ETHICS (PLATO) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ETHICS (PLATO) - Assignment Example In this sense, Plato believed that circles would still exist even if mathematics did not help us draw them. Plato believes that there is an inherent and unseen world where truth, justice, and beauty are eternal and non-altering. In this view, Plato gives credence to the concept of an ideal world just as Christianity proposes heaven. In the idea of heaven, Christianity asserts that people can perfect their behavior by emulating Christ thereby earning the privilege of staying in heaven. Heaven is an ideal place whereby there is eternal happiness and no injustice to individual. Individuals, therefore, exist in an uninterrupted harmony. Although this ideal contains some deal of similarity with Plato’s ideas, it differs in the sense that it does adequately endorse thinking. Plato believes that the mind is the only way of reaching the ideal world. This theory correlates the theory of forms that postulate a dual word. This suggests two levels of knowledge and two levels of reality. Plato defines a form as an abstract quality or property. For instance, when a person removes the property of an object, such as color, from the object, then the color becomes a form of an object. For instance, when a person separates the red color of a tomato from the tomato, the red color is perceived as a form. The existence of such a quality, the form, is independent of the existence of any object. In turn, objects copy the existence of forms. For example, a tomato copies the form of redness. It is essential to highlight the properties of forms in order to adequately understand their relevance in truth and justice. To begin with, forms are transcendent because they do not occur in space and time. In addition, a form is a pure property, which is separated from other qualities. In this sense, a form has an independent existence that does not rely o n the existence of other forms nor objects. On the other hand, a material and observable object is a combination of forms.

Fluoridation and Toxicity Issues Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Fluoridation and Toxicity Issues - Assignment Example Nevertheless, there are three things I have learned from the lecture of Nokes. One of these is that the claims to the negative effects of fluoride on the human body – weakening of bones, Down syndrome, Cancer, birth defects, reproductive effects, renal and gastrointestinal effects, lower IQ, and other bone disorders – basically have no scientific bases (Nokes). Moreover, these claims may have only been due to traditional knowledge about the harmful effects of fluoride as a raw material and in large amounts. I have also learned from this that I should not believe advertisements or negative propaganda or any type right away. Furthermore, I believe that the best thing to do with something confusing is to deal with it in a logical way, specifically by using â€Å"What, Why, When, How, Where, Who† (Nokes). Through this logical investigation on fluoridation as explained by Nokes, one can find out that much of the claims that other people have against fluoride are actua lly unsubstantiated by scientific evidence and logic. The second thing I have learned is that the potential harm from fluoride is least likely to happen because although fluoride can be harmful in large amounts, the government has set a limit to this. This limit is actually a standard value at 0.01 g/mL while the actual amount of fluoride added by the city government to water is 0.001 g/mL. This is just a mere 10% of the actual threshold value, which means that it is impossible that the fluoride will ever cause any harm. However, I would still like to think that the harm that fluoride causes may not exactly depend solely on the amount. Sometimes, I would like to think that fluoride is like acid that no matter what the amount, it will cause some damage to the material. The third thing I have learned from Nokes’ lecture is that just a small amount of fluoride is added to the water and that even this amount relative to water is much smaller in concentration. For example, althoug h fluoride is 134,000 mg in 1 kilogram of the HFA compound, this seemingly large amount of fluoride actually only translates as 7.46 x 10-6 kg/L when mixed with water (Nokes). This means that water is a great neutralizer of chemicals as it is the universal solvent. The fluoride in water therefore, if water fluoridation is to be carried out soon, is definitely much lower than what can possibly cause any harm. However, as what I have explained earlier, sometimes some chemical reactions may kill someone regardless of the amount of the reactants involved. This means that a small amount of fluoride may actually still cause some harm which is just as intense as when it is caused by fluoride above safe levels. Moreover, sometimes I would like to think that some damage caused by fluoride may accumulate in the human body as more and more fluoride is being ingested through fluoridated water. Furthermore, there could also be some complications that will take some time before it can take effect as a disease. In fact, although I am convinced by Nokes’ lecture, he did not shed light on all the aspects of the fluoridation of water. I would therefore like to suggest that there should be a more thorough investigation of the case of the fluoridation of water in Hamilton City. All aspects should be answered especially those involved in the

