Print Electronic signature Word Myself

I am, strangely enough. My output has waned over the last year as I've become busier. But I'm happy to take the fleece. In the meantime, enjoy some of my greatest hits of the past year, most of which are not that great: Biology * Shan Kothari's answer to Is it a good idea to interbreed the various endangered tiger subspecies like the Sumatran, Malayan, Indo-Chinese, South China, Bengal and Siberian tigers so that they have more genetic variation? [ https://www.quora.com/Is-it-a-good-idea-to-interbreed-the-various-endangered-tiger-subspecies-like-the-Sumatran-Malayan-Indo-Chinese-South-China-Bengal-and-Siberian-tigers-so-that-they-have-more-genetic-variation/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Can giraffes swim? [ https://www.quora.com/Can-giraffes-swim/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Ecology: What do ecologists think of Lotka-Volterra? [ https://www.quora.com/Ecology-What-do-ecologists-think-of-Lotka-Volterra/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What is the future of big data in ecology? [ https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-future-of-big-data-in-ecology/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What is hermatypic coral? [ https://www.quora.com/What-is-hermatypic-coral/answer/Shan-Kothari ] Philosophy * Shan Kothari's answer to Why did Blaise Pascal not immediately understand the "which god" problem with his wager? [ https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Blaise-Pascal-not-immediately-understand-the-which-god-problem-with-his-wager/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Philosophy of Mind: What is functionalism? [ https://www.quora.com/Philosophy-of-Mind-What-is-functionalism/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Do ethical philosophers tend to be more ethical? [ https://www.quora.com/Do-ethical-philosophers-tend-to-be-more-ethical/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Can you be a philosopher and still believe in god? [ https://www.quora.com/Can-you-be-a-philosopher-and-still-believe-in-god/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What are the main differences between epiphenomenalism and materialist reductionism? [ https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-differences-between-epiphenomenalism-and-materialist-reductionism/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What has philosophy contributed to society in the past 50 years? [ https://www.quora.com/What-has-philosophy-contributed-to-society-in-the-past-50-years/answer/Shan-Kothari ] Other: * Shan Kothari's answer to What are some famous pictures that ruined people's lives? [ https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-famous-pictures-that-ruined-peoples-lives/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Why is it common liberal policy to reject Social Darwinism despite wholeheartedly embracing evolution? Why this contradiction? [ https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-common-liberal-policy-to-reject-Social-Darwinism-despite-wholeheartedly-embracing-evolution-Why-this-contradiction/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to Who are the best or most famous Christian poets? [ https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-best-or-most-famous-Christian-poets/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What are the most impressive intellectual achievements completed by persons under 20 years old in terms of the influence, magnitude, depth, scope, creativity, or difficulty of the achievement? [ https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-impressive-intellectual-achievements-completed-by-persons-under-20-years-old-in-terms-of-the-influence-magnitude-depth-scope-creativity-or-difficulty-of-the-achievement/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What is it like to attend a REU? [ https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-attend-a-REU/answer/Shan-Kothari ] * Shan Kothari's answer to What directors chose the same people to work with time and time again, in any roles, and who are these people? [ https://www.quora.com/What-directors-chose-the-same-people-to-work-with-time-and-time-again-in-any-roles-and-who-are-these-people/answer/Shan-Kothari ]

Balaji Viswanathan (பாலாஜி விஸ்வநாதன்)If ever you want to learn something new on daily basis.please switch on the notifications from Balaji Vishwanath sir.Awdhesh Singh (अवधेश सिंह)In case if you are wandering for the best views from an intellect,he is always on cards !Gopalkrishna VishwanathIf ever you wanted a simple answers with so much of life experience,don't forget to follow Gopalkrishna Vishwanath sir!Abhimanyu SoodIf you want to hear a story,please don't miss this guy.. he is my fav!User-9248814863030902883In case if you crave for travel experiences,this guy is fantastic ! Sinless bloke indeed.Sean KernanSarhad ChoudharyIn case if you are eager to know son and grandson of quora ..don't forget these wonderful guys !Vishak RamanIf you want to keep reading and getting lost.he is nice to read! Unique guy I must tell you !Dhawal BarotIf you seem very interested in shortest feel good stories,this guy tops the list!Loy MachedoWhenever you feel low,reading his answers can make you feel better!The list continues !And if ever you want to read some stupid answers follow this guy! Raghavendra MThanks for reading

Well I have lived in Japan for almost 3 years and the below incidents were hard to believe when they occurred:We took a taxi very late in night after we missed the last train to signNow our place. The total bill was about 20,000 yen but taxi driver took only about 16,000 yen saying that he took a wrong turn and it has caused 4,000 yen excess bill and he won't take that.My friend got his train pass made for 10,000 yen and lost it on the same day. It could have been used by anyone but somebody returned it to railways personnel and we got it back the next day when we inquired about it.While coming back in taxi from market to our place we didn't have exact change to pay to driver and driver also didn't have it. We asked him to stay for 5 mins so that we could get it from somewhere. He felt so much guilt for causing us the inconvenience that he apologised to us and left without taking any money.On a Friday night we came back from office at around 11 pm and were looking for some beer. We asked to a person who was standing at counter of a Starbucks (company) cafe. He was so much eager to help us that he came with us for around 200 meters leaving his counter to his colleague and made sure that we find a beer shop.While travelling in train on a Saturday night there was a co passenger girl who was so much drunk that she puked in the train itself. The other co passengers provided her the tissues and a plastic bag and despite being so drunk the girl cleaned everything and apologised to everyone.While in Tokyo Disneyland we asked a sweeper worker to take our snapshot photo. He kept his broom aside at some distance and took our snap. After we were done some other group came and asked him to take their snap. We went ahead to see other attractions. After around one hour we came back to same point and saw a queue at that point for getting a snap done from that sweeper. The person was happily and enthusiastically taking everyone's snap. So much humility.I can go on and on.Japanese are incredible. Hats off!

