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Could we really travel through time? The short answer is yes! That’s right. We all have the ability to leap forward through time, even if we don’t realize it. If you wanted to jump to the future, you can simply go to sleep and wake up a few hours later right? Of course that’s cheating the question. We want to be able to go back and redo those silly mistakes we made many years ago. who doesn’t wish they could go back and talk to their 15-year-old self? Tell them not to make the mistakes you did (or they will). Or perhaps you’d rather travel 500 years into the future and see those flying cars we were promised by the year 2000. Fortunately, time travel is theoretically possible.

In fact there is no law in physics that prevents time travel. That’s right, according to all the laws of physics we know, it’s perfectly plausible to travel through time at will. But as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Time travel is an extremely dangerous endeavor with devastating consequences, and is also riddled with paradoxes.

For example, what if I travelled back in time and prevented World War II? Sounds like a brilliant idea right? Countless lives would be saved, I’d be hailed as a hero! Not necessarily. Although I’d be saving lives, I’d also be destroying others. What about all the technology that we rely on today that was developed during the war, such as jet engines and nuclear power. In fact the world map could be completely different. We could actually be worse off than simply leaving history as it was.

Another famous time travel paradox is the grandfather paradox, which basically states that if we were to say for instance, I travel back to a time before my parents were born and prevent my grandfather from meeting my grandmother. My parents couldn’t have met and thus, I would never have been born. So how could I have gone back in time to prevent my grandparents from meeting in the first place.

So we can see that time travel could be a bad idea, but let’s say we really want to go back in time, how would we do it? Well first we need to understand how time works.

Time is something we are all very familiar with, we all know what it is, but yet we can’t see it, touch it, we can’t seem to interact with it in any way, we can only observe it. Isaac Newton thought that time was constant and never deviated, which would of course make time travel impossible. Even Einstein believed it was impossible, yet it is his equations that make it possible. Einstein theorized that space and time are inexplicably linked in what he refers to as “space-time”. So in theory, if I was to warp space with something extremely powerful like a black hole, I would also be warping time. While this appears to be true and scientists continue to explore its possibilities, the real possibility for time travel, seems to be in his other theory; Relativity. In fact time travel using relativity isn’t just a theory, it’s actually been done, several times! Now you probably think I’m crazy but the secret seems to be in going extremely fast.

According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, no object with mass may travel faster than the speed of light, which is an astonishing 299,792,458 metres per second in a vacuum (that’s no air). That’s an incredible 1,080 million kilometres an hour! So according to General Relativity, we can only travel at 99.99% the speed of light. But lets say for instance that I’m sitting at the back of a plane travelling at the speed of light and I walk to the front of the plane from the back at a rate of 10 kilometres an hour. I’ll leave the equations out of this, but that would mean that my speed plus the speed of the plane would mean that I’m travelling at 1,080 million and ten kilometres an hour, which is 10km/h faster than light, right? Wrong. According the theory of relativity, time would actually slow down for me to prevent me from travelling faster than light. Sounds weird doesn’t it.

Of course this scenario would never happen in real life, as I have already said we can’t travel at or faster than the speed of light. In fact you would need more than an infinite supply of fuel to travel faster than light, which is obviously impossible.

So then what is relativity? Einsteins theory of relativity basically states that if I’m driving down the road at 50km/h and drive past someone standing on the side of the road, to them I would appear to be travelling at 50km/h, I’m sure you already know this. However to me in the car, they too would travel past me at 50km/h. But then if someone where to drive beside me in another car travelling at 50km/h, to them I would appear to be completely stationary. Hard to believe? It’s the same thing that makes it look the car driving beside you on the highway sometimes seems to be floating just outside your window. I’ll leave the complicated equations out of this for now, but you can use simple addition and subtraction to confirm this theory. If you’re travelling in the same direction as the object you’re observing, in this case the other car, you subtract your speed from theirs. So 50km/h minus 50km/h is equal to 0km/h. so they would appear to be stationary. If we’re traveling in the opposite direction we add our speed to theirs. So 50km/h plus another 50km/h is equal to 100km/h. So if we drove past the other car at the same speed in the opposite direction, they would appear to be travelling at 100km/h.

