Attorney at law
An attorney at law, or simply an attorney or lawyer, in the United States is a person licensed to practice law, usually by the highest court of a state or other jurisdiction. Alternate terms include attorney-at-law and attorney and counselor (or counsellor) at law.
The American legal system has a united (or fused) legal profession, and does not draw a distinction between lawyers who plead in court and those who do not. Many other common law jurisdictions, as well as the civil law jurisdictions, have a separation, such as the solicitor and barrister/advocate split in the United Kingdom and the advocate/civil law notary split in France. There is also no delegation of routine work to notaries public.
Comparison: attorney in fact and attorney at law
Broadly speaking, an "attorney" is one who acts on behalf of another person in some capacity. For example, an "attorney-in-fact" is a kind of agent who acts on behalf of another person, typically with respect to business, property, or personal matters, and who does not have to be licensed to practice law or to have any other license from the government. The term "Power of Attorney" refers to the authority of an attorney-in-fact to act in the name of another person, and to the document signed to evidence that authority.
By contrast an attorney at law, or lawyer, is a person trained and licensed to practice law -- to represent clients in legal matters (both in and out of court), and to give legal advice. In the United States, the term "attorney" is generally used in this sense (and not to mean "attorney in fact").
The term "Attorney General" is used to designate the chief law enforcement officer of a state or other political jurisdiction. The attorney general is a lawyer representing the government, prosecuting criminal cases, defending the government in lawsuits against the government, and litigating in connection with consumer affairs.
Terminology outside the United States
In common-law jurisdictions outside the United States, e.g., England, Canada, Australia, “attorney” is incorrect as a general term, and "lawyer" or "solicitor" is used instead. However, in these areas, the specific terms “crown attorney”, “power of attorney”, and “Attorney General” are used.
In earlier times, some states, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, maintained a divided legal profession, as can still be found in the United Kingdom, consisting of attorneys (solicitors) and counsellors (barristers). In deference to this practice, when an Attorney-at-Law is admitted to practice in some states, his or her certificate of admission bears the title Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law in recognition of his inheritance of both of these roles.
Some attorneys use the post-nominal "Esq.", as the abbreviated form of the word Esquire.
The job of an attorney
Once admitted to practice by the highest court of a state (a function sometimes administered by the state's bar association), an American attorney may file legal pleadings and argue cases in any court in that state (except federal courts, which usually require a separate admission), provide legal advice to clients, and draft important legal documents (such as wills, trusts, deeds, and contracts). American attorneys use the term lawyering to refer to the art of practicing law.
In some states, real estate closings may be performed only by attorneys, even though the attorney's role in a closing may involve primarily notarization of documents and disbursement of settlement funds through an escrow account.
Practicing law can be broadly generalized as:
1. Interviewing the client and identifying what is their legal matter or dispute;
2. Identifying the discrete legal and factual issues embedded within the client's larger problem;
3. Researching systematically each issue;
4. Deriving a solution that resolves some, if not all of the issues;
5. Executing it through specific tasks like drafting a contract or filing a motion with a court.
Most academic legal training is directed to identifying legal issues, researching facts and law, and arguing both the facts and law in favor of either side in any case.
Media images
Contrary to the media image of attorneys, much legal work requires hours of in-depth research in a law library or in an electronic database like Westlaw or LexisNexis. Few television programs and movies accurately portray the long nights surrounded by a pile of books or printouts which form the core of the occupational life of many attorneys. One occasional exception is the television program Law & Order, which sometimes shows the main characters researching at a computer late into the night, always using Westlaw, due to a contract between Westlaw and the show's producers.
Movies and television also do not show the stressful "juggling" aspect of litigation, in that most litigators have many cases in progress at any given time. Each case has deadlines that must be carefully monitored, and court dates which one must not forget to attend. The other side in any case can serve additional motions that will further complicate things. Repeated failures to attend to details—or indeed, even a single mistake, in some instances—can lead to malpractice suits or disbarment.
In litigation, attorneys spend much time discovering the facts of the case to develop a "theory of the case" that integrates facts and law in a way most favorable to their client. The discovery phase of a case sometimes turns into an unpleasant war of attrition over petty technicalities although many lawyers believe that civility is more commonplace in discovery than the unfortunate but well publicized exceptions. Some attorneys believe approximately 50% to 70% of all funds spent on legal services in the U.S. cover discovery costs.
In addition, there are a large number of attorneys whose practice specializes in activities that never involve them in litigation, such as writing legal opinions, advising clients, drafting contracts, preparing tax strategies, and preparing and prosecuting filings with government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Patent and Trademark Office. It can be rare for such attorneys to appear in court, and even to wear a suit or a tie, though this reality is all but absent in media depictions of attorneys.
A fair number of licensed attorneys are unemployed or underemployed, or float from one temporary assignment to another, doing nothing but poring through the discovery process. The relatively new phenomenon of many lawyers being unemployed, underemployed, or paid at relatively low wages is largely a consequence of changes actively pursued, including by the American Bar Association (ABA), starting in the 1960s. Many in the profession had determined that legal services would remain difficult or impossible to attain for the less well-off unless the supply of lawyers was increased relative to the demand for legal services. In sharp contrast with the medical profession and medical schools, the ABA has encouraged the creation and accreditation of new law schools since that time. As a result, the number of lawyers relative to the total population has more than doubled in the United States since 1970, from about one lawyer per 700 people to about one lawyer per 300 people, with the ratio continuing to rise. At the same time, the ABA and other organizations have fostered the rise of pro bono work, public service lawyering, and community lawyering, to try to extend the availability of legal services to all Americans. Government funding for public legal services at the federal and state levels has become significant. Still, the ABA estimated in 2000 that still only about one third of the total demand for legal services in the United States was being met. At the same time, the demand for high-paying legal services, particularly by large corporations, which was already being well met before the dramatic expansion of the lawyer population, has grown much less quickly than the supply of lawyers. Yet many lawyers are still struggling to find jobs. The result has been a much larger disparity in lawyer compensation.
Specialization
Many American attorneys limit their practices to specialized fields of law. Often dichotomies are drawn between different types of attorneys, but these are neither fixed nor formal lines. Examples include:
* Litigators (who sue and defend in court) v. transactional (or "office practice") attorneys (who draft documents and advise clients, rarely going to court)
* Attorneys in private practice and small firms (who can't afford to litigate every little issue) v. big firms (who can)
* Plaintiffs' attorneys (individual attorneys and small firms who represent individuals on contingent fee agreements) v. defendants' attorneys (big firms billing large corporations by the hour)
* Trial attorneys (who argue the facts, such as Johnnie Cochran) v. appellate attorneys (who argue the law, such as David Boies)
* Outside counsel (law firms) v. in-house counsel (corporate legal department)
Despite these descriptions, some states sometimes forbid or discourage claims of specialization in particular areas of law unless the attorney has been certified by his or her state bar[1] or state board of legal specialization. Other states allow indirect indications of specialization (in forms of advertisements such as "our practice is limited to . . .") but require that the lawyer state that he or she is not certified by a state board of legal specialization in the advertised practice area. Patent attorneys are allowed to advertise their specialization in all jurisdictions, since registration for patent law is administered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) instead of a state-level body.
Some states grant formal certifications recognizing specialties. In California, for example, bar certification is offered in family law, appellate practice, criminal law, bankruptcy, estate planning, immigration, taxation and workmen's compensation. Any attorney meeting the bar requirements in one of these fields may represent himself as a specialist. Similarly, Texas formally grants certification of specialization in the following fields: administrative law; business bankruptcy law; civil appellate law; civil trial law; consumer bankruptcy law; consumer & commercial law; criminal law; estate planning & probate law; family law; health law; immigration & nationality law; juvenile law; labor & employment law; oil, gas & mineral law; personal injury trial law; real estate law; tax law; and workers' compensation law.[2]
The vast majority of lawyers practicing in a particular field may typically not be certified as specialists in that field (and state board certification is not generally required to practice law in any field). For example, the State Bar of Texas (as of mid 2006) reported 77,056 persons licensed as attorneys in that state (excluding inactive members of the Bar)[1], while the Texas Board of Legal Specialization reported, at about the same time, only 8,303 Texas attorneys who were board certified in any specialty.[3] Indeed, of the 8,303 certified specialists in Texas, the highest number of attorneys certified in one specific field at that time was 1,775 (in personal injury trial law). Despite the relative large number of lawyers that presumably would handle divorce, adoption and child custody matters, Texas reported that of 77,056 attorneys, only 697 in the entire state were certified in family law (which is, arguably, the applicable specialty).
Specialization in patent law is administered by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline of the USPTO, which imposes stringent requirements for applicants to become registered as patent attorneys or patent agents.
About half of American attorneys work solo or in small firms. See law firm. There are also many midsize firms, with anywhere from 50 to 200 attorneys, and since the 1970s, some law firms have merged to form giant "megafirms" with 1,000 attorneys or more.
Control of cases
An American attorney licensed in each applicable court may in a few cases control and argue his or her case at each level of the judiciary through its entire lifecycle. A notable example of this is the Brown v. Board of Education litigation, where the same trial team handled the case from start to finish at the U.S. Supreme Court. However, cases which advance to the appellate level, particularly to the U.S. Supreme Court, are often re-assigned to experienced appellate practitioners or firms.
Education and training
Main article: Legal education in the United States
Before taking the bar exam, nearly all American lawyers must first attend law school for at least three years.
The degree earned by prospective attorneys in the United States is generally a Juris Doctor (J.D.), or Doctor of Jurisprudence. The J.D. degree is equivalent to (and at most law schools in the United States, has replaced) the older LL.B. or Bachelor of Laws degree. This can lead to some confusion, with two different names for equivalent professional degrees. As stated earlier, the degree of Juris Doctor is the equivalent of the formerly dispensed LL.B. or Bachelor of Laws degree. Additionally many law schools now have masters degree programs which award the LL.M. or Master of Laws degree and doctoral programs which grant the S.J.D./J.S.D or Doctor of Juridical Science degree (which latter degree does confer the title of "Doctor" upon its holder).
Colleges such as Harvard University began requiring an undergraduate education as far back as 1896, in contravention to the earlier practice of awarding a law degree as an undergraduate venture (hence Bachelor of Laws or LL.B. degree).
Many foreign educated attorneys who have LL.B. degrees come to the United States and obtain an LL.M. degree in comparative law, familiarizing themselves with American common law, from when they then take the bar exam in New York or California, which allows foreign attorneys with such degrees to sit for the test.
The Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in the U.S. now offers a joint J.D. (Juris Doctor) / B.C.L. (Bachelor of Civil Law) over 7 semesters (instead of its previous 6-semester program for the J.D. alone) in recognition of the increased Louisiana civil law component of the new program.
The highest law degree obtainable in the United States is the S.J.D., or Scientum Juris Doctor, literally "doctor of juridical science". This degree is also known by the abbreviation J.S.D. at some U.S. schools, e.g. NYU Law School and Columbia Law School. The degree should not be confused with the "doctor of laws" degree, or LL.D., which is usually, but not always, awarded for honorary purposes.
The S.J.D. or J.S.D. degree is very rarely awarded, and is generally only sought by attorneys holding exceptional credentials and a desire to enter legal academia. The degree is generally only offered at the very top law schools, which typically accept only 4 or 5 students into their program each year. Admission is limited to those who have achieved their J.D. and LL.M. degrees with distinction. Successful applicants usually have already published significant scholarly legal articles in their proposed area of study, and many have legal teaching experience prior to entering the program.
Law students in court
Some courts allow law students to act as "certified student attorneys" after the satisfactory completion of their first year of law school and the completion of particular second- and third-year courses with subjects such as evidence. Many states allow students to argue in front of a court as a certified legal intern (CLI), provided they meet certain prerequisites, such as requiring the student to have completed at least half of their law education, taken or is taking the law school's ethics class, and they are under the supervision of a qualified and licensed attorney.
