The Synesthesia free essay sample

One in every one hundred thousand people is diagnosed with synesthesia. Many people don’t even know what this mental illness is. If they did there would probably be more cases of people coming out telling the world what they have. What is synesthesia? Well, it’s defined as â€Å"senses coming together.† It pretty much means that their senses are mixed instead of separated. In a synesthete’s brain when someone hears a sound, he or she immediately sees a color or shape in his or her â€Å"minds eye.† Synesthesia is involuntary but elicited. It is also irrepressible, which means they don’t have to trigger the secondary sensory experience consciously. They cannot control it. There are about thirty-five different subtypes such as taste hearing, sound touch and so on. The most common is color-graphemic, where letters and numbers, produce certain colors, simple patterns, and color-auditory. Color-auditory includes voices, music, and random noise pro duce colors, textures, and shapes. We will write a custom essay sample on The Synesthesia or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page What are synesthetes like? Well, most of them do not even know they have something wrong. They believe everyone experiences the same thing they are. They don’t recognize they are different until they’re older. Most synesthetes are women roughly two to one. Most of them have a relative that are also synesthetic, which makes us believe that it could be inherited. They are usually very artistic and creative. They also have a very good memory. Many people think that it is very confusing for them walking around constantly seeing shapes, colors, and patterns. The truth is it’s not. They often enjoy their synesthesia. They adapt to it just like we do. See, we think they might have a problem but, they don’t understand how we can learn without what they see. So the feeling is mutual. The only time they are bothered by it is when a stimulus produces synesthetic experience they don’t like. Such as with color-graphemic they might not like a letter because an u gly color is associated with it. It would also be hard because for a color-graphemic it might confuse them if a really boring person has a vibrant name. Synesthesia is a very uncommon disorder but also kind of unique. I would like to vision things like a synesthete just to see what it would be like. How could you be sad or mad all the time while seeing beautiful colors, shapes, and patterns everywhere? That also goes both ways, how could u be happy seeing sad colors, shapes, and patterns. Synesthesia has its ups and downs. Hopefully we do more research on this topic because it is very extraordinary.

Centrosaurus - Facts and Figures

Centrosaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Centrosaurus (Greek for pointed lizard); pronounced SEN-tro-SORE-us Habitat: Woodlands of western North America Historical Period: Late Cretaceous (75 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 20 feet long and three tons Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Single, long horn on end of snout; moderate size; large frill over head About Centrosaurus It was probably too dumb to notice the difference, but Centrosaurus was definitely lacking when it came to defensive armament: this ceratopsian possessed only a single long horn on the end of its snout, compared to three for Triceratops (one on its snout and two over its eyes) and five (more or less, depending on how youre counting) for Pentaceratops. Like others of its breed, Centrosaurus horn and large frill probably served dual purposes: the frill as a sexual display and (possibly) a way to dissipate heat, and the horn to head-butt other Centrosaurus adults during mating season and intimidate hungry raptors and tyrannosaurs. Centrosaurus is known by literally thousands of fossil remains, making it one of the worlds best-attested ceratopsians. The first, isolated remains were discovered by Lawrence Lambe in Canadas Alberta province; later, nearby, researchers discovered two vast Centrosaurus bonebeds, containing thousands of individuals of all growth stages (newborns, juveniles, and adults) and extending for hundreds of feet. The most likely explanation is that these herds of migrating Centrosaurus were drowned by flash floods, not an unusual fate for dinosaurs during the late Cretaceous period, or that they simply perished of thirst while gathered around a dry water hole. (Some of these Centrosaurus bonebeds are interlaced with Styracosaurus fossils, a possible hint that this even more ornately decorated ceratopsian was in the process of displacing Centrosaurus 75 million years ago.) Recently, paleontologists announced a pair of new North American ceratopsians that seem to have been closely related to Centrosaurus, Diabloceratops and Medusaceratopsboth of which sported their own unique horn/frill combinations reminiscent of their more famous cousin (hence their classification as centrosaurine rather than chasmosaurine ceratopsians, albeit ones with very Triceratops-like characteristics as well). Given the profusion of ceratopsians discovered in North America over the last few years, it may be the case that the evolutionary relationships of Centrosaurus and its nearly indistinguishable cousins have yet to be fully sorted out.

