Life Insurance

SELECT mumblings

2008-01-13T01:07:00.013-08:00

SELECT statement:(Run on Oracle 9i)
SELECT EMPNO,EMPNAMEFROM EMPWHERE EMPNO <>1000
----------------------------------Order of visit:1. The 'FROM' clause is visited first2. The 'WHERE' clause is visited next3. The 'SELECT' clause is visited next----------------------------------
The 'FROM' clause gives the DBMS engine the list of data-sources that will used in the query, which is 'EMP' in this case.
The 'WHERE' clause gives us the filtering condition, based on which thetable's rows can be retrieved. All indexes on the table in the FROM clause are retrieved. Next a check is made to see if any of the indexes can be used retrieve data If it can be the index is used. Here the condition is that 'EMPNO' should lie between 1000 and 1005 Assuming NO index using the EMPNO column, every row of the EMP table is visited and in each row, the EMPNO value is checked. If it lies between 1005 and 1000, this row is considered for the next step else the row is discarded. So now we have a set of rows from the table(in the FROM clause),satisfying the conditions(in the WHERE clause). Each row having all the columns of the table EMP. The 'SELECT' clause allows us to SELECT the required columns from each row returned by the WHERE clause.----------------------------------Internally the SELECT query we issue will be translated into a function call.
get_details(TABLE_NAME,SELECT_LIST,WHERE_CONDITION){
--'FROM' clauseTABLE_STRUCTURE := get_table_details(TABLE_NAME);
--'WHERE' clauseFOR EVERY condition in WHERE_CONDITIONLOOP FOR EVERY row in TABLE_STRUCTURE loop
IF validate_condition(WHERE_CONDITION,TABLE_STRUCTURE[current_row]) = TRUE then TABLE_STRUCTURE[current_row].AVAILABLE_FOR_NEXT_STEP := TRUE; ELSE TABLE_STRUCTURE[current_row].AVAILABLE_FOR_NEXT_STEP := FALSE; END IF;
END LOOP;END LOOP;
--'SELECT' clauseFOR EVERY row in TABLE_STRUCTURE[current_row].AVAILABLE_FOR_NEXT_STEP=TRUELOOP RECORDSET := get_columns(TABLE_STRUCTURE,columns_in_select_list); RETURN THE RECORDSET to the querying programEND LOOP;} TABLE_STRUCTURE is a RECORD of{COLUMN_NAME_LIST,COLUMN_DATATYPE_LIST,LIST_ROW_DATAAVAILABLE_FOR_NEXT_STEP};
LIST_ROW_DATA is a RECORD of{ROW_ID,ROW_DATA[no_of_COLUMNS(TABLE_NAME)]}
RECORDSET is a RECORD of{COLUMN_HEADER_LIST,ROW_LIST}
ROW_LIST is a RECORD of{ROW_DATA[no_of_COLUMNS_header_list(RECORDSET)]}
The above function-call processing is one WAY the SELECT query can be processed.Depending on whether the table's data is already cached/or not, on Indexes coming into use, on the table present in a different schema, on the statisticscollected on the table etc, there can be hundreds of different ways the SELECT query we issue can be translated into a function call(This is whyOracle generates execution plans dynamically).
We have considered here the simplest SELECT we could have, and still the lower-leve function calls are fairly complex, me wondering how much MOREOracle's engine must be doing to ensure the execution of more complex(real-world)queries.

DBMS mumbling

2008-01-13T01:07:00.012-08:00

Introductory thoughts about a DBMS:
What's the simplest way of storing data and retrieving it? I asked myself:
Store a few bytes of info in a simple ASCII file. Read and write using FileAPIs was the answer.
Well then if I want to store information pertaining to 10 employees in anorganization, I need to store employees information in a File.
I would need a 'field-delimiter':- to distinguish between the'Employee_Name' value and 'Employee_Number' value Then I would need a'record-delimiter':- to distinguish between different Employees. Then Iwould need a 'file-delimiter' :- to indicate the start and end of the file
A sample file can be:
"employee_name^employee_number-Mary^11111-Kindler^22222-Kitch^33333"
Here: '"' : Indicates the start and end of the data-file '^' : Field-delimiter '-' : Record-delimiter
(Simple scheme, assuming the 3 characters listed above do not appear asData!)
The rules to read data stored in the above format: 1. All data retrieved between a '"'(start) and a '-' (end) points to the Field-headers or column-names list 2. All data retrieved between a '-'(start) and a '-' (end) pointsto a Employee's Details. 3. All data retrieved between a '-'(start) and a'"' (end) points to the last record(Employee)'s details 4. First read thelist of column-names then, cycle through the list as you retrieve eachemployee's data. E.g.: read_emp_details(column_name,value);read_emp_details('employee_number',11111);
will allow us to retrieve all details for the employee withemployee_number = 11111
Now, I want to add a new employee to the list, and I want to ensure that hegets the highest employee_number and I also want to ensure that it isunique, I would have to read through my data file, reading each record'semployee_number, and once all employee_numbers are available, choose thehighest one among them, increment it, and then assign it to the newemployee. And the code for this would have to written.
Then, another piece of code that we might have to write, is to ensure that aemployee_number field has ONLY numbers(say), before each suchemployee_number is created the piece of code will have to be run tovalidate the new employee_number.
So we are basically 1.enforcing 'domain-integrity'(by checking for the range of VALID values) 2.Creating a data-storage format, 3.Creating a data-retrieval standard, 4.Enforcing data-integrity by checking for unique employee numbers
These are features we can find in a DBMS (DataBase Management System)
A DBMS is like a application with pre-coded rules to enforce data-integrityconstraints, domain constraints (i.e. in what values can be stored in avariable),proprietary data-storage and retrieval rules etc.
DBMS provide different data-types (NUMBER,VARCHAR2,BLOB..) that allow us toenforce such 'value-rules'/'domain-integrity' rules i.e. if a column isdeclared to be a NUMBER type,it can hold only a pre-defined range of values,any value above or below the range raises an exception.
We can look at DBMS as a kind of a 'service' software: In that, most issuesthat crop up while storing and retrieving data have been considered andappropriate solutions coded into the system. We query the DBMS for aservice: say for enforcement of a 'foreign- key' relationship. Writing freshapplication-specific code to enforce the 'foreign-key' relationship ispossible, but as the use of a application increases, and the data storedevolves, we'll have to constantly re-write the code. This can be avoided byusing a DBMS where the DBMS-writers have worked out such issues and coded itbefore hand.
When thinking of a database: it usually means a LARGE quantity of data,whether we are storing it in simple ASCII files or are using the latest DBMSavailable. Storing large quantities of data as simple ASCII files isinefficient, considering that today's compression/zipping utilities can cutby half the size of a simple ASCII file. It is here the proprietary data-storage formats of most DBMS fit-in. Every commercially available DBMSstores data in a highly-compressed format leading to better space usage, andin a way SECURE storage. 'Secure' because the data-format is proprietary,and often data stored in the data-file of a DBMS is highly distributed, i.e.information stored in a data-file might belong to 10 different users, eachhaving his own set of character-codes etc.
DBMS on the other hand can also be looked-at as a overkill. A simpleapplication might not need all the features offered in a DBMS, but then mostDBMS are written in such a way as to ensure that whatever feature of DBMS isused gets used in the most optimum manner.
DBMS programmers are 'query-writers' (what else!) : i.e. dbms programmersonly query the DBMS for data, they only KNOW what data they want, it is theDBMS that determines HOW the data will be retrieved. This is one way I liketo think of the plans that Oracle generates when it executes a query.

Blog

2008-01-13T01:07:00.011-08:00

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.
As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.[1]
Topics in journalism Professional issues News • Reportage • Writing • Ethics • Objectivity • Values • Attribution • Defamation • Editorial independence • Education • Other topics Fields Arts • Business • Environment • Fashion • Music • Science • Sports • Trade • Video games • Weather Genres Advocacy journalismCitizen journalismCivic journalismGonzo journalismInvestigative journalismLiterary journalismNarrative journalismNew JournalismVisual journalismWatchdog journalism Social impact Fourth EstateFreedom of the pressInfotainmentMedia biasNews propagandaPublic relationsYellow journalism News media NewspapersMagazinesNews agenciesBroadcast journalismOnline journalismPhotojournalismAlternative media Roles Journalist • Reporter • Editor • Columnist • Commentator • Photographer • News presenter • Meteorologist
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This box: view • talk • edit Contents [hide]1 History 1.1 1983–1990 (Pre-HTTP) 1.2 1994–2001 1.3 2001–2004 1.4 2004–present 2 Types 3 Popularity 4 Blurring with the mass media 5 Blogging consequences 5.1 Defamation or liability 5.2 Employment 5.3 Political dangers 5.4 Personal safety 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links
HistoryBefore blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists[2] and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some have likened blogging to the Mass-Observation project of the mid-20th century.[citation needed]
1983–1990 (Pre-HTTP)Usenet was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the World Wide Web.[3] It featured the Moderated Newsgroup which allowed all posting in a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or small group. Most such newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one exception, named mod.ber, was created, named after and managed by an individual: Brian E. Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of interesting postings and threads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong similarity to the common blog form which features links to interesting and cool places on the net chosen by the blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics commonly associated with the term "blog".[citation needed][original research?] It ceased operation after approximately 8 months. Brad Templeton calls the newsgroup rec.humor.funny (which he founded) the world's oldest still existing blog.[4]
1994–2001Main article: Online diary Brad Fitzpatrick, an early blogger.The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. A few called themselves "escribitionists". The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers,[5] as is Jerry Pournelle.[citation needed] Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994[6]. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text, was referred to as sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.
Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's widely read journal, published via the finger protocol. Some of the very earliest bloggers, like Steve Gibson of sCary's Quakeholio (now Shacknews) and Stephen Heaslip of Blue's News (still running since 1995 with online archives back to July 1996), evolved from the Quake scene and Carmack's .plan updates. Steve Gibson was hired to blog full-time by Ritual Entertainment on February 8, 1997 [7], possibly making him the first hired blogger.
Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have "What's New" or "News" sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based "weblog" is the Drudge Report founded by the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes this classification. Another is the Institute for Public Accuracy which began posting news releases featuring several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several times a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to a blog was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger[8] on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999.[9][10][11] This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog").
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:
Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries. Brad Fitzpatrick, a well known blogger started LiveJournal in March 1999. Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.[12] Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com in August 1999 (purchased by Google in February 2003) Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier — specifically permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks. This, together with weblog search engines enabled bloggers to track the threads that connected them to others with similar interests.
2001–2004Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong's MyDD — all blogging primarily on politics (two earlier popular American political blogs were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in 1998 and Mickey Kaus' Kausfiles launched in 1999).
By 2001, blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on technique. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) increased rapidly. Established schools of journalism began researching blogging and noting the differences between journalism and blogging.
Also in 2002, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.
The impact of this story gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media.
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.
Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues, cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford DeLong.)
The second Iraq war was the first "blog war"[citation needed] in another way: Iraqi bloggers gained wide readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "warblogs"[citation needed] gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources.
Blogging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example, bloggers posted links to traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks.
Bloggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the word "blogging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For example, "I am blogging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to Condoleezza Rice's testimony into my blog as I watch her on television.") Real-time commentary is sometimes referred to as "liveblogging."
2004–presentIn 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blog to bond with constituents.
Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The blogging of the President," which covered a transformation in politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In the summer of 2004, both United States Democratic and Republican Parties' conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the publicity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, formed their own blogs. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year in 2004.[13]
In 2004, Global Voices Online, a site which "aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore" surfaced, bringing to light bloggers from around the world. Today, the site has a relationship with Reuters and is responsible for breaking many global news stories.
Blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal, to wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs). Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counter-point, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a mass media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger.
Some blogs were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India. Similarly, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a few blogs which were located in New Orleans, including the Interdictor and Gulfsails were able to maintain power and an Internet connection and disseminate information that was not covered by the Main Stream Media.
In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily digest of blogs on page 2. Also in June 2006, BBC News launched a weblog for its editors, following other news companies.[14]