ETHICS (PLATO) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ETHICS (PLATO) - Assignment Example In this sense, Plato believed that circles would still exist even if mathematics did not help us draw them. Plato believes that there is an inherent and unseen world where truth, justice, and beauty are eternal and non-altering. In this view, Plato gives credence to the concept of an ideal world just as Christianity proposes heaven. In the idea of heaven, Christianity asserts that people can perfect their behavior by emulating Christ thereby earning the privilege of staying in heaven. Heaven is an ideal place whereby there is eternal happiness and no injustice to individual. Individuals, therefore, exist in an uninterrupted harmony. Although this ideal contains some deal of similarity with Plato’s ideas, it differs in the sense that it does adequately endorse thinking. Plato believes that the mind is the only way of reaching the ideal world. This theory correlates the theory of forms that postulate a dual word. This suggests two levels of knowledge and two levels of reality. Plato defines a form as an abstract quality or property. For instance, when a person removes the property of an object, such as color, from the object, then the color becomes a form of an object. For instance, when a person separates the red color of a tomato from the tomato, the red color is perceived as a form. The existence of such a quality, the form, is independent of the existence of any object. In turn, objects copy the existence of forms. For example, a tomato copies the form of redness. It is essential to highlight the properties of forms in order to adequately understand their relevance in truth and justice. To begin with, forms are transcendent because they do not occur in space and time. In addition, a form is a pure property, which is separated from other qualities. In this sense, a form has an independent existence that does not rely o n the existence of other forms nor objects. On the other hand, a material and observable object is a combination of forms.

Physics of Volleyball Essay Example for Free

Physics of Volleyball Essay Physics is the study of energy and how it is transferred from one particle to another. There is certainly a lot of energy transferred between objects and players in the sport of volleyball. A few of the concepts of physics that take place during volleyball include gravity, displacement, velocity, acceleration, projectile motion, and force. These concepts are displayed throughout the different positions on the court. There are three main aspects of volleyball that include physics, the first one being displacement. This happens when a player moves to their position on the court and when the ball moves from side to side. Displacement is relative to all positions on the court of volleyball because all six players should be evenly spaced on their respective side. Each player on the court is assigned one of the six positions. Even though theyre only assigned one position, they move and adjust to the play according to their teammates and the direction of the ball. Secondly, velocity is the speed of the player and ball. Velocity is commonly expressed as the change in displacement in a given time. One of these areas where velocity is found in volleyball would be when a player spikes the ball. With the proper velocity, the ball will hit the floor without a defender being able to react quickly enough to the attack. Thirdly, there is gravity, If there was no gravity the ball would not come down nor would the players. Gravity is essential to volleyball because without gravity the players would not be able to stay on the ground and enjoy the game. Also, the ball would float away from the people participating in the game. There are two major concepts of physics for serving, velocity and acceleration. As the ball’s velocity increases its distance also becomes greater. Since the ball is in constant acceleration, the velocity increases by the same amount of time. With the proper velocity, the ball will hit the floor without a defender being able to react quickly enough to the attack. Acceleration goes hand-in-hand with velocity. Acceleration is defined as the rate at which velocity changes. The ball, along with players on the court, both have acceleration. There are times in a volleyball game when the ball has constant acceleration, when the ball is served. When the ball is hit by a player for a spike, the rate at which it reaches is maximum velocity is the acceleration. In order to determine when to hit the ball, you need to calculate the trajectory, speed, and placement of the set. When approaching the ball, the body has kinetic energy and this energy turns into potential energy. This allows the player to jump higher. Since potential energy is the product of the mass of the player, gravity, and the height of the jump, the height is what determines how much potential energy will be attained. When the player hits the ball, it puts as much momentum into it as possible, the shorter amount of time the hand is in contact with the ball, the greater the momentum. Physics affects every aspect of the sport of volleyball from hitting, defense and serving. Without the concepts of physics that take place during volleyball include gravity, displacement, velocity, acceleration, and force, there would not be the sport. Understanding the physics behind the game can make someone a better player because they can learn how the game works and react to it accordingly.