This concept was somewhat misrepresented in the movie Legally Blonde, where the protagonist Elle argues before a jury. Although Elle was under the supervision of an attorney, no state would allow a student still completing the first year of law to argue a case in court. However, it is reminicsent of "teen court" programs that are expanding around the USA. In these programs, it is not law students, but high school students, that argue cases before a judge and sit on juries to decide penalties to other high school students who have agreed to be tried by the teen court in exchange for bypassing the regular court and having no criminal record created in the process, even if they are found responsible for a crime by the teen court. The punishment often includes community service, including sitting on juries in upcoming cases.
Illinois: The 711 license
In Illinois a student currently in good standing who has earned credits that represent at least three-fifths of the credits required for graduation may be eligible for a 711 license (based on Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711). A 711 license allows a student to: (1) Counsel with clients, negotiate in the settlement of claims, and engage in the preparation and drafting of legal instruments. (2) Appear in the trial courts and administrative tribunals subject to the following qualifications: (i) Appearances, pleadings, motions, and other documents to be filed with the court may be prepared by the student or graduate and may be signed by him with the accompanying designation "Senior Law Student" or "Law Graduate" but must also be signed by the supervising member of the bar. (ii) In criminal cases, in which the penalty may be imprisonment, in proceedings challenging sentences of imprisonment, and in civil or criminal contempt proceedings, the student or graduate may participate in pretrial, trial, and posttrial proceedings as an assistant of the supervising member of the bar, who shall be present and responsible for the conduct of the proceedings. (iii) In all other civil and criminal cases the student or graduate may conduct all pretrial, trial, and posttrial proceedings, and the supervising member of the bar need not be present. (3) He/She may prepare briefs, excerpts from the record, abstracts, and other documents filed in courts of review of the State, which may set forth the name of the student or graduate with the accompanying designation "Senior Law Student" or "Law Graduate" but must be filed in the name of the supervising member of the bar.
A JD graduate of the College of Law may qualify for a 711 license if s/he (1) has not yet had an opportunity to take the first Bar examination scheduled after s/he graduates, or (2) has taken the Bar exam but has not received the results, or (3) has taken and passed the Bar examination but has not yet been sworn in as a member of the Illinois bar.
A 711 license is not available for a student working for a private law firm. The license is available for work with (1) a legal aid bureau, legal assistance program, organization or clinic chartered by the State of Illinois or approved by a law school approved by the American Bar Association. (2) the Office of the Public Defender, or (3) a law office of the State or any of its subdivisions.
Unlicensed practice of law
Some states provide criminal penalties for (1) falsely holding oneself out to the public as a lawyer, and (2) the unauthorized practice of law by a non-lawyer.
A person who has a J.D. degree but is not admitted to any bar is not a lawyer, and cannot legally engage in the practice of law. In most states, even the practice of law by an "out-of-state" lawyer is considered the unauthorized practice of law within that state. Exceptions are sometimes made when the out-of-state lawyer is permitted temporarily to practice within the state pro hac vice or in some cases as in-house counsel for corporations.
In addition, a few areas of law, such as patent law, are mandated by the U.S. Constitution to be strictly under federal jurisdiction. In this case, state courts and bar associations are not allowed to restrict the practice of that field of law, and a patent attorney may freely advise clients as to patent matters anywhere in the jurisdiction of the United States with impunity, without regard to state court or bar association rules. Furthermore, prior to November 15, 1938, individuals could become registered as “patent attorneys” with the PTO without ever passing a state bar exam or going to law school. That status was grandfathered for patent attorneys registered prior to that date. This represents a holdover to the traditional meaning of the term “attorney” as “agent” or “attorney-in-fact”. There are still some living patent attorneys who became registered as patent attorneys before that date, as far back as 1934. Today, a non-lawyer can take and pass the patent bar, but he or she would be considered a patent agent.
In some jurisdictions, the definition of the practice of law is quite strict; persons have been successfully prosecuted for publishing do-it-yourself will forms and for representing special education children in federal proceedings as specifically allowed by federal law.
Paradoxically, some jurisdictions will allow a non-attorney to sit as a judge, usually in lower courts or in hearings by governmental agencies, even though a non-attorney may not practice before these same courts. This extends to the U.S. Constitution itself, which does not mention any requirement that a U.S. Supreme Court justice or other federal judge be a lawyer, although it appears that no non-lawyer has ever been appointed as a federal judge.
American attorneys' attire
Unlike their counterparts in other common law jurisdictions, American attorneys are not required to wear wigs, robes or any other items of court dress when they appear in court. They are expected to wear contemporary business suits.
The one exception is the United States Solicitor General, who traditionally argues before the U.S. Supreme Court in 19th-century attire, including a "morning coat" with tails.
Attorneys in the United States do not usually have to adhere to a strict color code garb and can argue their cases wearing business suits. However, judges in the United States and Canada have occasionally been reported, even very recently, to order that a lawyer is not dressed appropriately and must return at a later date in proper attire – and to issue the lawyer a fine as if the lawyer had failed to show up for the hearing.
Alternatives to the practice of law
Because an accredited legal education generally provides a strong understanding of not only the substance of the law, but also an advanced analytical approach to the use and ramifications of the law, many professions, other than the practice of law, promote or require those with legal educations. As a result of overcrowding in the legal profession, the desire to achieve better work/life balance, and disenchantment with the legal profession, many attorneys are leaving the Bar to pursue these other professions that take advantage of the attorney's legal education. In some instances, graduates of law school who either cannot be admitted or who decide not to bother to be admitted to a state bar, enter these various professions.
Alternative careers that seek legally educated employees include:
* Work with the government as a policy analyst or a legislative drafter (the latter is sometimes classified as a 'policy analyst' and sometimes as a 'lawyer');
* Work for a publisher of a legal information publication;
* Work in banking, finance, real estate, insurance;
* Work in law enforcement.
In these fields, law degrees are useful (and sometimes mandatory, such as in the case of policy analysts and legislative drafters) qualifications for a job.
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare. Some hotels have conference services and meeting rooms and encourage groups to hold conventions and meetings at their location.
Hotels differ from motels in that most motels have drive-up, exterior entrances to the rooms, while hotels tend to have interior entrances to the rooms, which may increase guests' safety and present a more upmarket image.
In Australia, a hotel may also be an establishment that serves alcoholic drinks, and usually meals in a casual setting but which does not necessarily provide accommodation. This type of establishment would more usually be called a pub or bar in other countries. In general use in Australia the terms '"hotel" and pub are usually taken to be synonymous.
In India, the word may also refer to a restaurant since the best restaurants were always situated next to a good hotel.
Origins of the term
A small hotel in Mureck, Austria which has preserved its 1960s exterior and interior
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A small hotel in Mureck, Austria which has preserved its 1960s exterior and interior
The word hotel derives from the French hôtel, which referred to a French version of a townhouse, not a place offering accommodation (in contemporary usage, hôtel has the meaning of "hotel", and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning). The French spelling (with the circumflex) was once also used in English, but is now rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' once preceding the 't' in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time received a new, but closely related meaning.
Services and facilities
An upscale hotel room in the Renaissance Hotels chain in the U.S.
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An upscale hotel room in the Renaissance Hotels chain in the U.S.
Basic accommodation of a room with only a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with en-suite bathrooms and climate control. Other features found may be a telephone, an alarm clock, a TV, and broadband Internet connectivity. Food and drink may be supplied by a mini-bar (which often includes a small refrigerator) containing snacks and drinks (to be paid for on departure), and tea and coffee making facilities (cups, spoons, an electric kettle and sachets containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer or milk).
In the United Kingdom a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all comers within certain stated hours; to avoid this requirement it is not uncommon to come across "private hotels" which are not subject to this requirement.
However, in Japan the capsule hotel supplies minimal facilities and room space.
Classification
A View of H.Top Calella Palace in Spain.
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A View of H.Top Calella Palace in Spain.
The cost and quality of hotels are usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last decades of the 20th century, standards, especially those of smaller establishments, have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability, rating systems have been introduced, with the one to five stars classification being most common.
Boutique hotels
"Boutique Hotel" is a term originating in North America to describe intimate, usually luxurious or quirky hotel environments. Boutique hotels differentiate themselves from larger chain or branded hotels by providing an exceptional and personalized level of accommodation, services and facilities.
Boutique hotels are furnished in a themed, stylish and/or aspirational manner. Although usually considerably smaller than a mainstream hotel (ranging from 3 to 100 guest rooms) boutique hotels are generally fitted with telephone and wi-fi Internet connections, honesty bars and often cable/pay TV. Guest services are attended to by 24 hour hotel staff. Many boutique hotels have on site dining facilities, and the majority offer bars and lounges which may also be open to the general public.
Of the total travel market a small percentage are discerning travelers, who place a high importance on privacy, luxury and service delivery. As this market is typically corporate travelers, the market segment is non-seasonal, high-yielding and repeat, and therefore one which boutique hotel operators target as their primary source of income.
Famous hotels
Hotel Astoria and a statue of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in front, in Saint Petersburg
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Hotel Astoria and a statue of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in front, in Saint Petersburg
Some hotels have gained their renown through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, which derives its fame from the so-called Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945. Other establishments have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, USA, known for its Waldorf Salad or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where the drink Singapore Sling was invented. Another example is the Hotel Sacher in Vienna Austria, home of the Sachertorte. There are also hotels which became much more popular through films like the Grand Hotel Europe in Saint Petersburg, Russia when James Bond stayed there in the Blockbuster, Goldeneye. Cannes hotels such as the Carlton or the Martinez become the center of the world during Cannes Film Festival (France).
A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London, UK ('Putting on The Ritz') and Hotel Chelsea in New York City, subject of a number of songs and also the scene of the alleged stabbing of Nancy Spungen by her boyfriend Sid Vicious. Hotels that enter folklore like these two are also often frequented by celebrities, as is the case both with the Ritz and the Chelsea. Other famous hotels include the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Hotel Bel-Air and the Chateau Marmont, in California, USA, Watergate complex in Washington DC ,the Hotel Astoria in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the Hotel George V and Hôtel Ritz in Paris, Palazzo Versace hotel on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Hotel Hermitage and Hotel de Paris in Monaco (in the French Riviera) and Hotel Leningradskaya in Moscow.
Unusual hotels
Many hotels can be considered destinations in themselves, by dent of unusual features of the lodging and/or its immediate environment:
The first of the Ariau towers
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The first of the Ariau towers
Treehouse hotels
Some hotels, such as the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, or Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya, are built with living trees as structural elements, making them treehouses.
The Ariau Towers near Manaus, Brazil is in the middle of the Amazon, on the Rio Negro. Bill Gates even invested and had a suite built there with satellite internet/phone.
Another hotel with treehouse units is Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos, Turkey [2].
Cave hotels
A state hotel in Cienfuegos, Cuba
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A state hotel in Cienfuegos, Cuba
Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, South Australia and the Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (named after the author) in Guadix, Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia, Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some with rooms underground.
Capsule hotels
Capsule hotels are a type of economical hotels that are quite common in Japan.
Ice hotels
Main article: Ice hotel
Ice hotels, such as the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, melt every spring and are rebuilt out of ice and snow each winter.
Snow hotels
The Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle, which is the biggest in the world. It includes The Mammut Snow Hotel, The Castle Courtyard, The Snow Restaurant and a chapel for weddings, etc. Its furnishings and its decorations, such as sculptures, are made of snow and ice.
There is snow accommodation also in Lainio Snow Hotel in Lapland (near Ylläs), Finland.
Garden hotels
Garden hotels, famous for their gardens before they became hotels, includes Gravetye Manor, the home of William Robinson and Cliveden, designed by Charles Barry with a rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe.
Underwater hotels
As of 2005, the only hotel with an underwater room that can be reached without Scuba diving is Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. It only has one room, however, and Jules' Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, which requires scuba diving, is not much bigger.
Hydropolis is an ambitious project to build a luxury hotel in Dubai, UAE, with 220 suites, all on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, 20 meters (66 feet) below the surface. Its architecture will feature two domes that break the surface and an underwater train tunnel, all made of transparent materials such as glass and acrylic.
Other unusual hotels
The Library Hotel in New York City is unique in that its ten floors are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System.