So how does all this work, and more importantly, how did they actually manage to travel through time? Well as it turns out, the faster we travel, the slower time will pass. This was proven when scientists placed an atomic clock, which is an extremely accurate clock down to one billionth of a second, on the space shuttle and observed it its behavior. Before launch the clock was perfectly synced with another atomic clock here on earth, and once the shuttle had returned to earth they put the two clocks together. They then discovered the clock from the shuttle was slightly behind the clock that remained on earth. meaning time had past slower for the clock on the shuttle than the clock that remained on Earth.

So basically astronauts are in fact also time travellers. Sergei Krikalev, the current record holder for the longest time spent in space (about 804 days or 2.2 years) is actually half a second behind the rest of the world. furthermore, scientists have actually calculated that if we could orbit the Earth at 99.99% the speed of light for 7 whole years, we would actually land back on earth 500 years in the future. This effect is known as Time Dilation. What a spectacular realisation! Time travel may actually be within our reach after all. The only problem is inventing a machine or vehicle capable of travelling that fast. Unfortunately it looks like that might be just out of our reach for now. We would actually need the power of a whole star to get to that speed.

But what about travelling back in time? So far neither general or special relativity allow for travelling backwards in time and it appears as though no other laws of physics will allow travel to the past. Such travel to the past, as stated above would lead to paradoxes that could result in the collapse of an entire universe, or a completely new one to be formed. This is part of the Many World Interpretation of Quantum Theory. There are other theories to travel both forward and backwards in time such as black holes and wormholes, but I’ll discuss those in the future.

So for now it looks like we could theoretically travel to the future, but unfortunately we can’t go back and tell our younger self not to buy that car from that dodgy looking salesman, or to buy stocks in Apple and Microsoft when they first start out. So we’ll just have to settle for travelling forwards in time at the same rate we always have, and just to wait to see what the future holds.

The United States Government has been presenting several schemes and plans to help the American residents enjoy health insurance benefits to the fullest. “Obamacare” is one such scheme that provides health insurance facilities for both the high-income and low-income groups in America. However, a report from a Washington D.C. firm, named Avalere Health, reveals that the price for one of the plans in Obamacare, called the silver plan, will rise to about 34% in 2018. The silver plan provides a decent coverage policy and is a bit high on the monthly premiums. For those who cannot afford to pay such high premiums; they need not worry, as there are policies besides this and a subsidy scheme, which will provide health insurance at low cost.

While shopping for cheap health insurance plans, one should have sound knowledge about health insurance policies. Senior Vice President of Advisor Services at Manning & Napier, Shelby George advises the shoppers to always look for how much coverage is provided for the costs a company provides. In other words, one should not get carried away by the cheap rates, but should rather focus on how much coverage the insurance companies are providing for those cheap rates they advertise.

In order to get best cheap health insurance, here is an explanation of the different policies available and a description of, whether one can get insurance for “free”.

Subsidies and other Health Insurance Plans:

With an aim to provide all Americans with Health Insurance coverage, one of the many useful plans proposed by the Government, is that of ‘subsidies’. A subsidy, in simple words, is the amount paid by the Government to the insurance companies to provide health insurance facilities to those with low incomes. This means that people falling into the low-income group will be able to enjoy health insurance benefits through the use of subsidies, which would otherwise be rejected by insurance companies on any other short-term policy claim.

An individual who earns about $48,000 and a family of 4, which earns somewhere less than $98,000 are those who can enjoy the benefits of subsidies. Hence, people with low incomes can enjoy good cheap health insurance with the help of subsidies. However, these subsidy schemes proposed by the Obamacare plan are more likely to be altered or eliminated on the whole by the Trump administration.

Talking about other health insurance plans, a silver plan will cover up to 70% of a person’s health care charges while a bronze plan will cover up to 60% of the costs and the remaining percentage of charges will have to be paid out of the person’s pockets. Now, comparing these two plans, if one wishes to spend absolutely NO money out of one’s pockets, then choosing a bronze plan along with a subsidy will be of great help. For those who cannot afford to pay out of one’s own pockets, the bronze plan coverage of 60% along with the remaining 40% covered by subsidies will help to enjoy cheap health insurance.

