The four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - Essay Example They proposed that the environment we live in is in fact a very sophisticated dream, and that each person is a reflection of another. Thus, we are all connected. That everything we do and say is a standard regime that we are each gradually programmed with as we grow. This pantheistic picture is what the Toltecs preserved through the centuries. It elevates man to a divine level, and it all depends with how we see ourselves. Although there are many pacts, or agreements, we make with society, God, and our fellow man, the most important agreements are those we make with ourselves, which will ultimately determine who we become. Don Miguel clearly outlines four of these agreements that, if reached, will transform and elevate the person’s life into a whole new aspect of the dream. The drama of hell that life brings will disappear, and the person will be creating his own personal dream of heaven. The first agreement is the most important, but most challenging to keep. It is to be impe ccable with your word. Because the word is very powerful, having the capability to either build or destroy. Don Miguel writes that, â€Å"The word is the most powerful tool you have as a human; it is the tool of magic. But like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream or your word can destroy everything around you.† He says that when your word becomes impeccable, or flawless, you grow seeds of love. You are released from fear and are free to live a life of happiness even though everyone around you is not. With this one agreement alone, you can transcend to the level of existence called heaven on earth. The second agreement is don’t take anything personally. For example, if a random person on the street, who does not know you, calls you stupid, and you accept it, then you will believe you are stupid, and you alone will be affected. The author writes that, â€Å"you take it personally because you agree with what was said, and as soon as you do, the poison goes through you, and you are trapped in the dream of hell.† But if you don’t, then no one can hurt you and you will break many negative habits and routines. The third agreement is don’t make assumptions. Because when we do so believing they are real, then we act on them and make life miserable. If we never assumed at the beginning, we would avoid much trouble. A lot of emotional poison is created and people are hurt or deceived. The fourth agreement is always do your best. This one sets the other three in a firm platform. Although it may vary due to conditions, as time goes by, it will become better than it used to be. Life will become more lively and fulfilling. Everything else will fall into place, and you will attain happiness. These are the four agreements of Don Miguel. They can be inculcated into many societies and professions. One such profession is the field of nursing. Because it deals with individual people in a benevolent way, these fou r agreements achieve a lot of success in such an environment. BODY The nursing field is defined by challenging, tough tasks. Compared with other professions, the nurse is the most indispensable. It is a matter of life and death, so it is very important that he not only knows what’s being done, but he should also be aware of himself. The way he sees and carries himself will influence the results of his actions greatly. The nurse who learns to instill within himself these four agreem

HCS 440 Question 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HCS 440 Question 1 - Assignment Example Time equates money that is, as a result, of trade and its interactions. Culture affects the quality in health care, which is a paramount measure. The impact of trade and choice reveals itself here as these two variables bring health in an ‘equilibrium state. Quality exchange is majorly placed on the capacity of group basis rather than individual basis hence delivery of proper service to prolong ones life in terms of good surgery, well-trained doctors, and medication. The factor of research, technology, and innovation has greatly affected the overhead cost of health care. With research going on various diseases and drugs, it is expected that the taxpayer’s money will play a huge part in this activity. About $2trilion is spent every year on health care system in the research of new drugs and treatment procedures. Without this great heavy input by the government, the otherwise cost incurred in not investing in healthcare system would be of a greater

