Art Of Conflict Transformation: A Resource Pack: Fill & Download for Free

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.One thing that people always seem to not understand when dealing with terrorism is that, in no way, shape, or form is it like destroying a country’s military. In Sun Tzu’s book The Art of War, Chapter 3“In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”This Is how you defeat a nation army, you break their morale, and you take their country. The best battle is no battle at all. However, this has not worked, as we see in Iraq and Afghanistan against terrorist organizations. However, we do know that the US completely and utterly took over both nations quickly. It took the US, 1 month, 1 week, and 4 days to officially take over Iraq from the Ba’ath governemnt, and it took the US 2 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days to take over Afghanistan. So technically the war would be over, the US won, the only reason why we stayed was due to TERRORISM insurgency. This is what we will be talking about today and why no country in the world could ever fully destroy a terrorist organization.4 More modern ways you destroy a military is…1: Complete and utter annihilation2: Destroy their funds3: (Already talked about) break their morale.4: take the countryNone of these will work for a terrorist organization like ISIS or Boko Haram. We will be talking about Islamic terrorism, as it is the most prominent in the world.In order to understand who, when, where, why and how we must understand all the words that we will be talking about.Definitions:Terrorism- the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political or social aims.Terrorist- a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.Insurgency- an active revolt or uprising.Insurgent- a rebel or revolutionary.Domestic- existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international.Refugee- a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.Hearth- the region from which ideas or cultural ideology originate.Islam- the religion of the Muslims, a monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.I have no clue if this is a quote from a person, and if so please comment who said it and I’ll give credit. From what I can find I can’t find anything on the quote so I guess I came up with it until further notice, “Terrorism is like sand in your back pack. You could be thousands of miles away from the source and never go back to the source, but you will always find pieces of sand in your backpack no matter how many times you wash it.”Backpack meaning country, and sand the actual terrorists, and washing it meaning arresting or killing terrorists. It is legitimately impossible to fully eradicate terrorism, or terrorist organizations like ISIS. This is true due to the fact that the exist in no one specific place. We only have the hearth to identify why and how terrorism exists. Islamic terrorism can be drawn all the way back to the 7th century with the Kharijites in modern day Syria. They developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach of Takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed them worthy of death. Their aim was to make Muslims fearful making them want to become more devout to Allah and to make true non believers want to become apart of Islam. Fast forward a couple centuries or so and the first modern Islamic terrorist organization was the PLO or the Palestine Liberation Organization. However, at the Madrid conference in 1991, they were no longer designated a terrorist organization but the official representative of the Palestinian people. The oldest terrorist group that’s still alive and still designated a terrorist group is the PFLP or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP was first founded sometime in August of 1967, due to the Israeli victory in the infamous six-day war. This is where we find the main hearth of modern Islamic terrorism, this one group began to spread like a virus, it began to form other groups, breakaway groups such as the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This also created copy cat groups such as the infamous Black September Organization which is most famous for the 1972 Munich massacre in which killed 6 Israeli coaches, and 5 Israeli athletes. Also, created one of the most reproduced and circulated photos of Terrorism.*One of the most reproduced photos taken during the siege captured a kidnapper on the balcony attached to Munich Olympic village Building 31, where members of the Israeli Olympic team and delegation were quartered.Another very very famous group is Hamas. The group is mostly an offshoot of the group the Muslim Brotherhood, but we’re heavily influenced by the PLFP and the PLO. Hamas is considered the dominating party and main head of leadership in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (designated area for the Palestinians on the border of Israel, Jordan, and Syria). These groups are the backbone of the creation of modern day terrorist organization such as Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Al Nusra, ISIS (broke off Al-Qaeda in 2013), and the group the Mujahadeen and then later transformed into the Taliban. They all have one thing in common, they all came to fruition near their hearth of Syria. Now since we now know When, who, and where, we can move onto why.Why was the PLO established? Why was islamic Terrorism formed at all? This answer can stem back to WWI, with the Balfour Declaration. The declaration was a public statement issued by the British government during World War I announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a minority Jewish population. However, the British high commissioner in Egypt sent letters to Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. In which proved a permanent land for the Palestinians. The intention of this was to get the Arabs to revolt against the ottomans which would significantly help the war effort in Europe. This is known as the Arab Revolt, which significantly helped the war effort, it actually was very pivotal, it ended up basically breaking up the Ottoman Empire and it gave the Arabs their own nations. The League of Nations ended up giving the control of syria, the Sinai Peninsula and modern day Israel to the British and the French. After WWII the British wanted to give Palestine to the Jewish people as some sort of a safe haven for them. A rival Arab nationalism also claimed rights over the former Ottoman territories and sought to prevent Jewish migration into Palestine, leading to growing Arab–Jewish tensions. Israeli independence in 1948 was marked by massive migration of Jews from Europe, a Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries to Israel, and of Arabs from Israel, followed by the Arab–Israeli conflict. About 43% of the world's Jews live in Israel today, the largest Jewish community in the world. Because of this, the creation of a Jewish state in a Arab world, the Palestinians and the surrounding Arab countries hated this very much. But the newly formed U.N. came up with a plan that would give the Palestine area to both the Jews and the Palestinians. This is known as the U.N. partition plan. This was to break up the area between the Jews and the Palestinians. Most of the land would be given to the Palestinians as it was their land in the first place, but the Jews and Arabs saw the city of Jerusalem as their rightful capital. So as a response, the U.N. sought to have the city as an international city in which no one country owns the city.The Arab League members Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq refused to accept the UN partition plan and proclaimed the right of self-determination for the Arabs across the whole of Palestine. The Arab states marched their forces into what had, until the previous day, been the British Mandate for Palestine, starting the first