "represent the effects of a great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it"(152). Hamlet is not sure about ghost?s says, he wants to reveal the fact, and prove his father's innocence, because his ghost said to him that Claudius kill him to gain king ship and his queen. From the religious point of view we can consider him as a religious man, we can disgust that he put off taking revenge, because in Christianity taking revenge is forbidden. He put off killing his uncle 3times as Jesus was put off 3times for crucifixion. At the beginning of the twentieth century, A. C. Bradley proposed another reason for the delay in his Shakespearean Tragedy Bradley argued that ?Hamlet's delay is the result of a melancholic state of mind, brought on by the death of his father and the hasty remarriage of his mother.

religions function in society Essay -- essays research papers

Religion has many functions within a society, both social and psychological. According to Ferraro (308) three such social functions are social control, conflict resolution, and intensifying group solidarity. Religion seems to help maintain a social order. It appears to do this by encouraging what a given society deems acceptable behavior and discouraging socially inappropriate behavior. â€Å"Every religion, regardless of the form it takes, is an ethical system that prescribes proper way of behaving.† (Ferraro 308) This social order of rewards and punishment is reinforced when backed by supernatural authority. Thus one’s neighbor may be exorcized from his or her community when a behavior is seen as socially unacceptable or inappropriate. Examples of this in the Jewish-Christian community would be the breaking of the Ten Commandments such as stealing, committing adultery, or murdering.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another social function of religion is to â€Å"enable people to express their common identity in an emotionally charged environment† ( Ferraro 308). Group solidarity is intensified for those who practice it. When members of a religious group come together to practice religious beliefs, they often bond by participating in other non-religious activities as well. (Ferraro 308) People find religion an easy way to identify with one another. Religion helps to form community, schools, and even government. People who are ‘more’ religious tend to hold more conservative attitudes on sexuality and personal honesty. They are also likely to hold more conservative attitudes about family life, being more likely, for instance, to support the use of corporal   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Vaeth 2 punishment in disciplining children. Strongly religious people also tend to be more accepting and satisfied with their lives and marriages. This is perhaps because they do not question what is unknown. It is perhaps merely accepted upon faith. (Brinkerhoff, White, Ortega 295-305)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Religion also plays the role of reducing stress and frustrations that often lead to social conflict. (Ferra... ...d in a variety of religions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rituals are usually practiced within a group of people, many times forming a community such as a church. Going to service every Sunday is a ritual. Meeting a group of friends every Friday night after work for a drink is a ritual. Rituals are spiritual and nonspiritual, religious and magical.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The core elements of religion, belief, ritual, and myth bring people together just as much as they divide them into groups. Religion helps people find personal identity and fit into a community. Being divided into groups is not necessarily a bad thing. It is human nature. If mankind isn’t divisive over religion, it’s over politics, if not politics, then something else. In my perspective, it is not religion that creates the division; it’s the people. According to Ferraro, (322) â€Å"religion has played an important role in global social change through liberation theology (whereby Catholic priests and nuns work for social reform and justice for the poor) and religious nationalism (whereby religious beliefs are merged with government institutions).†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

‘Up’ The Movie

Up is a movie directed by Pete Docter and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Its lead actors are; Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer and Jordan Nagai. Up is an animation, adventure, comedy, drama and family movie which was released on the 3rd of September 2009 in Australia. This film struck me for its stunning and beautiful images. No doubt we face one of those movies that are meant to be enjoyed by children and their parents at the same time. The story tells about an elderly widower, grumpy, stubborn dreamer, Carl, who decides to realize his childhood dream, a dream that once shared with his late and beloved wife to travel to Paradise Falls in South America. When her beloved little house is turned into an island surrounded by skyscrapers and he is pressured by real estate deals, and authorities want to send him to a nursing home, Carl decides to escape by tying thousands of balloons to his home with a rudimentary but ingenious navigation system. The first surprise of the trip is to discover that carrying a stowaway, Russell, a nice boy scout who became his travelling partner. The story is fast-paced, with moments of humour, suspense and overall sleek and stunning animated images. The actors did a very good roll making the voices for every character and they made us believe and feel what the story was about, they made us feel sad and happy at the same time. I must confess that the first minutes of the film are very depressing. The first minutes are a stark summary of Carl’s life. We see it in his childhood, when he was just a child, the stage where he meets another girl who would become his future wife. We quickly turned into young love, marriage, happy moments, sad moments, diseases and Carl burying his beloved wife which is truly shocking and hard. Music plays a very important roll in this part of the movie because no one talks and the music does everything, they try to make you feel happy and sad just with the music and it is very effective. It is a very good movie that everyone would enjoy and it is very well produced too. I think it is suitable for children and adults who want to spend an entertaining time.