Security Issues of Social Networking Sites

Security Issues of Social Networking Sites C. Divya Gowri, K. Rajalakshmi, PG Scholar, S.Suresh AbstractSocial Networking Sites (SNS) are a platform to build social relationship or social networks among people. It is web-based service which allows people to create public profiles; it is similar to online community. The only difference is social network service is individual centred whereas online community is group centred. It groups the individuals into specific groups for communication purpose. Millions of people like to meet other people, share and gather information, share information about their work like cooking, finding employment, e-business, e-commerce, etc., SNS involves getting access to the website you wish to socialize. Once you are granted, you can read the profile pages of others and even contact them. These SNS has greatest impact on the people who use them. Today billions of people across the world have their profiles in social networking sites. SNS becomes reason for addiction and anxiety. It starts affecting the personal relationship. This paper focuses on th e impacts of these social networking sites. Key Tems: Social Networking Sites, Personal privacy, Security issues. I. Introduction Social Networks [13] involves use of Internet to connect the users with their family, friends and acquaintances. Web-based social networking services connect people to share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders. Online Social Networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace have become popular in recent years. Social Networks have become a personal fabric of the world. In such SNS, each of your Followers (Twitter) or Friends (Facebook) will be friend with your other friends just like in real world. The connection between people is not one-on-one but a network of connection. These social networks keep track of all interactions used by their users on their sites and save them for later use. It allows users to meet new people, stay in touch with friends, and discuss about everything including jokes, politics, news, etc., Using Social networking sites marketers can directly reach customers, this is not only benefit for the marketers but it also benefits the users as they get more information about the organization and the product. There is absolutely no doubt that online social networks have become part of every individual. Though the use of these SNS is increasing day by day, the users are not aware of risks associated with updating sensitive information. Facts prove that majority of people post information like photos, share location unaware of security and privacy concerns. SNS definitely needs many security policies to keep user’s information secured. II. Literature Survey 2.1 Privacy Issues Security Risks With the use of SNSs, the security risks [4] [12] associated is also increasing rapidly. Some of the risks include cyber stalking, phishing, location disclosure, identity theft, Phreaking, Spoofing, Doxing, spam issue, profile cloning, fake product sale and cyber bullying. People provide their personal data while creating account on SNSs like Facebook, Twitter, etc. The secured data is stored in SNS and because of poor security; the data stored are not secure. Cyber Stalking It is the use of SNS to harass/stalk an individual, group or organization. It includes monitoring, vandalism [15], and gathering of information that may be used to threaten the SNS users. Phishing Phishing [7] is attempting to acquire sensitive information like username, password, and credit card information by masquerading through SNS. Location Disclosure SNS can disclose user’s information [10]. An application named ‘creepy’ can track location of the user on a map by photos uploaded in Flicker or Twitter. Identity Theft Some hackers attack through application in which they ask permission for accessing their profile of SNS (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). When SNS users allow doing so, hackers get all information so that they can misuse users’ information without their knowledge or permission. Phreaking It is gaining unauthorized access to a user’s profile. It is advisable not to give phone numbers, passwords that provide direct access to a user’s profile. Spoofing Some attackers deceive computers by faking one’s identity. IP spoofing masks or hides computer’s IP address. Doxing It is publicly posting a person’s identity including full name, address, pictures, date of birth typically retrieved from any social sites. Spam Issues SNS is widely spread with spam. It includes message spam and content spam [5] [6]. Spammers attack legitimate users account and post unwanted messages/comment on their wall or send those content to their friends so that the reputation of the legitimate users is spoiled. Profile Cloning Profile Cloning [3][8] is that the hackers retrieve the profile information of the SNSs users and make a clone of the profile. They make this clone to spoil the reputation of the users. This is one of the most popular risks associated with the SNSs and it is also done without the permission or knowledge of the SNS user. Another form of profile cloning is â€Å"Cross-site profile cloning†. In this method, hackers steal information from one social site and make this information to create a profile in another SNS. Fake Product Sale The hackers advertise on the SNSs for selling products by offering huge discount and free products. When users try to purchase these products, they are asked to provide account information which is retrieved by attackers and they misuse the information. Cyber bullying Cyber bullies [10] often post information that spoils the reputation of a SNS user; also they spread lies about them, write hateful comments, and upload disgusting photos or abusive images. 2.2 Attacking scenarios Click Jacking In this type of attack, attackers post videos and when the users click on the page, some malicious actions takes place. This type of attack is common in Facebook where users like a page or a picture or a video and the users are trapped. Content Based Image Retrieval In this attack [9], the attackers match the patterns of images associated with the profile of the SNS users so that attackers know the current location of a user. De-Anonymization Attack In this De-Anonymization attack [1] the user’s anonymity can be revealed by history stealing and group membership information. Neighbourhood attack In this attacker [2] finds the neighbors of the victim node. Based on user’s profile and personal information, attackers are attracted by user’s personal information like their name, date of birth, contact information, relationship status, current work and education background. There can be leakage of information because of poor privacy settings. Many profiles are made public to others i.e. anyone can view their profile. Next is leakage of information through third party application. Social networking sites provide an Application Programming Interface (API) for third party developers to create applications. Once users access these applications the third party can access their information automatically. Malicious Software updates An attacker may deliver malicious software to update the system. This may be used to disrupt computer system, obtain sensitive information or gain access to any private information. Evil Twin Attack In this attack [11], it allows attackers to impersonate people or companies in SNS. This is used for the purpose of financial gain, physical crimes, defamation and information gathering. The attackers create a twin profile in the name of other person (legitimate user) and send friend request or messages to get money or just gather information. 