Arab–Israeli War. Now this war is super super super lopsided. The Arab League declared war on Israel literally a day after the country was founded. Now in context let’s look at how each stack up. The Arab League nations have been their own countries for decades, and have had years of growing both their economy and military. Israel, had 1 day.Israel30,000 troopsVarious tanks and heavy armor but in low numbersArab League63,500 troopsVarious tanks and heavy armor but in larger numbers still relatively small but larger than Israel.Winner- Israel. Took 50% of the territory designated to the Palestinian people.Blue- originally owned by IsraelRed- Taken by Israel after the warGreen/purple-Controlled by Arab League after the 1949 ArmisticeGrey- city of JerusalemLuckily this armistice held up until 1967 only with small incursions by various nations that had to be dealt with by the Israelis. The next war we will be looking at is the six-day war between the Israelis and Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon with the support of various other Arab nations.Israel264,000 troops300 combat aircraft800 tanksAll Arab nations combined547,000 Troops1,000 combat aircraft2,500 tanksWinner-Israel. By a lot.Now Israel completely dominates territory that wasn’t theirs in the beginning. They seem to win every war they are in no matter the odds. Now Israel is starting to really prove itself to the world and to surrounding Arab nations, that we won 2 wars for this land and it should be ours. It was given to us by God, by the earths governments, and we fought wars for it. But the arab nations still couldn’t get across their minds that they will just have to live with a Jewish neighbor. The next war to be fought was the war of attrition. Attrition meaning the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure. This war was fought on The Sinai Peninsula and resulted in a ceasefire with no territorial changes. The next big war to fight was (and this is my favorite lopsided war). The Yom Kippur war, now the Arab nations especially Egypt thought they could be super sly and catch the Israelis off guard when they are celebrating Yom Kippur. Let break it down between Israel and the Arab nations.Israel400,000troops1,700 tanks3,000 armored carriers945 artillery units440 combat aircraftArab Nations combined1,067,500 troops3,600 tanks4,000 armored carriers1,720 artillery units452 combat aircraft140 helicopters104 navy vessels150 surface to air missile batteriesWinner- Any guesses? That’s right…Israel.Now Egypt did really surprise Israel and actually took back The Sinai Peninsula, however, the Israelis did come back and take The Sinai back but it was a really really close call for the Israelis. This resulted in the 1973 Camp David accords. Which was a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. Israel was given peace, and Egypt was given The Sinai Peninsula. Egypt vowed never to attack Israel again, and even through multiple coups and power changes, the accord remained intact. The original signer, Anwar Sadat, for the Egyptians, was assassinated because he signed the peace accord and yet the accord stood through all that. After 1973, no big arab nation such a small Iraq or Saudi Arabia attacked Israel again, only really Lebanon and the territory given to the Palestinian people.So the reason why Islamic terrorism exists? Short answer, because of Israel.Now, I support Israel 110%. I am a devout Christian and I believe that God gave the area to the Israelis. And 1st world countries who support Israel seem to have a lot of terroism in their country. Europe, HUGE supporter of Israel, seem to have a lot of Islamic terrorist attacks. US HUGE supporter of Israel, lots of Islamic terrorist attacks. Russia. Not a very big supporter, never really have any Islamic terrorist attacks. Now of course Russia has Islamic terrorist attacks but’s not nearly as much as the US or Europe. And most terrorism is not necessarily based off of because of Israel, but it was the MAIN FACTOR and DRVING FACTOR in the creation of these first groups and the groups actions.Now this spawns questions, would the world be Islamic terrorist free? Would Christian or Buddhist terrorism be the dominating religious terrorism? Or would the Sunni’s and the Shi’ites have gone to war such as Saudi Arabia and Iran?And why can’t we destroy ISIS or even Islamic terrorism? That’s because it’s an ideology, and you can only suppress an ideology, it can never really become extinct 100%. Especially with so many people truly believing in it.These questions can only be answered through hypotheticals and what ifs.

Mark Rosewater has talked a few times about the "Five Ages of Design" for Magic, and each of these were a "design shift" where R&D thought very differently about how to design cards, sets, and blocks. If you're interested in his perspective, I would recommend you read this article: Eighteen Years. There has definitely been at least one new “age” since that article was written.I see things a little differently than Mark does, so I'll break down the shifts in design as I see them, as a player.In the BeginningAlpha through AlliancesAt the dawn of Magic, the creators were mostly concerned with creating interesting cards that people would want to play with. The game hadn't really reached its greatest audience yet, so it wasn't widely known which effects would be the most powerful. So, notable cards from this age usually fell in to two interesting categories: cards with interesting but unwieldy top-down designs, and cards that are incredibly broken. The cards stood out on their own, which made for some neat individual cards, but the expansions lacked cohesion and themes were weak.Top-Down Design: Cards that are created by thinking of a card's concept first, then thinking how game mechanics can fit the flavor of the concept. As an example, in a top-down design, you might want to design a werewolf, then figure out how the game's mechanics can represent the transformation. The opposite is Bottom-Up Design, where the card's concept is developed using the mechanics as a starting point.Alpha had a cycle of one-mana-for-three spells. It’s a neat cycle conceptually, but the power level varies wildly among the five. Of those five, only one is still regularly printed. One is too weak for Standard. One is overpowered for Standard, but has seen a Modern printing. One is incredibly overpowered, and has not only not seen a Modern printing, but that effect has now permanently moved to a different color. And the fifth card, shown below, is banned in almost every format and is widely regarded as one of the most powerful spells in Magic.Ancestral Recall (Unlimited Edition)The next two cards are incredibly powerful cards that have very interesting top-down effects. Library of Alexandria, which was printed in Arabian Nights, has a theme of gaining knowledge, represented by drawing cards. Balance is a card that is meant to even the playing field, and does so my making players sacrifice many different kinds of resources until both sides are even. Of course, in practice, this usually unbalances the game, but you can still see the original intent in the card.Library of Alexandria (Arabian Nights), Balance (Unlimited Edition)Those two are fairly elegant early top-down designs, relative to some of the other top-down designs. I'll end this section on two cards that also have some neat top-down flavor, but are otherwise a mess:Ice Cauldron (Ice Age), Illusionary Mask (Unlimited Edition)Dawn of the Block and The Weatherlight SagaMirage through ProphecyOnce Magic had been around for a few years, it became apparent that Magic was no longer just a card game with a few expansions. With expansions coming out on a regular basis, they decided to organize these sets into three-set blocks, with one large set and two small sets. The sets from this era had much stronger themes, and there