Prelude to Foundation Chapter 5 Upperside

TRANTOR-†¦ It is almost never pictured as a world seen from space. It has long since captured the general mind of humanity as a world of the interior and the image is that of the human hive that existed under the domes. Yet there was an exterior as well and there are holographs that still remain that were taken from space and show varying degrees of [devil] (see Figures 14 and 15). Note that the surface of the domes, the interface of the vast city and the overlying atmosphere, a surface referred to in its time as â€Å"Upperside,† is†¦ Encyclopedia Galactica 21. Yet the following day found Hari Seldon back in the library. For one thing, there was his promise to Hummin. He had promised to try and he couldn't very well make it a halfhearted process. For another, he owed something to himself too. He resented having to admit failure. Not yet, at least. Not while he could plausibly tell himself he was following up leads. So he stared at the list of reference book-films he had not yet checked through and tried to decide which of the unappetizing number had the slightest chance of being useful to him. He had about decided that the answer was â€Å"none of the above† and saw no way out but to look at samples of each when he was startled by a gentle tap against the alcove wall. Seldon looked up and found the embarrassed face of Lisung Randa peering at him around the edge of the alcove opening. Seldon knew Randa, had been introduced to him by Dors, and had dined with him (and with others) on several occasions. Randa, an instructor in psychology, was a little man, short and plump, with a round cheerful face and an almost perpetual smile. He had a sallow complexion and the narrowed eyes so characteristic of people on millions of worlds. Seldon knew that appearance well, for there were many of the great mathematicians who had borne it, and he had frequently seen their holograms. Yet on Helicon he had never seen one of these Easterners. (By tradition they were called that, though no one knew why; and the Easterners themselves were said to resent the term to some degree, but again no one knew why.) â€Å"There's millions of us here on Trantor,† Randa had said, smiling with no trace of self-consciousness, when Seldon, on first meeting him, had not been able to repress all trace of startled surprise. â€Å"You'll also find lots of Southerners-dark skins, tightly curled hair. Did you ever see one?† â€Å"Not on Helicon,† muttered Seldon. â€Å"All Westerners on Helicon, eh? How dull! But it doesn't matter. Takes all kinds.† (He left Seldon wondering at the fact that there were Easterners, Southerners, and Westerners, but no Northerners. He had tried finding an answer to why that might be in his reference searches and had not succeeded.) And now Randa's good-natured face was looking at him with an almost ludicrous look of concern. He said, â€Å"Are you all right, Seldon?† Seldon stared. â€Å"Yes, of course. Why shouldn't I be?† â€Å"I'm just going by sounds, my friend. You were screaming.† â€Å"Screaming?† Seldon looked at him with offended disbelief. â€Å"Not loud. Like this.† Randa gritted his teeth and emitted a strangled high-pitched sound from the back of his throat. â€Å"If I'm wrong, I apologize for this unwarranted intrusion on you. Please forgive me.† Seldon hung his head. â€Å"You're forgiven, Lisung. I do make that sound sometimes, I'm told. I assure you it's unconscious. I'm never aware of it.† â€Å"Are you aware why you make it?† â€Å"Yes. Frustration. Frustration.† Randa beckoned Seldon closer and lowered his voice further. â€Å"We're disturbing people. Let's come out to the lounge before we're thrown out.† In the lounge, over a pair of mild drinks, Randa said, â€Å"May I ask you, as a matter of professional interest, why you are feeling frustration?† Seldon shrugged. â€Å"Why does one usually feel frustration? I'm tackling something in which I am making no progress.† â€Å"But you're a mathematician, Hari. Why should anything in the history library frustrate you?† â€Å"What were you doing here?† â€Å"Passing through as part of a shortcut to where I was going when I heard you†¦ moaning. Now you see†-and he smiled-â€Å"it's no longer a shortcut, but a serious delay-one that I welcome, however.† â€Å"I wish I were just passing through the history library, but I'm trying to solve a mathematical problem that requires some knowledge of history and I'm afraid I'm not handling it well.† Randa stared at Seldon with an unusually solemn expression on his face, then he said, â€Å"Pardon me, but I must run the risk of offending you now. I've been computering you.† â€Å"Computering me!† Seldon's eyes widened. He felt distinctly angry. â€Å"I have offended you. But, you know, I had an uncle who was a mathematician. You might even have heard of him: Kiangtow Randa.† Seldon drew in his breath. â€Å"Are you a relative of that Randa?† â€Å"Yes. He is my father's older brother and he was quite displeased with me for not following in his footsteps-he has no children of his own. I thought somehow that it might please him that I had met a mathematician and I wanted to boast of you-if I could-so I checked what information the mathematics library might have.† â€Å"I see. And that's what you were really doing there. Well-I'm sorry. I don't suppose you could do much boasting.† â€Å"You suppose wrong. I was impressed. I couldn't make heads or tails of the subject matter of your papers, but somehow the information seemed to be very favorable. And when I checked the news files, I found you were at the Decennial Convention earlier this year. So†¦ what's ‘psychohistory,' anyway? Obviously, the first two syllables stir my curiosity.† â€Å"I see you got that word out of it.† â€Å"Unless I'm totally misled, it seemed to me that you can work out the future course of history.† Seldon nodded wearily, â€Å"That, more or less, is what psychohistory is or, rather, what it is intended to be.† â€Å"But is it a serious study?† Randa was smiling. â€Å"You don't just throw sticks?† â€Å"Throw sticks?† â€Å"That's just a reference to a game played by children on my home planet of Hopara. The game is supposed to tell the future and if you're a smart kid, you can make a good thing out of it. Tell a mother that her child will grow up beautiful and marry a rich man and it's good for a piece of cake or a half-credit piece on the spot. She isn't going to wait and see if it comes true; you are rewarded just for saying it.† â€Å"I see. No, I don't throw sticks. Psychohistory is just an abstract study. Strictly abstract. It has no practical application at all, except-â€Å" â€Å"Now we're getting to it. Exceptions are what are interesting.