Alchemy Essays (651 words) - Hermeticism, Alchemy, Esotericism

Alchemy Alchemy is not just the changing of base metals into gold as most people think, although that was one of the goals people tried to achieve through alchemy. Alchemy is stemmed from astrology; both make attempts to understand mans relationship to the universe and exploit it. While astrology is concerned with the stars alchemy is concerned with the elements of nature. Alchemy also stemmed partly from metallurgy, a science that deals with the extracting of metals form ore and the combining of metals to make alloys. Todays modern chemistry evolved from alchemy using the extended knowledge of substances and how they react with each other. There were several goals that alchemist tried to achieve but the driving cause behind it was to understand mans relation to the universe. Alchemists of many religions believed that they could understand the will of their god or gods through understanding the world in which they lived. However many alchemists strive for more selfish goals. The most well known goal is the changing of metals to gold. Alchemists called this transmutation. They believed that metals such as gold as silver were pure and that the other base metals were impure or sick. If the base metals could be purified they would become gold, silver or some other precious metal. However they never succeeded We now know that changing one element in to another is impossible with out the use of a nuclear reaction, of which they had no knowledge of or any way of accidentally creating. Another popular goal of alchemy was to make the old young again and also to gain immortality. Like changing metals it is also known as transmutation and was believed to be purification. Most of the potions they concocted made people very sick and even killed. A lesser-known goal was to discover a substance that could bring about any desired change instantly. There were many myths about it and many names. Zosimos, an alchemist from 300A.D. first proposed the idea of such as substance. He called it the tincture also called the philosopher stone later on. Many of the processes in alchemy were chemical thought they didnt call it this. But there wasnt much science involved in their mixing of substances; most of it relied on folklore and superstition. Many of the reactions the created used impure mixtures of chemicals that they regarded as a substance not knowing that they were using several different chemicals at once. For many alchemists the mixing of chemicals wasnt as important as the chanting and incantations the said while they made their potions and elixirs. In fact this lead to myth of magic and witchcraft where spells were cast using only spoken words. Many of the practices of early alchemy, which was around since 300B.C., contributed to development of magical practice. Alchemy spawned has a more credible practice than magic. Thats the science of chemistry. During the time alchemy was in use list of known substances was greatly increased and several important discoveries were made such as mineral acids. Also allot of the procedures as tools used in chemistry came from alchemy. In the 18hundreds alchemy gave way to chemistrys more accurate results and far more scientific methods. Scientists of the 16hundreds 17hundreds and 18hundreds brought about new ideas and changed peoples way of thinking. Alchemy was thought of as wrong and actually outlawed in many places. During the 15 hundreds and 16hundreds alchemist had a hard time practicing because many countries wouldnt let them practice unless the worked for the sovereign of that nation. The sovereign considered them a threat, if they produced a lot of gold the sovereigns would decrease in value however if the alchemists worked for them then they could increase their wealth. Many alchemists who didnt work for a sovereign were often imprisoned or killed. Technology Essays

