Monthly Archives: December 2016

Auto Insurance the way I figure it could be free!

Chapter 33

Auto Insurance the way I figure it could be free!

I am amazed at the number of auto insurance companies that advertise on TV. There must be at least a dozen and half that number that seem to dominate. Hardly an hour goes by without seeing an ad from one of the following: GEICO, Progressive, the General or Allstate (and their online subsidiary, Esurance). Ig I have been amazed at these companies stating that I can save big bucks if I switch to them. I wonder how that can be when they are spending so much on advertising, but then this is a $22 Billion a year industry!

Source: http://www.insweb.com/insurance-tools/insurance-companies.html

Rank   Company/Group 2013 Direct Premiums Written ($1,000s) Market share %
1   State Farm Group 33,611,001 18.48
2   Berkshire Hathaway Insurance 18,622,626 10.24
3   Allstate Insurance Group 18,067,452 9.93
4   Progressive Insurance Group 15,373,142 8.45
  5   Farmers Insurance Group 9,880,905 5.43
6   USAA Group 9,167,242 5.04
7   Liberty Mutual Insurance Cos. 9,036,455 4.97
8   Nationwide Group 7,279,835 4.00
9   American Family Insurance Group 3,441,682 1.89
10   Travelers Group 3,178,692 1.75

I have two cars, one with full coverage and the other with everything except collision. I pay just over $1,100 a year for my insurance. One company claims I can save 15% and also up to $550, another, AARP (through the Hartford), $404 per year, $489 with State Farm (all of these claims were taken from Internet sites). So, in theory all I have to do is make three switches and by the time I am covered by the 3rd company they will pay me to be with them!

The bottom line is that I guess these folks must think their potential customers are idiots? As a side note, I picked three companies that claimed I could save and requested quotes for identical coverage and………of course they were all much higher (in one case almost double).

The history of man, what do we really know?

Chapter 32 The history of man, what do we really know?

In a prior blog I discussed the problems with history as it related to the “discovery” of the Americas. The history I was taught from a broader view appears to have missed the mark by an even wider margin. Just far back does sentient life go? The latest from Wikipedia states: “The transition to behavioral modernity with the development of symbolic culture, language, and specialized lithic technology happened around 50,000 years ago according to many anthropologists although some suggest a gradual change in behavior over a longer time span”. This is quite different from what I was taught. However, there is significant evidence that even this view is outdated. I was not ready for the following!

Below copied from News rescue Nov 10, 2009

Ancient Human Metropolis Found in Africa

Source: By Dan Eden for viewzone.

They have always been there. People noticed them before. But no one could remember who made them — or why? Until just recently, no one even knew how many there were. Now they are everywhere — thousands — no, hundreds of thousands of them! And the story they tell is the most important story of humanity. But it’s one we might not be prepared to hear.

Something amazing has been discovered in an area of South Africa, about 150 miles inland, west of the port of Maputo. It is the remains of a huge metropolis that measures, in conservative estimates, about 1500 square miles. It’s part of an even larger community that is about 10,000 square miles and appears to have been constructed — are you ready — from 160,000 to 200,000 BCE!

The image at the top of the page is a close-up view of just a few hundred meters of the landscape taken from google-earth. The region is somewhat remote and the “circles” have often been encountered by local farmers who assumed they were made by some indigenous people in the past. But, oddly, no one ever bothered to inquire about who could have made them or how old they were.

This changed when researcher and author, Michael Tellinger, teamed up with Johan Heine, a local fireman and pilot who had been looking at these ruins from his years flying over the region. Heine had the unique advantage to see the number and extent of these strange stone foundations and knew that their significance was not being appreciated.

“When Johan first introduced me to the ancient stone ruins of southern Africa, I had no idea of the incredible discoveries we would make in the year or two that followed. The photographs, artifacts and evidence we have accumulated points unquestionably to a lost and never-before-seen civilization that predates all others — not by just a few hundred years, or a few thousand years… but many thousands of years. These discoveries are so staggering that they will not be easily digested by the mainstream historical and archaeological fraternity, as we have already experienced. It will require a complete paradigm shift in how we view our human history. “ — Tellinger

There is too much information to relate here. Interested readers can find a more complete narrative at the following PDF file: South Africa 200,000 years ago.pdf.