I've put together a collection of CDs of world music for relaxation and meditation, which includes artists from around the world who play music that is either intended for meditation (such as Japanese Shakuhachi music, from the Zen Buddhist tradition) …
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Move over, Janet Jackson. Step to the side, Jennifer Hudson. Have a seat, Mariah Carey. There's a new diva in the weight loss spotlight.
The second belonged to Chaka Khan, 59, who wored a brown bodysuit that hugged all her curves. The legendary singer performed Ain't nobody, Through the fire.
AP NEW YORK — Grammy award-winning singer Chaka Khan will perform a tribute to the late Whitney Houston at the Apollo Theater's gala and awards ceremony. The historic Harlem theater confirmed Friday that the "I Feel for You" singer will perform in her
Chaka Khan is the latest addition to the bill. Famed for her outrageous persona and larger than life voice, the singer will bring hits such as 'I'm every Woman' and 'Ain't Nobody' to the Victoria Park weekender. Joining an ever expanding bill,
The second belonged to Chaka Khan, 59, who wore a brown bodysuit that hugged all her curves. The legendary singer performed Ain't nobody, Through the fire and then proved why she's a legend on I'm every Woman with the Idol women.
When it comes to travel insurance claims, Hannah Yun was about as sure as anyone that hers would be successful.
She’d bought a gold-plated “cancel for any reason” policy for a trip to South Korea. When her boyfriend proposed and she decided to call off the trip to start planning her wedding, she thought that collecting a check would be just a formality.
Travel Guard, the company she’d purchased the policy through, turned down her claim on a technicality. Yun, a college student in Salt Lake City, had originally told the company that her plane ticket had cost $1,090; she’d actually paid $1,092.50.
Denied because of a $2.50 price difference? You bet.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” says Yun, a refrain that I hear often. Complaints about seemingly arbitrary rejections cross my desk at regular intervals. No surprise: Travel insurance is a $1.8 billion-a-year industry, according to the US Travel Insurance Association, an industry trade group. and it has been growing steadily, from $1.3 billion in 2006 to $1.6 billion two years later to the latest figure, from 2010.
It’s no shocker in another sense, too: the travel insurance business is generally profitable, the occasional volcanic eruption or tsunami notwithstanding, and critics say that the only way it stays that way is by rejecting most claims, particularly the expensive ones. That’s difficult to prove — or disprove. the industry insists that its rejection rates are low. about one in six policyholders will file a claim on their insurance, according to the association, and fewer than 10 percent of those claims are denied.
Yun was among that unhappy minority. When I asked about her claim, Carol Mueller, a vice president at Travel Guard, said that the company had reviewed the case carefully and that according to its records, Yun had claimed — and repeatedly verified — the $1,090 ticket price.
“The full cost of all nonrefundable prepaid trip arrangements is insured at the time of purchase,” she told me. “Ms. Yun did not insure her full trip cost as listed on her itinerary at the time of her insurance purchase, and that was the criterion for her denial.”
Seriously? the rejection seems absurd to the average traveler, until you take a little time to understand how the travel insurance business works. I’ve spent the past year studying it, in part because I’ve been hearing about so many policy rejections. I should also note that my website attracts a fair number of sponsorships from travel insurance companies and sellers of insurance. Consider this my disclosure. I’d like to think that it doesn’t affect the fairness of my coverage, but I’m sure that you’ll let me know what you think once you’ve finished reading.
To understand why a travel insurance company does the often confounding things that it does, you have to know more about the actual policies and talk with insiders who are familiar with the claims process. Travel insurance policies are set by underwriters, the entities that take on the risk of insuring you on your vacation. for example, Travel Guard is underwritten by the National Union fire Insurance co. of Pittsburgh, and that company gets to tell Travel Guard how to word its policies. the verbiage doesn’t leave much to the imagination.
Take trip interruptions, for instance. When you buy a policy, your travel agent might tell you that you’ll be covered if your trip is interrupted. but the policy itself will strictly define the terms.
For example, an interruption can be covered if it’s caused by an “unforeseen” circumstance. a sample Travel Guard policy defined that as the sickness, injury or death of an insured person, or of an immediate family member, traveling companion or business partner. “Injury or sickness must be so disabling as to reasonably cause a trip to be canceled or interrupted,” it adds.