What Type of Policy One Can Choose?

The first step to get hold of the best cheap health insurance is to be aware of what policy suits one’s needs. Here is a list of two options explained briefly, so that one can choose the best fit.

1. Short-Term Policy: A short-term policy is for those people, who do not qualify to avail subsidies. In other words, people for whom it becomes ‘unaffordable’ to get health insurance are advised to choose this policy. Here the term ‘unaffordable’ is described as the cost that exceeds above 8% of an individual or a family’s annual income. According to, Nate Purpura, the Vice President of Consumer Affairs (ehealth.com), individuals whose income ranges from $49,000 to $69,000 and families that earn somewhere between $99,000 and $129,000, are supposed to go for short-term policies.

Hence, if one finds it difficult to pay expensive premiums and avail health insurance, then going for the short-term policy is highly recommended. However, there are no penalties if one doesn’t wish to have any health insurance. But, on a positive note, it is beneficial for the individuals themselves, if they have some financial protection that will be of benefit in unfriendly circumstances.

Here are a few noteworthy details about short-term policies:

These policies usually last up to 3 months and can be extended till 9 months (in 3-month period renewal).
According to the new rules proposed by President Trump, having a short-term policy will be mandatory for all individuals. However, this rule has not yet been passed, but will soon be in effect.
These policies do not provide coverage for pre-existing illnesses, i.e. diseases that one is suffering from, before applying for the policy.
If at all one wishes to include such pre-existing illnesses in the coverage plan, then the premiums will increase substantially.
Unlike Obamacare schemes, short-term policies will not cover charges for maternal care, injuries due to abuse, and mental health treatment.
On having a short-term policy, one can avail decent health care facilities at about $100 premium a month.
On an overall basis, despite the low coverage options it provides, those who are looking for cheap health insurance for individual or cheap health insurance for families, can avail great benefits from this policy.
2. Combined Policy or Combo of Policies:

Traditional policies or in other words plans with higher premiums will provide coverage for all the expensive hospital bills in case of risky illnesses or accidents. Whereas, choosing short-term plans will simply cover the normal doctor-visits. But if one wishes to avail the benefits of both the policies, i.e. get coverage for risky illnesses as well as for normal or routine sickness (like a cough, cold, fever), then insurance companies these days are offering combo packages.

In the recent past, people used to apply for both policies separately in order to avail coverage in both cases. This was getting difficult for the insurers to calculate different percentages and amounts; hence the plan for combo policies came up, allowing people to avail both benefits within a single policy. However, as evident as it seems, going for these policies will definitely cause one to pay premiums higher than usual.

As higher education becomes more of a determining factor in one’s eligibility for all sorts of jobs and the employers are keeping their consent over quality employment, many job applicants are looking for shortcuts to remain competitive in the marketplace. And since the economic halt had started and finding a job become a harsh business, people are trying to get their way out by forging their educational documents or even buying education to fake “diploma mills.” They don’t even know that this could not only humiliate them in front of their prospective employer but also end their career in a gutter. A total loss of time, money and mental peace.

Every single employer is now looking for the best employee and they are judging their prospective candidate on the basis of education and the legitimacy of their credentials earned during their study. Employers are keeping a close eye on every single incumbent by running comprehensive education background checks as they knows the fact that educational success reveals a great deal about an applicant’s credentials and motivations; and through education background checks, an employer can get an accurate depiction of their qualifications as well their intentions of playing a role in development of the company.

Some Astounding Facts about Forged Education Credentials Caught by Education Background Checks:

In 2004, the US General Accounting Office revealed that nearly 200,000 federal employees had at the very least exaggerated education credentials on their resume.

SHRM(Society for Human Resource Management): More than 53% of job applicants falsify information on their resumes; one in four candidates misrepresents his educational attainment.

ADP Hiring Index: 49% of employment, education and or credential reference checks reveal discrepancies in the applicant’s information.