were many more cards that propped up the themes of the set instead of shining individually. Though sets were divided into blocks, the blocks did not have much cohesion among the sets.Here’s an example of one of Magic’s earliest strong themes: Slivers.Crystalline Sliver (Stronghold)(There are many Slivers similar to this one that give bonuses to all Slivers.)The Weatherlight Saga started in, well, Weatherlight (included in the Mirage block even though Mirage and Visions were mostly unrelated to Weatherlight). This was Magic's attempt at telling a much stronger story, and you could see bits and pieces of it on the cards. This storyline continued until Apocalypse, when pretty much everyone was killed off, with Karn being a notable exception.One really neat thing about the Tempest Block is that a lot of the cards told pieces of the story, and if you arranged them in the proper order, it would tell you a lot of what was going on (though Preconstructed decks at the time also had very interesting little storybooks). Here's an example of several cards illustrating an event that happens near the beginning (and these aren't even all of the cards detailing this battle).Gerrard Capashen prepares the Weatherlight for battle with the Predator: Gerrard's Battle CryGerrard and Greven il-Vec start fighting on the Weatherlight: No Quarter, Sadistic GleeVhati il-Dal bombs the Weatherlight, aiming at both Gerrard and Greven, and sending Gerrard overboard: Sudden ImpactHanna watches Gerrard fall: Abandon HopeGerrard lands safely: Broken FallGreven confronts Vhati about the bombing: Vhati il-Dal, RepentanceVhati faces the consequences: Diabolic EdictUrza's Block was better known as having cards that were ridiculously broken, such as this card, which is banned in most formats:Tolarian Academy (Urza's Saga)Urza Block was actually meant to be an enchantment-matters block, and you can see that on a lot of the cards in the set, but the artifacts that were available at the time were a much bigger contributor to the broken environment. (I would mark this as the first environment broken primarily by overpowered artifacts.)The Masques block, on the other hand, was underpowered to compensate.The Age of Block Themes and Bottom-Up DesignInvasion to DissensionWith a few blocks behind them, Wizards started to really succeed at building entire blocks around a theme, having each set play with different elements of that theme. Invasion was a multicolor block, with Planeshift adding a bunch of ally-colored spells, and Apocalypse adding enemy-colored spells. Odyssey was a graveyard-centric block. Onslaught was a tribal/creature block, and so on. Top-down design had really been the main way of doing things in the past, but this is where bottom-up design really started to shine.Story-wise, Apocalypse was a bit of a reset button. The Odyssey and Onslaught blocks took place on the same plane, but with new characters and new conflicts. Mirrodin started the newer trend in Magic of setting each block on a different plane, which is now one of the bigger strengths of the Magic storyline.I believe this is also about the time that the Booster Draft format became a popular way to play. The first several blocks weren't built for draft, and they have issues if you try to draft them. Some of the blocks in this era were also odd for draft (especially Odyssey block), but many of these blocks are much more fun to draft than earlier blocks.This card from Apocalypse shows off what a lot of Invasion was about, mechanically.Rakavolver (Apocalypse)I think this card shows off Odyssey block fairly well, and the following is a card that older players will remember. This also came with another design shift: creatures had been underpowered in general until around this time, when cards like Psychatog and several others made creatures worth playing again.Psychatog (Odyssey)Mirrodin brought us a new way to think about artifacts. It wasn’t the first artifact-matters set; that honor goes to Antiquities. It brought us “indestructible”, which would later be used to replace more complex mechanics like regenerate. It brought us the broken affinity mechanic that led to one of the worst Standard environments in Magic’s history. (This is the second environment broken by overpowered artifacts.)One of the better lasting impacts of Mirrodin was the addition of a new type of artifact that allowed you to augment your creatures without being tied to them: Equipment. They were very overpowered at first, but the power level was adjusted, and they’ve been a staple of Magic sets ever since.Sword of Fire and Ice (Darksteel)The Ravnica block stands apart as being a set with great design that finally gave some mechanical identity to each of the ten color pairings. It's included in this age only because of the heavy reliance of bottom-up design. This was a block that a lot of people loved, and it was the follow up they needed after the Kamigawa block failed.If you'd like to see what kind of identity each color pairing has, look no further than the guildmages:Azorius (control and countermagic): Azorius GuildmageOrzhov (life drain): Orzhov GuildmageBoros (fast creatures, combat superiority): Boros GuildmageSelesnya (many creatures, helped by tokens): Selesnya GuildmageDimir (control and card draw): Dimir GuildmageIzzet (instants and sorceries): Izzet GuildmageSimic (creature improvements): Simic GuildmageRakdos (reckless aggression): Rakdos GuildmageGolgari (graveyard, creature growth): Golgari GuildmageGruul (bigger creatures, direct damage): Gruul GuildmageThe Height of ComplexityTime Spiral to Alara RebornThis block definitely stands apart in design, and caused a major design shift starting with the next block.Time Spiral was a "time" block. There were multiple time-altering mechanics, such as split second and suspend. Also notable is that Time Spiral was a set about the past, with many reprints, returning mechanics, and references to old cards, Planar Chaos was a set about an alternate present, switching staple cards to different colors to show an alternate color pie that might make sense, and Future Sight had many "future" cards with unique mechanics that would show where Magic might go in the future.This was a set that was loved by older players that had already seen the older cards and were familiar with the mechanics that were returning, and many people loved seeing a new twist on the older mechanics, such as combining Cycling and Madness on the same card. This set really failed with newer players, however, as they felt all the weight of the extensive, rich history of Magic all at once, and it was overwhelming.It felt like every card in that set, even the commons, had a unique mechanic. I just opened a simulated pack of Future Sight. Most of the cards have at least four lines of text. Counting up the non-evergreen mechanics in that pack, I get: morph, vanishing, scry (not evergreen at the time), suspend, absorb, convoke, kicker, and hellbent. There are only three cards in the pack that aren’t complex. It must have been a nightmare drafting this set as a new player. Imagine having only a minute to figure out the best card in a Future Sight pack if you had never seen the cards before!Time Spiral was also notorious for reprinting old cards that don't belong in their respective colors, as well as dredging up a few old cards that no longer belong in their colors. This confused a lot of people as to what each color actually does, and it still occasionally confuses players that say things like "direct damage was printed in blue in Time Spiral, therefore direct damage is a blue effect".Psionic Blast (Time Spiral "Timeshifted")Because Time Spiral was the second largest set in Magic's history (second to Fifth Edition), there was an overwhelming number of cards to choose from in Standard, further complicating the game at this point in time.On the story side, Time Spiral block was another "reset button" that killed off most of the old planeswalkers in preparation for a new crop of planeswalkers that would appear in the next block. (Planeswalkers were originally designed for Time Spiral, but the mechanics weren't fully worked out in time, so they were pushed back.)Magic R&D had learned their lesson from Time Spiral block, but some of the future sets were already too far in development to apply what they learned about complexity. Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, while not as ridiculously complex as the preceding block, still ended up more complex than they should have been.Lorwyn was the set that introduced an interesting new card type: the planeswalker. Planeswalkers had almost never been represented on cards before, with only a small handful of exceptions (Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir).Garruk Wildspeaker (Lorwyn)The Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block was also a new experiment in block structure, and ever since, many of the blocks would be in a structure other than large set/small set/small set. This block was large/small/large/small, consisting of two smaller mini-blocks. The success of this experiment influenced the block structure change many years later.Shards of Alara added the first three-color theme and the Mythic Rare rarity. This card was among the first batch:Godsire (Shards of Alara)Shard of Alara gave an identity to each of the five “shards”, each of which was a combination of three colors that are adjacent on the color wheel. Here are some example cards from each shard:Bant (GWU): Rafiq of the ManyEsper (WUB): Thopter FoundryGrixis (UBR): Cruel UltimatumJund (BRG): Broodmate DragonNaya (RGW): Woolly ThoctarNew World Order with Bottom-Up DesignMagic 2010/Zendikar to Rise of the EldraziAfter Time Spiral block made Magic prohibitively complex for a lot of new players, Wizards decided to put a new policy into place: save the complex cards for higher rarities, and keep common cards simple. This policy, referred to as New World Order, did a lot to not only make the game more accessible, but to make designs at lower rarities more elegant. This policy didn't (and doesn't) make the game less interesting to play or make the game less complex as a whole, but it made it so that a new player could understand how to use the majority of the cards in their packs. As a result, when a new mechanic is introduced, you most often see a very basic version at common, a twist on that mechanic at uncommon, and the weirder twists at rare.Magic 2010 came out around this time, and was revolutionary in its own way. It was a new way of thinking about core sets. Core sets have always been the recommended entry point for new players to Magic, but M10 brought two big changes. The first is that previous core sets consisted entirely of reprints, but M10 had several new cards.Doom Blade (Magic 2010)(Like many other cards in M10, Doom Blade was a simpler, better version of its predecessor, Terror.)The second is that many of the cards in M10 were tournament-quality staples. The previous core set, Tenth Edition, had a handful of useful cards, but the cards were generally underpowered. M10 saw a reprint at Common that saw play in many Standard decks until the card was not included in M12:Lightning Bolt (Magic 2010)(The flavor text on this card was a beautiful metaphor for those of us who played with Lightning Bolt years ago, and were excited to see it return. I still say "bolt!" when using cards that deal three damage.)Around this time, there was another design shift: having creatures do many of the things that were once done only by instants and sorceries. This allowed decks that were playing more control-based strategies to still have a few creatures in the deck that could participate in combat, or, if you're lucky, attack for the win.I heard a saying pop up around this time: “every good creature is either a Baneslayer or a Mulldrifter.” Baneslayer Angel was very powerful in its day, and it was powerful because of its abilities as a creature. It only attacked and blocked, but it did those very well. Mulldrifter was also a very powerful creature, not because of its ability to attack and block, but because it provided two cards in addition to being a 2/2 flyer. There had always been a ton of Baneslayers, but I think M10 shows us the rise of the Mulldrifters as a major component of Magic.Æther Adept (Magic 2011)The Return of Top-Down DesignScars of Mirrodin to Magic OriginsPrevious blocks had creative themes that ran through them, but the themes didn't always hit their mark. Kamigawa had a very interesting, authentic Japanese theme, but it proved to be very alien and off-putting to people not familiar with it. Lorwyn had a very Celtic feel to it, but that feel didn't really match the mechanics, and the world wasn't something that was familiar to players.Innistrad and Theros were both worlds that were based on something American players were already familiar with, and instead of worrying about making something that was 100% percent true to the roots of horror or Greek myth, the designers worried more about incorporating the elements that players already knew and expected to see. Innistrad had many of the classical horror tropes (unlucky 13, enemies that don't seem to die, zombies that are slow but numerous) and monsters (werewolves, vampires, zombies, ghosts) that players were hoping to see. Theros, similarly, had gods that were pieced together from ancient Greek deities and had direct references to Greek myths.In previous blocks, mechanics were the theme. In these blocks, mechanics were used to build and emphasize the creative theme they were working with. As an example, previous werewolves in Magic had mechanics that were unrelated to what werewolves are known to do. Werewolves in Innistrad would transform into a beast when the conditions were right.Mayor of Avabruck // Howlpack Alpha (Innistrad)Not all of the blocks designed in this time period were top-down, but this era saw the first top-down block designs in a very long time. As an exception, the Return to Ravnica block was definitely a bottom-up block with a two-color theme.In Theros Block, the stories of Orpheus and King Midas had their own cards, and many cards had flavor text from "The Theriad", a reference to The Iliad and The Odyssey.Rescue from the Underworld (Theros), Gild (Born of the Gods)Unlike some of the earliest top-down cards, these were mechanics that not only evoked the theme, but were elegantly done and were fun to play. Rescue from the Underworld was a pretty simple Resurrection-style card mechanically, but it was one where a creature drags another out from your graveyard. Gild was fairly simple creature removal mechanically, similar to the earlier card Sever the Bloodline combined with an Eldrazi-Spawn-like effect, but it was also a card where you use the Midas touch on an opponent's creature, then pawn it off. (Of course, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed was a stronger tie to King Midas, but I believe that Gild was the more elegant card.)M15 had a very different design in a few ways, but I think there's one aspect that stands out in particular: the cards designed by outside game designers. Some of these cards have pretty interesting concepts, even if not all of them are particularly powerful. Here's the card designed by Markus "Notch" Persson, with card art that resembles the game he's best known for:Aggressive Mining (Magic 2015)The Tarkir block was a bottom-up set designed around its unique draft structure (more on that later). I think the most notable thing about the Tarkir block wasn't due to changes in the cards themselves. For me, the Tarkir block will be remembered as the set where Magic storytelling took a radical change for the better.Over the history of Magic, Wizards tried to tell the Magic story in a number of