As a startup founder of three years myself, I can relate to how legal housekeeping can be messy. Once a year, I have our own lawyers go through and do an audit of all of our legal paperwork (which costs a couple thousand dollars to be extremely thorough, but it’s worth it). Luckily, there are now many ways to easily manage and track all of your legal, financial, and HR documents via third-party sites that specialize in these management proceedings. I wrote a blog post about this awhile back titled “5 Ways to Save Time Dealing With Documents” which highlights certain sites that can be very beneficial depending on what paperwork you’d like to track or manage. They are as follows:1. GroupDocsGroupDocs is a new, comprehensive online service for document creation and management. It has multiple features, including a viewer for reading documents in your browser, an electronic signature service, an online document converter, a document assembly service, a feature for comparing different versions of a document, and an annotation feature. An individual plan is $10 per month for limited storage and 500 documents, while a group plan for up to 9 people is $19 per user per month. Based on the number of features and pricing, GroupDoc is a good-value purchase for a small business. As you’ll see below, GroupDocs can be cheaper than a service that offers only one such feature.2. signNowWhen you’re closing a deal and need to get documents signed, the last thing you need is a slow turnaround due to fax machine problems or the postal service. The solution is to use an electronic signature service such as signNow, which is one of the most popular e-signature companies in the world. This service allows you to email your documents to the person whose signature you need. Next, the recipient undergoes a simply e-signing process, and then signNow alerts you when the process is completed. Finally, signNow electronically stores the documents, which are accessible at any time. As a result, you can easily track the progress of the signature process and create an audit trail of your documents. The “Professional” plan is recommended for sole proprietors and freelancers, and costs $180 per year ($15 per month) for up to 50 requested signatures per month. The “Workgroup” plan is geared towards teams and businesses, and it costs $240 per user per year ($20 per month per user), for unlimited requested signatures.3. signNowsignNow is another e-signature service. Similar to signNow, signNow allows you to upload a PDF file, MS Word file or web application document. Next, you can edit the document, such as by adding initials boxes or tabs, and then email them out for signatures. Once recipients e-sign the document, signNow notifies you and archives the document. signNow offers low rates for these services: a 1-person annual plan with unlimited document sending costs $11 per month. An annual plan for 10 senders with unlimited document sending costs only $39 per month.4. ExariExari is a document assembly and contract management service that assists in automating high-volume business documents, such as sales agreements or NDAs. First, the document assembly service allows authors to create automated document templates. No technical knowledge is required; most authors are business analysts and lawyers. Authors have a variety of options for customizing documents, such as fill-in-the-blank fields, optional clauses, and dynamic updating of topic headings. They also can add questions that the end user must answer. Once you send out the document, the user answers the questionnaire, and Exari uses that data to customize the document. Next, the contract management feature allows you to store and track both the templates and the signed documents. Pricing is based on the size and scope of your planned implementation, so visit their website for more information.5. FillanyPDFIt’s a hassle having to print out PDF forms in order to complete them. Fortunately, FillanyPDF is a service that allows you to edit, fill out and send any PDFs, while entirely online. This “Fill & Sign” plan costs $5 per month, or $50 per year. If you subscribe to the “Professional” plan, you can also create fillable PDFs using your own documents. With this service, any PDF, JPG or GIF file becomes fillable when you upload it to the site. You can modify a form using white-out, redaction and drawing tools. Then, you can email a link to your users, who can fill out and e-sign your form on the website. FillanyPDF also allows you to track who filled out your forms, and no downloads are necessary to access these services.  The “Professional” plan costs $49 per month, or $490 per year.Switching firms can be a hassle. As a former startup attorney, I have a bit of advice about finding the right attorney for your business: it’s best to focus on the specific attorney you’ll be working with. He or she should have a solid understanding of the ins and outs of your business industry, a deep knowledge of the legal issues your startup may face, and previous work experience with startups to ensure a quality and efficient work product. This is absolutely key when matching our startup clients at UpCounsel to attorneys on our platform who can perform their legal work and hash out their legal projects in a timely manner. We also allow clients to store any and all of their legal documents directly on UpCounsel so they don’t have to go searching in alternative places for the correct paperwork. It’s proven to be a free and lightweight way to store legal documents that our clients love. Here's what it looks like:As I’ve mentioned, it’s more important to find the right attorney as opposed to the right law firm. And seeing as you’re a startup, our own startup clients typically save an average of 50-60% on their legal work, since the attorneys don't include overhead fees (a.k.a. the fees included for doing business with the firm itself) in their invoices.Hope this gives you a deeper look into what other sites and services are out there. If you have any questions or would like more information on how best to handle your legal housekeeping/ attorney matters, feel free to signNow out to me directly. As a former startup attorney at Latham & Watkins, I’d be happy to give you some guidance.

Good question. My guess is either:Satoshi was a truly selfless individual who wanted bitcoin to remain consensus based.Satoshi is dead and is not really committed to anonymity; orSatoshi is actually a group of people. Probably including several of the likely suspects below. Although the original code may have been written by one person the language in chat rooms, message boards and even the white paper itself suggest many unique contributors. Given this vision there were also probabaly non coders/developers who helped distribute the idea and were essentially “the political advocates” who brought the code to the internet at large. These are likely some of the people listed below that I have seen referenced as “potential Satoshi’s” (although none of these leads ever panned out).In a 2011 article in The New Yorker, Joshua Davis claimed to have narrowed down the identity of Nakamoto to a number of possible individuals, including the Finnish economist Dr. Vili Lehdonvirta and Irish student Michael Clear , then a graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College Dublin and now a post-doctoral student at Georgetown University.In October 2011, writing for Fast Company, investigative journalist Adam Penenberg cited circumstantial evidence suggesting Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry could be Nakamoto.They jointly filed a patent application that contained the phrase "computationally impractical to reverse" in 2008, which was also used in the bitcoin white paper.May 2013, Ted Nelson speculated that Nakamoto is really Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki.Later, an article was published in The Age newspaper that claimed that Mochizuki denied these speculations, but without attributing a source for the denial.A 2013 article in Gawker listed Gavin Andresen, Jed McCaleb, Casey Botticello, or a government agency as possible candidates to be Nakamoto. Dustin D. Trammell, a Texas-based security researcher, was suggested as Nakamoto, but he publicly denied it. Casey Botticello, the head of the Cryptocurrency Alliance has refused to comment.In 2013, two Israeli mathematicians, Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir, published a paper claiming a link between Nakamoto and Ross William Ulbricht. The two based their suspicion on an analysis of the network of bitcoin transactions, but later retracted their claim.Some considered Nakamoto might be a team of people; Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher who read the bitcoin code.

