What is Gnosticism What current expressions do you see today Essay

What is Gnosticism What current expressions do you see today - Essay Example "The demiurge may be depicted as an embodiment of evil, or in other instances as merely imperfect and benevolent as its inadequacy permits". Along with the demiurge exists a good supreme being, however remote and distant. In order to free oneself from the material world, one must find gnosis or "spiritual knowledge available to all through direct experience or knowledge". Some sects of Gnostics believe Jesus of Nazareth was sent to earth to bring gnosis, some believe he was sent to teach gnosis, and still others believe that he was just a man. In the first centuries before Christ, Gnosticism was popular in the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean areas. It was, however, suppressed in the fourth century by the Roman Empire. In the middle ages, many converted to Islam. "Gnostic ideas became influential in the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups". Unlike Judaism, Christianity, and a lot of Pagan systems, the soul is not held by a Supreme Power. Gnosticism places, "the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know (Arendzen, 2007)." The Catholic Encyclopedia offers that "A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be": A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour. (Arendzen, 2007) There are essentially two great components that comprise the basis of Gnostic thought. The first is astrology. Astrology involved the power and influence of certain planetary bodies or symbols. "The greatness of the Seven -- the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the sacred Hebdomad, symbolized for millenniums by the staged towers of Babylonia, remained undiminished. They ceased, indeed, to be worshipped as deities, but they remained archontes and dynameis, rules and powers whose almost irresistible force was dreaded by man. Practically, they were changed from gods to devas, or evil spirits" (Arendzen, 2007). The second major component is magic, or "the power ex opere operato of weird names, sounds, gestures, and actions, as also the mixture of elements to produce effects totally disproportionate to the cause" (Arendzen, 2007). Various doctrines to Gnostic theories exist. These included Cosmogony, Sophia-Myth, Soteriology, Eschatology, Doctrine of the Primeval Man, and the Barbelo. Various rites also exist, including Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, the

Deception by the Investigating Officer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Deception by the Investigating Officer - Essay Example The essay "Deception by the Investigating Officer" talks about the deception and analyzes its concept as applied by investigating officers, detection of deception, the ethical issues surrounding this deception as well as the reasons for and against the application of this form of deception. In the criminal justice system, legal officers perform various tasks to ensure that there is the maintenance of law and order and criminals receive the punishment that they deserve. In this regard, investigating officers, charged with the responsibility of investigating suspects through interrogation and other means, have a very critical role to play in revealing the truth. In their pursuit of disclosing the truth, the criminal justice allows these officers to apply deception in investigative, interrogative and testimonial processes in order to disclose the truth. However, there are serious ethical issues surrounding this aspect of deception. As a result, there is often a conflict between the ethical standards of the society and implementation of laws. The police-induced confessions have influential and moving consequences on the nature of cases and on the entire criminal justice system making them a strong prosecutorial weapon. Definitely, the interrogations by modern police are at times so powerful that they have drawn out coerced compliant and identify false confessions from innocent people. According to researchers, the basis of interrogation is the presumption of guilt making the process too persuasive.

Strategy, Analysis, Recommendation and Implementation of the Company Essay

Strategy, Analysis, Recommendation and Implementation of the Company Gap Inc - Essay Example Competitors such as Ambercrombie and Fitch are already moving towards this direction. However, given the Company's expertise, it is not yet late to launch the Banana Republic, Old Navy and Forth and Towne brands; and to capture a substantial share in these potential markets. The last five years have been commendable for GAP Incorporated due to the revived customer interest in its product lines. A lot of innovations were introduced in the previous year which reaped rewards for the Company, which includes the following: 2. Hands-on management of executives, from the centralized procurement of supplies, to ocular visits to the factories; these would ensure that products are manufactured in accordance with the company's penchant for quality, reliability and compliance to set international production standards; 3. The compensation package plus rewards system afforded to deserving executives achieved wonders for the company. In return, extra effort has been rendered, countless hours have been spent so that products could be delivered on time; 4. Massive shop expansion was a very aggressive stance of the company that helped prop-up sales. But some shops are not strategically located, if not poorly thought of, so that upper management decided to close these shops eventually. This hurt the image of Gap Incorporated and also transmitted wrong signals to competitors. Downsizing these shops would have been a better option since these shops are being used also by internet shoppers to pick up orders purchased online. Also, a rewards system for employees was not installed at the company's manufacturing plant. This is necessary in order to boost production and maintain quality standards in the product. Workers are after all the backbone of a company. 5. Increased online purchases really spiced up sales. Recommendation To increase Gap's profitability and create an extended market for its specialty apparel products, the company should expand in other countries. It is important to note that more than half of the world's population is concentrated in Asia which makes countries in this region a large potential market for Gap's various product lines. Furthermore, what is recommended is to adapt the sound and solid strategy employed by Gap Incorporated in the US; but only after some fine tuning stated as follows: 1. All efforts should be geared towards penetrating the Asian market with modifications employed to fit market preferences, i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam who are fairly conservative people will most probably require simple and conservative clothing as well. The fashion capital of Asia is Hong Kong. Neighboring countries, such as the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, to name a few do most of their shopping in this former British Colony. So, what is "in" in Hong Kong, will influence the choice of apparel throughout Asia. 2. Hire topnotch Asian designers to collaborate with Gap Incorporated's designers in the US for the development and introduction of new designs or product lines in these new markets.