The Rogers Centre, formerly SkyDome, in Toronto, Canada is the only stadium to have a hotel connected to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the field.
The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, built on an artificial island, is structured in the shape of a sail of a boat.
World-record setting hotels
Tallest
Burj al-Arab at sunset
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Burj al-Arab at sunset
The tallest hotel in the world is the Burj al-Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at 321 meters (1,053 feet). However, this title may be taken by the less illustrious Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang at 330 meters (1,083 feet), pending its (perhaps unlikely) completion; it has been under construction since 1987 and was abandoned in 1992.
Largest
The current largest hotel in the world is First World Hotel[citation needed] in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.[1] It has a total of 6,118 rooms, and is part of the Genting Highlands Resort and Casino. The First World Plaza which is adjoined to the two hotel towers boasts 500,000 square feet of indoor theme park, shopping centres, casino gaming areas, and eateries. Previously, the largest hotel in the world was the MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA with 5,690 rooms.
Oldest
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest hotel still in operation is the Hoshi Ryokan, in Awazu, Japan. It opened in 717 CE, and features hot springs.
Hotel occupations
The owner, chairman, or CEO of a hotel or hotel group is known as a hotelier.
Living in hotels
The American billionaire Howard Hughes lived much of his life in hotels. He moved with his entourage from hotel to hotel and from Beverly Hills to Boston before deciding to move to Las Vegas and become a casino baron. Less than a month after his November 27, 1966 arrival , Hughes made a public offer to buy the Desert Inn. The hotel's 8th floor became the nerve center of his empire and the 9th floor penthouse became Hughes's personal residence. Hughes moved to the Bahamas, Vancouver, London and several other locations — always taking up residence in the top floor penthouse of the hotel. Between 1966 and 1968, he also purchased several other hotel-casinos from the Mafia: Castaways, New Frontier, The Landmark Hotel and Casino, Sands and Silver Slipper.
Coco Chanel made the Hôtel Ritz in Paris her home for more than thirty years, until the day of her death, at 87, in a suite now named "Coco Chanel Suite".
King Peter II of Yugoslavia spent much of the Second World War at Claridge's, a hotel in London. His son, Aleksandar Karađorđević, was born in the hotel.
Prince Felix Yusupov lived in the Hotel Vendôme in Paris.
Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi war criminal, is believed to have lived in the Meridian Hotel in Damascus, Syria, under the name Georg Fischer.
Sultan Said Bin Taimur of Muscat lived at Dorchester Hotel in London after he was deposed by Qaboos of Oman in 1970, He died in the hotel in 1972.
Eleftherios Venizelos, Greek statesman and diplomat, lived in the Hôtel Ritz Paris while he was in exile in France from 1935-1936.
Photography
Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices known as cameras.
Lens and mounting of a large-format camera
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Lens and mounting of a large-format camera
Wikibooks
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Photography
The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γραφις graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph. (The term image is traditional in geometric optics.)
Photographic image-forming devices
The camera or camera obscura is the image-forming device and photographic film or a digital storage card is the recording medium, although other methods are available. For instance, the photocopy or xerography machine forms permanent images but uses the transfer of static electrical charges rather than photographic film, hence the term electrophotography. Rayographs published by Man Ray and others are images produced by the shadows of objects cast on the photographic paper, without the use of a camera. Objects can also be placed directly on the glass of a scanner to produce digital pictures.
Photographers control the camera and lens to expose the light recording material (usually film or a charge-coupled device; a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor may also be used) to the required amount of light. After processing, this produces an image.
The controls include:
* Focus of lens
* Aperture of the lens (amount of light allowed to pass through the lens)
* Focal length and type of lens (telephoto, macro, wide angle, or zoom)
* Filters, or scrims placed between the subject and the light recording material, either in front of or behind the lens
* Duration of exposure (or shutter speed)
* Sensitivity of the medium to light intensity and color/wavelength
* The nature of the light recording material, for example its resolution as measured in pixels or grains of silver halide
Camera controls are inter-related, as the total amount of light reaching the film plane (the "exposure") changes proportionately with the duration of exposure, aperture of the lens, and focal length of the lens (which changes as the lens is focused, or zoomed). Changing any of these controls alter the exposure. Many cameras automatically adjust the aperture of the lens to account for changes in focus, and some will accommodate changes in zoom as well.
The duration of an exposure is referred to as shutter speed, often even in cameras that don't have a physical shutter, and is typically measured in fractions of a second. Aperture is expressed by an f-number or f-stop (derived from focal ratio), which is proportional to the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture. If the f-number is decreased by a factor of \sqrt 2, the aperture diameter is increased by the same factor, and its area is increased by a factor of 2. The f-stops that might be found on a typical lens include 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, where going up "one stop" doubles the amount of light reaching the film, and stopping down one stop halves the amount of light.
Exposures can be achieved through various combinations of shutter speed and aperture. For example, f/8 at 1/125th of a second and f/4 at 1/500th of a second yield the same amount of light. The chosen combination has an impact on the final result. In addition to the subject or camera movement that might vary depending on the shutter speed, the aperture (and focal length of the lens) determine the depth of field, which refers to the range of distances from the lens that will be in focus. For example, using a long lens and a large aperture (f/2.8, for example), a subject's eyes might be in sharp focus, but not the tip of the nose. With a smaller aperture (f/22), or a shorter lens, both the subject's eyes and nose can be in focus. With very small apertures, such as pinholes, a wide range of distance can be brought into focus.
Image capture is only part of the image forming process. Regardless of material, some process must be employed to render the latent image captured by the camera into the final photographic work. This process consists of two steps, development, and printing.
During the printing process, modifications can be made to the print by several controls. Many of these controls are similar to controls during image capture, while some are exclusive to the printing process. Most controls have equivalent digital concepts, but some create different effects. For example, dodging and burning controls are different between digital and film processes. Other printing modifications include:
* Chemicals and Process used during film development
* Duration of exposure (equivalent to shutter speed)
* Printing Aperture (equivalent to aperture, but has no effect on depth of field)
* Contrast
* Dodging (Reduction in exposure of certain print areas, resulting in a lighter areas)
* Burning (Increase in exposure of certain areas, resulting in darker areas)
* Paper Quality (Glossy, Matte, Etc)
Uses of photography
Photography has gained the interest of many scientists and artists from its inception. Scientists have used photography to record and study movements, such as Eadweard Muybridge's study of human and animal locomotion (1887). Artists are equally interested by these aspects but also try to explore avenues other than the photo-mechanical representation of reality, such as the pictorialist movement. Military, police and security forces use photography for surveillance, recognition and data storage. Photography is used to preserve memories of favorites and as a source of entertainment.
History of photography
Nicéphore Niépce's earliest surviving photograph, c. 1826
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Nicéphore Niépce's earliest surviving photograph, c. 1826
Invention
Main article: History of the camera
Chemical photography
For centuries images have been projected onto surfaces. It has been theorized by the controversial artist David Hockney that some artists used the camera obscura and camera lucida to trace scenes as early as the 16th century. However, this theory is heavily disputed by today's contemporary realist artists who find the device almost impossible to use. Furthermore, these artists are able to produce work of extremely realistic and accurate quality using techniques of measurement and observation passed down in generations old traditions, and not any sort of tracing. These traditions were used by the old masters in their lineage and it is not plausible that the camera obscura would have been widely used, as other freehand techniques are more accurate and very easy to use with proper training. These early cameras did not fix an image, but only projected images from an opening in the wall of a darkened room onto a surface, turning the room into a large pinhole camera. The phrase camera obscura literally means darkened room. While this early prototype of today's modern camera had very little use outside of attracting curiosity, it was an important step in the evolution of the invention.
The first photograph was an image produced in the 1820s by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce on a polished pewter plate covered with a petroleum derivative called bitumen of Judea. Produced with a camera, the image required an eight-hour exposure in bright sunshine. Niépce then began experimenting with silver compounds based on a Johann Heinrich Schultz discovery in 1724 that a silver and chalk mixture darkens when exposed to light.
In partnership, Niépce, in Chalon-sur-Saône, and Louis Daguerre, in Paris, refined the existing silver process. In 1833 Niépce died of a stroke, leaving his notes to Daguerre. While he had no scientific background, Daguerre made two pivotal contributions to the process. He discovered that exposing the silver first to iodine vapour, before exposure to light, and then to mercury fumes after the photograph was taken, could form a latent image. Bathing the plate in a salt bath then fixes the image. In 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the Daguerreotype. A similar process is still used today for Polaroids. The French government bought the patent and immediately made it public domain.
William Fox Talbot had earlier discovered another means to fix a silver process image but had kept it secret. After reading about Daguerre's invention Talbot refined his process, so that it might be fast enough to take photographs of people. By 1840, Talbot had invented the calotype process. He coated paper sheets with silver chloride to create an intermediate negative image. Unlike a daguerreotype a calotype negative could be used to reproduce positive prints, like most chemical films do today. Talbot patented this process, which greatly limited its adoption. He spent the rest of his life in lawsuits defending the patent until he gave up on photography. Later George Eastman refined Talbot's process, which is the basic technology used by chemical film cameras today. Hippolyte Bayard had also developed a method of photography but delayed announcing it, and so was not recognized as its inventor.
In 1851 Frederick Scott Archer invented the collodion process. Photographer and children's author, Lewis Carroll, used this process.
Slovene Janez Puhar invented the technical procedure for making photographs on glass in 1841. The invention was recognized on July 17th 1852 in Paris by the Académie Nationale Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale.
Herbert Bowyer Berkeley experimented with his own version of collodian emulsions after Samman introduced the idea of adding dithionite to the pyrogallol developer. Berkeley discovered that with his own addition of sulphite, to absorb the sulpher dioxide given off by the chemical dithionite in the developer, that dithionite was not required in the developing process. In 1881 he published his discovery. Berkeley's formula contained pyrogallol,sulphite and citric acid. Ammonia was added just before use to make the formula alkaline The new formula was sold by the Platinotype Company in London as Sulpho-Pyrogallol Developer.[1]
Reference
* Coe, Brian. The Birth of Photography. Ash & Grant, 1976.
Social history
Popularization
The Daguerreotype proved popular in responding to the demand for portraiture emerging from the middle classes during the Industrial Revolution. This demand, that could not be met in volume and in cost by oil painting, added to the push for the development of photography. Daguerreotypes, while beautiful, were fragile and difficult to copy. A single photograph taken in a portrait studio could cost USD $1,000 in 2006 dollars. Photographers also encouraged chemists to refine the process of making many copies cheaply, which eventually led them back to Talbot's process.
Ultimately, the modern photographic process came about from a series of refinements and improvements in the first 20 years. In 1884 George Eastman, of Rochester, New York, developed dry gel on paper, or film, to replace the photographic plate so that a photographer no longer needed to carry boxes of plates and toxic chemicals around. In July of 1888 Eastman's Kodak camera went on the market with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest". Now anyone could take a photograph and leave the complex parts of the process to others, and photography became available for the mass-market in 1901 with the introduction of Kodak Brownie.
Since then color film has become standard, as well as automatic focus and automatic exposure. Digital recording of images is becoming increasingly common, as digital cameras allow instant previews on LCD screens and the resolution of top of the range models has exceeded high quality 35 mm film while lower resolution models have become affordable. For the enthusiast photographer processing black and white film, little has changed since the introduction of the 35mm film Leica camera in 1925.
Economic history
In the nineteenth century, photography developed rapidly as a commercial service. End-user supplies of photographic equipment accounted for only about 20% of industry revenue.
With the development of digital technologies and of communications devices, such as camera phones, understanding the economics of image use is becoming increasingly important for understanding the evolution of the communications industry as a whole.
