A380 Air Bus

空中巴士A380是法國空中巴士公司的最新巨型客機，也是全球載客量最高的客機，有「空中巨無霸」之稱。A380為雙層四引擎客機，採最高密度座位安排時可承載850名乘客，在典型三艙等配置(頭等-商務-經濟艙)下也可承載555名乘客。該型號的原型機於2004年中首次亮相，至2005年1月18日，空中巴士於土魯斯廠房為首架A380舉行出廠典禮。A380於2005年4月27日首飛成功，並於同年的11月11日，首次跨洲試飛抵達亞洲的新加坡。A380預計將於2007年正式付運予買家。現時全球有十多家航空公司訂購A380。

A380在投入服務後，將打破波音747統領35年的紀錄，成為世上載客量最大的民用飛機，不過載重量最大的民用飛機仍是烏克蘭安托諾夫製的An-225夢想式運輸機[1]。
目錄
[顯示]

* 1 歷史
o 1.1 研發
o 1.2 測試
* 2 設計
o 2.1 機種型號
o 2.2 駕駛艙
o 2.3 引擎
o 2.4 乘客便利設施
* 3 訂單
o 3.1 交付
* 4 技術擔憂
* 5 瑣事
* 6 詳細規格
* 7 媒體
* 8 參考
* 9 外部連結

[編輯] 歷史

[編輯] 研發

空中巴士於90年代早期開始超大型客機的研發計畫，除為了完善空中巴士機種，填補超大型客機的空白外，還希望藉以打破波音747在超大型客機市場的壟斷。麥道亦有相似策略，推出MD-12計劃，但最終失敗收場。每家飛機製造商都希望能製造出747的後繼者，但他們都明白到要賺取盈利的話，600座至800座客機的市場只能容納一種飛機。過去道格拉斯DC-10和洛克希德L-1011三星客機已證明瓜分這些細小市場的風險。1993年1月波音與數家空中巴士的合夥飛機製造商開始共同研究超大型商用飛機(Very Large Commercial Transport,VLCT)的可行性，並以合作建造的形式為目標。
首架A380於圖盧茲廠房亮相
首架A380於土魯斯廠房亮相

1994年6月，空中巴士開始研發自己的超大型飛機，名為A3XX。空中巴士曾經考慮過幾個方案，包括將兩組空中巴士A340機身邊靠邊併合為一組機身，而A340是當時空中巴士最大的機種。A3XX將與VLCT計劃和波音的747後繼者—747X競爭，747X是將波音747上層客艙加長以容納更多乘客。VLCT計劃於1996年7月終止，波音亦於1997年1月叫停747X計劃，但於2005年11月推出747-8前曾多度重提747X計劃。1997年到2000年期間發生度亞洲金融危機導致市場前景不明朗，空中巴士修訂其設計，與波音747-400比較下可節省15%至20%營運成本。

2000年12月19日，剛重整架構的空中巴士管理層表決通過投資88億歐元於A3XX計劃上，並訂名為A380，當時已經有6家航空公司訂購共55架A380。A380於2001年初正式定型，第一組A380機翼於2002年1月23日開始建造，原型機各部件已完成生產並陸續由海陸空三路運往空中巴士在法國土魯斯的廠房進行總裝。在第一架A380出廠時計劃的開發成本已經飆升至110億歐元。

[編輯] 測試

A380的原型機（序號為001，登記號碼為F-WWOW）於2005年1月18日在土魯斯廠房舉行出廠典禮。首航則在同年4月27日在土魯斯起飛，當時載著6名機組人員、測試儀器及水袋，起飛重量為421噸。雖然這只是A380的最高起飛重量的75%，但已經打破當時客機的起飛重量紀錄。

2005年11月11日，A380首次進行跨洲長途飛行作宣傳及測試，這次飛行分別飛抵新加坡、布里斯本、雪梨、墨爾本及吉隆坡。11月19日，一架A380以阿聯航空的塗裝飛抵杜拜作展覽。

2006年1月10日，A380首次飛越大西洋抵達哥倫比亞的麥德林（Medellín），以測試在高海拔下的引擎效能。2月6日，A380飛抵北美洲並降落於加拿大伊魁特，作寒冷天氣下的測試；此機及後再飛到新加坡參加2006年亞洲航空展。[來源請求]

2006年3月26日，A380在德國漢堡市進行了緊急撤離測試，853名乘客及20名機組人員，需在黑暗及一半的出口（即8個）被封閉下撤離機倉，結果測試成功地在78秒內完成。三日後，歐洲航空安全局及美國聯邦航空局批准A380可載乘客人數為853人。[2]

2006年9月4日，A380在法國土魯斯進行全機滿載的飛行測試，一共有474位空中巴士職員參與這次飛行測試。12月，A380開始進行全球性的飛行性能測試。[來源請求]

2006年12月12日，歐洲航空安全局和美國聯邦航空局官員正式向空中巴士公司頒發A380飛機的機型適航認證證書。[3] 目前A380的機身尚在等待生產認證。[來源請求]

2007年3月，已經有9架A380建造完成，5架進行超過2900小時的飛行。期間A380機隊造訪澳洲、加拿大、中國大陸、哥倫比亞、衣索比亞、法國、德國、冰島、印度、愛爾蘭、日本、馬來西亞、葡萄牙、新加坡、南非、南韓、新加坡、西班牙、泰國、阿拉伯聯合大公國、英國、美國、香港[來源請求]

2007年6月8日，編號007的A380進行亞洲之旅，首次拜訪台灣。[4]
A380客艙橫切圖，展示出經濟客艙的座位配置。
A380客艙橫切圖，展示出經濟客艙的座位配置。

2007年9月2日6時26分，A380飛抵香港，為亞洲國際航空展揭開序幕，更在9月3日香港時間早上八時，在香港維多利亞港上空突破性以低於二千呎的高度低飛。
空中巴士A380在香港維多利亞港上空經過
空中巴士A380在香港維多利亞港上空經過

[編輯] 設計

[編輯] 機種型號

現時A380分兩種型號：

* A380-800：客機型，在三級艙佈置下可載客555人，或於單一經濟艙佈置下載人853人，航程為15,200公里8,200海里。[5]
* A380-800F：貨機型，載貨量為150公噸，航程為10,400公里（5,600海里）。 [1]

[編輯] 駕駛艙

A380使用與其他空中巴士機種相似的駕駛艙佈局，程序和操作特徵以減低飛航組員的訓練成本。

駕駛艙有8個15厘米乘20厘米的液晶顯示器。包括2個主要飛航顯示器(Primary Flight Displays,PFD)、2個導航顯示器(Navigation Displays,ND)、1個發動機參數顯示器(Engine Parameter Display)、1個系統顯示器(System Display)和2個多功能顯示器(Multi-Function Display,MFD)。這2個多功能顯示器為飛航管理系統(Flight Management System,FMS)提供簡易操作界面、鍵盤和軌跡球(trackballs)，取代3個傳統飛航管理系統。

[編輯] 引擎
一具安裝於A380機翼下的勞斯萊斯Trent 900 引擎
一具安裝於A380機翼下的勞斯萊斯Trent 900 引擎

A380可選配勞斯萊斯特侖特(Trent)900 或 由通用電氣及普惠聯營的發動機聯盟(Engine Alliance)的GP7200 渦輪扇葉發動機。兩款均為應用在波音777客機上的衍生產品。Trent 900為Trent 800的加大型，設有後掠型風扇。[6] 而GP7200使用了GE90的內核及PW4090的渦輪扇及低壓壓縮機。[7] 在銷售上，起初由Trent 900佔上風，及後GP7200成功追上，貼近Trent 900的銷量。

[編輯] 乘客便利設施

初期的公關宣傳強調A380的舒適及空間，讓航空公司可以於機上加設更多設施，例如休息區、酒吧、免稅店及美容院等。最有可能於機上加設此類設施的航空公司為維珍航空，而維珍航空早已於旗下飛機的商務客艙中加設一迷你酒吧，並計劃於將來的A380上增設賭場、雙人床、健身及沐浴設備。

A380會進一步發展波音747為航空史帶來的改革 — 更多座位及較低的座位成本，同時帶來較闊的座位及較好的乘客便利設施。A380於標準三級艙佈置下的載客量為555人，比起波音747-400於相同佈置下多出近35%，但A380的客艙比波音747多近50%，表示每位乘客可享有較多空間。但假如航空公司訂購全經濟客艙佈置的A380，其載客量將為853人，達到A380的最高許可載客量。[8]

[編輯] 訂單

截止2006年4月6日，空中巴士共收到16家航空公司的A380訂單，其中包括美國國際集團（AIG）旗下的飛機租賃公司——國際租賃金融公司（ILFC）。現時A380的訂單為158架，其中15架為貨機型號。預計售出250至300架便可達至收支平衡。前空中巴士首席執行官佛吉爾德（Noël Forgeard）預計會售出750架A380。截至2006年，每架A380客機的售價為2.95億美元。[9] [10]
宣佈日期 落實日期 航空公司 投入服務 型號 發動機
A380-800 A380-800F 選擇購買 EA RR
2000年4月30日 2000年7月24日 阿聯酋國際航空 2008[來源請求][11] 5 2 *
2000年7月24日 2001年6月18日 法國航空 [14] 2009[來源請求][12] 10 4 *
2000年7月25日 2001年6月17日 國際租賃金融公司（ILFC） 5 5 4
2000年9月29日 2001年7月12日 新加坡航空 [15] 2007 10 15 *
2000年11月29日 2001年3月6日 澳洲航空 2008[來源請求][13] 12 10 *
2000年12月15日 2001年4月28日 維珍航空 2013[來源請求][14] 6 6 *
2001年1月16日 2002年7月12日 FedEx（已取消訂單）[16] 2009 10 10 *
2001年2月27日 2003年6月20日 卡達航空 [17] 2009 2 2
2001年11月4日 2001年11月4日[來源請求][15] 阿聯酋國際航空 2008[來源請求] 15 *
2001年12月6日 2001年12月20日 德國漢莎航空 [18] 2009[來源請求] 15 10 *
2003年1月10日 2003年12月11日 馬來西亞航空 [19] 2007 6 *
2003年6月16日 2003年6月16日[16] 阿聯酋國際航空 2008[來源請求] 21 *
2004年8月27日 2004年12月28日[來源請求] 泰國國際航空 2010[來源請求][17] 6
2005年1月10日 2005年12月6日 聯合包裹服務公司 (已取消訂單) [20][18] 2009 10 10
2005年1月18日 大韓航空 [21] 2008 5 3 *
2005年1月31日 阿布達比航空 (Etihad Airways) [22] 2008 4 *
2005年1月31日 2005年5月1日 中國南方航空 [23] 2007 5 *
2005年6月15日 2005年6月15日[來源請求] 翠鳥航空 2010 5
2006年4月 2006年5月[來源請求] 阿聯酋國際航空 2008[來源請求][19] 2 -2 *
2006年7月23日 2006年12月20日 新加坡 新加坡航空 [20] 2007 9 -9
2006年 10月29日 2006年 12月21日 澳大利亞聯邦 澳洲航空 [21] 2008 8 -8
2006年 12月4日 美國 ILFC [22] 2013 5 -5
2007年 2月16日 未公佈身分客戶[23] 1
2007年 5月7日 2007年 5月7日 阿拉伯聯合大公國 阿聯酋國際航空 [24] 2008 4
2007年 5月24日 法國 法國航空 [25] 2009 2 -2
2007年 6月18日 2007年 6月18日 卡塔爾 卡達航空[26] 2009 3
2007年 6月18日 阿拉伯聯合大公國 阿聯酋國際航空 [27] 2009 8
小計： 174 0 82 81
總數 174（已確認為165架） 42 163