Let me inject my little humble experience with the Nationalist military—no exactly answering your question, but may provide some insight to the Nationalist government’s downfall.The Nationalist government withdrew to Taiwan in 1949, telling its own people that it was a temporary tactical maneuver and that we would soon counter-attack and retake the homeland. I was brought up in such belief. In all honesty, that was the only belief around—or rather, allowed.In 1967, 18 years after the KMT-CCP civil war, like all my contemporaries at the time, I began my military service as a platoon leader in the Marine Corps right after college (sort of ROTC-like officer in the US). When I first reported to my company with much apprehension, I felt no welcome—or rather, I was made to feel like an outsider. Without saying a word, a master sergeant handed me my uniform and placed my civilian clothing in a bag. I noticed he never bothered to solute, as I was made extremely conscious that respecting rank was an utmost important way to keep the military discipline, regardless personal feelings toward the person who happens to out-rank you. I sort tried to understand how a fifty-some-year-old master sergeant would feel when he had to salute to a young kid thirty years his junior, but, again, I did not invent the rules.I was shown to my tiny officer quarter. The place was already occupied by another officer and he grudgingly cleared out the upper bunk bed for me to crawl in. I considered myself lucky: comparing it to the open double-deck sleeping arrangement during my boot-camp days, it is a private mansion.On the same evening, I saw my platoon the first time. An unhappy—very very unhappy indeed— old sergeant named Li who had acted as the substitute platoon leader rudely summoned the thirty-some skeptically looking young conscripts and reluctantly transferred his command to me. I knew even then from the looks of the young troopers that the old fellow Li would not give up his power without a fight. I kept my posture and introduced myself briefly to the troopers and told the sergeant to dismiss the squad and let the guys rest early. Soon after I turned my back I heard the old sergeant begin barking at the conscripts and kept rambling, shouting out a long tirade about discipline, honor, and duties, which I considered completely irrelevant. I was torn between stopping him from the nonsense volley for the sake of the troopers and keeping the protocol which gave him the prerogatives as a sergeant to bark on. I backed off from the direct confrontation with Li, not a pleasant first day in the service.No sooner did I report to duty than the company was given the order to march out with full gear, with the M2 for foot soldiers, a carbine for sergeants and the .45 caliber pistol for officers. I never shot a 45 pistol but it felt good, I had to admit. We were not told where to go, or what to do or what to expect. I overheard the soldiers mumbling that since no live ammunition was dispensed so that must be good, meaning at best just an exercise of some sort, unlike two years before when live ammunition was dispensed and with all communications with outside cut off did they all break out in tears, realizing something bad was going to happen. Fortunately, I was later told, the mission was scuttled as the first ships entering Xiamen Harbor was intercepted and the entire crew was captured.We marched for hours to get on a gigantic transport ship in ZhoYin. That was quite a sight to behold: hundred and hundred of us jammed on every single square inch on deck, and the loud growling landing ships (LTV) belched heavy diesel fumes rammed into the lower deck. Soon we set sail. It was a calm but queer night; overhead, the Milky Way easily fit into your hands as the transporter was kept intentionally in the pitch darkness. Soon its swaying motions started to its tolls on the conscripts: many began to vomit, and understandably, all toilets soon turned into hell.That was a sleepless night for the most of us, and as the shimmering dawn came we could slowly make out the silhouette of the coastline. Yes, the land! No more sea sickness! The alarm sound could not come a better time as the navy guys come on deck to collect and shove us exhausted marines to the LTVs below. But the sea wasn’t as kind and the surfs were punishing. With propeller-powered bomber roaring above and the iron “water ducklings” humming in all directions, you don’t need to be told that one misstep and you are doomed. Yes, it was like a war game, but somehow I reminded myself that we were all in uniform and if the war did come, we are the most sought-after targets.The LTV ride was proven too short; soon the reality hit home: what happens after we land—this can’t be just a Disneyland ride?No one ever briefed me on the maneuver, nor did anyone bother to inform me of the exercise plan, and here I wore the badge of the platoon leader and I had not even got a map! Could the old sergeant Li keep away the info from me? Before I could collect all my thoughts, we were shoved out of the landing craft by the navy guys. Suddenly, I found myself sinking into the wet sand with twenty-some pairs of eyes looking straight at me for further orders. In front of me was a steep hill covered with thorny bushes, above me was the glaring sun, at the corner of my eyes were a group of mean-looking inspecting colonels and majors dripping white foams at the mouths. I couldn’t hear what they were yelling but my instinct told me that something does not bode well and it would be a foolish attempt trying to carry out a civilized dialogue with these people. So I instantly barked out and took my troopers to run away from the mean-looking convoy, yes, all the way deep into the hills—where no one could get us.Once in a while, I have nightmares over this incident. Clearly, that was an absolutely unprofessional way of handling a military maneuver. I cannot imagine what if that were a real military exercise any the junior officer was not even given a minimum instruction, map, schedule, or destination of the mission and the point of rendezvous. I hardly knew any of these young conscripts in my platoon, let alone the constant usurper Li. They could just easily skewer me on the rack, hang me out to dry, or push accidentally send me down to the hillside?This was in 1967. I can only guess the situation had to be ten times worse then during the Chinese Civil War.Anyway, we were drifting from hill to hill, avoiding the inspecting convoy; occasionally we met other groups who were just at a loss as we were. Loss of sleep and hunger began to take a grip on us and thirst became unbearable thanks to the unrelenting sun. I told the troopers to recuperate in the shade, waiting for instructions over the radio. The old US-made radio, a leftover from the WWII era. cracked and squealed out sporadic firecracker sounds and decided to die suddenly. The communication soldier tried desperately to resuscitate the machine by cranking the handle incessantly, but to no avail. So radio dead on all fronts, none from the company, the battalion or the regiment. We were alone!I figure that at the time, 18 years after the Chinese Civil War, hardly any one in Taiwan had any experience with anything mechanical or electronic in nature, driving was a luxury, and electronic communications were nonexistent. I could only imagine what was like 18 years before then.Lunchtime has elapsed, still no instructions of any sort from anywhere. It was near 1;30 pm came the vociferated fiery furies from the the loudspeakers by the regiment commander who few had ever met; “You can come out now, you useless cowardly bunch. You can now get off the mountains and have your lunch. Remember, if this were a real war, you would be all be dead by now.” Thank you, commander, for the encouraging words, and thank you for the lunch because we really need it. Note: this was in 1967 during peace time; how could the the similar scenario turned out 18 years ago when supplies in dire deficiency, morale low, and corruption was rampant? Did many have to kill one another for food, and drink one another’s blood to quench the thirst?Despondent and injured, I collected