Warren Buffet Wants To Cover You Trip

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A new flight insurance plan, called AirCare, is a new angle on conventional travel insurance policies, which generally cover individuals who might have to cancel expensive trips, like high cost flights, tour packages or cruises, for medical or other emergencies. But AirCare’s protection is designed exclusively for airline-related problems. For the cost of only $25 per trip (payable up to an hour before departure), the flyer qualifies for an immediate payment for a variety of flight screw-ups, starting with $50 for a delay of more than two hours. The payment increases in proportion to the inconvenience: For a missed connection caused by a flight delay, AirCare pays $500; also for luggage that’s delayed for more than 12 hours. For fliers stuck on the tarmac for more than two hours (one hour less than the federally mandated trigger for penalties on the airlines), users get $1,000. Although some airlines do offer limited refunds or vouchers for some of these situations, the AirCare protections are in addition to whatever the airline eventually pays up—assuming they do at all.

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The AirCare plans are being sold by Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, a spin-off of one of billionaire Warren Buffett’s many enterprises. The new company is being run by John Noel, who launched Travel Guard.

The plans are currently available only for U.S. domestic flights, but plans are in place for expansion of protection for most international travel. Mobile apps are available for IOS and Android devices.iphone2

 

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Trinkets & Trash

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During two days this month, teams of guerilla artists from the anti-corporate street art project Brandalism reclaimed  360 ads in ten British cities with hand made art work by forty international artists, such as Ludo, Ron English, Ankles, Know Hope, Paul Insect and Anthony Lister.

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Brandalism is self-described as a revolt against corporate control of the visual realm. Their latest campaign takes aim at advertising pollution, consumerism run rampant, gender stereotyping, and corrosive capitalism.

 

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Oops…

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I’ve always been impressed by the speed, comfort and relative dependability of France’s national railway system, but it appears that SNCF has made an incredible blunder. After ordering 341 new TER regional trains, a simple measurement error is going to cost SCNF more than € 50 million to enlarge at least 1300 stations to accommodate the new cars. Engineers failed to check stations built more than 30 years ago for accurate spacing between platforms and the tracks.

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How Do You Write ?

George R. R. Martin’s recent revelation that he does all of his writing on an old computer running DOS seems to have inspired this infographic:

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Take the A Train

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I’ve ridden the New York City subway system since infancy, sadly I never paid much attention to the intricate tiling, murals and typography throughout many of the stations. However, New York-based designer Adam Chang has opened my eyes to the awesome art work there with his NY Train Project blog, which celebrates the hidden design treasures to be discovered within the city’s underground stations.

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Chang who runs the design studio Same Tomorrow—was inspired to begin the blog when he first noticed the 19th century tile and ceramic work in the Bleecker Street station in Greenwich Village. Now he aims to chronicle every subway station in the system. Even if you don’t care about public art, the blog is actually a handy guide to the intricate system.

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Discovering Literature

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Last week the British Library launched Discovering Literature, an online treasury of more than 1,200 items from the Romantic and Victorian periods, including first editions, manuscripts and rare illustrations.

A wealth of contextual material – newspapers, photographs, advertisements and maps – is presented alongside personal letters and diaries from iconic authors. Together they bring to life the historical, political and cultural contexts in which major works were written: works that have shaped our literary heritage.

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William Blake’s notebook, the first vampire novels, childhood writings of the Brontë sisters, the manuscript of the Preface to Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, and an early draft of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest are just some of the unique collections available on the site.

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Discovering Literature features over 8000 pages of collection items and explores more than 20 authors through 165 newly-commissioned articles, 25 short documentary films, and 30 lesson plans.

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Books Are A Stepping Stone

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The celebrated Brazilian street artist Walter Nomura—aka Tinho—completed these wonderful pieces last fall in Frankfurt, Germany. Beginning as a grafiteiro at the tender age of 12 and gained notoriety in his home country with moving wall art depicting missing and exploited children. His newer work is political, challenging and inspirational too.

