Do you think the Obama family should have cancelled their vacation?
Absolutely, it was a huge waste of our tax dollars to treat Obama and wife to another trip abroad at our expense. I've been on a one day trip last year and hope to be able to go two or more days this year (although after paying our tax bill that may not happen). Each year Obama has been in office my expenses have gone up and up while my pay and military retirement has risen a whole 3%, gasoline alone has doubled, prescriptions went from $3 to $17. Seems the 3% is not keeping up with the cost of living it is supposed to .
Did Obama cancel the space program?
Far from it. The shuttle system planned retirement was decided years ago, even before Obama came into office. The 'replacement' system, the Ares rocket, was announced in 2004; and was supposed to make use of solid rocket booster design from the shuttle system (which, in my opinion is not the best solution. Solid rocket booster cannot be throttled, have lower performance than liquid fuel rocket. The advantage they have -- being able to be stored for months at a ready to launch state and being able to be blasted off at a minute notice -- is totally irrelevant in the case of manned mission), but in 2007 NASA determined that the solid rocket booster would cause unacceptably high dangerous vibrations. A redesign was done, and in 2009 the independent Augustine Commission assessed that, even with *unlimited funding* the rocket would never be ready for a manned launch before 2016. Using solid rocket booster technology is possibly a political decision, not a technical one, that aims at satisfying the company that makes them, which is seeing business going away because the shuttle is retiring and that ballistic nuclear missiles are not produced by the truckload as they were 20 years ago. There is a difference between pouring money into something that is most likely going to fail, and taking the time to re-evaluate options and redirect efforts in a direction that is likely to succeed. In that respect, Obama is *saving* the space program by avoiding a humiliating, ruinous, and crippling failure.
Rights for a cancelled flightNext available seat: The Airlines is responsible to provide you with the next available seat that can be with same airline or with another airline. If your re-routed flight reaches the destination airport 4 hours after the actual arrival then you are entitled to claim compensation up to 600€ from airline.Refunds: You have a right to claim a refund if you were informed about your flight cancellation 14 days before flight departure and the airlines are entitled to refund you your full ticket amount. The airlines are entitled to refund you within the following 7 days.Assistance: If your flight is cancelled and you are waiting at the airport for your re-routed flight, you have a right to get meal vouchers, hotel accommodation, travel assistance depending on the next flight.Amount of compensation that you can claim for your cancelled flight:CASE 1: According to EU Rule, if you are not informed about your cancelled flight 14 days before your travel journey then you are eligible to claim compensation and get up to 600€ as compensation from the airlines for the inconvenience caused to you.CASE 2: If your flight was cancelled and you were informed about your flight cancellation between 7 to 14 days prior to your flight departure date you can receive compensation of 300€. The compensation can slash directly by half.CASE 3: If your flight was cancelled and you were informed about your flight cancellation 14 days prior to your flight departure you are not entitled to claim compensation but you can claim assistance from the airline.What are some exceptional cases?EU Rule also states some exceptional reasons for which you aren’t entitled to claim compensation also considered “Act of God”. These are some of the cases that cannot be controlled by the airlines like extreme bad weather (thunderstorms, ice rain, etc.), flight crew strikes, volcanic eruptions, terror threats, etc.You may want to read more on cancelled flight rights OR EU Rule (here).To claim compensation for your cancelled flight you can refer to one of my recent answers: How to get compensation for your cancelled flight?Cheers,Clarke Barry
Is Michelle Obama really paying for the flight to Spain, all $147,000 worth or are you?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-2... Do you think we will see the receipt CBS News is reporting that the White House is IMPLYING that BO's are paying for her trip to Spain. I guess they are paying for 30 to 60 rooms a night to at a hotel that charges up to $2,500 a night for rooms. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010... Or are we the American tax payer paying and getting hosed but once again by BO and his bobus but wife. And Obamanites please spare me the crap about Pres Bush's vacation, where did he go all the time wasn't it some ranch he owned in Texas or comments about conservatives never complaining about Laura Bush's travel. I frankly do not recall her trips to Europe with her family friends in Air Forces Two.
By dropping out of manned space flight, is Obama giving up on American exceptionalism?