註：EA 即 Engine Alliance，發動機聯盟。 RR 即 Rolls-Royce，勞斯萊斯。

粉紅色的欄目為有關航空公司雖已宣佈訂購A380，但仍未簽署確實合約。

[編輯] 交付

A380 於巴黎航空展2005中亮相
A380 於巴黎航空展2005中亮相

空中巴士並沒有公開宣佈確實的交付日期。但空中巴士於2005年6月通知各航空公司，指A380的交付日期將延遲6個月。換言之，新加坡航空將於2007年10月15日接收首架A380，澳洲航空則為2007年4月，而阿聯酋國際航空為2008年之前。[28] 其後空中巴士於2006年6月發佈的新聞稿中[24] 警告初期的交付速度會比預期的慢，雖然這不會影響那些已經建造完成及正在試飛的A380，但仍會導致進一步延遲交付至某些航空公司。 然而延遲試飛及簽發適航證表示新加坡航空將於2006年底，甚至2007年初才能接收首架A380。

新加坡航空會使用A380（三艙等配置共471人座）於來往澳洲雪梨及新加坡的航線上。其後則為舊金山航線（香港作中途站），以及直航巴黎及法蘭克福。澳洲航空亦已宣佈將會使用A380（載客量為501人）於洛杉磯至雪梨至墨爾本航線。法國航空將於2007年接收A380，並會使用於巴黎至蒙特利爾及紐約航線。

2006年6月13日，空中巴士發表的一篇新聞稿中指因提升生產速度問題，A380的交付時間表會因而進一步推遲6至7個月。雖然首架A380飛機將於2006年完結前交付，但2007年內的交付數量將只限於9架。最初計劃（2005年前）於2009年底前能交付120架A380，其後第一次延遲將數量減至約90至100架，而現在則進一步減少至70至 80架。此消息令投資者及股東推測空中巴士母公司歐洲航空防務太空公司 (EADS) 的財務負擔會因而上升，導致股價下跌26%。[25] 此亦令空中巴士另一母公司英宇航系統公司的股價下跌。[26]

有報告指新加坡航空、阿聯酋國際航空及澳洲航空均對延遲交付表示憤怒並正考慮提出索償。[29] 然而於2006年7月21日，新加坡航空再增訂9架A380並表示空中巴士的A380工程設計十分可靠，而且於試飛時表現良好，令航空公司十分滿意，延遲交付只是生產問題，並非技術問題。 [30]

2006年6月20日及6月21日，Air Transport World 報導指馬來西亞航空及國際租賃金融公司 (ILFC) 因生產延誤而正研究取消訂購。[31][32]

2006年10月3日，剛上任空中巴士CEO不久的克裏斯蒂安·斯特雷夫(Christian Streiff)經深入研究後宣佈A380計畫將第三度延誤。第一架A380將推遲到2007年10月才交付予新加坡航空，2008年交付13架，2009年25架，2010年將達至最大產能，一年交付45架。A380最大客戶阿聯酋國際航空得知消息後考慮縮減訂單。而維珍航空則把交付日期推遲4年至2013年。空中巴士亦將A380F首次交付日期推遲至2010年。

2006年11月7日，聯邦快遞(Fedex)宣佈因為交機延誤而取消10架A380-800F的訂單，轉向波音訂購15架波音777-200貨機。

2007年3月2日，UPS宣佈有意本年稍後取消10架A380貨機的訂單。[18]

2007年3月1日，空中巴士的母公司EADS宣佈暫停其A380型貨機的生產工作。[33]

2007年5月7日，阿聯國際航空宣佈他們將再訂購4架A380客機，目前一共訂購47架，為A380最大客戶。[來源請求]

2007年5月24日，法國航空發表公司機隊更新計畫中將再訂購2架A380客機（法航將以A380和B777-300ER取代B747機隊）。[34]

2007年10月15日起交付新加坡航空，為三艙等471座配置，該公司於同年10月25日首航營新加坡-雪梨航線。[35]

[編輯] 技術擔憂

1. A380機身龐大，易產生湍流問題，國際民航組織（ICAO）發現，A380客機引起的氣流較波音747客機大，由多個民航組織成立的工作小組建議，A380客機起飛後，中、小型航機要隔3分鐘後才能使用跑道，重型航機亦要等候2分鐘。
2. 空客發言人克拉赫特透露，可載客達555人的A380客機，機翼上星期在法國土魯斯進行靜力測試時，發現機翼尖往上彎曲到7.4米時，即在可承受最大載重量1.45倍時出現破裂，位置是在機翼的兩個引擎之間。據了解，由於國際規例要求機翼必須能承受最大載重量的1.5倍，所以這次的測試結果反映出 A380客機機翼在遇上亂流或進行緊急降落時，可承受的最大重力未能達到標準，離要求還差3.3%。

[編輯] 瑣事

* 於電影《高凶三萬尺》（Flightplan，又譯《空中危機》）中的虛構飛機「E-474」，其全雙層設計及4具發動機均十分類似A380。而名字E-474則明顯是衍生自波音747 (B-747)。
* 在研發初期，空中巴士給A380起了「Megaliner」的綽號。

[編輯] 詳細規格
四款世上最大型飛機的尺寸比較
四款世上最大型飛機的尺寸比較

咖啡色字為A380F 貨機型數據[36][1]

基本資料

* 機師數目：2
* 載客量：555（3級）或 853（1級）
* 載貨量：66.4公噸（146,400磅）貨物，可搭載38個LD3貨櫃或163個貨板
o 152.4公噸（336,000磅）或 158公噸
* 動力裝置：4具渦輪扇葉發動機，每具推動力達 311 千牛頓（70,000 磅力）。勞斯萊斯特侖特 (Trent) 900 或 發動機聯盟 GP7200。
o 4×340 千牛頓（76,000 磅力）。

尺寸

* 長度：73 米 （239英尺6英寸）
* 翼展： 79.8 米 （261英尺10英寸）
* 高度：24.1 米 （79英尺1英寸）
* 機翼面積：845 平方米 （9,100平方英尺）

重量及燃油運載量

* 典型空載重量：276,800 公斤 （610,200 磅）
o 252,200 公斤 （556,000 磅）
* 最大起飛重量 (MTOW)：560,000 公斤 （1,235,000 磅）
o 590,000 公斤 （1,300,000 磅）
* 最大燃油運載量：310,000 公升 （81,890 美制加侖）
o 310,000 公升 （或 352,000 公升）

性能

* 典型巡航速度：0.85 馬赫 （約每小時1,050公里 或 每小時647英里 或 562節）
* 最高巡航速度：0.89 馬赫
* 航程：15,200 公里（8,200 海里）[37]
o 10,400 公里 （5,600 海里）
* 最高巡航高度：13,100 米 （43,000英尺）

[編輯] 媒體
維基共享資源中相關的多媒體資源：
Airbus A380

* 正在滑行的A380（檔案資訊）
o 空中巴士A380正向起飛跑道滑行，準備進行第一次飛行的連續鏡頭。2005年4月27日。
o 看不到影片嗎？請參見幫助頁面。


[編輯] 參考

1. ^ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A380 Freighter Specifications Airbus S.A.S - 於2006-09-16造訪。
2. ↑ 空客A380飛機乘客疏散測試成功通過官方認證，南京航空航天大學民航學院
3. ↑ 陳俊俠，空客A380獲歐美航空管理機構適航認證，新華網
4. ↑ 全球最大客機A380首度造訪台灣
5. ↑ [http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/a380/specifications.html 空客A380飛機性能
6. ↑ Trent 900 Specifications Rolls-Royce
7. ↑ GP7200 Specifications Engine Alliance
8. ↑ Airbus Evacuates 873 People From A380 in 80 Seconds in Test Andrea Rothman, Bloomberg, 2006年3月26日
9. ↑ Airbus A380 News, URL accessed 2006年6月11日
10. ↑ Orders & Deliveries to 30 June
11. ↑ Airbus A380
12. ↑ Airbus A380
13. ↑ Airbus A380
14. ↑ Airbus A380
15. ↑ Airbus A380
16. ↑ Airbus A380
17. ↑ Airbus A380
18. ^ 18.0 18.1 UPS to Cancel A380 Order，United Parcel Service of America, Inc.
19. ↑ Airbus A380
20. ↑ [1]
21. ↑ [2]
22. ↑ [3]
23. ↑ [4]
24. ↑ [5]
25. ↑ [6]
26. ↑ [7]
27. ↑ [8]
28. ↑
29. ↑ "Bob Jamieson，More Setbacks for Airbus Superjumbo Jet，ABC News，June 14, 2006。
30. ↑ "David Kaminski-Morrow，Farnborough: SIA shocks the air show by ordering 20 Airbus A350s, nine further A380s，Flight International，2006年6月21日。
31. ↑ "Geoffrey Thomas，MAS prepares to cancel A380 order，ATWOnline，2006年6月20日。
32. ↑ "Aaron Karp，ILFC considers $3 billion A380 cancellation as pressure on Airbus mounts，ATWOnline，2006年6月21日。
33. ↑ 空中巴士母公司EADS宣佈暫停生產A380型貨機，路透社
34. ↑ [9]
35. ↑ [10]
36. ↑
37. ↑ [11]

深海奇景

鬚鯨科是鬚鯨亞目下最大的一個科，包含了兩個屬共計九種鬚鯨。其中包括目前世界上體型最大的動物－─藍鯨，最大體重達150公噸以上，體型次大的兩種鬚鯨體重也常突破50公噸，就連本科中體型最小的小鬚鯨，體重也可達到九公噸以上。
目錄
[顯示]

* 1 俗名由來
* 2 分佈
* 3 遷徙
* 4 攝食方式
* 5 系統分類
o 5.1 鬚鯨科物種列表
* 6 參考書目

[編輯] 俗名由來

鬚鯨科的成員在英文中通常統稱為rorquals，這個名稱由挪威語演變而來，原意為「有深溝的鯨」(furrow whale)，這是因為牠們有一項共通點：自下頷到肚臍間有許多長溝狀的皮膚皺摺，稱為喉腹摺(throat groove 或 ventral pleat)，其主要功用在於輔助進食。同屬鬚鯨亞目的灰鯨，以及某些屬於齒鯨亞目的喙鯨類也有類似喉腹摺的構造，不過前者只有四條簡單的摺皺，在數量上與鬚鯨科的數十至近百條相距甚遠；而喙鯨的所謂「喉腹摺」僅是兩頰處各有一道V字型的凹槽。

小鬚鯨在英文裡通常稱作minke，這個名稱的由來可能跟一位挪威或德國籍的捕鯨砲手Meincke有關，據說他曾在二十世紀初的一次捕鯨行動中將小鬚鯨誤認為藍鯨而捕殺；另有一說是這位捕鯨船員認為牠們太小而不值得捕捉，minke是他當時脫口而出的戲謔稱呼。

[編輯] 分佈

鬚鯨科的分佈範圍廣及全世界的海域，藍鯨、長鬚鯨、大翅鯨、塞鯨、與小鬚鯨等在各大洋都可能發現其蹤跡，而布氏鯨則較為特殊，牠們似乎不曾出現在北極或南極周遭的寒冷海域，而是終年停留於溫、熱帶地區。鬚鯨科鬚鯨多半棲息於遠洋而極少接近海岸，布氏鯨與大翅鯨是唯二的例外：通常前者終年皆可在近岸處發現，而後者在每年的南北遷徙途中時常會接近岸邊。

在鬚鯨科中只有最大與最小的兩個物種─藍鯨與小鬚鯨─會游到南極極南端的寒冷海域。長鬚鯨通常不會接近南極的冰棚地區，而塞鯨的活動範圍則更偏北方。（在北半球由於陸地範圍較大，對氣候與洋流的影響程度較強，上述情形較不明顯。）不論是那一種鬚鯨，一般而言體型較大的個體會有接近極區的傾向，而較年輕的鯨則多半留在較偏南（或北）的地方。