Understanding culturally responsive teaching and multicultural educ

Understanding culturally responsive teaching and multicultural educ Multicultural education is all about students learning in different modes and about teachers responding effectively to recognize and detect the differences in learning. Culturally responsive teaching always focuses on perceived strengths of students and liaising between mismatch between cultures followed at home and the school. Culturally responsive teaching is a systematic approach to modern day teaching by taking into consideration many aspects of culture and its values. In a classical study, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Gloria Ladson-Billings demonstrated the examples of a culturally relevant teaching module. The main goal of this study was to find out why some teachers were successful with teaching African American children what other teachers could not. The researcher also wanted to pinpoint those specific behaviors that made these teachers successful in teaching. For this study, she chose all parents and principals from four schools that exclusively taught African American children, to pick those teachers, who they considered excellent in terms of teaching. As one could guess, the choices made by principals and parents were entirely different. Principals They chose teachers, who possessed very low numbers of discipline referrals, who had very high attendance rates and top test scores. Parents Parents chose teachers who were helping, enthusiastic, interested in teaching students and those who actually understood that students want to mix with a community that had both white and colored students. The result In all, nine teachers, both white and black, were selected for the experiment. Out of them, eight agreed to participate in the study. The researcher conducted this study for several years; after many years of dedicated research, the researcher could observe many conflicting scenarios. Teachers who participated in the program were all different, each with their own teaching styles, strategies and personalities. The results that were pooled from the exercise were too confusing and the researcher just wanted to abandon the program because of these conflicting results. However, the researcher could suddenly find some remarkable, striking and subtle features that were associated with the experimental module. 1) All the eight teachers, who participated in the exercise voluntarily chose challenging schools, those were complex and difficult to teach. 2) All of them felt that they were responsible for the success of their students 3) Teachers were very sensitive and receptive towards race and class discrimination in society. 4) In fact, they wanted to fight bias and prejudice that were so common in schools 5) Lastly, teachers considered both students home and classroom as inter-related and connected. This perception helped them to learn from different neighborhoods. The methods used by the teacher were very interesting and refreshing. All of them respected other cultures, classes and religions. They also honored the crafts, customs and traditions followed in the community. Teachers also invited parents to share traditional experiences and customs of each community. Teachers cajoled students to learn and master both home and Standard English (home English is the one that students speak in their homes). One of the most striking and interesting aspect of the exercise was that even teachers were willing to learn from students and parents experiences and opinions. Eventually, the researcher, Gloria Ladson-Billings, could summarize the research findings and arrive at a package of principles for meaningful and community teaching. These culturally responsive principles are as follows: 1. Stronger self-esteem and self-image is possible, only when the students experience academic success and satisfaction. Students who do not believe in themselves or in their abilities may have very poor academic achievements. Students always like lessons that are in consonance with their learning styles. Students also like to learn the basic knowledge and skills those are necessary for achieving success in their classrooms. 2. To succeed in classrooms and elsewhere, students must develop and retain core competence. A home is where one can find opportunity for learning. Not many teachers teach about educational experiences that students could gain in a community setting. Many teachers teach just the classroom skills and techniques. The researcher made it a point to include community as a foundation for meaningful teaching. She believed that teaching should look beyond the traditional classroom. She wanted to avoid a perceived conflict or friction between the classroom and home. Teachers can create and set up and meaningful and positive academic environment by teaching beyond traditional classrooms and by integrating learning with the concepts, customs and traditions of local community. 