Social Engineering A Form Of Identity Theft - 2321 Words

Abstract Social Engineering from the outset may seem like a topic one might hear when talking about sociology or psychology, when in fact it is a form of identity theft. To an information technology (IT) professional, Social Engineering is a form of voluntary, unintentional identity theft. Many victims fail to realize they are being victimized until it is too late, while many others may never know. This paper will provide a definition of social engineering as it applies to information technology while introducing some the pioneers of social engineering; those who have, essentially, written the book on social engineering. We will provide real world examples of how social engineers apply their trade and provide important points to consider with regards to social engineering attacks. In conclusion we will propose counter-measures, which individuals and organizations should take in order to guard against social engineering. Social Engineering as defined by IT professionals is the practice of deceiving someone, either in person, over the phone or using a computer, with the express intent of breaching some level of security, either personal or professional (Ledford, 2011.) Implementing quality risk analysis solutions while maintaining data integrity is a crucial element of successful system modeling; within the context of social engineering in the workplace, there are several factors that can make implementing those solutions rather challenging. Social engineering is a type ofShow MoreRelatedIdentity Theft and Possible Risk in Technology1713 Words   |  7 PagesIdentity Theft and Possible Risk in Technology Identity theft has been a major issue of privacy and fraud. In the data breach analysis from the Identity Theft Resource Center (2013), the number of data breaches from the year 2005 to 2012 increased. In 2012, there had been 49% where the data breach exposed people Social Security Number. The data breach of 2012 has a rate of 27.4% caused by hackers. These breaches were commonly from 36.4% businesses and 34.7% health and medical (Identity Theft ResourceRead MoreIdentity Theft Is Not A New Type Of Crime776 Words   |  4 PagesMerriam-Webster defines identity theft as the illegal use of someone else s personal identifying information (such as a Social Security number) in order to get money or credit. The United States Department of Justice says identity theft is, â€Å"The short answer is that identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person s personal data in som e way that involves fraud or deception, typicallyRead MoreA Brief Note On Public And Private Information1539 Words   |  7 Pagesto it. Today social networking and education have dramatically benefitted from this increase in information and accessibility. But this can also be a very bad thing, there are also people who take advantage of this accessibility to information in a negative way, with public information being as accessible as it is it makes it a lot easier for people to steal others information. For example identity thieves can steal people’s information they find online and gain access to their identity, because aRead MoreThe Social Of Social Engineering Essay1304 Words   |  6 Pagesuntold damage estimated in the millions of dollars. On the same note, identity theft is a major global problem and despite numerous efforts by governments to ensure citizens do not fall prey to fraudsters, the human condition remains the weakest link in information security hence, s ocial engineering thrives under these circumstances. Social engineering in this context, emphasizes the apparent relationship between human social behavior and information technology and specifically. Human habits dictateRead MoreSocial Engineering1052 Words   |  5 PagesSocial Engineering This research paper is primarily based on information gathered from secondary sources explaining what the term â€Å"social engineering† is, how it is perpetrated, and the impact it has on individuals and corporations. It will also discuss ethical issues and action that can be taken by both individuals and corporations respectively to mitigate and minimize the risk of social engineering attacks. Social engineering, in the context of information technology, is defined as â€Å"gainingRead MoreTaking a Look at Cybercrime1112 Words   |  4 Pagesdesigned to do. Identity theft, hacking, spamming, and digital piracy---these are the few prevalent forms of cybercrimes. Identity theft is increasingly becoming a prevalent form of cybercrime. Cybercriminals misrepresent themselves by pretending to some else and use others personal information to open accounts or use accounts that already exist. In 2014 â€Å" 22 million Americans had been victimized by..† These crimes cost business and consumers over $.... To commit identity theft, cybercriminalsRead MoreEssay On Hacking People Instead Of Computers1531 Words   |  7 Pagescannot protect themselves online from people-targeted hacking, what can you as a consumer do? That is what we seek to explore in this article. How are people being hacked? Phishing Phishing is perhaps the most popular methods of social engineering. It refers to the fraudulent theft of personal information by posing as a genuine entity. Oftentimes, it is done via email and sometimes by text. A basic phishing email would prompt you to click on a link, which would then redirect you to the landing page ofRead MoreCyber Crime: Preventing the Horrific Crimes on the Inernet1649 Words   |  7 Pagesincluding fraud, identity theft, stalking, and hacking is a growing problem which can be prevented by taking the proper precautions. I. Background II. Cyber fraud A. Fraud sites 1. Free trials sites 2. Craigslist B. Preventing fraud 1. Personal information 2. Credit cards III. Identity theft A. Identity theft sites 1. Stealing information 2. Craigslist B. Preventing Identity theft 1. Who to give information to IV. Cyber Stalking A. Stalking sites 1. Social and ChatRead MorePhishing : An Example Of Social Engineering Techniques Used For Financial Gain Identity848 Words   |  4 Pagesto perform certain actions for the attacker’s benefits. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to financial gain identity thefts Phishers are targeting the customers of banks and online payment services, Emails. 2. Rationale and significance of the study Social networking sites are now a prime target of phishing. the personal details in such sites can be used in identity theft. 2.1 phishing types Phishing Types Above Fig.1 shows types of phishingRead MoreOnline Gaming and Fraud in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) 1359 Words   |  5 Pagescommunities to online gaming. With that high amount of traffic, these online games have become prime targets for crime to emerge from. Due to the online nature and virtual elements of this kind of community, the most common type of crime committed was theft, followed closely by fraud (Chen 2005). With the increase in online communities from online gaming, businesses have started advertising both to these markets and through them. This has opened up not only the online communities to the threat of fraud