[編輯] 遷徙
躍身擊浪的大翅鯨
躍身擊浪的大翅鯨

大多數鬚鯨都在冬季時於溫、熱帶海域繁衍後代，夏季在兩極處取食豐盛的浮游生物與磷蝦，為此牠們每年都得作長距離的南北遷徙。布氏鯨是鬚鯨科中唯一的例外，牠們似乎沒有明顯覓食期與繁殖季的劃分，部分族群甚至可能不具遷徙性。

[編輯] 攝食方式

各種鬚鯨的食性不盡相同，如藍鯨僅以磷蝦為食，布氏鯨則以小型魚類為主。鬚鯨科的攝食行為有時被描述為「狼吞虎嚥」（gulper），因為牠們的進食方式是張開大口一次吞下大量海水，此時牠們會藉著擴張喉腹摺來增加口腔的容積，接著閉上嘴巴將水吐出，海水中所含的食物便會被鯨鬚擋住而留在口中。

[編輯] 系統分類

分類學上將鬚鯨科分為二個亞科，即鬚鯨亞科（Balaenopterinae）與大翅鯨亞科（Megapterinae），兩個亞科之下各僅含一個屬，分別是鬚鯨屬Balaenoptera與大翅鯨屬Megaptera。然而，由各種鬚鯨的種系發生史來看，現行的分類表似乎仍有修改的空間。

2003年11月日本科學家正式宣佈發現新種鬚鯨：Balaenoptera omurai，目前尚無正式通用的英文俗名，中文暫譯為「角島鯨」或「大村鯨」，種名「omurai」源自日本鯨類學者Hideo Omura的姓。角島鯨是在印度─太平洋海域發現，外型上接近長鬚鯨，但體型明顯較小。

[編輯] 鬚鯨科物種列表
以DNA定序為依據編排的鬚鯨科系統演化樹圖
以DNA定序為依據編排的鬚鯨科系統演化樹圖

* 鬚鯨亞科 Subfamily Balaenopterinae
o 鬚鯨屬 Genus Balaenoptera
+ 長鬚鯨 Fin whale, B. physalus
+ 塞鯨 Sei whale, B. borealis
+ 布氏鯨 Bryde's whale, B. brydei
+ 小布氏鯨 Pygmy Bryde's Whale, B. edeni
+ 藍鯨 Blue Whale, B. musculus
+ 小鬚鯨 Northern Minke Whale, B. acutorostrata
+ 南極小鬚鯨 Southern(Antarctic) Minke Whale, B. bonaerensis
+ 角島鯨 B. omurai
* 大翅鯨亞科 Subfamily Megapterinae
o 大翅鯨屬 Genus Megaptera
+ 大翅鯨（座頭鯨） Humpback Whale, M. novaeangliae

[編輯] 參考書目

（本文為譯作，原文參見英文維基「rorqual」條目）

1. Pieter A. Folken, Randall R. Reeves, etc. / illustrated by Pieter A. Folkens, 《Guide to MARINE MAMMALS of the World》, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002: p184-187. ISBN 0-375-41141-0

2. Mark Carwardine / illustrated by Martin CammDorling, 《WHALES, DOLPHINS AND PORPOISES》, Dorling Kindersley, 1995: p54-55. ISBN 0-7513-2781-6

3. 馬克‧卡沃達著；馬丁‧卡姆繪圖；陳順發翻譯，《鯨與海豚圖鑑》，貓頭鷹出版社，1997 [民86]：54-55頁。ISBN 957-9684-16-2

4. John L. Bannister, 《Baleen Whales (Mysticetes)》, edit by William F. Perrin, Bernd Würsig, etc. 《Encyclopedia of marine mammals》, Academic Press, 2002: p62-73. ISBN 0-12-551340-2

5. Shiro Wada, Masayuki Oishi & Tadasu K. Yamada, 《A newly discovered species of living baleen whale》, 《NATURE》,20 November 2003, Vol426: p278-281. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v426/n6964/abs/nature02103.html;jsessionid=3EAA135CBCD13848C417A894CFFA5BD2
取自"http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E9%A1%BB%E9%B2%B8%E7%A7%91&variant=zh-tw"

2個分類: 生物分類框 動物 | 鬚鯨科

花式球 運動

桌球是一種世界流行的球類體育項目。它的英語官方名稱是「table tennis」，意即「桌上網球」。

乒乓球一名起源自1900年，因其打擊時發出「Ping Pong」的聲音而得名，在中國就以「乒乓球」作為它的官方名稱，香港及澳門等地區亦同時使用。然而，台灣和日本則稱為桌球，意指球桌上的球類運動。

桌球由網球（tennis）發展而來。它起源於英國。20世紀初，桌球運動在歐洲和亞洲蓬勃開展起來。1926年，在德國柏林舉行了國際桌球邀請賽，同時成立了國際桌球聯合會。第一屆世桌賽譜寫了桌球早期運動的歷史新篇章，為今後的世界錦標賽奠定了基礎。從1926年至1939年，世界桌球錦標賽每年都舉行一次。從2003年第47屆世桌賽開始，國際桌聯決定將把單項與團體比賽分開進行。多年的發展也使桌球的球拍、比賽用球和規則發生了很大的變化。桌球運動於1988年夏季奧運會被首次列為奧運會正式比賽項目。

在中國，早期的桌球運動僅在上海、廣州、北京、天津等少數大城市開展。 經過多年的發展，已成為一項全民普及的運動，中國隊在世界大賽上也奪得一個又一個的冠軍。桌球在中國被譽為「國球」。

[編輯] 簡單規則

當今的世界比賽標準用球是一個具有高彈性的空心塑料球。球直徑40毫米，重2.7克。球台2.74米長，1.525米寬，76厘米高。臺面用高密度纖維板或者類似的加工木料做成，並被塗上了一層低摩擦的專用光滑塗料。 球台被一個高15.25厘米的球網分為兩部分。球員必須配備球拍。球拍由木製球板、海綿、以及橡膠皮組成。比賽的每一分由一方球員發球開始。發球員必須用手把球幾乎垂直地向上拋起，不得使球旋轉，並使球在離開不執拍手的手掌之後上升不少於16厘米。當球從拋起的最高點下降時，發球員方可擊球，使球首先觸及本方台區，然後越過或繞過球網裝置，再觸及接發球員的台區。然後接球員必須還擊，使球直接越過或繞過球網裝置，或觸及球網裝置後，再觸及對方台區。然後雙方球員輪流擊球，如此反覆下去，直到有一方失分。

失分情況：

比賽中：

* 球在本方球台彈跳兩次而未擊球。
* 在球彈到本方球臺上之前就擊球。
* 未能在擊球後使球彈到對方的臺面上。（除非對方在球彈起來之前擊球）
* 連續擊球2次或以上
* 比賽期間用手按著球枱

發球時：

* 發球失誤，未能擊到球或者球下網或者出界
* 發球違例, 未能將球拋至高於15厘米或發球時球不在掌心

一方失分，則另一方得分。雙方球員輪換發球，每人一次發兩球（兩分）。國際比賽一般採用7局4勝制和5局3勝制。每局11分，先得到11分者贏得1局。每局結束交換場地。特別的，當比賽打至10比10平時，每一球均交換發球權，同時一方球員必須淨勝對方兩球才能取得這一局的勝利。決勝局中，一方球員先得到5分時需交換場地

[編輯] 桌球發展

桌球在世界範圍內作為一種娛樂項目而廣泛流行。近20年由於出色戰績中國桌球隊在世界乒壇獨占熬頭，誕生了一批如鄧亞萍，王楠，孔令輝，劉國梁，王勵勤，張怡寧等世界最頂尖選手。其他優秀選手選手來自世界各地，如瑞典、韓國等等。桌球運動在匈牙利、克羅埃西亞也很流行，因此這些國家也誕生了出色的運動員。

[編輯] 商業相關

桌球運動曾被做成第一個成功的商業化的電視遊戲"Pong".

[編輯] 政治相關

1970年代，中美關係極度緊張，中國邀請美國桌球隊訪華，其後中國桌球隊回訪。這成為了改善中美關係的一個新起點。不久，美國總統尼克森訪華，這是美國總統首次來中國訪問。因此人們把這次歷史事件稱為「乒乓外交」。

[編輯] 比賽用具

球拍由膠皮、海綿、底板組成。膠皮必須一面是紅色，另一面是黑色。 球拍的大小，形狀和重量不限，但是在使用材料上有一定限制，85%必須為木材，其餘可以用纖維方式出現，例如編織碳，但底板應平整、堅硬，例如法國選手埃洛瓦所使用的球拍是小提琴形狀的，但並不違反規定。

驚人合作...比人浪強一千倍

人浪、又叫做波浪舞。是種常見於體育活動(尤其是球類運動)中，在場觀眾自發在觀眾席上進行的遊戲。觀眾席上的觀眾以排為單位依照順序起立再坐下，呈現類似波浪的效果。波浪舞可以帶動觀眾席的氣氛，除了觀眾自發性的動作外，有時也會有帶頭者以旗幟等物作定位標識，領頭者會拿著大旗幟奔跑，旗幟跑到哪一排觀眾便站立再坐下，可以製造整齊劃一的效果。

人腦鬥電腦----扭計骰

扭計骰（英語：Rubik's Cube,原名 Magic Cube），是匈牙利建築學教授和雕塑家厄爾諾·魯比克（Ernő Rubik），於1974年發明的機械益智玩具。

扭計骰在1980年代最流行，至今未衰。面世不久後，很多類似的玩具也紛紛出現，有些出自發明人魯比克，有些則是出自別人之手。包括4 × 4 × 4，2 × 2 × 2 和5 × 5 × 5 版的扭計骰等等

作為扭計骰的發明人，魯比克教授擁有匈牙利專利號#170062，但他沒有申請國際專利。

魔方為一种用于娱乐的玩具，最初的魔方是三阶立方体，26个小方块和一个三维十字连接轴组成。其中包含6个处于面最中心无法移动的块，12个位于棱上的块和8个角块。六个面每个有一种颜色，一般来说，标准的魔方的颜色应该是蓝、白、红、绿、黄和橙色，其中蓝綠相对、白黄相对、红橙相对。

[编辑] 基本术语

* 阶：阶数是指魔方每个边所具有的块数，比如三阶魔方每个边就有3个小块。
* 复原：指魔方从非原始状态到原始状态的过程。
* POP：指在复原中魔方的某些组成部分从魔方上面脱离的情况，如果是出现在比赛中作为无效的复原过程。
* DNF：即Did Not Finish指魔方复原者感觉无法在自己满意的时间内完成魔方而弃权的情况，在比赛中可以有一次DNF。

How to File an Insurance Claim

October 2006 (Medialink) -- The best time to learn how to file an insurance claim is before you actually have to file one. The process may go smoother and your insurance company may be able to settle your claim quicker if you are prepared.

Being prepared means knowing what your policy covers. It's recommended that you review your policy with your agent once a year. It's possible your coverage needs have changed. Or, you may want to adjust your deductible.

If you do need to file a claim, the process is generally a simple one. Most insurance companies offer 800 numbers. You may also be able to file the claim online.

After you file a claim, be prepared to answer questions from an insurance adjuster. The more information you can provide, the smoother your claim may go.
Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium. Insurer, in economics, is the company that sells the insurance. Insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount, called the premium, to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.