myself and took my platoon down the mountain paths where we met many other equally dispirited groups. In the fleeting exchanges of silent glimpse we secured the minimal pride we each sought for: no, we are no coward, we are simply the victims of the circumstances. My platoon was not reprimanded for getting lost in the exercise; the likely reason may be every single platoon, every single company was lost in the landing chaos. Of course, lunch was not meant to reward us cowards and us the fainted-heart, the regiment commander kept up with his bombastic delivery: “ You think you deserve the meal? No, you’re wrong, no one owes you the meal. You left a shameful mark on the regiment’s proud record by acting like a bunch of imbeciles. To make sure you remember your ineptness, you will begin your forced march right after lunch. For those who think they deserve a regular afternoon nap, well, you are wrong. You will march on, and you will retrospect on what you had done while you are marching. “Our fearless commander’s remonstrance clearly felt on deafears: most reaction to it was —well, damn, not even a nap! The forced march did not go well indeed as the already-exhausted troopers struggled to carry the heavy M2 rifle, the light machine gun and bipod, or the 60-mm motor component and marched in the searing heat and the murderous humidity. The first to drop out of march was Sergeant Li, and Li and other old sergeants were picked up by the supply trucks and piled up like corpses. Finally, I had my entire platoon back as all the old sergeants were gone. But the worse just began to unfold: a typhoon started unleashing its might with lashing thunders and pouring rain. A machines gun carriers felt and vomited in convulsion. I stopped to check on him but was stopped by the MP with a deadpan look in his face that the march could not be interrupted by one fallen man. The downpour seemed to produce a bizarre and hypnotic effect on me: in trying to block off the bewailing drench and gnawing fatigue, the mind began to retrograde to some of the most esoteric questions I had considered in life: “should Lady Chatterley’s lover be blamed for her decadence”, ‘why did I get such a thrill reading a banned like this?”, ‘was Freud serious when he spoke of women’s penis envy”, ‘how the homo sapiens species came to be so much alike”, or “are love, procreation, and testosterone the same thing?” Somehow, they kept my mind occupied, and kept the seemingly surreal world away from my desperately needed sanity. Was that a self-defense mechanism in full swing? i would never know.That was a long march alright. After the drench came the sweltering sun. many troopers resorted to replenish their empty canteen with water from the rice paddies. I thought about the parasites in the water but was helpless in providing alternatives. Finally we settled into an elementary school before midnight. The school field was flooded but our order was the same: set up the tent for the night. Surely the troopers set up their tents in the soggy field but all chose to collapse on the hallway, and slept in every dry corner of the school. Surely I needn’t mention the fouls from the school’s overflown toilets.The school was still on summer break so we spent a week to recuperate. On the second evening I sensed some disturbance by an unusual gathering of men in a shadowed corner of the school. in the dim light I made my way to the front of the muted and intense crowd, where I saw a scene has haunted me up to this date— a gasping conscript with a contorted face in a push-up position, heaving himself desperately away from an upward pointing dagger planted directly below his abdomen, his vein swollen, his body dripping with bead-size perspiration, and all these under a gleeful eye of an old sergeant. Someone murmured out an expletive…,”Just because he refused to obey the old guy’s order?” Another echoed with an F-word…” I will kill the old SOB when the right time comes.” Others remained hushed—there might be ears among us?On the second evening, I was drawn to a small crowd that gathered around a small windowless hut that was used as a makeshift toilet. Apparently, the toilet was locked from outside. An old sergeant appeared and ordered the door be unlocked. Soon a barely wiggled body was dragged out, obviously poisoned by the foul fumes. His unconscious body was quickly carried away by his comrades and again came the hateful murmurs among the crowd. I was struggling with my conscience on just what I had to do without “rocking the boat’ of strict discipline. I conjured up a plan, and I knew it was risky. I had no friends in this god-forsaken place, and as a junior officer, I had no voice. Tormented constantly by my inaction, I decided to take a reasonable rick to change the intolerable cruelty of abuse in the name of discipline. Thanks to the Sherlock Holmes stories I read as a child, I painstakingly scribbled on the back of an ordinary white wrapping paper with my left hand: “Stop turning a blind eye on the illegal physical abuse on the conscripts or else….” Carefully I wiped off any possible finger prints and slipped the note under the doors of the regiment’s political commissar. The abuse did abate for a while and I did not know whether that was due to my doing.it is a common knowledge that the old sergeants were drafted against their wills when the KMT government fought against the CCP in 1940’s. Most of them are illiterate and consequently it was unlikely they could eke out a living outside of the military compound, especially none could utter a word of the local dialect, the Taiwanese. The company commander was one of the very few who could read and hence managed to rise to the rank of major. Understandably he resented the intrusion by the first college-graduated officer assigned to HIS company, me, guardedly, if not with disdain. The uneasiness manifested itself from time to time, and I guessed that it must be killing him to have to constrain himself in dealing with my first request for leave: “ What the FXXX, you need to take a leave for taking the GRE exam?”, “What the Fxxx is GRE? And why do I have to approve it? “,”So you have the approval paper deemed by the DOD , then what the Fxxx do you want me to sign this damn leave paper?” Of course, he did not know, the GRE request was only the beginning of my many many requests to come, then the TOEFL, then the DoE’ overseas-study qualification exam…. I felt sorry for the old man as his turf was trampled over by an young officer who aspires nothing less than seeing the world, abandoning his sacred duty of counterattacking the mainland. The sorry-old commander punctually disappeared for two days after the payday. I heard through the grapevine that he was a regular of a brothel in Kaohsiung City. That did not surprise me as most old sergeants would disappear in synchrony with the payday. Once the old commander was forced to stay put due to some unscheduled inspection exercise. The entire company fell into the victim of his unsettling wrath. He ranted incoherently for hours, blaming everyone for everything under the sun. In the midst of lunch, he rose suddenly, baring his teeth—everyone froze— dramatically he held up his rice bowl and trashed it on the ground. “What the Fxxx is this, you called this food?, “Get me the hands in the kitchen and have them report to me immediately….yes, at right this moment!” And he looked at me in a strange frown, I guess that meant either “life would be so good without you being in my sight” or “go take a hike, can’t you see I am still the reining king here?” I did not finish my meal either, not because of the food. I did not know what valuable service I offered to my country…or I did so by simply being a nuisance in a changing world?Among all the capriciousness came a handful of personal triumphs and a few bitter-sweet moments. Slowly and steadily, I won the trust of my young conscripts most who could neither read nor write. I became their only means to communicate with their loved ones back home: by writing some of the most intimate letters in life: “Dear A-lien, I can not come home this weekend because it takes five hours to travel one way, and the buses