Resources
Jenkins, Reese V. Images & Enterprise: Technology and the American Photographic Industry 1839-1925. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975. The book provides an overview of the economics of photography and the development of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Photography types
Color photography
Main article: Color photography
Color photography was explored throughout the 1800s. Initial experiments in color could not fix the photograph and prevent the color from fading. The first permanent color photo was taken in 1861 by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
Early color photograph taken by Prokudin-Gorskii (1915)
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Early color photograph taken by Prokudin-Gorskii (1915)
One of the early methods of taking color photos was to use three cameras. Each camera would have a color filter in front of the lens. This technique provides the photographer with the three basic channels required to recreate a color image in a darkroom or processing plant. Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii developed another technique, with three color plates taken in quick succession.
Practical application of the technique was held back by the very limited color response of early film; however, in the early 1900s, following the work of photo-chemists such as H. W. Vogel, emulsions with adequate sensitivity to green and red light at last became available.
The first color film, Autochrome, invented by the French Lumière brothers, reached the market in 1907. It was based on a 'screen-plate' filter made of dyed dots of potato starch, and was the only color film on the market until German Agfa introduced the similar Agfacolor in 1932. In 1935, American Kodak introduced the first modern ('integrated tri-pack') color film, Kodachrome, based on three colored emulsions. This was followed in 1936 by Agfa's Agfacolor Neue. Unlike the Kodachrome tri-pack process the colour couplers in Agfacolor Neue were integral with the emulsion layers, which greatly simplified the film processing. Most modern color films, except Kodachrome, are based on the Agfacolor Neue technology. Instant color film was introduced by Polaroid in 1963.
As an interesting side note, the inventors of Kodachrome, Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky, Jr. were both accomplished musicians. Godowsky was the brother-in-law of George Gershwin and his father was Leopold Godowsky, one of the world's greatest pianists.
Color photography may form images as a positive transparency, intended for use in a slide projector or as color negatives, intended for use in creating positive color enlargements on specially coated paper. The latter is now the most common form of film (non-digital) color photography owing to the introduction of automated photoprinting equipment.
Digital Photography
Main article: Digital photography
Traditional photography was a considerable burden for photographers working at remote locations (such as press correspondents) without access to processing facilities. With increased competition from television there was pressure to deliver their images to newspapers with greater speed. Photo-journalists at remote locations would carry a miniature photo lab with them and some means of transmitting their images down the telephone line. In 1981 Sony unveiled the first consumer camera to use a CCD for imaging, and which required no film -- the Sony Mavica. While the Mavica did save images to disk, the images themselves were displayed on television, and therefore the camera could not be considered fully digital. In 1990, Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, the first commercially available digital camera. Its cost precluded any use other than photojournalism and professional applications, but commercial digital photography was born.
Digital imaging uses an electronic sensor such as a charge-coupled device to record the image as a piece of electronic data rather than as chemical changes on film. Some other devices, such as cell phones, now include digital imaging features. Even though there are no chemical processes, a digital camera captures a frame of whatever it happens to be pointed at, which can be viewed later.
Although at first glance digital imaging appears to be photography, and even meets some of the criteria to be defined as such, it is fundamentally different. The primary difference lies in that photography inherently resists manipulation due to the the fact that it is an analog process involving film, optics and photographic paper, while digital imaging is a highly manipulative medium since it is purely digital from the beginning. This difference allows for a degree of image post-processing which is impossible in photography, and thus the distinction has less to do with visual dissimilarities, and far more to do with their quite different communicative potentials and applications.
Digital imaging is replacing photography in the consumer and professional markets at a rapid pace. In 10 years, digital point and shoot cameras have become widespread consumer products. These digital cameras now outsell film cameras, and many include features not found in film cameras such as the ability to shoot video and record audio. Kodak announced in January 2004 that it would no longer produce reloadable 35 mm cameras after the end of that year. This was interpreted as a sign of the end of film photography. However, Kodak was at that time a minor player on the reloadable film cameras market. In January 2006 Nikon followed suit and announced that they will stop the production of all but two models of their film cameras, they will continue to produce the low-end Nikon FM10, and the high-end Nikon F6. On May 25, 2006 Canon announced they will stop developing new film SLR cameras.[2] The price of 35 mm and APS compact cameras have dropped, probably due to direct competition from digital and the resulting growth of the offer of second-hand film cameras.
Because photography is popularly synonymous with truth ("The camera doesn't lie"), digital imaging has raised many ethical concerns. Many photojournalists have declared they will not crop their pictures, or are forbidden from combining elements of multiple photos to make "illustrations," passing them as real photographs (for example, the photo above of the two men on the cable car). Many courts will not accept digital images as evidence because of their inherently manipulative nature. Today's technology has made picture editing relatively easy for even the novice photographer. Even beginners can easily edit color, contrast, exposure and sharpness with the click of a mouse, whereas those same procedures would have taken an extensive amount of time in a traditional darkroom.
Digital versus film
There is debate over which of the two formats, digital or film, is superior. It cannot be said that either of the formats is superior to the other in every way. Rather, each of the formats has its own specific advantages. This section discusses those points.
Quality
There are numerous measures which can be used to assess the quality of still photographs. The most discussed of these is spatial resolution, i.e. the number of separate points in the photograph. This is measured by how many millions of picture cells make up the photo.
The comparison of resolution between film and digital photography is complex. Measuring the resolution of both film and digital photographs depends on numerous issues. For film, this issue depends on the size of film used (35 mm, Medium format or Large format), the speed of the film used and the quality of lenses in the camera. Additionally, since film is an analogue medium, it does not have pixels so its resolution measured in pixels can only be an estimate.
Similarly, digital cameras rarely perform to their stated megapixel count. Other factors are important in digital camera resolution such as the actual number of pixels used to store the image, the effect of the Bayer pattern of sensor filters on the digital sensor and the image processing algorithm used to interpolate sensor pixels to image pixels. In addition, digital sensors are generally arranged in a rectangular pattern, making images susceptible to moire pattern artifacts, whereas film is immune to such effects due to the random orientation of grains.
Estimates of the resolution of a photograph taken with a 35 mm film camera vary. However, there exist many estimates around 12 megapixels.[3] [4] It is possible for more resolution to be recorded if, for example, a finer grain film is used or less resolution to be recorded with poor quality optics or low light levels. The analysis of R. N. Clark leads to this conclusion: "The digital megapixel equivalent of film is highly variable and roughly depends on film speed. Slow, fine-grained 35mm films with speeds of ISO 50 to 100 have megapixel equivalents of 8 to 16 megapixels. ISO 400 films are only around 4 megapixels." This would place top-of-the-range digital cameras (as of 2006) well over 35 mm film cameras.
However, while 35 mm is the standard format for consumer cameras, many professional film cameras use Medium format or Large format films which, due to the size of the film used, can boast resolution many times greater than the current top-of-the-range digital cameras. For example, it is estimated that a medium format film photograph can record around 50 megapixels, while large format films can record around 200 megapixels (4 × 5 inch) [5] which would equate to around 800 megapixels on the largest common film format, 8 × 10 inches.
The resolution of modern black and white slow speed film, exposed through a high quality prime lens working at its optimum aperture yields usable detail at a scanned file size of greater than 30 megapixels. With consumer 35 mm color negative film an effective resolution of over 12 megapixels is achievable and in an inexpensive 35 mm point and shoot camera a resolution of over 8 megapixels may be achieved.
When deciding between film and digital and between different types of camera, it is necessary to take into account the medium which will be used for display. For instance, if a photograph will only be viewed on a television or computer display (which can resolve only about 2 megapixels and 1.3 megapixels, respectively, as of 2006), then the resolution provided by a low-end digital cameras may be sufficient. For standard 4 × 6 inch prints, it is debatable whether there will be any perceived quality difference between digital and film. If the print is to be large billboard, then it is likely that the extra resolution of a medium or large format will be necessary. For larger prints, the extra resolution of a good 35 mm film photograph may be desirable.
It should be noted that a special case exists for long exposure photography - Currently available technology contributes random noise to the images taken by digital cameras, produced by thermal noise and manufacturing defects. Some digital cameras apply noise reduction to long exposure photographs to counteract this. For very long exposures it is necessary to operate the detector at low temperatures to avoid noise impacting the final image. Film grain is not affected by exposure time, although the apparent speed of the film does change with longer exposures.
Convenience and Flexibility
Digital photography is flexible to the extreme; a photographer can change anything about a photograph after it has been taken.
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Digital photography is flexible to the extreme; a photographer can change anything about a photograph after it has been taken.
These two pictures are a before and after demonstrating the capabilties of the digital photographer.
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These two pictures are a before and after demonstrating the capabilties of the digital photographer.
This has been one of the major drivers of the widespread adoption of digital cameras. Before the advent of digital cameras, once a photograph was taken, the roll of film would need to be finished and sent off to a lab to be developed. Only once the film was returned was it possible to see the photograph. However, most digital cameras incorporate an LCD screen which allows the photograph to be viewed immediately after it has been taken. This allows the photographer to delete unrequired photographs and offers an immediate opportunity to re-take. When a user desires prints, it is only necessary to print the good photographs.
Another major advantage of digital technology is that photographs can be conveniently moved to a personal computer for modification. Many digital cameras are capable of storing pictures in a RAW format which stores the output from the sensor directly rather than processing it immediately to an image. When combined with suitable software, such as Photoshop or dcraw, this allows the user to configure certain parameters of the taken photograph (such as sharpness or color) before it is "developed" into a final image. More sophisticated users may choose to manipulate or alter the actual content of the recorded image. (See Digital image editing.)
Film photographs may be digitised in a process known as scanning. They may then be manipulated as digital photographs.
Price
The two formats (film and digital) have different emphases as regards pricing. With digital photography, cameras tend to be significantly more expensive than film ones, comparing like for like. This is offset by the fact that taking photographs is effectively cost-free. Photographs can be taken freely and copies distributed over the internet free of charge.
This should be contrasted with film photography where good-quality cameras tend to be less complicated and, therefore, less expensive. But this is at the expense of ongoing costs both in terms of film and processing costs. In particular, film cameras offer no chance to review photographs immediately after they are shot, and all photos taken must be processed before knowing anything about the quality of the final photograph.
There are costs associated with digital photography. Digital cameras use batteries, some of which are proprietary and quite expensive. While they are rechargable, they do degrade over time and must be periodically replaced. Although there is no film in digital cameras, there is the requirement to store the images on memory cards or microdrives which also have limited life. Additionally, some provision for storage of the digital image must be made. In general this would be either an optical disc produced by a shop or photofinisher, or by the photographer on a computer system. If physical prints are to be made they can either be purchased from a photofinisher, or produced by the photographer.
The price differential between the two formats is often dictated by the intent of the photographer and the purpose of his or her work.
Robustness
Film has advantages over digital, at least with current technology. One main advantages is latitude, or the ability to produce a good image from over- or underexposed negatives. Slightly overexposed digital images can lose all data in the highlights, and underexposed images will lose significant shadow detail. Photographers can over- or underexpose film, especially black and white film, and still produce normal images.
Dust on the image plane is a constant issue for photographers. Digital cameras are especially prone to dust problems because the sensor is static, and for digital SLRs dust is difficult to rectify. Some digital SLRs however, have systems that remove dust from the sensor by vibrating or knocking the sensor. Some cameras do this in conjunction with software that remembers where dust is located on the sensor and removes dust-affected pixels from images.
Archiving
When choosing between film and digital formats, it is necessary to consider the suitability of each as an archival medium.
Films and prints processed and stored in ideal conditions have demonstrated an ability to remain substantially unchanged for more than 100 years. Gold or platinum toned prints probably have a lifespan limited only by the lifespan of the base material, probably many hundreds of years.
The archival potential of digital photographs is less well understood since digital media have existed for only the last 50 years. There exist three problems which must be overcome for archival usage: physical stability of the recording medium, future readability of the storage medium and future readability of the file formats used for storage.
Many digital media are not capable of storing data for prolonged periods of time. For example, magnetic disks and tapes may lose their data after twenty years, flash memory cards even less. Good quality optical media may be the most durable storage media for digital data.
It is important to consider the future readability of storage media. Assuming the storage media can continue to hold data for prolonged periods of time, the short lifespan of digital technologies often causes the drives to read media to become unavailable. For example, the first 5¼-inch Floppy disks were first made available in 1976. However, the drives to read them are already extremely rare just 30 years later.