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners: 41% of applicants lie about their education.
The above inclination of facts about the defined scenario indicates an increase in the likelihood that employer’s who don’t verify education will hire unqualified personnel. Hiring unqualified personnel, in turn, leads to higher employee turnover, forcing the organization to incur expensive recruiting and replacement costs.

The Other Cunning Problem: Online Degree Scams aka Diploma Mills:

The second biggest and most souring, surging problem for employers are fake diploma mills which are playing a role in instigating fraud among the innocent people. These online cheap diploma/degree making factories are looting people for fast track degrees.

Diploma mills and degree mills as well as various websites, advertise very realistic, physical diplomas and transcripts, which have been found to deceive many employers. Therefore, with the striking statistics of resume fraud, employers should think twice about using physical diplomas as proper evidence of a degree. Because the requirement for education qualification has become so demanding, education fraud is becoming more prevalent, as are the establishments of diploma mills.

Consequently, in order to combat education fraud, laws have recently been passed in which companies who manufacture fake degrees and diplomas are considered to have committed a Misdemeanor.

Why and How Education Background Checks Can Maintain Equilibrium Between Employers and Job Seekers?

Many employers view particular educational qualifications as a key factor in seeking new employees. Moreover, education is a prerequisite for many positions because it ensures applicable knowledge of a subject matter, or more importantly, a required license for the position.

Educational history may be the most commonly falsified information on an application or resume. Some estimates place the incidence of resumes containing erroneous education information as high as 30 percent. Clearly, employers should be extremely cautious. And they are not accepting copies of a degree from candidates as proof of their graduation given that it can simply be a clever forgery paid for by the applicant.

Education background checks or education verification is the only way to prevention not only for the employers but also for the people who are looking for education but a legitimate one.

Current System of Education Background Checks and Degree/ Diploma Verification Are Not Enough!

At present, human resource departments in companies directly contact the concerned educational institution and undertake verification. This is no longer a viable solution, considering the increase in the number of recruitment’s, and the time taken for verification. This is also not a fool proof method.

A second method, often adopted by many of the larger corporations, is to outsource their employment verifications to background screening companies, who maintain large personnel databases.
Online Education Background Checks is the Most Modern and Guaranteed Way to Nab a Forged Educational Document with a Plus of Diploma Mill Identification:

Online education background checks is the system of online degree, diploma and education verification. The system consists of a database of fake colleges and universities and as well as the misdemeanors who faked their documents in past. It is now the best free online resource for the employers as well as for the students, who can check their institutions as well. It’s a killer product for the keen employers as well as for the legitimate education seeking students.

Benefits for Employers Using Online Education Background checks:

Employers can be able to save themselves from a negligent hiring lawsuit.
Employers can be able to hire the best qualified employee for their respective positions.
Online education background checks are fast then conventional education verification process, enabling an employer to make quick hiring decision.
Online education background checks can save money and good amount of time.
Benefits for the Students Using Online Education Background checks:

Assurance that the institution is meeting certain educational quality standards.
Reasonable grounds for believing that the institute will continue to meet them.
Assurance that their Degrees will be widely accepted by the employers, professional associations, other colleges and universities.
Belief that their Degree will reap the benefits associated with sound and high-quality educational standards.
Concluding Remarks:

Falsified education credentials have become a serious issue in the workforce; it breaches the faith on employees who are involved, especially when it can directly affect other employees and the company as a whole. It is also a serious blunder on the part of the employer who should have done proper education background checks; a mistake that could essentially hinder their current position.

Education background checks for employment; verify the certification, training, or educational claims of a job applicant. The universities, colleges, vocational schools, etc. are checked to verify dates of attendance and graduation, degrees or certifications obtained, majors studied, GPA, and honors received by a potential job candidate. The verification of education process is an important part of a quality pre-employment background check.

Although a federal law has been implemented to target diploma mills that give out phony diplomas, the problem still exists and is far from being corrected. In the meantime, employers and students must remain steadfast about conducting education background checks that include verifying academic credentials and institutions for their legitimacy.

The online qualification verification and diploma/degree mill checking system is significant source of help to the employers and students looking for easy and free of cost education background checks.