In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.
In 2007, Tim O'Reilly proposed a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
Types A photo of Joi Ito's moblog.There are various types of blogs, and each differs in the way content is delivered or written.
By media type A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog.[15] Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. An Artlog is a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blog, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on Art work rather than text. A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog By device Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA is called a moblog.[16] Genre Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog. A Slog (Site or website log) is a section or 'slice' of a regular business website, which is seamlessly integrated within the regular website structure but is produced with blogging software. Legal status of publishers A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or PR purposes are called corporate blogs. Blog search engines Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the blogosphere), such as blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings. Blogging Communities and Directories Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. A collection of local blogs is sometimes referred to as a Bloghood.
PopularityRecently, researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.[17]
Recently, through the mass popularity of sponsored post ventures such as PayPerPost (now known as Izea) a large number of personal blogs have started writing sponsored posts for advertisers wanting to boost buzz about new products and services. It has revolutionised the blogosphere almost in the same way that Google AdSense did.[18]
The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can thus be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com.
Blogs are also given rankings by Technorati based on the number of incoming links and Alexa Internet based on the web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati listed the most linked-to blog as that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei and the most-read blog as group-written Boing Boing.[19]
Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal website reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of the medium will wear off as most people who are interested in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new bloggers will offset the number of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom. The firm estimates that there are more than 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of "dotsam" and "netsam" — that is to say, unwanted objects on the Web.
It was reported by Chinese media Xinhua that the blog of Xu Jinglei received more than 50 million page views, claiming to be the most popular blog in the world.[20] In mid-2006, it also had the most incoming links of any blogs on the Internet.[19]
Blurring with the mass mediaMany bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism, differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright nor the role of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other contributors to user generated content are behind Time magazine naming their 2006 person of the year as "you".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a weblog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.[21]
Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages, whose creators can be found as far away from traditional Gaelic areas as Kazakhstan and Alaska. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g., Salam Pax, Ellen Simonetti, Jessica Cutler, ScrappleFace. Blog-based books have been given the name blook. A prize for the best blog-based book was initiated in 2005, [22] the Lulu Blooker Prize.[23] However success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. Only sex blogger Tucker Max cracked the New York Times Bestseller List. [24]
Blogging consequencesThe emergence of blogging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other often unforeseen consequences. One area of concern is the issue of bloggers releasing proprietary or confidential information. Another area of concern is blogging and defamation. A third area of concern is employees who write about aspects of their place of employment or their personal lives, and then face loss of employment or other adverse consequences. A number of examples of blogging and its sometimes negative or unforeseen consequences are cited here.
Defamation or liabilitySeveral cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers concerning issues of defamation or liability. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in general, are immune from liability for information that originates with Third Parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In John Doe v. Patrick Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court held that stringent standards had to be met to unmask anonymous bloggers, and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.[25]
In Malaysia, eight Royal Dutch Shell Group companies collectively obtained in June 2004 an Interim Injunction and Restraining Order against a Shell whistleblower, a Malaysian geologist and former Shell employee, Dr John Huong. The proceedings are in respect of alleged defamatory postings attributed to Dr Huong on a weblog hosted in North America but owned and operated by an 89 year old British national, Alfred Donovan, a long term critic of Shell. The Shell action is directed solely against Dr Huong. Further proceedings against Dr Huong were issued by the same plaintiff companies in 2006 in respect of publications on Donovan weblog sites in 2005 and 2006. The further proceedings include a "Notice to Show Cause" relating to a "contempt of court" action potentially punishable by imprisonment. The contempt hearing and a related application by the eight Royal Dutch Shell plaintiff companies for Dr Huong to produce Alfred Donovan for cross-examination in connection with an affidavit Donovan provided, was scheduled to be heard in the High Court of Malay in Kuala Lumpur on 17 August 2006. Donovan's principle weblog is royaldutchshellplc.com. In January 2007, two prominent political bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahiruddin Attan were sued by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian government [26] . Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all bloggers in Malaysia in order to better control parties against their interest. [27]. This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country.
In Britain, a college lecturer contributed to a blog in which she referred to a politician (who had also expressed his views in the same blog) using various uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The politician found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the ISP and successfully sued her for £10,000 in damages and £7,200 costs.[28]
In the United States blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005.[29] According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results."[30] Wall and other "white hat" search engine optimization consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case was watched by many bloggers because it addressed the murky legal question of who's liable for comments posted on blogs.[31]
EmploymentLosing one's employment as a consequence of personal blog commentary about the place of employment has become so commonplace that there is now an informal verb for the event: "dooced". The word dooce originates from the pseudonym of Heather Armstrong, who lost her job after writing satirical accounts of her place of employment on her personal blog. In general, attempts at hiding the blogger's name and/or the place of employment in anonymity have proved ineffective at protecting the blogger.[32] Employees who blog about elements of their place of employment raise the issue of employee branding, since their activities can begin to affect the brand recognition of their employer.
Ellen Simonetti, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, was fired by the airline for photos of herself in uniform on an airplane and comments posted on her blog "Queen of the Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which her employer deemed inappropriate.[33][34] This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression vs. employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages".[35] The suit is postponed while Delta is in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).
In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of education at the school.[36].
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently fined during the 2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog.[37]
Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after a mere 10 days of employment at Google for discussing corporate secrets on his personal blog.[38]
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts exposing the false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.[39]
Jessica Cutler, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was fired,[40] she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.[41]
Catherine Sanderson, aka Petite Anglaise, lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm as a consequence of blogging.[42] Although given in the blog in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British firm, however.[43]
On the other hand, Penelope Trunk, writing in the Globe in 2006, was one of the first to point out that a large portion of bloggers are professionals, and a well written blog can actually help attract employers.
Political dangersBlogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas. Blogs are much harder to control than broadcast or even print media. As a result totalitarian and authoritarian regimes often seek to suppress down blogs, or to punish those who maintain them.
In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their weblogs.[44]
Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his online blog. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria, the blogger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.[45]
Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for things written in his blog. Monem, for whom a campaign has been taken up at [1] is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After expressing opinions in his personal weblog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk, United Nations Special Representative for the Sudan, was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation.[46][47][48]
Personal safetyOne unfortunate consequence of blogging is the possibility of attacks or threats against the blogger, sometimes without apparent reason. Kathy Sierra, author of the innocuous blog Creating Passionate Users, was the target of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety. [49] While a blogger's anonymity is often tenuous, internet trolls who would attack a blogger with threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters initiated an online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior,[50] and developed a blogger's code of conduct.

Numerology

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Numerology is any of many systems, traditions or beliefs in a mystical or esoteric relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things.
Numerology and numerological divination was popular among early mathematicians, such as Pythagoras, but are no longer considered part of mathematics and are regarded as pseudomathematics by most modern scientists. This is similar to the historical development of astronomy out of astrology, and chemistry from alchemy.
Today, numerology is often associated with the occult, alongside astrology and similar divinatory arts. The term can also be used for those who, in the view of some observers, place excess faith in numerical patterns, even if those people don't practice traditional numerology. For example, in his 1997 book Numerology: Or What Pythagoras Wrought, mathematician Underwood Dudley uses the term to discuss practitioners of the Elliott wave principle of stock market analysis.
Contents [hide]1 History 2 Methods 2.1 Number definitions 2.2 Digit summing 2.3 English letter numeric values 2.4 English letter numeric values — Chaldean method 2.5 Other 3 Chinese numerology 3.1 Chinese number definitions 4 Other fields 4.1 Numerology and astrology 4.2 Numerology and alchemy 4.3 "Numerology" in science 4.4 Numerology in the Bible 5 Popular culture 6 References 7 External links
HistoryModern numerology often contains aspects of a variety of ancient cultures and teachers, including Babylonia, Pythagoras and his followers (Greece, 6th century B.C.), astrological philosophy from Hellenistic Alexandria, early Christian mysticism, the occultism of the early Gnostics, the Hebrew system of the Kabbalah, The Indian Vedas, the Chinese "Circle of the Dead", and the Egyptian "Book of the Master of the Secret House" (Ritual of the Dead).
Pythagoras and other philosophers of the time believed that because mathematical concepts were more "practical" (easier to regulate and classify) than physical ones, they had greater actuality.
St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354–430) wrote " Numbers are the Universal language offered by the deity to humans as confirmation of the truth." Similar to Pythagoras, he too believed that everything had numerical relationships and it was up to the mind to seek and investigate the secrets of these relationships or have them revealed by divine grace.
In 325 A.D., following the First Council of Nicaea, departures from the beliefs of the state Church were classified as civil violations within the Roman Empire. Numerology had not found favor with the Christian authority of the day and was assigned to the field of unapproved beliefs along with astrology and other forms of divination and "magic." Through this religious purging, the spiritual significance assigned to the heretofore "sacred" numbers began to disappear.
An example of the influence of numerology in English literature is Sir Thomas Browne's 1658 Discourse The Garden of Cyrus. In it the author illustrates that the number five and related Quincunx pattern throughout art, nature and mysticism.
Methods
Number definitionsThere are no set definitions for the meaning of specific digits. Common examples include[1]:
0. Everything or absoluteness. All1. Individual. Aggressor. Yang.2. Balance. Union. Receptive. Yin.3. Communication/interaction. Neutrality.4. Creation.5. Action. Restlessness.6. Reaction/flux. Responsibility.7. Thought/consciousness.8. Power/sacrifice.9. Completion.10. Rebirth.

Digit summingNumerologists often reduce a number or word by a process known as digit summing, then reach conclusions based on the single digit that is produced.
Digit summing, as the name implies, involves taking the sum of all of the digits in a number, and repeating the process as necessary until a single-digit answer is produced. For a word, the values corresponding to each letter's place in the alphabet (e.g., A=1, B=2, through Z=26) are summed.
Examples:
3,489 ? 3 + 4 + 8 + 9 = 24 ? 2 + 4 = 6 Hello ? 8 + 5 + 12 + 12 + 15 = 52 ? 5 + 2 = 7 A quicker way to arrive at a single-digit "summation" is simply to take the value modulo 9, substituting a 0 result with 9 itself.
Different methods of calculation exist, including Chaldean, Pythagorean, Hebraic, Helyn Hitchcock's method, Phonetic, Japanese and Indian.
The examples above are calculated using decimal (base 10) arithmetic. Other number systems exist, such as binary, octal, hexadecimal and vigesimal; summing digits in these bases yields different results. The first example, shown above, appears thus when rendered in octal (base 8):
3,48910 = 66418 ? 6 + 6 + 4 + 1 = 218 ? 2 + 1 = 38 = 310
English letter numeric valuesA-I J-R S-Z A = 1 J = 10 (1) S = 19 (10) (1) B = 2 K = 11 (2) T = 20 (2) C = 3 L = 12 (3) U = 21 (3) D = 4 M = 13 (4) V = 22 (4) E = 5 N = 14 (5) W = 23 (5) F = 6 O = 15 (6) X = 24 (6) G = 7 P = 16 (7) Y = 25 (7) H = 8 Q = 17 (8) Z = 26 (8) I = 9 R = 18 (9)
English letter numeric values — Chaldean methodA-I J-R S-Z A = 1 J = 1 S = 3 B = 2 K = 2 T = 4 C = 3 L = 3 U = 6 D = 4 M = 4 V = 6 E = 5 N = 5 W = 6 F = 8 O = 7 X = 5 G = 3 P = 8 Y = 1 H = 5 Q = 1 Z = 7 I = 1 R = 2
OtherIn some cases, in a type of numerological divination, the name and birth date of an individual will be used to analyze and define personality and propensities.
Chinese numerologyMain article: Numbers in Chinese cultureSome Chinese assign a different set of meanings to the numbers and certain number combinations are considered luckier than others. In general, even numbers are considered lucky, since it is believed that good luck comes in pairs.
Chinese number definitionsCantonese frequently assign the following definitions, which may differ in other forms of Chinese:
? — sure ? — easy ? — live ? — considered unlucky since the pronunciation of 4 (sì ) sounds like the word for death or suffering (si ). ? — the self, me, myself, nothing, never ? — easy and smooth, all the way. ? — a slang/vulgar word in Cantonese. ? — sudden fortune, prosperity ? — long in time, a slang/vulgar word in Cantonese Some lucky number combinations include:
99 — doubly long in time, hence eternal; used in the name of a popular Chinese-American supermarket chain, 99 Ranch Market. 168 — road of prosperity or to be prosperous together — many premium-pay telephone numbers in China begin with this number. 518 — I will prosper, other variations include: 5189 (I will prosper for a long time), 516289 (I will get on a long, smooth prosperous road) and 5918 (I will soon prosper) 814 — Similar to 168, this means "I will be wealthy my entire life". 148 also implies the same meaning. 888 — Three times the prosperity. 1314 — whole lifetime.
Other fields
Numerology and astrologyMain article: astrology and numerology
Numerology and alchemyMany alchemical theories were closely related to numerology. Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, inventor of many chemical processes still used today, framed his experiments in an elaborate numerology based on the names of substances in the Arabic language.
"Numerology" in scienceScientific theories are sometimes labeled "numerology" if their primary inspiration appears to be mathematical rather than scientific. This colloquial use of the term is quite common within the scientific community and it is mostly used to dismiss a theory as questionable science.
The best known example of "numerology" in science involves the coincidental resemblance of certain large numbers that intrigued such eminent men as mathematical physicist Paul Dirac, mathematician Hermann Weyl and astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington. These numerical co-incidences refer to such quantities as the ratio of the age of the universe to the atomic unit of time, the number of electrons in the universe, and the difference in strengths between gravity and the electric force for the electron and proton. ("Is the Universe Fine Tuned for Us?", Stenger, V.J., page 3[2]).
Large number co-incidences continue to fascinate many mathematical physicists. For instance, James G. Gilson has constructed a "Quantum Theory of Gravity" based loosely on Dirac's large number hypothesis [3].
Numerology in the BibleMain article: Biblical NumerologyIvan Panin produced numeric patterns that he claimed to be found in the Bible. These are sometimes called Bible Numerology.
Popular cultureNumerology is a popular plot device in fiction. It can range from a casual item for comic effect, such as in an episode titled The Seance of the 1950s TV sitcom I Love Lucy, where Lucy dabbles in numerology, to a central element of the storyline, such as the movie p, in which the protagonist meets a numerologist searching for hidden numerical patterns in the Torah.