It must also be considered whether there still exists software which can decode the data. For example, many modern digital cameras save photographs in JPEG format. This format has existed for only around 15 years. Whether it will still be readable in a century is unknown, although the huge number of JPEG files currently being produced will surely influence this issue.
Most professional cameras can save in a RAW image format, the future of which is much more uncertain. Some of these formats contain proprietary data which is encrypted or protected by patents, and could be abandoned by their makers at any time for simple economic reasons. This could make it difficult to read these 'raw' files in the future, unless the camera makers were to release information on the file formats.
However, digital archives have several methods of overcoming such obstacles. In order to counteract the file format problems, many organizations prefer to choose an open and popular file format. Doing so increases the chance that software will exist to decode the file in the future.
Additionally many organizations take an active approach to archiving rather than relying on formats being readable decades later. This takes advantage of the ability to make perfect copies of digital media. So, for example, rather than leaving data on a format which may potentially become unreadable or unsupported, the information can typically be copied to newer media without loss of quality. This is only possible with digital media.
And, of course, the digital images can always be printed out and saved like traditional photographs.
Integrity
Film produces a first generation image, which contains only the information admitted through the aperture of the camera. Film "sees" in color, in a specific spectral band such as Orthochromatic, or in broad Panchromatic sensitivity. Differences in development technique can produce subtle changes in the finished Negative or Positive, but once this process is complete it is considered permanent.
Film images are very difficult to fabricate, thus in law enforcement and in cases where the authenticity of an image is important (Passport/Visa photographs), film provides greater security over digital, which has the disadvantage that photographs can be conveniently moved to a personal computer for modification.
Photography styles
Commercial photography
The commercial photographic world can be broken down to:
* Advertising photography: photographs made to illustrate a service or product. These images are generally done with an advertising agency, design firm or with an in-house corporate design team.
* Editorial photography: photographs made to illustrate a story or idea within the context of a magazine. These are usually assigned by the magazine.
* Photojournalism: this can be considered a subset of editorial photography. Photographs made in this context are accepted as a truthful documentation of a news story.
* Portrait and wedding photography: photographs made and sold directly to the end user of the images.
* Fine art photography: photographs made to fulfill a vision, and reproduced to be sold directly to the customer.
The market for photographic services demonstrates the aphorism "one picture is worth a thousand words," which has an interesting basis in the history of photography. Magazines and newspapers, companies putting up Web sites, advertising agencies and other groups pay for photography.
Many people take photographs for self-fulfillment or for commercial purposes. Organizations with a budget and a need for photography have several options: they can assign a member of the organization, hire someone, run a public competition, or obtain rights to stock photographs.
Photography as an art form
Manual shutter control and exposure settings can achieve unusual results
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Manual shutter control and exposure settings can achieve unusual results
Classic Alfred Stieglitz photograph, The Steerage shows unique aesthetic of black and white photos.
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Classic Alfred Stieglitz photograph, The Steerage shows unique aesthetic of black and white photos.
During the twentieth century, both fine art photography and documentary photography became accepted by the English-speaking art world and the gallery system. In the United States, a small handful of curators spent their lives advocating to put photography in such a system, with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, John Szarkowski, and Hugh Edwards the most prominent among them.
The aesthetics of photography is a matter that continues to be discussed regularly, especially in artistic circles. Many artists argued that photography was the mechanical reproduction of an image. If photography is authentically art, then photography in the context of art would need redefinition, such as determining what component of a photograph makes it beautiful to the viewer. The controversy began with the earliest images "written with light": Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, and others among the very earliest photographers were met with acclaim, but some questioned if it met the definitions and purposes of art.
Clive Bell in his classic essay "Art" states that only one thing can distinguish art from what is not art: "significant form." Bell wrote:
Photography
There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist; possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless. What is this quality? What quality is shared by all objects that provoke our aesthetic emotions? What quality is common to Sta. Sophia and the windows at Chartres, Mexican sculpture, a Persian bowl, Chinese carpets, Giotto's frescoes at Padua, and the masterpieces of Poussin, Piero della Francesca, and Cezanne? Only one answer seems possible - significant form. In each, lines and colors combined in a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, stir our aesthetic emotions.
Automobile
An automobile (or motor car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to seven people, typically have four wheels and be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term is far from precise.
As of 2002 there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car for every eleven people), of which 140 million in the U.S. (roughly one car for every two people). [1].
History
Main article: History of the automobile
An automobile powered by the Otto gasoline engine was invented in Germany by Karl Benz in 1885. Benz was granted a patent dated 29 January 1886 in Mannheim for that automobile. Even though Benz is credited with the invention of the modern automobile, several other German engineers worked on building automobiles at the same time. In 1886, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart patented the first motor bike, built and tested in 1885, and in 1886 they built a converted horse-drawn stagecoach. In 1870, German-Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus assembled a motorized handcart, though Marcus' vehicle did not go beyond the experimental stage.
Automobile history eras
1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Veteran Brass or Edwardian Vintage Pre-War Post-War Modern
Antique
Classic
Internal combustion engine powered vehicles
Animation of a 4-stroke overhead-cam internal combustion engine
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Animation of a 4-stroke overhead-cam internal combustion engine
In 1806 François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss, designed the first internal combustion engine (sometimes abbreviated "ICE" today). He subsequently used it to develop the world's first vehicle to run on such an engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate energy. The design was not very successful, as was the case with the British inventor, Samuel Brown, and the American inventor, Samuel Morey, who produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines about 1826.
Etienne Lenoir produced the first successful stationary internal combustion engine in 1860, and within a few years, about four hundred were in operation in Paris. About 1863, Lenoir installed his engine in a vehicle. It seems to have been powered by city lighting-gas in bottles, and was said by Lenoir to have "travelled more slowly than a man could walk, with breakdowns being frequent." Lenoir, in his patent of 1860, included the provision of a carburettor, so liquid fuel could be substituted for gas, particularly for mobile purposes in vehicles. Lenoir is said to have tested liquid fuel, such as alcohol, in his stationary engines; but it does not appear that he used them in his own vehicle. If he did, he most certainly did not use gasoline, as this was not well-known and was considered a waste product.
The next innovation occurred in the late 1860s, with Siegfried Marcus, a German working in Vienna, Austria. He developed the idea of using gasoline as a fuel in a two-stroke internal combustion engine. In 1870, using a simple handcart, he built a crude vehicle with no seats, steering, or brakes, but it was remarkable for one reason: it was the world's first vehicle using an internal combustion engine fueled by gasoline. It was tested in Vienna in September of 1870 and put aside. In 1888 or 1889, he built a second automobile, this one with seats, brakes, and steering, and included a four-stroke engine of his own design. That design may have been tested in 1890. Although he held patents for many inventions, he never applied for patents for either design in this category.
The four-stroke engine already had been documented and a patent was applied for in 1862 by the Frenchman Beau de Rochas in a long-winded and rambling pamphlet. He printed about three hundred copies of his pamphlet and they were distributed in Paris, but nothing came of this, with the patent application expiring soon afterward and the pamphlet disappearing into obscurity.
Most historians agree that Nikolaus Otto of Germany built the world's first four-stroke engine although his patent was voided.[citation needed] He knew nothing of Beau de Rochas's patent or idea, and invented the concept independently. In fact, he began thinking about the concept in 1861, but abandoned it until the mid-1870s.
In 1883, Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville and Leon Malandin of France installed an internal combustion engine powered by a tank of city gas on a tricycle. As they tested the vehicle, the tank hose came loose, resulting in an explosion. In 1884, Delamare-Deboutteville and Malandin built and patented a second vehicle. This one consisted of two four-stroke, liquid-fueled engines mounted on an old four-wheeled horse cart. The patent, and presumably the vehicle, contained many innovations, some of which would not be used for decades. However, during the vehicle's first test, the frame broke apart, the vehicle literally "shaking itself to pieces," in Malandin's own words. No more vehicles were built by the two men. Their venture went completely unnoticed and their patent unexploited. Knowledge of the vehicles and their experiments was obscured until years later.
Production of automobiles begins
Karl Benz
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Karl Benz
Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1886
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Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1886
Internal combustion engine automobiles were first produced in Germany by Karl Benz in 1885-1886, and Gottlieb Daimler between 1886-1889.
Karl Benz began to work on new engine patents in 1878. At first he concentrated on creating a reliable two-stroke gas engine, based on Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-stroke engine. A patent on the design by Otto had been declared void. Benz finished his engine on New Year's Eve and was granted a patent for it in 1879. Benz built his first three-wheeled automobile in 1885 and it was granted a patent in Mannheim, dated January of 1886. This was the first automobile designed and built as such, rather than a converted carriage, boat, or cart. Among other items Benz invented are the speed regulation system known also as an accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator. He built improved versions in 1886 and 1887 and went into production in 1888: the world's first automobile production. His wife, Bertha, made significant suggestions for innovation that he included in that model. Approximately twenty-five were built before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.
In 1886 Gottlieb Daimler fitted a horse carriage with his four-stroke engine. In 1889, he built two vehicles from scratch as automobiles, with several innovations. From 1890 to 1895 about thirty vehicles were built by Daimler and his assistant, Wilhelm Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and Daimler, seem to have been unaware of each other's early work and worked independently. Daimler died in 1900. During the First World War, Benz suggested a co-operative effort between the two companies, but it was not until 1926 that the they united under the name of Daimler-Benz with a commitment to remain together under that name until the year 2000.
In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. They were inspired by Daimler's Stahlradwagen of 1889, which was exhibited in Paris in 1889.
The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Baldwin Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. Selden did not build an automobile until 1905, when he was forced to do so, due to a lawsuit threatening the legality of his patent because the subject had never been built. After building the 1877 design in 1905, Selden received his patent and later sued the Ford Motor Company for infringing upon his patent. Henry Ford was notorious for opposing the American patent system and Selden's case against Ford went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Ford, and anyone else, was free to build automobiles without paying royalties to Selden, since automobile technology had improved so significantly since the design of Selden's patent, that no one was building according to his early designs.
In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[1] One of the major problems was the poor state of the road network. Santler from Malvern is recognised by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol powered car in the country in 1894 [2] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 [2] but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles came from the Daimler Motor Company founded in 1896 and making their first cars made in 1897.[2]
Innovation
Ford Model T, 1927
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Ford Model T, 1927
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, a French inventor, is credited for having built the world's first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in 1765. The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789 for his "Amphibious Digger". It was a harbor dredge scow designed to be powered by a steam engine and he built wheels to attach to the bow. In 1804 Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle, which not only was the first automobile in the US but was also the first amphibious vehicle, as his steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land as he demonstrated once, and via a paddle wheel in the water. It was not successful and eventually was sold as spare parts.
The Benz Motorwagen, built in 1885, was patented on 29 January 1886 by Karl Benz as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. In 1888, a major breakthrough came when Bertha Benz drove an automobile that her husband had built for a distance of more than 106 km (about 65 miles). This event demonstrated the practical usefulness of the automobile and gained wide publicity, which was the promotion she thought was needed to advance the invention. The Benz vehicle was the first automobile put into production and sold commercially. Bertha Benz's historic drive is celebrated as an annual holiday in Germany with rallies of antique automobiles.
In 1892 Rudolf Diesel got a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine" by modifying the Carnot Cycle. And in 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine.
On 5 November 1895, George B. Selden was granted a United States patent for a two-stroke automobile engine (U.S. Patent 549160). This patent did more to hinder than encourage development of autos in the United States. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
Ransom E. Olds, the creator of the first automobile assembly line
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Ransom E. Olds, the creator of the first automobile assembly line
The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Eli Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This assembly line concept was then greatly expanded by Henry Ford in the 1910s. Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.
Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.
Model changeover and design change
Since the 1920s nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans have often heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one firm, so that buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved. The makes shared parts with one another so that the larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; the LaSalle of the 1930s, sold by Cadillac, used the cheaper mechanical parts made by the Oldsmobile division.