ways. There were always Magic novels, but those didn't always reach a wide audience. The Weatherlight Saga was an attempt to tell the story on the cards, but that plan was pretty short-lived (Tempest and Stronghold did this very well, but it started dropping off around Exodus). They tried including the novels in Fat Packs. They tried telling the stories of their planeswalkers in awesome webcomics. They tried e-books for Scars of Mirrodin and Theros. The problem is that Magic players weren't really buying the books, and as a result, nobody really knew what was going on in the story.By the time Khans of Tarkir came out, the column Uncharted Realms had been running for a while, telling official Magic side-stories. For Tarkir block, however, Uncharted Realms would become the official source of the Magic story. This meant the the story was free and easily accessible. For the first time, I saw people become really invested in the Magic story. People now knew which characters are involved, the main story of the block, and even some interesting facts about some of the side characters that appeared as legendary creatures on the cards.These two characters in particular seem to have really resonated with people. I'd recommend reading The Truth of Names (this one’s especially relevant for me) and The Great Teacher's Student if you're interested in finding out why.Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (Fate Reforged), Narset Transcendent (Dragons of Tarkir)Tarkir also gave some color identity to the five “wedges”, the three color combinations consisting of two adjacent colors and the color opposite both of them. Most of the Ascendancy enchantments didn’t see much play in Standard, but they were great at reinforcing the mechanical themes.Abzan Ascendancy (WBG)Jeskai Ascendancy (URW)Sultai Ascendancy (BGU)Mardu Ascendancy (RWB)Temur Ascendancy (GUR)Magic Origins was the next set, and because they thought it would be the final core set, they used this opportunity to give some background information on the recurring characters that we would see in the coming blocks. Previous core sets didn't really have a story at all, but Magic Origins gave us origin stories for five different planeswalkers, as well as looking at where they were in the present.Another important change around this time, which started around Journey into Nyx, was adding important story elements to the cards themselves. Previously, they didn’t want to spoil the story by featuring the climax on a card that every player would see, but the greater problem was that players often didn’t know what happened in the story at all. So, in Journey into Nyx, they designed a card to represent the climax of the entire Theros block: the moment that Elspeth killed Xenagos, a planeswalker that forced himself into the pantheon of Theran gods as the God of Revels.Deicide (Journey into Nyx)In later blocks, more of the key story moments would be shown on cards. The following cards are the climactic moments in the two following blocks (Tarkir and Battle for Zendikar). Also note that the mechanics on these cards are very evocative of what happened in the actual story.Tarkir block: Crux of FateThe turning point of the Tarkir story was Sarkhan rewriting history to “destroy all non-Dragon creatures” instead of “destroy all Dragon creatures” during the Crux of Fate.Battle for Zendikar block: Fall of the TitansWhen combined with Bonds of Mortality and sufficient mana, Fall of the Titans could kill both Ulamog and Kozilek in one shot, as it did in the Battle for Zendikar story.Shadows over Innistrad block: Imprisoned in the MoonIt’s a fine way of dealing with Emrakul, the Promised End, even if it doesn’t kill her. You do have to survive long enough to use it, though. It also works on characters that were imprisoned earlier in the story, including Nahiri, Avacyn, and Griselbrand.Starting with Kaladesh, these story cards were given special text to indicate their status as “Story Spotlight” cards, and they increased the number of story cards from one to five.The Beginning of Two-Set Blocks and Dawn of The GatewatchBattle for Zendikar to Rivals of IxalanMark Rosewater wrote an article, Metamorphosis, that detailed the new structure of Magic: the Tarkir block would be the final three-set block, Magic Origins would be the final core set (or so they thought), and the block structure moving forward would be two small blocks per year, similar to Lorwyn-Shadowmoor.Magic had been having a problem for a long time that they called the "third set problem". There were always three sets per block, and it was proving to be very difficult to come up with a way to make all three sets interesting. The first set usually introduced us to a new place with new mechanics, so it was usually fine. The second set would usually be some kind of spin on the first, and the third set would usually be a slightly different spin. There were a few times where they managed to make all three sets compelling, but it was usually due to a complete mechanical and creative reboot of the block, which was fine for players, but would require a lot of extra work from the developers. Mark Rosewater wrote about this problem in detail in one of his articles (Third Time's the Charm) in anticipation of Dragon's Maze... too bad that set didn't turn out to be the answer to his problem either. (They would later find that the problem wasn’t with the third set, but with all small sets.)Another problem that this new structure hoped to correct was the "core set problem". The idea was that new players would hopefully use the core set as an introduction to the game, because it had simpler cards with simpler mechanics. However, with the success of the Duels of the Planeswalkers games for PC and consoles, it became apparent that most players weren't using the core sets to learn how to play. They instead would play the video games, which provided a low-pressure setting in which to learn, then delve into whichever set was most current. So, if new players aren't using the core sets, then who exactly is the core set for? So, instead of reworking the core set again, they decided to remove it in favor of more "expert-level" sets. (This change would also be revisited in the near future.)An interesting change that came out of the Battle for Zendikar block was the addition of the Zendikar Expeditions. These were incredibly rare and special lands that were inserted into Battle for Zendikar block packs, with a rarity similar to finding a foil Mythic Rare (about 1 in four 36-pack boxes), and they quickly became very expensive. These printings were not necessarily legal in Standard, meaning that you could buy a new pack of cards and get one of the old, powerful lands you might need for older formats. The “Masterpiece Series” was added to Kaladesh as Kaladesh Inventions, and later to Amonkhet as Amonkhet Invocations, and it was announced that the Masterpiece Series would be a permanent addition. (It was not very permanent.)Polluted Delta (Zendikar Expeditions)Oath of the Gatewatch introduced us to the “Gatewatch”, which is basically a super-team of planeswalkers. We can see this teaming up represented in several of the cards, but I especially want to highlight the Oaths, which each represent a different planeswalker joining the Gatewatch.Oath of Nissa (Oath of the Gatewatch)Kaladesh brought us two very interesting new mechanics. The first is energy, a resource similar to mana, except that it’s harder to acquire and it doesn’t drain automatically. What’s interesting about energy is that most cards that use energy both generate and use energy, but you could also save the generated energy to use with other cards.Aetherworks Marvel (Kaladesh)The other unique mechanic to come out of Kaladesh is the addition of vehicles. While artifacts that turn into creatures under the right circumstances are nothing new for Magic, vehicles were