Willa Cather's short story Paul's Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Willa Cather's short story Paul's Case - Essay Example His work as an usher takes him away from his drab surroundings and into another world where the music reveals the "potent spirit within him". Paul's world is built upon untruths. Paul does not care to join in the world of music and drama; he is satisfied just to live vicariously through its proximity. Paul feasts off the efforts of others. For Paul the whole world is all lies, and the theater is one more of Paul's illusions. For Paul it was easy and necessary for overcoming the difficult task of effort. The theater is not only his escape from school, but also from Cordelia Street. Cordelia Street is the symbol of the "colorless mass of everyday existence". Paul can not subscribe to the middle class and could never be a clerk. He would never become one of the "rivets in the machine" that his father had. Paul wanted to be at the top "though he had no mind for the cash-boy stage". Paul needs more. Paul immerses himself in the drama of the theater with fanatical tales of his exaggerated importance. Fearing that Paul had wandered too far from the center of normality, his father demands that he be put to work. Alienated from school by the strict teachers, from home by his father's dismal existence and banished from the theater Paul creates a new illusion.

Investor Psychology and Return Predictability Essay

Investor Psychology and Return Predictability - Essay Example To do so, we start with a traditional constant relative risk aversion utility function. This type of utility function is a standard criterion for choices under uncertainty. This function is expanded in a Taylor approximation up to the fourth order. The first two moments correspond to mean and variance. The third and fourth moment correspond to a directional measure of extreme events and to a symmetric measure respectively. A negative third moment indicates that there are more extreme negative realizations than there are positive ones. The fourth moment measures how the tails of the return distribution compare with the tails of the Gaussian distribution. From a technical point of view, in our paper, a numerical optimization takes place where the allocation involves higher moments. More pronounced results expected in the case one consider portfolios of individual stocks. Our findings are the following: a) When an investor may allocate his wealth to the indices and to the risk-free asset, then the weights corresponding to the risky assets are essentially unaffected by the introduction of a concern for the third or fourth moments. c) As the third moment comes to play a role, Asia (except Japan) gets less weighted because it contains large negative returns, whereas the importance of Japan is increased. The strong weighting of Japan comes from the fact that the Japanese returns contain several very large positive outliers generating a positive third moment. The implication of this research is that the traditional utility functions or expansions thereof may not sufficiently weigh realizations of extreme nature. This brings up the question how to adapt a utility function so that more weight is given to extreme realizations. A further question is how the allocation would change in a conditional setting, or with individual stocks rather than with portfolios, since in such circumstances, one may expect that higher moments take larger values than in the present setting. These questions are left for future research. Abstract Investment strategy is the first issue that investors should consider. At the outset, investing is an act of faith, a willingness to postpone present consumption and save for the future. Investing for the long term is central to the achievement of optimal returns by investors. Unfortunately, the principle of investing for the long term-eschewing funds with high turnover portfolios and holding shares in soundly managed funds as investments for a lifetime- is honoured more in the breach than in the observance by most mutual fund managers and shareholders. This proposition for investor's psychology affect the return predictability can be shown to be precisely true in several popular mathematical models of the portfolio decision. If returns are independent over time, then the mean and variance of continuously compounded returns rises in proportion to the horizon: The

Bethany hamilton Essay Example for Free