are often jammed. please go to my home and make sure my parents know I am okay here.”, ‘Dear Mom, this is your son Way-Ho. We now station in Che-Chen, a small town in Pin-Dong County, a hard-to-get-to place. So I don’t think I can get home until the Chinese New Year Break. Please take good care of yourself, and wait until I return to plow the field.” “Dear A-Mi, how are you. I think of you often. Did I tell you we have a new platoon leader? He is a nice man and he offers to write this letter for me. I am thinking to invite him over to our wedding the next year. Oh, did I tell you he is a college graduate? He also doubles up as our marching song teacher at the request of the political commissar from the headquarters. Also, because he was so good at many things, he began to teach us the Chiang Kai-Shek ‘s speeches as well, and he is very good at it, and he often makes us laugh.”, “Dear father, with great respect from your son, I am serving my military duty, and I follow the orders of my superiors as you always told me. Last time you said you had a backache, I hope you feel better now. do worry about the chicken flu. Just salt them first and sell them in the market. If you charge less, people will buy it no matter what. Oh, we won the military marching song contest last week, thanks to our new platoon leader who taught us how to beat our competitors; by singing as loud as possible, showing the spirit, never mind the tones, he said….”One quiet Sunday afternoon, I had an unexpected visitor: the old sergeant Li who tried to usurp my authority as the platoon leader. It was the first time he looked so respectful and subdued. I asked him to come into my tiny quarter and offered him the only chair in the room and some water. “Can I help you?” I asked of him. He began to blush and stammered, “I was wondering, Sir, if you can do me a big big favor?” I immediately sensed it must be something extraordinary but I held back my anxiousness less he should back away from talking. “You see, Sir, I left my home in Sun-Dong for twenty-some years and I have always worried about my families back home.” He paused and took a calibration on my reaction to decide whether he should continue his delivery. I knew exactly what he was about to say; back then, anyone suspected to have communicated with the mainland Chinese can be rounded up as a communist spy or sympathizer and can be punished by death. No small matter, this man is trusting his entire life on me. He went on and begged me to write a letter on his behave, telling his families that he is alive and well. “I heard that you are going to America in a few months. When you get there, would you please mail this letter to this address in China for me. Oh, I have managed to save up some money for this date. Please convert it to the US money and sent it to them? It’s not much, but that’s all I have.” His voice turned hoarse and his face buried under his weathered hands. He insisted I took his money and before he left he hesitated for a couple of seconds before he uttered the final words between us: “I wish to tell you how sorry I am when you first came. I don’t deserve to hope to see you again.”A few days before my discharge, I was summoned to the political commissar’s office in the regiment’s headquarters. “Lieutenant Yang, come in.” he was a lanky fellow in his late fifties, with a hawkish look and a easy disparaging smile. “ I have looked over your service record and found blemishes that can easily stop you from getting a passport for studying abroad, you know what I meant? ” I stood in attention and desperately stayed calm, knowing this man alone could derail my entire aspiration to see the world, especially the big world outside of this tiny island. “No, Sir, I thought I had helped to teach political courses and our regiment scores high on the tests.”. He smiled broadly and said, “Now stop beat around the bush; I know you are smarter than that, and I am not just talking about your lukewarm attitude toward slogan chanting during the morning roll calls either.” “Sir, I can explain….” He waived to shut me up and officiated his verdict,”Indeed, your contribution to elevating our regiment’s test score by two notches makes you a net contributor to the military, and I congratulate you for earning your honorary discharge. Just sign your name here and you will be a civilian in no time.”I was a bit startled by the need for enacting such episode, but I still signed in earnest, hoping I never have to see him ever again. But I was wrong; he took his time checking my signature and glared at me dispassionately, “Lieutenant Yang, you have a smart handwriting indeed.” before I collected my self in disbelief , he pulled out his drawer and handed me a piece of white wrapping paper, “ I think this paper should go back to its rightful owner.” It was his final words. And yes, that was the paper I wrote with my left hand. Yes, the ink of my fountain pen gave it away, which Sherlock Holmes never taught me. Still, the old man is cool.Why do I write this story, and is there any relevance to the question of what would happen if the nationalists won the civil war? My answer is; never mind the question. Let the past die! KILL IT if you have to. ” (copyright disclaimer—Star War)Many Many innocent Chinese died; many many families dispersed, many many lives were wasted during the Chinese civil conflicts. Do not glorify the overly fabricated history. Learn from the past we know and look ahead, never make the same mistakes again.

One cannot deny that putting Asimov's Foundation series up on the big screen presents a real challenge, between screenwriters, producers, and directors, to say nothing of the moguls who finance and greenlight the project only if they think it might make a profit.The easiest part to explain is the moguls. Experience often shows that if you aim high as to intelligence, the movie ends up as a small "indie" film, or about as successful as one, but if you aim low, there is little to no risk of losing money by insulting the intelligence of the audience. Even the very stupidest movies can become "cult classics" out of their sheer stupidity (think of "Food Fight" or "Garbage Pail Kids" or "Felix the Cat" or “Plan 9 From Outer Space”). Foundation does not scale down well in intelligence, so very little money will ever likely be put into it.Producers and directors want to put lots of explosions and space battles in it because they think this will make the movie more exciting to audiences, but this would so severely betray and violate the whole point and charm of a Foundation film. The temptation seems to be to use the title, and perhaps some of the characters and basic situations, and then throw a lot of name stars and useless special effects, love affairs and sex scenes, shootouts and chases, all with no connection to the story at it, and hope that makes it a hit. But it is the writers who have the biggest challenge.Dr. Asimov gives this account of his rereading of the original Foundation trilogy when preparing to begin its next novel, “Foundation’s Edge”: “… about the end of May, I picked up my own copy of The Foundation Trilogy and began reading. I had to. For one thing, I hadn't read the Trilogy in thirty years and while I remembered the general plot, I did not remember the details. Besides, before beginning a new Foundation novel I had to immerse myself in the style and atmosphere of the series. I read it with mounting uneasiness. I kept waiting for something to happen, and nothing ever did. All three volumes, all the nearly quarter of a million words, consisted of thoughts and of conversations. No action. No physical suspense. What was all the fuss about, then? Why did everyone want more of that stuff?