1. A large number of homogeneous exposure units. The vast majority of insurance policies are provided for individual members of very large classes. Automobile insurance, for example, covered about 175 million automobiles in the United States in 2004.[2] The existence of a large number of homogeneous exposure units allows insurers to benefit from the so-called “law of large numbers,” which in effect states that as the number of exposure units increases, the actual results are increasingly likely to become close to expected results. There are exceptions to this criterion. Lloyd's of London is famous for insuring the life or health of actors, actresses and sports figures. Satellite Launch insurance covers events that are infrequent. Large commercial property policies may insure exceptional properties for which there are no ‘homogeneous’ exposure units. Despite failing on this criterion, many exposures like these are generally considered to be insurable.
2. Definite Loss. The event that gives rise to the loss that is subject to insurance should, at least in principle, take place at a known time, in a known place, and from a known cause. The classic example is death of an insured on a life insurance policy. Fire, automobile accidents, and worker injuries may all easily meet this criterion. Other types of losses may only be definite in theory. Occupational disease, for instance, may involve prolonged exposure to injurious conditions where no specific time, place or cause is identifiable. Ideally, the time, place and cause of a loss should be clear enough that a reasonable person, with sufficient information, could objectively verify all three elements.
3. Accidental Loss. The event that constitutes the trigger of a claim should be fortuitous, or at least outside the control of the beneficiary of the insurance. The loss should be ‘pure,’ in the sense that it results from an event for which there is only the opportunity for cost. Events that contain speculative elements, such as ordinary business risks, are generally not considered insurable.
4. Large Loss. The size of the loss must be meaningful from the perspective of the insured. Insurance premiums need to cover both the expected cost of losses, plus the cost of issuing and administering the policy, adjusting losses, and supplying the capital needed to reasonably assure that the insurer will be able to pay claims. For small losses these latter costs may be several times the size of the expected cost of losses. There is little point in paying such costs unless the protection offered has real value to a buyer.
5. Affordable Premium. If the likelihood of an insured event is so high, or the cost of the event so large, that the resulting premium is large relative to the amount of protection offered, it is not likely that anyone will buy insurance, even if on offer. Further, as the accounting profession formally recognizes in financial accounting standards (See FAS 113 for example), the premium cannot be so large that there is not a reasonable chance of a significant loss to the insurer. If there is no such chance of loss, the transaction may have the form of insurance, but not the substance.
6. Calculable Loss. There are two elements that must be at least estimable, if not formally calculable: the probability of loss, and the attendant cost. Probability of loss is generally an empirical exercise, while cost has more to do with the ability of a reasonable person in possession of a copy of the insurance policy and a proof of loss associated with a claim presented under that policy to make a reasonably definite and objective evaluation of the amount of the loss recoverable as a result of the claim.
7. Limited risk of catastrophically large losses. The essential risk is often aggregation. If the same event can cause losses to numerous policyholders of the same insurer, the ability of that insurer to issue policies becomes constrained, not by factors surrounding the individual characteristics of a given policyholder, but by the factors surrounding the sum of all policyholders so exposed. Typically, insurers prefer to limit their exposure to a loss from a single event to some small portion of their capital base, on the order of 5 percent. Where the loss can be aggregated, or an individual policy could produce exceptionally large claims, the capital constraint will restrict an insurers appetite for additional policyholders. The classic example is earthquake insurance, where the ability of an underwriter to issue a new policy depends on the number and size of the policies that it has already underwritten. Wind insurance in hurricane zones, particularly along coast lines, is another example of this phenomenon. In extreme cases, the aggregation can affect the entire industry, since the combined capital of insurers and reinsurers can be small compared to the needs of potential policyholders in areas exposed to aggregation risk. In commercial fire insurance it is possible to find single properties whose total exposed value is well in excess of any individual insurer’s capital constraint. Such properties are generally shared among several insurers, or are insured by a single insurer who syndicates the risk into the reinsurance market.

[edit] Indemnification

An entity seeking to transfer risk (an individual, corporation, or association of any type, etc.) becomes the 'insured' party once risk is assumed by an 'insurer', the insuring party, by means of a contract, called an insurance 'policy'. Generally, an insurance contract includes, at a minimum, the following elements: the parties (the insurer, the insured, the beneficiaries), the premium, the period of coverage, the particular loss event covered, the amount of coverage (i.e., the amount to be paid to the insured or beneficiary in the event of a loss), and exclusions (events not covered). An insured is thus said to be "indemnified" against the loss events covered in the policy.

When insured parties experience a loss for a specified peril, the coverage entitles the policyholder to make a 'claim' against the insurer for the covered amount of loss as specified by the policy. The fee paid by the insured to the insurer for assuming the risk is called the 'premium'. Insurance premiums from many insureds are used to fund accounts reserved for later payment of claims—in theory for a relatively few claimants—and for overhead costs. So long as an insurer maintains adequate funds set aside for anticipated losses (i.e., reserves), the remaining margin is an insurer's profit.

[edit] When is a policy really insurance?
“ Insurance provides indemnification against loss or liability from specified events and circumstances that may occur or be discovered during a specified period. ”

— FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 113, "Accounting for Reinsurance of Short-Duration and Long-Duration Contracts" December 1992

An operational definition of insurance is that it is

* the benefit provided by a particular kind of indemnity contract, called an insurance policy;
* that is issued by one of several kinds of legal entities (stock company, mutual company, reciprocal, or Lloyd's syndicate, for example), any of which may be called an insurer;
* in which the insurer promises to pay on behalf of or to indemnify another party, called a policyholder or insured;
* that protects the insured against loss caused by those perils subject to the indemnity in exchange for consideration known as an insurance premium.

In recent years this kind of operational definition proved inadequate as a result of contracts that had the form but not the substance of insurance. The essence of insurance is the transfer of risk from the insured to one or more insurers. How much risk a contract actually transfers proved to be at the heart of the controversy.

This issue arose most clearly in reinsurance, where the use of Financial Reinsurance to reengineer insurer balance sheets under US GAAP became fashionable during the 1980s. The accounting profession raised serious concerns about the use of reinsurance in which little if any actual risk was transferred, and went on to address the issue in FAS 113, cited above. While on its face, FAS 113 is limited to accounting for reinsurance transactions, the guidance it contains is generally conceded to be equally applicable to US GAAP accounting for insurance transactions executed by commercial enterprises.

[edit] Does the contract contain adequate risk transfer?

FAS 113 contains two tests, called the '9a and 9b tests,' that collectively require that a contract create a reasonable chance of a significant loss to the underwriter for it to be considered insurance.

9. Indemnification of the ceding enterprise against loss or liability relating to insurance risk in reinsurance of short-duration contracts requires both of the following, unless the condition in paragraph 11 is met:

a. The reinsurer assumes significant insurance risk under the reinsured portions of the underlying insurance contracts.

b. It is reasonably possible that the reinsurer may realize a significant loss from the transaction.

Paragraph 10 of FAS 113 makes clear that the 9a and 9b tests are based on comparing the present value of all costs to the PV of all income streams. FAS gives no guidance on the choice of a discount rate on which to base such a calculation, other than to say that all outcomes tested should use the same rate.

Statement of Statutory Accounting Principles ("SSAP") 62, issued by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, applies to so-called 'statutory accounting' - the accounting for insurance enterprises to conform with regulation. Paragraph 12 of SSAP 62 is nearly identical to the FAS 113 test, while paragraph 14, which is otherwise very similar to paragraph 10 of FAS 113, additionally contains a justification for the use of a single fixed rate for discounting purposes. The choice of an "reasonable and appropriate" discount rate is left as a matter of judgment.

[edit] Is There a brightline test?

Neither FAS 113 nor SAP 62 defines the terms "reasonable" or "significant." Ideally, one would like to be able to substitute values for both terms. It would be much simpler if one could apply a test of an X percent chance of a loss of Y percent or greater. Such tests have been proposed, including one famously attributed to an SEC official who is said to have opined in an after lunch talk that a 10 percent chance of a 10 percent loss was sufficient to establish both reasonableness and significance. Indeed, many insurers and reinsurers still apply this "10/10" test as a benchmark for risk transfer testing.

It should be obvious that an attempt to use any numerical rule such as the 10/10 test will quickly run into problems. Suppose a contract has a 1 percent chance of a 10,000 percent loss? It should be reasonably self-evident that such a contract is insurance, but it fails one half of the 10/10 test. It does not appear that any "brightline" test of reasonableness nor significance can be constructed.

Excess of loss contracts, like those commonly used for umbrella and general liability insurance, or to insure against property losses, will typically have a low ratio of premium paid to maximum loss recoverable. This ratio (expressed as a percentage), commonly called the "rate on line" for historical reasons related to underwriting practices at Lloyd's of London, will typically be low for contracts that contain reasonably self-evident risk transfer. As the ratio increases to approximate the present value of the limit of coverage, self-evidence decreases and disappears.

Contracts with low rates on line may survive modest features that limit the amount of risk transferred. As rates on line increase, such risk limiting features become increasingly important.

[edit] "Safe harbor" exemptions

The analysis of reasonableness and significance is an estimate of the probability of different gain or loss outcomes under different loss scenarios. It takes time and resources to perform the analysis, which constitutes a burden without value where risk transfer is reasonably self-evident.

Guidance exists for insurers and reinsurers, whose CEO's and CFO's attest annually as to the reinsurance agreements their firms undertake. The American Academy of Actuaries, for instance, identifies three categories of contract as outside the requirement of attestation:

* Inactive contracts. If there are no premiums due nor losses payable, and the insurer is not taking any credit for the reinsurance, determining risk transfer is irrelevant.
* Pre-1994 contracts. The attestation requirement only applies to contracts that were entered into, renewed or amended on or after 1 January 1994. Prior contracts need not be analyzed.
* Where risk transfer is "reasonably self-evident."

"Risk transfer is reasonably self-evident in most traditional per-risk or per-occurrence excess of loss reinsurance contracts. For these contracts, a predetermined amount of premium is paid and the reinsurer assumes nearly all or all of the potential variability in the underlying losses, and it is evident from reading the basic terms of the contract that the reinsurer can incur a significant loss. In many cases, there is no aggregate limit on the reinsurer's loss. The existence of certain experience-based contract terms, such as experience accounts, profit commissions, and additional premiums, generally reduce the amount of risk transfer and make it less likely that risk transfer is reasonably self-evident."

- "Reinsurance Attestation Supplement 20-1: Risk Transfer Testing Practice Note," American Academy of Actuaries, November 2005. ...

[edit] Risk limiting features

An insurance policy should not contain provisions that allow one side or the other to unilaterally void the contract in exchange for benefit. Provisions that void the contract for failure to perform or for fraud or material misrepresentation are ordinary and acceptable.

The policy should have a term of not more than about three years. This is not a hard and fast rule. Contracts of over five years duration are classified as ‘long-term,’ which can impact the accounting treatment, and can obviously introduce the possibility that over the entire term of the contract, no actual risk will transfer. The coverage provided by the contract need not cease at the end of the term (e.g., the contract can cover occurrences as opposed to claims made or claims paid).

The contract should be considered to include any other agreements, written or oral, that confer rights, create obligations, or create benefits on the part of either or both parties. Ideally, the contract should contain an ‘Entire Agreement’ clause that assures there are no undisclosed written or oral side agreements that confer rights, create obligations, or create benefits on the part of either or both parties. If such rights, obligations or benefits exist, they must be factored into the tests of reasonableness and significance.

The contract should not contain arbitrary limitations on timing of payments. Provisions that assure both parties of time to properly present and consider claims are acceptable provided they are commercially reasonable and customary.

Provisions that expressly create actual or notional accounts that accrue actual or notional interest suggest that the contract contains, in fact, a deposit.

Provisions for additional or return premium do not, in and of themselves, render a contract something other than insurance. However, it should be unlikely that either a return or additional premium provision be triggered, and neither party should have discretion regarding the timing of such triggering.

All of the events that would give rise to claims under the contract cannot have materialized prior to the inception of the contract. If this "all events" test is not met, then the contract is considered to be a retroactive contract, for which the accounting treatment becomes complex.