3. It is possible to encounter and challenge social injustice by developing highly critical consciousness and awareness. An intelligent and culturally inclined teacher needs to connect and gel with the needs and of the students as well as the local community. He or he may also need to work hard to enhance and improve the quality of life experienced in the school and community. Stop and Think Just, ask this following simple questions to yourself Can you recall an incidence in your school when you felt a disconnection? Did you see an apparent difference between the life portrayed in the textbooks and the real world where you actually lived? Do you feel that the method used in the case study were effective? If effective, why do you think so? Can you relate students skills and experiences with the skills and experiences of the community from where they come from? Do you feel that culturally responsive principles work in your class? How do you enhance or develop your students core competencies? Schools are just like a sanitized bubble that is entirely insulated from the problems that are faced in the real world. As a culturally enabled teacher, you should try to break open this bubble, so that students can experience the problems of the exterior world. Culturally relevant classroom will try to confront and eliminate real social problems. You should know and learn what it means to be an effective and culturally responsive teacher, so that you can enhance and broaden your feeling of what it needs to become a successful teacher. Collate and accumulate the following viewpoints that help you to be a good teacher. To be a good teacher, you may need to consider Ladson- Billings three points and later imbibe certain skills, attitudes and knowledge. 1. The type of teaching methods and skills that you need to acquire to become a culturally responsive teacher. 2. An ability to diagnose and detect different needs of students and action plans for different learning styles. 3. Developing and harnessing critical thinking and cognitive skills to help students excel in their studies. 4. Acquire a skill known as wait time, where you will remain silent and listen to the answers given by all students. Note: Previous studies have demonstrated that teachers with the noblest intentions often fail to use effective teaching skills. Chapter 11 of this book, Becoming an Effective Teacher, will provide you additional equitable teaching skills that can help you fine-tune your teaching career. Developing Attitudes to become a culturally responsive teacher Attitudes are very important for every teacher. What type of attitudes do you want acquire, so that you can become a culturally responsive teacher? Do you have any meaningful methods that help you teach students, whose cultural background is entirely different from yours? Most of your students may come from similar race, ethnicity and classes. Most of us may share a common set of values and opinions, while the way in which we socialized in the past may also be quite similar. As you get ready to teach, you may work hard to go away from your familiar territory and search for different viewpoints. The more different you become, the more likely you will be capable to welcome diverse life experiences and attitudes that are meaningful and agreeable. To become a culturally responsive teacher of very high caliber, you may need to acquire skills and knowledge about various groups and their experiences. The amount of skills and knowledge sets that you possess may be insufficient enough to teach your students. The skills and methods that you use may be inaccurate as well. To become a successful teacher, you may need to educate about yourself, your students and their requirements. Try to know and understand the educational implications of your students cultural backgrounds. This chapter will assist you traverse this unique path. Just consider this example. A number of African American community members often prefer aural and participatory learning to writing. If you are adamant and bent on using writing activities only, then your students performance may come down. Research findings also suggest us that girls and women have the habit of personalizing knowledge, skills and prefer learning by the way of experiences and first hand observation. Make sure that you create personal connections and events that will definitely enhance the success rates of female students. The big challenge that all teachers face is the ability to acquire beneficial and accurate cultural insights that eventually assist them to connect their classroom with the underlying culture. This needs to be done while preventing the likelihood of falling into the trap of stereotypic thinking. Do you know that difference between a useful cultural insight and a destructive stereotype? If you do not know, the next section will assist you learn the essential difference between them. Knowing Stereotypes The second chapter demonstrated the essential differences between different stereotypes and generalizations. Here, we will attempt to evaluate and analyze them very closely. What are stereotypes? Stereotypes are the firm and absolute beliefs that all members of a particular group possess; stereotypes will have a fixed set of parameters and characteristics. The word stereotype took its birth in a print shop. It is almost like a type. It is also like a one-piece plate that repeats a particular pattern without any individualism. Today, stereotypic thinking relates to cultures that neglect individuality and is applied consistently to every member of a group. Stereotypic thinking is rigid and non-flexible. It is set on a particular