Travel insurance

Should you buy travel insurance for a cruise through the cruise line or your travel agent?
Actually, anyone you purchase insurance from is going to make money on it. Neither the cruise line nor the travel agent charge extra commission on top of the cost of insurance. The insurance company writes the insurance for a set amount. They pay commission from that amount back to the retailer or cruise line.

Giacomo Puccini

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was born on 22nd of December,1858. One of the world’s most famous composers of opera, he is best known for his tragic love stories: La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904). Puccini was close to the end of his last opera, Turandot, when he succumbed to cancer in 1924. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La Bohème. The performance was halted and the orchestra moved to playing Frédéric Chopin’s Funeral March. Turandot was completed by fellow composer, Franco Alfano, and was first played in 1926 at La Scala, with Arturo Toscanini conducting.

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz believed in photography as fine art and he worked to promote that idea. The creator of two periodicals, Camera Notes and Camera Work, Stieglitz co-founded the group Photo-Secession along with Edward Steichen and others. He was introduced to the work of a young female artist, Georgia O’Keeffe, in 1916. Immediately impressed with her work, he exhibited ten of her paintings.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt, as well known for her social activism as for being the wife of US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born on October 11, in 1884. The niece of Teddy Roosevelt and a distant cousin to FDR, she understood the world of politics and public service. She is known to have advised wives on campaign behavior: “Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.” After FDR’s death, Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed as a delegate to the UN, where she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

To stretch, reach and grow

“Few things feel as good as doing something that challenged you deeply versus running back to comfort. I beat some fear this morning, bumped up my ski game and can’t wait for the next opportunity. To stretch, reach and grow.” – Robin Sharma

DOUGHBOY

What was the Doughboy in World War I? The term “doughboy” most commonly refers to American infantrymen around WWI. By the time WWII began, infantrymen were called G.I.’s. There’s evidence that the word doughboy was in use as far back as the mid-19th century around the Mexican border. Some of the explanations given for the term: they refer to the dumpling-shaped buttons on the soldiers’ jackets during WWI; they allude to the pipe clay – resembling dough – that was used to clean the white belts the soldiers wore.

Do the Things You Love To Do

“There is no better way to earn money that to do the things that you love to do. Money can flow into your experience through endless avenues. It is not the choice of the craft that limits the money that flows, but only your attitude toward money.” ~ Esther and Jerry Hicks from Money, and the Law of Attraction.

Changing names of Major Cities

Tsaritsyn, Lutetia Parisiorum, York, New Amsterdam. We know them as Volgograd, Paris, Toronto and New York. They’re not the only major cities that have had a name change along the way. Denver started out as St. Charles, San Francisco was known as Yerba Buena, Atlanta was founded as Terminus, and everyone’s favorite hometown — Scranton — was originally called Slocum Hollow, the Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston. Madras became Chennai.

A Computer in Every Home

Remember when a computer filled a room? Remember when that room was kept air-conditioned and food and drinks were not allowed inside? Well, that was before the personal computer changed the world. In 1977, Apple, Commodore and Radio Shack all came out with versions of a home or office computer; they were usually called microcomputers. They held a maximum of 64K of memory and used floppy disks. In 1981, IBM launched its first personal computer, the IBM 5150, operating under Microsoft’s MS-DOS. It came with a one- or two-floppy-disk storage system. In today’s terms, it would take 10 floppy disks to hold one MP3 song’s worth of music.

North Dakota and South Dakota

Is North Dakota the 39th or 40th state? North Dakota is the 39th state; South Dakota is the 40th. The true, technical, answer is unknown because no one really knows which state President Harrison signed the papers for first, but North Dakota is usually considered the 39th state due to the fact that it precedes South Dakota in alphabetical order.