[edit] Insurer’s business model

Profit = earned premium + investment income - incurred loss - underwriting expenses.

Insurers make money in two ways: (1) through underwriting, the process by which insurers select the risks to insure and decide how much in premiums to charge for accepting those risks and (2) by investing the premiums they collect from insureds.

The most difficult aspect of the insurance business is the underwriting of policies. Using a wide assortment of data, insurers predict the likelihood that a claim will be made against their policies and price products accordingly. To this end, insurers use actuarial science to quantify the risks they are willing to assume and the premium they will charge to assume them. Data is analyzed to fairly accurately project the rate of future claims based on a given risk. Actuarial science uses statistics and probability to analyze the risks associated with the range of perils covered, and these scientific principles are used to determine an insurer's overall exposure. Upon termination of a given policy, the amount of premium collected and the investment gains thereon minus the amount paid out in claims is the insurer's underwriting profit on that policy. Of course, from the insurer's perspective, some policies are winners (i.e., the insurer pays out less in claims and expenses than it receives in premiums and investment income) and some are losers (i.e., the insurer pays out more in claims and expenses than it receives in premiums and investment income).

An insurer's underwriting performance is measured in its combined ratio. The loss ratio (incurred losses and loss-adjustment expenses divided by net earned premium) is added to the expense ratio (underwriting expenses divided by net premium written) to determine the company's combined ratio. The combined ratio is a reflection of the company's overall underwriting profitability. A combined ratio of less than 100 percent indicates profitability, while anything over 100 indicates a loss.

Insurance companies also earn investment profits on “float”. “Float” or available reserve is the amount of money, at hand at any given moment, that an insurer has collected in insurance premiums but has not been paid out in claims. Insurers start investing insurance premiums as soon as they are collected and continue to earn interest on them until claims are paid out.

In the United States, the underwriting loss of property and casualty insurance companies was $142.3 billion in the five years ending 2003. But overall profit for the same period was $68.4 billion, as the result of float. Some insurance industry insiders, most notably Hank Greenberg, do not believe that it is forever possible to sustain a profit from float without an underwriting profit as well, but this opinion is not universally held. Naturally, the “float” method is difficult to carry out in an economically depressed period. Bear markets do cause insurers to shift away from investments and to toughen up their underwriting standards. So a poor economy generally means high insurance premiums. This tendency to swing between profitable and unprofitable periods over time is commonly known as the "underwriting" or insurance cycle. [3]

Property and casualty insurers currently make the most money from their auto insurance line of business. Generally better statistics are available on auto losses and underwriting on this line of business has benefited greatly from advances in computing. Additionally, property losses in the US, due to natural catastrophes, have exacerbated this trend.

Finally, claims and loss handling is the materialized utility of insurance. In managing the claims-handling function, insurers seek to balance the elements of customer satisfaction, administrative handling expenses, and claims overpayment leakages. As part of this balancing act, fraudulent insurance practices are a major business risk that must be managed and overcome.

[edit] Gambling analogy

Both gambling and insurance transfer risk and reward.

Gambling transactions offer the possibility of either a loss or a gain. Gambling creates losers and winners. Insurance transactions do not present the possibility of gain. Insurance offers financial support sufficient to replace loss, not to create pure gain.

Gamblers can continue spending, buying more risk than they can afford to pay for. Insurance buyers can only spend up to the limit of what carriers would accept to insure; their loss is limited to the amount of the premium.

Gamblers, by creating new risk transfer, are risk seekers. Insurance buyers are risk avoiders, creating risk transfer in terms of their need to reduce exposure to large losses.

Gambling or gaming is designed at the start so that the odds are not affected by the players' conduct or behavior and not required to conduct risk mitigation practices. But players can prepare and increase their odds of winning in certain games such as poker or blackjack. In contrast to gambling or gaming, to obtain certain types of insurance, such as fire insurance, policyholders can be required to conduct risk mitigation practices, such as installing sprinklers and using fireproof building materials to reduce the odds of loss to fire. In addition, after a proven loss, insurers specialize in providing rehabilitation to minimize the total loss.

Insurance, the avoiding, mitigating and transferring of risk, creates greater predictability for individuals and organizations.

[edit] History of insurance

In some sense we can say that insurance appears simultaneously with the appearance of human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: money economies (with markets, money, financial instruments and so on) and non-money or natural economies (without money, markets, financial instruments and so on). The second type is a more ancient form than the first. In such an economy and community, we can see insurance in the form of people helping each other. For example, if a house burns down, the members of the community help build a new one. Should the same thing happen to one's neighbor, the other neighbors must help. Otherwise, neighbors will not receive help in the future. This type of insurance has survived to the present day in some countries where modern money economy with its financial instruments is not widespread (for example countries in the territory of the former Soviet Union).

Turning to insurance in the modern sense (i.e., insurance in a modern money economy, in which insurance is part of the financial sphere), early methods of transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, respectively. Chinese merchants traveling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel's capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen.

Achaemenian monarchs were the first to insure their people and made it official by registering the insuring process in governmental notary offices. The insurance tradition was performed each year in Norouz (beginning of the Iranian New Year); the heads of different ethnic groups as well as others willing to take part, presented gifts to the monarch. The most important gift was presented during a special ceremony. When a gift was worth more than 10,000 Derrik (Achaemenian gold coin weighing 8.35-8.42) the issue was registered in a special office. This was advantageous to those who presented such special gifts. For others, the presents were fairly assessed by the confidants of the court. Then the assessment was registered in special offices.

The purpose of registering was that whenever the person who presented the gift registered by the court was in trouble, the monarch and the court would help him. Jahez, a historian and writer, writes in one of his books on ancient Iran: "[W]henever the owner of the present is in trouble or wants to construct a building, set up a feast, have his children married, etc. the one in charge of this in the court would check the registration. If the registered amount exceeded 10,000 Derrik, he or she would receive an amount of twice as much."

A thousand years later, the inhabitants of Rhodes invented the concept of the 'general average'. Merchants whose goods were being shipped together would pay a proportionally divided premium which would be used to reimburse any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during storm or sinkage.

The Greeks and Romans introduced the origins of health and life insurance c. 600 AD when they organized guilds called "benevolent societies" which cared for the families and paid funeral expenses of members upon death. Guilds in the Middle Ages served a similar purpose. The Talmud deals with several aspects of insuring goods. Before insurance was established in the late 17th century, "friendly societies" existed in England, in which people donated amounts of money to a general sum that could be used for emergencies.

Separate insurance contracts (i.e., insurance policies not bundled with loans or other kinds of contracts) were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, as were insurance pools backed by pledges of landed estates. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, a separation of roles that first proved useful in marine insurance. Insurance became far more sophisticated in post-Renaissance Europe, and specialized varieties developed.

Toward the end of the seventeenth century, London's growing importance as a center for trade increased demand for marine insurance. In the late 1680s, Mr. Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house that became a popular haunt of ship owners, merchants, and ships’ captains, and thereby a reliable source of the latest shipping news. It became the meeting place for parties wishing to insure cargoes and ships, and those willing to underwrite such ventures. Today, Lloyd's of London remains the leading market (note that it is not an insurance company) for marine and other specialist types of insurance, but it works rather differently than the more familiar kinds of insurance.

Insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 devoured 13,200 houses. In the aftermath of this disaster, Nicholas Barbon opened an office to insure buildings. In 1680, he established England's first fire insurance company, "The Fire Office," to insure brick and frame homes.

The first insurance company in the United States underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina, in 1732.

Benjamin Franklin helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly against fire in the form of perpetual insurance. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin's company was the first to make contributions toward fire prevention. Not only did his company warn against certain fire hazards, it refused to insure certain buildings where the risk of fire was too great, such as all wooden houses.

In the United States, regulation of the insurance industry is highly Balkanized, with primary responsibility assumed by individual state insurance departments. Whereas insurance markets have become centralized nationally and internationally, state insurance commissioners operate individually, though at times in concert through a national insurance commissioners' organization. In recent years, some have called for a dual state and federal regulatory system for insurance similar to that which oversees state banks and national banks.

In the state of New York, which has unique laws in keeping with its stature as a global business center, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was in a unique position to grapple with major national insurance brokerages. Spitzer alleged that Marsh & McLennan steered business to insurance carriers based on the amount of contingent commissions that could be extracted from carriers, rather than basing decisions on whether carriers had the best deals for clients. Several of the largest commercial insurance brokerages have since stopped accepting contingent commissions and have adopted new business models.

[edit] Types of insurance

Any risk that can be quantified can potentially be insured. Specific kinds of risk that may give rise to claims are known as "perils". An insurance policy will set out in detail which perils are covered by the policy and which are not.

Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of the many different types of insurance that exist. A single policy may cover risks in one or more of the categories set forth below. For example, auto insurance would typically cover both property risk (covering the risk of theft or damage to the car) and liability risk (covering legal claims from causing an accident). A homeowner's insurance policy in the U.S. typically includes property insurance covering damage to the home and the owner's belongings, liability insurance covering certain legal claims against the owner, and even a small amount of health insurance for medical expenses of guests who are injured on the owner's property.

