"Oh, hell! I can't sleep!" "Neither can I! But I might as well try — as a matter of principle." Twelve hours later, sleep was still just that — a mat… - Isaac Asimov

Education isn't something you can finish.

The general pattern of water circulation, particularly in the northern hemisphere's Atlantic Ocean, is fairly well understood. As cold water sinks to the bottom of the sea around the Arctic Ocean, it travels slowly southward along the sea-bottom toward the Equator. Once it reaches the equatorial tropics it is warmed and accordingly rises to the surface, after which it slowly moves northward, in the form of the ocean surface currents mariners have long learned to map, making a complete circuit as the water returns toward the Pole.

"And just how did you arrive at that remarkable conclusion, Mr. Mayor?"

"In a rather simple way. It merely required the use of that much-neglected commodity — common sense. You see, there is a branch of human knowledge known as symbolic logic, which can be used to prune away all sorts of clogging deadwood that clutters up human language."

"What about it?" said Fulham.

"I applied it. Among other things, I applied it to this document here. I didn't really need to for myself because I knew what it was all about, but I think I can explain it more easily to five physical scientists by symbols rather than by words."

Hardin removed a few sheets of paper from the pad under his arm and spread them out. "I didn't do this myself, by the way," he said. "Muller Holk of the Division of Logic has his name signed to the analyses, as you can see."

Pirenne leaned over the table to get a better view and Hardin continued: "The message from Anacreon was a simple problem, naturally, for the men who wrote it were men of action rather than men of words. It boils down easily and straightforwardly to the unqualified statement, when in symbols is what you see, and which in words, roughly translated is, 'You give us what we want in a week, or we take it by force.'"

There was silence as the five members of the Board ran down the line of symbols, and then Pirenne sat down and coughed uneasily.

Hardin said, "No loophole, is there, Dr. Pirenne?"

"Doesn't seem to be."