definitely a victory of Magic as a storytelling medium, because vehicles in Magic never had a consistent or compelling set of mechanics, which means that it will be much easier to create cards in the future that represent vehicles that come up during the story, especially major ones like the Weatherlight or the Predator.As unique as Kaladesh was, both vehicles and energy would come to dominate Standard at different points. Just like with Equipment, Wizards misjudged the power level of vehicles when they were first released, and Smuggler’s Copter was banned in Standard after only a few months. Aetherworks Marvel was the first energy card to be banned, followed by Attune with Aether and Rogue Refiner a while after. (This is the third environment broken by overpowered artifacts.)Smuggler's Copter (Kaladesh)The Gatewatch had provided some planeswalker protagonists, but it got to be a little overkill, due to their constant time in the spotlight and the fact that they hadn’t lost a major battle. Hour of Devastation not only provided their first major defeat, but also (for unrelated reasons) marked a change where the Gatewatch would not be featured as prominently on planeswalker cards, leaving much more room to feature other characters. As of Hour of Devastation, there were five Nissa planeswalker cards in Standard, so it was time to share the spotlight a little bit.Gideon's Defeat (Hour of Devastation)The End of the Block StructureDominaria and other future setsIn another big update article from Mark Rosewater called Metamorphosis 2.0, he showed us another set of large changes, similar to the last major change.The Three-and-One Model: As it turns out, the “third-set problem” identified years prior was misidentified. The problem was actually with all small sets, and not exclusive to blocks with two small sets. So, instead of trying to build blocks that would work well together in Limited play, they decided to just make every set independent, even though it would take more resources to do so. There could still be consecutive sets on the same plane or in the same story arc, but they no longer needed to be constrained by the block model. There would still be four sets per year, and three would be independent, large sets. The “-and-One” refers to the next change.Return of the Core Set: The core set provided a few things that were sorely missing, and they decided the best solution was to simply bring core sets back, with stronger focus toward newer players. The main problem was that it added a gap in the learning curve for newer players, for players who were ready to buy boosters, but perhaps not ready for the complexity of an “expert-level” set. The other large problem is that, without core sets, there often wasn’t a set where they could insert reprints to tweak Standard as needed, because they didn’t fit in the other sets for a mechanical or flavor reason.Around this time, we got Unstable. It wasn’t one of Magic’s normal sets, but since the silver-border on those cards makes them unusable in tournament play, they were able to push the envelope a lot more and figure out which things might be plausible in the future. The biggest development we saw right away was the improvement of collating technology, used to put cards in sets. They were no longer forced to put certain cards in certain “slots”, such as the “double-faced slot” in Innistrad boosters. To show off one of the new capabilities, they made a bunch of different cards with the same name, such as Very Cryptic Command.Very Cryptic Command (variation c) (Unstable)Dominaria was able to use that technology shortly after. There was a guaranteed legendary creature in every pack, but unlike previous sets which might have had a “legendary creature slot”, the legendary creature replaced a card of the same rarity.Dominaria proved to be a great way to celebrate the history of Magic, without repeating the mistakes of the Time Spiral block, and it remains one of my favorite draft environments to date.War of the Spark was pretty special in a few ways. Since it was the culmination of a major storyline that had been in the works for a very long time, they pulled out all the stops for this set. This set contained 36 Planeswalkers, and for the first time, Planeswalkers could be rare or even uncommon, and every planeswalker had a static ability, which hadn’t been done before (not counting the Commander planeswalkers).Jaya, Venerated Firemage (War of the Spark)And, because there was such a huge focus on the story, for the first time in a long time, we saw a very large number of story events unfold on the cards themselves, similar to how it was done in the earlier parts of The Weatherlight Saga. You can once again line up a bunch of cards and see a whole scene unfold.Gideon and his pegasus prepare to attack Nicol Bolas: Trusted PegasusThe poor pegasus is shot down by an arrow from God-Eternal Oketra: Divine ArrowGideon continues his aerial charge on a much more formidable mount: Unlikely AidGideon attacks Bolas with a flying lunge, Blackblade in hand: Desperate LungeBut despite all of the hopes everyone had put into that plan, the attack is completely ineffective: Tyrant's ScornThey changed the way the story was delivered in Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark. The War of the Spark story was a set of novels, and the story of the two blocks before was hinted at on cards, but not released until after War of the Spark. I’m guessing this change is why nobody seems to really know what happened in these sets.Another neat little point is that War of the Spark has a lot of callbacks to Hour of Devastation, but instead showing the Gatewatch’s victory in War of the Spark. The five “hours” are replaced with five “finales”, and “defeat” cycle was turned into a cycle of “triumphs”.And that brings us to where the game is today.That was a long answer, and it took forever to write, but it was fun combing through all these old cards. I hope this serves to illustrate a lot of the changes in Magic over time, and that people can see what kinds of cards they may have missed out on.Update: I've made several revisions to this post to keep up with the ever-evolving nature of Magic, and to add more information as I learn it. This answer was last edited between War of the Spark and Magic 2020.

I read this article a year ago and I believe it answers most of the questions that we ask ourselves and humiliate ourselves for having a low GPA.Link for the article: By the time I graduated, I had 10 A’s and 11 F’sBy the time I graduated, I had 10 A’s and 11 F’s"Everything that bothered me, everything that gave me shame or guilt, I had it discussed with at least one person; and people didn’t reject me. Today, I have a successful career with an MNC as Software Development Engineer.Academically, I went through a really tough time at IIT Kanpur. It is not an experience that I boast about or am comfortable sharing publicly. I have, therefore, concealed my identity so that my co-workers do not stop taking me seriously. I have not yet mustered enough courage to share the truth with many others who are very close to me. Still, there are enough details that I am willing to share so that the readers may find my story helpful in their own struggle.Humble beginningsI was a good student like most of you. In high school, I was a District topper in Bihar Board 10th exam and had topped School from 8th onwards. For the 12th grade, I received Rotary Scholarship, scholarship from local MLA, and my community also gave me monthly money for studies that I was to pay back without interest. I also tutored to support myself. My father, a 4th grade government employee, had limited income. I am the oldest of three boys. My mother is a house wife with little education. I wanted to get a job after 12th grade so that I could help my family. I applied for several jobs including a job as an Airman; but got