Travel Insurance for Career Breakers - InsureMyTrip Blog

May 22nd, 2012

Travel insurance is a relatively unique product ? it?s highly individualized in both its necessity and its scope.? What may be of crucial importance to one traveler as far as insurance coverage is concerned may not even make the Top Ten list of needs for another traveler; what one policy has to offer may be ideal for my family, but not for yours.? InsureMyTrip?s Customer Care Center has been working with travelers for more than a decade to help them make decisions about their own travel insurance needs, and during that time, we?ve learned that there is almost never a one-size-fits-all solution.

Our passion has become helping every traveler find the perfect fit for his or her needs.? When we got to know the people at Meet, Plan, Go!, an organization devoted to helping those who want to take an extended sabbatical (or ?career break?) from their day jobs to travel, it immediately became clear to us that this was a community of dedicated and passionate travelers with some very specific travel insurance requirements.? It?s no small thing to take the kind of leap of faith these career breakers must take ? to organize a way to purposely leave behind everything familiar and strike out into the world for an adventure that might last months or even years.? We were inspired by their courage and their spirit, and we knew we had to find a way to help them secure their travels so they could fulfill their dreams without having to worry about illness, injury, or unexpected setbacks.

We?re pleased and proud to be the exclusive travel insurance provider for Meet, Plan, Go! After extensive planning and research, our Customer Care Center now has a dedicated hotline specifically for career breakers, and our representatives are thoroughly educated on the unique needs of those taking an extended leave so they can provide specialized service to the career break community.? We look forward to working with Meet, Plan, Go! and their members, and we thank them all for taking us with them.? Nothing excites us quite as much as being able to play a small part in someone?s grand plans.

To speak with one of our licensed Customer Care representatives about insuring your career break, call 885-773-9375.

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career breaks, coverage, customer care, customers, job, Meet Plan Go!, purchase process

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A nation-by-nation look at Arab Spring's progress

On Wednesday, Egypt began its first free presidential election since it came under dictatorship 60 years ago. The winner will succeed Hosni Mubarak, one of four rulers toppled in the uprisings that began 18 months ago across the Middle East and became known as the Arab Spring. But replacing dictatorships with democracy is proving much harder. Here's where things stand:

TUNISIA

The first Arab country to throw off its ruler, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in January 2011, Tunisia has also had the smoothest transition. Elections in October resulted in an interim coalition led by the election-winning Islamist Ennahda Party in a coalition with two liberal parties. Ennahda has taken a moderate track in this country that has a strong secular heritage, refraining from seeking to base the new constitution on Islamic law. But secular Tunisians worry that ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis have grown more assertive.

EGYPT

Since Hosni Mubarak was toppled on Feb. 11, 2011, Egypt has been ruled by the military in a tumultuous transition. Protests against the generals have repeatedly turned into deadly clashes killing dozens. A series of military-installed interim governments have been largely ineffectual, hesitant to make significant decisions. Police, angered and humiliated during the anti-Mubarak uprising, have often refused to work, letting crime increase. With big money earners like tourism and foreign investment plunging, fueling unemployment, the government has burned through more than half its hard currency reserves to prop up the Egyptian pound. Islamists won the first post-Mubarak parliamentary election and stand a good chance of capturing the presidency. Divisions run deep, with some fearing the imposition of Islamic rule, and others that the military is angling to keep a grip on the country.

SYRIA

What began in January 2011 as a wave of peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad has turned into a bloodbath and near civil war, with well over 9,000 dead. Assad's regime responded to the protests with gunfire and some opponents have taken up arms, joined by army defectors. The military has responded with all-out assaults on opposition areas, leaving heavy destruction in neighborhoods of some cities. The conflict has also taken on a worrying sectarian tone. The Sunni Muslim majority largely backs the opposition, while the Alawites and other minorities support Assad, himself an Alawite. There have been tit-for-tat killings and a string of suicide bombings against military buildings.

LIBYA

Protests against Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's strongman for more than 40 years, quickly turned into civil war. Much of the eastern half of the country threw off his rule early last year, and the ramshackle rebel army tried to march on the west. It took months of NATO airstrikes to open the way for rebels to take Tripoli, the capital. Gadhafi fled and two months later was caught and killed. The oil-rich North African nation has been mired in instability ever since. The rebel militias refuse to disarm and have carved out fiefdoms, sometimes taking brutal revenge against suspected regime supporters. The east has made moves to declare autonomy while the ruling National Transitional Council is largely ineffectual. A major test of the country's chances for stability comes in national elections next month and an effort to write a constitution.