Bethany hamilton Essay My name, Bethany Hamilton, may not ring a bell, but I am known as the girl who never gave up. I survived the unthinkable. I want to make a difference in peoples lives by sharing my story, so here it goes. Every morning I hit the beach with my friends. Halloween is usually the time to go trick-or-treating, but for me it was the time to catch a perfect wave. So at sunrise I was already at Tunnel Beach, feeling as though my veins were filled with salt water. The water was crystal clear and very calm. I was relaxing on my board with my left arm dangling in the water as I waited for the next big wave. My friends were floating not too far away. All of them were looking out to sea. Out of nowhere, came a giant tiger shark, and all I saw was a flash of grey. All I felt was a lot of pressure and a couple of fast tugs. It was all over in seconds! Thats all it took for the 15 foot tiger shark to bite my left arm off near my shoulder. I waited in shock as all the water turned bright red. I said in a loud but not panicky voice l Just got attacked by a shark. After the attack, I kept saying Get to the beach. Get to the beach. My arm was bleeding badly, but that didnt prevent e from praying. They tied a shirt around my stub as a tourniquet. As I was rushed to the hospital, I remember the paramedics guy saying, God will never leave you, nor forsake you. He was right. At the hospital, surgeons cleared out of the operating room so I could be rushed in. They gave me blood and cleaned out my terrible wound. I stayed in the hospital for about a week after the accident, because I needed time to heal and regain my strength. My family was with me constantly, but honestly I Just wanted to go surfing. Many visitors came to see me, and all I saw was pity on their faces. After I was out of the hospital, I discovered that my life had changed dramatically. Everyday tasks suddenly became difficult. I knew I needed to forget about surfing, but I couldnt. The attack hadnt lessened my love for surfing, and I wasnt ready to give up. Less than a month later, I was back on my surf board, but paddling with only one arm was not easy. Standing up on the board was equally tough. Catching my first wave after the accident, made everything worthwhile. I rode the wave all the way to the beach, and after that, I had tears of happiness running down my face. A lot of people think soul surfers are Just people who surf and dont compete, but I think its someone who Just loves surfing for what it is, never gives up, and always sticks with the ocean. I still dream of surfing victories, but now IVe got other dreams, too. I want to make a difference in peoples lives. I want to help others deal with pain and loss. Most importantly, I want to encourage people to follow their dreams, no matter how hard it seems. All I know is that my life will include plenty of surfing. IVe been surfing since I was five, and Ill be surfing until however ling I can. bethany hamilton By hfeuch

Funeral Homes Studies: Overcharging

Funeral Homes Studies: Overcharging Running head: FUNERAL HOMES Abstract The overcharging of consumers by funeral homes was investigated to prove to consumers that they are being overcharged, and to show them some ways to avoid being overcharged. The goal was to show precisely when the funeral homes are taking advantage of the consumer, and to show that consumers need to be aware that funeral homes have more than one way of taking advantage of them and overcharging them in large amounts. The effects of this severe problem were determined by looking over a law that has been put into place to subdue the crime, ways the crime is committed, and also an interview that was conducted to gather information on one of many alternatives to using the traditional funeral service. There are many alternatives to the traditional funeral; most people just dont know where to learn about them. Funeral Homes: The Overcharging For Services and Distrust Behind It It is not easy to lose a loved one. In addition, it is not always easy for a person to find out how much it is going to cost them and their family to give their loved one the proper burial they deserve. During the time of grieving, the family of the deceased is not really concerned with the costs of the funeral, for all they are looking for is a proper burial or funeral ceremony for their loved one. The cost of a typical funeral in the United States in 1983 was around $2,500.00 (Darmstadter, 1983). Solomon (n.d.) states that â€Å"the average funeral in the United States costs $6,500, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. The true sum can easily reach $10,000 once a burial plot, flowers and other costs are included, the AARP says.† This price is from around 2004; consumers need to be aware that the prices are steadily rising, and that if they dont watch out for those funeral homes that try to get more money out of them, they could end up losing thousands mor e dollars than is necessary to spend on a funeral service. The crime of funeral homes taking advantage of consumers has been around for many years, and in 1984 The Funeral Rule was put into place in order to put a stop to it. â€Å"On September 24, 1982, the FTC published a ruling known in the Federal Register as the Funeral Rule† (Schwartz, Jolson, Lee, 1986). â€Å"Under the Rule, the FTC mandates that funeral homes allow customers to buy only those things they choose† (Mark, n.d.). Many people do not realize that during these times of vulnerability, the funeral home they have trusted the care of their loved one with, could be taking advantage of them; overcharging them for already expensive services. Funeral homes are overcharging consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one. Funeral homes are overcharging consumers for their services. They are taking advantage of them while