Free Essays on Gnostics

Though Rome was unbending in its demand of obeisance to the state, it tolerated a remarkably free expression of religious thought. Within its borders could be found groups adhering to ideas of Eastern Buddhism, Persian Zoroastrianism, the Egyptian Hermetic tradition, Jewish monotheism, the sun worship of Mithras, and Greek Platonic thought. Gnosticism was one of these religions. It had its own sacred scriptures and ideas but it also freely borrowed from other traditions, developing a richly endowed theology. Alexandria was the main center of learning in the empire, its library the most famous of antiquity. In this great city at the mouth of the Nile congregated groups of varied culture and creed. Yet despite the outward signs of political peace and unity there was raging within the Roman soul a moral war. The accumulation of vast riches in the upper strata of society, excessive and cruel taxation of the peasants, widespread slavery, and disrespect for human life had risen to such a height that the inner decay they spread was destroying the heart of the nation. For this reason numerous groups were seeking to counter the prevailing decadence with a return to a higher morality. Throughout the empire, in the deserts or forests of the land, small societies of spiritual seekers began to gather. Often they led ascetic lives, determined to address the dissolution they saw in mainstream culture. In cities like Alexandria were born schools of philosophy, and great moral teachers sought to instil their students with higher ideals. The Christian groups in time became one of the loudest voices against the evils of the empire. They taught simplicity and communal sharing. Decrying the lot of the poor and oppressed, they denounced slavery and the brutality of the Roman gladiatorial games which slaughtered the underprivileged by the thousands. Many of the disaffected joined their ranks. Rome had always speedily silenced such popular protest, either ... Free Essays on Gnostics Free Essays on Gnostics Though Rome was unbending in its demand of obeisance to the state, it tolerated a remarkably free expression of religious thought. Within its borders could be found groups adhering to ideas of Eastern Buddhism, Persian Zoroastrianism, the Egyptian Hermetic tradition, Jewish monotheism, the sun worship of Mithras, and Greek Platonic thought. Gnosticism was one of these religions. It had its own sacred scriptures and ideas but it also freely borrowed from other traditions, developing a richly endowed theology. Alexandria was the main center of learning in the empire, its library the most famous of antiquity. In this great city at the mouth of the Nile congregated groups of varied culture and creed. Yet despite the outward signs of political peace and unity there was raging within the Roman soul a moral war. The accumulation of vast riches in the upper strata of society, excessive and cruel taxation of the peasants, widespread slavery, and disrespect for human life had risen to such a height that the inner decay they spread was destroying the heart of the nation. For this reason numerous groups were seeking to counter the prevailing decadence with a return to a higher morality. Throughout the empire, in the deserts or forests of the land, small societies of spiritual seekers began to gather. Often they led ascetic lives, determined to address the dissolution they saw in mainstream culture. In cities like Alexandria were born schools of philosophy, and great moral teachers sought to instil their students with higher ideals. The Christian groups in time became one of the loudest voices against the evils of the empire. They taught simplicity and communal sharing. Decrying the lot of the poor and oppressed, they denounced slavery and the brutality of the Roman gladiatorial games which slaughtered the underprivileged by the thousands. Many of the disaffected joined their ranks. Rome had always speedily silenced such popular protest, either ...