YEMEN

In power for 33 years, President Ali Abdullah Saleh clung to his post through a year of nationwide daily protests. Many allies abandoned him, major military units joined the opposition, and a bomb blast at his palace badly burned him. Finally, after balking three times at resigning, he bent to U.S. and Gulf pressure and agreed to step down in return for immunity from prosecution. He left office in February, his vice president was elected president unopposed, and a coalition of Salah's party and the opposition took over. But Saleh's son and nephew command elite military units and his loyalists remain in posts throughout the government. His opponents accuse him of using those levers to hamper the new government as it tries to deal with poverty and deep tribal divisions. Saleh's replacement as president, Abed Rabbo Hadi, has stepped up cooperation with Washington in a major offensive against al-Qaida militants who seized control of parts of the south.

PERSIAN GULF

Majority Shiites on the tiny island nation of Bahrain, a vital U.S. ally and home to the U.S. Navy in the region, mounted a wave of protests alleging discrimination and disenfranchisement by the Sunni monarchy, which responded with two months of martial law. In March last year, Saudi Arabia, which feared the Shiite uprising was a proxy for spreading Iranian influence, led a Gulf military force into Bahrain that helped largely crush the protests, though they have continued sporadically. In all, at least 50 people have died. The conservative Sunni-led Gulf monarchies have largely prevented the eruption of protests. Saudi Arabia saw some demonstrations by its own Shiite minority, which it promptly put down, and the king sought to quell discontent with largesse.

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In Iowa, Workers Comp Case Highlights the Need for Stricter ...

Injured workers at companies without proper workers? compensation programs are frequently forced to deal with recovery while hemorrhaging money. What?s worse, this terrifying predicament often goes unnoticed. Thankfully, the Des Moines Register recently highlighted one such case in an articled titled ?Companies fail to pay injured workers.?

Jeffrey Carter, a 45-year-old Iowa garbage truck driver, severely injured his back and neck after picking up a garbage can filled with water. His employer, L&M Waste Systems, did not have proper workers? compensation insurance so Carter took his case to an Iowa deputy workers? compensation commissioner who found that L&M?s owner, James L. Watts, should be responsible for paying weekly benefits for the injury, interest and prior medical expenses. Instead L&M fired Carter and has yet to pay him a cent:

?It?s been hell,? Carter said. ?I had to go on food stamps, I have no money coming in. And I lost my mobile home because I could not make payments.?

Those who represent workers like Carter, such as Andrew Mertens, spokesman for the Iowa Association of Justice, are calling for state Attorneys General to make examples of employers like L&M.

?There needs to be a message ? that the state will come after you. This is a felony, after all. These are laborers by and large. And when they are restricted from working, they don?t just lose their jobs. They lose their ability to earn income all together.?

Two other workers in similar circumstances were mentioned in the DR piece:

One case currently under scrutiny by the attorney general?s office involves Russell Vanhorn, a 55-year-old garbage truck driver who worked for Watts? Hawkeye Waste Systems in Iowa City. Vanhorn fell 8 feet while attempting to tie down a tarp on a roll-off trash container in 2009.

The fall left him with severe abdominal pain. He was vomiting blood and required hospitalization and surgery, state records show.

After Vanhorn resigned in 2011, a deputy workers? compensation commissioner found Vanhorn?s injuries were not reported by the company as they should have been under law. The company acknowledged more than once that it did not have insurance to cover workers? compensation liabilities.

This month, another deputy commissioner ordered the company to pay Vanhorn disability benefits and a $25,000 penalty.

In 2008, Richard Lint, 53, a hauler for Watts? A-1 Disposal Services for four years, suffered a partial disability after his shoulder was struck by part of a front-loading garbage truck, a deputy worker?s compensation commissioner found. He was never paid, according to the workers? compensation division.

Mertens said Watts has shown a pattern of taking advantage of workers and renegotiating settlements with the state ?to basically manipulate workers out of money they deserve.?

?With actions like that, there?s no telling how many have been manipulated out of claims altogether.?

But, owners are not the only corrupt cog in the broken workers? compensation machine. Sometimes, those on the system administration side fail to look out for a workers as well. In Pennsylvania, an audit supervisor for the State Workers? Insur?ance Fund, James McDonnell, has been charged with five counts of bribery. McDonnell allegedly accepted over $80,000 in bribes as a kickback for lowering companies? workers? compensation premiums. The fund was administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry:

Prosecutors claim that on 15 occa?sions, McDonnell issued checks to fund-insured employers with no supporting documentation.

No word yet from prosecutors on the fate awaiting businesses that al??legedly made payments to McDonnell.

The debate on workers? compensation is often steered towards abuses by those receiving benefits when in reality the abuses are often of those receiving benefits. Or not receiving them, rather. Most people collecting workers compensation are doing so because they are trying to get their bodies prepared to return to work. When the trust needed for this system to run fairly and efficiently is undercut from all angles it creates a situation in which workers cannot receive the help they need. As Andrew Mertens explains, this type of behavior is felonious and should be punishable to an extent that it becomes a prohibitive prescription against future indiscretions.