Essay On Song Of Solomon - 1213 Words

Topic 1 SONG OF SOLOMON PERIOD 1 |Ap Literature Nancy Guevara Growing up is a journey, to be specific it s a journey in a maze. We go around in different directions in hopes to find out who we indeed are. Left to right in every direction we run into things that change our mindset and by the end of the maze, we are entirely different people. Most mazes have doors; open one door new beginning, shut another end of that chapter. Specific events in life alter our young minds, and we tend to grow from these experiences. Personal and social encounters come our way and turn us into adults. Milkman in the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison goes through various incitements and awakenings that force him to change his ways and enhance his†¦show more content†¦From the start narrow-minded. Even before his life journey also started Milkman those who were supposed to love him unconditionally tried to end him. Milkman s father was that person; Macon dead was jealous of both his wife s father and his unborn son. I know he never told you that he killed my father and that he tried to kill you. (Morrison 124). Milkman s mother Ruth told him the truth about his father, the man he was supposed to look up to and cherish. When his mother told him that his father tried to make her abort him, he was told that his aunt Pilate was the reason why he was alive. Pilate was the one who brought you here in the first place ... Pilate? ... Milkman was coming awake (Morrison 124). The moment in which he found out that his aunt was the reason for his existence was an end to what he felt against his aunt and a beginning. Milkman was starting to become less narrow-minded, he was beginning to leave his child like ways of thinking and started to noticed things and acted in them. Finding out that his aunt saved him made him realize that Pilate was the catalyst in his life. That his aunt someone who his father despised so very much was someone who helps give Milkman a chance in life. As the door that leads to his existing relationship with his father closed another opened; the one that further enhanced theShow MoreRelatedEssay On Song Of Solomon1421 Words   |  6 Pagesit is not always a good thing. As an adolescent, that bliss works to your advantage, but as a person gets older it only hinders your growth. Most times one does not know that they have remained stagnant until it has become known. In the novel Song of Solomon, by Tori Morrison, Milkman was unaware of his current state until it was made known to him.As a result, he unconsciously came of age through inner and external revelations. Milkman grew up in a somewhat sheltered or controlled environment whereRead More Essay on Flight in Song of Solomon1579 Words   |  7 PagesTheme of Flight in Song of Solomon    Clearly, the significant silences and the stunning absences throughout Morrisons texts become profoundly political as well as stylistically crucial. Morrison describes her own work as containing holes and spaces so the reader can come into it (Tate 125), testament to her rejection of theories that privilege j the author over the reader. Morrison disdains such hierarchies in which the reader as participant in the text is ignored: My writing expects, demandsRead More Essay on Flight in Song of Solomon1001 Words   |  5 PagesThe Importance of Flight in Song of Solomon   Ã‚  Ã‚   Flight is a major theme in Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon. â€Å"Flight echoes throughout the story as a reward, as a hoped-for skill, as an escape, and as proof of intrinsic worth; however, by the end this is not so clear a proposition†(Lubiano 96). Song of Solomon ends with ‘flight’ but in such a way that the act allows for multiple interpretations: suicide; real flight and then a wheeling attack on his brother; or real flight and then someRead MoreSong of Solomon Essay1068 Words   |  5 PagesToni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon, encompasses many themes that were prevalent in the other novels written in the same time period. Morrison produced this novel in 1977 just as racial issues and discrimination were at its peaks. â€Å"She [Morrison] was the first African American to receive the Noble Prize in Literature.† (Milliman 5) However, the setting of the story is in the 1930s when World War II was taking place. The novel is based o n an African-American family residing in Michigan who areRead More Song Of Solomon Essay856 Words   |  4 Pages The novel Song of Solomon has several recurring themes, including that of sexuality. Morrison effectively demonstrates these sexual themes relating to both sexes. Unlike in her other novels, both the men and women are â€Å"searching for love, for valid sexual encounters, and above all, for a sense that they are worthy.†(Bakerman 318) While Song of Solomon gives men a more prominent place, Morrison also shows the desires of women to break away from established society and to create an individualisticRead MoreEssay On Song Of Solomon1576 Words   |  7 Pages LAP TOPIC 2 Song of Solomon By Toni Morrison AP Literature/ Period 3 Mr.Amoroso Emily Padilla Padilla 1 In a stressful or unfamiliar atmosphere the human responds with a fight or flight tactic. When people refer to a black man the stereotype regarding fight or flight is that they lean towards to flight. Conceptually, flight is if one is trying to escape complication, but it may not be that way in some cases. When facing dogged people the best you can do sometimes is just vacateRead MoreEssay on The Song of Solomon2983 Words   |  12 Pages Book Title Song of Solomon Author Toni Morrison Summary The first black boy ever born in Mercy Hospital in a town in Michigan comes into the world the day after an insurance agent named Robert Smith kills himself by trying to â€Å"fly† from the roof of the hospital across Lake Superior. The boys mother, Ruth, nurses him until he is eight or nine years old, thus earning him the ridiculous nickname Milkman. Milkman befriends an older boy named Guitar, visits his Aunt Pilate, and falls in love withRead MoreEssay On Song Of Solomon966 Words   |  4 Pagesthe beautiful bird drew the attention of everyone nearby. The strut of the bird added to its aura, making it seem like it was talking in slow motion. There was a pause and the bird tried to flap its wings and fly, but was rooted to the ground. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, is a coming of age story following the life of Milkman Dead, who grows up in a wealthy household in a poor black community. Milkman lives in a bubble of isolation, which ultimately causes him to venture off and leave his homeRead MoreSong Of Solomon Essay1834 Words   |  8 Pages Song Of Solomon Author: Toni Morrison LAP Topic #3 Written by: Jason Gutierrez Humanities greatest unsolvable conflict, where man is subjected to the blindfold of ignorance. Where a black man isn’t perceived, but only an object is seen. Racism is the pinnacle of self hatred. Having to put down another man due to his own skin color because you are afraid. Afraid that you are not above someone else, afraid of revolution, afraid of having a black man standing beside you. Man goes through life havingRead More Essay on Spirituality in Song of Solomon894 Words   |  4 PagesInclusive Spirituality in Song of Solomon    When slaves were brought to America they were taken from all they had known and forced to live in a land of dark irony that, while promising life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, provided them with only misery. In a situation such as the one in which the slaves found themselves, many people would rely on their religion to help them survive. But would slaves be able to find spiritual comfort within the parameters of a religion that had been passed