"American Exceptionalism" amounts to setting a low standard, and then being proud that the US has met that standard. Obama has set a higher standard, and thus probably doesn't even believe in American Exceptionalism, or Nationalism. Entitlements actually represent a slowing of wealth redistribution - which in the US is from the poorest 90% to the richest 10%. Without this slowing of wealth distribution (that progressive taxes and entitlements achieve) this country would grow weaker and poorer - as the rich will take their profit and invest or spend part of it overseas. I do agree that having a defined mission - Americans on Mars by a certain year - would be great for the US. Finally, there are cadres of well-educated Russians and Iranians in those countries. The US education system is not working well enough. For example, an alarmingly high percentage of Americans are science illiterates. Many Americans don't understand natural selection, global warming, or even basic science. Perhaps if we took politics and religion out of science, and instead used science to inform education and government, we could start to work towards American Exceptionalism as a fact, not a fantasy.
In case you cancel the flight, the very first thing which you need to do is to contact the airline prior to the scheduled departure date. Otherwise, you will lose the entire value of the Airline tickets on both major and low-fare carriers.Generally, the cancellation of major airlines is similar to each other, but if you are unsure about your ticket, it is best to call the airline or travel agent with specific questions.Sometimes they charged you for the replacement if your original ticket is canceled.The flight cancellation policy considers the following 2 options:If the cancellation results in overpayment for your flight, the remaining balance will be credited for future travel that is valid for one year.The major airlines also have the standby option. This allows you to fly on any flight that departs on the same day.The best advice regarding cancellation is that you should make your Flight Reservations early and adjust according to your suitable time.
KLM did…I do not know what KLM normally does but my KLM flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul (It was on Christmas eve if I remember correctly ) was cancelled (This was something like 10 years ago). I was at the airport in Amsterdam and they told me there was no flight and I could take the 6.00 flight next morning.Whether there would be a compensation and/or wether they could book a hotel for me I asked. None of that was possible and they told me it was my own responsibility and they wouldn’t be able to do anything for me. The front-office manager didn’t want to talk to me because he had ‘other things to do’ and it was not his problem ( the so called Dutch approach). I was flabbergasted and really did not know what to make of it. Seemed like a joke. It wasn’t though.Called home to tell I’d be there the next morning, took a taxi (which I paid) to a hotel (which I paid) and took a taxi back to the airport the next morning.I have written several letters to the KLM but they haven’t even acknowledged receiving my letters (I sent several - even faxed them (we still had them then) - but they would just not answer). After 4 of 5 attempts I just quit, as I did not want to spend my time wasting fighting this moloch. To be honest I still wonder why they wouldn’t answer me even if it would have been, to tell me to buzz off. Very strange. This left a strange taste in my mouth. The KLM (my airline of choice as it was for years) had just given me a very large Finger.But again: this was something like ten years ago and for them, I hope, their operations have reached the quality they market.
When are flights cancelled due to an approaching tropical storm or hurricane?
If it is not forecast to become a hurricane, then it will would likely not be canceled. However, you can expect some delays. It will be up to the airlines and their company policy as to what conditions they will fly and when will they make that go or no go decision. From my experience, in a lot of these cases, the pilot will have the final say. That usually means it will a last minute decision.
Obama Want to cancel NASA Next Moon Mission?
He wants to wait for the coming Sino Soviet Space Agency to do it. ------- C.n. - Factcheck discredited itself when it failed to expose Obama's certificate of live birth and called it his birth certificate, when anyone who knows anything about Hawaii's document system knows that a certificate of live birth is issued to foreigners and not to locally-born children. It is not surprising since Obama once chaired the Annanberg Foundation, which owns and operates Factcheck. They may be your friends, but they are no friend of the truth. -------- S.i.o.f.-- Actually, the moon is known to be a source of great mineral wealth and would enable the industrialization of space. Reagan had a steady plan for a partnership between the taxpayer and big businesses to split evenly the cost at $1 trillion per year for 20 years. That would have built an immense industrial complex on the Moon, and only then would a manned Mars mission have been feasible. ---------- Duncan, NASA was founded by Eisenhower. http://ask.yahoo.com/20030307.html Yes, the Nazi rocket scientists played a vital role in designing the first big rockets and helping us learn how to build them, but there were only a few of the many scientists working on these projects. No, they did not found NASA, and their passing has not crippled NASA.