form of thinking that is unfair and unjust. Stereotypic people always try to save their time bypassing their normal thinking process. Stereotypes are a set of special characteristics those are attached to a group of individuals, based on their allegiance to a certain group with no qualification of thinking process. People who are stereotypes always use highly simplistic words that border on a sense of rigidity. For example, they may use words like à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. All Blacks are or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..All Hispanics are or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ All Asians are. In fact, these preconceived expressions are applied to certain groups without making any distinction; most of them are pre-conceived ideas and expressions. In fact, stereotypes are the way of thinking in a sloppy and unfair manner that undermines the basic values of a culturally different school. Consider the following examples: A typical stereotypic line of thinking may be: 1) All Hispanics are very poor in studies 2) All Asians are academically very smart and intelligent 3) Jews are very rich 4) African Americans are very good in sports Note: Stereotypes are impermeable to contradictory information. Examples: 1) Go and find a very poor Jew 2) Find me a Hispanic person with a doctorate degree 3) Give me an example of an Asian student who fails in math test 4) Find an African American, who is not an athletic. 5) Find a European American, who is not clean and hygienic Each of these strings of thought process is a perceived anomaly and every one of them is an exception to the set rule. As a result, the stereotypes always endure and persist. A typical stereotype is very dangerous and it can hurt and damage peoples egos. Stereotypic thinking in a school can even more be dangerous, as it can impede learning process. It also inhibits the ability to search for new information, not just ordinary and contradictory ones. Threat posed by Stereotypes Just consider the following example of stereotype and try to assess its damaging nature. Opinion polls published in the recent past inform us that about 50% of white Americans agree and endorse typical stereotypes relating to blacks and Hispanics, like most of them are not intelligent and skilled. Such stereotypic thinking acts like a double-edged sword; they can influence whites, blacks and Hispanics in equal measures. They can adversely influence the expectations, behaviors of whites, while blacks and Hispanics should live in a society that professes such beliefs. Consider the following case study published sometime back: In a study, the researchers asked both the whites and African American students to take somewhat difficult verbal examinations. Two groups took the verbal skill test a control group and an experimental group. In the control group, students took tests in a typically normal manner to measure the intelligence. On the other hand, the experimental groups consisted of students and they did not know that they were taking tests. Here, the psychology of their verbal problems was put to test. The researcher made sure that the two groups were matched to keep variable parameters like abilities of the students, time to test and the quality of tests almost similar. Results In the experimental groups, black test participants were successful in solving twice as many unique problems, as the ones those among the control group. On the other hand, the white test participants could solve almost the same number in both the groups. In another similar experiment, researchers found out that performance level of black test takers was very bad, when the examiners asked them to enter their race and ethnicity type on the test form. The outcome that you see here in this study is very simple. The outcome relates to the stereotypic threat. A number of factors like can influence academic performance: Self image Trust on others A Sense of belonging towards others When you learn that there is stereotype, you are more likely to act like a stereotype than when it does not exist. When you care most about your academic performance, you are more likely to be vulnerable to stereotypic threat. Many research studies demonstrate that why African American and other ethnic students tend to perform very well in college tests than their SAT scores predict. In many cases, the standardized test scores cannot be taken as an indicator and they are more often misleading. Likewise, many other people often fail as victims of stereotype threats especially Latinos in English tests, females in math tests and elderly people on short-term memory tests. Sometimes, even a bright student with very strong test scores may fall a victim to stereotype mentality. In fact, even a bright white student is not immune to stereotype; white students failed to perform to their expected levels, when they heard about their comparison with the Asian students. In fact, no one is immune from stereotype threat. Stereotype can limit a students ability to perform well in academics. Stereotype can convince a student that intellect is a fixed trait, that some ethnic groups are more intelligent than others are, and that his or her future is determined at the birth itself. Mind you, your intellect is just like your brain