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Do public opinion surveys work anymore?

A new Pew study shows that less and less people are willing to respond to public opinion surveys. This increases the cost of reliable surveys and raises the question of whether the minority of respondents are representative of the population as a whole.

By Donald Marron,?Guest blogger / May 21, 2012

This Pew Research Center chart shows how the difficulty of finding public opinion survey respondents has increased since 1997. Today, less than one in ten households contacted will give an interview for a public opinion survey.

PEW Research Center

Enlarge

Public opinion surveys provide a wealth of information about beliefs in America and around the world. For example, they document how much public approval for same-sex marriage has been increasing, how Facebook has infiltrated many of our daily lives, and how humanitarian aid affects how citizens of other nations view America.

Skip to next paragraph Donald Marron

Donald B. Marron is director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He previously served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.

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But pollsters face a significant challenge. As the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press notes in a new?study, survey response rates continue to plummet:

Fifteen years ago, more than one in three of households responded to surveys. Today, that rate is less than one in ten.

That increases the cost of reliable surveys ? to get a reasonable sample, you need to try to contact more households. Even more important, declining participation raises the question of whether the minority of respondents are representative of the population as a whole. The Pew Research Center study took a close look at that question:

The general decline in response rates is evident across nearly all types of surveys, in the United States and abroad. At the same time, greater effort and expense are required to achieve even the diminished response rates of today. These challenges have led many to question whether surveys are still providing accurate and unbiased information. Although response rates have decreased in landline surveys, the inclusion of cell phones ? necessitated by the rapid rise of households with cell phones but no landline ? has further contributed to the overall decline in response rates for telephone surveys.

A new study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that, despite declining response rates, telephone surveys that include landlines and cell phones and are weighted to match the demographic composition of the population continue to provide accurate data on most political, social and economic measures. This comports with the consistent record of accuracy achieved by major polls when it comes to estimating election outcomes, among other things.

This is not to say that declining response rates are without consequence. One significant area of potential non-response bias identified in the study is that survey participants tend to be significantly more engaged in civic activity than those who do not participate, confirming what previous research has shown.?People who volunteer are more likely to agree to take part in surveys than those who do not do these things. This has serious implications for a survey?s ability to accurately gauge behaviors related to volunteerism and civic activity. For example, telephone surveys may overestimate such behaviors as church attendance, contacting elected officials, or attending campaign events.

However, the study finds that the tendency to volunteer is not strongly related to political preferences, including partisanship, ideology and views on a variety of issues. Republicans and conservatives are somewhat more likely than Democrats and liberals to say they volunteer, but this difference is not large enough to cause them to be substantially over-represented in telephone surveys.

In short, opinion surveys likely overstate civic activity, but otherwise appear to track other observable political, social, and economic variables.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on dmarron.com.

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Malaysian opposition's Anwar charged over protest

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Google doodle lets you play Moog synthesizer

Google

Tribute to the birth of Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer.

By Suzanne Choney

Wednesday's Google doodle honors the birth of Moog synthesizer creator Robert Moog, and it gives you the chance to play the synthesizer, similar to what Google did last year with a guitar that honored the birth of Les Paul.

While it's not Wednesday yet for many of you, if you go to Google's Australia search home page, you can try your hand literally on the synthesizer, invented by Moog in 1964.

You can also record your sounds as well, adjusting the mixer, oscillators, filter and envelope as you please.

Moog, born in Queens, N.Y. May 23, 1934, created his synthesizer in 1964, and it changed the shape of modern music, including rock, used by artists from The Beatles, on their album "Abbey Road," to Goldfrapp and Dr. Dre.? Wikipedia has a long list of musicians who have used the Moog synthesizer.

Moog, who died in 2005, "considered himself a geeky, socially awkward kid with a passion for electronics," according to the Bob Moog Foundation:

From an early age Bob built small radios, amps, three note organs and other such projects in the basement workshop ?with his father George Moog, who was an electrical engineer for Con Edison. At age 14, Bob built his first theremin and a life-long love was born. Bob was taken by the elegant design and expressive nature of this early electronic musical instrument and dedicated much of his spare time, when he wasn?t attending the Bronx High School of Science or practicing the piano, perfecting his own design and studying the design of his idol, Leon Theremin.

Moog went on to get a Ph.D. in engineering physics. Not only did Moog create a fabulous electronic instrument, but he continues to inspire the rest of us who, while not have such an impressive degree, are similarly, also "geeky," "socially awkward" with that "passion for electronics."