Social Media And Marketing The WritePass Journal

Social Media And Marketing Abstract Social Media And Marketing ). The recruitment team has taken a strategic role of supplying talent. The team has contributed to a highly attractive employment as well as compensation scheme development. The impact of this is that RasGas has been put in a competitive position where the labour market is challenging. Qualified employees with talent are likely to join the company because of the good reputation it has. An employee development project is being developed steered by the managing director with the aim of carrying out the following tasks. Succession planning, personal career development plans, an approach to appraise performance and develop careers. The philosophy aims to set the pace program for employee development (RasGas 20122012). Use of Social Media in Recruitment The use of social media for recruiting has become a powerful tool in recent years with recruiters searching for employees using social media sites while employees are searching such sites to check for new job postings. Employers are using Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to attract qualified employees because there is a belief that social media can exceed the key factors that makes the difference between an average recruiting tool and a dominant tool. Though social media is a complicated tool for hiring, it has unrivalled capabilities. The cost implications of using social media are far lower than other forms of media tools used for recruiting purposes. Since the visitors of social media have not intentionally visited the sites in search of job postings, it is possible to get paramount employees (â€Å"Social Media† 2012). The following are the main factors that make a social media suitable for recruitment; a huge and varied audience of ideal users with a large number of qualified prospects, all of the social media audience will be dominated by working, working and not necessarily searching for a job as well as the unemployed and that RasGas can make use of this to search for the best talent in potential employees before deciding on a given employee (Headworth 2012). It enables the shifting of workloads to others and the employees of an organisation would be useful in selecting and relationship building. Social media can help in relationship building through the development of trust and social interest. Messages through social media are mostly authentic in nature compared to other forms of media such as emails that may contain spam. Within the social media, accessibility is easier because there is widespread of mobile phones and personal computers, all with access to social media sites. Messages favoured by the target audience can be sent in the form of multimedia messaging. Quality recruitment can be achieved while using social media at low costs compared with other forms of recruiting media. It is therefore possible for RasGas to acquire the best, whilst facilitating the lowest capital thus saving on the company cost structure to increase profits (â€Å"Social Media† 2012). Marketing and Social Media Marketing can use social media to capture the most talented and brightest people in order to achieve high sales for RasGas liquefied natural gas. By using social media the company can select and recruit sales people all over the world reducing costs associated with such activities if the company decided to use other media. RasGas, with its international operation, requires that employees with varied cultures are employed. They must have the required skill to increase the performance of the company in different countries where RasGas sells its products. To increase the market share of RasGas qualified, as well as talented, employees must be engaged in line with the company’s goal of recruiting trained employees. By applying the best recruiting policies, the company is in a position of retaining the employees by employing candidates who are self motivated and ambitious towards increasing their sales (â€Å"Social Media† 2012). Types of Social Media that can Be Used by RasGas RasGas can use the following social media in its objectives of recruiting and retaining the best.   Referral hiring has been enhanced by social media where recruiters have access to a wide range of talent through referrals by employees on social media. Employers pay bonuses to employees who refer suitable candidates to them (Liska 2012). Recruitment marketing through social media has enabled employers regardless of their size to access a large pool of data. The investments by prospective employers are lower alongside a reduction in time and other resources. Employers are able to access social media for attractive career pages with a rich and dynamic content. Recruiters can attach blog articles, photos or even embedding videos top create an engaging career content. Facebook delivers the widest talent pool compared to other social media. With a large number of subscribers, throughout the world, RasGas can make use of this platform to recruit the best employees possible. Facebook has a very large engagement of users who are both potential and non-potential employees making it possible for RasGas companies to identify talent more easily. RasGas can utilise the Facebook timeline that displays personal information as well as up to date professional qualifications to hire potential employees (Liska 2012). RasGas has an option of using Google + which is growing at a very fast pace. Google + enables users to maintain professional and personal lives, all in one place. Like other social media, Google + has a large following of professionals whom RasGas can find valuable in their recruitment. Google + is actively competing with Facebook with its unique hangouts feature that taps into video interviewing making it possible for RasGas to interview potential employees who are based in other countries. Google + also has circles that allow recruiters to message candidates and influencers (Liska 2012). Another form of social media that can be used by RasGas is Twitter which has grown in terms of features revenues and users. Having a following on Twitter, RasGas can grow its Twitter followers and get potential employees from this following. Employment officials from RasGas can be directed into other recruiter accounts making it possible for the company to recruit the best. LinkedIn is another form of social media that RasGas can facilitate in search of talent, however it is experiencing immense competition from other social networks like Facebook and Twitter and it offers a platform for more talent within a company (Liska 2012). Conclusion RasGas, being an international company, is required to adopt modern cost effective means of achieving its goals on maintaining the best employees in the company. Marketing play an important role in ensuring that the company’s products reach the market while at the same time making sure that customer expectations are met by the company through continued improvement. This can only be achieved through a potentially good workforce that is correctly trained and maintained. The global economic conditions of the world are changing fast and companies need to maintain a competitive advantage over their contenders if they want to survive. Bibliography Headworth, Andy, 2012. Smart Social Media Recruitment Strategies,   [Online] Available at: http://blog.sironaconsulting.com/files/ark1721smart-social-media-recruitment-strategies_samplechapter.pdf [Accessed 8 May, 2012]. Liska Jindrich, 2012. Social Recruiting Trends in 2012, [Online] Available at : recruiter.com/i/social-recruiting-trends-in-2012/ [Accessed 8 May, 2012]. â€Å"Social Media: the Most Powerful Recruiting Tool Since the Telephone,† 2012. [Online] Available at: ere.net/2010/10/04/social-media-the-most-powerful-recruiting-tool-since-the-telephone/ [Accessed 8 May, 2012]. â€Å"RasGas Careers† 2012. [Online] Available at: rasgas.com/rg/L_2.cfm?L2_id=3 [Accessed 8 May, 2012].