† â€Å"Except that I would like to work out such an application. Perhaps if I knew more about history-â€Å" â€Å"Ah, that is why you are reading history?† â€Å"Yes, but it does me no good,† said Seldon sadly. â€Å"There is too much history and there is too little of it that is told.† â€Å"And that's what's frustrating you?† Seldon nodded. Randa said, â€Å"But, Hari, you've only been here a matter of weeks.† â€Å"True, but already I can see-â€Å" â€Å"You can't see anything in a few weeks. You may have to spend your whole lifetime making one little advance. It may take many generations of work by many mathematicians to make a real inroad on the problem.† â€Å"I know that, Lisung, but that doesn't make me feel better. I want to make some visible progress myself.† â€Å"Well, driving yourself to distraction won't help either. If it will make you feel better, I can give you an example of a subject much less complex than human history that people have been working for I don't know how long without making much progress. I know because a group is working on it right here at the University and one of my good friends is involved. Talk about frustration! You don't know what frustration is!† â€Å"What's the subject?† Seldon felt a small curiosity stirring within him. â€Å"Meteorology.† â€Å"Meteorology!† Seldon felt revolted at the anticlimax. â€Å"Don't make faces. Look. Every inhabited world has an atmosphere. Every world has its own atmospheric composition, its own temperature range, its own rotation and revolution rate, its own axial tipping, it's own land-water distribution. We've got twenty five million different problems and no one has succeeded in finding a generalization.† â€Å"†¦ that's because atmospheric behavior easily enters a chaotic phase. Everyone knows that.† â€Å"So my friend Jenarr Leggen says. You've met him.† Seldon considered. â€Å"Tall fellow? Long nose? Doesn't speak much?† â€Å"That's the one.-And Trantor itself is a bigger puzzle than almost any world. According to the records, it had a fairly normal weather pattern when it was first settled. Then, as the population grew and urbanization spread, more energy was used and more heat was discharged into the atmosphere. The ice cover contracted, the cloud layer thickened, and the weather got lousier. That encouraged the movement underground and set off a vicious cycle. The worse the weather got, the more eagerly the land was dug into and the domes built and the weather got still worse. Now the planet has become a world of almost incessant cloudiness and frequent rains-or snows when it's cold enough. The only thing is that no one can work it out properly. No one has worked out an analysis that can explain why the weather has deteriorated quite as it has or how one can reasonably predict the details of its day-to-day changes.† Seldon shrugged. â€Å"Is that sort of thing important?† â€Å"To a meteorologist it is. Why can't they be as frustrated over their problems as you are over yours? Don't be a project chauvinist.† Seldon remembered the cloudiness and the dank chill on the way to the Emperor's Palace. He said, â€Å"So what's being done about it?† â€Å"Well, there's a big project on the matter here at the University and Jenarr Leggen is part of it. They feel that if they can understand the weather change on Trantor, they will learn a great deal about the basic laws of general meteorology. Leggen wants that as much as you want your laws of psychohistory. So he has set up an incredible array of instruments of all kinds Upperside†¦ you know, above the domes. It hasn't helped them so far. And if there's so much work being done for many generations on the atmosphere, without results, how can you complain that you haven't gotten anything out of human history in a few weeks?† Randa was right, Seldon thought, and he himself was being unreasonable and wrong. And yet†¦ and yet†¦ Hummin would say that this failure in the scientific attack on problems was another sign of the degeneration of the times. Perhaps he was right, also, except that he was speaking of a general degeneration and average effect. Seldon felt no degeneration of ability and mentality in himself. He said with some interest then, â€Å"You mean that people climb up out of the domes and into the open air above?† â€Å"Yes. Upperside. It's a funny thing, though. Most native Trantorians won't do it. They don't like to go Upperside. The idea gives them vertigo or something. Most of those working on the meteorology project are Outworlders.† Seldon looked out of the window and the lawns and small garden of the University campus, brilliantly lit without shadows or oppressive heat, and said thoughtfully, â€Å"I don't know that I can blame Trantorians for liking the comfort of being within, but I should think curiosity would drive some Upperside. It would drive me.† â€Å"Do you mean that you would like to see meteorology in action?† â€Å"I think I would. How does one get Upperside?† â€Å"Nothing to it. An elevator takes you up, a door opens, and there you are. I've been up there. It's†¦ novel.† â€Å"It would get my mind off psychohistory for a while.† Seldon sighed. â€Å"I'd welcome that.† â€Å"On the other hand,† said Randy, â€Å"my uncle used to say, ‘All knowledge is one,' and he may be right. You may learn something from meteorology that will help you with your psychohistory. Isn't that possible?† Seldon smiled weakly. â€Å"A great many things are possible.† And to himself he added: But not practical. 22. Dors seemed amused. â€Å"Meteorology?† Seldon said, â€Å"Yes. There's work scheduled for tomorrow and I'll go up with them.† â€Å"Are you tired of history?† Seldon nodded his head somberly. â€Å"Yes, I am. I'll welcome the change. Besides, Randy says it's another problem that's too massive for mathematics to handle and it will do me good to see that my situation isn't unique.† â€Å"I hope you're not agoraphobic.† Seldon smiled. â€Å"No, I'm not, but I see why you ask. Randy says that Trantorians are frequently agoraphobic and won't go Upperside. I imagine they feel uncomfortable without a protective enclosure†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Dors nodded. â€Å"You can see where that would be natural, but there are also many Trantorians who are to be found among the planets of the Galaxy-tourists, administrators, soldiers. And agoraphobia isn't particularly rare in the Outworlds either.† â€Å"That may be, Dors, but I'm not agoraphobic. I am curious and I welcome the change, so I'll be joining them tomorrow.† Dors hesitated. â€Å"I should go up with you, but I have a heavy schedule tomorrow. And, if you're not agoraphobic, you'll have no trouble and you'll probably enjoy yourself. Oh, and stay close to the meteorologists. I've heard of people getting lost up there.