Indian Food

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The multiple families of Indian cuisine are characterized by their sophisticated and subtle use of many spices and herbs. Arguably considered to be the world's most diverse cuisine, each family of this cuisine is characterized by a wide assortment of dishes and cooking techniques. Though a significant portion of Indian food is vegetarian, many traditional Indian dishes also include chicken, goat, lamb, fish, and other meats.
Food is an important part of Indian culture, playing a role in everyday life as well as in festivals. In many families, everyday meals are usually sit-down affairs consisting of two to three main course dishes, varied accompaniments such as chutneys and pickles, carbohydrate staples such as rice and roti (bread), as well as desserts.
Diversity is a defining feature of India's geography, culture, and food. Indian cuisine varies from region to region, reflecting the varied demographics of the ethnically diverse subcontinent. Generally, Indian cuisine can be split into four categories: North Indian, South Indian, East Indian, and West Indian. Despite this diversity, some unifying threads emerge in the art of Indian cuisine. Varied uses of spices are an integral part of food preparation, and are used to enhance the flavor of a dish and create unique flavors and aromas. Cuisine across India has also been influenced by various cultural groups that entered India throughout history, from regions as diverse as West Asia, Central Asia and Europe.
Contents [hide]1 History and influences 2 Elements 3 Geographical varieties 3.1 Northern 3.2 Eastern 3.3 Southern 3.4 Western 4 Indian Cuisine in the West 5 Beverages 6 Etiquette 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links
History and influencesAs a land that has experienced extensive immigration and intermingling through many millennia, the subcontinent has benefited from numerous food influences. The diverse climate in the region, ranging from deep tropical to alpine, has also helped considerably broaden the set of ingredients readily available to the many schools of cookery in India. In many cases, food has become a marker of religious and social identity, with varying taboos and preferences (for instance, a segment of the Jain population consume no roots or subterranean vegetable; see Jain vegetarianism) which has also driven these groups to innovate extensively with the food sources that are deemed acceptable.
One strong influence over Indian foods is the longstanding vegetarianism within sections of India's Hindu and Jain communities. At 31%, slightly less than a third of Indians are vegetarians.[1].
Around 7000 BCE, sesame, eggplant, and humped cattle had been domesticated in the Indus Valley.[2] By 3000 BCE, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard were harvested in India[3]. Many recipes first emerged during the initial Vedic period, when India was still heavily forested and agriculture was complemented with game hunting and forest produce. In Vedic times, a normal diet consisted of fruit, vegetables, meat, grain, dairy products and honey.[citation needed] Over time, some segments of the population embraced vegetarianism.[citation needed] This was facilitated by advent of Buddhism and a cooperative climate where variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains could easily be grown throughout the year. A food classification system that categorized any item as saatvic, raajsic or taamsic developed in Ayurveda. Each was deemed to have a powerful effect on the body and the mind.[1]
Hyderabadi biryaniLater, invasions from Central Asia, Arabia, the Mughal empire, and Persia, and others had a deep and fundamental effect on Indian cooking. Influence from traders such as the Arabs and Chinese, and invaders such as the Mongols, Turks, Persians, Afghans, Arabs, British and Portuguese diversified subcontinental tastes and meals. As with other cuisines, Indian cuisine has absorbed the new-world vegetables such as tomato, chilli, and potato, as staples. These are actually relatively recent additions.
Islamic rule introduced rich gravies, pilafs and non-vegetarian fare such as kebabs, resulting in Mughlai cuisine (Mughal in origin), as well as such fruits as apricots, melons, peaches, and plums. The Mughals were great patrons of cooking. Lavish dishes were prepared during the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The Nizams of Hyderabad state meanwhile developed and perfected their own style of cooking with the most notable dish being the Biryani, often considered by many connoisseurs to be the finest of the main dishes in India.
During this period the Portuguese introduced foods from the New World such as potatoes, tomatoes, squash, and chilies and cooking techniques like baking.
Elements A typical assortment of spices used in Indian cuisine.The staples of Indian cuisine are rice, atta (whole wheat flour), and a variety of pulses, the most important of which are masoor (most often red lentil), chana (bengal gram), toor (pigeon pea or yellow gram), urad (black gram) and mung (green gram). Pulses may be used whole, dehusked, for example dhuli moong or dhuli urad, or split. Pulses are used extensively in the form of dal (split). Some of the pulses like chana and "Mung" are also processed into flour (besan).
Most Indian curries are fried in vegetable oil. In North and West India, groundnut oil is traditionally been most popular for frying, while in Eastern India, Mustard oil is more commonly used. In South India, coconut oil and Gingelly Oil is common. In recent decades, sunflower oil and soybean oil have gained popularity all over India. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, known as Vanaspati ghee, is also a popular cooking medium that replaces Desi ghee (clarified butter).
The most important/frequently used spices in Indian cuisine are chilli pepper, black mustard seed (rai), cumin (jeera), turmeric (haldi), fenugreek (methi), asafoetida (hing), ginger (adrak), and garlic (lassan). Popular spice mixes are garam masala which is usually a powder of five or more dried spices, commonly comprised of cardamom, cinnamon and clove; and Goda Masala, a popular spice mix in Maharashtra. Some leaves are commonly used like tejpat (cassia leaf), coriander leaf, fenugreek leaf and mint leaf. The common use of curry leaves is typical of all Indian cuisine. In sweet dishes, cardamom, nutmeg, saffron, and rose petal essence are used.
The term "curry" is usually understood to mean "gravy" in India, rather than "spices."
Geographical varieties
NorthernMain article: North Indian cuisine Makki ki Roti and Sarso ka Saag are two of the most popular dishes in Punjab.North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, paneer, ghee (clarified butter), and yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt) are all common ingredients. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other common ingredients include chilies, saffron, and nuts.
North Indian cooking features the use of the "tawa" (griddle) for baking flat breads like roti and paratha, and "tandoor"(a large and cylindrical coal-fired oven) for baking breads such as naan, and kulcha; main courses like tandoori chicken also cook in the tandoor. Other breads like puri and bhatoora, which are deep fried in oil, are also common. Goat and lamb meats are favored ingredients of many northern Indian recipes.
The samosa is a popular North Indian snack, and now commonly found in other parts of India, Central Asia and the Middle East. A common variety is filled with boiled, fried, or mashed potato. Other fillings include minced meat, cheese (paneer), mushroom (khumbi), and chick pea.
The staple food of most of North India is a variety of lentils, vegetables, and roti (wheat based bread). The varieties used and the method of preparation can vary from place to place. Popular dishes include buknu, gujiya, chaat, daal ki kachauri, mirchi bada, jalebi, imarti, several types of pickles (or achar), murabba, sharbat, pana and aam papad. Popular sweets include mithai, such as gulab jamun, peda, khurchan, petha, rewdi, gajak, milk cake, balushahi, bal mithai, singori, kulfi, falooda, khaja, ras malai, gulqand, and several varieties of laddu, barfi and halwa.
Some common North Indian foods such as the various kebabs and most of the meat dishes originated with Muslims’ advent into the country. Pakistan was part of North India prior to the partition of India. As a result, Pakistani cuisine is very similar to northern Indian cuisine.
Eastern Rasogolla, also known as Rasgulla, is one of the most popular sweets in India.East Indian cuisine is famous for its desserts, especially sweets such as rasagolla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, and kheeri. Many of the sweet dishes now popular in Northern India initially originated in the Bengal and Orissa regions. Apart from sweets, East India cuisine offers delights of posta (poppy seeds).
East Indian cuisines employ thickening agents such as cashew, mustard seed, or poppy seed paste. Milk-based sweets are also very popular, being a particular specialty in Bengal and Orissa. Bangladeshi cuisine is very similar to East Indian cuisine. Fish and seafood are very popular in the coastal states of Orissa and West Bengal.
SouthernMain article: South Indian cuisine The South Indian staple breakfast item of idly, sambhar and vada served on a banana leaf.South Indian cuisine is distinguished by a greater emphasis on rice as the staple grain, the liberal use of coconut and particularly coconut oil and curry leaves, and the ubiquity of sambar and rasam (also called saaru'/'chaaru) at meals.
The dosa, idli, vada, bonda, and bajji are typical South Indian snacks. These are generally consumed as breakfast. Andhra, Chettinad, Hyderabadi, Mangalorean, and Kerala cuisines each have distinct tastes and methods of cooking. In fact each of the South Indian states has a different way of preparing sambar; a connoisseur of South Indian food will very easily tell the difference between sambar from Kerala and sambar from Tamilnadu and pappu pulusu in Andhra cuisine.huren
WesternWestern India has four major food groups Rajasthani, Gujarati, Maharashtrian and Goan. The Goan cuisine is a mixture of the traditional cuisine with a heavy use of rice, coconut and sea fish and some Portuguese influence from the colonial era. Maharashtrian cuisine is has mainly two sections defined by the geographical sections. The coastal regions similar to goa depend more on rice, coconut, and fish while the hilly and plateau regions use groundnut in place of coconut and depend more on wheat, jowar and Bajri. Saraswat cuisine forms an important part of coastal Konkani Indian cuisine. Gujarathi Cuisine is predominantly vegetarian. Many gujarati dishes have a beld of sweetness.
Indian Cuisine in the WestBritain has a particularly strong tradition of Indian cuisine that originates from the British Raj. At that time there were a few Indian restaurants in the richer parts of London that catered to British officers returning from their duties in India. Currently, the favourite dish in the United Kingdom is supposedly Chicken Tikka Masala, even before fish and chips.[4]
In the 20th century there was a second phase in the development of Anglo-Indian cuisine, as families from countries such as Bangladesh migrated to London to look for work. Some of the earliest such restaurants were opened in Brick Lane in the East End of London, a place that is still famous for this type of cuisine. Leicester has become well known for its curry houses, being increasingly known as the curry capital of England.
Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Chilli have become extremely popular in the West.In the 1960s, a number of unauthentic "Indian" foods were developed, including the widely popular "chicken tikka masala". This tendency has now been reversed, with subcontinental restaurants being more willing to serve authentic Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani food, and to show their regional variations. In the late twentieth century Birmingham was the centre of growth of Balti houses, serving a newly developed style of cooking in a large, wok-like, pan, with a name sometimes attributed to the territory of Baltistan, (however, the Hindi word for bucket is also Balti). Indian food is now integral to the British diet. Chicken tikka masala is thought to be Britain's most popular dish. [5] There are now 8,000 Indian restaurants in Britain, turning over in excess of £2 billion and employing 70,000 workers. [6]
In the past Indian food adapted to its surroundings, and mild "Indian-style" dishes like Chicken Korma and Chicken Tikka Masala became hugely popular. However, since Indian food has now become an everyday part of the British diet, there has blossomed an avid and enthusiastic market for authentic Indian cuisine, which has seen many more inventive restaurateurs create new and vibrant dishes which challenge the customers palate rather than pander to everyday tastes. Dishes like Mirchi Rasoi Jhinga, the Hariyali Sheekh Kebab and Jhangi Champey have their roots in Indian Britain rather than India. Mulligatawny Soup is another Anglo-Indian dish, its name taken from Tamil for "pepper water" ('Millagu' is pepper and 'Thanni' is water).
After the Immigration Act of 1965, South Asian immigration to the United States increased, and with it the prevalence of Indian cuisine, especially in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, the New York City neighborhoods of Murray Hill, Manhattan, Jackson Heights and East 6th Street, and in Edison, NJ. All-you-can-eat buffets with several standard dishes are typical in some Indian restaurants in the United States.
Indian restaurants are common in the larger cities of Canada, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver where large numbers of Indian nationals have settled since 1970. A number of the more adventurous restaurants have transformed their offerings into so-called Indian "fusion" menus, combining fresh local ingredients with traditional Indian cooking techniques.
Due to the large Indian community in South Africa, the cuisine of South Africa includes several dishes of Indian-origin; some have evolved to become unique to South Africa, such as the bunny chow. Many others are modified with local spices.
BeveragesSee also: Indian wine A cup of chai.Tea is a staple beverage throughout India; the finest varieties are grown in Darjeeling and Assam. It is generally prepared as masala chai, tea with a mixture of spices boiled in milk. The second popular beverage, coffee, is largely served in South India. One of the finest varieties of Coffea arabica is grown around Mysore, Karnataka, and is marketed under the trade name "Mysore Nuggets". Other beverages include nimbu pani (lemonade), lassi, badam dood (milk with nuts and cardamom) & Chaach (made from curd/yogurt ) , sharbat and coconut water. India also has many indigenous alcoholic beverages, including palm wine, fenny, bhang and Indian beer. However the practice of drinking a beverage with a meal, or wine and food matching, is not traditional or common in India.
Filter coffee is a morning ritual for many ChennaiitesCoffee is a major social institution in Southern Indian Tamil tradition. Its also called the Madras (a) Chennai Filter Coffee and is unique to this part of the world. They generally use gourmet coffee beans of the Arabica variety. The making of filter coffee is like a ritual, as the coffee beans are first roasted and then powdered. Sometimes they add chicory to enhance the aroma. They then use a filter set, few scoops of powdered coffee, enough boiling water is added to prepare a very dark liquid called the decoction.
A 3/4 mug of hot milk with sugar, a small quantity of decoction is then served in Dabarah/Tumbler set, a unique Coffee cup....Chennai Filter Coffee
EtiquetteMain article: Etiquette of Indian Dining A traditional North Indian thaliSeveral customs are associated with the manner of food consumption. Traditionally, meals are eaten while seated either on the floor or on very low stools or cushions. Food is most often eaten without cutlery, using instead the fingers of the right hand. However, these traditional ways of dining are losing popularity as modernization has modified these customs. Silverware and Western-style seating arrangements are becoming the norm in urban areas of India.
Traditional serving styles vary from region to region in India. A universal aspect of presentation is the thali, a large plate with samplings of different regional dishes accompanied by raita, breads such as naan, puri, or roti, and rice. In South India, a cleaned banana leaf is often placed under the food as decoration.

Loans

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A loan is a type of debt. All material things can be lent but this article focuses exclusively on monetary loans. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower.
The borrower initially receives an amount of money from the lender, which they pay back, usually but not always in regular installments, to the lender. This service is generally provided at a cost, referred to as interest on the debt. A borrower may be subject to certain restrictions known as loan covenants under the terms of the loan.
Acting as a provider of loans is one of the principal tasks for financial institutions. For other institutions, issuing of debt contracts such as bonds is a typical source of funding. Bank loans and credit are one way to increase the money supply.
Legally, a loan is a contractual promise of a debtor to repay a sum of money in exchange for the promise of a creditor to give another sum of money.
Contents [hide]1 Types of loans 1.1 Secured 1.2 Unsecured 2 Abuses in lending 3 United States taxes 4 Income from discharge of indebtedness 5 See also 6 References
Types of loans
SecuredA secured loan is a loan in which the borrower pledges some asset (e.g. a car or property) as collateral for the loan.
A mortgage loan is a very common type of debt instrument, used by many individuals to purchase housing. In this arrangement, the money is used to purchase the property. The financial institution, however, is given security - a lien on the title to the house - until the mortgage is paid off in full. If the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank would have the legal right to repossess the house and sell it, to recover sums owing to it.
In some instances, a loan taken out to purchase a new or used car may be secured by the car, in much the same way as a mortgage is secured by housing. The duration of the loan period is considerably shorter - often corresponding to the useful life of the car. There are two types of auto loans, direct and indirect. A direct auto loan is where a bank gives the loan directly to a consumer. An indirect auto loan is where a car dealership acts as an intermediary between the bank or financial institution and the consumer.
A type of loan especially used in limited partnership agreements is the recourse note.
A stock hedge loan is a special type of securities lending whereby the stock of a borrower is hedged by the lender against loss, using options or other hedging strategies to reduce lender risk.[citation needed]
UnsecuredUnsecured loans are monetary loans that are not secured against the borrowers assets. These may be available from financial institutions under many different guises or marketing packages:
credit card debt, personal loans, bank overdrafts credit facilities or lines of credit corporate bonds The interest rates applicable to these different forms may vary depending on the lender, the borrower. These may or may not be regulated by law. In the United Kingdom, when applied to individuals, these may come under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
Abuses in lendingPredatory lending is one form of abuse in the granting of loans. It usually involves granting a loan in order to put the borrower in a position that one can gain advantage over him or her. Where the moneylender is not authorised, it could be considered a loan shark.
Usury is a different form of abuse, where the lender charges excessive interest. In different time periods and cultures the acceptable interest rate has varied, from no interest at all to unlimited interest rates. Credit card companies in some countries have been accused by consumer organisations of lending at usurious interest rates and making money out of frivolous "extra charges" [1]
Abuses can also take place in the form of the customer abusing the lender by not repaying the loan or with an intent to defraud the lender.