Pauses in Speech and Writing

Pauses in Speech and Writing In phonetics, a pause is a break in speaking; a moment of silence. Adjective: pausal. Pauses and Phonetics In phonetic analysis, a double vertical bar (||) is used to represent a distinct pause. In direct speech (in both fiction and nonfiction), a pause is conventionally indicated in writing by ellipsis points (. . .) or a dash (- ). Pauses in Fiction Gwen raised her head and spoke haltingly, fighting back tears. He told me Tuesday there was too much damage . . . She wiped her wet face with her fingers. But he wants to send her to a specialist in Memphis. (John Grisham, A Time to Kill. Wynwood Press, 1989)Anyone who is guilty of such practices . . ., he paused for effect, leaning forward and staring at the congregation, . . . anyone in town . . ., he turned and looked behind him, at the monks and nuns in the choir, . . . or even in the priory . . . He turned back. I say, anyone guilty of such practices should be shunned.He paused for effect.And may God have mercy on their souls. (Ken Follett, World Without End. Dutton, 2007) Pauses in Drama Mick: You still got that leak.Aston: Yes.Pause.Its coming from the roof.Mick: From the roof, eh?Aston: Yes.Pause.Ill have to tar it over.Mick: Youre going to tar it over?Aston: Yes.Mick: What?Aston: The cracks.Pause.Mick: Youll be tarring over the cracks on the roof.Aston: Yes.Pause.Mick: Think thatll do it?Aston: Itll do it, for the time being.Mick: Uh.Pause.  (Harold Pinter,  The Caretaker. Grove Press, 1961) The pause is a pause because of what has just happened in the minds and guts of the characters. They spring out of the text. Theyre not formal conveniences or stresses but part of the body of the action. (Harold Pinter in Conversations With Pinter by Mel Gussow. Nick Hern Books, 1994) Pauses in Public Speaking If you prefer to read your speech, make sure to pause frequently, take a breath, look up, and scan the audience. . . .Besides allowing you to fill your lungs with air, pausing also allows the audience to absorb the spoken words and create pictures in their own minds. The habit of pausing eliminates the dreaded um and err and adds emphasis to your last point. (Peter L. Miller, Speaking Skills for Every Occasion. Pascal Press, 2003) Pauses in Conversation There are even rules about silence. It has been said that, in a conversation between two English speakers who are not close friends, a silence of longer than four seconds is not allowed (which means that people become embarrassed if nothing is said after that time- they feel obliged to say something, even if it is only a remark about the weather.) (Peter Trudgill, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society, 4th ed. Penguin, 2000) Types and Functions of Pauses A distinction has been drawn between silent pauses and filled pauses (e.g. ah, er), and several functions of pause have been established, e.g. for breathing, to mark grammatical boundaries, and to provide time for the planning of new material. Pauses which have a structural function (juncture pauses) are distinguished from those involved in hesitation (hesitation pauses). Investigations of pausal phenomena have been particularly relevant in relation to developing a theory of speech production. In grammar, the notion of potential pause is sometimes used as a technique for establishing word units in a language- pauses being more likely at word boundaries than within words. (David Crystal, Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th ed. Blackwell, 2008) Systematic pausing . . . performs several functions: marking syntactic boundaries;allowing the speaker time to forward plan;providing semantic focus (a pause after an important word);marking a word or phrase rhetorically (a pause before it);indicating the speakers willingness to hand over the speech turn to an interlocutor. The first two are closely connected. For the speaker, it is efficient to construct forward planning around syntactic or phonological units (the two may not always coincide). For the listener this carries the benefit that syntactic boundaries are often marked. (John Field, Psycholinguistics: The Key Concepts. Routledge, 2004) Lengths of Pauses Pausing also gives the speaker time to plan an upcoming utterance (Goldman-Eisler, 1968; Butcher, 1981; Levelt, 1989). Ferreira (1991) showed that speech planning-based pauses are longer before more complex syntactic material, whereas what she terms timing-based pauses (after already spoken material), tend to reflect prosodic structure. There is also a relationship between pause placement, prosodic structure, and syntactic disambiguation across a range of languages (e.g., Price et al., 1991; Jun, 2003). In general, tasks that require greater cognitive load on the speaker or that require them to perfom a more complex task other than reading from a prepared script result in longer pauses . . .. For example, Grosjean and Deschamps (1975) found that pauses are more than twice as long during description tasks (1,320 ms) than during interviews (520 ms) . . .. (Janet Fletcher, The Prosody of Speech: Timing and Rhythm. The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed., edited by William J. Hardcast le, John Laver, and Fiona E. Gibbon. Blackwell, 2013) The Lighter Side of Pauses: Joke-Telling [A] critical feature in the style of all stand-up comedians is a pause after the delivery of the punch line, during which the audience laughs. The comic usually signals the onset of this critical pause with marked gestures, facial expressions, and altered voice intonation. Jack Benny was known for his minimalist gestures, but they were still discernible, and worked wonderfully. A joke will fail if the comic rushes to his next joke, providing no pause for audience laughter (premature ejokulation)- this is comedys recognition of the power of the punctuation effect. When the comic continues too soon after delivery of his punch line, he not only discourages, and crowds-out, but neurologically inhibits audience laughter (laftus interruptus). In show-biz jargon, you dont want to step on your punch line. (Robert R. Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. Viking, 2000)