† â€Å"I'll be careful. It's a long time since I've gotten truly lost anywhere.† 23. Jenarr Leggen had a dark look about him. It was not so much his complexion, which was fair enough. It was not even his eyebrows, which were thick and dark enough. It was, rather, that those eyebrows were hunched over deep-set eyes and a long and rather prominent nose. He had, as a result, a most unmerry look. His eyes did not smile and when he spoke, which wasn't often, he had a deep, strong voice, surprisingly resonant for his rather thin body. He said, â€Å"You'll need warmer clothing than that, Seldon.† Seldon said, â€Å"Oh?† and looked about. There were two men and two women who were making ready to go up with Leggen and Seldon And, as in Leggen's own case, their rather satiny Trantorian clothing was covered by thick sweaters that, not surprisingly, were brightly colored in bold designs. No two were even faintly alike, of course. Seldon looked down at himself and said, â€Å"Sorry, I didn't know but I don't have any suitable outer garment.† â€Å"I can give you one. I think there's a spare here somewhere.-Yes, here it is. A little threadbare, but it's better than nothing.† â€Å"Wearing sweaters like these tan make you unpleasantly warm,† said Seldon. â€Å"Here they would,† said Leggen. â€Å"Other conditions exist Upperside. Cold and windy. Too bad I don't have spare leggings and boots for you too. You'll want them later.† They were taking with them a cart of instruments, which they were testing one by one with what Seldon thought was unnecessary slowness. â€Å"Your home planet cold?† asked Leggen. Seldon said, â€Å"Parts of it, of course. The part of Helicon I come from is mild and often rainy.† â€Å"Too bad. You won't like the weather Upperside.† â€Å"I think I can manage to endure it for the time we'll be up there.† When they were ready, the group filed into an elevator that was marked: OFFICIAL USE ONLY. â€Å"That's because it goes Upperside,† said one of the young women, â€Å"and people aren't supposed to be up there without good reason.† Seldon had not met the young woman before, but he had heard her addressed as Clowzia. He didn't know if that was a first name, a last name, or a nickname. The elevator seemed no different from others that Seldon had been on, either here on Trantor or at home in Helicon (barring, of course, the gravitic lift he and Hummin had used), but there was something about knowing that it was going to take him out of the confines of the planet and into emptiness above that made it feel like a spaceship. Seldon smiled internally. A foolish fantasy. The elevator quivered slightly, which remind Seldon of Hummin's forebodings of Galactic decay. Leggen, along with the other men and one of the women, seemed frozen and waiting, as though they had suspended thought as well as activity until they could get out, but Clowzia kept glancing at him as though she found him terribly impressive. Seldon leaned close and whispered to her (he hesitated to disturb the others), â€Å"Are we going up very high?† â€Å"High?† she repeated. She spoke in a normal voice, apparently not feeling that the others required silence. She seemed very young and it occurred to Seldon that she was probably an undergraduate. An apprentice, perhaps. â€Å"We're taking a long time. Upperside must be many stories high in the air.† For a moment, she looked puzzled. Then, â€Å"Oh no. Not high at all. We started very deep. The University is at a low level. We use a great deal of energy and if we're quite deep, the energy costs are lower.† Leggen said, â€Å"All right. We're here. Let's get the equipment out.† The elevator stopped with a small shudder and the wide door slid open rapidly. The temperature dropped at once and Seldon thrust his hands into his pockets and was very glad he had a sweater on. A cold wind stirred his hair and it occurred to him that he would have found a hat useful and, even as he thought that, Leggen pulled something out of a fold in his sweater, snapped it open, and put it on his head. The others did the same. Only Clowzia hesitated. She paused just before she put hers on, then offered it to Seldon. Seldon shook his head. â€Å"I can't take your hat, Clowzia.† â€Å"Go ahead. I have long hair and it's pretty thick. Yours is short and a little†¦ thin.† Seldon would have liked to deny that firmly and at another time he would have. Now, however, he took the hat and mumbled, â€Å"Thank you. If your head gets cold, I'll give it back.† Maybe she wasn't so young. It was her round face, almost a baby face. And now that she had called attention to her hair, he could see that it was a charming russet shade. He had never seen hair quite like that on Helicon. Outside it was cloudy, as it had been the time he was taken across open country to the Palace. It was considerably colder than it had been then, but he assumed that was because they were six weeks farther into winter. The clouds were thicker than they had been on the earlier occasion and the day was distinctly darker and threatening-or was it just closer to night? Surely, they wouldn't come up to do important work without leaving themselves an ample period of daylight to do it in. Or did they expect to take very little time? He would have liked to have asked, but it occurred to him that they might not like questions at this time. All of them seemed to be in states varying from excitement to anger. Seldon inspected his surroundings. He was standing on something that he thought might be dull metal from the sound it made when he surreptitiously thumped his foot down on it. It was not bare metal, however. When he walked, he left footprints. The surface was clearly covered by dust or fine sand or clay. Well, why not? There could scarcely be anyone coming up here to dust the place. He bent down to pinch up some of the matter out of curiosity. Clowzia had come up to him. She noticed what he was doing and said, with the air of a housewife caught at an embarrassing negligence, â€Å"We do sweep hereabouts for the sake of the instruments. It's much worse most places Upperside, but it really doesn't matter. It makes for insulation, you know.† Seldon grunted and continued to look about. There was no chance of understanding the instruments that looked as though they were growing out of the thin soil (if one could call it that). He hadn't the faintest idea of what they were or what they measured. Leggen was walking toward him. He was picking up his feet and putting them down gingerly and it occurred to Seldon that he was doing so to avoid jarring the instruments. He made a mental note to walk that way himself. â€Å"You! Seldon!