and it can change and transform over time. Your potential is truly amazing. If you believe that you can teach your brain to become smarter and intelligent, to grow like what you can do to your muscles through exercises, you can easily eradicate stereotypic thinking from your mind. Similarly, you can even enhance your test score, as well as the academic excellence. As a teacher, you are also dealing with ethics, values and characters of your students. When stereotypes exist among your students, they can damage your students and their learning potential beyond repair. When you give proper instruction, your students can overcome any type of stereotype. A good anti-stereotype course curriculum is the one that represents unique diversity across all races, ethnicity, genders, religions and socio-economic status. If you have the ability, you can even confront stereotype directly, head on with full conviction. You may just need to explain what stereotype is and how students can neutralize it. Never ever, ignore the perils of stereotype and its ability to damage your students mind and academic career. Dealing with generalization Generalizations recognize that there are special trends within a wide swath of people. Al members of religious, racial and ethnic groups have something that is common to them. They also share many things together. Generalization has many special characteristics: 1) They can give you some insights 2) They do not signify hard and fast conclusions like stereotypes 3) They do not consider that everyone in a group possess a fixed set of characters. You can never apply this axiom to everyone. You can modify it, as and when you collect fresh and new information. There will be many exceptions to generalizations. It is so common to see people using most common words like many, commonly, often or tend to, as different forms of generalizations. They also recognize that people may belong to different groups almost simultaneously. Example You can find Israeli Jews, Asian Jews, Arab Jews and even Polish Jews. Yet, they are all Jews altogether. Similarly, you can find African Indians, Caribbean Indians, Fiji Indians or even East African Indians. Yet, they are all Indians altogether. You can get a hunch or clue about a group through generalizations. These clues could form very important links, when you are planning to teach your class. When you do not know anything about your students or when you know very little about them, generalizations could be very useful tools to feel the pulse of the classroom. Generalizations provide you an educated guess to learn more about your students. As time passes and when you learn more about your class, you can then reject those generalizations that are vague and false. Using generalizations to create a culturally responsive teaching module Is it possible to develop a culturally responsive classroom by using generalizations in the teaching modules? Assume that you have a number of Native American students in your classroom. Now, let is also assume that you conduct some research on the learning preferences of these students. After conducting that research, you will discover that these students prefer to learn their lessons in a highly cooperative group that cherishes community and family values to individual competition. With available results, you will decide to modify your teaching methods that actually cater to the demands of students. Rather than using the same old model of teacher centric approach, you may start working on several academic topics at the same time. You will design a teaching module that specifically asks open-ended questions that demand answers related to student experiences of life. You may also wish to wait for some time for your students to answer your questions. Usually, Native Americans tend to wait for some time to give their answers. Native American students also tend to respect natural and supernatural forces very much. They also like to see native Indian expressions, words and syllables apart from legends and signs in their course curriculum. When you give them a chance to learn, by the way of sharing rather than competition, your students can learn well and perform better. Generalizations are always flexible. With experiences of teaching a diverse group of students, you can easily acquire better skills and techniques that help you in confronting any type of stereotypes. With valued experiences, you can also become the most productive teacher, who can be culturally responsive and sensitive as well. Let us kick start that process right now in the next section. Journal Activity Why generalizations and stereotypic thinking is dangerous for the society? List some important reasons and find solutions to overcome them. Is it possible to create culturally responsible teaching module by overcoming stereotypes and generalizations? Think of some teaching modules that you feel are good for you and study them in detail. Pause and Reflect Have you come across instances of stereotypes and generalizations, when you were studying in your school? If yes, write them down and analyze them. Do you feel that your present attitude towards a culturally diverse classroom is conducive enough to teach without any inhibitions or limitations? Give reasons why you are capable enough to teach a diverse classroom.