they are most vulnerable in an emotionally distraught state as they are preoccupied in grieving for the loss of a loved one, and when they are in a hurry to plan a funeral for a sudden death. Funeral homes have several ways of overcharging consumers, and two of the most prominent ways they do this is by teaming up with hospice care centers and by quoting the wrong prices if they will even quote them at all. Discussion Taking advantage of vulnerability. The funeral homes of America take advantage of the bereaved when they are most vulnerable. One of the most common times that a funeral home will take advantage of the bereaved is when they are in the middle of grieving, trying to set up a funeral while they are emotionally distraught. Schlozman and La Grand (1985) state that â€Å"death in a family is a personal, emotional experience that can have long term emotional and physical consequences for survivors (cited in Butler, 2007, p. 95). Funeral directors look for the best chance that they can get to get a grieving person to agree to buy something or to set up an expensive funeral; while the bereaved are emotionally distraught, which is mostly in the beginning of the funeral planning process, is when this happens the most. Many funeral directors will say that funeral homes are not taking advantage of consumers when they are â€Å"most vulnerable,† they are simply taking the necessary steps to make sure that the consumer gets what they need and what they ask for so as to get the funeral done in the most complete way possible. When a consumer is preoccupied in grieving for the loss of a loved one, they may be emotionally distraught and kind of out of their norm, however this does not mean that all funeral directors are low enough to take advantage of consumers. Most funeral directors deal with so many emotional people everyday they are at their workplace, that most of them know what it is like for a person to fe el the way they do therefore they will not go out of their way to take advantage of them for that little bit of extra money. As one can see, this is clearly not the case. Funeral homes overcharge consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one at times when they are most vulnerable, and with pre-planning, this can be partly eliminated. The funeral homes of America also take advantage of the bereaved when they are in a hurry to get the funeral set up. There is not much time between when a person passes away, and the time the funeral needs to be set up and followed through with. â€Å"Most of the major decisions regarding funeral arrangements must be made within 24-48 hours (Sommer, Nelson, and Hoyt, 1985). Many people do not know that their loved one is going to pass on when they do, so they are in a frantic hurry to get the funeral set up and that is what gets them into such a bind with the funeral homes taking advantage of and overcharging them. One thing that a person who is in a hurry to set up a funeral typically does is calls funeral homes in their area asking for price quotes. When a person uses the phone to contact funeral homes about prices, they can â€Å"compare prices among funeral providers,† this may eventually help them to decide which funeral home and arrangement they would like to consider (USA Funeral Homes Online, 1999). Also, when a person is in a hurry to set up a funeral for a loved one, it is advised that they gather â€Å"price lists† from some of the funeral homes in their area â€Å"to compare pricing and options† (Wilke, 2005). Mark (n.d.) states that â€Å"the funeral rule also requires that GPLs (â€Å"General Price Lists†) list the prices of up to 16 items if they are services that the funeral home offers. . . .† If a person were to go around to funeral homes in their area, a general price list is a good tool that the funeral homes are required to give them, so t hey know the prices, thus promoting smart decision making, and the possibility of preventing being overcharged and taken advantage of. It is often though that when a consumer has a sudden death in the family and they are in a hurry to plan a funeral, most funeral directors are not going out of their way to overcharge them to get that little bit of extra money. They may indeed be overcharging them; however, they may simply be charging the prices they do because they want to be sure to get the consumer everything that they need since the process is so hurried in this type of situation. These thoughts are obviously not relevant because, as one can see, if the funeral directors were as caring as they make them seem, they would give any unused money back to the consumer when the funeral is all said and done. Shopping around for the best priced funeral home, and ignoring any suggestions given by hospice care centers, could be one of the most important ways for a consumer to greatly decrease the chance of being overcharged. Funeral homes overcharge consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one, at times whe n they are in a hurry to plan a funeral for a sudden death, and with pre-planning and smart decision making, this can be partly eliminated. Teaming up with hospice care centers. Consumers