United States taxesMost of the basic rules governing how loans are handled for tax purposes in the United States are uncodified by both Congress (the Internal Revenue Code) and the Treasury Department (Treasury Regulations – another set of rules that interpret the Internal Revenue Code).[2] Yet such rules are universally accepted.[3]
1. A loan is not gross income to the borrower.[4] Since the borrower has the obligation to repay the loan, the borrower has no accession to wealth.[5]
2. The lender may not deduct the amount of the loan.[6] The rationale here is that one asset (the cash) has been converted into a different asset (a promise of repayment).[7] Deductions are not typically available when an outlay serves to create a new or different asset.[8]
3. The amount paid to satisfy the loan obligation is not deductible by the borrower.[9]
4. Repayment of the loan is not gross income to the lender.[10] In effect, the promise of repayment is converted back to cash, with no accession to wealth by the lender.[11]
5. Interest paid to the lender is included in the lender’s gross income.[12] Interest paid represents compensation for the use of the lender’s money or property and thus represents profit or an accession to wealth to the lender.[13] Interest income can be attributed to lenders even if the lender doesn’t charge a minimum amount of interest.[14]
6. Interest paid to the lender may be deductible by the borrower.[15] In general, interest paid in connection with the borrower’s business activity is deductible, while interest paid on personal loans are not deductible.[16] The major exception here is interest paid on a home mortgage.[17]
Income from discharge of indebtednessAlthough a loan does not start out as income to the borrower, it becomes income to the borrower if the borrower is discharged of indebtedness. [18] Thus, if a debt is discharged, then the borrower essentially has received income equal to the amount of the indebtedness. The Internal Revenue Code lists “Income from Discharge of Indebtedness” in Section 62(a)(12) as a source of gross income.
Example: X owes Y $50,000. If Y discharges the indebtedness, then X no longer owes Y $50,000. For purposes of calculating income, this should be treated the same way as if Y gave X $50,000.
For a more detailed description of the “discharge of indebtedness”, look at Section 108 (Cancellation of Debt (COD) Income) of the Internal Revenue Code.[19]

Hotels

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A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare. Some hotels have conference services and meeting rooms and encourage groups to hold conventions and meetings at their location.[citation needed]
In Australia or Canada, the word may also refer to a pub or bar.
In India, the word may also refer to a restaurant since the best restaurants were always situated next to a good hotel.[citation needed]
Origins of the termThe word hotel derives from the French hôtel, which referred to a French version of a townhouse or any other building seeing frequent visitors, not a place offering accommodation (in contemporary usage, hôtel has the meaning of "hotel", and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning). The French spelling (with the circumflex) was once also used in English, but is now rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' once preceding the 't' in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time received a new, but closely related meaning.
Services and facilities An upscale hotel room in the Renaissance Hotels chain in the U.S.Basic accommodation of a room with only a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with en-suite bathrooms and, more commonly in the United States than elsewhere, climate control.
Other features found may be a telephone, an alarm clock, a TV, and broadband Internet connectivity. Food and drink may be supplied by a mini-bar (which often includes a small refrigerator) containing snacks and drinks (to be paid for on departure), and tea and coffee making facilities (cups, spoons, an electric kettle and sachets containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer or milk).
Some hotels offer various combinations of meals as part of a room and board arrangement. These are often advertised as:
European Plan no meals are included, or only a minimal breakfast American Plan all meals included (full board) Modified American Plan option of breakfasts and dinners
In the United Kingdom a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all comers within certain stated hours; to avoid this requirement it is not uncommon to come across "private hotels" which are not subject to this requirement.
However, in Japan the capsule hotel supplies minimal facilities and room space.
Classification A View of H.Top Calella Palace in Spain.The cost and quality of hotels are usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last decades of the 20th century, standards, especially those of smaller establishments, have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability, rating systems have been introduced, with the one to five stars classification being most common.[citation needed]
The star classification system is a common one for rating hotels. Higher star ratings indicate more luxury.
The AAA and their affiliated bodies use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel and restaurant ratings levels.
Hotels are independently assessed in traditional systems and rest heavily on the facilities provided. Some consider this disadvantageous to smaller hotels whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class but the lack of an item such as an elevator would prevent it from reaching a higher categorization.[citation needed]
In some countries, there is an official body with standard criteria for classifying hotels, but in many others there is none. There have been attempts at unifying the classification system so that it becomes an internationally recognized and reliable standard but large differences exist in the quality of the accommodation and the food within one category of hotel, sometimes even in the same country.
Boutique hotels The 110-room Madison Hotel in downtown Memphis, Tennessee is a typical high-end boutique hotel."Boutique Hotel" is a term originating in North America to describe intimate, usually luxurious or quirky hotel environments. Boutique hotels differentiate themselves from larger chain or branded hotels by providing an exceptional and personalized level of accommodation, services and facilities. Because of their financial successes in the most recent past, there have been attempts to create chains have adopted the "boutique" look and feel. In the US this trend was started by the "W" hotel chain in the 1990s and most recently this trend can be observed in chains as "aloft", "NYLO","Hyatt Place" and others. Through this corporate adaptation of the concept the term "boutique" also changed and more recently hoteliers prefer to use the term "lifestyle hotels" to get away from the above mentioned quirky image.[citation needed]
Boutique hotels are sometimes furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational manner. Although usually considerably smaller than a mainstream hotel (ranging from 3 to 100 guest rooms) boutique hotels are generally fitted with telephone and wi-fi Internet connections, honesty bars and often cable/pay TV. Guest services are attended to by 24 hour hotel staff. Many of the boutique hotels have on site dining facilities, and the majority offer attractive bars as well as lounges which may also be open to the general public.[citation needed]
Of the total travel market a small percentage are discerning travelers, who place a high importance on privacy, luxury and service delivery. This market is typically price insensitive (made up of both high end leisure and corporate travelers), non-seasonal, high-yielding and repeat, and therefore one which boutique hotel and other high-end operators target as their primary source of income.[citation needed]
MotelsThere is no hard and fast rule differentiating motels from other hotels, although the word motel suggests that it is aimed at motorists. This may simply mean that it is a hotel with good access to the road network (on a motorway or ring road) so that a long car journey need not be interrupted for long by town-centre traffic. In other cases the designation is simply an attempt to make the most of a poor location inconvenient for town-centre services and attractions. Classically, though, a motel is a hotel which is made convenient for people who, for whatever personal reason, wish to be able to have quick access from the outside world (especially from their parked car) to the hotel room - without passing the scrutiny of a receptionist or fellow guests. This is usually arranged by having rooms (sometimes in individual chalets or even trailers) arranged around the car park with room doors opening directly to the outside rather than to an internal corridor.[citation needed]
Historic hotels Hotel Astoria and a statue of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in front, in Saint PetersburgSome hotels have gained their renown through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, which derives its fame from the so-called Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai is one of India's most famous and historic hotels because of its association with the Indian independence movement. Other establishments have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, USA, known for its Waldorf Salad or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where the drink Singapore Sling was invented. Another example is the Hotel Sacher in Vienna Austria, home of the Sachertorte or even the Hotel de Paris where the crèpe Suzette was invented.
Hôtel Ritz in ParisThere are also hotels which became much more popular through films like the Grand Hotel Europe in Saint Petersburg, Russia when James Bond stayed there in the blockbuster Goldeneye. Cannes hotels such as the Carlton or the Martinez become the center of the world during Cannes Film Festival (France).
A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London, UK ('Putting on The Ritz'), the Algonquin Hotel in New York City with its famed Algonquin Round Table and Hotel Chelsea, also in New York City, subject of a number of songs and also the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (allegedly by her boyfriend Sid Vicious). Hotels that enter folklore like these two are also often frequented by celebrities, as is the case both with the Ritz and the Chelsea.
Unusual hotelsMany hotels can be considered destinations in themselves, by dint of unusual features of the lodging and/or its immediate environment:
The first of the Ariau towers Treehouse hotelsSome hotels, such as the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, or Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya, are built with living trees as structural elements, making them treehouses.
The Ariau Towers near Manaus, Brazil is in the middle of the Amazon, on the Rio Negro. Bill Gates even invested and had a suite built there with satellite internet/phone.
Another hotel with treehouse units is Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos, Turkey [3].
Another ecological treehouse hotel is in the natural reserve at Rio Claro , Antioquia, (Colombia).
Cave hotels A state hotel in Cienfuegos, CubaDesert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, South Australia and the Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (named after the author) in Guadix, Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia, Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some with rooms underground.
Capsule hotelsCapsule hotels are a type of economical hotels that are quite common in Japan. Recently there has been a gain in popularity of these types of hotels in Europe as well, although more space and luxury have been allocated. Examples are Yotel, citizenM hotels and Qbic Hotels.
Ice hotelsMain article: Ice hotelIce hotels, such as the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, melt every spring and are rebuilt out of ice and snow each winter.
Snow hotelsThe Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle, which is the biggest in the world. It includes The Mammut Snow Hotel, The Castle Courtyard, The Snow Restaurant and a chapel for weddings, etc. Its furnishings and decorations, such as sculptures, are all made of snow and ice.
A hotel which offers similar accommodation is the Lainio Snow Hotel in Lapland, near Ylläs, Finland.
Garden hotelsGarden hotels, famous for their gardens before they became hotels, includes Gravetye Manor, the home of William Robinson and Cliveden, designed by Charles Barry with a rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe.
Underwater hotelsAs of 2005, the only hotel with an underwater room that can be reached without Scuba diving is Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. It only has one room, however, and Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, which requires Scuba diving, is not much bigger.
Hydropolis is an ambitious project to build a luxury hotel in Dubai, UAE, with 220 suites, all on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, 20 meters (66 ft) below the surface. Its architecture will feature two domes that break the surface and an underwater train tunnel, all made of transparent materials such as glass and acrylic.
Other unusual hotelsThe Library Hotel in New York City is unique in that its ten floors are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System. The Rogers Centre, formerly SkyDome, in Toronto, Canada was the first sports stadium to have a hotel connected to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the field. West Ham United F.C. in the UK now has a hotel with rooms that overlook the pitch and sometimes double as executive boxes for important games, as does Coventry City's Ricoh Arena. The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, built on an artificial island, is structured in the shape of a sail of a boat. The RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is the only 1930s ocean liner still in existence. Its elegant first-class staterooms are now used as a hotel.
World-record setting hotels
TallestThe tallest hotel in the world is thought to be the Burj al-Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 280 metres, which however will soon be surpassed by the nearby Rose Rotana Suites at 333 meters (1,091 ft). The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang was intended to reach 330 meters (1,083 ft), but is unlikely to be completed; it has been under construction since 1987 and was abandoned in 1992. The Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand has a building height of 309 meters, but rooms do not go all the way to the top.
The highest hotel rooms are in the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, the highest floor being at around 350 m.
LargestThe largest hotel in the world is the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA with a total of 6,276 rooms[4] as of December 20, 2006. On December 18, 2006 Guinness World Records listed the First World Hotel in Genting Highlands, Malaysia[2] as the world's largest hotel. It has a total of 6,118 rooms and is part of the Genting Highlands Resort and Casino. The First World Plaza which is joined to the two hotel towers boasts 500,000 square feet (50,000 m²) of indoor theme park, shopping centres, casino gaming areas, and eateries. Previously, Guinness had listed the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA with 5,005 rooms as the largest hotel in the world.[3]
In the past, other hotels have held the title of largest hotel in the world, in terms of the number of rooms. Some of these include the Rossiya Hotel near Moscow's Red Square, and the Ambassador City Jomtien in Pattaya, Thailand. Other large hotels being considered for development that may one day take the title are in Penang, Malaysia and Macau.
OldestAccording to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest hotel still in operation is the Hoshi Ryokan, in the "Awazu Onsen" area of Komatsu, Japan. It opened in 717, and features hot springs