Few travelers bother to read that language before buying a policy. Slightly more will review it when they need to make a claim, but it’s still a considerable minority. even when their claim is turned down, they try to appeal it by referring to their travel agent’s promises or arguing with the rejection letter without knowing what their policy actually says.
Dan Skilken, who runs the travel insurance website TripInsurance.com, says that insurance companies play it by the book when a traveler files a claim. they consider the facts of the claim at face value; if the policy covers it, they cut a check. if it doesn’t, they won’t. “The reason for a denial is usually pretty simple,” he says.
It was in the case of David and Mary Phillips, who bought a $387 policy through Allianz Global assistance for a recent cruise to Brazil. Unfortunately, they ran afoul of one small detail: Neither the cruise line, Azamara, nor their travel agent had told them that U.S. citizens must have visas to travel to Brazil. as a result, they were denied boarding on the boat, and they lost their $6,739 cruise.
David Phillips, a retired doctor in San Mateo, Calif., was upset about his ruined vacation and even unhappier that Allianz rejected his claim. but the Phillipses’ insurance policy is clear: It doesn’t cover trip interruptions that result from visa or passport problems.
To claims adjusters, such denials are as obvious as the quickest way from their cubicle to the water cooler. but to outsiders such as Yun and Phillips — and me, too — they’re not.
Which brings us back to Yun, who had every reason to believe that her insurance company would pay for her cancellation, no questions asked. Travel Guard seemed surprised that she hadn’t bothered to review the details of her policy; if she had, she wouldn’t have wasted her time with a claim.
“We’ve listened to all the calls with Ms. Yun, and while there were three opportunities when she could have corrected the total cost of her trip, this did not happen,” says Mueller, the Travel Guard representative. Still, Travel Guard agreed to make one of those high-level exceptions to its rules and honored the claim.
Mueller was quick to add that I should let consumers know that they ought to read their policy carefully and make sure to fill out their paperwork correctly.
I agree. but maybe some travel insurance companies need to spend a little more time talking with their customers outside the claims process, if for no other reason than to understand why travelers are so disappointed when their policy doesn’t work as expected.
Christopher Elliott is ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance. his column runs weekly at seattletimes.com/travel.Contact him at chris@elliott.org
Public release date: 23-May-2012 [ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Becky Attwoodr.attwood@soton.ac.uk44-238-059-5457University of Southampton
Children are more likely to have more body fat during childhood if their mother has low levels of Vitamin D during pregnancy, according to scientists at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (MRC LEU), University of Southampton.
Low vitamin D status has been linked to obesity in adults and children, but little is known about how variation in a mother’s status affects the body composition of her child.
Low vitamin D status is common among young women in the UK, and although women are recommended to take an additional 10μg/day of vitamin D in pregnancy, supplementation is currently not routine.
In new research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition today (23 may 2012), scientists at the MRC LEU, University of Southampton, have compared the vitamin D status of 977 pregnant women with the body composition of their children. The findings from this study showed that the children who were born to mothers who had low vitamin D status in pregnancy had more body fat when they were six years old. These differences could not be explained by other factors such as mother’s weight gain in pregnancy, or how physically active the children were. The 977 women are part of the Southampton Women’s Survey, one of the largest women’s surveys in the UK.
Dr Si
Fresh off the London Book Fair, the hungover publishing industry is heading to Iran for the Tehran International Book Fair, which starts today and runs through may 12th. (All images: Mehr News Agency)
Um, actually, slight correction: The publishers of "Bioeconomics of Fisheries Management" are indeed welcome, as the Los Angeles Times reports that's one of the few Western titles that will be featured at the fair. as for the mainstream book industry, it's about as welcome as Woody Allen in the repressive Islamic state, where access to outside cultural influences is tightly regulated by the mullahs and their bearded puppet, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
according to the Iran Book News Agency, the fair will be held at "Tehran's Grand Imam Khomeini Prayer Ground with the motto of 'A Quarter of a Century of Cultural Jihad." The LA Times says that some 500,000 visitors are expected daily to buy and sell books that promote "Islamic values," which means that Bethenny Frankel's new novel isn't going to get the traction it deserves.