† Seldon didn't quite like the tone of voice. He replied coolly, â€Å"Yes, Dr. Leggen?† â€Å"Well, Dr. Seldon, then.† He said it impatiently. â€Å"That little fellow Randa told me you are a mathematician.† â€Å"That's right.† â€Å"A good one?† â€Å"I'd like to think so, but it's a hard thing to guarantee.† â€Å"And you're interested in intractable problems?† Seldon said feelingly, â€Å"I'm stuck with one.† â€Å"I'm stuck with another. You're free to look about. If you have any questions, our intern, Clowzia, will help out. You might be able to help us.† â€Å"I would be delighted to, but I know nothing about meteorology.† â€Å"That's all right, Seldon. I just want you to get a feel for this thing and then I'd like to discuss my mathematics, such as it is.† â€Å"I'm at your service.† Leggen turned away, his long scowling face looking grim. Then he turned back. â€Å"If you get cold-too cold-the elevator door is open. You just step in and touch the spot marked; UNIVERSITY BASE. It will take you down and the elevator will then return to us automatically. Clowzia will show you-if you forget.† â€Å"I won't forget.† This time he did leave and Seldon looked after him, feeling the cold wind knife through his sweater. Clowzia came back over to him, her face slightly reddened by that wind. Seldon said, â€Å"Dr. Leggen seems annoyed. Or is that just his ordinary outlook on life?† She giggled. â€Å"He does look annoyed most of the time, but right now he really is.† Seldon said very naturally, â€Å"Why?† Clowzia looked over her shoulder, her long hair swirling. Then she said, â€Å"I'm not supposed to know, but I do just the same. Dr. Leggen had it all figured out that today, just at this time, there was going to be a break in the clouds and he'd been planning to make special measurements in sunlight. Only†¦ well, look at the weather.† Seldon nodded. â€Å"We have holovision receivers up here, so he knew it was cloudy worse than usual-and I guess he was hoping there would be something wrong with the instruments so that it would be their fault and not that of his theory. So far, though, they haven't found anything out of the way.† â€Å"And that's why he looks so unhappy.† â€Å"Well, he never looks happy.† Seldon looked about, squinting. Despite the clouds, the light was harsh. He became aware that the surface under his feet was not quite horizontal. He was standing on a shallow dome and as he looked outward there were other domes in all directions, with different widths and heights. â€Å"Upperside seems to be irregular,† he said. â€Å"Mostly, I think. That's the way it worked out.† â€Å"Any reason for it?† â€Å"Not really. The way I've heard it explained-I looked around and asked, just as you did, you know-was that originally the people on Trantor domed in places, shopping malls, sports arenas, things like that, then whole towns, so that (here were lots of domes here and there, with different heights and different widths. When they all came together, it was all uneven, but by that time, people decided that's the way it ought to be.† â€Å"You mean that something quite accidental came to be viewed as a tradition?† â€Å"I suppose so-if you want to put it that way.† (If something quite accidental can easily become viewed as a tradition and be made unbreakable or nearly so, thought Seldon, would that be a law of psychohistory? It sounded trivial, but how many other laws, equally trivial, might there be? A million? A billion? Were there a relatively few general laws from which these trivial ones could be derived as corollaries? How could he say? For a while, lost in thought, he almost forgot the biting wind.) Clowzia was aware of that wind, however, for she shuddered and said, â€Å"It's very nasty. It's much better under the dome.† â€Å"Are you a Trantorian?† asked Seldon. â€Å"That's right.† Seldon remembered Ranch's dismissal of Trantorians as agoraphobic and said, â€Å"Do you mind being up here?† â€Å"I hate it,† said Clowzia, â€Å"but I want my degree and my specialty and status and Dr. Leggen says I can't get it without some field work. So here I am, hating it, especially when it's so cold. When it's this cold, by the way, you wouldn't dream that vegetation actually grows on these domes, would you?† â€Å"It does?† He looked at Clowzia sharply, suspecting some sort of practical joke designed to make him look foolish. She looked totally innocent, but how much of that was real and how much was just her baby face? â€Å"Oh sure. Even here, when it's warmer. You notice the soil here? We keep it swept away because of our work, as I said, but in other places it accumulates here and there and is especially deep in the low places where the domes meet. Plants grow in it.† â€Å"But where does the soil come from?† â€Å"When the dome covered just part of the planet, the wind deposited soil on them, little by little. Then, when Trantor was all covered and the living levels were dug deeper and deeper, some of the material dug up, if suitable, would be spread over the top.† â€Å"Surely, it would break down the domes.† â€Å"Oh no. The domes are very strong and they're supported almost everywhere. The idea was, according to a book-film I viewed, that they were going to grow crops Upperside, but it turned out to be much more practical to do it inside the dome. Yeast and algae could be cultivated within the domes too, taking the pressure off the usual crops, so it was decided to let Upperside go wild. There are animals on Upperside too-butterflies, bees, mice, rabbits. Lots of them.† â€Å"Won't the plant roots damage the domes?† â€Å"In thousands of years they haven't. The domes are treated so that they repel the roots. Most of the growth is grass, but there are trees too. You'd be able to see for yourself if this were the warm season or if we were farther south or if you were up in a spaceship.† She looked at him with a sidewise flick of her eyes, â€Å"Did you see Trantor when you were coming down from space?† â€Å"No, Clowzia, I must confess I didn't. The hypership was never well placed for viewing. Have you ever seen Trantor from space?† She smiled weakly. â€Å"I've never been in spare.† Seldon looked about. Gray everywhere. â€Å"I can't make myself believe it,† he said. â€Å"About vegetation Upperside, I mean.† â€Å"It's true, though. I've heard people say-Otherworlders, like yourself, who did see Trantor from space-that the planet looks green, like a lawn, because it's mostly grass and underbrush. There are trees too, actually. There's a copse not very far from here. I've seen it. They're evergreens and they're up to six meters high.† â€Å"Where?