Cars

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An automobile (via French from Greek auto, self and Latin mobilis moving, a vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or motor car (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.[1] However, the term is far from precise because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks. There were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car for every eleven people) as of 2002.[2]
History
Karl Benz
Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1885 Main article: History of the automobile Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran, while others claim Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam powered car around 1672.[3][4] In either case François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine which was fuelled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle to run on such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir who each produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.[5] In November 1881 French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.[6] An automobile powered by an Otto gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie. which was founded in 1883. Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz is generally acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.[5] In 1879 Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle and in 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal combustion flat engine. Approximately 25 Benz vehicles were built and sold before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany. Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890 and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and Daimler seem to have been unaware of each other's early work and worked independently. Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed a model named Daimler-Mercedes, special-ordered by Emil Jellinek. Two years later, a new model DMG automobile was produced and named Mercedes after the engine. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers. Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later and in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, sales, and advertising—marketing their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands. On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929. In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[7] Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894[8] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs.[8] The first production vehicles came from the Daimler Motor Company, founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, and making their first cars in 1897.[8] In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel got a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine.[5] In 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160 ) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered more than encouraged development of autos in the United States. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s. Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.
Ransom E. Olds.
Production The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This concept was then greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914. As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing production by seven to one (requiring 12.5 man-hours before, 1 hour 33 minutes after), while using less manpower.[9] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1914, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926.[10] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months' pay.[11] Ford's complex safety procedures—especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about—dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the take off of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods. In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide. Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufactuer to adopt it. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not had disappeared.[12] Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.
Ford Model T, 1927, regarded as the first affordable automobile Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans have often heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, so buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved. Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate drivetrains and shared platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other parts) were common. Even so, only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of production, such as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage: of some two hundred carmakers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left.[13] In Europe, much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924, and soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practise of vertical integration, buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British car production. Most British small-car assemblers, from Autocrat to Meteorite to Seabrook, to name only three, had gone under.[14] Citroen did the same in France, coming to cars in 1919; between them and the cheap cars in reply, Renault's 10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550000 cars in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu, and others could not compete.[15] Germany's first mass-manufactured car, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top car builder in Germany, with 37.5% of the market.[16] See also: Automotive industry
Fuel and propulsion technologies
Auto rickshaws in New Delhi run on Compressed Natural Gas See also: Alternative fuel vehicle Most automobiles in use today are propelled by gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel internal combustion engines, which are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[17] Increasing costs of oil-based fuels and tightening environmental law and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace these technologies include hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles.
Diesel Diesel engined cars have long been popular in Europe with the first models being introduced in the 1930s by Mercedes Benz and Citroen. The main benefit of Diesels are a 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 27%[18] in the best gasoline engines. A down side of the diesel is the presence in the exhaust gases of fine soot particulates and manufacturers are now starting to fit filters to remove these. Many diesel powered cars can also run with little or no modifications on 100% biodiesel.
Gasoline Gasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high performance sports cars. Continuous development of gasoline engines for over a hundred years has produced improvements in efficiency and reduced pollution. The carburetor was used on nearly all road car engines until the 1980s but it was long realised better control of the fuel/air mixture could be achieved with fuel injection. Indirect fuel injection was first used in aircraft engines from 1909, in racing car engines from the 1930s, and road cars from the late 1950s.[18] Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) is now starting to appear in production vehicles such as the 2007 BMW MINI. Exhaust gases are also cleaned up by fitting a catalytic converter into the exhaust system. Clean air legislation in many of the car industries most important markets has made both catalysts and fuel injection virtually universal fittings. Most modern gasoline engines are also capable of running with up to 15% ethanol mixed into the gasoline - older vehicles may have seals and hoses that can be harmed by ethanol. With a small amount of redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as 85%. 100% ethanol is used in some parts of the world (such as Brazil), but vehicles must be started on pure gasoline and switched over to ethanol once the engine is running. Most gasoline engined cars can also run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and carburetion modifications to add an LPG mixer. LPG produces fewer toxic emissions and is a popular fuel for fork lift trucks that have to operate inside buildings.
Ethanol Ethanol and other alcohol fuels have widespread use an automotive fuel. Most alcohols have less energy per liter than gasoline and are usually blended with gasoline. Alcohols are used for a variety of reasons - to increase octane, to improve emissions and as an alternative to petroleum based fuel, since they can be made from agricultural crops. Brazil's ethanol program provides about 20% of the nations automotive fuel needs, including several million cars that operate on pure ethanol.
Electric Main articles: Battery electric vehicle, Hybrid vehicle, and Plug-in hybrid
The Henney Kilowatt, the first modern (transistor-controlled) electric car.
2007 Tesla electric powered Roadster The first electric cars were built around 1832 well before internal combustion powered cars appeared.[19] For a period of time electrics were considered superior due to the silent nature of electric motors compared to the very loud noise of the gasoline engine. This advantage was removed with Hiram Percy Maxim's invention of the muffler in 1897. Thereafter internal combustion powered cars had two critical advantages: 1) long range and 2) high specific energy (far lower weight of petrol fuel versus weight of batteries). The building of battery electric vehicles that could rival internal combustion models had to wait for the introduction of modern semiconductor controls and improved batteries. Because they can deliver a high torque at low revolutions electric cars do not require such a complex drive train and transmission as internal combustion powered cars. Some post-2000 electric car designs such as the Venturi Fétish are able to accelerate from 0-60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.0 seconds with a top speed around 130 mph (210 km/h). Others have a range of 250 miles (400 km) on the EPA highway cycle requiring 3-1/2 hours to completely charge[20]. Equivalent fuel efficiency to internal combustion is not well defined but some press reports give it at around 135 mpg(1.74 l/100 km).
Steam Main article: steam car Steam power, usually using an oil or gas heated boiler, was also in use until the 1930s but had the major disadvantage of being unable to power the car until boiler pressure was available. It has the advantage of being able to produce very low emissions as the combustion process can be carefully controlled. Its disadvantages include poor heat efficiency and extensive requirements for electric auxiliaries.[21]
Gas turbine In the 1950s there was a brief interest in using gas turbine (jet) engines and several makers including Rover and Chrysler produced prototypes. In spite of the power units being very compact, high fuel consumption, severe delay in throttle response, and lack of engine braking meant no cars reached production.
Rotary (Wankel) engines Rotary Wankel engines were introduced into road cars by NSU with the Ro 80 and later were seen in the Citroën GS Birotor and several Mazda models. In spite of their impressive smoothness, poor reliability and fuel economy led to them largely disappearing. Mazda, beginning with the R100 then RX-2, has continued research on these engines, overcoming most of the earlier problems with the RX-7 and RX-8.
Rocket and jet cars A rocket car holds the record in drag racing. However, the fastest of those cars are used to set the Land Speed Record, and are propelled by propulsive jets emitted from rocket, turbojet, or more recently and most successfully turbofan engines. The ThrustSSC car using two Rolls-Royce Spey turbofans with reheat was able to exceed the speed of sound at ground level.
refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars for a more detailed read-up

Travel

2008-01-13T01:07:00.005-08:00

Travel is the transport of people on a trip/journey or the process or time involved in a person or object moving from one location to another. Reasons for travel include:
Tourism—travel for recreation. This may apply to the travel itself, or the travel may just be the necessary investment to arrive at a desired location.
Visiting friends and family
Trade
Commuting–going to various routine activities, such as work or meetings.
Migration—travel to begin life somewhere else; nomadic people do this
Pilgrimages—travel for religious reasons
Research— travel for the gathering of information.
The word originates from the Middle English word travailen ("to toil"), which comes from the French word travailler ("travail").

Dating

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“Dating is the act of going out on dates whereby one person socializes with a potential lover using a process that involves scheduled, usually exclusive, meetings of two people with mutual interest in one another. Typically a person may date different partners (this does not include or indicate the sexual relationship) during the same time period in order to have the best chance of finding their most suitable and available partner for an intimate relationship. A date involves going out to do something together (like having dinner, visiting the theater, or having a picnic at a park or beach), while dating involves the continued communication and courting between dates, such as meeting on-line (also known as virtual dating), chatting on-line, sending text messages or picture messages, and conversing over the phone. In this sense, during the dating process, people often explore each other through "dates" to discover whether or not they would be compatible together in a serious relationship - which for many people involves the sexual component but depends on individual beliefs. Usually, if the two individuals discover that they have poor or low compatibility, it signals the end of the dating process: however, due to the multiple person dating strategy a person ideally has other options to explore."
Dating is viewed by some as any social activity performed as a pair or even a group with the aim of each assessing the other's suitability as their partner in a intimate relationship or as a spouse. The word refers to the act of agreeing on a time and "date" when a pair can meet and engage in some social activity.
Going-out is an action taken after two people discover their romantic affection for each other. This is similar to dating though not as in depth. This may include hugging and holding hands but not kissing, usually the step before dating.
In many cultural traditions, dates are arranged by a third party, who may be a family member, an acquaintance, or a dedicated matchmaker. Recently matchmaking services have become popular. Although dating rules in Western popular culture have become more relaxed during the 20th century, there is considerable variation between individuals' values. For example, when the activity costs money, it has traditionally been the man's role to pay; in recent times the practice of "going Dutch" (splitting the expenses) has emerged. Traditional dating activities include sharing entertainment or a meal.
Types of dates
Regular date.
Double date: two couples meet for an activity.
Group date: an activity shared by two or more couples.
Blind date: a date where the participants have not met each other personally before (although may have seen each other's pictures); usually set up by a third party or an internet dating service.
Long Distance / Holidating: Due to a long distance relationship, dating only when one, or both parties are on holiday or vacation and are together during that time period.

Systems for organizing dates
Online dating: Instead of using a traditional matchmaker, online dating uses specifically targeted websites to meet new people.
Speed dating: Where a group of people get together for several hours in a public place to get to know one another better. At one of these speed dating events, each person usually sits with another single member for a set period of time to get to know them better, and then at the predetermined time is asked to move and sit with someone else to repeat the process.
Mobile dating/cell phone dating: Where text messages to and from a mobile/cell phone carrier are used to show interest in others on the system. Can be web-based or online dating as well depending on the company.
Virtual dating: A combination of video game playing and dating, where users create avatars and spend time in virtual worlds in an attempt to meet other avatars with the purpose of meeting for potential dates.
Singles Events: Where a group of singles are brought together to take part in various events for the purposes of meeting new people. Events can include such things as parties, workshops and games.

Dating problems and misunderstandings
When individuals use the framework of dating for purposes other than assessing their date's suitability for them, misunderstandings can arise. One or both partners may initiate or accept dating invitations due to peer pressure, attention, a desire to escape from a social environment which they find stifling, a desire for acceptance, or a desire to humiliate; these motives can be strong enough to cause the person to deceive themselves and others when challenged, claiming and believing that they are mainly acting in good faith. This can lead to being "stood up". Many children have short relationships because they are not mature enough to handle the responsibility.

Religious

"Biblical" courtship
Main article: Biblical courtship
Biblical courtship is a system practiced by a minority of Christian families, mainly in the USA, where dates are chaperoned and the dating relationship is exclusive and may be vetoed by either of the courting parties or by any of their parents. Once the male declares his feelings to the father and an approval is reached, the male and the female can begin the process of getting to know each other on their chaperoned dates. The purpose of the system is to encourage lasting marriages. Despite its name, there are varying opinions as to the degree that this practice either reflects biblical practices or complies with biblical doctrines, or even the extent to which it constitutes "courtship".

Jewish
Main articles: Jewish view of marriage and shidduch
Hasidic men and women, as customary in Haredi Judaism, usually meet through matchmakers in a process called a shidduch, but marriages involve the mutual consent of the couple and of the parents. Expectations exist that a bride and groom should be about the same age. Marriage age ranges from 17-25, with 18-21 considered the norm. No custom encourages an older man marrying a young woman.

For other great links..refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dating

or search for dating on http://www.google.com/

Life Insurance

2008-01-13T01:07:00.003-08:00

Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, where the insurer agrees to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of the insured individual's or individuals' death. In return, the policy owner (or policy payer) agrees to pay a stipulated amount called a premium at regular intervals or in lump sums (so-called "paid up" insurance). There may be designs in some countries where: (Assets, Bills, and death expenses plus catering for after funeral expenses should be included in Policy Premium. Anyone whose assets equal more than the value of their primary residence should not be compensated beyond that value in case they cannot sell their house. In the case of those whose lost their spouse should be compensated also for one full year the wages of their spouse which would or should be included to avoid lawsuits.) However in the United States, the predominant form simply specifies a lump sum to be paid on the insured's demise.
As with most insurance policies, life insurance is a contract between the insurer and the policy owner (policyholder) whereby a benefit is paid to the designated Beneficiary (or Beneficiaries) if an insured event occurs which is covered by the policy. To be a life policy the insured event must be based upon life (or lives) of the people named in the policy.
Insured events that may be covered include:
death
accidental death
sickness
Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Specific exclusions are often written into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; for example claims relating to suicide (after 2 years suicide has to be paid in full)(in India after one year Suicide is covered), fraud, war, riot and civil commotion.
Life based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:
Protection policies - designed to provide a benefit in the event of specified event, typically a lump sum payment. A common form of this design is term insurance.
Investment policies - where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of capital by regular or single premiums. Common forms (in the US anyway) are whole life, universal life and variable life policies.
Contents[hide]
1 Parties to contract
2 Contract terms
3 Costs, insurability, and underwriting
4 Death proceeds
5 Insurance vs. assurance
6 Types of life insurance
6.1 Temporary (Term)
6.2 Permanent
6.2.1 Whole life coverage
6.2.2 Universal life coverage
6.2.3 Limited-pay
6.2.4 Endowments
6.3 Accidental death
7 Related life insurance products
7.1 Senior and preneed products
8 Investment policies
8.1 With-profits policies
8.2 Insurance/Investment Bonds
8.3 Pensions
9 Annuities
10 Tax and life insurance
10.1 Taxation of life insurance in the United States
10.2 Taxation of life assurance in the United Kingdom
10.2.1 Pension Term Assurance
11 History
11.1 Market trends
12 Criticism
13 See also
14 References
15 External links
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[edit] Parties to contract
There is a difference between the insured and the policy owner (policy holder), although the owner and the insured are often the same person. For example, if Joe buys a policy on his own life, he is both the owner and the insured. But if Jane, his wife, buys a policy on Joe's life, she is the owner and he is the insured. The policy owner is the guarantee and he or she will be the person who will pay for the policy. The insured is a participant in the contract, but not necessarily a party to it.
The beneficiary receives policy proceeds upon the insured's death. The owner designates the beneficiary, but the beneficiary is not a party to the policy. The owner may change the beneficiary unless the policy has an irrevocable beneficiary designation. With an irrevocable beneficiary, that beneficiary must agree to any beneficiary changes, policy assignments, or cash value borrowing.
In cases where the policy owner is not the insured (also referred to as the cestui qui vit or CQV), insurance companies have sought to limit policy purchases to those with an "insurable interest" in the CQV. For life insurance policies, close family members and business partners will usually be found to have an insurable interest. The "insurable interest" requirement usually demonstrates that the purchaser will actually suffer some kind of loss if the CQV dies. Such a requirement prevents people from benefiting from the purchase of purely speculative policies on people they expect to die. With no insurable interest requirement, the risk that a purchaser would murder the CQV for insurance proceeds would be great. In at least one case, an insurance company which sold a policy to a purchaser with no insurable interest (who later murdered the CQV for the proceeds), was found liable in court for contributing to the wrongful death of the victim (Liberty National Life v. Weldon, 267 Ala.171 (1957)).

[edit] Contract terms
Special provisions may apply, such as suicide clauses wherein the policy becomes null if the insured commits suicide within a specified time (usually two years after the purchase date; some states provide a statutory one-year suicide clause). Any misrepresentations by the insured on the application is also grounds for nullification. Most US states specify that the contestability period cannot be longer than two years; only if the insured dies within this period will the insurer have a legal right to contest the claim on the basis of misrepresentation and request additional information before deciding to pay or deny the claim.
The face amount on the policy is the initial amount that the policy will pay at the death of the insured or when the policy matures, although the actual death benefit can provide for greater or lesser than the face amount. The policy matures when the insured dies or reaches a specified age (such as 100 years old).