rejected. I started studies in a BSc program but did not complete it. Someone advised me to take the IIT-JEE. I was successful on my second attempt and secured a rank of 1600. I got admission at IITK in metallurgy. Rotary and our MLA did not give me any financial assistance to go to IIT. Lion’s Club, however, provided me with some financial assistance and IITK gave me merit-cum-means (MCM) scholarship. Things were looking good.I could do it if I wanted to, but …At IITK, I was like a kid in a candy store. There were too many things to do and try. I joined the Book Club, played computer games all day, read dirty books, etc…. You get the picture. In the first semester I got an SPI of 6.6. In the 2nd semester I failed all Courses and got an SPI of 2.0 and was put on academic probation. I lost my MCM scholarship. I needed to improve my CPI to get back the scholarship without which I would not be able to continue in the program. I lied to my parents to get some money to survive. I also borrowed money from the Students Benefit Fund at IITK.I did very well in my 3rd semester and got a SPI of 9.1. This got me back the MCM scholarship. The late Prof. R. Balasubramaniam was especially very helpful to me. But in the 4th semester again, my SPI dropped to 5.1. I took summer courses, and failed 2 out of 6 courses.During the 4th semester, I developed romantic feelings for a local girl (not an IITK student). Things did not work out. It took me three years to get over the heartbreak. That did not help with my academics either.I failed the Engineering Graphics course 3 times (skipped the exam all 3 times) , had to drop it in my 9th semester because of a time table clash and was the only course left in the 10th semester to do and passed it with a D Grade. Engineering Graphics professor Dr. Banerjee explained the need to pass the course and went out of his way to allow me to complete the labs that I had missed. However, that was something which was offered to me by other professors too. I did not accept their offers as I felt that they were doing me favor and would think less of me because of those favors. However, Dr. Banerjee appeared to be an educationist first and a grader second, which was why I felt comfortable in attending the extra labs. When the F list came out and my name wasn’t there, I asked Dr. Banerjee if he had passed me out of mercy and he said, “No, you passed it on your own merit.” I felt good.I failed my B.Tech project thrice. (The professor failed everybody the first time. I didn’t appear for the presentation on the second attempt) and finally did both parts in the 9th semester. I wanted to do an excellent job on the B.Tech project and really put in some effort. Fortunately in the end I was able to find a topic which was interesting enough and a guide who was demanding but encouraging as well. Dr. Ashish Garg, my project advisor, was strict but was a perfectionist. Once I got interested in the project work, I realized that I too was a perfectionist. I enjoyed working with Prof. Garg. I did a great job on the project and got an A grade and also won best poster award in an international conference.There were so many conflicting thoughts wreaking havoc in my mind. There was a guilt that I was sucking up my family resources for an education at IITK instead of helping the family that could hardly afford to make ends meet. I was not able to guide my younger brothers while I needed guidance myself. I knew that a degree from IIT was important to me but I was failing all these courses. I needed favors from professors but did not want to accept those favors as I was too proud. I saw that there were students at IITK who were good at sports, academics, social skills and here I was with poor grades, little social skills, and few friends. Did I even deserve to be at IITK? Was I punishing myself by failing in all these courses?By the time I graduated with a BTech in MME, I had 10 A’s and 11 F’s and a grade sheet full of F * and FR * with a CGPA of 7.2/10. Failing courses at IIT was a nightmare and I barely managed to survive that. I couldn’t get a job on campus though getting F’s had less of a role than my inability to clear the interviews. I had little communication skills.What is surprising is not that I finally graduated in 5-years instead of 4, but how I kept going. How did I manage not to take the extreme step that some in my situation would have taken? What helped me? What can help others?I almost killed myself…….What kept me going?I got interested in Shiksha Sopan. The experience helped me understand that there are people who are in worse shape than I am. How can I give up? I have so much more. If they can see hope, I certainly can. I realized that I NEEDED an IITK degree. I deserved it! I could DO it. My conversations with Prof. H.C. Verma and my interaction with Shiksha Sopan kids kept me in touch with my roots. I never got frustrated enough to lose faith in myself. Besides Prof. Verma, Professor Banerjee and Prof. Brahm Deo were very sympathetic and understanding.During the 3rd semester I also attended the Art of Living course offered on campus on Yoga and Sudarshan Kriya. It gave me peace of mind.After our 7th semester, the whole department went for an industrial tour of 10 days to Mumbai and Pune as part of the curriculum. I had a near death experience in Mumbai when I tried to board a running train in which my classmates had already boarded. It wasn’t a suicide attempt, just a mistake which could have ended my life. I still remember it, train speeding up and I am trying to hold on to gate desperately trying to get in and suddenly I am thrown on the ground. Train is still running. Those few seconds, I thought I was under the train tracks and I was going to die. Those few seconds, my life flashed in front of me, my failings, my successes and my loved ones. All the cherished dreams and I remembered my mother, my family, the girl who had broken my heart and I realized I wanted to live. I was not ready for death. I loved my family and I wanted to see them, to go back home, to laugh with them and help them in their struggles. Who would be stupid enough to die when you have such loved ones to live for and so many dreams?The reality of it was an eye opener. Having been so near death, I was convinced for life that suicide is simply not an option for anyone and even those who do it must be terribly afraid in those last few moments of their life. But perhaps by that time it would have been too late for them. Regardless of my failures and whether or not I got the IIT degree, it was clear to me that I would never do anything to harm myself. My life wasn’t my own. I owed it to the people who brought me to this world, who trusted me and gave all they had so that I could have a better life and were counting on me to graduate and help them. I owed it to all those people who had enriched my life by just being there for me. I couldn’t die before I had fulfilled my duties to them, not even by accident, forget by suicide.When I went back home that year, I told my parents about the incident. Even before I told what I saw and remembered, my mother was in tears. My father told me that my mother had dreamed about it almost at the same time I had the accident. (It was about 8 pm in winters and people sleep early at my home) and I realized the world is connected in more ways than you can imagine and perhaps there is a God after all. I turned to God for my answers. Soon afterwards I joined ISKCON.My experience with ISKCON was very positive. It gave me emotional resilience. The philosophy of “leave results to Krishna, just do your best” encouraged me whenever I found myself in a hole. And I was in hole often! How can it get worse? I just have to stop digging the hole.I realized that everything changes. Nothing is permanent. I learned to keep going believing that this phase will pass too. Many who take extreme step of