Travel as a Political Act Free Essays

Introduction: 1. The notion of travel that still persists is the relative affluence of wealthy travelers (Americans) who only seek the doctrine of pleasure. I believe overseas travel should be an understanding of different cultures, even educational. We will write a custom essay sample on Travel as a Political Act or any similar topic only for you Order Now I’ve had the privilege to travel to Norway, Germany, France, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii and Guam. Some of my travel was in early adolescents and my understanding of different cultures was drastically different. I expected life to be as it was in the United States with all the amenities we take for granted. Just last year in December, my job took me to Germany and France. I made sure to research there culture and customs concerning food, manners, and restaurants†¦ etc. I even tried to learn some German and French. The conveniences I desired as an adolescent where all the comforts of home, T. V. , water, video games and â€Å"American food†. As an adult my conveniences are more practical and hopefully simplistic, clean water (without bubbles) a clean place to sleep and a few electrical outlets to plug in all my devices. 2. I believe Steves is making a generalization of the modern traveler. Steves has traveled all over and experienced many cultures and ethnicities. To me, Steves is telling us that he has â€Å"seen it all† and has a respect for others culture. 3. Steves defines good citizenship as, â€Å"Holding our country to a high standard and searching for ways to better live up to it lofty ideals. † Yes, it is okay to criticize our country. If we do not question and critic ourselves, we do not leave much room to grow and improve. Yes, we can learn from other nations. My observation in some of the countries I’ve visited is, they are better at recycling then we are. This is an opportunity to learn from another nation. Chapter 1 1. Elected leaders of today have no more of a connection then those â€Å"divinely ordained† kings did centuries ago. The example presented form a political office often differs from when they were campaigning. There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy in our politics. 2. â€Å"Travel challenges truths that we were raised thinking were self-evident and God-given† (pp. 5). We learn that other cultures and ethnicities do things differently according to religion, food†¦etc. 3. Looking out over the action, with Pillars of Hercules in the misty Moroccan distance is where Steves says two great civilizations came together. I would love to see Christianity and Islam co-existing in peace, but as he said before, this is nothing new. From my perspective, Islam was birthed from Christianity and there can only be one true God and that is through Jesus. Ultimately there will always be a battle until the new heaven and earth. 4. Fear is often a barrier to travel. Fear is not a factor in my willingness to travel. I believe we all should get out of our comfort zones and experience something different. 5. Americans would benefit most from international travel. Learning about the world and coming home with a new perspective 6. Steves learned that there are more Lutherans in Namibia then in the US. I don’t think it affects my perspective at all. If anything, my thinking brings me to spreading the gospel of Jesus and how many people are lost. Chapter 2-Lessons from the Former Yugoslavia: After the War 7. Ethnicities that exist in the former Yugoslavia are all South Slavs. The difference between them is what they choose to call themselves according to what religion they associate with. Catholic South Slavs are called Croats; Orthodox South Slavs are called Serbs; and Muslim South Slavs are called Bosniaks. In 1995 they laid down their arms and agreed to a peace agreement. According to Steves it is a slow progression each year. (pp. 28) It takes time to heal but all three countries are on the mend by putting aside their political and ethnic differences. 8. Home mortgages ceased to exist after the civil war ended. There is confusion on who owns what. Many surviving companies do not have money and the bank of Yugoslavia, which held the many of the mortgages is gone. The economic cost after the war still has a major affect concerning commerce, tourism and the ability to rebuild. 9. The effect of the â€Å"iconostasis† in the church Steve visited is to separate the common worshippers from â€Å"heavy lifting† priests. It gives them a sense of privacy. There shouldn’t be that much privacy between the religious leaders and the common worshiper. Jesus was very approachable. There is a certain humanistic ritual that comes with religion, in elevating the teacher or priest. I believe this is unnecessary. My pastor is very approachable. We are encouraged to get involved with many ministries within and outside of the church. It would be very difficult to be part of a church where your leadership was unapproachable. Chapter 3-Europe Unites: Successes Struggles 10. 10. The big news in Europe today is Unification. Since the Unification of the 27 European countries they have opened up a free trade zone which promotes a competitive market along side the U. S and the up and coming powers of China and India. Benefits of the European Union come from high taxes. There is a much hire expectation of their big government to provide an extensive welfare network. This includes, childcare, healthcare, education, and retirement. In conclusion, I believe the benefits of their big government are well organized programs that benefit society as a whole. 1. Steves maintains that all societies have socialistic elements. I agree with Rick to a certain point. We (America) are a very well run Republic. I’d like to think that I would be open to more progressive policies in our country. So far, our in-class discussions and this book have shown me that we can learn from other countries and possibly adapt their pol icies to fit our style of government. The beauty of our constitution is it is meant to be adaptable. 12. Steves says, â€Å"In America we believe in government by and for the people through the corporations that we own. † Corporations in America do have a lot of influence and power. This can have a positive or negative influence. I believe it is there right to have choices. We are only as good as our ethics. Unfortunately we have seen many large corporations fail because of bad business ethics. As far as the Supreme court ruling concerning corporations and their ability to contribute unlimited funds to political campaign; I believe is a privilege. I do not know the intricacies of this policy, but with my limited knowledge, they have earned the right to give as much or as little as they please. Everything comes back to business ethics and morals in my opinion. Great power and wealth also comes with greater responsibility. The ability to choose is what makes our country unique. The ability and privilege to choose is healthy. The outcomes of our decisions are what hinder or help. 13. Europeans work 25 percent fewer ours then we do. Americans work more hours at their jobs than Europeans because of cultural differences. The, â€Å"American Dream† is to work as much as possible to achieve more, financially and materialistically. 14. Steves maintains that Europeans prefer diplomacy to war, because of their interdependence on each other financially. I do not believe that we as Americans are to eager to go to war. Steves mentions that America has a unique position in the world as its â€Å"protector†. I believe this has become Americas default. If another country is suffering or looking for help, America has been the military presence. If anything, we over extend our resources. Many of my family members have served in our military or are closely affiliated with other government agencies. I fully believe that we as regular citizens do not know what goes on enough to truly have an objective opinion concerning many of the wars we are involved in. 15. Steves took it upon himself after feeling oppressed, to speak with the local lions club president in his hometown concerning the numerous flags set out. When they did not take down their flags Steves took it upon himself to start removing the flags. I strongly disagree with what Steves did. For him to compare us flying our flag to the Nazi oppression concerning the â€Å"Gruss Gott† or even the Northern Ireland cause is ignorance. I believe the majority of this nation fly our flag in support of our troops and not towards a political affiliation. I also believe it is our right to fly our flag anytime especially in time of war. It shows pride toward our country and support of our troops and the freedom they fight for. Regardless of political affiliation, I feel it is insecurity that allowed him to proceed the way he did. That is also the beauty of our country. He can do what he did because our troops defend his rights as well. 16. Steves says we put a guilt trip on Europe in saying, â€Å" Don’t they remember how we saved them from the Nazis? † Hopefully, we are making an impact on countries, to where they don’t feel obligated but want to take our side. I would like to think they wouldn’t think twice about siding with us. 7. Steves says, he â€Å"loves America more. And because I care about our society, I challenge us to do better. † I don’t think it is fair to tell anyone to leave. I think it is more of an irrational emotional reaction. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’ve thought about saying that to someone in a political position or even though t while reading this book about Steves. But I know that it comes from an irrational part of my brain. I agree with Steves in that, we need to find common ground and could learn from Europe and some of their policies. Chapter 4 Resurrection in El Slavador 18. Steve’s points out that the minimum wage is $1. 00 in El Salvador. Minimum wage in America is usually a starting point where as the indigenous people of El Salvador â€Å"only aspire to the minimum wage†¦and that’s all they get†. I think our minimum wage should increase with inflation. Many of our resources go up such as, groceries, rent, gas†¦etc. So it only makes sense that minimum wage go up as well. A â€Å"living wage† ideally sounds like a great. The problem with a set living wage is the affect it could have on independent businesses. A higher wage could contribute to higher unemployment. Employers may not be willing to higher as many people in order to make a profit. I’ve contradicted myself somewhat with my desire for an increased minimum wage. All that to say, it is a tough job to figure out. 19. 20. Globalization is defined as; the growth of interregional and worldwide linkages and the changes these linkages are bringing about. According to Steve’s, the driving force is, naked ambition to open new markets to firms and products. Altruism is defined as the unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others. Altruism is demonstrated in my life through giving. I currently sponsor two World Vision children. Hopefully at the end of my college education I can help better lives even further. My ultimate goal is to help others through the skills and education Trevecca will provide. 21. Steve’s says that he is not anti-globalization. He is anti-bad globalization. Steve’s believes that if globalization is implemented thoughtfully compassionately it can be the salvation of the developing world. Rick believes we have an obligation to be responsible. I agree that we have an obligation to be responsible. The role of the wealthy in our world is to continue to become wealthy. 22. Rick believes that our leadership manipulated our national grief to justify our actions in war. Rick believes that with the overwhelming sympathy from other nations we could have lifted the world into an unprecedented unity. I don’t think America could have done anything differently after 9/11. As Rick mentioned before, we haven’t had any conflicts hit American soil. In my opinion, a conflict reached our soil, and we reacted. 