—To be sure, I couldn't help but notice that I was turning the pages eagerly, and that I was upset when I finished the book, and that I wanted more, but I was the author, for goodness' sake.”One of the biggest criticisms of the work is that it seems to consist almost entirely of people talking in rooms. An attempt to turn those conversations into impressive space battles would invariably fall flat on its face. The complaint has also been made that there are no continuing characters in this series. Though a person might show up in a couple segments (e. g. Salvor Hardin), and of course, Hari Seldon’s influence in the form of the Seldon Plan runs throughout the whole series, unifying it, there are no characters who exist throughout the whole thing. There is always the question of what to leave out and what to keep in, and what might be added that an audience would want to see. Audiences are often hard to please, and probably hardest when dealing with going from a book to a movie where the book is so well-known that everyone watching the movie will quickly see what was changed, and generally comment unfavorably on that difference.Then there is the problem of what to do with the technology. Extrapolations of 1940’s technology pervade the series, and when putting it to film what should one do? The most common approach seems to update the technology to predictable extrapolations of whatever technology is current when the film is being shot. It is generally easier and can help present day audiences to feel we are dealing with a “future” when seeing technologies which seem so to us today. But such attempts rapidly become dated, and instead of portraying a time at least 12,000 years in the future it ends up instead portraying a time at least 20 years past. Think of how AOL-styled emails of “You’ve Got Mail” (1998) rapidly came to look ridiculous in comparison to the snail mail of “Shop Around the Corner” (1940) that still hold up. Or again, “The Puppet Masters” (1994), following the book so closely in some ways (especially in the first part) and in the casting of the three main leads, but then deviated in several ways (most notably from a technological standpoint) by introducing satellite heat signature recognition as a way of detecting who is infected and deleting the whole Titans subplot.The biggest problem in that area was the slow progress in computer technology in the Foundation series. Who could have believed in the 1940’s and 1950’s that computers would become so powerful and at the same time so microminiaturized within a scant 50 years, and yet at the same time Robotics (and especially the ability to create a functional humanoid robot, complete with at least apparent feelings, thoughts, creativity, problem-solving, and imagination, as to approximate human capabilities, coupled with machine-like perfection and speed, remains far behind the levels that Asimov expected for the same period in his Robot series. So here we are supposedly 12,000 or more years in the future and yet in the story shipboard computers are barely above the level of the surprisingly primitive computers of the Apollo Lunar Module. Since computing power does factor in on occasion, what do we do with that in such a movie?Granted, these are all serious challenges, far too great for the limited imaginations of our typical Hollywood types to work with (hence their proclivity to make dumb sequels and retreads, all because they just can’t think of anything else), so it really is quite possible that there may never be a Foundation movie, or just as bad, never a credible adaptation of it that retains anything much at all of what the series is truly all about. But is it really all that impossible? I think not.Let’s start with one of the easier things to deal with, namely the technology of so distant a future. There is a new and better approach that already has some precedent in the steampunk and retrofuturism movements, first glimpsed on film (that I know of) in “1984” (1984), in which the technology seen was not the mid-1980’s technology as it actually existed currently, but a reasonable projection of the future from what things were like in 1948 when George Orwell originally penned the novel. By 1984, real offices often had mainframe computers with (dumb) terminals in each office, and would email to transmit messages about, but in “1984” they are still using pneumatic tubes. It is as if someone with all the cinematography skills and techniques and experience we have today were to have existed back in 1948 and had been sufficiently funded to apply those skills as needed. With this approach, all of the technological anachronisms of Foundation cease to be a problem; we are simply telling the story as originally envisioned by the author, and as originally read by its first readers in it own original time. This could also be a good approach in connection with the men and women and how they relate to each other, no need to impose contemporary norms; anyway, Asimov has some truly good and strong female characters as written, albeit set in ways that seem out of sync with how people view things today. Just treat it like a period piece.Next, let’s look at how the problem of the moguls (and of funding) might also be solved, and best so “in the typewriter,” so to speak. The answer to this is largely staring us in the face already, namely the fact that so very much of the series is just people talking in rooms. How about simply forget trying to figure out portrayals of the things discussed and simply have the conversations as given in the series itself? That one thing alone would be a truly vast savings on production costs. Another big savings would be that for what few space battles are seen the technology that now exists has made the production of such scenes much easier and cheaper that it would have been in former years. CGI graphics today has come a long way, and even “last year’s technology” in that could still look quite excellent and sufficient for the needs of this series.People talking in rooms doesn’t sound very exciting, and hardly a basis for a movie, but then recall “My Dinner With Andre” (1981) which, despite being literally nothing but two guys having a conversation in a restaurant, actually manages to be quite captivating as a truly excellent film. Only, instead of discussing philosophies of life what we have here are power brokers discussing the direction the future should take, making all-important decisions, negotiations, and even outright takeovers. As Khan said (in the Star Trek episode, Space Seed), “It has been said that social occasions are only warfare concealed.” Or again, think of your average courtroom drama. What, after all, IS a “Courtroom Drama,” but “people talking in a room”? And for that matter, one early scene consists of Hari Seldon himself in some sort of actual “trial.” About 95% of the whole Foundation saga can properly be regarded as a “bottle show.” It is always the search for survival, as well as the truth about the Plan: How will Hari Seldon avoid having his group shut down by the Empire? How will the Foundation, now located on Terminus at the edge of the Galaxy, drive Anacreon from their soil? How can the Foundation religion be used to turn aside a subsequent attack from Anacreon? How will trade replace the religion as a much further means of expansion? How does the Foundation survive the last great attack of the declining old Empire? What recourse is there if history fails to unfold as planned? And so forth.Any film that rises even the tiniest bit above the mere shoot-em-up has to feature scenes of exposition, people talking and explaining what has been going on, or what scam the bad guy is trying to pull, or what the good guy is doing to fight it, or “whodunit?” and so forth. The Foundation series is almost pure exposition. So actually, it is mostly comprised of the most interesting part of most films. Where would Star Wars be without “No, Luke, I am your father”? All the swordplay that precedes and follows that iconic moment of exposition almost might as well be a mere arm-wrestle for all the interest it has in comparison.Science fiction writer and critic James Gunn said of the Foundation series, “Action and romance have little to do with the success of the Trilogy—virtually all the action takes place offstage, and the romance is almost invisible—but the stories provide a detective-story fascination with the permutations and reversals of ideas.” If any attempt to film Foundation is to prove credible, at the very least this detective-story fascination with permutations and reversals of ideas must feature at the center of it