* Automobile insurance, known in the UK as motor insurance, is probably the most common form of insurance and may cover both legal liability claims against the driver and loss of or damage to the insured's vehicle itself. Throughout most of the United States an auto insurance policy is required to legally operate a motor vehicle on public roads. In some jurisdictions, bodily injury compensation for automobile accident victims has been changed to a no-fault system, which reduces or eliminates the ability to sue for compensation but provides automatic eligibility for benefits. Credit card companies insure against damage on rented cars.
* Aviation insurance insures against hull, spares, deductible, hull war and liability risks.
* Boiler insurance (also known as boiler and machinery insurance or equipment breakdown insurance) insures against accidental physical damage to equipment or machinery.
* Builder's risk insurance insures against the risk of physical loss or damage to property during construction. Builder's risk insurance is typically written on an "all risk" basis covering damage due to any cause (including the negligence of the insured) not otherwise expressly excluded.
* Business insurance can be any kind of insurance that protects businesses against risks. Some principal subtypes of business insurance are (a) the various kinds of professional liability insurance, also called professional indemnity insurance, which are discussed below under that name; and (b) the business owners policy (BOP), which bundles into one policy many of the kinds of coverage that a business owner needs, in a way analogous to how homeowners insurance bundles the coverages that a homeowner needs.[4]
* Casualty insurance insures against accidents, not necessarily tied to any specific property.
* Credit insurance repays some or all of a loan back when certain things happen to the borrower such as unemployment, disability, or death. Mortgage insurance (which see below) is a form of credit insurance, although the name credit insurance more often is used to refer to policies that cover other kinds of debt.
* Crime insurance insures the policyholder against losses arising from the criminal acts of third parties. For example, a company can obtain crime insurance to cover losses arising from theft or embezzlement.
* Crop insurance "Farmers use crop insurance to reduce or manage various risks associated with growing crops. Such risks include crop loss or damage caused by weather, hail, drought, frost damage, insects, or disease, for instance."[5]
* Defense Base Act Workers' compensation or DBA Insurance insurance provides coverage for civilian workers hired by the government to perform contracts outside the US and Canada. DBA is required for all US citizens, US residents, US Green Card holders, and all employees or subcontractors hired on overseas government contracts. Depending on the country, Foreign Nationals must also be covered under DBA. This coverage typically includes expenses related to medical treatment and loss of wages, as well as disability and death benefits.
* Directors and officers liability insurance protects an organization (usually a corporation) from costs associated with litigation resulting from mistakes incurred by directors and officers for which they are liable. In the industry, it is usually called "D&O" for short.
* Disability insurance policies provide financial support in the event the policyholder is unable to work because of disabling illness or injury. It provides monthly support to help pay such obligations as mortgages and credit cards.
o Total permanent disability insurance insurance provides benefits when a person is permanently disabled and can no longer work in their profession, often taken as an adjunct to life insurance.
* Errors and omissions insurance: See "Professional liability insurance" under "Liability insurance".
* Expatriate insurance provides individuals and organizations operating outside of their home country with protection for automobiles, property, health, liability and business pursuits.
* Financial loss insurance protects individuals and companies against various financial risks. For example, a business might purchase cover to protect it from loss of sales if a fire in a factory prevented it from carrying out its business for a time. Insurance might also cover the failure of a creditor to pay money it owes to the insured. This type of insurance is frequently referred to as "business interruption insurance." Fidelity bonds and surety bonds are included in this category, although these products provide a benefit to a third party (the "obligee") in the event the insured party (usually referred to as the "obligor") fails to perform its obligations under a contract with the obligee.
* Fire insurance: See "Property insurance".
* Hazard insurance: See "Property insurance".
* Health insurance policies will often cover the cost of private medical treatments if the National Health Service in the UK (NHS) or other publicly-funded health programs do not pay for them. It will often result in quicker health care where better facilities are available.
* Kidnap and ransom insurance
* Home insurance or homeowners insurance: See "Property insurance".
* Liability insurance is a very broad superset that covers legal claims against the insured. Many types of insurance include an aspect of liability coverage. For example, a homeowner's insurance policy will normally include liability coverage which protects the insured in the event of a claim brought by someone who slips and falls on the property; automobile insurance also includes an aspect of liability insurance that indemnifies against the harm that a crashing car can cause to others' lives, health, or property. The protection offered by a liability insurance policy is twofold: a legal defense in the event of a lawsuit commenced against the policyholder and indemnification (payment on behalf of the insured) with respect to a settlement or court verdict. Liability policies typically cover only the negligence of the insured, and will not apply to results of willful or intentional acts by the insured.
o Environmental liability insurance protects the insured from bodily injury, property damage and cleanup costs as a result of the dispersal, release or escape of pollutants.
o Professional liability insurance, also called professional indemnity insurance, protects professional practitioners such as architects, lawyers, doctors, and accountants against potential negligence claims made by their patients/clients. Professional liability insurance may take on different names depending on the profession. For example, professional liability insurance in reference to the medical profession may be called malpractice insurance. Notaries public may take out errors and omissions insurance (E&O). Other potential E&O policyholders include, for example, real estate brokers, home inspectors, appraisers, and website developers.
* Life insurance provides a monetary benefit to a decedent's family or other designated beneficiary, and may specifically provide for income to an insured person's family, burial, funeral and other final expenses. Life insurance policies often allow the option of having the proceeds paid to the beneficiary either in a lump sum cash payment or an annuity.
o Annuities provide a stream of payments and are generally classified as insurance because they are issued by insurance companies and regulated as insurance and require the same kinds of actuarial and investment management expertise that life insurance requires. Annuities and pensions that pay a benefit for life are sometimes regarded as insurance against the possibility that a retiree will outlive his or her financial resources. In that sense, they are the complement of life insurance and, from an underwriting perspective, are the mirror image of life insurance.
* Locked funds insurance is a little-known hybrid insurance policy jointly issued by governments and banks. It is used to protect public funds from tamper by unauthorized parties. In special cases, a government may authorize its use in protecting semi-private funds which are liable to tamper. The terms of this type of insurance are usually very strict. Therefore it is used only in extreme cases where maximum security of funds is required.
* Marine insurance and marine cargo insurance cover the loss or damage of ships at sea or on inland waterways, and of the cargo that may be on them. When the owner of the cargo and the carrier are separate corporations, marine cargo insurance typically compensates the owner of cargo for losses sustained from fire, shipwreck, etc., but excludes losses that can be recovered from the carrier or the carrier's insurance. Many marine insurance underwriters will include "time element" coverage in such policies, which extends the indemnity to cover loss of profit and other business expenses attributable to the delay caused by a covered loss.
* Mortgage insurance insures the lender against default by the borrower.
* National Insurance is the UK's version of social insurance (which see below).
* No-fault insurance is a type of insurance policy (typically automobile insurance) where insureds are indemnified by their own insurer regardless of fault in the incident.
* Nuclear incident insurance covers damages resulting from an incident involving radioactive materials and is generally arranged at the national level. (For the United States, see the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act.)
* Pet insurance insures pets against accidents and illnesses - some companies cover routine/wellness care and burial, as well.
* Political risk insurance can be taken out by businesses with operations in countries in which there is a risk that revolution or other political conditions will result in a loss.
* Pollution Insurance. A first-party coverage for contamination of insured property either by external or on-site sources. Coverage for liability to third parties arising from contamination of air, water, or land due to the sudden and accidental release of hazardous materials from the insured site. The policy usually covers the costs of cleanup and may include coverage for releases from underground storage tanks. Intentional acts are specifically excluded
* Property insurance provides protection against risks to property, such as fire, theft or weather damage. This includes specialized forms of insurance such as fire insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, home insurance, inland marine insurance or boiler insurance.
* Purchase insurance is aimed at providing protection on the products people purchase. Purchase insurance can cover individual purchase protection, warranties, guarantees, care plans and even mobile phone insurance. Such insurance is normally very limited in the scope of problems that are covered by the policy.
* Retrospectively Rated Insurance is a method of establishing a premium on large commercial accounts. The final premium is based on the insured's actual loss experience during the policy term, sometimes subject to a minimum and maximum premium, with the final premium determined by a formula. Under this plan, the current year's premium is based partially (or wholly) on the current year's losses, although the premium adjustments may take months or years beyond the current year's expiration date. The rating formula is guaranteed in the insurance contract. Formula: retrospective premium = converted loss + basic premium × tax multiplier. Numerous variations of this formula have been developed and are in use.
* Social insurance can be many things to many people in many countries. But a summary of its essence is that it is a collection of insurance coverages (including components of life insurance, disability income insurance, unemployment insurance, health insurance, and others), plus retirement savings, that mandates participation by all citizens. By forcing everyone in society to be a policyholder and pay premiums, it ensures that everyone can become a claimant when or if he/she needs to. Along the way this inevitably becomes related to other concepts such as the justice system and the welfare state. This is a large, complicated topic that engenders tremendous debate, which can be further studied in the following articles (and others):
o Social welfare provision
o Social security
o Social safety net
o National Insurance
o Social Security (United States)
o Social Security debate (United States)
* Terrorism insurance provides protection against any loss or damage caused by terrorist activities.
* Title insurance provides a guarantee that title to real property is vested in the purchaser and/or mortgagee, free and clear of liens or encumbrances. It is usually issued in conjunction with a search of the public records performed at the time of a real estate transaction.
* Travel insurance is an insurance cover taken by those who travel abroad, which covers certain losses such as medical expenses, lost of personal belongings, travel delay, personal liabilities, etc.
* Workers' compensation insurance replaces all or part of a worker's wages lost and accompanying medical expense incurred because of a job-related injury.

[edit] Types of insurance companies

Insurance companies may be classified as

* Life insurance companies, which sell life insurance, annuities and pensions products.
* Non-life or general insurance companies, which sell other types of insurance.

General insurance companies can be further divided into these sub categories.

* Standard Lines
* Excess Lines

In most countries, life and non-life insurers are subject to different regulatory regimes and different tax and accounting rules. The main reason for the distinction between the two types of company is that life, annuity, and pension business is very long-term in nature — coverage for life assurance or a pension can cover risks over many decades. By contrast, non-life insurance cover usually covers a shorter period, such as one year.

In the United States, standard line insurance companies are your "main stream" insurers. These are the companies that typically insure your auto, home or business. They use pattern or "cookie cutter" policies without variation from one person to the next. They usually have lower premiums than excess lines and can sell directly to individuals. They are regulated by state laws that can restrict the amount they can charge for insurance policies.

Excess line insurance companies (aka Excess and Surplus) typically insure risks not covered by the standard lines market. They are broadly referred as being all insurance placed with non-admitted insurers. Non-admitted insurers are not licensed in the states where the risks are located. These companies have more flexibility and can react faster than standard insurance companies because they don't have the same regulations as standard insurance companies. State laws generally require insurance placed with surplus line agents and brokers to not be available through standard licensed insurers.

Insurance companies are generally classified as either mutual or stock companies. This is more of a traditional distinction as true mutual companies are becoming rare. Mutual companies are owned by the policyholders, while stockholders (who may or may not own policies) own stock insurance companies. Other possible forms for an insurance company include reciprocals, in which policyholders 'reciprocate' in sharing risks, and Lloyds organizations.

Insurance companies are rated by various agencies such as A.M. Best. The ratings include the company's financial strength, which measures its ability to pay claims. It also rates financial instruments issued by the insurance company, such as bonds, notes, and securitization products.

Reinsurance companies are insurance companies that sell policies to other insurance companies, allowing them to reduce their risks and protect themselves from very large losses. The reinsurance market is dominated by a few very large companies, with huge reserves. A reinsurer may also be a direct writer of insurance risks as well.

Captive insurance companies may be defined as limited-purpose insurance companies established with the specific objective of financing risks emanating from their parent group or groups. This definition can sometimes be extended to include some of the risks of the parent company's customers. In short, it is an in-house self-insurance vehicle. Captives may take the form of a "pure" entity (which is a 100 percent subsidiary of the self-insured parent company); of a "mutual" captive (which insures the collective risks of members of an industry); and of an "association" captive (which self-insures individual risks of the members of a professional, commercial or industrial association). Captives represent commercial, economic and tax advantages to their sponsors because of the reductions in costs they help create and for the ease of insurance risk management and the flexibility for cash flows they generate. Additionally, they may provide coverage of risks which is neither available nor offered in the traditional insurance market at reasonable prices.

The types of risk that a captive can underwrite for their parents include property damage, public and products liability, professional indemnity, employee benefits, employers liability, motor and medical aid expenses. The captive's exposure to such risks may be limited by the use of reinsurance.

Captives are becoming an increasingly important component of the risk management and risk financing strategy of their parent. This can be understood against the following background:

* heavy and increasing premium costs in almost every line of coverage;
* difficulties in insuring certain types of fortuitous risk;
* differential coverage standards in various parts of the world;
* rating structures which reflect market trends rather than individual loss experience;
* insufficient credit for deductibles and/or loss control efforts.

There are also companies known as 'insurance consultants'. Like a mortgage broker, these companies are paid a fee by the customer to shop around for the best insurance policy amongst many companies .

Similar to an insurance consultant, an 'insurance broker' also shops around for the best insurance policy amongst many companies. However, with insurance brokers, the fee is usually paid in the form of commission from the insurer that is selected rather than directly from the client.

Neither insurance consultants nor insurance brokers are insurance companies and no risks are transferred to them in insurance transactions.

Third party administrators are companies that perform underwriting and sometimes claims handling services for insurance companies. These companies often have special expertise that the insurance companies do not have.

[edit] Life insurance and saving

Certain life insurance contracts accumulate cash values, which may be taken by the insured if the policy is surrendered or which may be borrowed against. Some policies, such as annuities and endowment policies, are financial instruments to accumulate or liquidate wealth when it is needed. See life insurance.

In many countries, such as the U.S. and the UK, the tax law provides that the interest on this cash value is not taxable under certain circumstances. This leads to widespread use of life insurance as a tax-efficient method of saving as well as protection in the event of early death.

In U.S., the tax on interest income on life insurance policies and annuities is generally deferred. However, in some cases the benefit derived from tax deferral may be offset by a low return. This depends upon the insuring company, the type of policy and other variables (mortality, market return, etc.). Moreover, other income tax saving vehicles (e.g., IRAs, 401(k) plans, Roth IRAs) may be better alternatives for value accumulation. A combination of low-cost term life insurance and a higher-return tax-efficient retirement account may achieve better investment return.