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Cultivating Thought

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One day the writer Jonathan Safran Foer was sitting in a Chipotle Mexican Grill enjoying a veggie burrito (they’re quite good and GMO-free) when he realized that he had nothing to read. This sparked a clever idea for the author of Everything is Illuminated : Why don’t they print mini-stories on the cups and paper bags.

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Being a celebrity, Foer shot an email to the Chipotle CEO offering to curate a series of short reads by popular writers for the restaurant’s customers. Last week the chain rolled-out the first text adorned bags and cups with original pieces by Foer, Toni Morrison, Malcolm Gladwell, Sarah Silverman, George Saunders, Judd Apatow, Michael Lewis and Sheri Fink.

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If you don’t have a Chipotle near you, here’s a sample from Cultivating Thought:

Two-Minute Seduction By Toni Morrison

I took my heart out and gave it to a writer made heartless by fame, someone who needed it to pump blood into veins desiccated by the suck and roar of crowds slobbering or poisoning or licking up the red froth they mistake for happiness because happiness looks just like a heart painted on a valentine cup or tattooed on an arm that has never held a victim or comforted a hurt friend. I took it out and the space it left in my chest was sutured tight like the skin of a drum.

As my own pulse failed, I fell along with a soft shower of rain typical in this place.

Lying there, collapsed under trees bordering the mansion of the famous one I saw a butterfly broken by the slam of a single raindrop on its wings fold and flutter as it hit a pool of water still fighting for the lift that is its nature. I closed my eyes expecting to dissolve into stars or lava or a brutal sequoia when the famous writer appeared and leaned down over me. Lifting my head he put his lips on mine and breathed into my mouth one word and then another, and another, words upon words then numbers, then notes. I swallowed it all while my mind filled with language, measure, music, knowledge.

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These gifts from the famous writer were so seductive, so all encompassing they seemed to make a heart irrelevant.

Two-Minute Personality Test By Jonathan Safran Foer

What’s the kindest thing you almost did? Is your fear of insomnia stronger than your fear of what awoke you? Are bonsai cruel? Do you love what you love, or just the feeling? Your earliest memories: do you look though your young eyes, or look at your young self? Which feels worse: to know that there are people who do more with less talent, or that there are people with more talent? Do you walk on moving walkways? Should it make any difference that you knew it was wrong as you were doing it? Would you trade actual intelligence for the perception of being smarter? Why does it bother you when someone at the next table is having a conversation on a cell phone? How many years of your life would you trade for the greatest month of your life? What would you tell your father, if it were possible? Which is changing faster, your body, or your mind? Is it cruel to tell an old person his prognosis? Are you in any way angry at your phone? When you pass a storefront, do you look at what’s inside, look at your reflection, or neither? Is there anything you would die for if no one could ever know you died for it? If you could be assured that money wouldn’t make you any small bit happier, would you still want more money? What has been irrevocably spoiled for you? If your deepest secret became public, would you be forgiven? Is your best friend your kindest friend? Is it any way cruel to give a dog a name? Is there anything you feel a need to confess? You know it’s a “murder of crows” and a “wake of buzzards” but it’s a what of ravens, again? What is it about death that you’re afraid of? How does it make you feel to know that it’s an “unkindness of ravens”?

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Library in the Tram

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I love libraries and I love trams, so how could I resist this story about the Library in the Tram—Tram to the Library out of Brno, Czech Republic. This winter, Moravia’s capital city and the historic Jiri Mahen Library launched the award-winning project which is designed to promote library use among tram riders. The colorfully decorated tram, which is equipped with special library displays and QR codes for downloading free ebooks, travels the 35 mile transit route sparking interest in the city libraries. Don’t you want one in your home town?

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See America

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The Print Collection produces museum quality prints of historic posters and photographs, as well as original prints that are inspired by earlier poster art. Their new “See America” series was created by artist Steven Thomas as an homage to the iconic posters from the WPA in the 1930s.

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