This is the 25th year of the Tehran fair. according to Iranian cultural officials, 2,451 publishers will attend, hawking some 207,170 titles.
Iran's semi-official PressTV agency said the Tehran fair was "the most significant event of its kind in Asia and the Middle East and a significant venue for publishers and book lovers to exchange opinions and experiences."
Unless, that is, you run afoul of Iran's strict religious codes.That's what happened to the publishing house Chesmeh, which got shut down by Tehran's meanies in 2011 for publishing Western titles like "my Name is Red" by the Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. And in 2010, the authorities said no book that had been published before Ahmadinejad became president in 2005 would be allowed at the fair.
The fair's own website describes the warning of a culture minister: "Any publishers with anti-Shii titles would be barred from the fair…any titles that may contain obscene materials or images will be seized and their publishers will be banned from the cultural fair forever."
Also required of attendees will be an "adherence to Islamic code of clothing and behavior."
It is unclear how large a role Holocaust denial will have at the book fair, but don't be surprised to find at least a couple of "historical" titles on this topic beloved by the nutty Ahmadinejad. For example, last year saw the publication of the subtly-titled "The Holocaust – The Jews' Greatest Lie."
how did culture-rich Persia get from the poetry of Rumi to this insanity? Beats me, but I think I'll stick to my Bethenny Frankel for now.
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Tetrosyl are looking forward to the official launch of the film this week and are delighted to be the Official Car Care Sponsor to MIB III. our Car Locator lists 236256 New & Used Cars for Sale. the Car Buyers' Guide, compares car prices, …
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People News
May 14, 2012, 19:01 GMT
Kris Jenner threw a baby shower for her daughter Kourtney Kardashian on Saturday (12.05.12).
The showbiz matriarch was assisted by party planner Sharon Sacks in organising the bash for her 33-year-old daughter – who is expecting her second child, a girl, with partner Scott Disick – at her Californian home, with around 90 guests.
A source said: ‘Kourtney’s shower was so nice!. Her mom and sisters were there, of course.
‘They talked, laughed, and played games. there was a bar and lots of different types of foods and desserts, including sushi and little sandwiches. She seemed happy and excited earlier in the day before the shower.
‘There were about 90 people at 10 tables.’
Because Kourtney – who already has a two-year-old son, Mason, with Scott – is expecting a daughter, the party had a pink theme.
The insider added to Life & Style magazine: ‘Flowers were blush-pink peonies, pink Dutch hydrangeas and garden sweet peas in pink-and-fuchsia containers. The theme was all pink and whites. Petals LA did the floral arrangements.
‘Lehr & Black did Kourtney’s shower invitations. They were beautiful.’
The guests bombarded Kourtney with gifts for her impending new arrival, with the reality TV star having registered with Bel Bambini and requesting items including a $349 video monitor set, car seat, embroidered bibs and teething toys.
The source said: ‘Kourtney got lots of gifts from Bel Bambini.’
Another onlooker added: ‘Multiple women arrived bearing numerous gifts for Kourtney’s new baby. at one point, a Toyota van drove up to the property and numerous people rushed over to the car to help a blonde female carry a huge gift, in black-and-white wrapping paper and a big red bow, into the house.’
However, none of the guests left the party empty-handed.
The source said: ‘Kourtney and her family had gift bags for all the guests.’
The event was Kourtney’s second baby shower.
Last month, Scott’s family threw a party for the couple at Stonewalls Restaurant at The Woods at Cherry Creek in new York.
West Virginia football Coach bill Stewart, right, shakes hands with quarterback Pat White after the Mountaineers' 31-30 win over North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Dec. 27, 2008, in Charlotte, NC Stewart, who resigned as coach in 2011, …
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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 23, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — A recent Asda Finance e-survey on British attitudes to holidays found that 64% of Brits, whether going abroad or staying in the UK, opt for relaxation as the number one 'must-have' …
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By Sarah Boutwell When it comes to arts and crafts, up-cycling, when you take old material and upgrade it, is one of the best ways for the poor artist to make something shiny and new. It's also fun to try to reinvent “a classic.
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