23. Steve’s quotes comes from Mathew 25: 35-46. I believe Steve’s is correct in these verses. Our responsibility as Christians with regards to poverty is what the verse in Mathew projects. Christians and the church as a whole can improve poverty. I recently, made a career change from Tour Manager in the Christian Music Industry to full time student. A large influence was because of an organization called World Vision and a book written by its CEO . â€Å"The Hole in our Gospelâ€Å" A paraphrased quote that had a large impact on me says†¦. †We have expansive, beautiful church buildings, huge choirs and the best praise and worship bands anywhere, but if all that is playing so loudly that it’s drowning out the cries of hundreds of thousands of suffering children all over the world. Then there is a hole in the gospel we are preaching here in America. † We are guilty of being a â€Å"me† society and need to improve our resources to the poverty in our country and the world. Chapter 5-Denmark: Highly Taxed Highly Content 24. Rick states, they have an efficient train system and many Danes will never get around to buying a car. I believe we have to depend on our cars especially in more rural/ suburban areas. We do not have an effective transit system in many parts of the country. We are a society that does not provide sidewalks, or mass transit; in general we are not pedestrian friendly. We would need to build more mass transit station and less High ways. The best solution thus far is HOV lanes and carpooling. 25. Danes are more reliant on government then large corporations. They prefer to hold their government to a high standard and expect the elected officials to do their job. In my limited knowledge I would say; Yes, we may give too much power to corporations but that is what our government is for. (Ex: monopolies) Government and corporations should balance one another. The proper role of our government is to uphold our constitution and liberties. The federal government is to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to our Posterity and ourselves. I think Ronald Reagan said it best during his First Inaugural Address: â€Å"We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around. Our government has no power except that granted by the people, and this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. † 26. I believe the â€Å"free rider† problem in the USA today is our social welfare system. This means that people take advantage of a government program that is meant to help lift you out of poverty rather then keep you in poverty. We are a society with an entitlement attitude. Americans take advantage of the system specifically through our welfare system. If you remember a show on MTV called cribs, they had a well known rapper who obviously made money then the allotted figure in the welfare system but was still being afforded a welfare check and food stamps. Without conviction he flaunted this on national t. v. Unfortunately this still happens today. This shows that a government program intended to help those in need is being taken advantage of and is broken. I thought of poor people and our broken welfare system. Now that I read this question our system is broken in ethics concerning corporate America as well. I’m not sure there is an explanation as to why I thought of the poor over the rich. 27. Taxes in Denmark are extremely high. Regular workers pay up to 50% in taxes and the wealthy pay up to 70% in taxes. There collective decision is based on what is best for society verses the individual. I don’t think we should model Denmark’s taxation policy. I think we need to fix ours. Our system has worked in the past and is what has made us unique as a country. We are a world power because of our unique economy not only because of our military. 28. The system for owning a car in Denmark is ridiculously expensive. If you are to buy a vehicle the cost and fees add up to buying 3 cars. This would not work in the USA. We rely to heavily on our vehicles for something like this to work. 29. Danes as a whole seem to not support marijuana. I do not believe we should legalize marijuana. We already have many vices that contribute to our society†¦ie alcohol and tobacco. Colorado is already having many issues on how to handle their legalization of the drug. I do not think there are any pros to adding to legalizing Marijuana. If I had to think of a pro, it would be to help generate revenue for the economy. Over all the disadvantages of legalizing this drug out way any positives. Regulation of outside distribution of the drug, affects it has on an individual, study’s show it kills brains cells over long periods of using. Colorado is already having problematic debates on where to grow and use the drug is acceptable. Chapter 6-Turkey Morocco: Sampling secular Islam 0. One man keeps the Quran, Torah and Bible in his â€Å"Quran bag†. I believe we can and should get along with other religions. We should love people where they are. Christ calls us to love God and love people. The only way to affectively love and share truth is in love and relationship. I truly believe us as followers of Christ are all disciples and are responsible for represe nting Christ the best way possible. I deal with non-Christians the same way I would anyone else, with love. The best way to deal with Jews and Muslims again, is to love them where they are. 31. The evidence that Steves presents that Turkey maybe lurching into Islamic fundamentalism and theocracy are women in public wearing the traditional headdress and walking behind men. He also noticed/felt disdained as he walked down the street, as if everyone should be praying and not out and about. I feel that our country was founded on Christian principles. In many ways we are a Christian nation. I believe our founding fathers intended this country to be free from religious persecution concerning the way they worshiped in their Christian beliefs. It is my opinion that we should be a God fearing Christian nation. We can still be a Christian nation and accept other people and the way they choose to worship. 32. Islamist are the expansionist/extremist and are afraid of the very existence of Israel. Islamic’s are the opposite. Truly, in my heart I do not feel any ill will toward Muslims. I see them as people just the same as you and I. The reason I feel this way is because of the love God has for us. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I often think they are wrong in their belief, and it is our job as Christians to lovingly start a conversation with them and hopefully share our beliefs. The problem is noted in this book. They believe Muhammad is the one true god. Steves friend also says, â€Å"Christendom should be threatened by Islam only if the Christian West seeks Empire here†. 33. Steves says there are advantages and disadvantages to a guided travel tour. He almost seems disappointed in the advice given in one of his books because of the fear seen on his trip to Morocco. Advantages of a guided tour are to see and experience landmarks and history behind a certain traveled area. Cons would be only experiencing the Touristy areas which are usually overpriced. I personally would prefer to visit another country on my own or with a local. I feel that is where you learn and experience the most. Although you are still a tourist you don’t stand out as much. Chapter 7-Eurpoe: Not â€Å"Hard on Drugs† or â€Å"Soft on Drugs†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦but Smart on Drugs 34. Most European nations have in common is the emphasis on education and prevention. Thinking back to my middle school and high school days. My thoughts on drug education were; it’s a joke. D. A. R. E. was the education tool used and was implemented in my elementary school. There weren’t any preventative measures in middle school or high school while I was in school. 35. Marijuana is not legal in the Netherlands. The Dutch take a more relaxed approach. There belief on Marijuana is as soon as you criminalize something; you lose any ability to regulate it. So they tolerate recreational pot smoking until it is harmful to themselves and others. I don’t really have an opinion on pot coffee shops in the Netherlands. What works for some may not work for others. I think it might be difficult to travel to the Netherlands and enjoy coffee if pot is there as well. I don’ think this would work very well in the U. S. We are not a society that approves of pot, and pot smoking is usually associated with harder drugs here. 36. Roughly 18,000 die of drug overdose in the U. S according to 2007 UN drug report. Looking at the statistics concerning the Dutch and Switzerland approach on hard drugs, I think it could work in the U. S. It would be something that would take time and diligence on private organization and government. The obstacles I see are our current healthcare debacle and recession. Chapter 8-Mission: Understand Iran 37. Steves had been giving his taxi driver a â€Å"thumbs up† when they had a good film take. His driver finally informed him he was mispronouncing his name and that giving someone a â€Å"thumbs up† was like giving them the middle finger. In my personal experience, reading about the culture before you visit is a huge help. Knowing currency, rate of exchange, tipping servers and even some food knowledge can go a long way. Try to understand and speak a little of their language. Most people are grateful you made an effort to speak there language. 38. Men and women squat when they urinate because they believe you do not get rid of your urine when you stand up. It is an overall Muslim religious conviction. I would definitely have some trouble in a place that did not have a toilet or toilet paper. I don’t think it would prevent me from visiting. It would just be difficult to deal with. 39. The dress code at the university was very strict and conforming. I think that we all need a little guidance. Dress codes help keep some order and moral decency. All within reason. I don’t feel the dress code at Trevecca affects me in any way. I think it is fine. 40. Steves said he was disheartened by the conformity imposed at the University of Tehran. The proper role of a university professor/instructor at Trevecca is to teach and inform the students on a certain subject. I think if, it is relevant to the class we should be challenged to use our brains concerning opposing views or ideas. I don’t believe we should only look at one point of view. As for the Nazarene point of view we can learn about this specific view point but should also be challenged to see other viewpoints. 41. Brightly colored banners translated to â€Å"Death to Israel† where posted throughout the Mosque. If the police or some other group were there to â€Å"keep order† I would feel violated. Definitely grateful for our freedom of religion. 42. Steves says that the segregation among the males and females contributes to the negative image many of the Western Christians have of Islam. In some legalistic Christian churches women have to dress a certain way and in other situations, women do not have certain authority to â€Å"preach†. 43. The U. S. supported Iraq against Iran in the 1980’s. It does a little. Overall I would need to research more and find out why we backed Iraq. Then I could come to a better-educated thought. 44. Steves says, â€Å"†¦travel can be a powerful force for peace. Travel promotes understanding at the expense of fear. And understanding bridges conflicts between nations. † I think he means that we are at times very narrow minded as a nation. We would rather listen to what our preferred news source tells us and make our judgments from there. Traveling helps people see an entirely different perspective. Steves tends to see the humanism and similarities that cross cultural barriers. 45. Steves compares us by saying, â€Å"Iran has one dominant ethnic group and religion that’s struggling with issues of diversity and change, -liberal versus conservative, modern versus traditional, and secular versus religious. † Yes, we are sometime intolerant like the Iranians. People are imperfect and growing. We all have different opinions and some times allow our strong opinions turn into intolerance. 6. Steves is passionate about his personal experiences and how he has seen them affect others. He believes that the American Flag doesn’t belong in his church and the Ten Commandments do not belong in City Hall. I have traveled all over the United States and have seen an American Flag in many of the churches I’ve visited. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with having the American flag in church. As far as the Ten Commandments, we are a nation that believes in the separation of church and state. I am personally not opposed to it but understand the necessity to not impose this on others. How to cite Travel as a Political Act, Essay examples