need to be aware that funeral homes have different ways of overcharging them. One of the main ways this happens is when funeral homes go together with hospice care centers. The Hospice Patients Alliance (n.d.) states that: One of the major scams committed by such rogue hospices is to refer the family to one particular funeral home, if they havent made arrangements beforehand with another funeral home. The funeral home then charges their very highest rates for funeral home services and the family has no idea that they have been scammed, because they trust the â€Å"compassionate† hospice people. If individuals go to that funeral home directly inquiring about charges for funeral services, they get offered discounted rates, but hospice referrals get charged the highest rates. When funeral homes team up with hospice care centers, they can overcharge consumers large amounts of money, and they can do it very discreetly. Many people would not suspect a hospice care center to refer them to a high priced funeral home; this is why consumers need to be aware that this could happen. Consumers need to be aware that shopping around for a funeral home with the best prices is one of the best things they can do to prevent being overcharged, even if a hospice care center that their family trusts recommends a funeral home, or they are pressed with time and any other issue that may come their way. The Hospice Patients Alliance (n.d.) states that â€Å"you do not have to use the funeral home â€Å"recommended† by a hospice. They should not be recommending any funeral homes that is a decision for you to make, not the hospice.† Many funeral directors will say that funeral homes may indeed be teaming up with hospice care centers in being sure that the funeral ho me will have a steady flow of business on account of the recommendations given by the hospice care centers; but this does not mean that they are doing it to overcharge the consumers. They may in fact be doing this simply to help the family eliminate the hassle of finding a funeral home and going through the process of looking for price quotes, etc. This is clearly not the case as one can see, simply because if funeral directors were as caring as they seem, they would not be trying to get consumers away from looking for price quotes and things like that, they would help them find the funeral home they are looking for, or be sure to accommodate their needs as best they can. Also, if a funeral home has that much trouble getting business, something needs to be done, and that funeral home should probably be looked at as a fraud. Funeral homes overcharge consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one. Many people do not realize that it may not only be the funeral home that is in on the scam; hospice care centers play a major role in this deception of the consumers also. Quoting the wrong prices. Another quite common way that funeral homes overcharge consumers is by quoting the wrong prices over the phone, or not quoting any at all. There are many people that are pressed for time when it comes down to planning a funeral, and most of them resort to calling funeral homes to inquire about prices. What many people do not realize, is that the funeral homes may not be giving them the right price quote, and many of them quickly find out that the funeral home may not give them a price quote at all. The reason that some funeral homes do not give any price quotes at all, would be so they could adjust the prices accordingly to each and every funeral they conduct. â€Å"The funeral home is required to give you a free copy of the price list when you visit. Its also required to tell you its prices over the phone. If a funeral director refuses to do so, suggesting instead that you come in for an appointment, That should be a warning sign, Slocum says† (Block, 2006). Many consumers do not know this important piece of information. The laws that regulate the funeral homes of America are not posted around the nation as are the everyday laws that the people of America are required to follow. This is why, when shopping around for a well priced funeral home; consumers need to be aware of the laws so as to catch the hints that are thrown at them. The hints that should make them think that perhaps they should not trust some funeral homes that they have come in contact with. When a person that is frantically trying to set up a funeral calls a funeral home, they do not expect to be taken advantage of and overcharged because most Americans would agree that this is a very serious business, and that most every funeral home should be trustworthy. However, that is not the case. When consumers are calling funeral homes over the phone, they need to be aware of the potential dangers that it entails. Common thought of consumers is that when a consumer contacts a funeral home over the phone seeking quotes on prices for their services, the funeral directors may quote the wrong prices; this does not mean that is what will be charged. Many funeral directors care enough to provide the consumers only with what they need or would like to have for the funeral, so the prices they quote may only