2.3 Prevention strategies Internet is always â€Å"Public† SNS users post anything on the internet and it is always available in public. Thus it is user’s responsibility to post information that users are comfortable with. This may include their personal information and photos in which users are tagged in. Also once when users post information online, it cannot be deleted. Even if the information is deleted from a site, cached copy remains on the World Wide Web. Limit the amount Always limit the amount of personal information you post. Do not disclose private information such as your residential address, contact number, etc. Assess your settings Users must be aware of their privacy settings. The default settings of the site will allow anyone to see your profile. But you can customize your settings to restrict certain people from seeing your profile. Be cautious of Third party applications Some third party applications will ask for your private information while you run those applications. Avoid running those applications that are suspicious and limit the amount of information that the applications can access. Create secure passwords provide your account with passwords which are hard to be guessed. If user’s password is compromised, somebody may access your account and pretend to be like you without your knowledge. Always provide different passwords for different accounts which may confuse the cyber criminals. Combine upper and lower case letters with symbols and numbers to create secure passwords. Change your passwords frequently. Activate your firewall Firewalls are considered as the first line of cyber defence. They block connections to unknown sites and will protect the system from viruses and hackers. Avoid being scammed Prevent viruses/malware infecting your system by installing and frequently updating antivirus software. Beware of things you post Whatever you post online, it remains in cache even if you are not able to see. It is advisable to think before posting pictures that you don’t want your employers or parents to see. Know your friends Online friends should not be taken as real friends unless you know them personally. Beware of what you share with those strange friends. Install from Trusted source- Install applications or software’s that comes from well- known or trusted sites. Remember that free software may come with malware. Once you install an application, keep it up-to-date. If you no longer use an application, delete it. Avoid Wi-Fi spots Avoid accessing your personal accounts from public computers like Internet centres or through public Wi-Fi spots. It is always preferred to use high security settings on any SNS. IV. CONCLUSION SNS have become a likely target for attackers due to sensitive information available. The growth of social networking sites shows tremendous changes in personal and social behavior of internet users. It has become an essential medium of communication and an entertainment among adults. Though it affects the daily activities of the users, many cyber crime activities evolved, the popularity of such sites are not going to reduce. SNS can be used for sales and marketing, but the security risks can put a company or individual in a compromising position. Many cyber laws have to be fortified so that cyber criminals cannot escape from committing a crime. Many SNS are implementing different security mechanisms to SNS users. Also users must be careful and prevent themselves from being attacked. V. REFERENCES [1] Gilbert Wondracek, Thorsten Holz, Engin Kirda, and Christopher Kruegel, â€Å" Practical Attack to De-anonymize Social Network Users,† IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2010, pp.223-238. [2] Bin Zhou and Jian Pei, â€Å"Preserving Privacy in Social Networks Against Neighborhood Attacks,† Data Engineering, 2008. ICDE 2008. IEEE 24th International Conference on, Apr. 2008, pp.506-515. [3] M. Balduzzi, C. Platzer, T. Holz, E. Kirda, D. Balzarotti, and C. Kruegel, â€Å"Abusing Social Networks for Automated User Profiling,† Symposium on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (RAID), vol. 6307, Sep. 2010, pp. 422-441. [4] Dolvara Gunatilaka, â€Å"A Survey of Privacy and Security Issues in Social Networks†, http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse57111/ftp/social/index.html [5] Garrett Brown, Travis Howe, Micheal Ihbe, Atul Prakash, and Kevin Borders, â€Å"Social networks and context-aware spam,† CSCW 08 Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, 2008, pp.403-412. http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~aprakash/papers/cscw08_socialnetworkspam.pdf. [6] B. Markines, C. Cattuto and F. Menczer, Social Spam Detection,Proc. 5th Intl Workshop Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web(AIRWeb 09), ACM Press, 2009, pp. 41–48. [7]T.N. Jagatic et al., Social Phishing,Comm. ACM,vol. 50, no. 10, 2007, pp. 94–100. [8] Khayyambashi, M.R.; Rizi, F.S. An approach for detecting profile cloning in online social networks,e-Commerce in Developing Countries: With Focus on e-Security (ECDC), 2013 7th Intenational Conference on,On page(s): 1 – 12. [9] A. Acquisti and R. Gross† Imagined Communities Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook†. In 6th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, June 2006. [10] D. Rosenblum., â€Å"What Anyone Can Know. In The Privacy Risks of Social Networking Sites†, IEEE Security and Privacy, 2007. [11] Carl Timm,Richard Perez, â€Å"Seven Deadliest Social Network Attacks†, Syngress/Elsevier, 2010 [12] Dwyer, C., Hiltz, S. R., Passerini, K. â€Å"Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace†. Proceedings of AMCIS 2007, Keystone, CO. Retrieved September 21, 2007 [13] D. D. Boyd and N. B. Ellison, ;Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship,; Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, pp. 210-230, 2007. [14] P. Heymann, G. Koutrika and H. Garcia-Molina, Fighting Spam on Social Web Sites: A Survey of Approaches and Future Challenges,IEEE Internet Computing,vol. 11, no. 6, 2007, pp. 36–45. [15]W. Xu, F. Zhang and S. Zhu, Toward Worm Detection in Online Social Networks,Proc. 26th Ann. Computer Security Applications Conf.(ACSAC 10), ACM Press, 2010, pp. 11–20.