† â€Å"You can't see it from here. Its on the other side of a dome. It's-â€Å" The call came out thinly. (Seldon realized they had been walking while they had been talking and had moved away from the immediate vicinity of the others.) â€Å"Clowzia. Get back here. We need you.† Clowzia said, â€Å"Uh-oh. Coming.-Sorry, Dr. Seldon, I have to go.† She ran off, managing to step lightly despite her lined boots. Had she been playing with him? Had she been filling the gullible foreigner with a mess of lies for amusement's sake? Such things had been known to happen on every world and in every time. An air of transparent honesty was no guide either; in fact, successful taletellers would deliberately cultivate just such an air. So could there really be six-meter trees Upperside? Without thinking much about it, he moved in the direction of the highest dome on the horizon. He swung his arms in an attempt to warm himself. And his feet were getting cold. Clowzia hadn't pointed. She might have, to give him a hint of the direction of the trees, but she didn't. Why didn't she? To be sure, she had been called away. The domes were broad rather than high, which was a good thing, since otherwise the going would have been considerably more difficult. On the other hand, the gentle grade meant trudging a distance before he could top a dome and look down the other side. Eventually, he could see the other side of the dome he had climbed. He looked back to make sure he could still see the meteorologists and their instruments. They were a good way off, in a distant valley, but he could see them clearly enough. Good. He saw no copse, no trees, but there was a depression that snaked about between two domes. Along each side of that crease, the soil was thicker and there were occasional green smears of what might be moss. If he followed the crease and if it got low enough and the soil was thick enough, there might be trees. He looked back, trying to fix landmarks in his mind, but there were just the rise and fall of domes. It made him hesitate and Dors's warning against his being lost, which had seemed a rather unnecessary piece of advice then, made more sense now. Still, it seemed clear to him that the crease was a kind of road. If he followed it for some distance, he only had to turn about and follow it back to return to this spot. He strode off purposefully, following the rounded crease downward. There was a soft rumbling noise above, but he didn't give it any thought. He had made up his mind that he wanted to see trees and that was all that occupied him at the moment. The moss grew thicker and spread out like a carpet and here and there grassy tufts had sprung up. Despite the desolation Upperside, the moss was bright green and it occurred to Seldon that on a cloudy, overcast planet there was likely to be considerable rain. The crease continued to curve and there, just above another dome, was a dark smudge against the gray sky and he knew he had found the trees. Then, as though his mind, having been liberated by the sight of those trees, could turn to other things, Seldon took note of the rumble he had heard before and had, without thinking, dismissed as the sound of machinery. Now he considered that possibility: Was it, indeed, the sound of machinery? Why not? He was standing on one of the myriad domes that covered hundreds of millions of square kilometers of the world-city. There must be machinery of all kinds hidden under those domes-ventilation motors, for one thing. Maybe it could be heard, where and when all the other sounds of the world-city were absent. Except that it did not seem to come from the ground. He looked up at the dreary featureless sky. Nothing. He continued to scan the sky, vertical creases appearing between his eyes and then, far off It was a small dark spot, showing up against the gray. And whatever it was it seemed to be moving about as though getting its bearings before it was obscured by the clouds again. Then, without knowing why, he thought, They're after me. And almost before he could work out a line of action, he had taken one. He ran desperately along the crease toward the trees and then, to reach them more quickly, he turned left and hurtled up and over a low dome, treading through brown and dying fernlike overgrowth, including thorny sprigs with bright red berries. 24. Seldon panted, facing a tree, holding it closely, embracing it. He watched for the flying object to make its appearance again so that he could back about the tree and hide on the far side, like a squirrel. The tree was cold, its bark was rough, it gave no comfort-but it offered cover. Of course, that might be insufficient, if he was being searched for with a heat-seeker, but, on the other hand, the cold trunk of a tree might blur even that. Below him was hard-packed soil. Even in this moment of hiding, of attempting to see his pursuer while remaining unseen, he could not help wondering how thick the soil might be, how long it had taken to accumulate, many domes in the warmer areas of Trantor carried forests on their back, and whether the trees were always confined to the creases between domes, leaving the higher regions to moss, grass, and underbrush. He saw it again. It was not a hypership, nor even an ordinary air-jet. It was a jet-down. He could see the faint glow of the ion trails corning out at the vertices of a hexagon, neutralizing the gravitational pull and allowing the wings to keep it aloft like a large soaring bird. It was a vehicle that could hover and explore a planetary terrain. It was only the clouds than had saved him. Even if they were using heat-seekers, that would only indicate there were people below. The jet-down would have to make a tentative dive below the banked ceiling before it could hope to know how many human beings there were and whether any of them might be the particular person the patties aboard were seeking. The jet-down was closer now, but it couldn't hide from him either. The rumble of the engine gave it away and they couldn't rum that off, not as long as they wished to continue their search. Seldon knew the jet-downs, for on Helicon or on any undomed world with skies that cleared now and then, they were common, with many in private hands. Of what possible use would jet-downs be on Trantor, with all the human life of the world under domes, with low cloud ceilings all but perpetual-except for a few government vehicles designed for just this purpose, that of picking up a wanted person who had been lured above the domes? Why not? Government forces could nor enter the grounds of the University, but perhaps Seldon was no longer on the grounds. He was on top of the domes which