[edit] Costs, insurability, and underwriting
The insurer (the life insurance company) calculates the policy prices with an intent to fund claims to be paid and administrative costs, and to make a profit. The cost of insurance is determined using mortality tables calculated by actuaries. Actuaries are professionals who employ actuarial science, which is based in mathematics (primarily probability and statistics). Mortality tables are statistically-based tables showing expected annual mortality rates. It is possible to derive life expectancy estimates from these mortality assumptions. Such estimates can be important in taxation regulation.[1] [2]
The three main variables in a mortality table have been age, gender, and use of tobacco. More recently in the US, preferred class specific tables were introduced. The mortality tables provide a baseline for the cost of insurance. In practice, these mortality tables are used in conjunction with the health and family history of the individual applying for a policy in order to determine premiums and insurability. Mortality tables currently in use by life insurance companies in the United States are individually modified by each company using pooled industry experience studies as a starting point. In the 1980s and 90's the SOA 1975-80 Basic Select & Ultimate tables were the typical reference points, while the 2001 VBT and 2001 CSO tables were published more recently. The newer tables include separate mortality tables for smokers and non-smokers and the CSO tables include separate tables for preferred classes. [3]
Recent US select mortality tables predict that roughly 0.35 in 1,000 non-smoking males aged 25 will die during the first year of coverage after underwriting.[4] Mortality approximately doubles for every extra ten years of age so that the mortality rate in the first year for underwritten non-smoking men is about 2.5 in 1,000 people at age 65.[5] Compare this with the US population male mortality rates of 1.3 per 1,000 at age 25 and 19.3 at age 65 (without regard to health or smoking status).[6]
The mortality of underwritten persons rises much more quickly than the general population. At the end of 10 years the mortality of that 25 year-old, non-smoking male is 0.66/1000/year. Consequently, in a group of one thousand 25 year old males with a $100,000 policy, all of average health, a life insurance company would have to collect approximately $50 a year from each of a large group to cover the relatively few expected claims. (0.35 to 0.66 expected deaths in each year x $100,000 payout per death = $35 per policy). Administrative and sales commissions need to be accounted for in order for this to make business sense. A 10 year policy for a 25 year old non-smoking male person with preferred medical history may get offers as low as $90 per year for a $100,000 policy in the competitive US life insurance market.
The insurance company receives the premiums from the policy owner and invests them to create a pool of money from which it can pay claims and finance the insurance company's operations. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of the money that insurance companies make comes directly from premiums paid, as money gained through investment of premiums can never, in even the most ideal market conditions, vest enough money per year to pay out claims.[citation needed] Rates charged for life insurance increase with the insured's age because, statistically, people are more likely to die as they get older.
Given that adverse selection can have a negative impact on the insurer's financial situation, the insurer investigates each proposed insured individual unless the policy is below a company-established minimum amount, beginning with the application process. Group Insurance policies are an exception.
This investigation and resulting evaluation of the risk is termed underwriting. Health and lifestyle questions are asked. Certain responses or information received may merit further investigation. Life insurance companies in the United States support the Medical Information Bureau(MIB) [7], which is a clearinghouse of information on persons who have applied for life insurance with participating companies in the last seven years. As part of the application, the insurer receives permission to obtain information from the proposed insured's physicians.[8]
Underwriters will determine the purpose of insurance. The most common is to protect the owner's family or financial interests in the event of the insured's demise. Other purposes include estate planning or, in the case of cash-value contracts, investment for retirement planning. Bank loans or buy-sell provisions of business agreements are another acceptable purpose.
Life insurance companies are never required by law to underwrite or to provide coverage to anyone, with the exception of Civil Rights Act compliance requirements. Insurance companies alone determine insurability, and some people, for their own health or lifestyle reasons, are deemed uninsurable. The policy can be declined (turned down) or rated.[citation needed] Rating increases the premiums to provide for additional risks relative to the particular insured.[citation needed]
Many companies use four general health categories for those evaluated for a life insurance policy. These categories are Preferred Best, Preferred, Standard, and Tobacco.[citation needed] Preferred Best is reserved only for the healthiest individuals in the general population. This means, for instance, that the proposed insured has no adverse medical history, is not under medication for any condition, and his family (immediate and extended) have no history of early cancer, diabetes, or other conditions.[citation needed] Preferred means that the proposed insured is currently under medication for a medical condition and has a family history of particular illnesses.[citation needed] Most people are in the Standard category.[citation needed] Profession, travel, and lifestyle factor into whether the proposed insured will be granted a policy, and which category the insured falls. For example, a person who would otherwise be classified as Preferred Best may be denied a policy if he or she travels to a high risk country.[citation needed] Underwriting practices can vary from insurer to insurer which provide for more competitive offers in certain circumstances.
Life insurance contracts are written on the basis of utmost good faith. That is, the proposer and the insurer both accept that the other is acting in good faith. This means that the proposer can assume the contract offers what it represents without having to fine comb the small print and the insurer assumes the proposer is being honest when providing details to underwriter.[citation needed]

[edit] Death proceeds
Upon the insured's death, the insurer requires acceptable proof of death before it pays the claim. The normal minimum proof required is a death certificate and the insurer's claim form completed, signed (and typically notarized).[citation needed] If the insured's death is suspicious and the policy amount is large, the insurer may investigate the circumstances surrounding the death before deciding whether it has an obligation to pay the claim.
Proceeds from the policy may be paid as a lump sum or as an annuity, which is paid over time in regular recurring payments for either a specified period or for a beneficiary's lifetime.[citation needed]

[edit] Insurance vs. assurance
Outside the United States, the specific uses of the terms "insurance" and "assurance" are sometimes confused. In general, in these jurisdictions "insurance" refers to providing cover for an event that might happen, while "assurance" is the provision of cover for an event that is certain to happen. However, in the United States both forms of coverage are called "insurance".
When a person insures the contents of their home they do so because of events that might happen (fire, theft, flood, etc.) They hope their home will never be burglarized, or burn down, but they want to ensure that they are financially protected if the worst happens. This example of Insurance shows how it is a way of spending a little money to protect against the risk of having to spend a lot of money.
When a person insures their life they do so knowing that one day they will die. Therefore a policy that covers death is assured to make a payment. The policy offers assurance on death; even if the policy has a prescribed termination date the policy is still assured to pay on death and therefore is an assurance policy. Examples include Term Assurance and Whole Life Assurance. An accidental death policy is not assured to pay on death as the life insured may not die through an accident, therefore it is an insurance policy.
A policy might also be assured for other reasons. For example an endowment policy is designed to provide a lump sum on maturity. Under certain types of policy the lump sum is guaranteed. Therefore, this may also be called an assurance policy.
The test of whether a policy is assurance or insurance is that with an assurance policy the insured event will definitely occur (at some point) whereas with an insurance policy there is a risk the insured event might occur.
With regard to Whole Life policies, the question is not whether the insured event (in this case death) will occur, but simply when. If the policy has nonforfeiture values (or cash values) then the policy is assured to pay.
During recent years, the distinction between the two terms has become largely blurred. This is principally due to many companies offering both types of policy, and rather than refer to themselves using both insurance and assurance titles, they instead use just one.

[edit] Types of life insurance
Life insurance may be divided into two basic classes – temporary and permanent or following subclasses - term, universal, whole life, variable, variable universal and endowment life insurance.

[edit] Temporary (Term)
Term life insurance (term assurance in British English) provides for life insurance coverage for a specified term of years for a specified premium. The policy does not accumulate cash value. Term is generally considered "pure" insurance, where the premium buys protection in the event of death and nothing else. (See Theory of Decreasing Responsibility and buy term and invest the difference.) Term insurance premiums are typically low because both the insurer and the policy owner agree that the death of the insured is unlikely during the term of coverage.
The three key factors to be considered in term insurance are: face amount (protection or death benefit), premium to be paid (cost to the insured), and length of coverage (term).
Various (U.S.) insurance companies sell term insurance with many different combinations of these three parameters. The face amount can remain constant or decline. The term can be for one or more years. The premium can remain level or increase. A common type of term is called annual renewable term. It is a one year policy but the insurance company guarantees it will issue a policy of equal or lesser amount without regard to the insurability of the insured and with a premium set for the insured's age at that time. Another common type of term insurance is mortgage insurance, which is usually a level premium, declining face value policy. The face amount is intended to equal the amount of the mortgage on the policy owner’s residence so the mortgage will be paid if the insured dies.
A policy holder insures his life for a specified term. If he dies before that specified term is up, his estate or named beneficiary(ies) receive(s) a payout. If he does not die before the term is up, he receives nothing. In the past these policies would almost always exclude suicide. However, after a number of court judgments against the industry, payouts do occur on death by suicide (presumably except for in the unlikely case that it can be shown that the suicide was just to benefit from the policy). Generally, if an insured person commits suicide within the first two policy years, the insurer will return the premiums paid. However, a death benefit will usually be paid if the suicide occurs after the two year period.

[edit] Permanent
Permanent life insurance is life insurance that remains in force (in-line) until the policy matures (pays out), unless the owner fails to pay the premium when due (the policy expires). The policy cannot be canceled by the insurer for any reason except fraud in the application, and that cancellation must occur within a period of time defined by law (usually two years). Permanent insurance builds a cash value that reduces the amount at risk to the insurance company and thus the insurance expense over time. This means that a policy with a million dollars face value can be relatively inexpensive to a 70 year old because the actual amount of insurance purchased is much less than one million dollars. The owner can access the money in the cash value by withdrawing money, borrowing the cash value, or surrendering the policy and receiving the surrender value.
The three basic types of permanent insurance are whole life, universal life, and endowment.

[edit] Whole life coverage
Whole life insurance provides for a level premium, and a cash value table included in the policy guaranteed by the company. The primary advantages of whole life are guaranteed death benefits, guaranteed cash values, fixed and known annual premiums, and mortality and expense charges will not reduce the cash value shown in the policy. The primary disadvantages of whole life are premium inflexibility, and the internal rate of return in the policy may not be competitive with other savings alternatives. Riders are available that can allow one to increase the death benefit by paying additional premium. The death benefit can also be increased through the use of policy dividends. Dividends cannot be guaranteed and may be higher or lower than historical rates over time. Premiums are much higher than term insurance in the short-term, but cumulative premiums are roughly equal if policies are kept in force until average life expectancy.
Cash value can be accessed at any time through policy "loans". Since these loans decrease the death benefit if not paid back, payback is optional. Cash values are not paid to the beneficiary upon the death of the insured; the beneficiary receives the death benefit only. If the dividend option: Paid up additions is elected, dividend cash values will purchase additional death benefit which will increase the death benefit of the policy to the named beneficiary.

[edit] Universal life coverage
Universal life insurance (UL) is a relatively new insurance product intended to provide permanent insurance coverage with greater flexibility in premium payment and the potential for a higher internal rate of return. A universal life policy includes a cash account. Premiums increase the cash account. Interest is paid within the policy (credited) on the account at a rate specified by the company. This rate has a guaranteed minimum but usually is higher than that minimum. Mortality charges and administrative costs are charged against (reduce) the cash account. The surrender value of the policy is the amount remaining in the cash account less applicable surrender charges, if any.
With all life insurance, there are basically two functions that make it work. There's a mortality function and a cash function. The mortality function would be the classical notion of pooling risk where the premiums paid by everybody else would cover the death benefit for the one or two who will die for a given period of time. The cash function inherent in all life insurance says that if a person is to reach age 95 to 100 (the age varies depending on state and company), then the policy matures and endows the face value of the policy.
Actuarially, it is reasoned that out of a group of 1000 people, if even 10 of them live to age 95, then the mortality function alone will not be able to cover the cash function. So in order to cover the cash function, a minimum rate of investment return on the premiums will be required in the event that a policy matures.
Universal life policies guarantee, to some extent, the death proceeds, but not the cash function - thus the flexible premiums and interest returns. If interest rates are high, then the dividends help reduce premiums. If interest rates are low, then the customer would have to pay additional premiums in order to keep the policy in force. When interest rates are above the minimum required, then the customer has the flexibility to pay less as investment returns cover the remainder to keep the policy in force.
The universal life policy addresses the perceived disadvantages of whole life. Premiums are flexible. The internal rate of return is usually higher because it moves with the financial markets. Mortality costs and administrative charges are known. And cash value may be considered more easily attainable because the owner can discontinue premiums if the cash value allows it. And universal life has a more flexible death benefit because the owner can select one of two death benefit options, Option A and Option B.
Option A pays the face amount at death as it's designed to have the cash value equal the death benefit at age 95. Option B pays the face amount plus the cash value, as it's designed to increase the net death benefit as cash values accumulate. Option B does carry with it a caveat. This caveat is that in order for the policy to keep its tax favored life insurance status, it must stay within a corridor specified by state and federal laws that prevent abuses such as attaching a million dollars in cash value to a two dollar insurance policy. The interesting part about this corridor is that for those people who can make it to age 95-100, this corridor requirement goes away and your cash value can equal exactly the face amount of insurance. If this corridor is ever violated, then the universal life policy will be treated as, and in effect turn into, a Modified Endowment Contract (or more commonly referred to as a MEC).
But universal life has its own disadvantages which stem primarily from this flexibility. The policy lacks the fundamental guarantee that the policy will be in force unless sufficient premiums have been paid and cash values are not guaranteed.
Universal life policies are sometimes erroneously referred to as self-sustaining policies. In the 1980s, when interest rates were high, the cash value accumulated at a more accelerated rate, and universal life coverage was often sold by agents as a policy that could be self-paying. Many policies did sustain themselves for a prolonged period, but the combination of lower interest rates and an increasing cost of insurance as the insured ages meant that for many policies, the cash option was diminished or depleted.
Variable universal life Insurance (VUL) is not the same as universal life, even though they both have cash values attached to them. These differences are in how the cash accounts are managed; thus having a great effect on how they are treated for taxation. The cash account within a VUL is held in the insurer's "separate account" (generally in mutual funds, managed by a fund manager).

[edit] Limited-pay
Another type of permanent insurance is Limited-pay life insurance, in which all the premiums are paid over a specified period after which no additional premiums are due to keep the policy in force. Common limited pay periods include 10-year, 20-year, and paid-up at age 65.