Managing for Competative Advantage Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing for Competative Advantage - Assignment Example The review also includes an evaluation of the performance of both the management teams through financial and non-financial parameters, and finally gauges the true competitive position of M&S in the market. . Myners and Rose assumed control of the company's leadership by replacing the team of Vandevelde and Holmes. There seem to be significant distinction in the approaches of both the management teams in restoring the M&S competitive advantage. The main focus of the previous management had been on the enhancement of clothing market share and Roger Holmes (Annual Review 2003, p3) highlighted the three major domains of their efforts as furthering amelioration in the stronger clothing categories (women formal wear), following the growth chances in low share clothing categories (men's wear) and finally revolutionising the weak categories (children wear). However despite all these efforts, the previous management ended up in losing its significant market share in the clothing market, in particular womenswear which used to the core area of the company's business and profits (Annual Review 2003, p6). The entire focus of the new management team, however, seemed more strictly on the price and product innovation and improvement. They approached to regain the company's lost market share and competitive position through price benchmarking and product innovation to provide more value to the customers and consequently to win in the competitive environment (Annual Review 2005, p4). Marketing The previous management utilised marketing and advertisement in the course of various product campaigns (Annual Review 2004, p8). The company's marketing tactics also underwent change under the new management, which emphasised clearly on a unified M&S brand rather than focusing on a vast range of sub-brands. It focused on strengthening and bringing together the various M&S brands and reflected its traditional relationship with core customers in its marketing and advertisement campaigns (Annual Review 2005, p5). Human Resources Human resources and people management has been the core issue concerning both the management teams. The previous management was however less focused in its strategies to develop the M&S people. Furthermore, in the process of store refurbishment and improvement, the previous team (Annual Review 2004, p5) indicated an intention to lay off about 1000 workers in order to control costs. This could have led to a decline in employee morale and performance. The new management focused on a people amelioration approach, it further took care of its human resources in a much-enhanced manner through proper and evident training, rewarding, developing and listening strategies (Annual Review 2006, p17) to improve employee performance and motivation levels. . Operations The former management team posed great emphasis on opening new stores and carrying out renovation in the older ones making them look more contemporary and convenient so as to win more customers in the competitive marketplace (Annual Review 2004, p16). Furthermore, it also identified the need for ameliorating the supply chain management and sourcing of products to win a competitive edge in the market (Annual Review 2004, p9). The new management team came with a sharpened approach to revolutionising store

Personal Biography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Personal Biography - Essay Example When other girls of my age found their happiness in malls and shopping, I doodled, painted and played games with my brothers to get mine. Even though no one ever believed in me, I wanted to get into my dream school, pursue designing and aimed to become an amazing and inspirational designer someday. I never got any computer training during my school time in Jakarta but I was aware how relevant computers were today in the world of fashion and hence I self-taught myself to understand and use applications such as Photoshop from different forums and mediums such as the internet. I held onto my dream of becoming a designer and inspired myself constantly. After completing my high school, I shifted to Los Angeles to continue my degree in a community college because my parents were reluctant to let me take up art. However, my dream never left me and I was sure someday they would realize that art was the only thing that I wanted to do. Soon enough they understood the fact that designing was my sole passion and therefore allowed me to follow my dream of going to FIDM and taking up design. That was the happiest day of my life when finally my dreams were given wings and there are no words to thank my parents who gave me the much needed support. Every day that I spend at FIDM energizes me to reach my goal of becoming successful and inspiring others to become creative and finally making my parents proud without whom it would have been impossible to be the person that I am

Personnel Management and Organizational Behavior Essay Example for Free

Personnel Management and Organizational Behavior Essay Four ways to shape employee behavior are: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Positive reinforcement is following a reaction with something enjoyable (Robbins Judge, 2007). Employees need recognition for exceeding the organization’s standard on job performance. A well-organized reward program will motivate employees to excel the organization’s standard. Example of this are: employee of the month, quarter or year, and recognitions to employees for presenting ideas to improve the organization’s operation. Negative reinforcement is also referred as â€Å"looking busy†. Supervisors should explain the task to the employee, provide necessary resources, and ensure the work is performed to standard. These actions will help eliminate negative reinforcement. Punishment and knowing the organization’s standard are directly related. The organization’s standard, duties and responsibilities of the employees have to be established in order to hold employees accountable for their incorrect behavior. Punishment can be used as the way to unsure employees follows the standard. The different type of punishments have to be included in the workplace policy to ensure the employee knows what could happen if he/she does not follow the standard. Extinction is a behavior not reinforced, causing it to disappear (Robbins Judge, 2007). Adequate supervision and communication in the workplace are two key elements to assess this behavior and eliminate when is not needed. Managers have to develop ways to shape employee’s behavior in order to improve performance. Shaping the employee’s behavior starts with adopting practice that encourage employees to be responsible, loyal, and committed to an organization’s goal (â€Å"Strategic Planning in the Payroll Department†, 2007). Some of these practices include setting standards, establishing duties and responsibilities, and direct supervision. Discuss the three components of an attitude. The main components of an attitude are: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. Cognitive component is a consciously held opinion or belief (Colborn, 2007, p. 68), such as â€Å"sexual harassment is wrong†. Managers should enforce values, high standard, group and cultural behavior awareness to improve the working environment. The affective component is the emotional tone or feeling of an attitude (Colborn, 2007): â€Å"I don’t like Charles, because he harasses his female employees†. Leaders should maintain open communication with their employees to let them express their feelings and emotions. Behavioral component is the intent to behave in a certain way toward something or someone (Robbins Judge, 2007), such as â€Å"I’m going to avoid Charles because of his improper conduct†. This action could cause problems in the work group and if not handle properly it will set a bad example to the employees. In conclusion leaders should understand the components of an attitude in order to establish means to avoid these in the working environment. Enforcing values, high standards, open communication and continues supervising are key to success. How is bounded rationality related to decision making? Bounded rationality is defined as making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity (Robbins Judge, 2007, p. 161). This concept used a method where a satisfactory solution is obtained in stade of the optimal solution. This approach is driven by previous experiences, limited information and selecting the first solution that satisfies the constraints. Decision-making process is a detail process to obtain the best solution. During this process all alternatives and courses of action are considered and evaluated completely. This approach consumes time and resources because every alternative has to be evaluated in order to obtain the best solution. In my opinion the decision-making process should be exercise as much as possible in order to obtain the optimum solution to a problem. Leaders should be aware of both approaches and select one based on time, safety concerns, priority of the task, and resources available. What is a quality circle? Quality circle is a work of employees and supervisors, who meet regularly to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions (Robbins Judge, 2007, p. 237). A successful quality circle should include the following: a comptroller, individual assignment, tentative times, progress report, implementation and performance monitoring. The comptroller will be in charge of conducting the meetings, keeping record of the problems, progress and implementation. Problems should be brainstorm by the group and assigned to the best qualify employee. Each problem should have a tentative time to obtain a solution. During each meeting a progress report is required in order to ensure timely solution of the problem. Implementing the solution and monitoring its performance will ensure employee’s satisfaction and develop credibility to the quality circle. The end statement of the quality circle is to fix problems in the organization.