The Role of Business in Society Essay -- Analysis, Dr. Novak

The problem to be investigated is that of understanding Dr. Novak’s discussions of the role business plays in society. The discussion centers around the topics of understanding the origins of the corporation, understanding the difference between corporations in the United States and Britain, understanding the different definitions of stakeholders, understanding the differences between democracy and social democracy, and understanding the evolving role of business. (Jennings, 2009) Furthermore, viewpoints from Plato, Cicero and Weaver are integrated to add depth to the discussion. The problem to be investigated is that of understanding Dr. Novak’s discussions of the role business plays in society. The discussion centers around the topics of understanding the origins of the corporation, understanding the difference between corporations in the United States and Britain, understanding the different definitions of stakeholders, understanding the differences between democracy and social democracy, and understanding the evolving role of business. (Jennings, 2009) Furthermore, viewpoints from Plato, Cicero and Weaver are integrated to add depth to the discussion. Origins of the Corporation Corporations began in the early middle ages through humbled societies and later developed as monasteries, towns, and universities. These corporations were exclusive and closely controlled by the state. In America in 1636, Harvard University began as a corporation. (Jennings, 2009) This was much to the dismay of those located across the Atlantic, as US citizens’ desired independence from royal charters and wanted to create corporations to meet their needs. By 1750, the American colonies had six universities, while England stil... ...fferent times to the needs of its creators. (Jennings, 2009) Conclusion Dr. Novak has strong and well thought out viewpoints of the role of the corporation in society. His belief is that the corporation in the United States is a stronger and better society because of its ability to provide rewards to stakeholders rather than society as a whole. Dr. Novak further adds to his argument that by understanding the differences between corporations and between stakeholders in the United States and Britain he can identify the motivations and strengths of corporations. (Jennings, 2009) Novak’s beliefs can be further supported by others on the topic including: Plato, Cicero, Aristotle (Henderson et al, 2009) and Weaver. (Weaver 2008) Dr. Novak also includes a discussion with the understanding the evolving role of business. (Jennings, 2009)

Narrative Poem Essay

In the poem â€Å"Lamia† Keats uses a considerable amount of description on Lamia. I agree with the statement that Keats seems more interested in describing than narrating. This poem has a large amount of description in it, with a large proportion of description to Lamia. â€Å"Lamia† is a long, complex poem. The title character, Lamia, is as strange as the poem itself. Part I of the poem opens with Hermes, messenger of the Gods, in search of a beautiful nymph for whom he has stolen light from Olympus. Keats uses a lot of description in this poem to create different feelings such as sympathy and sometimes to even make a character seem beautiful on the outside but somewhat mystical and sly on the inside. For example, in the beginning of the poem, Keats describes Lamia the snake as a very striking creature â€Å"Vermillion spotted, golden, green, and blue. † Here we can see how she is described very beautifully and Keats uses several lines of description on her alone at that point. In this poem Keats seems to be to some extent, obsessed with Lamia. Even when she is a snake he describes her as a wonderful looking creature: â€Å"Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;† This is another example of how Keats seems to be more interested in describing Lamia than narrating. This piece of description alone shows us how beautiful Lamia is. Even though she is a snake which is renowned to be sly she is still described wonderfully. Keats uses a strong description to describe Lamia and maybe to deter readers from the fact that he chose a sly cunning animal to portray Lamia. I think he does this because he wishes to live out his fantasies and his wild imagination in his poems. This is the only way he would be able to portray his imagination and dreams. We can see that he likes to live out his dreams by looking at the description of the wedding. He has created a wonderful picturesque setting for the wedding and everything in the wedding is luxury. â€Å"There ran a stream of lamps straight on from wall to wall. † In this piece of description Keats is describing the walls and how they are covered in lamps. Keats wouldn’t have been able to afford this in his time and this is how he lived out his wishes. We can see by this poem the extent to which Keats uses his imagination to create wonderful settings and astonishing creatures. Another thing fictional creature he has created is the nymph. He has also made this nymph to be very striking. He may also have done this to bring his fantasies to life in his poems. Since poems can be written about anything at all, Keats found it easy to create the wonderful world he wanted to create in his poem. All based on mythology and fiction. Although there is masses of description there is narration in the poem which clearly shows the reader what is happening. The large amount of description in this poem makes it easier for us to visualize the surroundings. The words he uses in this poem are very appropriate to the description he creates. For example he uses the word â€Å"palpitating† to describe the snake. In this word alone we can hear the snake’s heart beating by listening carefully to the way the word is said as it has so many syllables. In this poem Lamia is seen as a very magical, enchanting and enigmatic woman. At the end of this poem her true identity is discovered by Apollonius. At this point Keats almost makes us sympathize with Lamia and we begin to feel sorry for her. the end of this poem is a turning point for the readers ambiguous understanding of Lamia. So far we get the impression that Lamia is a sly and selfish woman because of the incident with Hermes and the nymph. It is only towards the end of the poem that Keats starts to use different description to what he was describing her as before. ‘The deep-recessed vision: -all was blight;’ This piece of description shows us how Keats describes her differently to the beautiful descriptions of her at the beginning of the poem. This piece of description almost makes us feel sorry for her again and it makes the readers have a second thought about what Lamia is like and what Lamia really wanted. In this poem Keats evidently uses much description on Lamia and sometimes to create a sense of sympathy and sorrow for her. Without this description we would not have such strong feelings on Lamia and what we think of her. The large quantity of description allows different readers to express different views on Lamia.