[edit] Endowments
Main article: Endowment policy
Endowments are policies in which the cash value built up inside the policy, equals the death benefit (face amount) at a certain age. The age this commences is known as the endowment age. Endowments are considerably more expensive (in terms of annual premiums) than either whole life or universal life because the premium paying period is shortened and the endowment date is earlier.
In the United States, the Technical Corrections Act of 1988 tightened the rules on tax shelters (creating modified endowments). These follow tax rules as annuities and IRAs do.
Endowment Insurance is paid out whether the insured lives or dies, after a specific period (e.g. 15 years) or a specific age (e.g. 65).

[edit] Accidental death
Accidental death is a limited life insurance that is designed to cover the insured when they pass away due to an accident. Accidents include anything from an injury, but do not typically cover any deaths resulting from health problems or suicide. Because they only cover accidents, these policies are much less expensive than other life insurances.
It is also very commonly offered as "accidental death and dismemberment insurance", also known as an AD&D policy. In an AD&D policy, benefits are available not only for accidental death, but also for loss of limbs or bodily functions such as sight and hearing, etc.
Accidental death and AD&D policies very rarely pay a benefit; either the cause of death is not covered, or the coverage is not maintained after the accident until death occurs. To be aware of what coverage they have, an insured should always review their policy for what it covers and what it excludes. Often, it does not cover an insured who puts themselves at risk in activities such as: parachuting, flying an airplane, professional sports, or involvement in a war (military or not). Also, some insurers will exclude death and injury caused by proximate causes due to (but not limited to) racing on wheels and mountaineering.
Accidental death benefits can also be added to a standard life insurance policy as a rider. If this rider is purchased, the policy will generally pay double the face amount if the insured dies due to an accident. This used to be commonly referred to as a double indemnity coverage. In some cases, some companies may even offer a triple indemnity cover.

[edit] Related life insurance products
Riders are modifications to the insurance policy added at the same time the policy is issued. These riders change the basic policy to provide some feature desired by the policy owner. A common rider is accidental death, which used to be commonly referred to as "double indemnity", which pays twice the amount of the policy face value if death results from accidental causes, as if both a full coverage policy and an accidental death policy were in effect on the insured. Another common rider is premium waiver, which waives future premiums if the insured becomes disabled.
Joint life insurance is either a term or permanent policy insuring two or more lives with the proceeds payable on the first death.
Survivorship life or second-to-die life is a whole life policy insuring two lives with the proceeds payable on the second (later) death.
Single premium whole life is a policy with only one premium which is payable at the time the policy is issued.
Modified whole life is a whole life policy that charges smaller premiums for a specified period of time after which the premiums increase for the remainder of the policy.
Group life insurance is term insurance covering a group of people, usually employees of a company or members of a union or association. Individual proof of insurability is not normally a consideration in the underwriting. Rather, the underwriter considers the size and turnover of the group, and the financial strength of the group. Contract provisions will attempt to exclude the possibility of adverse selection. Group life insurance often has a provision that a member exiting the group has the right to buy individual insurance coverage.

[edit] Senior and preneed products
Insurance companies have in recent years developed products to offer to niche markets, most notably targeting the senior market to address needs of an aging population. Many companies offer policies tailored to the needs of senior applicants. These are often low to moderate face value whole life insurance policies, to allow a senior citizen purchasing insurance at an older issue age an opportunity to buy affordable insurance. This may also be marketed as final expense insurance, and an agent or company may suggest (but not require) that the policy proceeds could be used for end-of-life expenses.
Preneed (or prepaid) insurance policies are whole life policies that, although available at any age, are usually offered to older applicants as well. This type of insurance is designed specifically to cover funeral expenses when the insured person dies. In many cases, the applicant signs a prefunded funeral arrangement with a funeral home at the time the policy is applied for. The death proceeds are then guaranteed to be directed first to the funeral services provider for payment of services rendered. Most contracts dictate that any excess proceeds will go either to the insured's estate or a designated beneficiary.
These products are sometimes assigned into a trust at the time of issue, or shortly after issue. The policies are irrevocably assigned to the trust, and the trust becomes the owner. Since a whole life policy has a cash value component, and a loan provision, it may be considered an asset; assigning the policy to a trust means that it can no longer be considered an asset for that individual. This can impact an individual's ability to qualify for Medicare or Medicaid.

[edit] Investment policies

[edit] With-profits policies
Main article: With-profits policy
Some policies allow the policyholder to participate in the profits of the insurance company these are with-profits policies. Other policies have no rights to participate in the profits of the company, these are non-profit policies.
With-profits policies are used as a form of collective investment to achieve capital growth. Other policies offer a guaranteed return not dependent on the company's underlying investment performance; these are often referred to as without-profit policies which may be construed as a misnomer.

[edit] Insurance/Investment Bonds
Main article: Insurance bond

[edit] Pensions
Pensions are a form of life assurance. However, whilst basic life assurance, permanent health insurance and non-pensions annuity business includes an amount of mortality or morbidity risk for the insurer, for pensions there is a longevity risk.
A pension fund will be built up throughout a person's working life. When the person retires, the pension will become in payment, and at some stage the pensioner will buy an annuity contract, which will guarantee a certain pay-out each month until death.

[edit] Annuities
An annuity is a contract with an insurance company whereby the purchaser pays an initial premium or premiums into a tax-deferred account, which pays out a sum at pre-determined intervals. There are two periods: the accumulation (when payments are paid into the account) and the annuitization (when the insurance company pays out). For example, a policy holder may pay £10,000, and in return receive £150 each month until he dies; or £1,000 for each of 14 years or death benefits if he dies before the full term of the annuity has elapsed. Tax penalties and insurance company surrender charges may apply to premature withdrawals (if indeed these are allowed; in most markets outside the U.S. the policy owner has no right to end the contract prematurely).

[edit] Tax and life insurance

[edit] Taxation of life insurance in the United States
Premiums paid by the policy owner are normally not deductible for federal and state income tax purposes.
Proceeds paid by the insurer upon death of the insured are not includible in taxable income for federal and state income tax purposes; however, if the proceeds are included in the "estate" of the deceased, it is likely they will be subject to federal and state estate and inheritance tax.
Cash value increases within the policy are not subject to income taxes unless certain events occur. For this reason, insurance policies can be a legal and legitimate tax shelter wherein savings can increase without taxation until the owner withdraws the money from the policy. On flexible-premium policies, large deposits of premium could cause the contract to be considered a "Modified Endowment Contract" by the IRS, which negates many of the tax advantages associated with life insurance. The insurance company, in most cases, will inform the policy owner of this danger before applying their premium.
Tax deferred benefit from a life insurance policy may be offset by its low return or high cost in some cases. This depends upon the insuring company, type of policy and other variables (mortality, market return, etc.). Also, other income tax saving vehicles (i.e. IRA, 401K or Roth IRA) appear to be better alternatives for value accumulation, at least for more sophisticated investors who can keep track of multiple financial vehicles. The combination of low-cost term life insurance and higher return tax-efficient retirement accounts can achieve better performance, assuming that the insurance itself is only needed for a limited amount of time.
The tax ramifications of life insurance are complex. The policy owner would be well advised to carefully consider them. As always, Congress or the state legislatures can change the tax laws at any time.

[edit] Taxation of life assurance in the United Kingdom
Premiums are not usually allowable against income tax or corporation tax, however qualifying policies issued prior to 14 March 1984 do still attract LAPR (Life Assurance Premium Relief) at 15% (with the net premium being collected from the policyholder).
Non-investment life policies do not normally attract either income tax or capital gains tax on claim. If the policy has as investment element such as an endowment policy, whole of life policy or an investment bond then the tax treatment is determined by the qualifying status of the policy.
Qualifying status is determined at the outset of the policy if the contract meets certain criteria. Essentially, long term contracts (10 years plus) tend to be qualifying policies and the proceeds are free from income tax and capital gains tax. Single premium contracts and those run for a short term are subject to income tax depending upon your marginal rate in the year you make a gain. All (UK) insurers pay a special rate of corporation tax on the profits from their life book; this is deemed as meeting the lower rate (20% in 2005-06) liability for policyholders. Therefore if you are a higher rate taxpayer (40% in 2005-06), or become one through the transaction, you must pay tax on the gain at the difference between the higher and the lower rate. This gain may be reduced by applying a complicated calculation called top-slicing based on the number of years you have held the policy.
Although this is complicated, the taxation of life assurance based investment contracts may be beneficial compared to alternative equity based collective investment schemes (unit trusts, investment trusts and OEICs). One feature which especially favors investment bonds is the ability to draw 5% of the original investment amount each policy year without being subject to any taxation on the amount withdrawn. The withdrawal is deemed by HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) to be a payment of capital and therefore the tax calculation is deferred until further encashment above the 5% limit. This is an especially useful tax planning tool for higher rate taxpayers who expect to become basic rate taxpayers at some predictable point in the future (e.g. retirement).
The proceeds of a life policy will be included in the estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes. Policies written in trust may fall outside the estate for IHT purposes but it's not always that simple. If in doubt you should seek profession advice from an IFA (Independent Financial Adviser) who is registered with the government regulator: the Financial Services Authority.

[edit] Pension Term Assurance
Although available before April 2006, from this date pension term assurance became widely available in the UK. Most UK product providers adopted the name "life insurance with tax relief" for the product. Pension term assurance is effectively normal term life assurance with tax relief on the premiums. All premiums are paid net of basic rate tax at 22%, and higher rate tax payers can gain an extra 18% tax relief via their tax return. Although not suitable for all, PTA briefly became one of the most common forms of life assurance sold in the UK until the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced the withdrawal of the scheme in his pre-budget announcement on 6 December 2006. The tax relief ceased to be available to new policies transacted after 6 December 2006, however, existing policies have been allowed to continue to enjoy tax relief so far.

[edit] History
Insurance began as a way of reducing the risk of traders, as early as 5000 BC in China and 4500 BC in Babylon. Life insurance dates only to ancient Rome; "burial clubs" covered the cost of members' funeral expenses and helped survivors monetarily. Modern life insurance started in late 17th century England, originally as insurance for traders: merchants, ship owners and underwriters met to discuss deals at Lloyd's Coffee House, predecessor to the famous Lloyd's of London.
The first insurance company in the United States was formed in Charleston, South Carolina in 1732, but it provided only fire insurance. The sale of life insurance in the U.S. began in the late 1760s. The Presbyterian Synods in Philadelphia and New York created the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers in 1759; Episcopalian priests organized a similar fund in 1769. Between 1787 and 1837 more than two dozen life insurance companies were started, but fewer than half a dozen survived.
Prior to the American Civil War, many insurance companies in the United States insured the lives of slaves for their owners. In response to bills passed in California in 2001 and in Illinois in 2003, the companies have been required to search their records for such policies. New York Life for example reported that Nautilus sold 485 slaveholder life insurance policies during a two-year period in the 1840s; they added that their trustees voted to end the sale of such policies 15 years before the Emancipation Proclamation.

[edit] Market trends

Life insurance premiums written in 2005
According to a study by Swiss Re, EU was the largest market for life insurance premiums written in 2005 followed by the USA and Japan.

[edit] Criticism
Although some aspects of the application process (such as underwriting and insurable interest provisions) make it difficult, life insurance policies have been used in cases of exploitation and fraud. In the case of life insurance, there is a motivation to purchase a life insurance policy, particularly if the face value is substantial, and then kill the insured.
The television series Forensic Files has included episodes that feature this scenario. There was also a documented case in 2006, where two elderly women are accused of taking in homeless men and assisting them. As part of their assistance, they took out life insurance on the men. After the contestability period ended on the policies (most life contracts have a standard contestability period of two years), the women are alleged to have had the men killed via hit-and-run car crashes. [9]
Recently, viatical settlements have thrown the life insurance industry into turmoil. A viatical settlement involves the purchase of a life insurance policy from an elderly or terminally ill policy holder. The policy holder sells the policy (including the right to name the beneficiary) to a purchaser for a price discounted from the policy value. The seller has cash in hand, and the purchaser will realize a profit when the seller dies and the proceeds are delivered to the purchaser. In the meantime, the purchaser continues to pay the premiums. Although both parties have reached an agreeable settlement, insurers are troubled by this trend. Insurers calculate their rates with the assumption that a certain portion of policy holders will seek to redeem the cash value of their insurance policies before death. They also expect that a certain portion will stop paying premiums and forfeit their policies. However, viatical settlements ensure that such policies will with absolute certainty be paid out. Some purchasers, in order to take advantage of the potentially large profits, have even actively sought to collude with uninsured elderly and terminally ill patients, and created policies that would have not otherwise been purchased. Likewise, these policies are guaranteed losses from the insurers' perspective.

Vehicle Insurance

2008-01-13T01:07:00.001-08:00

Vehicle insurance

An accident resulting in damage to a car.
Vehicle insurance (also known as auto insurance, car insurance, or motor insurance) is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against liability that could be incurred in an accident.

Coverage levels
Vehicle insurance can cover some or all of the following items:
The insured party
The insured vehicle
Third parties
Different policies specify the circumstances under which each item is covered. For example, a vehicle can be insured against theft, fire damage, or accident damage independently.

Excess
An excess payment, also known as a deductible, is the fixed contribution you must pay each time your car is repaired through your car insurance policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the accident repair garage when you collect the car. If one's car is declared to be a write off, the insurance company will deduct the excess agreed on the policy from the settlement payment it makes to you.
If the accident was the other driver's fault, and this is accepted by the third party's insurer, you'll be able to reclaim your excess payment from the other person's insurance company. If the other driver is uninsured, a policy's minimum limits include coverage for the uninsured/underinsured motorist(s) at fault.

Compulsory Excess
A compulsory excess is the minimum excess payment your insurer will accept on your insurance policy. Minimum excesses vary according to your personal details, driving record and insurance company.

Voluntary Excess
In order to reduce your insurance premium, you may offer to pay a higher excess than the compulsory excess demanded by your insurance company. Your voluntary excess is the extra amount over and above the compulsory excess that you agree to pay in the event of a claim on the policy. As a bigger excess reduces the financial risk carried by your insurer, your insurer is able to offer you a significantly lower premium.