Cross Cultural Management Disney Case Study-Myassingmenthelp.com

Questions: 1.What are some of the Main Cultural Differences between the United States and France?2.In what way has Trompenaarss research helped explain cultural differences between the United States and France?3.In Managing its Euro Disneyland Operations, what are three mistakes that the Company made? 4.Based on its Experience, what are three lessons the Company should have alarmed about how to deal with Diversity? Answers: 1.The application of Hofstedes four cultural dimension as a point of reference to the given case involving the Euro Disneyland can be understood and appreciated in the light of the fact that the United States and France, even though perceived as the western allies when it comes to the socio-cultural aspects do have significant difference when it comes to the workplace cross cultural dynamics (Adekunle Jude, 2014). In this section, we would consider the various dimensions and parameters laid down by Hofstede to underscore the cultural differences in a cross cultural workplace paradigm: Power distance: in terms of the power distance between the more powerful members and the less powerful members of the organizations, France has a higher score as compared to the United State (Bird Mendenhall, 2016). This means, that in a general workplace in France, members at the lower rungs of the management are more likely to blindly follow the orders of their superiors as compared to those in the United States. Uncertainty avoidance: when it comes to the uncertainty avoidance or risk taking tendency among the individuals in the United States and France, they almost show opposing trends. In case of the United states, employees, individual and other contributing personnel to the workplace environment score extremely low on the uncertainty avoidance meaning that Americans are more likely to be tolerant to newer ideas and outlook as compared to their French counterparts, it also signifies that traditionally the French prefer to have a less risk taking attitude by the managers of the organization (Chanlat, Davel Dupuis, 2013). Individualism Vs Collectivism: even though both the cultures scores high in terms of individualism at the workplace signifying the fact that the people in the respective cultures tend to look out for themselves rather than trying to fit into a community or group. Such work cultures provide a greater number of cases where individual work initiatives are undertaken by the members of the workforce (Eisenberg, et al., 2013). Comparatively, the United states scores higher as compared to France in terms of individualism. Masculinity Vs Femininity: In this dimension spelt out by Hofstede, the two cultures namely the United States and France show somewhat opposing trends. The United States displays traditionally masculine culture where social values such as tangible success in career, money, material, wealth and recognition are factored higher as compared to the feminine characters such as low stress friendly environment etc (Kapur Janakiram, 2015). On the other hand, France scores higher when it comes to the feminine nature of its workplace culture that tends to being more nurturing than competitive and goal-driven. 2.According to the works of Trompenaar with regard to the various cultural dimensions that are in play in case of cross cultural system, there could a large degree of variation between the perceptions of those dimensions among the individuals from different regional background. As in the given case study involving the crisis faced by Disney for its Euro Disneyland, the cultural differences between the American Head and the French Executives were very tangible (Miska ner, 2015). Trompenaar sets out some of the dimensions that form the basis of recounting the cultural differences as follows: Universalism Vs Particularism: In this regard, both the United States and France tend to have a leaning towards universalism. Universalism refers to the belief that almost all ideas and practices can be applied anywhere in the world without bringing in much changes to them. The people from such cultural background seem to hold deals and promises in a high accord and understand their sanctity (Moore, 2015). Individualism Vs Communitarism: even though both the US and the France display a high degree of Individualism, the US definitely has a higher degree of it as compare to France. Countries such as France and the US which are high on individualism, the decisions and the managerial decisions are considered as great personal responsibility as opposed to them being seen as a team work (Pudelko, Tenzer Harzing, 2014). Neutral Vs Emotional: this is one dimension where the approach of the French and the American values differ from each other. While, the United States shows a rather neutral to emotions culture, French scores high on the emotive factor. Due to the open expression of the emotions, the decision making in France often relies on the humane side of the issues as well as opposed on depending only on the factual aspect of the things (Richter, et al., 2016). Specific Vs diffuse: In case of the United States, the public and the private spaces are very segmented and are not at all diffused as the individuals like to keep their public, private and work life carefully spaced from each other. When it comes to the French culture, even though people have a specific approach but it is quantitatively less stringent than their American counterparts. Achievement Vs Ascription: the achievement dimension of the United States is pretty high scoring as compared to that in France. The status that is attributed to an individual based on their contribution and performance is one of the biggest cultural dimensions in case of the US whereas in case of France, the overall leaning is a mix of Achievement and Ascription for the accordance of status to an individual. This can be directly correlated to the masculine and feminine nature of both the cultures as discussed by Hofstedes cultural dimensions (Schein, 2014). Time: The work culture that is followed in the US tends to be following a sequential approach as opposed to the Synchronous approach as followed by the French. Such cultural leaning of the US sets it apart from that in France as the individuals working in a US work place are expected to take up one thing at a time and do it with perfection, keeping an eye on the future, as opposed to the French who prefer to multi task and pay close attention to the past, present and the future (Stahl, et al., 2017). The perception of the time factor is also important for the cultural understanding of the workplace dynamics. Environment: this aspect of the work place in the United States has been one of the dimensions that show difference when compared to the French work place. People in a cultural paradigm such as the US tend to be more inner-directed and believe that the outcomes can be controlled by their effort and temperament (Thomas Peterson, 2014). When it comes to this particular dimension, the French actually score less than their counterparts in America signifying that the individual tend to believe that not everything can be controlled by ones efforts and temperaments. 3.The Euro Disneyland was one of the most ambitious and resource-intensive projects by Disney in the modern times. In spite of the huge capital investments and investment of other vital resources was done aplenty, it faced severe crisis right at the beginning of its lifecycle due to the lack of cross cultural management on the part of the management of the company (Tung, Baumann Hamin, 2014). With regard to the management and operation of the Euro Disneyland, there were several problems that were observed, after going through the case study. Strict and culturally misappropriated rules for the workers: as the hiring for the operation and management of the Euro Disney in France was done locally, it would have certainly helped the company to know what were the manners and rules that other businesses in the domain operating in France follow. The rules for the dressing and presentation of the executives at the theme park seemed to be going against the idea of individualism at work that the French bore when it comes to their workplace. Lack of dialogue to with the local people before and after the inauguration: The opening of the Theme park which had been a constant reminder of the US pop culture and a form of cultural imperialism became a bone of contention for the company and other right wing groups of the region. Little things with regard to the conduct of small but significant activities for example understanding the concept of personal space and private space of those French people coming into the theme park, food and beverage preferences etc. could have helped Disney to avoid some of the problems it faced initially. For example, on the grand opening of the theme park, spare ribs were served for the guest without any silverware to appropriately serve themselves. Renaming the themes to a French sounding name was not enough apparently and this showed up as a somewhat tepid reaction on the part of the guests for the Americanized and yet wanna-be French aspect of the whole endeavor (Zhu Bargiela-Chiappini, 2013). An insight into the local mindset would also have helped the company to try and ease them by underscoring the benefits of the project and not only the U.S consumerism being pushed onto the French children rhetoric floating around. Linguistic and leadership issues: there is no doubt that even though the then CEO of Disney Eisen tried to push the image of the upcoming theme park as the ideal more French than the French way, but a lot less actually materialized that truly reflected the French cultural values at play. For instance, the use of the word Howdy that sounds like Audi, something that the French sponsor Renault wouldnt want to hear at the pre-opening party became a concern. 4.There are a lot of lessons that the company should have learned about for dealing with the cultural diversity in a better manner (Pudelko, Tenzer Harzing, 2014). Here are some of them that are crucial from the management and operation of the park point of view: Keeping an open dialogue with the French on the decision making panel as they know more about their culture: in order to gain an insight on what is acceptable and what is sniggered upon by the French in general, the management should have made an attempt to understand it from its employees or other French associates on the project. Sensitivity to the local culture: the language and the concept of culture in relevance to the local population of the place could be grasped sooner and would have saved the company some ruffled feathers afterwards. Work culture and sense of individualism: the stringent, non negotiable stance that was taken up by the management on hiring the local workforce to operate and manage the theme park was seen as somewhat ironhanded by the French people. The company should have allowed an open channel for negotiation so as to fit better into the situation rather than being seen as an alien to the culture. References Adekunle, A.S. and Jude, A.I., 2014. Cross-Cultural Management Practice: The Impact on Nigerian Organization.Cross-Cultural Management,6(9). Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation.Journal of World Business,51(1), pp.115-126. Chanlat, J.F., Davel, E. and Dupuis, J.P., 2013.Cross-cultural management: culture and management across the world. Routledge. Eisenberg, J., Lee, H.J., Brck, F., Brenner, B., Claes, M.T., Mironski, J. and Bell, R., 2013. Can business schools make students culturally competent? Effects of cross-cultural management courses on cultural intelligence.Academy of Management Learning Education,12(4), pp.603-621. Kapur, N. and Janakiram, B., 2015. Cross cultural management and it's role in diversity management: Evidence from companies in India.International Journal of Research in IT and Management,5(7), pp.7-19. Miska, C. and ner, H., 2015. Global Leadership Practices: A Cross-Cultural Management Perspective.Academy of Management Learning Education,14(4), pp.657-659. Moore, F., 2015. An unsuitable job for a woman: A native categoryapproach to gender, diversity and cross-cultural management.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,26(2), pp.216-230. Pudelko, M., Tenzer, H. and Harzing, A.W., 2014. Cross-cultural management and language studies within international business research: past and present paradigms and suggestions for future research.Routledge companion to crosscultural management. London: Routledge. Richter, N.F., Hauff, S., Schlaegel, C., Gudergan, S., Ringle, C.M. and Gunkel, M., 2016. Using cultural archetypes in cross-cultural management studies.Journal of International Management,22(1), pp.63-83. Schein, E., 2014. importance in the context of cross-cultural management. Edward T. Hall (19142009 American) defined various concepts of space and demonstrated how peoples use of it can affect. ? , p.93. Stahl, G.K., Miska, C., Lee, H.J. and De Luque, M.S., 2017. The upside of cultural differences: Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in cross-cultural management research.Cross Cultural Strategic Management,24(1). Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2014.Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications. Tung, R.L., Baumann, C. and Hamin, H., 2014. Cross-cultural management of money: The roles of ethnicity, religious affiliation, and income levels in asset allocation.International Journal of Cross Cultural Management,14(1), pp.85-104. Zhu, Y. and Bargiela-Chiappini, F., 2013. Balancing emic and etic: Situated learning and ethnography of communication in cross-cultural management education.Academy of Management Learning Education,12(3), pp.380-395.