War :: essays papers

war Day after day on the news we see what the damage that violence has caused. Lots of people in this world think that it would be a better place with out violence, but that most assuredly will not happen. Most violence is horrible and unruly and quite unnecessary, however there are types of violence, which, for lack of a better word, needed. For this I mean Wars, self-defense and entertainment, which are completely necessary and have shaped history. Wars are how people defend themselves on a larger more powerful scale the use national power instead of individual to defend their way of life. Wars are the absolute source of violence nowhere else does it get more violent now that we have the use of the atom and smart weapons. Wars have divided countries and made friends were before they were none. Thousands upon thousands of people English and American alike died in the bloodiest war on American soil. This war conveyed violence at its best and as a result won America the independence we have so long been accustomed to. There is no way to try and call this revolutionary act needless or unwanted. No one that is alive today can remember anything about the American Revolution, except of what they read in books and so forth. Many books on the American Revolution give facts in great detail and depth, but they do not convey the brutality and the harshness that accord there. A far cry from the Revolutionary War is the Entertainment Business, particularly wrestling and Action movies. Television stations are littered with advertisements for the up coming wrestling events and new hit action suspense movies, both of which show little blurbs of people getting body slammed or blown up or even killed depending on the source but there is one thing they share, they all use violence in there advertisements. People today like seeing this type of thing, they pay top dollar to go to see their favorite wrestler and or movie star perform. At any wrestling venue you can see thousands of people waving and yelling at people they like and dislike, for them it is a release of emotions and a good time for all. People need shows and things of this nature to help people relax and let loose some of there pent up anger and aggression, plus it feels good to.

linux encryption Essay -- essays research papers

.: Contents :. I. INTRO - About   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   II. ENCRYPTING - Containers - Drives - Files   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   APPENDIX   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   .: I. INTRO :. [-=] About [=-] This is a quick rundown on how to encrypt files, containers, and drives under Linux. The use of loopback encrypted filesystems and openssl is explained and examples are given. This paper should have you encrypting in no time. The following commands were done running kernel 2.6.9. .: ENCRYPTING :. I'll outline how to create encrypted containers and drives using the loopback filesystem support and file encryption via openssl. [-=] Containers [=-] This is essentially creating a filesystem within a file and mounting it as a device. Containers vastly decrease the tedious task of individually encrypting files since you simply move your files into the mount point and then unmount and they nicely encrypted. First, you need to create a blank file using the dd command. dd if=/dev/urandom of=crypto.img bs=1M count=50 - The first parameter uses the /dev/urandom device to create the file with random data to make it more difficult to distinguish between free space and encrypted data. The /dev/zero device can be used but is not advised. - The second parameter of=crypto.img defines the name to be given to the file and this can be changed to suit your preference. - The third parameter bs=1M instructs the dd command to create the file in 1MB blocks. I recommend you leave this value as 1M - The final parameter defines the size of the file in relation to the bs parameter. Since bs=1M and count=50 the file will be 50MB hence changing the count value to 100 would yield a 100MB file and so on. It is worth mentioning that the file can be resized once created this will be explained in the appendix. Second, the file must be associated to a loop device and encrypted. losetup -e aes256 /dev/loop0 crypto.img - The parameter -e aes256 at the beginning instructs losetup on which cipher to use. The cipher type is dependent on what your kernel supports. In this example the AES 256 bit cipher is used but you can use other cipher types such as blowfish interchangeably. - The second parameter /dev/loop0 is the device to which we bind the file too. Binding the file will allow us to format the file with filesystem. - The final pa... ...utputs at password.txt.enc. (This is a rather redundant explanation but oh well) Now to decrypt a file. openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in password.txt.enc -out password.txt - The enc -d -aes-256-cbc part of the command specifies which cipher to use for decryption. - The -in password.txt parameter specifies which file to decrypt. - The final parameter instructs openssl to output the decryption into a file. This parameter can omitted and the file will be decrypted to stdout. .: APPENDIX :. [-=] Resizing containers [=-] If you formatted your container with the ext2 filesystem you can resize it with the ext2resize app. First, increase the size of the container. In this example the file acting as the encrypted container is called crypto.img and its size is incremented by 20MB. dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=20 >> crypto.img - The of= parameter is omitted and instead >> is used at the end of the command to append 20MB to the crypto.img file. Second, bind the file to a loop device. losetup -e aes256 /dev/loop0 crypto.img Third, extend the ext2 filesystem within the container. ext2resize /dev/loop0 That is all thats needed to resize your encrypted container.