Production statistics
In 2005, 63 million cars and light trucks were produced worldwide.
Top 15 Motor Vehicle Producing Countries 2005 v • d • e
Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Production (1,000 units)
1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000 11,000 12,000
United States 11,524
Japan 10,064
Germany 5,543
China 5,067
South Korea 3,657
France 3,495
Spain 2,677
Canada 2,624
Brazil 2,375
United Kingdom 1,783
Mexico 1,607
India 1,406
Russia 1,264
Thailand 1,110
Italy 995
References:
* World Motor Vehicle Production by Country and Type: Cars 2004 - 2005. OICA.
* World Motor Vehicle Production by Country and Type: Light Commercial Vehicles 2004 - 2005. OICA.
Large free trade areas like EU, NAFTA and MERCOSUR attract manufacturers worldwide to produce their products within them reducing currency risks and customs controls and additionally being close to their customers. Thus the production figures do not show the technological ability or business skill of the areas. In fact much, if not most, of Third World countries car production uses Western technology and car models and sometimes complete Western factories are shipped to such countries. This is reflected in patent statistics as well as the location of R&D centers.
The automobile industry is dominated by relatively few large corporations (not to be confused with the much more numerous brands), the biggest of which (by numbers of cars produced) are currently General Motors, Toyota and Ford Motor Company. It is expected that Toyota will reach the No.1 position in 2009. The most profitable per-unit car-maker of recent years has been Porsche due to its premium price tag
Top 15 Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Companies by Volume 2005 [edit]
Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Production (1,000 units)
1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000
General Motors 9,040
Toyota 7,100
Ford 6,418
Volkswagen Group 5,173
DaimlerChrysler 4,319
PSA Peugeot Citroën 3,375
Honda 3,373
Nissan 3,348
Hyundai-Kia Motors 2,853
Renault-Dacia-Samsung 2,617
Suzuki-Maruti 2,072
Fiat 1,934
Mitsubishi 1,327
BMW 1,323
Mazda 1,285
Total global production: 67,265
Reference:
* World motor vehicle production by manufacturer: World ranking 2005. OICA (June 2006).
Future of the car
The hydrogen powered FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) was developed by Toyota in 2005
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The hydrogen powered FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) was developed by Toyota in 2005
Main article: Future of the car
There have been many efforts to innovate automobile design funded by the NHTSA, including the work of the NavLab group at Carnegie Mellon University. Recent efforts include the highly publicized DARPA Grand Challenge race.
Relatively high transportation fuel prices do not significantly reduce car usage but do make it more expensive. One environmental benefit of high fuel prices is that it is an incentive for the production of more efficient (and hence less polluting) car designs and the development of alternative fuels. At the beginning of 2006, 1 liter of gasoline cost approximately $0.60 USD in the United States and in Germany and other European countries nearly $1.80 USD. With fuel prices at these levels there is a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Greenpeace, however, demonstrated with the highly fuel efficient SmILE that car manufacturers aren't delivering what they could and thus not supplying for any such demand [citation needed]. Nevertheless, individual mobility is highly prized in modern societies so the demand for automobiles is inelastic. Alternative individual modes of transport, such as Personal rapid transit, could serve as an alternative to automobiles if they prove to be cheaper and more energy efficient.
Lexus LF-A concept car at the 2006 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show
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Lexus LF-A concept car at the 2006 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show
Electric cars operate a complex drivetrain and transmission would not be needed. However, despite this the electric car is held back by battery technology - a cell with comparable energy density to a tank of liquid fuel is a long way off, and there is no infrastructure in place to support it. A more practical approach may be to use a smaller internal combustion (IC) engine to drive a generator- this approach can be much more efficient since the IC engine can be run at a single speed, use cheaper fuel such as diesel, and drop the heavy, power wasting drivetrain. Such an approach has worked very well for railway locomotives, but so far has not been scaled down for car use.
Alternative technologies
Main article: Alternative fuel cars
The Henney Kilowatt, the first modern (transistor-controlled) electric car.
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The Henney Kilowatt, the first modern (transistor-controlled) electric car.
Increasing costs of oil-based fuels and tightening environmental laws with the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles.
Many diesel-powered cars can run with little or no modifications on 100% pure biodiesel. The main benefit of Diesel combustion engines is its 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 23% in the best gasoline engines. Most modern gasoline engines are capable of running with up to 15% ethanol mixed into the gasoline fuel - older vehicles may have seals and hoses that could be harmed by ethanol. With a small amount of redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as 85%. 100% ethanol is used in some parts of the world using vehicles that must be started on pure gasoline and switched over to ethanol once the engine is running. Most gasoline fuelled cars can also run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and carburation modifications to add an LPG mixer. LPG produces fewer toxic emissions and is a popular fuel for fork lift trucks that have to operate inside buildings.
The first electric cars were built in the late 1800s, prior to combustion engine automobiles, nevertheless attempts at building viable, modern battery-powered electric vehicle began with the introduction of the first modern (transistor controlled) electric car.
Current research and development is centered on "hybrid" vehicles that use both electric power and internal combustion. Research into alternative forms of power also focus on developing fuel cells, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), and even using the stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen.
Alternative forms of combustion such as Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) are starting to appear in production vehicles. GDI is employed in the 2007 BMW MINI.
Design
Main article: Automotive design
The 1955 Citroën DS; revolutionary visual design and technological innovation.
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The 1955 Citroën DS; revolutionary visual design and technological innovation.
The design of modern cars is typically handled by a large team of designers and engineers from many different disciplines. As part of the product development effort the team of designers will work closely with teams of design engineers responsible for all aspects of the vehicle. These engineering teams include: chassis, body and trim, powertrain, electrical and production. The design team under the leadership of the design director will typically comprise of an exterior designer, an interior designer (usually referred to as stylists) and a color and materials designer. A few other designers will be involved in detail design of both exterior and interior. For example, a designer might be tasked with designing the rear light clusters or the steering wheel. The color and materials designer will work closely with the exterior and interior designers in developing exterior color paints, interior colors, fabrics, leathers, carpet, wood trim and so on.
In 1924 the American national automobile market began reaching saturation. To maintain unit sales, General Motors instituted annual model-year design changes in order to convince car owners that they needed to buy a new replacement each year. Since 1935 automotive form has been driven more by consumer expectations than by engineering improvement.
Safety
Main article: Car safety
Main article: Automobile accident
Automobile accidents are almost as old as automobiles themselves. Early examples include, Joseph Cugnot, who crashed his steam-powered "Fardier" against a wall in 1771, Mary Ward, who became one of the first document automobile fatalites on August 31, 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland, and Henry Bliss, one of the United State's first automobile casualties on September 13, 1899 in New York City, NY.
Cars have many basic safety problems - for example, they have human drivers who make mistakes, wheels that lose traction when the braking or turning forces are too high. Some vehicles have a high center of gravity and therefore an increased tendency to roll over. When driven at high speeds, collisions can have serious or even fatal consequence.
Early safety research focused on increasing the reliability of brakes and reducing the flammability of fuel systems. For example, modern engine compartments are open at the bottom so that fuel vapors, which are heavier than air, vent to the open air. Brakes are hydraulic and dual circuit so that failures are slow leaks, rather than abrupt cable breaks. Systematic research on crash safety started in 1958 at Ford Motor Company. Since then, most research has focused on absorbing external crash energy with crushable panels and reducing the motion of human bodies in the passenger compartment.
Significant reductions in death and injury have come from the addition of Safety belts and laws in many countries to require vehicle occupants to wear them. Airbags and specialised child restraint systems have improved on that. Structural changes such as side-impact protection bars in the doors and side panels of the car mitigate the effect of impacts to the side of the vehicle. Many cars now include radar or sonar detectors mounted to the rear of the car to warn the driver if he or she is about to reverse into an obstacle or a pedestrian. Some vehicle manufacturers are producing cars with devices that also measure the proximity to obstacles and other vehicles in front of the car and are using these to apply the brakes when a collision is inevitable. There have also been limited efforts to use heads up displays and thermal imaging technologies similar to those used in military aircraft to provide the driver with a better view of the road at night.
There are standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests. There are also tests run by organizations such as IIHS and backed by the insurance industry.
Despite technological advances, there is still significant loss of life from car accidents: About 40,000 people die every year in the U.S., with similar figures in Europe. This figure increases annually in step with rising population and increasing travel if no measures are taken, but the rate per capita and per mile travelled decreases steadily. The death toll is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2020. A much higher number of accidents result in injury or permanent disability. The highest accident figures are reported in China and India. The European Union has a rigid program to cut the death toll in the EU in half by 2010 and member states have started implementing measures.
Automated control has been seriously proposed and successfully prototyped. Shoulder-belted passengers could tolerate a 32G emergency stop (reducing the safe intervehicle gap 64-fold) if high-speed roads incorporated a steel rail for emergency braking. Both safety modifications of the roadway are thought to be too expensive by most funding authorities, although these modifications could dramatically increase the number of vehicles that could safely use a high-speed highway.
Economics and societal impact
Main article: Economics of automobile ownership
Main article: Effects of the automobile on societies
The economics of personal automobile ownership go beyond the initial cost of the vehicle and includes repairs, maintenance, fuel, depreciation, the cost of borrowing, parking fees, tire replacement, taxes and insurance. Additionally, there are indirect societal costs such as the costs of maintaining roads and other infrastructure, pollution, health care costs due to accidents and the cost of finally disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life. The ability for humans to move rapidly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of our society. People can now live far from their workplaces, the design of our cities is determined as much by the need to get vehicles into and out of the city as the nature of the buildings and public spaces within the city.
Insurance
Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of catastrophic financial loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a potential loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium and duty of care.
Principles of insurance
From the point of view of the insurance company there are four general criteria for deciding whether to insure events or not. 1. there must be a larger number of similar objects so the financial outcome of insuring the pool of exposures is predictable. Therefore they can calculate a "fair" premium. 2. the losses have to be accidental and unintentional from the point of view of the insured. 3. the losses must be measurable, identifiable in location, time, and be definite. They also want the losses to cause economic hardship. That is, so the insured has an incentive to protect and preserve the property to minimize the probability that the losses occur. 4. the loss potential to the insurer must be non-catastrophic. It cannot put the insurance company in financial jeopardy.
Losses must be uncertain.
The rate and distribution of losses must be predictable: To set premiums (prices) insurers must be able to estimate them accurately. This is done using the Law of Large Numbers which states that: The larger the number of homogenous exposures considered, the more closely the losses reported will equal the underlying probability of loss. If the coverage is unique, the insured will pay a correspondingly higher premium. Lloyd's of London often accepts unique coverages. (e.g., the insuring of Tina Turner's legs and Jennifer Lopez's buttocks)
The loss must be significant: The legal principle of De minimis dictates that trivial matters are not covered. Furthermore, rational insurance uses existing insurance when the transaction costs dictate that filing a claim is not rational. Actually, De minimis does not come into play here. The reality is that it costs too much to insure frequent and/or small losses. It is much more cost effective to not transfer small loss potential to insurance companies by taking the largest deductible that you can stand (given adequate price reduction). As for filing small claims, if the insurance company contractually should pay for it, you should file it. This is the difference between deciding before the contract the parameters and after following through.
The loss must not be catastrophic: If the insurer is insolvent, it will be unable to pay the insured. In the United States, there is a system of Guarantee Funds that run at the state level to reimburse insured people whose insurance companies have become insolvent. [1] This program is run by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). [2] In the United Kingdom, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which regulates all insurance companies, has its own standards of solvency which must, by law, be adhered to. To avoid catastrophic depletion of their own capital, insurers almost universally purchase reinsurance to protect them against excessively large accumulations of risk in a single area, and to protect them against large-scale catastrophes.
Additionally, “speculative risks” like those incurred through gambling or through the purchase of company stocks are uninsurable.
Insurance Contract Principles
A property or liability insurance policy is a "personal contract," a "conditional contract," a "unilateral contract," a "contract of adhesion," a "contract of indemnity," and a contract which requires that the person insured have an insurable interest at the time of the insured-against contingency.