all. Yes, there can be room for some action or romance, but these things must take a back seat (if present at all). Think of Murder She Wrote, or Columbo, or Ellery Queen. It is not any (much) action or romance that drives the tale (though those things can enter in occasionally), but (in those cases) the seeking for the truth. This last of course points to something else about how to do it, namely as a television miniseries. Think of the different ways that a war is portrayed in films versus television shows: In a feature film one can have a “cast of thousands,” a veritable sea of soldiers fighting throughout a vast battlefield, but on television it makes far more sense to show merely a few single pairs of soldiers duking it out. Foundation is full of such “single pairs” and small groups “duking it out” with psychohistory, or with the mentalic powers of the Mule or of the Second Foundation.That leads to the last point, namely casting decisions. When making feature films one often tends to seek out known “name” talent, but in this case such “name” talent should only be permitted if their own interest in such a project would make them willing to accept a pay scale commensurate with that of new and (relatively) unknown and untried acting talent. It is amazing how people, especially those who understand how a future career in acting depends upon their performance here, can rise to the occasion in ways that surprise everyone including themselves. As for the lack of continuing characters throughout the series, even that need not be considered much of a problem. Making a series about, for example, the Bible, or even such a miniseries as Roots, certainly did not suffer from the lack of a single continuing character (unless you want to count God in the first case, or Racism (as like a “character”) in the second. And for that there is Psychohistory and the Seldon Plan.So, is it doable? Absolutely! Will it happen, and in a credible manner? Unfortunately those sorts of decisions extremely seldom fall to those capable of making them competently. Given enough time, almost anything, however unlikely, is practically bound to occur, eventually. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it.ADDENDUM:Well, it looks like this could happen after all. Apple has greenlit a feasible effort which even includes Isaac Asimov's own daughter among the production staff. Perhaps previous attempts have failed due to attempts to compress such a vast saga into a single film instead of a series. For myself, I pictured a 4-part miniseries, each part (ranging from 90 to 120 minutes including credits) taking on about three "installments" per part:Part 1 (Founding the Foundation): The Psychohistorians, The Encyclopedists, The MayorsPart 2 (Facing the Empire): The Merchant Princes, The Traders, The General (I will get to the rationale for the order reversal, below)Part 3 (The Mule): The Mule (both parts, as published November and December 1945), Search by the MulePart 4 (The Two Foundations): Search by the Foundation (all three parts, as published November and December 1949 and January 1950)I had dreams of trying to write the screenplay myself (contract or no, just for my own interest), but that probably won't ever be realized, at least not in the immediately foreseeable future, but I do have some thoughts; they are truly mine, apart from their direct borrowing from Asimov's original work and also the existing stories authorized by the Asimov estate, and I offer them freely, hoping that other fans will pick up on these and say, "yes, these are good ideas" and hope the production will be positively influenced by them.One idea is to borrow a bit more from the original series as published in Astounding, which differs somewhat from the book versions. For example, the original published installment (now known as the Encyclopedists) had a short series of paragraphs portraying a meeting conducted by Hari Seldon which might be combined with the closing parts of the Psychohistorians, such that he says, not merely to Gaal Dornick one on one, but to his gathered Psychohistorians and Mathematicians at the close of the last meeting he is to preside at, "I am finished!"In that same vein of pointing to the original published stories, The Traders would be about an episode from the past life of Lathan Devers. It would be added after the part (in The General) that introduces Emperor Cleon II and Brodrig and before we return to Bel Riose and Ducem Barr. Sennet Forrell and his three cronies are again gathered, and Sennet is introducing his fellow members to this Trader who really is a real Trader (unlike the fake "Trader" Jaim Twer who was found out by Hober Mallow), loyal to the Foundation, a great spy, brilliantly clever, and extremely resourceful. To illustrate the point, the events of The Traders (or "The Wedge") are told as a backstory (in only 5-10 minutes of screen time - or 3-5 minutes if we are trying to squeeze it all into a one hour episode) so that audiences can better understand and appreciate who he is, and deepen his character with real Asimov Foundation material originally so intended.(For the books, it made sense to reverse the order of the two stories since to end the first volume on a relatively minor trading victory would have made a very weak ending for the book. The triumph of Hober Mallow and his successful navigation of a Seldon Crisis made for a strong and fitting climax to the first book. So the order was inverted, and as Lathan Devers could not have possibly lived long enough to precede Mallow and then yet still face the Empire, a new protagonist Limmar Ponyets was introduced, along with a few textual adjustments made to that story and Mallow's to make it seem as if their inverted order made sense. But as originally published, it was Lathan Devers who first sold nuclear gadgets to the Askonians, and that could be here reasonably restored. The only other alternative has been to omit The Traders altogether as does (for example) the BBC radio series production.)Now, Apple has greenlit a 10-part television series - how would that divvy up? What I had is effectively 12 parts, but with The Traders subsumed into The General, and the Search by the Foundation, originally published in three parts (but actually not quite as many words as the two parts of The Mule, anyway), could be reduced by producing it in two parts, which brings us down to 10.In point of fact, it appears that Dr. Asimov seems to have expected that his final Foundation novella would be cut into two parts as was his Mule novella, since there is what makes a great cliffhanger in the middle of the middle part, namely where young Arcadia, having just realized that Lady Callia is a Second Foundationer, has just been deposited in a vast and unfriendly space port. She sees signs lit up for ships going all sorts of places; one is even going to Terminus but she can only head-shake "no" openmouthed as she dare not go to the one place she most wishes to go. Doubtless the Second Foundation is setting a trap for her there. In blind fear and panic she spins, seemingly endlessly, in circles not knowing where to turn, where to go, who to trust (as in “a circle has no end”), and now realizing that she knows where the Second Foundation is, and that her life is forfeit should the Second Foundation capture her and learn of her guilty knowledge, she collapses in tears, feeling as lonely and frightened as an abandoned child, but with the weight of the entire future of Galactic civilization upon her shoulders. She looks up as if expecting some answer from a Deity, but all there is, is the camera looking down at her, pulling away as she gets smaller and as more and more of the surrounding crowd bustles around her, grey and altogether indifferent to her plight as the credits roll, until she seems to disappear, lost in the crowd.Narrator: Each segment should have as its narrator someone who is close to the events, but never the main character; Gaal Dornick makes a good narrator for The Psychohistorians, Yohan Lee for The Encyclopedists and The Mayors, Tinter (a lieutenant aboard Mallow's ship) and Ankor Jael (Mallow's trusted friend during his trial and the "War" with