? Via The Next Web

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

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Using Risk Management Solutions to Improve your Success Rate

You can use risk management solutions to improve your success rate. It is all made possible by having a risk action plan in place before your business venture goes into the execution phase of its project?s lifecycle.

The risk management solutions are the results of you and your project team developing a risk management plan while the project is still in the planning stages of its lifecycle. This allows for the correct amount of time to be spent devising the correct way to mitigate a risk if it were to impact your project. Being prepared for a risk is half the battle to countering the negative effects of it when it relates to your project.

To develop the right risk management solutions for your project, the use of the risk program template is the best path to follow. This template helps the project manager to document just what the risks are that could negatively affect the ongoing project while it is still in the planning stages. This allows for greater choices when it comes to deciding on just what type of mitigation is possible to reduce or eliminate the damage it can cause.

The reason the risk management solutions need to be made in advance of the risks impacting the project is that some of the mitigation process are no longer viable once the impact has occurred. By being prepared, you and your project team will also know how to react to a risk when it does impact your business venture. This shortens the time that will be necessary for the implementation of the mitigation process to minimize the damage that is occurring because of the risk. This will help the project reach its full potential and increase the chances of this business venture ending up as a success.

The use of risk management solutions as part of your active strategy to help your project succeed is now a known necessary component of an overall project plan. It is one of the many time management tools a project manager now has at their disposal.

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HBT: Berkman tears ACL, might retire

This is bad news and, if confirmed today, could spell the end of Lance Berkman?s career.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that the Cardinals? ?early diagnosis? is that Lance Berkman has suffered a torn ACL. ?An MRI will be performed today to confirm.

Berkman was injured on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium while stretching for a throw at first base. He had to be helped off the field. Berkman told reporters yesterday that, if indeed he has torn his ACL, he may very well retire:

?If I?ve re-torn my ACL or something like that, I?d certainly get it fixed but you don?t know how psychologically you?re going to come back from something like that,? Berkman said. ?I?m not talking from the standpoint of being scared of hurting it again. I?m talking about doing everything it takes to come back and play again at an elite level. I think that?s a legitimate question I?m going to have to answer if, in fact, it turns out to be something more serious than we hope that it is.?

This would obviously be a major blow to the Cardinals who, in letting Albert Pujols walk in free agency, had hoped to get another strong season out of Berkman at first base in his absence. ?Of course, the potential replacements are all promising too: now it?s up to some combination of Allen Craig, prospect Matt Adams and Matt Carpenter.

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Vodka and Cavier


(via lemongum)

I don't ask for much in life. I just want a guy, that loves me the same way i love him.

I want a guy who knows how torturing how periods can be, and go through it with me. He will hug me very tightly when my cramps hurt so bad that i can't even walk. I want a guy that tells me how much he loves me every ten seconds and loves me just the way i am. And he will tell me 'Hey, darling. I hate to go on a streets with you because i'm afraid i might lose you as all the guys keep staring at you.' He knows that he is not the only guy that wants me, that needs me. He is thankful for having me, he doesn't take my for granted. Isn't it suppose to be like that?

When a guys starts taking a relationship for granted, isn't it disasters? No more sweet and cute messages. No more funny and silly arguments. No more surprises, small little gifts. Anniversaries. No more nothing. This is really bad right? But hey, this is life. How many wonderful guys are there in this world? Not many, and what makes you so sure that you'll get that one in a million guy? If girls ain't sure at all, why fall so hard for that guy? We girls, can't even answer that question.

You know this is funny. We all know how love hurts, all the heartbreaking moments. All those times where you can really feel a knife stabbing your heart. All those lies you've heard, yet you still fall for it over and over again. All those 'i will change' and 'give me one more chance' scenarios. Is this what love is really all about? Misery? Pain? Never-ending tears? Really? This is how harsh reality is? We don't have an answer, but we will never fall out of love.. We'll never get bored of it..

Some may be really lucky, they do have a guy who tells you 'i love you' every night. Bring popcorns and snacks and come to your house for a movie marathons on the days when you're really down, and he is all you need. Guys that text you every morning to give you a reason to start a brand new day. Who gives you small surprises on the smallest anniversary you can ever think of, like 'the-first-time-we-talked-to-each-other' anniversary. Giving cards just for fun. Girls will never feel insecure in relationships like that. Really lucky.

I don't think my post is getting anywhere in life. No start, no end. I don't know. An ideal guy is really hard to describe. I don't wanna elaborate so much if not i will have a ten pages long 'ideal guy' post. And i'll seem really picky on guys. But nooooooo, i ain't like that okay. I go along with a lot of guys, but none of them just gives me the 'this-is-the-one' feeling. I don't know. Maybe it isn't time yet. Hmm.. Till here then. See you around lovelies.

Labels: Photos: Love

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