Further: An Insurance Contract is one of Uberrima fides. This is a Latin phrase meaning "utmost good faith" (or translated literally, "most abundant faith"). It is the name of a legal doctrine which governs insurance contracts. This means that all parties to an insurance contract must deal in utmost good faith, making a full declaration of all material facts in the insurance proposal. Under utmost good faith contracts if there is a violation it is categorized as a material misrepresentation, a breach of a warranty, or a concealment. Insureds can also go after insurers for a breach of utmost good faith. Normal business contracts are "good faith contracts" and can result in contract enforcement, monetary damages or both. If the contract cannot be performed or is unconscionable, the contract can be set aside. This contrasts with the legal doctrine of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Caveat emptor does not come into play in insurance contracts. The buyer does have an obligation to read the contract and if is not understood to ask the sales agent to explain. It is best to get the explanations in writing.
Personal Contract
Property and liability insurance policies cover persons and not property or operations. Although the terms "insured my house" or "insured my motorcycle" are used commonly, they are not technically correct. The contract between the insurer and the insured is a personal contract between an insuring entity and a person(s) based upon their financial, "insurable interest", in the object or liability being insured. In other words, the question of whether payment is due upon the occurrence of a contingency, and how such payment will be measured, depends upon economic loss suffered by the person(s). For example, if a person sells her home and gives a contract covering the home to the new owner and a loss occurs, the insurer will not pay the new owner since there is no privity of contract. The insurer will not pay the old owner because there is no insurable interest.
Conditional Contract
Property and liability insurance policies are said to be "conditional contracts" because the obligation of the insurer to perform is conditional upon an event happening. Compare this to entering into a contract to build a house. Both parties must perform. Build and payment. This is not conditional.
Unilateral Contract
Only one party is legally bound to contractual obligations after the premium is paid to the insurer. Only the insurer has made a promise of future performance, and only the insurer can be sued for breach of contract. However, in order for an insured to collect, the insured must perform according to the contract. If the insured does not perform then the insurance company does not have to perform. This is mainly covered in a section called "Duties after a loss" found in insurance contracts.
Contract of Adhesion
Property and liability insurance policies are said to be "contracts of adhesion" because the insurer and insured parties are generally of unequal bargaining power where the insured party cannot negotiate the terms of the contract and must take the offer of the insurer as made. The contract can be modified by endorsing the contract using pre-approved language. It also must be noted that the language in insurance contracts are generally approved by state law. And for life insurance, if the language does not meet insurance code minimums, the minimum is automatically read into the contract. Importantly, the rule of law regarding "contracts of adhesion" is that any ambiguities are resolved against the WRITER of the contract. The writer of the contract most of the time is the insurance company. However, large companies can write their own "manuscript" policies and place them in a broker's hands for bids. In this case ambiguities are constructed against the writer - the insured in this case.
Contract of Indemnity
Property and liability insurance policies are said to be "contracts of indemnity" because the purpose of insurance is to indemnify the insured—that is, to make good a loss that the insured has suffered. The principle of indemnification is that the insured should not profit from the policy. This does not preclude that the insured will suffer some loss. In fact, many policies include a deductible which guarantees that the insured will pay part of each loss himself.
Insurable Interest
Insurable interest is one wherein economic loss would be suffered from an adverse occurrence to the person(s) insured.
A person can only collect in property casualty if the insured has insurable interest at the time of the loss. Many times a person can buy a valid contract but there is no insurable interest yet. An example is before buying a house you have to show up with a contract or a binder proving that the house is insured to receive the mortgage - thus, one may insure property where there is not insurable interest in anticipation of such. One can only collect at the time of loss if insurable interest then exists.
In life insurance, one only needs insurable interest at the time the policy is taken - no continuing insurable interest is required. Controversial areas include corporate-owned life insurance, investor-owned life insurance and viatical settlements.
Indemnification
An entity seeking to transfer risk (an individual, corporation, or association of any type) becomes the 'insured' party once risk is assumed by an 'insurer', the insuring party, by means of a contract, defined as an insurance 'policy'. This legal contract sets out terms and conditions specifying the amount of coverage (compensation) to be rendered to the insured, by the insurer upon assumption of risk, in the event of a loss, and all the specific perils covered against (indemnified), for the term of the contract.
When insured parties experience a loss for a specified peril, the coverage entitles the policyholder to make a 'claim' against the insurer for the amount of loss as specified by the policy contract. The fee paid by the insured to the insurer for assuming the risk is called the 'premium'. Insurance premiums from many clients are used to fund accounts set aside 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, the remaining margin becomes their profit.
Insurer’s Business Model
Profit = Earned Premium + Investment Income - Incurred Loss - Underwriting Expenses.
Insurers make money in two ways. Through underwriting, the process through which insurers select what risks to insure and decide how much premium to charge for accepting those risks and by investing the premiums they have collected from insureds.
The most difficult aspect of the insurance business is the underwriting of policies. Based on 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, the industry uses actuarial science to quantify the risk they are willing to assume. Data is analyzed fairly accurately to 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 the insurers overall exposure. At the end of a given policy, the amount of premium collected minus the amount paid out in claims is the insurer's underwriting profit.
An insurer's underwriting performance is measured in their 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 premium but has not been paid out in claims. Insurers start investing insurance premium as soon as it is collected and keeps earning interest on it 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, at 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.
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 perpetuated this trend.
Gambling analogy
Some people consider insurance a type of wager (particularly as associated with moral hazard) that executes over the policy period. The insurance company bets that you or your property will not suffer a loss while you put money on the opposite outcome. The difference in the fees paid to the insurance company versus the amount for which they can be held liable if an accident happens is roughly analogous to the odds one might expect when betting on a racehorse (for example, 10 to 1). For this reason, a number of religious groups, including the Amish and some Muslim groups, avoid insurance and instead depend on support provided by their communities when disasters strike. This can be thought of as "social insurance," as the risk of any given person is assumed collectively by the community who will all bear the cost of rebuilding. In closed, supportive communities where others can be trusted to step in to rebuild lost property, this arrangement can work.
However, most societies could not effectively support this type of system, and the system will not work for large risks. For very large risks, Western insurance can also run into difficulties. This is the reason why most U.S. homeowner's insurance does not cover floods. A company that sells homeowner's insurance in a given city can accurately estimate the number of claims it would have to pay due to fires, tornadoes, and other smaller-scale disasters. However, a flood may impact a large percentage of the city and the company might be unable to deal with this. A prime example of this is the flooding in New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina. For the same reason, losses due to war and earthquakes are generally excluded. In the case of floods and earthquakes (which are smaller-scale than war) homeowners can purchase separate insurance from national companies with larger resources, which are able to distribute the risk across regions rather than individual buildings.
In gaming or gambling, the game is fixed at the start so that the odds are not affected by the players. However, to obtain certain types of insurance, such as fire insurance, policyholders are often 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.
While insurance is analogous to gambling in terms of risk and reward, the main difference is in the motivation behind the process (risk seeking vs. risk avoidance). When gambling, you are assuming risk that you would not otherwise be exposed to that has the possibility of either a loss or a gain (speculative risk). (Perhaps put differently, in a gambling transaction the relationship between the bettor and the subject is created through the bet itself; for an insurance transaction, there is an exogenous relationship, usual economic or familial, that is connected to the insurance—which is a way of restating the insurance interest requirement.) With insurance, you are managing risk that you could not otherwise avoid, and which does not present the possibility of gain (pure risk). Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice. Avoiding, mitigating and transferring certain risk creates greater predictability for consumers and business, and allows people and organizations to use risk intelligently to maximize their opportunities.
Historically, gambling has been considered an uninsurable risk. Recent developments, however, have led to the invention and patenting of new types of insurance to protect against gambling losses. An example is United States Patent 6,869,362, "Method and apparatus for providing insurance policies for gambling losses"
History of insurance
In some sense we can say that insurance appears simultaneously with appearance of human society. We know two types of economies in human societies: money (with markets, money, financial instruments and so on )and non-money or natural economy (without money, markets, financial instruments and so on). The second type is more ancient form than the first. In such type of economy and such type of community we can see insurance in the form of helping each other. For example, when your house is fired down, the members of your community come and help you to build new one. The next time, when the same thing happens to your neighbour - you must go to help otherwise, you will not get help in the future. This type of insurance survived till nowadays in some countries where modern money economy with its financial instruments are not so widespread (for example countries on the territory of the former Soviet Union).
And now we will speak about insurance in modern sense (insurance in modern money economy, insurance as a 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 BCE respectively. Chinese merchants traveling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel 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 and 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 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 aim of registering was that whenever the one who presented the gift registered by the court was in trouble, the monarch and the court would help him or her. Jahez, a historian and writer, writes in one of his books on ancient Iran: "... and whenever 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 acted to care for the families and 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 in case of emergency.
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, the growing importance of London as a center for trade led to rising demand for marine insurance. In the late 1680s, Mr. Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house which 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 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 provided 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 commissioner's organization. In recent years, some have called for a federal regulatory system for insurance similar to that of the banking industry.
In the State of New York, which has unique laws in keeping with its stature as a global business center, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has been 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.
Types of insurance
Any risk that can be quantified probably has a type of insurance to protect it. Among the different types of insurance are:
* Automobile insurance, also known as auto insurance, car insurance and 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 vehicle itself. Over most of the United States purchasing an auto insurance policy is required to legally operate a motor vehicle on public roads. Recommendations for which policy limits should be used are specified in a number of books. In some jurisdictions, bodily injury compensation for automobile accident victims has been changed to No Fault systems, which reduce or eliminate the ability to sue for compensation but provide automatic eligibility for benefits.
* 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)
* Casualty insurance insures against accidents, not necessarily tied to any specific property.
* Credit insurance pays some or all of a loan back when certain things happen to the borrower such as unemployment, disability, or death.
* Directors and Officers 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.
* 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 failure of a creditor to pay money it owes to the insured. Fidelity bonds and surety bonds are included in this category.
* Health insurance policies will often cover the cost of private medical treatments if the NHS or other health organizations. It will often mean quicker health care where better facilities are available.
* Income protection insurance policies provide customers with financial support in the event of the policy holder being unable to work through illness or injury. It will provide monthly support to help pay of such financial commitment as mortgages and credit cards.
* Liability insurance covers legal claims against the insured. For example, a homeowner's insurance policy provides the insured with protection in the event of a claim brought by someone who slips and falls on the property, and brings a lawsuit for her injuries. Similarly, a doctor may purchase liability insurance to cover any legal claims against him if his negligence (carelessness) in treating a patient caused the patient injury and/or monetary harm. The protection offered by a liability insurance policy is two-fold: a legal defense in the event of a lawsuit commenced against the policyholder, plus indemnification (payment on behalf of the insured) with respect to a settlement or court verdict.
* 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.
* Life insurance provides a cash benefit to a decedent's family or other designated beneficiary, and may specifically provide for burial, funeral and other final expenses.
o Annuities provide a stream of payments and are generally classified as insurance because they are issued by insurance companies and regulated as insurance. 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.
* 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.
* 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 unauthorised parties. In special cases, a government may authorise its use in protecting semi-private funds which are liable to tamper. Terms of this type of insurance are usually very strict. As such it is only used in extreme cases where maximum security of funds is required.
* Marine Insurance covers the loss or damage of goods at sea. Marine insurance typically compensates the owner of merchandise for losses sustained from fire, shipwreck, etc., but excludes losses that can be recovered from the carrier.
* Nuclear incident insurance — damages resulting from an incident involving radioactivive materials is generally arranged at the national level. (For the United States, see Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act.)
* Environmental Liability Insurance protects the insured from bodily injury, property damage and cleanup costs as a result of the dispersal, release or escape of a pollutant.
* 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.
* Professional Indemnity Insurance is normally a mandatory requirement for professional practitioners such as Architects, Lawyers, Doctors and Accountants to provide insurance cover against potential negligence claims. Non licensed professionals may also purchase malpractice insurance, it is commonly called Errors and Omissions Insurance and covers a service provider for claims made against them that arise out of the performance of specified professional services. For instance, a web site designer can obtain E&O insurance to cover them for certain claims made by third parties that arise out of negligent performance of web site development services.
