Archive for November 2011
Travel Insurance – Why Everyone Needs Travel Accident Insurance
More than 1 million pieces of luggage were lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered by U.S. airlines from May to July, 2007. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, June and July 2007 were ranked among the worst months for mishandled baggage in 20 years. And unfortunately, this number has been increasing over the past 5 years. In 2002, 3.84 reports of mishandled bags were filed per 1,000 passengers. In July 2007, this figure was 7.93.
Many jobs were slashed after the industry’s historic downturn a few years ago, and restrictions on gels and liquids in 2006 have caused a big increase in the number of checked bags. This leaves more bags to be checked with fewer employees. Add to this the major carriers’ reliance on hubs. Connecting flights increase the probability of luggage being misplaced or not making the next flight in time either.
With carriers buying smaller planes for the regional market, there have been more baggage limitations due to weight restrictions. The airline industry says the baggage problem is due mostly to delays caused by weather and an outdated air traffic control system. Analysts are saying that the problem is only going to get worse too, especially during the holiday travel season.
What can you do to protect yourself?
Buying travel insurance is your best option. Preferred travel insurance policies not only help you with lost, stolen, or damaged luggage, missed a flight, lost passports, etc., but also have an emergency “911″ travel emergency service for emergency medical assistance, last-minute or emergency travel and flight changes, lost luggage tracking, pre-trip travel advice and more.
Other ways you can help yourself are to book a direct flight. Since this is usually not an option, choose flights that have at least an hour between connections. Because of the increase in baggage problems, some people are even shipping their baggage to their destination while bringing a small carry-on bag on the plane. This option even saves you time (typically 30 minutes) as you don’t have to wait at the airport for your checked bags to arrive.
Make sure you obey the size and packaging requirements for personal hygiene products and medications, and anything that looks like a weapon is prohibited. Everything in your carry-on must be searchable. If you are searched, gift wrapped items will definitely be opened. Take metal items such as keys, phones, pagers, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and loose change out of your pockets. Put these in your carry-on, or in a plastic bag before you get into the security line. This keeps lines moving and you wind up having a better experience. Avoid wearing anything that contains metal, such as clothing, jewelry or other accessories such as heavy jewelry, clothing with metal buttons or snaps, belt buckles or under-wire bras. You may be additionally screened because of hidden items such as body piercings, which will cause the metal detector to go off.
Pack your coats and jackets in your baggage when possible. All coats and jackets that you are carrying must go through the X-ray machine for inspection. If you choose to wear an outer coat or jacket to the checkpoint, you will need to either pack it in your carry-on baggage or put it in one of the bins that are provided.
The Full Time RV’er and Travel Trailers
Travel trailers are one of the most popular RV’s going. They date back to the very early days of RV travel and have grown and blossomed with the industry. A RV trailer is a trailer that is hitched to the rear of the tow vehicle instead of a hitch in the bed of a pickup. Travel trailers range in size from a tiny 13 feet to 35 feet plus. They come in many forms from the compact folding tent trailer to the full size unit with multiple slide outs. Sleeping arrangements often include bunk beds to accommodate the entire family.
The folding tent trailer offers a lot of living space in a very compact form. These are usually canvas sided with a large pull out bed at each end. At the top end, they offer bathrooms with shower, hot water heaters and full galley for food preparation. The simpler versions are often sized small enough to pull behind a touring motorcycle.
The Hybrid travel trailer is a combination of the folding tent trailer and a standard hard sided trailer. A hybrid travel trailer has the folding pullout bed of a tent trailer on one or more ends. This adds greatly to the usable living space in the interior while still maintaining a compact package to tow.
Also found in this branch of the travel trailer family tree is the hard sided folding trailer. These compact trailers expand upward to become a full sized travel trailer when set up in camp.
Most
Time Travel Into the Past
We know that time travel into the future is possible. Stephen Hawking says, “We do not have the technology today to do this, but it is just a matter of engineering; we know it can be done.” In Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of travel Through Time, physicist J. Richard Gott says “if we can accelerate protons to greater than 99.995 percent of the speed of light, we could also send off an astronaut at the same speed. It’s just a matter of cost.”
The idea of time travel into the past is a far more exciting prospect though. Who hasn’t wanted to travel back into the past? Some would like to return to the past permanently to live in a simpler time and escape forever the stress, crime, pollution, and other unpleasant aspects of 21st century living. Some would like to be time tourists and actually be present in the crowd to hear the Gettysburg Address delivered by President Lincoln himself, to watch the pyramids being built, or to witness firsthand any number of historical events. Some would like to go back to do or undo things that affected their own lives.
There was a young lady called Bright
Who could travel far faster than light;
She set off one day,
In a relative way,
And returned home the previous night.
A.H. R. Buller
A cute limerick, but is it possible? Yes, says, Stephen Hawking, if one can travel faster than the speed of light, one can travel back in time in the same manner that one can travel into the future-by riding a really fast spaceship. The problem, he says, is that while we can accelerate particles to 99.99 percent of the speed of light, we have as yet been unable to exceed the speed of light. Nevertheless, Hawking says, travel to the past may be possible through the use of wormholes. The idea of wormholes is not new. In 1935, Einstein and Rosen wrote a paper saying that the Theory of Relativity allowed for the existence of wormholes and much has been written about them since, but as yet we have no conclusive evidence that they actually exist.
Some scientists theorize that time travel into the past may be possible through the use of cosmic strings, which are thin strands of high-density material left over from the early universe. Like wormholes, we don’t know if cosmic strings exist, but Gott says, “If cosmic strings exist, you could travel in a spaceship [at 99.9999999999 percent of the speed of light] and outrun a light beam by taking the shorter of two paths around a cosmic string. The door to time travel to the past begins to crack open.”
Doubts that travel into the past might become possible in the future are rooted not so much in terms of physics and technology, but in terms of intuition and what are perceived to be the use of logic or common sense. For example, if a man were to travel back in time and kill his grandfather before his grandfather ever had any children, then he never would have existed himself and therefore could have never traveled back into time. Furthermore, if time travel to the past becomes a reality at some point in the future, why has there never been any record of people from the future showing up in all of recorded history?
There are many similar questions and many possible answers, some simple and some very complicated. Many people are convinced that time travelers from the future have made trips into the past. There are two types of evidence. The first is artifacts left behind by time travelers. One example is a watch/ring found in December 2008 in a Chinese tomb that had been sealed for 400 years. The second type of evidence is photographs in which there are people who appear to be from another era. An example is the unknown woman in the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie, “The Circus.” She is walking along in a background shot speaking into what appears to be a communications device. She is alone, and appears to be carrying on a conversation. These and similar examples can be found on the internet as well the opinions of people seeking to debunk the evidence. Who knows?
The only thing certain about time travel into the past is that people will always dream of it and always be fascinated by it.