[edit] Size of global insurance industry
Life insurance premia written in 2005
Life insurance premia written in 2005
Non-life insurance premia written in 2005
Non-life insurance premia written in 2005

Global insurance premiums grew by 9.7 percent in 2004 to reach $3.3 trillion. This follows 11.7 percent growth in the previous year. Life insurance premiums grew by 9.8 percent during the year, thanks to rising demand for annuity and pension products. Non-life insurance premiums grew by 9.4 percent, as premium rates increased. Over the past decade, global insurance premiums rose by more than a half as annual growth fluctuated between 2 percent and 10 percent. [citation needed]

Advanced economies account for the bulk of global insurance. With premium income of $1,217 billion in 2004, North America was the most important region, followed by the EU (at $1,198 billion) and Japan (at $492 billion). The top four countries accounted for nearly two-thirds of premiums in 2004. The United States and Japan alone accounted for a half of world insurance premiums, much higher than their 7 percent share of the global population. Emerging markets accounted for over 85 percent of the world’s population but generated only 10 percent of premiums. The volume of UK insurance business totaled $295 billion in 2004 or 9.1 percent of global premiums. [1]

[edit] Financial viability of insurance companies

Financial stability and strength of an insurance company should be a major consideration when purchasing an insurance contract. An insurance premium paid currently provides coverage for losses that might arise many years in the future. For that reason, the viability of the insurance carrier is very important. In recent years, a number of insurance companies have become insolvent, leaving their policyholders with no coverage (or coverage only from a government-backed insurance pool or other arrangement with less attractive payouts for losses). A number of independent rating agencies, such as Best's, Fitch, Standard & Poor's, and Moody's Investors Service, provide information and rate the financial viability of insurance companies.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Insurance insulates too much

By creating a "security blanket" for its insureds, an insurance company may inadvertently find that its insureds may not be as risk-averse as they might otherwise be (since, by definition, the insured has transferred the risk to the insurer). This problem is known to the insurance industry as moral hazard. To reduce their own financial exposure, insurance companies have contractual clauses that mitigate their obligation to provide coverage if the insured engages in behavior that grossly magnifies their risk of loss or liability.

For example, life insurance companies may require higher premiums or deny coverage altogether to people who work in hazardous occupations or engage in dangerous sports. Liability insurance providers do not provide coverage for liability arising from intentional torts committed by the insured. Even if a provider were so irrational as to desire to provide such coverage, it is against the public policy of most countries to allow such insurance to exist, and thus it is usually illegal.

[edit] Closed community self-insurance

Some communities prefer to create virtual insurance amongst themselves by other means than contractual risk transfer, which assigns explicit numerical values to risk. A number of religious groups, including the Amish and some Muslim groups, depend on support provided by their communities when disasters strike. The risk presented by any given person is assumed collectively by the community who all bear the cost of rebuilding lost property and supporting people whose needs are suddenly greater after a loss of some kind. In supportive communities where others can be trusted to follow community leaders, this tacit form of insurance can work. In this manner the community can even out the extreme differences in insurability that exist among its members. Some further justification is also provided by invoking the moral hazard of explicit insurance contracts.

In the United Kingdom The Crown (which, for practical purposes, meant the Civil service) did not insure property such as government buildings. If a government building was damaged, the cost of repair would be met from public funds because, in the long run, this was cheaper than paying insurance premiums. Since many UK government buildings have been sold to property companies, and rented back, this arrangement is now less common and may have disappeared altogether.

[edit] Complexity of insurance policy contracts

Insurance policies can be complex and some policyholders may not understand all the fees and coverages included in a policy. As a result, people may buy policies on unfavorable terms. In response to these issues, many countries have enacted detailed statutory and regulatory regimes governing every aspect of the insurance business, including minimum standards for policies and the ways in which they may be advertised and sold.

Many institutional insurance purchasers buy insurance through an insurance broker. Brokers represent the buyer (not the insurance company), and typically counsel the buyer on appropriate coverages, policy limitations. A broker generally holds contracts with many insurers, thereby allowing the broker to "shop" the market for the best rates and coverage possible.

Insurance may also be purchased through an agent. Unlike a broker, who represents the policyholder, an agent represents the insurance company from whom the policyholder buys. An agent can represent more than one company.

[edit] Redlining

Redlining is the practice of denying insurance coverage in specific geographic areas, purportedly because of a high likelihood of loss, while the alleged motivation is unlawful discrimination.

In determining premiums and premium rate structures, insurers consider quantifiable factors, including location, credit scores, gender, occupation, marital status, and education level. However, the use of such factors is often considered to be unfair or unlawfully discriminatory, and the reaction against this practice has in some instances led to political disputes about the ways in which insurers determine premiums and regulatory intervention to limit the factors used.

An insurance underwriter's job is to evaluate a given risk as to the likelihood that a loss will occur. Any factor that causes a greater likelihood of loss should theoretically be charged a higher rate. This basic principle of insurance must be followed if insurance companies are to remain solvent. Thus, "discrimination" against (i.e., differential treatment of) potential insureds in the risk evaluation and premium-setting process is a necessary by-product of the fundamentals of insurance underwriting. For instance, insurers charge older people significantly higher premiums than they charge younger people for term life insurance. Older people are thus treated differently than younger people (i.e., a distinction is made, discrimination occurs). The rationale for the differential treatment goes to the heart of the risk a life insurer takes: Old people are likely to die sooner than young people, so the risk of loss (the insured's death) is greater in any given period of time and therefore the risk premium must be higher to cover the greater risk. However, treating insureds differently when there is no actuarially sound reason for doing so is unlawful discrimination.

What is often missing from the debate is that prohibiting the use of legitimate, actuarially sound factors means that an insufficient amount is being charged for a given risk, and there is thus a deficit in the system. The failure to address the deficit may mean insolvency and hardship for all of a company's insureds. The options for addressing the deficit seem to be the following: Charge the deficit to the other policyholders or charge it to the government (i.e., externalize outside of the company to society at large).

[edit] Health insurance

Health insurance, which is coverage for individuals to protect them against medical costs, is a highly charged and political issue in the United States, which does not have socialized health coverage. In theory, the market for health insurance should function in a manner similar to other insurance coverages, but the skyrocketing cost of health coverage has disrupted markets around the globe, but perhaps most glaringly in the U.S. See health insurance.

[edit] Dental insurance

Dental insurance, like health insurance, is coverage for individuals to protect them against dental costs. In the U.S., dental insurance is often part of an employer's benefits package, along with health insurance.

[edit] Insurance patents

See insurance patent for more details.

New insurance products can now be protected from copying with a business method patent in the United States.

A recent example of a new insurance product that is patented is telematic auto insurance. It was independently invented and patented by a major U.S. auto insurance company, Progressive Auto Insurance (U.S. Patent 5,797,134 ) and a Spanish independent inventor, Salvador Minguijon Perez (EP patent 0700009).

The basic idea of telematic auto insurance is that a driver's behavior is monitored directly while he or she drives and the information is transmitted to the insurance company. The insurance company uses the information to assess the likelihood that a driver will have an accident and adjusts premiums accordingly. A driver who drives great distances at high speeds, for example, might be charged a different rate than a driver who drives short distances at low speeds. The precise effect on charges is not known as it is not clear that a high speed long distance driver incurs greater risk to an insurance pool than the slow around-town driver.[citation needed]

A British auto insurance company, Norwich Union, has obtained a license to both the Progressive patent and Perez patent. They have made investments in infrastructure and developed a commercial offering called "Pay As You Drive" or PAYD.

Many independent inventors are in favor of patenting new insurance products since it gives them protection from big companies when they bring their new insurance products to market. Independent inventors account for 70 percent of the new U.S. patent applications in this area.

Many insurance executives are opposed to patenting insurance products because it creates a new risk for them. The Hartford insurance company, for example, recently had to pay $80 million to an independent inventor, Bancorp Services, in order to settle a patent infringement and theft of trade secret lawsuit for a type of corporate owned life insurance product invented and patented by Bancorp.

There are currently about 150 new patent applications on insurance inventions filed per year in the United States. The rate at which patents have issued has steadily risen from 15 in 2002 to 44 in 2006. [6]

[edit] The insurance industry and rent seeking

Certain insurance products and practices have been described as rent seeking by critics. That is, some insurance products or practices are useful primarily because of legal benefits, such as reducing taxes, as opposed to providing protection against risks of adverse events. Under United States tax law, for example, most owners of variable annuities and variable life insurance can invest their premium payments in the stock market and defer or eliminate paying any taxes on their investments until withdrawals are made. Sometimes this tax deferral is the only reason people use these products. Another example is the legal infrastructure which allows life insurance to be held in an irrevocable trust which is used to pay an estate tax while the proceeds themselves are immune from the estate tax.

[edit] Criticism of insurance companies

Some people believe that modern insurance companies are money-making businesses which have little interest in insurance. They argue that the purpose of insurance is to spread risk so the reluctance of insurance companies to take on high-risk cases (e.g. houses in areas subject to flooding, or young drivers) runs counter to the principle of insurance.

Other criticisms include:

* Insurance policies contain too many exclusion clauses. For example, some house insurance policies do not cover damage to garden walls.

* Most insurance companies now use call centres and staff attempt to answer questions by reading from a script. It is difficult to speak to anybody with expert knowledge.

[edit] Glossary

* 'Combined ratio' = loss ratio + expense ratio. Loss ratio is calculated by dividing the amount of losses (sometimes including loss adjustment expenses) by the amount of earned premium. Expense ratio is calculated by dividing the amount of operational expenses by the amount of earned premium. A lower number indicates a better return on the amount of capital placed at risk by an insurer.
* 'URIE' = unincorporated reciprocal inter-insurance exchange.
* 'SSA' = subscriber savings account.
* 'AIF' = attorney in fact.

[edit] References

1. ^ This discussion is adapted from Mehr and Camack “Principles of Insurance”, 6th edition, 1976, pp 34 – 37.
2. ^ Insured cars by state. Insurance Information Institute.
3. ^ Fitzpatrick, Sean, Fear is the Key: A Behavioral Guide to Underwriting Cycles, 10 Conn. Ins. L.J. 255 (2004).
4. ^ Insurance Information Institute. Business insurance information. What does a business owners policy cover?. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
5. ^ U.S. Patent Application 20060287896 “Method for providing crop insurance for a crop associated with a defined attribute”
6. ^ (Source: Insurance IP Bulletin, December 15, 2006)

How to Buy a Domain Name

GoDaddy.com Coupon Codes: CHRIS1, CHRIS2, CHRIS3, BLAUGH
what are domain names? How do you register one?
This guy is talking about Domain Name.
Hope it works.
The interesting thing about dot com is the brouser bar, off all domain extensions dot com over-rides all other domain names in domain bar placement.

Do you know how to get a domain name now?

The term domain name has multiple related meanings:

* A name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. These names appear as a component of a Web site's URL, e.g. wikipedia.org. This type of domain name is also called a hostname.
* The product that domain name registrars provide to their customers. These names are often called registered domain names.
* Names used for other purposes in the Domain Name System (DNS), for example the special name which follows the @ sign in an email address, or the Top-level domains like .com, or the names used by the Session Initiation Protocol (VoIP), or DomainKeys.

They are sometimes colloquially (and incorrectly) referred to by marketers as "web addresses".

This article will primarily discuss registered domain names. See the Domain Name System article for technical discussions about general domain names and the hostname article for further information about the most common type of domain name.

Examples

The following example illustrates the difference between a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a domain name:

URL: http://www.example.net/index.html
Domain name: www.example.net
Registered domain name: example.net

As a general rule, the IP address and the server name are interchangeable. For most Internet services, the server will not have any way to know which was used. However, the explosion of interest in the Web means that there are far more Web sites than servers. To accommodate this, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) specifies that the client tells the server which name is being used. This way, one server with one IP address can provide different sites for different domain names. This feature goes under the name virtual hosting and is commonly used by Web hosts.