Building construction and it's effect on the Fire Service Essay

Building construction and it's effect on the Fire Service - Essay Example Type II is Noncombustible, this type represents those building having steel beams and girders, they are susceptible to steel deformation and resulting collapse with less or no warning. Type III is the ordinary construction which consists of a mix of materials, including steel, wood and concrete, the older this type of building gets the more it is prone to fire. Type IV is the Heavy Timber almost all types of members and load bearing structures are made of wood and as a result the burn time of these structures are normally very long before the structure fails or collapse completely. The connections, usually of steel, are the weak points in this type of construction. Type V is Wood Frames, they normally consist of common houses and other small structures made of wooden frames. The appendix 1 contains a extract of the NFPA 220: Standard on Types of Building Construction, Edition which gives the fire resistive rating of each type of building construction given. There are many aspects of the building that are to be considered for fire protection and safety. The issue is that what these steps and aspects should be gauged and standardized too, for this there are several standardization bodies, research organizations and codes working significant among which are National Fire Protection Association, International Building Codes (IBC), International Fire codes, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and ASTM. Where as the codes that dictates the fire services and building construction at the same time are NFPA 1: Uniform Fire Code, NFPA 101: Life Safety Code, NFPA 241: Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations, NFPA 1141: Standard for Fire Protection in Planned Building Groups, NFPA 5000: Building Construction and Safety Code. (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). The fire services and its specifications are designed on many considerations of the buildings construction, the first consideration would be the typ e of construction as mentioned before, second major consideration is the height, no of floors and working space of the building, thirdly are the structural systems and their connections, failures points and fourthly the material of construction also known as the fuel for the fire and lastly the occupancy of the facility. Firstly it is the type of construction that governs the fire services, the resistance of the construction directly affects the fire protection system and the no of hours the building can sustain fire. The method of calculation is given below and it corresponds to those written in the appendix 1. Type II (000), it requires sprinklers and If it is a Type II (222), sprinklers are not required. So the type of construction dictates the type of fire fighting. Now as we know the fire resistance of the building, the major building codes dictates all the fire services accordingly, the most widely used and implemented building construction code is International Building Code IBC 2006 and International Fire Code. Now I would like to highlight the main components of fire services which are affected my the fire resistance capabilities of the structure. According to IBC the first consideration is fire walls that need to be build and which is summarized in the table below. The section 715 of the IBC 2006 has a detailed standards on

Internet Entrepreneurship Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Internet Entrepreneurship - Assignment Example This paper details the market opportunities for providing a safe social net work for customers who are young people. The developed website is named www.emuu.com and will be marketed in this name and style through the internet. This paper is structured to present the market opportunities, proposed business strategy covering the customer segmentation and value proposition for the customers. In addition the paper also presents a business and revenue model for the marketing of www.emuu.com and the design of the organisation and the issues that need to be considered while starting up the internet business. The success of marketing a social network depends on the selection of a proper social net work software to design the website and also on the provision of the right kind of service to the customers so that they stay longer with the site (Ron McNeil). The objective of the social net work is to help the customers build up large communities and groups over the time. The site should create more opportunities for the customers to stay longer with the website and create the right kind of customer loyalty which is an absolute necessity for successfully running a social networking web site. ... The objective of the social net work is to help the customers build up large communities and groups over the time. The site should create more opportunities for the customers to stay longer with the website and create the right kind of customer loyalty which is an absolute necessity for successfully running a social networking web site. In line with these observations, www.emuu.com is being promoted as social net work for younger people with the following aims and objectives. 2.1 Aims and Objectives of the Internet Marketing Website emuu.com The ultimate aim of the website is to create a safe social network for the young people which has a real value for the time and money the young people spend on the site. In order to achieve this aim the website has the following objectives: (1) Providing a number of educational games which have the effect of stimulating the minds of young customers; the games will not be the usual computer games but will have a good educational value and will contribute to the creation and development of analytical skills among the young children (2) Encouraging the communication between old friends and new ones who got acquainted through the internet; the site will act as the base for the development of a meaningful communication between the subscribers and the visitors to the website (3) Enhancing the importance of the internet safety by providing suitable safeguards in the form of encrypted user names and passwords so that the information supplied on the network is not being misused by fraudsters for illegitimate purposes 2.2 Product Offering The website proposes to offer the following products