might be outside the jurisdiction of any local government. An Imperial vehicle might have every right to land on any part of the dome and question or remove any person found upon it. Hummin had not warned him of this, but perhaps he had merely not thought of doing so. The jet-down was even closer now, nosing about like a blind beast sniffing out its prey. Would it occur to them to search this group of trees? Would they land and send out an armed soldier or two to beat through the copse? And if so, what could he do? He was unarmed and all his quicktwist agility would be useless against the agonizing pain of a neuronic whip. It was not attempting to land. Either they missed the significance of the trees Or- A new thought suddenly hit him. What if this wasn't a pursuit vessel at all? What if it was part of the meteorological testing? Surely, meteorologists would want to test the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Was he a fool to hide from it? The sky was getting darker. The clouds were getting thicker or, much more likely, night was falling. And it was getting colder and would get colder still. Was he going to stay out here freezing because a perfectly harmless jet-down had made an appearance and had activated a sense of paranoia that he had never felt before? He had a strong impulse to leave the copse and get back to the meteorological station. After all, how would the man Hummin feared so much-Demerzel-know that Seldon would, at this particular time, be Upperside and ready to be taken? For a moment, that seemed conclusive and, shivering with the cold, he moved out from behind the tree. And then he scurried back as the vessel reappeared even closer than before. He hadn't seen it do anything that would seem to be meteorological. It did nothing that might be considered sampling, measuring, or testing. Would he see such things if they took place? He did not know the precise sort of instruments the jet-down carried or how they worked. If they were doing meteorological work, he might not be able to tell.-Still, could he take the chance of coming into the open? After all, what if Demerzel did know of his presence Upperside, simply because an agent of his, working in the University, knew about it and had reported the matter. Lisung Randa, that cheerful, smiling little Easterner, had suggested he go Upperside. He had suggested it quite forcefully and the subject had not arisen naturally out of the conversation; at least, not naturally enough. Was it possible that he was a government agent and had alerted Demerzel somehow? Then there was Leggen, who had given him the sweater. The sweater was useful, but why hadn't Leggen told him he would need one earlier so he could get his own? Was there something special about the one he was wearing? It was uniformly purple, while all the others' indulged in the Trantorian fashion of bright patterns. Anyone looking down from a height would see a moving dull blotch in among others that were bright and know immediately whom they wanted. And Clowzia? She was supposedly Upperside to learn meteorology and help t he meteorologists. How was it possible that she could come to him, talk to him at ease, and quietly walk him away from the others and isolate him so that he could easily be picked up? For that matter, what about Dors Venabili? She knew he was going Upperside. She did not stop it. She might have gone with him, but she was conveniently busy. It was a conspiracy. Surely, it was a conspiracy. He had convinced himself now and there was no further thought of getting out from the shelter of the trees. (His feet felt like lumps of ice and stamping them against the ground seemed to do no good.) Would the jet-down never leave? And even as he thought that, the pitch of the engine's rumble heightened and the jet-down rose into the clouds and faded away. Seldon listened eagerly, alert to the smallest sound, making sure it was finally gone. And then, even after he was sure it was gone, he wondered if that was just a device to flush him out of hiding. He remained where he was while the minutes slowly crawled on and night continued to fall. And finally, when he felt that the true alternative to taking the chance of coming out in the open was that of freezing into insensibility, he stepped out and moved cautiously beyond the shelter of the trees. It was dusky twilight, after all. They couldn't detect him except by a heat-seeker, but, if so, he would hear the jet-down return. He waited just beyond the trees, counting to himself, ready to hide in the copse again at the smallest sound-though what good that would do him once he was spotted, he couldn't imagine. Seldon looked about. If he could find the meteorologists, they would surely have artificial light, but except for that, there would be nothing. He could still just make out his surroundings, but in a matter of a quarter of an hour, half an hour at the outside, he would not. With no lights and a cloudy sky above, it would be dark-completely dark. Desperate at the prospect of being enveloped in total darkness, Seldon realized that he would have to find his way back to the crease that had brought him there as quickly as possible and retrace his steps. Folding his arms tightly around himself for warmth, he set off in what he thought was the direction of the crease between the domes. There might, of course, be more than one crease leading away from the copse, but he dimly made out some of the sprigs of berries he had seen coming in, which now looked almost black rather than bright red. He could not delay. He had to assume he was right. He moved up the crease as fast as he might, guided by failing sight and by the vegetation underfoot. But he couldn't stay in the crease forever. He had come over what had seemed to him to be the tallest dome in sight and had found a crease that cut at right angles across his line of approach. By his reckoning, he should now turn right, then sharp left, and that would put him on the path toward the meteorologists' dome. Seldon made the left turn and, lifting his head, he could just make out the curve of a dome against the fractionally lighter sky. That had to be it! Or was that only wishful thinking? He had no choice but to assume it wasn't. Keeping his eye on the peak so that he could move in a reasonably straight line, he headed for it as quickly as he could. As he got closer, he could make out the line of dome against sky with less and less certainty as it loomed larger and larger. Soon, if he was correct, he would be going up a gentle slope and when that slope became level he would be able to look down the other side and see the lights of