committing suicide remain bottled up. They take every failure too seriously. They take every failure as a reflection of poor self-worth. I never let my failures frustrate or depress me enough to give up believing in myself.There was one more reason why I didn’t take the extreme step. Everything that bothered me, everything that gave me shame or guilt, I had it discussed with at least one other person; and people didn’t reject me. There was one thing, that could have caused me to take extreme step … it wasn’t academics or grades. But it was a cause for my poor grades. I still cannot talk about it even to my closest family members. I discussed it with Dr. Alok Bajpai, the psychiatrist at the counseling service at IITK. He gave me a medical reason for my problem and said it was okay. While his acceptance didn’t take away the guilt, however, it gave me enough support that I didn’t think about taking the extreme step. Overall counseling service staff was very helpful especially Mrs. Sharmishtha Chakraborty and Dr. Onkar Dixit. However, my academic performance continued to be lackluster.Life after IITKLife did not go smoothly even after graduation from IITK. I felt maladjusted in my first job. I was not getting along with my co-workers and roommates. I changed 5 houses in 4 years. A friend recommended and agreed to pay for the Landmark Education coursehttp://www.landmarkeducation.co.in His condition was that he would pay for the course and I would return him the money only if I found the course useful. It proved to be a life saver. The course helped me to be at ease with myself no matter what the circumstances were. It gave me the power to effectively act in those areas that were important to me. It made me aware of my thinking process and guided me in my action plan. It released me from the clutches of my past and helped me look at the future. I felt like I could now move on.Didn’t employers care about my 11F’s?I couldn’t get a job on campus though getting F’s had less of role than my inability to clear the interviews. I had little communication skills. I sought friends’ help. They conducted mock interviews and helped me improve. A friend of mine who graduated from IIT Delhi, who himself found a job after being rejected 25 times, gave me an e-mail address of the CEO of his employer. I got hired because I demonstrated my analytical skills, logical thinking, and ability to learn fast. I could convince them that I was passionate about things that interested me and overall I am a hardworking individual.Many of my interviewers were not convinced by my explanations for why I ended up getting so many F’s. There were also several companies that did not care about grades — to them what mattered was that I had graduated from an IIT and had done well in the written test and interview. Most of my F’s were in the courses that I did not care about. I was good at software. That is what I wanted to do, but I could not change my branch at IITK. In interviews I emphasized what I was good at and did not try to explain my weaknesses. I submitted my grade sheet everywhere and HR or background verification team didn’t have an issue.Fast forward 6 years. I am currently working at a multi-national technology company. Drawing about the same salary as B.Tech CSE guys (I am from MME) with equivalent years of experience, performing the same roles. I also had a pretty satisfying stint at a startup which I joined as the 4th employee with one year of experience and stayed there for 3 years.What would I tell someone struggling for grades?Find what you are good at. Do well in those courses. Don’t invite Fs, Don’t purposely Fail Courses and do not think that getting an F is perfectly fine or a celebration time. However, if you do get F’s, do not despair. Do not take your failures too seriously. Even if you genuinely struggle, Remember, there is nothing permanent; this phase will pass too. Talk to people. Talk to even Mean professors. They are not as mean as they appear to be. Have faith in yourself. Connect with the community. Look at the people who are in much worse situations than you are in. Finish the degree. Get a job, any job. (specially in software field). Prove your worth. IITK has taught you more than you think. Switch to another job if you are not happy. You have to find your passion; you have to find what you are good at and go after it. Don’t worry what anybody else thinks about your “success”. Don’t get in the rat race.I found following books to be specially helpful. Reviews inline.1. The Reverse Journey by Vivek Kumar Singh (Rs 95)Packed in 124 pages with NO masala and true realism, The Reverse Journey is a novel where The Author an IITian of 1996 batch, takes the normal path taken by lakhs of Middle Class people in India, observes the society and people around him as they evolve and presents a compelling story, that most of us can relate to. The Reverse Journey is a novel which evolves through a series of seamless short stories and each story by itself is an inspiration in itself.Books Reviews : The Reverse Journey First Edition: Books ()Amazon: http://amzn.com/9381115354 ($6.00)Flipkart : The Reverse Journey First Edition - (Rs 95)HomeShop18 : The reverse journey Books2. The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life by Steve Zaffron.Flipkart : http://goo.gl/X8GZs (Rs. 301, 33% discount)Amazon : http://amzn.com/111804312X ($11.40)The laws of performance are universal. That is, any time people are involved in a situation, the laws apply. They aren’t steps or tips, but general principles that are always at work. They are also phrased in a precise way, to give maximum insight and applicability. The laws are:1. How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.2. How situations occur arises in language.3. Future based language transforms how situations occur to people.3. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. RosenbergFlipkart : Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values 2nd Edition - Google Books : Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life ( Half of book in Preview)Amazon : A Language of Life: Marshall B. Rosenberg, Arun Gandhi: 9781892005038: Amazon.com: Books174 of 177 people found the following review helpful5.0 out of 5 stars Profound! The most important book I’ve ever read. December 17, 2003Initially I thought this book wouldn’t be relevant to me since I didn’t consider myself a “violent” communicator. A few pages into the book however, it became evident to me that despite my easy-going nature, I had much to learn about communication. Dr. Rosenberg identifies learned communication that disconnects us from each other and is at the very root of violence. He then offers a simple yet powerful 4 step model that leads to respectful and compassionate communication. One catch – while the model is simple, it can be challenging to apply, especially when we’re upset. That’s because most of us have learned to blame others when we’re upset and it’s hard to unlearn this behavior.133 of 139 people found the following review helpful5.0 out of 5 stars New edition’s chapter on self-compassion well worth readingDecember 27, 2003By “mindful-dot-com”This latest edition of Dr. Rosenberg’s book has a completely new chapter called, “Connecting Compassionately with Ourselves.” It’s about what he calls, “self-compassion.” He writes, “When we are internally violent towards ourselves, it is difficult to be genuinely compassionate towards others.” I enjoyed this chapter because it helped me translate my self-judgments into statements of my own unmet needs.Indian Edition Not Available. Imported only, but worth it.—————–The alumnus featured graduated from IITK with BTech in Metallurgy. He has still not resolved many issues in his life and therefore prefers to remain anonymous. We encourage you to post your comments on the blog or communicate with him via [email protected]"