An Assessment on the Benefits of Higher Education Essay

Higher education can be defined as the education that can be gained by an individual through studying at universities, colleges and other collegial institutions. This post-secondary or tertiary education is a non-compulsory education after graduating from high school or any other secondary school. An academic reward usually accompanied the graduation that distinguishes the skills and knowledge of an individual among others with his own field of specialization. These can be in the form of certificates, diplomas or academic degrees. Higher education usually appears to be in the form of teaching, researches and social services. These activities are usually provided by the universities and colleges in the realm of teaching. It also includes both the undergraduate level and post-graduate level which includes Ph. D. and master’s degrees. In the case of United Kingdom, the type of education that falls under the level of higher education but can also be classified as a post-secondary education is termed as further education. They usually include working skills with the level of degree that one may attain and thereby, making them a foundation degree qualification. There are mainly two classifications of higher education as it is dictated in the United Kingdom, the higher general education and the higher vocational education. In United States, higher education simply refers to as education offered by several institutions including the associate degrees, baccalaureate degrees, master’s degrees and Ph. D. degrees. These institutions may also grant non-degree certificates which may prove the acquisition of knowledge and skills that can be useful for specific jobs. The right to acquire a degree from higher education institutions started on 1950 when Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights imposed the right of all individual to acquire proper education. United Nations also supported this law by providing the Article 13 of 1966 which states the accessibility of higher education to all, making it a standard goal on the basis of wealth and capacity through legal means. This law further supported the introduction of higher education to all by supporting the progressive implementation of free education. Higher education provides many advantages for a person as he takes his step towards employment and success. Some of the primary reasons why higher education should globally encourage are: (1) it can lead to higher salaries and more benefits for the employee; (2) it can encourage more employment options and reduce unemployment; (3) to promote higher saving levels; (4) to increase the personal learning as well as the professional mobility of the worker; (5) to improve life style and quality living that will lead to improved life expectancy and quality life for his offspring. One good example of these positive effects is the state of North Dakota. Some benefits brought by the implementation of higher education that are commonly noticed in the place are having 70 percent increase in the level of income of the residents and unemployment are reduced into five times less than before resulting into less amount of assistance that are needed to be offered by the government among its people. The state of Utah is another good example of this implementation of higher education. The number of enrollees in Utah have grown into significant amount during 1982 and 1983 which eventually lead to good results. The succeeding years have been very helpful for Utah as its education rates and level had increased to a desirable level. Utah showed great success during those succeeding years in terms of education level and economy. Utah became also a top performer on Measuring Up 2004 as it promotes the higher education for he students. It is definitely very advantageous to promote and encourage the students to pursue their studies and to be able to gain degrees on their own specialization. This will enable them to help themselves as individuals and promote a better economy for their state as they become part of the working class. Reference: Hill, Kent, Dennis Hoffman & T. R. Rex. 2005. The Value of Higher Education: Individual and Societal Benefits. Arizona State University http://wpcarey. asu. edu/seid/upload/Value%20Full%20Report_final_october %202005a. pdf