The Parliament :: essays research papers

The Parliament was an elected organization set up by the king to manage the country to save the King the effort. Although officially ruled by the King, Parliament was increasing it’s power so rapidly that by the 1600s it could no longer be relied on to do what the King wanted. King Charles 1st came into conflict with his Parliament in 1629 when he ordered Parliament to raise taxes and it refused. His response was to abolish Parliament and he ruled Parliament on his own for 11 years. However, the people didn’t support him and he ran short of money so he had to reinstate Parliament in 1640. However, conflict broke out again in 1642 when Charles tried to have 5 members of Parliament arrested who had been actively disagreeing with his policies. The MPs fled into the back of the streets of London but when the King went after them, the citizens expelled him angrily from their city. This was a direct violation by the people of the supreme power of the King and marked the beginning of the English Civil War. Those English who supported the King (the Cavaliers) had support in north England and Wales and the parliamentarians (Roundheads) had support in the rest of England. Despite the fairly even start, however, the Cavaliers were fought back and in 1646 the Roundheads forced the King to surrender. However, at the cease fire negotiations Charles would not agree to the Roundhead terms and after a stalemate the war erupted again in 1648. Once again the Cavaliers were defeated but this time he Roundheads did not accept a surrender and instead captured the and executed Charles in 1649. England now had no King. For the next 11 years was a Republic. It was ruled from 1633 to 1658 by a general named Oliver Cromwell, who was a fundamental Protestant but an extremely cruel man. He was given the title ‘Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England’, but he had been active in Ireland long before he undertook that role. In 1641, just before the Civil War, the Irish of Ulster had begun an uprising and attacked the planters who had settled 30 years before. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Protestant planters were murdered by the Irish at places such as Portadown. Due to the war, the English did nothing about this and the death-toll became heavily exaggerated over time. In 1649, after the Civil War had ended, Cromwell landed at Dublin with 12,000 men with the intention of punishing those who had uprisen. He first attacked Drogheda and captured it, slaughtering over 3000 people. He then marched on Wexford town and massacred several hundred people there.

Is It so Safe to Use Nuclear Energy? Essay

The fragile environment of our planet is now under threat. Carbon fuels such as coal and oil are running out and their emissions are destroying the ecosystem. To prevent the harmful effect on the environment, Dr Symonds discussed his view that nuclear power is the best affordable way to protect the nature of the Earth. Although the facts introduced at the conference were quite persuasive, there are some points to argue. There was a statement in which Dr Symonds proposed that nuclear energy is safe and environmentally friendly. It preserves fossil fuels and doesn’t produce greenhouse gases. As a result, we will have a chance to save the natural recourses of out planet and to prevent the destruction of the ozone layer. One more idea introduced at the conference was that nuclear energy is affordable for the policy of every country. Many nuclear power plants are already functioning and they are able to produce much more energy. This will shorten the sums of money spent annually on the environmental protection. To a certain limited extent the views of Dr Symonds can be true, but I would argue that the nuclear energy is as safe as he pleads. The radioactive waste and accidents on the plants are the major disadvantages of using it. The accident on one plant can cause a very serious harm and the consequences can be unpredictable. Moreover, the radioactive waste causes even more negative effect that the use of carbon fuels. To sum up, I would say that nuclear energy is not as safe and practical as Dr Symonds suggests. Some of its drawbacks can be even more harmful to the ecosystem of our planet than the usage of carbon fuels. In my opinion, other form of safe and affordable energy should be pursued.