the meteorologists. In the inky dark, he could not tell what lay in his path. Wishing there were at least a few sorts to shed some light, he wondered if this was how it felt to be blind. He waved his arms before him as if they were antennae. It was growing colder by the minute and he paused occasionally to blow on his hands and hold them under his armpits. He wished earnestly he could do the same for his feet. By now, he thought, if it started to precipitate, it would be snow-or, worse yet, sleet. On†¦ on. There was nothing else to do. Eventually, it seemed to him that he was moving downward. That was either wishful thinking or he had topped the dome. He stopped. If he had topped the dome, he should be able to see the artificial light of the meteorological station. He would see the lights carried by the meteorologists themselves, sparkling or dancing like fireflies. Seldon closed his eyes as though to accustom them to dark and then try again, but that was a foolish effort. It was no darker with his eyes closed than with them open and when he opened them it was no lighter than when he had had them closed. Possibly Leggen and the others were gone, had taken their lights with them and had turned off any lights on the instruments. Or possibly Seldon had climbed the wrong dome. Or he had followed a curved path along the dome so that he was now facing in the wrong direction. Or he had followed the wrong crease and had moved away from the copse in the wrong direction altogether. What should he do? If he was facing the wrong direction, there was a chance that light would be visible right or left-and it wasn't. If he had followed the wrong crease, there was no possible way he could return to the copse and locate a different crease. His only chance lay in the assumption that he was facing the right direction and that the meteorological station was more or less directly ahead of him, but that the meteorologists had gone and had left it in darkness. Move forward, then. The chances of success might be small, but it was the only chance he had. He estimated that it had taken him half an hour to move from the meteorological station to the top of the dome, having gone partway with Clowzia and sauntering with her rather than striding. He was moving at little better than a saunter now in the daunting darkness. Seldon continued to slog forward. It would have been nice to know the time and he had a timeband, of course, but in the dark. He stopped. He wore a Trantorian timeband, which gave Galactic Standard time (as all timebands did) and which also gave Trantorian local time. Timebands were usually visible in the dark, phosphorescing so that one could tell time in the quiet dark of a bedchamber. A Heliconian timeband certainly would; why not a Trantorian one? He looked at his timeband with reluctant apprehension and touched the contact that would draw upon the power source for light. The timeband gleamed feebly and told him the time was 1847. For it to be nighttime already, Seldon knew that it must be the winter season.-How far past the solstice was it? What was the degree of axial tipping? How long was the year? How far from the equator was he at this moment? There was no hint of an answer to any of these things, but what counted was that the spark of light was visible. He was not blind! Somehow the feeble glow of his timeband gave him renewed hope. His spirits rose. He would move on in the direction he was going. He would move for half an hour. If he encountered nothing, he would move on five minutes more-no further-just five minutes. If he still encountered nothing, he would stop and think. That, however, would be thirty-five minutes from now. Till then, he would concentrate only on walking and on willing himself to feel warmer (He wiggled his toes, vigorously. He could still feel them.) Seldon trudged onward and the half hour passed. He paused, then hesitantly, he moved on for five more minutes. Now he had to decide. There was nothing. He might be nowhere, far removed from any opening into the dome. He might, on the other hand, be standing three meters to the left-or right-or short-of the meteorological station. He might be two arms' lengths from the opening into the dome, which would not, however, be open. Now what? Was there any point in shouting? He was enveloped by utter silence but for the whistling of the wind. If there were birds, beasts, or insects in among the vegetation on the domes, they were not here during this season or at this time of night or at this particular place. The wind continued to chill him. Perhaps he should have been shouting all due way. The sound might have carried a good distance in the cold air. But would there have been anyone to hear him? Would they hear him inside the dome? Were there instruments to detect sound or movement from above? Might there not be sentinels just inside? That seemed ridiculous. They would have heard his footsteps, wouldn't they? Still- He called out. â€Å"Help! Help! Can someone hear me?† His cry was strangled, half-embarrassed. It seemed silly shouting into vast black nothingness. But then, he felt it was even sillier to hesitate in such a situation as this. Panic was welling up in him. He took in a deep, cold breath and screamed for as long as he could. Another breath and another scream, changing pitch. And another. Seldon paused, breathless, turning his head every which way, even though there was nothing to see. He could not even detect an echo. There was nothing left to do but wait for the dawn. But how long was the night at this season of the year? And how cold would it get? He felt a tiny cold touch sting his face. After a while, another. It was sleeting invisibly in the pitch blackness. And there was no way to find shelter. He thought: It would have been better if that jet-down had seen me and picked me up. I would be a prisoner at this moment, perhaps, but I'd be warm and comfortable, at least. Or, if Hummin had never interfered, I might have been back in Helicon long ago. Under surveillance, but warm and comfortable. Right now that was all he wanted-to be warm and comfortable. But at the moment he could only wait. He huddled down, knowing that however long the night, he dared not sleep. He slipped off his shoes and rubbed his icy feet. Quickly, he put his shoes back on. He knew he would have to repeat this, as well as rubbing his hands and ears all night long to keep his circulation flowing. But most important to remember was that he must not let himself fall asleep. That would mean certain death. And, having carefully thought all this out, his eyes closed and he nodded off to sleep with the sleet coming down.