* 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.
* Terrorism insurance
* 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 done 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 due to a job-related injury.
A single policy may cover risks in one or more of the above categories. For example, car insurance would typically cover both property risk (covering the risk of theft or damage to the car) and liability risk (covering legal claims from say, 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.
Potential sources of risk that may give rise to claims are known as "perils". Examples of perils might be fire, theft, earthquake, hurricane and many other potential risks. An insurance policy will set out in details which perils are covered by the policy and which are not.
Types of insurance companies
Insurance companies may be classified as
* Life insurance companies, who sell life insurance, annuities and pensions products.
* Non-life or general insurance companies, who sell other types of insurance.
In most countries, life and non-life insurers are subject to different regulations, tax and accounting rules. The main reason for the distinction between the two types of company is that life 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.
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.
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.
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 terms, it is an in-house self-insurance vehicle. Captives may take the form of a "pure" entity (which is a 100% subsidiary of the self-insured parent company); of a "mutual" captive (which insures the collective risks of industry members); 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 due to the reductions on costs they help create, the ease for insurance risk management and the flexibility for cash flows they generate. Additionally, they may provide coverage of risks which are neither available nor offered in the traditional insurance market at reasonable prices.
The types of risk that a captive can underwrite for the parent 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.
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.
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, 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., interest income of life insurance policy (or annuity) is income tax deferred in general. However, its tax deferred benefit may be offset by a low return in some cases. This depends upon the insuring company, type of policy and other variables (mortality, market return, etc.). Also, other income tax saving vehicles (i.e. IRA, 401K or Roth IRA) appear to be better alternatives for value accumulation. Combination of low-cost term life insurance and higher return tax-efficient retirement account can achieve better performance.
Size of global insurance industry
Global insurance premiums grew by 9.7% in 2004 to reach $3.3 trillion. This follows 11.7% growth in the previous year. Life insurance premiums grew by 9.8% during the year due to rising demand for annuity and pension products. Non-life insurance premiums grew by 9.4% as premium rates increased. Over the past decade, global insurance premiums rose by more than a half as annual growth fluctuated between 2% and 10%.
Advanced economies account for the bulk of global insurance. With premium income of $1,217bn in 2004, North America was the most important region, followed by the EU ($1,198bn) and Japan ($492bn). 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, much higher than their 7% share of the global population. Emerging markets accounted for over 85% of the world’s population but generated only 10% of premiums. The volume of UK insurance business totalled $295bn in 2004 or 9.1% of global premiums. [3]
Financial viability of insurance companies
Financial stability and strength of the 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 with less attractive payouts for losses). A number of independent rating agencies, such as Best's, provide information and rate the financial viability of insurance companies.
Controversies
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 should be (since the insured assumes the risk belongs 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 some kind of behavior that grossly magnifies their risk of loss or liability.
For example, life insurance providers may require higher premiums or deny coverage to people who work 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 was irrational enough to try 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.
Complexity of insurance policy contracts
Insurance policies can be complex and some policyholders may not understand all the fees, regulation and coverages included in a policy. As a result, people could buy policies at unfavorable terms. In response to these issues, governments often make detailed regulations that set down minimum standards for policies and govern how they may be advertised and sold.
Many individuals purchase policies through an insurance broker. The broker can counsel the policyholder on which coverage to purchase and limitations of the policy. A broker generally holds contracts with many insurers which allows the broker to "shop" the market for the best rates and coverage possible.
People may also purchase policies through a "producer" (a seller of insurance). Unlike a broker, who represents the policyholder, a producer represents the insurance company from whom the policyholder buys. A producer can represent more than one company. In the United States, these people are known as "resident producers" in the states where they are licensed. In some states (such as Michigan), insurance brokers are not allowed to operate because the cheapest rates may not be in the best interest of the policyholder.
Redlining
Redlining is the practice of some insurance companies to deny the issuance of coverage in specific geographic areas, with the purported reason of an increased likelihood of risk; the validity of the assessment is often attributed to discrimination.
Evaluation of risk, when an insurer determines a premium or premium rate structure, considers quantifiable factors, including location, credit scores, gender, occupation, marital status, and education level. However, the use of these essential factors, whether inappropriately or not, are often considered to be unfair or discriminatory by some consumers and their advocates, sometimes leading to political disputes about insurers' determination of premiums and possible government intervention to limit the factors used.
A refutation to this is that the job of an insurance underwriter is to properly categorize a given risk as to the likelihood that the loss will occur. Any factor that causes a greater likelihood of loss should in theory, be charged a higher rate. This is a basic principle of insurance and must be followed for insurance companies or groups to operate properly, even for non-profit organizations. Thus, discrimination of potential insureds by legitimate factors is central to insurance. Therefore the only thing that can be considered legitimately unfair are practices that discriminate against a given group without actual factors that show that the group is a higher risk. So, eliminating real factors discriminates against other insureds by forcing them to bear part of the cost of the disallowed perceived factors.
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 provision 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. Please see health insurance for a discussion of this category.
Dental insurance
Dental insurance, like health insurance, is coverage for individuals to protect them against dental costs. Dental insurance usually goes hand-in-hand with health insurance, with most people in the United States receiving it included in their health insurance plan from their employer. Along with receiving dental insurance from your employer, there are ways to receive dental insurance through resellers and companies for individuals and families; although this way tends to be too expensive for most people.
Insurance Patents
New insurance products can now be protected from copying with a business method patent. This may lead to the more rapid introduction of new insurance products as insurance companies will invest more heavily in new product development if they can be reasonably assured that their patents will keep those products from being copied.
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 (European Patent EP0700009B1).
The basic idea of telematic auto insurance is that a driver's behavior is monitored directly while the person drives and this information is transmitted to an insurance company. The insurance company then assesses the risk of that driver having an accident and charges insurance premiums accordingly. A driver that drives a lot of distance at high speed, for example, will be charged a higher rate than a driver that drives small distances at low speed.
A British auto insurance company, Norwich Union, has taken a license to both the Progressive patent and Perez patent. They have made additional 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% 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, had to recently pay US$80 million to an independent inventor, Bancorp Services, in order to settle a patent infringement and theft of trade secret lawsuit for a new 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. (Source: Insurance IP Bulletin, December 15, 2005). Only about 20–30 patents per year, however, are actually issued.
The insurance industry and rent seeking
Certain insurance products and practices have been described as rent seeking by critics. That is, insurance companies have been alleged to have certain products or practices that are only useful due to certain government laws (especially tax laws), and that the insurance industry in these cases generally adds no economic value but instead supports politicians who will continue the legal regime which gives the insurance company these benefits. For example, in the United States the current tax rules generally allow owners of variable annuities (see annuity (US financial products) and variable life insurance (see variable universal life insurance) to invest in the stock market and defer or eliminate paying any taxes until withdrawals are made. Sometimes this tax deferral is the only reason some individuals use these products instead of a mutual fund. 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.
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.
Quote
* Hank Greenberg told his board of directors, "you can't even spell 'insurance'"[4] (hearsay, April 2005)
Online shop
Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the internet. An online shop, internet shop, webshop or online store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall. It is an electronic commerce application used for B2B or B2C. Online shopping is popular mainly because of its speed and ease of use. Some issues of concern can include fluctuating exchange rates for foreign currencies, local and international laws and delivery methods.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Price comparison
* 2 Coupons
* 3 Rebates
* 4 Steps when buying online
* 5 Means of payment
* 6 Security issues
* 7 Setting up a shopping cart system
* 8 Free software
* 9 History
* 10 See also
* 11 External Links
[edit] Price comparison
An advantage of shopping online is being able to use the power of the internet to seek out the lowest prices or the best deals available for items or services. For example if one is buying a digital camera he/she should enter "digital camera" into a search engine or a price search engine. Most price comparison services have the advantage of store ratings and reviews. Getting the lowest price is important but it is more important to make sure the merchant or store the customer is purchasing from is reputable.
[edit] Coupons
There are multiple websites that compile coupon information for most online merchants. Before purchasing online, it is usually worth checking for coupons. Typing the name of the online merchant along with the word "coupon" in a search engine will provide multiple results. Some of the more popular coupon websites have forums where you can ask for help hunting down a deal if you don't have the time.
[edit] Rebates
There are at least three major shopping portals that provide members rebates for shopping via their sites. How does it work? The merchants pay the portals for the business; the portals share the proceeds with the member. Rebates usually range in the 2-5% range. Membership is free, but some portals require a higher rebate balance before payout. Some will send out a payment automatically, others wait until the member requests one. If you join, be sure to read the fine print so you understand the rebate program.
Additional information can also be found at Online shopping rewards.
[edit] Steps when buying online
* Browse product categories using a web browser
* Put items into virtual shopping cart (or market basket).
Just as in a physical store viewing the contents of the cart can be done at any time.
Quantities of products can be changed or deleted.
* Checkout
Log in or register by choosing a username and a password.
Enter personal data.
Billing address
Shipping address (can be different from the billing address)
Phone number
E-Mail address (usually optional)
Choose means of payment
Choose delivery speed and method (post, courier and logistics service, etc.)
* Confirm order
After editing the personal data a confirmation page is displayed so that the online shopper can approve, change or abort the order.
* Logout
[edit] Means of payment
Online shoppers commonly use their Credit card for making payments, however some systems enable users to create accounts and pay by alternative means, such as
* Debit card
* Various types of electronic money
* Cash on delivery (C.O.D.)
* Cheque
* Wire transfer/delivery on payment
* Postal money order
Once a payment has been accepted the goods or services can either be downloaded from the internet or delivered to the consumer via traditional means.
[edit] Security issues
* User and payment data is encrypted by SSL when it is transferred on the Internet.
* Quality seals can be placed on the Shop webpage if it has undergone an independent assessment and meets all requirements of the company issuing the seal. The purpose of these seals is to increase the confidence of the online shoppers; the existence of many different seals foils this effort to a certain extent.
* Privacy of personal information is a big issue. In spite of Privacy Guidelines of the OECD, for example, privacy violations still occur and hamper eCommerce from developing to its full potential.
[edit] Setting up a shopping cart system
* Simple systems allow the offline administration of products and categories. The shop is then generated as HTML files and graphics that can be uploaded to a webspace. These systems don't use an online database.
* A high end solution can be bought or rented as a standalone program or as an addition to an ERP program. It is usually installed on the company's own webserver and may integrate very well into the existing supply chain so that ordering, payment, delivery, accounting and warehousing can be automated to a large extent.
* Other solutions allow the user to register and create an online shop on a portal that hosts multiple shops at the same time.
* Open Source solutions can be adapted and installed on a webspace.
* There are also commercial systems that can be tailored to ones needs so that the shop does not have to be created from scratch. By using a framework already existing, software modules for different functionalities required by a webshop can be adapted and combined.
* Following the growth of online retailing activities, there are a number of specialist online retail professional services providers who offer e-commerce and internet marketing to retailers. This will involve website design and development, integration with order processing and stock systems as well as online advertising services.
* Web-based, free shopping cart services include http://www.vipcart.com and http://www.agoracart.com/
[edit] Free software
* osCommerce
* CRE Loaded
* Zen Cart
[edit] History
* 1990: Tim Berners-Lee wrote "The WorldWideWeb browser" using a NeXT computer.
* 1994: Netscape released the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offered pizza ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opened. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. "Adult" materials were also commercially available cars and bikes Netscape 1.0 in late 1994 introduced SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
* 1995: Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com and the first commercial 24 hr. internet only radio station "Radio HK" started broadcasting. Dell and Cisco began to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions.
* 1996: eBay was founded.
* 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.
* 1999: business.com was sold for US $7.5 million (purchased 1997 for US $150,000) The peer-to-peer filesharing software "Napster" was launched.
* 2000: The dot-com bust.
* 2001: Merger of AOL and Time Warner.
* 2003: Amazon.com: first-ever full-year profit.