be a ball-park figure for the general funeral service. When a funeral home does not quote a price at all, this may be to eliminate the problem of quoting the wrong prices, or even to eliminate competition between them and other funeral homes. Consumers may be frustrated by this, but in all reality this may be something that could help them because if they went with a funeral home that does not quote a price, they may actually end up spending less money than they would at a funeral home that quoted a price that was too high. The thoughts are clearly irrelevant because if funeral homes were quoting ball-park figures, they would most likely state that the prices they are giving are ball park. Also, if a funeral home does not quote a price at all and others do, it is most obvious that they are planning on giving prices when the funeral is over with so as to inflate the prices and not be detected. Funeral homes overcharge consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one. If consumers are aware of the potential dangers of calling funeral homes for price quotes, and the laws that are supposed to regulate them, this could greatly decrease the risk of being overcharged. Ways to avoid being overcharged. There are many things that can be done for a person to prevent being overcharged when they are working with a funeral home to set up a funeral. The most prominent of all alternatives is full body organ donation, which many people participate in. As Carol Wright (personal communication, February 29, 2008) described, full body organ donation is when a person chooses to donate their entire body to an organization of choice before they die. When they die, the organization will pick up their body from wherever they are, and ship them to where the body will be used. After the organization is done using the body for all intents and purposes, they cremate it and send the remains to a family member for a $25.00 shipping fee. Another well-known alternative to being overcharged by a funeral is by using traditional organ donation. This will give the family time to plan the funeral as the hospital or some other form of medical personnel removes the organ(s) the deceased has agreed to donate after death, thus slimming the possibility of being overcharged by the funeral home because it gives the family time to look around and find the best prices available to them. One good thing about organ donation is that there have been, for the families of people who donate while they are alive and after they have died, some â€Å"financial and health care-related reimbursement incentives widely debated† (Boulware, Troll, Wang, Powe, 2006). Many people dont realize that without these alternatives, nearly every person in the United States would be taken advantage of at some time or another by a funeral home. The Federal Trade Commission (2000) stated that: To relieve their families of some of these decisions, an increasing number of people are planning their own funerals, designating their own funeral preferences, and sometimes even paying for them in advance. They see funeral planning as an extension of will and estate planning. If someone in a family dies, and there has been no planning for a funeral whatsoever, the family members that are to do the planning for the funeral are left in a bind. If a person plans their own funeral, the surviving family is left with â€Å"the precedent, information and moral support needed to get the type of service it wants† (Bender, 1974). To eliminate funeral homes taking advantage of and overcharging the bereaved, as The Federal Trade Commissions and Bender state, a person should think about planning their own funeral so that it is set in stone, and the surviving family has much less of a chance of being pressured into meaningless spending while they are most vulnerable. Funeral homes are overcharging consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one. Review Major issues. There have been two major issues discussed in this writing about how funeral homes overcharge consumers; the first being that many funeral homes take advantage of consumers when they are most vulnerable. There were two times in which this happens quite often that were discussed here. The first is when consumers are tied up in grieving and pre-occupied with the whole funeral planning process, and getting things organized and followed through with. The second is when the consumer is pressed for time trying to plan a sudden funeral, and the funeral home takes this hurried process to their advantage. The second major issue discussed is that consumers need to be aware that funeral homes have different ways of overcharging them. There were two of the most common ways discussed here; the first being that funeral homes overcharge by teaming up with hospice care centers, and the second being that the funeral homes either quote the wrong prices over the phone, or in person, or they simply do not give prices at all, so as to inflate them accordingly with each and every funeral they conduct. Expenses. The most popular way for consumers to recognize the death of a loved one is to plan for a traditional funeral. Traditional funerals can be very costly, and often times not exactly what the consumer was looking for when it is all said and done. Most people would agree that the traditional funeral is the best way to go about putting a loved one to rest; however, when funeral homes are overcharging for these services that are already overpriced, it is hard for some consumers to follow through with it because of the fear of running out of money before it is all done with. Darmstadter (1983) stated that â€Å"the purchase of a funeral is the third largest single expenditure after a home and a car, that many of us will ever have to make.