Ironically, right now the biggest factors on rates are circumstantial. Credit scores, age, gender, marital status. These are all difficult to change and somewhat dictated by chance.

It makes sense to me. Lets say that on average people get in one accident during their life. You can't predict when it will be, maybe the first day you drive or when you're old and have assets. Insurance covers the bills no matter when your accident happens.

Lets say that bad drivers get in twice as many accidents, same deal. You don't know when they'll happen so you spread the risk. Bad drivers should pay twice as much, makes sense.

If you're a bad enough driver nobody will insure you unless you pay through the nose. Ask anyone with numerous accidents or a couple of DUIs.

Incidentally smokers and fat people should probably pay less for health care, they don't live as long.

That's great if you don't have any assets. If you have a house or significant investments, those are at risk. One accident, it doesn't have to be 100% your fault, and the lawyers are gonna come sniffing around. If you're in an accident and have assets, expect somebody or other to come after them.

Insurance companies also take care of all the legal BS with real lawyers so you don't have to waste a lot of time navigating courts or hiring lawyers.

Sadly, those who have the money to self insure are the ones who need insurance.

I'd play the one without broken tags in it.

There are times when running old equipment makes sense. I've seen manufacturing equipment controllers with specialized interfaces that are 20 years old. You'd have to spend a lot of money to buy new equipment and software, and porting the control logic is dicey. Sometimes it's easier to just grit your teeth, buy a used micro channel motherboard and buy yourself another few years.

If it bugs you that much you should invest in a pair of polarized sunglasses. They are perfect for reducing the glare you describe. They also reduce the glare from water quite well.

Blockbuster's big draw was their monstrous stacks of new releases. Few indie shops could afford to buy hundreds of copies of Home Alone 3, so anyone who wanted to see the latest, um blockbuster had to go to the namesake.

I loved going to my favorite independent store and troll through the many thousands of offbeat films, but if I wanted to see a new big budget movie sometimes I'd grit my teeth and go to blockbuster. Busy parents learned to go there so junior wouldn't scream about not getting to see the latest movie.

I'm happy to see this development.

I remember when video stores first popped up, they tended to have the local film buffs as employees. They were good places to go learn about movies.

Now, things are kind of going back to that. Most towns will have a video store, big cities will have several. They'll tend to have deep catalogs and knowledgeable employees.

Blockbuster is one of those companies that made a lot of enemies. It was painful for me to watch them blow through town after town, destroying businesses that cared about movies passionately. I watched sadly as they opened a store across the street from my favorite local video store. When that didn't work they opened a 2nd store next door to it. When that didn't work they offered the owner 10x the value of the business and bought him out, then they closed all 3 stores. They ruthlessly drove competition out of business and then implemented abusive customer and employee policies. Gone were the employees who knew and loved film, say hello to incompetent minimum wage lackeys. I took 2 buses to one of the holdout video stores who had an entire wall covered with shredded blockbuster cards. They'd throw a little party every time somebody would cut up their blockbuster card. The owner refused numerous buyout offers because he hated blockbuster so fiercely, had to go to court several times when blockbusters team of lawyers tried to sue him out of existence.

I'll be glad any time a lawsuit-happy rent-seeking cutthroat business goes under. With blockbuster gone the world is a finer place.

Do you have any sources for this? Checking customs it seems that only convictions can be used for declaring somebody inadmissible. Not all convictions, only certain criminal ones apply. There are some loopholes around even felony convictions.

Anchovies and sardines aren't as susceptible to overfishing as larger fish. Their fast reproductive cycle allows them to recover quite fast if conditions are right. Their populations are linked to ocean temperature, which is also something humans have an effect on. You can learn more about it here

I think nondischargeable loans are a much bigger problem in tuition bloat. Schools have no incentive to ensure students do well in society, or even graduate. The student is saddled with debt that is inescapable, and in many cases will follow them to their grave. Imagine if debt was forgiven after 10 years if the student wasn't earning above a certain level, it would force schools to be more selective, driving tuition down.

People have been fighting since the dawn of human history. It might be simple proximity, but it sure seems more vitriolic and dysfunctional now than any other time in recent history, even the watergate era. Of course if we consider the Civil War as a worst case we are nowhere near that.

It's Quid pro quo and some of my female friends complain that they get pressured by cops, pulled over often, and angrily ticketed if they don't fellate the officer or agree to go on a date.

Sometimes the limits are just too low. Around here there was a straight 8 lane highway with a speed limit of 45. Everyone went 60 and got tickets. After thousands of calls and letters the limit was raised to 55. Everyone goes 60 and you only see cops when there is a stalled vehicle or a wreck.