Public policy
In many countries it is compulsory to purchase auto insurance before driving on public roads. In the United States, penalties for not purchasing auto insurance vary by state, but often involve a substantial fine, license and/or registration suspension or revocation, as well as possible jail time in some states. Usually, the minimum required by law is third party insurance to protect third parties against the financial consequences of loss, damage or injury caused by a vehicle. Typically, coverage against loss of or damage to the driver's own vehicle is optional - one notable exception to this is in Saskatchewan, where SGI provides collision coverage (less than a $700 deductible, such as a collision damage waiver) as part of its basic insurance policy. In South Australia Third Party Personal insurance from the State Government Insurance Corporation (SGIC) is included in the license registration fee. South Africa allocates a percentage of the money from petrol into the Road Accidents Fund, which goes towards compensating third parties in accidents.[1] Most countries relate insurance to both the car and the driver, however the degree of each varies greatly.
In the United States, auto insurance is compulsory in most states, though enforcement of the requirement varies from state to state. The state of New Hampshire, for example, does not require motorists to carry liability insurance, while in Virginia residents must pay the state a $500 annual fee per vehicle if they choose not to buy liability insurance.[2]
A 1994 study by Jeremy Jackson and Roger Blackman[3] showed, consistent with the risk homeostasis theory, that increased accident costs caused large and significant reductions in accident frequencies.

Basis of premium charges
Main article: auto insurance risk selection
Depending on the jurisdiction, the insurance premium can be either mandated by the government or determined by the insurance company in accordance to a framework of regulations set by the government. Often, the insurer will have more freedom to set the price on physical damage coverages than on mandatory liability coverages.
When the premium is not mandated by the government, it is usually derived from the calculations of an actuary based on statistical data. The premium can vary depending on many factors that are believed to have an impact on the expected cost of future claims.[4] Those factors can include the car characteristics, the coverage selected (deductible, limit, covered perils), the profile of the driver (age, gender, driving history) and the usage of the car (commute to work or not, predicted annual distance driven).[5][6]

Gender
Men average more miles driven per year than women do, and have a proportionally higher accident involvement at all ages. Insurance companies cite women's lower accident involvement in keeping the youth surcharge lower for young women drivers than for their male counterparts, but adult rates are generally unisex. Reference to the lower rate for young women as "the women's discount" has caused confusion that was evident in news reports on a recently defeated EC proposal to make it illegal to consider gender in assessing insurance premiums.[7] Ending the discount would have made no difference to most women's premiums.

Age
Teenage drivers who have no driving record will have higher car insurance premiums. However young drivers are often offered discounts if they undertake further driver training on recognised courses, such as the Pass Plus scheme in the UK. In the U.S. many insurers offer a good grade discount to students with a good academic record and resident student discounts to those who live away from home. Generally insurance premiums tend to become lower at the age of 25. Senior drivers are often eligible for retirement discounts reflecting lower average miles driven by this age group.

Distance
Some car insurance plans do not differentiate in regard to how much the car is used. However, methods of differentiation would include:

Reasonable estimation
Several car insurance plans rely on a reasonable estimation of the average annual distance expected to be driven which is provided by the insured. This discount benefits drivers who drive their cars infrequently but has no actuarial value since it is unverified.

Odometer-based systems
Cents Per Mile Now[8](1986) advocates classified odometer-mile rates. After the company's risk factors have been applied and the customer has accepted the per-mile rate offered, customers buy prepaid miles of insurance protection as needed, like buying gallons of gasoline. Insurance automatically ends when the odometer limit (recorded on the car’s insurance ID card) is reached unless more miles are bought. Customers keep track of miles on their own odometer to know when to buy more. The company does no after-the-fact billing of the customer, and the customer doesn't have to estimate a "future annual mileage" figure for the company to obtain a discount. In the event of a traffic stop, an officer could easily verify that the insurance is current by comparing the figure on the insurance card to that on the odometer.
Critics point out the possibility of cheating the system by odometer tampering. Although the newer electronic odometers are difficult to roll back, they can still be defeated by disconnecting the odometer wires and reconnecting them later. However, as the Cents Per Mile Now website points out: "As a practical matter, resetting odometers requires equipment plus expertise that makes stealing insurance risky and uneconomical. For example, in order to steal 20,000 miles of continuous protection while paying for only the 2,000 miles from 35,000 miles to 37,000 miles on the odometer, the resetting would have to be done at least nine times to keep the odometer reading within the narrow 2,000-mile covered range. There are also powerful legal deterrents to this way of stealing insurance protection. Odometers have always served as the measuring device for resale value, rental and leasing charges, warranty limits, mechanical breakdown insurance, and cents-per-mile tax deductions or reimbursements for business or government travel. Odometer tampering—detected during claim processing—voids the insurance and, under decades-old state and federal law, is punishable by heavy fines and jail."
Under the cents-per-mile system, rewards for driving less are delivered automatically without need for administratively cumbersome and costly GPS technology. Uniform per-mile exposure measurement for the first time provides the basis for statistically valid rate classes. Insurer premium income automatically keeps pace with increases or decreases in driving activity, cutting back on resulting insurer demand for rate increases and preventing today's windfalls to insurers when decreased driving activity lowers costs but not premiums.

GPS-based system
In 1998, Progressive Insurance started a pilot program in Texas in which volunteers installed a GPS-based technology called Autograph in exchange for a discount. The device tracked their driving behavior and reported the results via cellular phone to the company.[9] Policyholders were reportedly more upset about having to pay for the expensive device than they were over privacy concerns.[10]
In 1996, Progressive filed for and obtained a US patent (US patent 5,797134) on their process. Progressive has also filed corresponding patent applications in Europe and Japan. UK auto insurer, Norwich Union, has obtained an exclusive license to Progressive's European patent application. They have recently completed a successful pilot test of the technology and it is now available commercially under the tradename "Pay As You Drive™"[11]
Recent theoretical economic research on the social welfare effects of Progressive's telematics technology business process patents have questioned whether the business process patents are Pareto efficient for society. Premliminary results suggest that they are not, but more work is needed. [12] [13]

OBDII-based system
In 2004, Progressive launched another pilot program to allow policyholders to earn a discount on their premiums by consenting to use its TripSense device. TripSense connects to a car's OnBoard Diagnostic(OBD-II) port, which exists in all cars built after 1996. The discount is forfeited if the device is disconnected for a significant amount of time.[14]

Auto Insurance in the United States

Coverage Available
The consumer may be protected with different coverage types depending on what coverage the insured purchases.
In the United States, liability insurance covers claims against the policy holder and generally, any other operator of the insured vehicles provided, do not live at the same address as the policy holder, and are not specifically excluded on the policy. In the case of those living at the same address, they must specifically be covered on the policy. Thus it is necessary for example, when a family member comes of driving age they must be added on to the policy. Liability insurance sometimes does not protect the policy holder if they operate any vehicles other than their own. When you drive a vehicle owned by another party, you are covered under that party’s policy. Non-owners policies may be offered that would cover an insured on any vehicle they drive. This coverage is available only to those who do not own their own vehicle and is sometimes required by the government for drivers who have previously been found at fault in an accident.
Generally, liability coverage extends when you rent a car. Comprehensive policies ("full coverage") usually also apply to the rental vehicle, although this should be verified beforehand. Full coverage premiums are based on, among other factors, the value of the insured’s vehicle. This coverage, however, cannot apply to rental cars because the insurance company does not want to assume responsibility for a claim greater than the value of the insured’s vehicle, assuming that a rental car may be worth more than the insured’s vehicle. Most rental car companies offer insurance to cover damage to the rental vehicle. These policies may be unnecessary for many customers as credit card companies, such as Visa and MasterCard, now provide supplemental collision damage coverage to rental cars if the transaction is processed using one of their cards. These benefits are restrictive in terms of the types of vehicles covered.[15]

Liability
Liability coverage provides a fixed dollar amount of coverage for damages that an insured driver becomes legally liable to pay due to an accident or other negligence. For example, if an insured driver drives into a telephone pole and damages the pole, liability coverage pays for the damage to the pole. In this example, the drivers insured may also become liable for other expenses related to damaging the telephone pole, such as loss of service claims (by the telephone company).
Liability coverage is available either as a combined single limit policy, or as a split limit policy:

Combined Single Limit
A combined single limit combines property damage liability coverage and bodily injury coverage under one single combined limit. For example, an insured driver with a combine single liability limit strikes another vehicle and injures the driver and the passenger. Payments for the damages to the other driver's car, as well as payments for injury claims for the driver and passenger, would be paid out under this same coverage.

Split Limits
A split limit liability coverage policy splits the coverages into property damage coverage and bodily injury coverage. In the example given above, payments for the other driver's vehicle would be paid out under property damage coverage, and payments for the injuries would be paid out under bodily injury coverage.
Bodily injury liability coverage is also usually split as well into a maximum payment per person and a maximum payment per accident.

Collision
Collision coverage provides coverage for an insured's vehicle that is involved in an accident, subject to a deductible. This coverage is designed to provide payments to repair the damaged vehicle, or payment of the cash value of the vehicle if it is not repairable. Collision coverage is optional. Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) is the term used by rental car companies for collision coverage.

Comprehensive
Comprehensive (a.k.a. - Other Than Collision) coverage provides coverage, subject to a deductible, for an insured's vehicle that is damaged by incidents that are not considered Collisions. For example, fire, theft (or attempted theft), vandalism, weather, or impacts with animals are just some types of Comprehensive losses.

Uninsured/Underinsured Coverage
Underinsured coverage, also known as UM/UIM, provides coverage if another at-fault party either does not have insurance, or does not have enough insurance. In effect, your insurance company acts as at fault party's insurance company.
In the United States, the definition of an uninsured/underinsured motorist, and corresponding coverages, are set by state laws.

Loss of Use
Loss of Use coverage, also known as rental coverage, provides reimbursement for rental expenses associated with having an insured vehicle repaired due to a covered loss.

Loan/Lease Payoff
Loan/Lease Payoff coverage, also known as GAP coverage or GAP insurance,[16][17] was established in the early 1980's to provide protection to consumers based upon buying and market trends.
Due to the sharp decline in value immediately following purchase, there is generally a period in which the amount owed on the car loan exceeds the value of the vehicle, which is called "upside-down" or negative equity. Thus, if the vehicle is damaged beyond economical repair at this point, the owner will still owe potentially thousands of dollars on the loan. The escalating price of cars, longer-term auto loans, and the increasing popularity of leasing gave birth to GAP protection. GAP waivers provide protection for consumers when a "gap" exists between the actual value of their vehicle and the amount of money owed to the bank or leasing company. In many instances, this insurance will also pay the deductible on the primary insurance policy. These policies are often offered at the auto dealership as a comparatively low cost add on that can be put into the car loan which provides coverage for the duration of the loan.
Consumers should be aware that a few states, including New York, require lenders of leased cars to include GAP insurance within the cost of the lease itself. This means that the monthly price quoted by the dealer must include GAP insurance, whether it is delineated or not. Nevertheless, unscrupulous dealers sometimes prey on unsuspecting individuals by offering them GAP insurance at an additional price, on top of the monthly payment, without mentioning the State's requirements.
In addition, some vendors and insurance companies offer what is called "Total Loss Coverage." This is similar to ordinary GAP insurance but differs in that instead of paying off the negative equity on a vehicle that is a total loss, the policy provides a certain amount, usually up to $5000, toward the purchase or lease of a new vehicle. Thus, to some extent the distinction makes no difference, i.e., in either case the owner receives a certain sum of money. However, in choosing which type of policy to purchase, the owner should consider whether, in case of a total loss, it is more advantageous for him or her to have the policy pay off the negative equity or provide a down payment on a new vehicle.
For example, assuming a total loss of a vehicle valued at $15,000, but on which the owner owes $20,000, is the "gap" of $5000. If the owner has traditional GAP coverage, the "gap" will be wiped out and he or she may purchase or lease another vehicle or choose not to. If the owner has "Total Loss Coverage," he or she will have to personally cover the "gap" of $5000, and then receive $5000 toward the purchase or lease of a new vehicle, thereby either reducing monthly payments, in the case of financing or leasing, or the total purchase price in the case of outright purchasing. So the decision on which type of policy to purchase will, in most instances, be informed by whether the owner can pay off the negative equity in case of a total loss and/or whether he or she will definitively purchase a replacement vehicle.

Car Towing Insurance
Car Towing coverage is also known as Roadside Assistance coverage. Traditionally, automobile insurance companies have agreed to only pay for the cost of a tow that is related to an accident that is covered under the automobile policy of insurance. This had left a gap in coverage for tows that are related to mechanical breakdowns, flat tires and gas outages. To fill that void, insurance companies started to offer the Car Towing coverage, which pays for non-accident related tows.

European Union and United Kingdom Laws regarding motor insurance
In 1930, the UK government introduced a law that required every person who used a vehicle on the road to have at least third party personal injury insurance. Today UK law is defined by the The Road Traffic Act which was last modified in 1991.
The Act requires all motorists to be insured against their liability for injuries to others (including passengers) and for damage to other persons' property resulting from use of a vehicle on a public road or in other public places. This is called Third Party Insurance. It is an offense to drive your car, or allow others to drive it, without at least Third Party insurance whilst on the public highway, on private land no such legislation applies.
The insurance certificate or cover note issued by the insurance company constitutes legal evidence that the vehicle specified on the document is indeed insured. The law says that an authorised person, such as the police, may require a driver to produce an insurance certificate for inspection. If the driver cannot show the document immediately on request, then the driver will usually be issued a HORT/1 with seven days, as of midnight of the date of issue, to take a valid insurance certificate (and usually other driving documents as well) to a police station of the driver's choice. Failure to produce an insurance certificate is an offense.
Insurance is more expensive in Northern Ireland than in other parts of the UK.
Motorists in the UK are required to display a Vehicle excise duty disc in their car when it is kept or driven on public roads. This helps to ensure that most people have adequate insurance on their vehicles because you are required to produce an insurance certificate when you purchase the disc. However it is a known practice for some people to purchase insurance to gain the certificate and then to cancel the insurance and gain a full refund within the statutory 14 day cooling off period.
The Motor Insurers Bureau compensates the victims of road accidents caused by uninsured and untraced motorists. It also operates the Motor Insurance Database, which contains details of every insured vehicle in the country.

Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_insurance for other great links..

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http://auto.indiamart.com/auto-insurance/basics-of-insurance.html

Vehicle Insurance

2008-01-13T01:07:00.000-08:00

For all indian folks reading this site, here's a great tutorial to get you started..