For example, as referenced in RFC 2606 (Reserved Top Level DNS Names), the server at IP address 192.0.34.166 handles all of the following sites:

example.com
www.example.com
example.net
www.example.net
example.org
www.example.org

When a request is made, the data corresponding to the hostname requested is served to the user.

[edit] Top-level domains

Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of generic names (three or more characters), or a two-character territory code based on ISO-3166 (there are few exceptions and new codes are integrated case by case). Top-level domains are sometimes also called first-level domains.

The generic top-level domain (gTLD) extensions are:
[show] v • d • e Generic top-level domains
Unsponsored .biz .com .edu .gov .info .int .mil .name .net .org
Sponsored .aero .asia .cat .coop .jobs .mobi .museum .pro .tel .travel
Infrastructure .arpa .root
Proposed .berlin .bzh .cym .gal .geo .kid .kids .lat .mail .nyc .post .sco .web .xxx
Deleted/retired .nato
Reserved .example .invalid .localhost .test
Pseudo-domains .bitnet .csnet .ip .local .onion .uucp
Unofficial see Alternative DNS roots
See also: Country code top-level domains

The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) extensions are:
[show] v • d • e Country code top-level domains
Active: .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bw .by .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg .er .es .et .eu .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr .ga .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je .jm .jo .jp .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kr .kw .ky .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py .qa .re .ro .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sk .sl .sm .sn .sr .st .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .us .uy .uz .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu .wf .ws .ye .yu .za .zm .zw
Reserved/unassigned: .eh .kp .me .rs .um Allocated/unused: .bv .gb .pm .sj .so .yt Phaseout: .su .tp Deleted/retired: .cs .zr
See also: Generic top-level domains


[edit] Other-level domains

In addition to the top-level domains, there are second-level domain (SLD) names. These are the names directly to the left of .com, .net, and the other top-level domains. As an example, in the domain en.wikipedia.org, "wikipedia" is the second-level domain.

On the next level are third-level domains. These domains are immediately to the left of a second-level domain. In the en.wikipedia.org example, "en" is a third-level domain. There can be fourth and fifth level domains and so on, with virtually no limitation. An example of a working domain with five levels is www.sos.state.oh.us. Each level is separated by a dot or period symbol between them.

Domains of third or higher level are also known as subdomains, though this term technically applies to a domain of any level, since even a top-level domain is a "subdomain" of the "root" domain (a "zeroth-level" domain that is designated by a dot alone).

Traditionally, the second level domain was the name of the company or the name used on the internet. The third level was commonly used to designate a particular host server. Therefore, ftp.wikipedia.org might be an FTP server, www.wikipedia.org would be a World Wide Web Server, and mail.wikipedia.org could be an email server. Modern technology now allows multiple servers to serve a single subdomain, or multiple protocols or domains to be served by a single computer. Therefore, subdomains may or may not have any real purpose.

[edit] Official assignment

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has overall responsibility for managing the DNS. It controls the root domain, delegating control over each top-level domain to a domain name registry. For ccTLDs, the domain registry is typically controlled by the government of that country. ICANN has a consultation role in these domain registries but is in no position to regulate the terms and conditions of how a domain name is allocated or who allocates it in each of these country level domain registries. On the other hand, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are governed directly under ICANN which means all terms and conditions are defined by ICANN with the cooperation of the gTLD registries.

Domain names which are theoretically leased can be considered in the same way as real estate, due to a significant impact on online brand building, advertising, search engine optimization, etc.

A few companies have offered low-cost, below-cost or even free domain registrations, with a variety of models adopted to recoup the costs to the provider. These usually require that domains are hosted on their site in a framework or portal, with advertising wrapped around the user's content, revenue from which allows the provider to recoup the costs. When the DNS was new, domain registrations were free. A domain owner can generally give away or sell infinite subdomains of their domain, e.g. the owner of example.edu could provide domains that are subdomains, such as foo.example.edu and foo.bar.example.edu.

[edit] Uses and abuses

As domain names became attractive to marketers, rather than just the technical audience for which they were originally intended, they began to be used in manners that in many cases did not fit in their intended structure. As originally planned, the structure of domain names followed a strict hierarchy in which the top level domain indicated the type of organization (commercial, governmental, etc.), and addresses would be nested down to third, fourth, or further levels to express complex structures, where, for instance, branches, departments, and subsidiaries of a parent organization would have addresses which were subdomains of the parent domain. Also, hostnames were intended to correspond to actual physical machines on the network, generally with only one name per machine.

However, once the World Wide Web became popular, site operators frequently wished to have memorable addresses, regardless of whether they fit properly in the structure; thus, since the .com domain was the most popular and memorable, even noncommercial sites would often get addresses under it, and sites of all sorts wished to have second-level domain registrations even if they were parts of a larger entity where a logical subdomain would have made sense (e.g., abcnews.com instead of news.abc.com). A Web site found at http://www.example.org/ will often be advertised without the "http://", and in most cases can be reached by just entering "example.org" into a Web browser. In the case of a .com, the Web site can sometimes be reached by just entering "example" (depending on browser versions and configuration settings, which vary in how they interpret incomplete addresses).

The popularity of domain names also led to uses which were regarded as abusive by established companies with trademark rights; this was known as cybersquatting, in which somebody took a name that resembled a trademark in order to profit from traffic to that address. To combat this, various laws and policies were enacted to allow abusive registrations to be forcibly transferred, but these were sometimes themselves abused by overzealous companies committing reverse domain hijacking against domain users who had legitimate grounds to hold their names, such as their being generic words as well as trademarks in a particular context, or their use in the context of fan or protest sites with free speech rights of their own.

Laws that specifically address domain name conflicts include the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act in the United States and the Trademarks Act, 1999, in India. Alternatively, domain registrants are bound by contract under the UDRP to comply with mandatory arbitration proceedings should someone challenge their ownership of the domain name.

[edit] Generic domain names — problems arising out of unregulated name selection

Within a particular top-level domain, parties are generally free to select an unallocated domain name as their own on a first come, first served basis, resulting in Harris's lament, all the good ones are taken. For generic or commonly used names, this may sometimes lead to the use of a domain name which is inaccurate or misleading. This problem can be seen with regard to the ownership or control of domain names for a generic product or service.

By way of illustration, there has been tremendous growth in the number and size of literary festivals around the world in recent years. In this context, currently a generic domain name such as literary.org is available to the first literary festival organisation which is able to obtain registration, even if the festival in question is very young or obscure. Some critics would argue that there is greater amenity in reserving such domain names for the use of, for example, a regional or umbrella grouping of festivals. Related issues may also arise in relation to non-commercial domain names.

[edit] Unconventional domain names

Due to the rarity of one-word dot-com domain names, many unconventional domain names, domain hacks, have been gaining popularity. They make use of the top-level domain as an integral part of the Web site's title. Two popular domain hack Web sites are del.icio.us and blo.gs, which spell out "delicious" and "blogs", respectively.

Unconventional domain names are also used to create unconventional email addresses. Non-working examples that spell 'James' are j@m.es and j@mes.com, which use the domain names m.es (of Spain's .es) and mes.com, respectively.

[edit] Commercial resale of domain names

An economic effect of the widespread usage of domain names has been the resale market (after-market) for generic domain names that has sprung up in the last decade. Certain domains, especially those related to business, gambling, pornography, and other commercially lucrative fields of digital world trade have become very much in demand to corporations and entrepreneurs due to their importance in attracting clients.

The most expensive Internet domain name to date, according to Guinness World Records, is business.com which was resold in 1999 for $7.5 million, but this was $7.5 million in stock options, not in cash. The stock was later redeemed for $2 million, "So it was $2 million."[1]. There are disputes about the high values of domain names claimed and the actual cash prices of many sales such Business.com. Another high-priced domain name, sex.com, was stolen from its rightful owner by means of a forged transfer instruction via fax. During the height of the dot-com era, the domain was earning millions of dollars per month in advertising revenue from the large influx of visitors that arrived daily. The sex.com sale may have never been final as the domain is still with the previous owner. Also, that sale was not just a domain but an income stream, a web site, a domain name with customers and advertisers, etc. Two long-running U.S. lawsuits resulted, one against the thief and one against the domain registrar VeriSign [1]. In one of the cases, Kremen v. Network Solutions, the court found in favor of the plaintiff, leading to an unprecedented ruling that classified domain names as property, granting them the same legal protections. In 1999, Microsoft traded the name Bob.com with internet entrepreneur Bob Kerstein for the name Windows2000.com which was the name of their new operating system. [2]

One of the reasons for the value of domain names is that even without advertising or marketing, they attract clients seeking services and products who simply type in the generic name. Furthermore, generic domain names such as movies.com or Books.com are extremely easy for potential customers to remember, increasing the probability that they become repeat customers or regular clients.

Although the current domain market is nowhere as strong as it was during the dot-com heyday, it remains strong and is currently experiencing solid growth again. [3] Annually tens of millions of dollars change hands due to the resale of domains. Large numbers of registered domain names lapse and are deleted each year. On average 25,000 domain names drop (are deleted) every day.

It is very important to remember that a domain (name, address) must be valued separately from the website (content, revenue) that it is used for. The high prices have usually been paid for the revenue that was generated from the website at the domain's address (url.). The intrinsic value of a domain is the registration fee. There is no such a thing as a current market value for a domain: It just takes what somebody pays. The Fair Market Value of a domain can be anything from the registration fee: The lowest known past selling price, the highest known past selling, price, the most recent selling price, or just any past selling price and any of these (or any sum resp. division etc.) is usually added to the current or expected revenue from the web content (advertising, sales, etc.). Domain (name + ext.) should not be mixed with website (content + revenue). The estimation by appraisers are always the addition of what they would like that a domain is worth together with the effective/expected/desired revenue from the web content. Some people put value on the length of the SLD (name) and other people prefer description capability, but the shorter a SLD is, the less descriptive it can be. Also, if short is crucial, then the TLD (extension) should be short too. It is less realistic to get a domain like LL.travel or LL.mobi than a domain travel.LL or mobi.LL. This illustrates the relativity of domain value estimation. It can be safely put that the revenue af a web (content) can be easily stated, but that the value of a domain (SLD.TLD aka name.ext) is a matter of opinions and preferences. In the end, however, any sale depend of the estimates by the domain seller and the domain buyer.

People who buy and sell domain names are known as domainers. People who sell value estimation services are known as appraisers.

According to Guiness Book of World Records and MSNBC, the most expensive domain name sales on record as of 2004 were: Business.com for $7.5 million in December 1999, AsSeenOnTv.com for $5.1 million in January 2000, Altavista.com for $3.3 million in August 1998, Wine.com for $2.9 million in September 1999, CreditCards.com for $2.75 million in July 2004, and Autos.com for $2.2 million in December 1999. [4]

[edit] Domain name confusion

Intercapping is often used to clarify a domain name. However, DNS is case-insensitive, and some names may be misinterpreted when converted to lowercase. For example: Who Represents, a database of artists and agents, chose whorepresents.com; a therapists' network thought therapistfinder.com looked good; and another website operating as of August 2007, is penisland.net a website for Pen Island, a site that claims to be an online pen vendor, but exists primarily as a joke, as it has no products for sale. Other examples include cummingfirst.com, website of the Cumming First United Church in Cumming, GA and powergenitalia.com, a website for an Italian Power Generator company. In such situations, the proper wording can be clarified by use of hyphens. For instance, Experts Exchange, the programmers' site, for a long time used expertsexchange.com, but ultimately changed the name to experts-exchange.com.

Leo Stoller threatened to sue the owners of StealThisEmail.com on the basis that, when read as stealthisemail.com, it infringed on claimed trademark rights to the word "stealth".