An Introduction to Black Holes

An Introduction to Black Holes Black holes are objects in the universe with so much mass trapped inside their boundaries that they have incredibly strong gravitational fields. In fact, the gravitational force of a black hole is so strong that nothing can escape once it has gone inside. Not even light can escape a black hole, it is trapped inside along with stars, gas, and dust. Most black holes contain many times the mass of our Sun and the heaviest ones can have millions of solar masses. This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black holes event horizon, where no light can escape the massive objects gravitational grip. The black holes powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as the stars skim by the black hole. NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (Space Telescope Science Institute), Science Credit: NASA, ESA, C.-P. Ma (University of California, Berkeley), and J. Thomas (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany). Despite all that mass, the actual singularity that forms the core of the black hole has never been seen or imaged. It is, as the word suggests, a tiny point in space, but it has a LOT of mass. Astronomers are only able to study these objects through their effect on the material that surrounds them.  The material around the black hole forms a rotating disk that lies just beyond a region called the event horizon, which is the gravitational point of no return. The Structure of a Black Hole The basic building block of the black hole is the singularity: a pinpoint region of space that contains all the mass of the black hole. Around it is a region of space from which light cannot escape, giving the black hole its name. The outer edge of this region is what forms the event horizon. Its the invisible boundary where the pull of the gravitational field is equal to the speed of light. Its also where gravity and light speed are balanced. The event horizons position depends on the gravitational pull of the black hole. Astronomers calculate the location of an event horizon around a black hole using the equation  Rs 2GM/c2.  R is the radius of the singularity,  G is the force of gravity, M is the mass, c is the speed of light.   Black Hole Types and How They Form There are different types of black holes, and they come about in different ways. The most common type is known as a stellar-mass black hole.  These contain roughly up to a few times the mass of our Sun, and form when large main sequence stars (10 - 15 times the mass of our Sun) run out of nuclear fuel in their cores. The result is a massive supernova explosion that blasts the stars outer layers to space. Whats left behind collapses to create a black hole. An artists conception of a stellar-mass black hole (in blue) hat likely formed when a supermassive star collapsed, feeding from material ejected by a nearby star. ESA, NASA and Felix Mirabel) The two other types of black holes are supermassive black holes (SMBH) and micro black holes. A single SMBH can contain the mass of millions or billions of suns. Micro black holes are, as their name implies, very tiny. They might have perhaps only 20 micrograms of mass. In both cases, the mechanisms for their creation are not entirely clear. Micro black holes exist in theory but have not been directly detected. Supermassive black holes are found to exist in the cores of most galaxies  and their origins are still hotly debated. Its  possible that supermassive black holes  are the result of a merger between smaller, stellar-mass black holes and other matter. Some astronomers suggest that they might be created when a single highly massive (hundreds of times the mass of the Sun) star collapses.  Either way, they are massive enough to affect the galaxy in many ways, ranging from effects on starbirth rates to the orbits of stars and material in their near vicinity. Many galaxies have supermassive black holes at their cores. If they are actively eating, then they give off huge jets and are known as active galactic nuclei. NASA/JPL-Caltech Micro black holes, on the other hand, could be created during the collision of two very high-energy particles. Scientists suggest this happens continuously in the upper atmosphere of Earth and is likely to happen during particle physics experiments at such places as CERN.   How Scientists Measure Black Holes Since light can not escape from the region around a black hole affected  by the event horizon, nobody can really see a black hole. However, astronomers can measure and characterize them by the effects they have on their surroundings. Black holes that are near other objects exert a gravitational effect on them. For one thing, mass can also be determined by the orbit of material around the black hole. A model of a black hole surrounded by heated ionized) material. This may be what the black hole in the Milky Way looks like. Brandon DeFrise Carter, CC0, Wikimedia.  Ã‚  Ã‚   In practice, astronomers deduce the presence of the black hole by studying how light behaves around it. Black holes, like all massive objects, have enough gravitational pull to bend lights path as it passes by. As stars behind the black hole move relative to it, the light emitted by them will appear distorted, or the stars will appear to move in an unusual way. From this information, the position and mass of the black hole can be determined. This is especially apparent in galaxy clusters where the combined mass of the clusters, their dark matter,  and their black holes create oddly-shaped arcs and rings by bending the light of more distant objects as it passes by.   Astronomers can also see black holes by the radiation the heated material around them gives off, such as radio or x rays.  The speed of that material also gives important clues to the characteristics of the black hole its trying to escape. Hawking Radiation The final way that astronomers could possibly detect a black hole is through a mechanism known as Hawking radiation. Named for the famed theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Hawking radiation is a consequence of thermodynamics that requires that energy escape from a black hole. The basic idea is that, due to natural interactions and fluctuations in the vacuum, the matter will be created in the form of an electron and anti-electron (called a positron). When this occurs near the event horizon, one particle will be ejected away from the black hole, while the other will fall into the gravitational well. To an observer, all that is seen is a particle being emitted from the black hole. The particle would be seen as having positive energy. This means, by symmetry, that the particle that fell into the black hole would have negative energy. The result is that as a black hole ages, it loses energy, and therefore loses mass (by Einsteins famous equation, EMC2,  where Eenergy, Mmass, and C is the speed of light). Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Hiroshima-Penalities and Rewards essays

Hiroshima-Penalities and Rewards essays Penalties and rewards came along with the bombing of Hiroshima. This new war weapon steered the world into a new age of advanced technology. This occurrence might have been a good or bad thing that happened; it depends on whose point of view were taking. Some may believe the advancements just corrupted our world more than its current state and brought the end of humanity closer. Others may feel the developments brought about an era with higher intelligence and better living for humans. The dropping of the atom bomb not only saved money for the Americans, since they didnt have to pay for the replacement of soldiers and their equipment, it also reduced the amount of people who could have died during the war because it would have gone on longer, and more casualties wouldve occurred since several minor bombs would have been dropped than a single powerful one. The severe cost of this bomb, which fell upon innocent Hiroshima, was that hatred arose between the Americans and Japanese. It brought about racism or a type of prejudice to people. There were better ways to solve the situation between the two countries. The Americans decided to go with the modern, destructive way: one blow so its over. Innocent civilians suffered; though they werent part of the war. Only the soldiers should have been involved or been the ones that were injured. The atom bomb killed many people who shouldnt have been touched with the evil war. The Americans bombed out Hiroshima of retaliation for the tragic incident with Pearl Harbour. This wasnt the ethical thing to do because as we all know, two wrongs dont make a right. Though the human consequences were immense, the atom bomb, which unfortunately plunged down to Hiroshima, was worth the grief from the Japanese. Without the testing of the atomic weapon, the new age of sophisticated technology might not exist. Its true that we may not h...

Company Research of Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Company Research of Wal-Mart - Essay Example This means that 537 new international stores have been added to Wal-Mart's retail space. To enhance its international operations, the company has also experienced switch in leadership roles. Mr John Menzer is now in charge of US operations and several other divisions, while Mr Mike Dune currently heads international operations. In view of the recent developments, it can be seen that the company is seeking to grow externally as it focuses on its international operations. Moreover, Wal-Mart continues to have a positive outlook as it remains committed to the improvement of merchandise mix by constantly offering new products that target a wide market range. The firm also continues to control expenses as it implements various cost-cutting measures such as the recruiting of younger and healthier workers to save on healthcare cost. Given the company's strategy, I believe that continuous growth may be expected as Wal-Mart focuses on expanding internationally. With the firm's established brand equity not only in the US but throughout the world as well, it could easily capture a fair share of the overseas retail market. Accompanied by an appropriate financial strategy, the company's expansion binge may have a positive effect on the value of its shares. This conclusion is further supported by the firm's financial prudence.

Social Science Research Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Social Science Research - Coursework Example The drivers causing frustration (â€Å"frustrator†) wore a plaid sport jacket and white shirt while driving the high status car (hardtop), and an old khaki jacket while driving the low status car (old station wagon and old sedan). At the end of each trial, the subjects were observed whether they had honked once, twice, or not at all. Latency of each honk and estimated length were recorded and double checked against tape recordings. Manipulation checks were not used for the independent variable since there was no chance for the subjects and the researchers to interact. However, there was a questionnaire experiment conducted to verify the results between actual and predicted behavior. The results showed that the behavior reported in the questionnaire reflected what was observed in the field. The study employed probability sampling or representative samples. Subjects were selected to be representative of the population. Specifically, random sampling was utilized. This means that each driver in the population of interest has an equal likelihood of selection. There were 82 drivers observed. They are motorists taking some intersections in California. External validity is very well manipulated since the subjects are chosen and observed in real life settings. Among the 82 subjects, 26 were women and 56 were men. Their sex and estimated age were also noted. In addition, the year, make and model of each subject’s car were monitored. The experiment was conducted in six intersections in Palo Alto and Menio Park, California. A luxury car (1996 Chrysler Crown Imperial hardtop) was used as the high status car. Two low status cars ( a rusty 1954 Ford station wagon and an unobtrusive gray Rambler sedan) were alternately utilized. The driver of the experimental car was instructed to arrive at an intersection just as the traffic light was turning red. If at least one other car had come to a stop behind the experimental car when the