† Alternatives to the traditional funeral service. There are many alternatives to the traditional funeral service, and the most prominent one of those is organ donation. Full body organ donation and traditional organ donation were discussed earlier in the writing. Full body organ donation is when a person has agreed to donate their body to science after thy have passed on. Traditional organ donation is when a person agrees to allow any of their organs that are useable, to be donated to another human being after they have passed on. These are two of the most prominent ways for consumers to avoid being overcharged by funeral homes; and they are used most commonly by people who did not do any pre-planning for their funeral. What many consumers do not realize is that these options are readily available to anyone who would like to take advantage of them; they are just not advertised since death is such a sheltered topic in the United States. Funeral homes are overcharging consumers while they are grieving for the loss of a loved one. When a consumer is looking around trying to plan a funeral, one of the best ways to avoid being taken advantage of is to be aware of what is happening, and how funeral homes are actually taking advantage of consumers, and what they can do to avoid being take advantage of. A solution to the problem of funeral homes taking advantage of consumers would be for the consumer to shop around for funeral prices and arrangements in advance when anticipating a funeral. Sure, not every person will have time to do this since not all deaths are anticipated; however, this problem will be greatly eliminated if those consumers who are anticipating the death do in fact plan the funeral ahead of time, so as to have the time to go around and shop for the best prices and have the funeral set up the way in which they so desire. Planning a funeral is can be an overwhelming time for the consumer; however, following the simple suggestions that have been given throughout this writing may in fact make the job a lot easier. People need to be aware that in times like these where life just seems like it is not worth living, life will go on. As long as consumers are aware of what is happening out there in the funeral service industry, and they plan for things ahead if possible, problems like these may be wholly eliminated all together.

Cyber Crime in the 21st century Essay

Examine the key features around the growth, development and policing of cyber crime in the 21st century. The internet was first created in the 1960’s, but it only really started to take off and develop in the last 20 years with big websites such as Google (1998) and YouTube (2005). With the internet developing and people knowing more about it, cybercrime then came about and since then it has grown and gotten more dangerous and more extreme. There are several different types of cybercrime for example one is called cyber violence, this includes stalking and harassment, it can also be bullying people online via social networking sites and chat rooms. Cyber obscenity is another type of cyber crime which is sexual including porn sites. Cyber trespass is the crime of hacking sites and cyber theft is also another cybercrime which is credit card fraud as well as the illegal downloading of movies, music, books etc. Computer hackers are very intelligent, initially they started hacking sites simply because they were able to, and they wanted to explore the sites, at the start it was done just for fun. However it didn’t take long for these hackers to realise their potential and what they could actually be doing, soon it then escalated and they became more educated and more confident in hacking. These hackers could now be described as ‘attackers’. There are a few types of attacks that can be made on a computer. One is Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. This is a system set up which sends out a fake email to an individual, it could be to check their password for online banking or make credit card payments etc. It will look very genuine to service users and often many of them fall into the trap. E-Mail bomb is another type of attack that can be made, hundreds of emails are sent to a service in order to shut it down. Another attack is a Trojan Horse, these are attachments sent to people perhaps through email, they may also pop up on the screen. They are very appealing to individuals for example ‘click here for your free iPad’ or ‘you are the 999,999th visitor, click here to claim your free prize’ these are likely to open up viruses. Other types of attacks include Worms, Network Scanning and Key Loggers. Argot is a type of language used for hacking sites and known by all highly skilled hackers. There are three different types of hackers they are; Black hat hacker, white hat hacker and grey hat hacker. 