Project Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Project Report - Essay Example In order to makes themselves stand apart from their competitors and gain competitive advantage; businesses are adopting various project management strategies. By adopting such strategies businesses all over the world are responding to a challenging economic environment thereby positioning scarce investment funds in order to purse and attain a competitive edge in this seemingly competitive world. These initiatives are actually delivered by the projects that businesses undertake which represents a significant investment for the organizations concerned. In order to conduct a robust research, we have adopted a survey questionnaire methodology which catered to set forth questions regarding various aspects of project management followed and implemented within an organization. The survey was conducted over the telephone and was directed towards senior level officials of businesses based in UAE. The sample size was 30 and the reason for such a sample was to overcome any complexities in ambig uities associated with the answers that are obtained from the survey. Moreover, the time allocated for the survey also limited the number of officials who could be interviewed. Having done an in-depth study, it was seen that, businesses are not being able to deliver the commitments related to a project successfully. Although some businesses are delivering the promised commitments, however, the delivery is quite inconsistent. The value that a business is expecting to obtain from a particular project investment is not being achieved, as a result of which the discipline of project management is coming under question. The survey that we conducted in the year 2012 has formed a good ground work which provided a useful insight about global challenges and based upon that we have been able to provide further detail regarding economic challenges and how proper project management helps in tackling such challenges. The trends have changed over the last two years and significant improvement have been seen the project management strategies adopted by businesses all over the world. An increase in the number of project that is being undertaken has witnessed. The study identifies effective management strategies that are critical competitive differentiator and how they are being adopted by businesses in the UAE in order to beat the competition. The project also caters to highlight certain project management practices that will help GASCO to attain more value from investments made in projects and to do so on a consistent basis. Background of the Problem Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd GASCO established in the year 1978 under the benefaction of H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin sultan Al Nahyan. GASCO is a joint venture between Shell 15%, ADNOC 68%, Partex 2%, Total 15% and ATHEER. The organization aims at capitalizing the significant gas resources of UAE to create competitive advantage. Honesty, integrity and respect are the three pillars of the company’s vision and it also focuses on t he health, safety of people and better environment. The company is also known for sustainable development which allows them to maintain a balance between the long term and short term interest of the business (Davidoff, 2009; Fannin, 2011; Fryer, 2001). It has been observed that in the recent past the company has been dealing with the issue of quality management. The issue of

Cutting physician salaries will not help solve the health care problem Essay

Cutting physician salaries will not help solve the health care problem - Essay Example The reason was to maintain outstanding individuals able in dealing with a critical issue. Medical field is extremely risky, and only requires potential students having competent brains who are willing to train in the tough environment. This was the reason Flexner report suggested the idea that is still used currently. After Flexner had finished doing his research and filing his report, many medical schools were graded as small trade schools that were not able to offer quality training in the medical field. The medical schools aimed at making profits hence did not offer compelling services to the patients visiting them. They did shoddy work to get more money for their personal and business needs. Some of the recommendations he suggested in his reports are as follows; for one to be admitted to medical college, he/she needed to possess a high school diploma, and experience of two or more years in university. Another recommendation was that the length of the college year should be about four years, and content to be taught should be agreed by CME. Proprietary medical learning institution should either be joined to other prominent universities or be entirely shut down. Flexner received many critics from other medical officers who were against his recommendations (Rayburn & Schulkin, 7). They believed it was unworkable and was a lousy way of solving the problems. Despite the negative reactions Flexner had to face, he stood for his report and promised to defend it from the critics. The effects of the Flexner’s report had the following effects in America; a person aiming at being a physician, one needs to spend six to eight years in training, in a university setting (Ann & C harles, 236-245). The government values medical training and makes sure that students going through the training get superior training. According to statistics, the average physicians skills and capabilities have improved significantly compared to the past periods (Waitzkin, 39). The government