Concept Analysis Paper on Nursing Advocacy Essay

Concept Analysis Paper on Nursing Advocacy - Essay Example Historically, patient advocacy has been a moral obligation for nurses. During recent years, nursing literature has been focused on the advocacy role and nursing professions has adopted the term 'patient advocacy' to denote an ideal of the practice. Nurses assume that they have an ethical obligation to advocate for their patients. They also frequently describe their judgments and actions on behalf of a patient as "being a patient advocate. An examination of advocacy in the nursing literature reflects broad and at times different perspectives. Advocacy has been described in ethical and legal frameworks and, more recently, as a philosophical foundation for practice. It has also been described in terms of specific actions such as helping the patient to obtain needed healthcare, assuring quality of care, defending the patient's rights, and serving as a liaison between the patient and the health care system. Although multiple factors influence the need for advocacy, it is generally true that someone in the healthcare environment must assume the role of client advocate, particularly for the client whose self-advocacy is impaired. Generally, advocacy aims to promote or reinforce a change in one's life or environment, in program or service, and in policy or legislation. In healthcare delivery, these activities focus on health conditions, healthcare resources, and the needs of patients and the public. When nurses advocate for patients, they face certain risks and obstacles associated with the settings within which they work. Therefore, there is always the possibility that attempts to advocate for a patient can fail, and that nurses can experience many barriers when addressing the rights, choices, or welfare of their patients (Negarandeh 2006). The term "advocacy" has been used in nursing literature to denote a variety of nursing roles, each derived from a specific set of beliefs and values. The changing forms of advocacy may actually reflect the metamorphosis of nursing from the role of loyal, subservient handmaiden to autonomous health care provider. Strong yet diverse feelings regarding the appropriateness of nurses to be advocates are evident in the nursing literature and may stem from the use of one word label, "advocate," to represent several related and sometimes conflicting concepts. These concepts are defined as follows: beneficence-the principle of doing good; nonmaleficence-the principle of do ing no harm; unitary-transformative paradigm-a perspective that views human beings as unitary, self-organizing energy fields interacting with a larger environmental energy field; and utilitarianism-an ethical doctrine in which actions are focused on accomplishing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Simplistic advocacy Mitty (1991) defined an advocate as one "who pleads the cause of another. She asserted that this role is implicit in the social contract between society and a profession such as nursing. She noted that although advocacy may occur at the individual or sociopolitical level, the underlying ethics guiding it varies from nurse to nurse. Ethics of justice might lead one nurse to advocate for a client's right to certain health care procedures, for example, whereas a nurse guided by an ethics of utilitarianism