Korell), Ducem Barr for The General, Toran Darell (husband of Bayta) for The Mule, Hans Pritcher for Search by the Mule, Homir Munn and Mrs. Palver for Search by the Foundation. The bits of the Encyclopedia Galactica could be read by either the current narrator or by someone else (if someone else, then ideally Peter Jones or someone with a peter jonesey sort of voice as a sort of reference forward-back to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be ultra-cool).Second Foundation anonymity: To keep the Second Foundation figures anonymous in their meetings on their home planet (because their identity has to be concealed during their interactions with ordinary people in ordinary places), all sorts of unusual perspectives could be used. Obviously, no faces can be shown, but very small portions of the actor's face can be shown in extreme close-up: the raising of an eyebrow, the furrowing of a forehead, the crooking of a finger (along with several other hand and arm gestures), the jutting of a chin, the curling of part of a lip, the appearance of a dimple, also figures seen from behind, at a distance, or as black silhouettes against a wall chock full of brightly glowing math equations. Electronically deepen their voices to borderline unrecognizability and add that echo effect to indicate that we are not hearing words conventionally spoken but thoughts intimated to each other through the tiny gestures seen in the various close-ups. Or think of all the ways the faces of the doctors and nurses were cleverly concealed during the twilight episode “Eye of the Beholder” until the reveal at the end.Attention to details from the books could also add greatly despite their seeming insignificance, for example when hologram Seldon puts down his book it disappears, or when the dowagers wonder who Prince Regent Wienis is walking up the stairs to his private room arm-in-arm (Hardin) they lift ornate but actual and recognizable lorgnettes to their faces (I hate the way recent printings of the book just say that the dowagers just "stared after them" - blah!), or Onum Barr finding a box of canned goods (and his passport, returned) in a box on his doorstep after Hober Mallow leaves his planet of Siwenna, showing volumes about Mallow’s character in about ten seconds of screen time, or an actual descending grid of glowing energy squares three meters on a side descending upon the spaceport crowd where Preem Palver is waiting and then bribes an official. And many people in the original series smoke. I know that smoking is frowned on these days, but who is to say that a cancer-free tobacco couldn't be invented in the next 12-50 thousand years? Anyway, the scene where Ebling Mis is sitting on the desk of an intimidated Mayor Indbur, warning him about an upcoming Seldon crisis, definitely loses something if he can't also be blowing cigar smoke into the Mayor's face, and the poor Mayor trying not to cough as he doesn't smoke.Other things to bring in would be details from the synopses from Astounding, for example that the original "Warlord of Kalgan" whom the Mule displaces and later installs over the conquered Terminus was not some Kalganian native acquiring hawkish tendencies, but one of many Empire Generals-turned-Warlords of various regions:"Meanwhile, the old Empire has fallen quite to pieces, with the various splinters under the shifting, incoherent control of successions of warlords, whose ephemeral military rule waxes and wanes chaotically. It is to these warlords that certain elements of the Independent Traders look for help against the Foundation. However, none of these warlords are at all anxious to tangle with a Foundation known to have defeated the Empire singlehanded and known to be invincible by the established laws of psychohistory. There is only 'The Mule." ... As the story opens, he has just captured the planet of Kalgan without a fight, though its former warlord was known to be a capable warrior, entirely ungiven to surrender." And Bail Channis is a military man, though he does not wear his uniform while on his expedition with Hans Pritcher.Other details could flow from the other approved Foundation books by others; perhaps some details, especially regarding Linge Chen, and other background characters drawn from Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear, could be incorporated into The Psychohistorians segment, or slight wear and tear, missing ceiling portions, litter in the streets not picked up, as indicated in Forward the Foundation, despite the still-otherwise gleaming planet-city of Trantor. Or in giving a history leading up to The Mule (in a short opening narrative admittedly not in the book) brief mention (and glimpse scenes) of the Fall of Trantor as conquered by Gilmer and the preservation of the Imperial Library by the students (omitting all mention of the Second Foundation however), as drawn from Harry Turtledove's "Trantor Falls" from Foundation's Friends.It might also not hurt (though it is not clear what effect it would have on the series, beyond what Hari Seldon's image is saying during the Mule crisis) to have some idea what the Seldon crisis for that time would have been if there were no Mule. Perhaps the Empire-General-turned-Warlord of Kalgan hopes, if he cannot destroy or conquer the Foundation, at least "make off" with its Traders or a signNow percentage of them, and perhaps through them some of their technology that they sell as well. (Originally he hoped to provoke a war between the two foundations, but scanning the furthest regions of the galaxy in vain searching for it he concludes that it is of no account and no help.) So he then turns to creating a civil war within the Foundation - perhaps he can set the Traders at war with the corrupt oligarchy that rules them from Terminus, and many Trader worlds would have joined him, but the few that didn't along with a surprising strength from the Terminus Oligarchy side who have at their beck and call the entire Foundation technology - which the Traders understand far too little of to be of much benefit to the Kalgan Warlord - and so he fails and better relations (something kind of like a union) forms among the Traders to strengthen their bargaining position against the Oligarchy who then begin dealing with them more honestly. But for those third and fourth Seldon crises the end has the Seldon image explaining the Crisis, but as the camera pans around (during the closing credits) no one is in the room.A carefully worked out chronology, specifying how many years into the Foundation era each story is, would be easy to give at the outset of each segment or after any major duration within a segment.Now, can anyone tell me that all of this would not add up to "utterly cool" if only it could be so produced?

There might be many reasons. These are some which I have encountered:a) cry for help: the problem is minor but persistent, or minor but manifold. The co-workers cannot resolve it so they have to ask the boss for help. For instance, I had a teammate who always came late. If the event prep started at 9am, she came at 9:30, just when the laborious prep work like arranging the tables and chairs was completed. She would gracefully take a seat, fire up the computer and look prim and proper while the rest of us fumed. We ended up complaining to the boss again and again as the girl was quite shameless and saw nothing wrong with what she was doing.b) tattle-tale: one of our HR heads was always whispering in the CEO’s ear. Every time there was a meeting of the heads of departments, she sat right next to the CEO, and frequently muttered, “I told you about it” whenever a problem was reported. I could hear her because I was taking minutes and sat near the CEO. She cultivated an all-knowing reputation to curry favour with the CEO. Her “power behind the throne” reign ended when we had a new CEO.c) sensitive matters: sometimes people aren’t comfortable talking to co-workers about certain matters. They want to preserve the working relationship. So they ask the boss to deal with it. Sensitive matters I’ve encountered are poor personal hygiene, unwillingness to assume responsibility, sexism and religious proselytizing.