1. Black hat hacker – they are dangerous and highly skilled hackers. They will make it known to people how good they are at hacking and how dangerous they are. 2. White hat hacker – they are usually employed by companies to test the security of their websites. 3. Grey hat hacker – they are very unpredictable and because of this it makes them the most dangerous of all three hackers. Many big website have been hacked such as Yahoo and Play, this is not well known because companies involved do not want the news to be publicised mostly because it would not be good for business as people may think that the website is not safe and will not use it. 22% of the top mobile applications have been hacked. Stalking only became a crime in 1997 and a criminal offence in England and Wales in 2012. Cyber stalking activities include sending repeated, unwanted messages, it could be ordering stuff on behalf of the victims, publicising the victims personal information, spreading false information about the individual and encouraging others to harass the victim. There are 2 types of stalking, direct and indirect. Direct is most common and often starts with an email. Indirect is stalking with the use of billboards and advertisements. In 1999, Ellison carried out research on Working to the Halt of Abuse Online 2000 and found that 39% of stalkers began contact with the victim via email. Only 1% of stalkers didn’t use the internet to first get in contact with the victim. Stalkers are likely to be an ex-partner, however half of all stalkers aren’t known by the victim. There were websites set up for people to stalk there ex partner online, they were called ‘Avengers Den’ and ‘Get Revenge On Your Ex’ they were designed so people could crush their ex-partners self esteem and they could fake SMS them. 87% of cyber stalking victims are young women (Working to the Halt of Abuse Online). Only 50% of cyber stalking activities are reported to the authorities. There are three groups of cyber stalkers; Simple Obsessional, these stalkers have been in a relationship with the victim, the victim has tried to call it of but the stalker refuses to accept it and becomes obsessed with the victim. Love Obsessional, these are stalkers who haven’t had a relationship with the victim but they believe that themselves and the victim have a special connection. Erotomaniac stalkers believe that the victim is deeply in love with them, it can be messages through the media that lead them to believe this. (Melroy, 1996; Mullen et al., 1999) Cybercrime violence has links with terrorism. Cyber terrorism is when an attack is made against a person or property. Cyber terrorism can even be causing a person to be fearful of being harmed. Al Qaeda which is an international terrorist organisation which began in the late 1980’s has been on the internet from the late 1990’s. These Al Qaeda sites may only be on the web for a matter of hours before they are shut down, however they are soon replaced by another one. There were an estimated 5,600 sites as of January 2008 and 900 appearing each year (Weimann 2008). Policing Cyber Crime: Cybercrime has no limits and it can be uncontrollable, there are so many crimes committed online it is hard to keep track of all them. Also it is difficult to see a pattern in cybercrimes. Cybercrime is still developing, there are more viruses every day, it is the fastest moving type of crime. This may be because many people may be committing cyber crime without knowing it, for example people may not know when they are downloading music illegally. Cyber crime is growing and growing. The internet’s characteristics make cybercrime policing very hard, especially hackers, they are so skilled and make sure they do not get caught. There are state funded public police organisations set up to help police cybercrime and put a stop to it. There are also state funded non police and non public policing organisations. ISPs are set up as well as internet users forming groups to protect themselves from cybercrime. There are specialist units in place for policing cybercrime for example Europol which is the European law enforcement agency and Interpol which is the world’s largest policing agency with 109 countries involved. They connect policing communities to make the world safer. Forensic Investigation Units, CID/ Fraud Squad, Computer crime units and child protection units are specialist units that deal with cyber crime. The aim for the future is to bring in some form of legislation that cuts down on cyber crime and also to stop cyber crime from starting in the first place. To conclude the internet has proven to be very dangerous and cyber crime is developing rapidly. People have to be extremely careful while using the internet and not fall into the hackers trap. Warren, P and Streeter, M (2005). Cyber Crime. London: Vision Paperbacks. 1-19, 19-45, 45-72.