The Importance and Role of Public Relations

The Importance and Role of Public Relations The art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest. (Asch and Solomon 1946) Public relations aim primarily to provide a communication between an organization and its users. It is one of the most important business functions as for any organization. It is essential to continually check its reputation in the market that it caters. Moreover, with the present climate of global extensions that majority of the modern day businesses practice, it is essential that the organization keeps touch with what it wants to portray to the consumers so that expectations from the organization is likewise. Public Relation is used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters or the general public. Almost any organization that indulges itself in being portrayed in the public environment employs some level of public relations. Public relation is not limited to simply increasing awareness about an organization. It deals with other complex functions of checking and monitoring the reactions of its actions( Ahluwalia et al 2000). This illustrates what the organization reflects to its market hence aiding in deciding the next course of action as and when required. Publicity is one of the major tools for Public relations. Most; if not all, PR campaigns invest heavily for publicity. Publicity involves spreading of information for a product, person, service, cause or organization to gain public awareness. Publicity helps in effective PR planning and is one of the most viral methods adopted by any PR for an organisation. In present times, professionals commonly use technology as their main tool to get across their messages to target audiences (Collins et al, 1975). Traditionally, one of the oldest tools used by public relations professionals is a press/media kit. It is usually a collection of promotional materials for the purpose of circulation. These provide information about an event, organization, business, or even a person. Information also includes, fact sheets, press releases (or media releases), media alerts, brochures, newsletters, photographs with captions, copies of any media clips, and social mediums. In recent times, most organizations may have a website with a link which usually updates the message that is required to be communicated for the purpose of communication. Online version of such news is one of the essentials that is adopted in recent times. Other widely-used tools include brochures, newsletters and annual reports. (Basuroy et al 2003) In the recent times, technological uses of social networks, blogs, and even internet radio public relations professionals facilitate to directly send messages through their respective mediums. Methods are used to find out the reaction of the audience in the current market. Inquiring into the favorable appeals of the target audiences extensively include the use of surveys, conducting research or even focus groups. Various tactics are undertaken to attract target audiences by using the information gathered. This is then directed as a message to them using tools such as social or other popular mediums.`(Burrough and Bryan,2006) Increasingly, companies are utilizing interactive social networking options, such as media blogs, Twitter and Facebook, as tools in promotion for the PR campaigns. This can be credited to the fact that unlike the traditional tools, social media outlets enable the organization to engage in two-way communication, and receive relatively quicker feedbacks hence efficiently aiding in making accurate decisions. Reciprocal nature of communications Extracted from Effective Public Relations by Cutlip(2010) The above figure illustrates, communication is a reciprocal process of exchanging signals to inform, instruct, or persuade, based on shared meanings and conditioned by the communicators relationship and the social context. (Godes, 2004) NEGATIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS: Negative Public relation occurs under circumstances and situation when the message sent across to the public by the organization is seen not coherent to what it portrays. It may be expressed as that process which threatens the reputation and corporate identity of an organization due to improbable actions that leads to unlikely situations and circumstances. (Eliasberg et al 1997) However, this phenomenon can be either intentional i:e. (by an external source such as a competitor) or unintentional (inadequate research of an expected reaction or poor internal communications ). (Hueng et al,1982) Owing to the nature of this report, the researcher has chosen to consider only the unfavorable public relations for this study and thus Black public relations shall only be mentioned once. Thereafter, steps to deal only with unfavorable public relations shall be included for further part of this work. Intentional Negative Public Relations It indicates in context to incidences which are carried about by third party source with intention to tarnish the reputation of a targeted organization, these kind of intentional negative PR strategies are also known as Black Public Relations (James and Caryn 2006). It involves gathering information using high level of industrial espionage and competitive intelligence to uncover the targeted company secrets that are unfavorable to the organizations stakeholders (Hueng et al,1982). The only objective of such practices is to strategically disturb the channels and messages of communication between the organization and its shareholders. This kind of negative public relation is an unethical business practice yet it is been widely used against business rivals. (Grossmen et al1984) Unintentional Negative PR / Unfavorable Public relations. This is an occurrence under circumstances when an organization is facing a public challenge to its reputation. Generally these challenges may come in the following forms:- An investigation from a government agency. A criminal allegation. A media inquiry. A shareholders lawsuit A violation of environmental regulations Finally a violation in a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical and / or financial factors (Godes et al 2004). The above are challenges that an organization faces which may lead to an unfavorable Public relations situation for an organization. However, most of them can be contained almost immediately if handled with urgency. Generally, source of a negative Public relation is born out of mismanaged crises situation in an organization. Crisis communication is of utmost importance to contain any such unlikely circumstances. If efficiently handled, crisis communication can become the best defense against any issue turning into a fully blow catastrophe. An illustration to explain the above can be found in the case of Johnson Johnson. In 1982, after cyanide was discovered in some capsules of a JJ product Tylenol, J and J immediately announced a recall of an estimated stock of about a hundred million in circulation in its domestic market of the United States and other foreign market (Berger,2005). This decision of Johnson Johnson, to cooperate fully with the media, earned it lots of praises for its business principle of being socially responsible. The resultant was that the company received additional positive press coverage when it subsequently introduced its new tamper-resistant packaging. Similarly In March 2005, a woman bit into a finger while eating chili at Wendys. Wendys responded promptly and shut down that location. This was followed by carefully discarding all the other chilli that was dated as the controversial stock. The location was reopened only after a thorough investigation of the rest of the stocks.This crisis could have damaged Wendys image, but owing to it responding properly and appropriately, very little damage was observed to their image (Berger,2005). These are two of the few examples which illustrate efficient crisis management procedures despite not being in control the negative PR at the initial stages of the crisis. Johnson Johnson was able to gain positive publicity for the prompt decision making and was thus able to contain the situation before it went out of proportion. Conversely, many other organisations have shown lack in managing a crisis situation and have suffered for the same. Source Perrier is an example of such an organization that was unable to overcome negative publicity when its top management displayed poor crisis-management. Traces of benzene were found in the companys bottled water in 1990, however the company assured the public that it was only contained to bottles in North America. During the same time, scientists found traces of benzene in its bottled water which was being sold in Europe. This time, the management blamed it upon a contaminated filtering system an reassured that it was being tackled with utmost urgency. Never the less, media had then sampled the brands water from all its prevalent market and discovered that the situation had been persistent for a longer period of time and that the benzene laced product had been selling all around the world. The media questioned Perriers integrity and concern for public safety, and the company lost its dominant position in the marketplace; it has been unable to rebuild its reputation (Bogart and D ave 2001). The available literature on the source of negative PR is not coherently conclusive as different researchers have difference in the scope and width with regard to their view about the causes of unavoidable PR. Lerbinger (1997), attributes two causes i:e. management failure and environmental forces. He categorizes the two into eight categories of crisis situations which are as follows: Natural- for example Asian Tsunami which affected everything alike i:e. nations, government, corporations, businesses and so on. Technological- Mercedes A class had design faults thus had to roll over Confrontation- Shell Oil wanted to sink an oil platform into the North Sea and thus its petrol stations faced a consumer boycott. Malevolence-product tampering by private citizens, as in the case of Tylenol capsules of Johnson and Johnson Skewed Management- Barings Bank went out of business when the bank management was accused of turning a blind eye towards rouge trader Nick Leason. Deception Management misconduct- Enron Power Business and economic- Economic turmoil affecting businesses, hence organizations unable to live to the promise. (Lerbinger 1997) FEARN-BANKS FIVE STAGE OF CRISIS STAGE 1 Detection The organization is watching for warning signs STAGE 2 Preparation/prevention The organization takes notes of the warning signs and prepares plans proactively to avoid crisis, or reactive one to cope with the crisis if it is come. STAGE 3 Containment Taking Steps to limit the length of the crisis or its affects. STAGE 4 Recovery At this step, efforts are made to get back to normal operational conditions or effectiveness of an organization STAGE 5 Learning This is when the Organization reflects and evaluates the experience to consider the negative impacts for the organization and any possible benefits for the future. Fearns- Banks(2006), are amongst the school of thoughts that attribute Negative Public relation wholly to mismanaged crisis situation. In the table above, are the five stages of a business crises outlined that explain the steps to be ensured during different stages of a crisis. If attended to, the crisis management should be efficient and thus save the organization any unwanted harm to its reputation The most important efficient way of dealing with unfavorable public relation can be found in practicing crisis communication (Lerbinger 1997). Crisis communication aims at assisting an organisation to sustain continuity in the critical business processes. These business processes can be any information flowing during critical situations, natural calamities or event driven circumstances. The most commonly know five steps that must be ensured in situations threatening the PR of an organization may be best explained as the following Firstly, the corporation in crisis should be prompt and act accordingly. This can be achieved by addressing the public immediately following the discovery of the situation. Secondly, the corporation in question must maintain honesty as it is obliged to be completely truthful no matter what the consequences from the public may be. Thirdly, the corporation should be informative. This would require them to provide facts that are coherent with the situation and restrain speculation under any circumstance. The other reason for this step is to also assure that public does not create its own rumor as rumors might cause more damage to the organization as compared to the already worsened circumstance(Lerbinger 1997). Next, it is important to be socially concerned and illustrate efforts of improvement to the public. This would reflect on the business as being socially responsible hence improving chances of faster recovery from the damage incurred. Finally, maintaining two-way relationships. It is very essential as the corporation get response from the public hence increasing the chances of being accepted to do business with. More so, as this kind of communication shall project to the corporation directly about what is expected from them in the near future. These steps are essential in order to manage any crucial PR circumstances (Norton et al 2007). Quick response is the key to any negative publicity. Efficient and effective crisis communication strategy diagnosed in a premeditated manner can provide most of the solutions to problems relating to negative publicity. In this global and dynamic business world, technology can be effectively harnessed for communicating to the people about a rapid response to the issue. not only can this save the organizational reputation but also it can prevent any unlikely circumstances. Ensuring a co-ordinated response provides a stronger foundation to tackle tricky situations and in turn can result into a potential advantage to a range of potentially crippling scenarios. A well thought out and executed plan shall reflect strongly upon the management of the organsation hence, bringing some more goodwill amongst the users. Timing of responding is a critical factor as the longer the lag, higher the chances of a considerable losses to company revenue and reputation (Reinstein et al 2005). An Effectiive crisis communication strategy will typically consider achieving most of the following objectives: Maintain connectivity Be readily accessible to the news media Show empathy for the people involved Allow distributed access Streamline communication processes Maintain information security Ensure uninterrupted audit trails Deliver high volume communications Support multi-channel communications Remove dependencies on paper based processes (Norton et al 2007) Crisis communication can play a significant role by transforming an unexpected situation into a competitive gain. The only essential requirement is respond accordingly and immediately to the urgent situation. CONCLUSION This study is an attempt at understanding the concept of Public relations and investigates into the causes and sources of negative Public relations. In a theoretical context, literature on negative Public relation shows a very distorted view amongst the researchers as it lacks clarity in its core concept of whether is it a result of mis communicated Public message or is it a concept of deliberately damaging a organizations reputation owing to competition rivalry. However, all of these views are coherent on the thought that quick response to the critical situations can effectively deal with the arising unfavourable circumstances. Efficient and effective crisis communication strategy diagnosed in a premeditated manner can provide most of the solutions to problems relating to negative publicity. Source of a negative Public relation is born out of mismanaged crises situation in an organization. Crisis communication is of utmost importance to contain any such unlikely circumstances. If efficiently handled, crisis communication can become the best defense against any issue arising in the organization. Ensuring a co-ordinated response provides a stronger foundation to tackle tricky situations and in turn can result into a potential advantage to a range of potentially crippling scenarios. A well thought out and executed plan shall reflect strongly upon the management of the organsation hence, bringing some more goodwill amongst the users. Timing of responding is a critical factor as the longer the lag, higher the chances of a considerable losses to company revenue and reputation. Public relation also deals with complex functions of checking and monitoring the reactions of its actions as this illustrates what the organization reflects to its market. Thus regular contact with the public over the underlying issues provides better deciding power for the next course of action as and when required. Technology needs to be exploited the most in critical situations, in this modern day of vast technological choice, communication with the public is easier and cheaper than in the past Thus along with the prior mentioned five steps technological advantages should be used at it optimum to properly manage a crisis can as well as the six types of responses continue to be at the foundation of any crisis public relations.

Eye Strain as a Result of Computer Use :: Technology Computers Health Vision Essays

Eye Strain as a Result of Computer Use In the twentieth century, technology is at an all time high in the world. This technology includes research, stock market shares, computers, medical advances, and a vast variety of other things. Among the advanced technology is a break through of computer use. Almost everyone at sometime in their day is using a computer for one task or another. Computers have taken the world and reshaped the possibilities of ideas and dreams in the past decade. Millions of people are using a computer daily according to Anshel (1996). This work on the computer can ran range from five minutes a day to eight hours a day depending on they type of job a person holds. Today's job market, employees are accustomed to working with a computer. This could include data entry clerks, an internet consultant, a bank teller, a librarian, and especially secretaries. The field is open to just about anyone. Often overlooked are the students that use computers on a daily basis. Many college students depend on the use of computers classes whether it be for fun or recreational use. Sometimes the convience of using computers comes with a high price to pay. The National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) says that eyestrain is the leading problem in computer use. This even exceeds such common problems as carpal tunnel syndrome. (Atencio 1996) Eyestrain and eye fatigue lead to many other complications if it is a continuous problem. One of these problems includes myopia. There are many ways of relieving eye fatigue and helping the symptoms of myopia. These problems can be onset in younger years when children are in school. Since most schools in the country are using computers as a main source of education, eyestrain can be a linked to myopia. There are many options people or companies have to improve the conditions under which the person is working. Eyestrain is defined as blurred or double vision, burning, irritation, headaches, gritty eye sensation, eye fatigue, neck and shoulder pain, color perception change, decreased visual efficiency, more frequent errors and reduced efficiency. (Atencio 1996, Palmer 1993, Nunoo 1997) Eyestrain is also known as asthenopia. It simply means visual strain. (Palmer 1993) Dr. Paul F. Bommarito also said that 88% of heavy computer users experience these problems. (Fletcher 1996) Palmer suggest that eye fatigue is often caused by the eye muscles becoming tired much like other muscles in our body.