tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111206922024-03-07T05:01:02.262-05:00Curious Cat CommentsThoughts on society, technology, fun and whatever else stirs my curiosityCurious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.comBlogger530125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-48368725222546701032023-11-10T16:24:00.002-05:002023-11-14T14:25:20.112-05:00The Current Republican Party is a Huge Risk to the Future of the USA<p> I am very concerned about the long term extremism that dominates the USA Republican Party. Far too many people are complacent believing that the USA has done pretty well over the last 100 years so that will continue. It need not continue. There are societal level critical risks today due to the behavior of voters over the last 20 years.</p><p>We have allowed our health care system to tax the economic well being of the country enormously. We pay twice as much as other rich countries for worse overall health outcomes. We also have huge waste stress and health care avoidance due to how poorly matched the system is to modern life. That tax can be paid and the economy can survive (as we have seen) but it is a large drag on the country and reduces the leeway to survive other mistakes.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjezRVuF-djj5qmgS87vufD0VUcCSvm0JGqZ-lPfo56ygyu1GrXegNgtJZ-N4-BvzkyFY38HaF9rXmPhbzpU9Wo1WmsO3aykQXrfkXgqYWSLdMktByBzUTOIO36Qtsb6959VBO-yELPQg7dA_mK48I3iZ5PZvt2wzdk8Ooy9U8ueYDWkbUAkG5hyphenhyphenA/s2272/capital-dc.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="2272" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjezRVuF-djj5qmgS87vufD0VUcCSvm0JGqZ-lPfo56ygyu1GrXegNgtJZ-N4-BvzkyFY38HaF9rXmPhbzpU9Wo1WmsO3aykQXrfkXgqYWSLdMktByBzUTOIO36Qtsb6959VBO-yELPQg7dA_mK48I3iZ5PZvt2wzdk8Ooy9U8ueYDWkbUAkG5hyphenhyphenA/w618-h257/capital-dc.jpg" width="618" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The USA Capital (photo by John Hunter)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The Republic Party has been on a long term effort to destroy the rule of law in the USA. The continued tolerance of those that openly tried to overturn the results of the election they lost is a critical issue that anyone that cares about the rule of law should not tolerate. </p><p>The behavior of the Trump administration at the Department of Justice and IRS were unacceptable. Trumps personal behavior while President should have resulted in his removal from office for anyone that cared about the rule of law or national security of the USA. The Republic Party failed to put the rule of the law and the country above their personal fears about what Donald Trump would do to their careers. We need to elect people that care about the country first. We have not done so. Unless we change we are taking a huge risk.</p><p>We need to stop tolerating those risking the constitutional republic we have been for over 200 years. That is by far the most urgent and critical issue. I cannot see voting for any Republicans that haven't loudly spoken out against the dominant practices (undermining the rule of law, putting a party and person above the interests of the country, ignoring national security concerns...) of the current party leaders. And beyond that having demonstrated their actions to halt such behavior and withhold all support for Republican Party leaders that have gone along and pursued policies that undermine the rule of law and national security of the USA.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/10/mike-johnson-rewrite-constitution-00126157">Inside Mike Johnson’s Ties to a Far-Right Movement to Gut the Constitution</a></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><blockquote><p class="story-text__paragraph">For the last 10 years, the “Convention of States” movement has sought to remake the Constitution and force a tea party vision of the framers’ intent upon America. This group wants to wholesale rewrite wide swaths of the U.S. Constitution in one fell swoop. In the process, they hope to do away with regulatory agencies like the FDA and the CDC, virtually eliminate the federal government’s ability to borrow money, and empower state legislatures to override federal law.</p><p class="story-text__paragraph">As far-fetched as this idea might sound, the movement is gaining traction — and now, it believes, it has a friend in the speaker of the House.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>The long term efforts of the Republican Party to disenfranchise voters is another completely unacceptable behavior. I am extremely worried about the risk of voters electing even more officials that will overthrow the rule of law in the USA. But it is unacceptable to d disenfranchise such voters. If the voters in the USA decide to vote for those that will take future steps to toss out the constitutional protections we have had in our political discourse the last 200 years then we must deal with the consequences of such a catastrophic result. The Democratic Party in some states does engage in extremely damaging gerrymandering but the level of the the Republican Party's actions in this area have been enormously more damaging to the country. And the Republican Party's continued efforts to suppress voting by those they feel won't vote for them is completely unacceptable and unique to them (in any significant form).</p><p>It is easier to ignore the huge risks to our society and hope everything works out ok. That is a huge risk. Once it is obvious that you should have acted strongly 5 or 10 years ago it may well be too late to make a difference. </p><p>Don't be complacent. Speak out against those that are placing the USA's future at risk. Take actions to make a difference in avoiding the USA further degrading the protections of the rule of law and a government that is most interested in the interests of the country rather than institutionalized corruption favoring those with political power.</p><p>There is always going to be some corruption (<a href="https://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2007/10/09/lobbyists-keep-tax-off-billion-dollar-private-equities-deals-and-on-for-our-grandchildren/">Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren, 2007</a>) but the trends we are seeing and risks under another Trump administration are potentially catastrophic. Waiting until the risks are even more obvious that they are today may well mean you waited past the chance you had to save the future of the USA.</p><p>Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2018/02/critical-thinking-is-needed-to-counter.html">Critical Thinking is Needed to Counter Propaganda (2018)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/preaching-false-ideas-to-men-known-to.html">Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots (2010)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-usa-should-be-ashamed-of-who-we.html">The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected (2017)</a> - <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/04/selling-out-country-we-are-electing.html">Selling Out the Country - We are Electing the Wrong People to Control Our Government (2015)</a></span> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-continued-fall-of-usas-political.html">The Continued Fall of the USA's Political Leaders that We Give Power To (2017)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/07/living-through-your-society-becoming.html">Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State (2013)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/08/society-is-being-shaped-for-us-while-we.html">Society is being shaped for us while we are busy making other plans (2011)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/bikinis-for-liberty.html">Bikinis For Liberty (2010)</a></p>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-697453042951489072021-02-28T14:15:00.004-05:002021-02-28T14:16:54.850-05:00When to Bench Basketball Players Due to Foul Trouble?comments on: <a href="http://adamcwisports.blogspot.com/2021/02/2-foul-auto-bench.html">2 foul auto-bench</a> <p>
I think the best reason to do it during the regular season is to teach players not to foul.<p>
Otherwise I think a decision process should be used. Is this player foul prone, is there a difficult matchup making fouling more likely, are these officials calling questionable fouls, how badly do we need them out their now (are we falling behind by a large margin...). Also I would vary it (especially late in the season) depending on how likely we are to need to push every advantage. If we are likely in trouble take more risks, leave the player with fouls more exposed. If we should win even with them missing extra time, ok be more willing to pull them.<p>
In general, I think coaches pull players much too often due to foul trouble. Unless the player is foul prone it seems they often pull the player with 2 fouls in the first half and they never even pick up a 3rd foul in the second half. That just makes it seem like a bad in game tactic. The one exception is for a season long strategy of teaching the players not to foul.<p>
One way pulling a player earlier for 2 fouls in the first half or 3 or 4 in the second is to spread out the time of the reserve. If there are 12 minutes left in the first half and there is really 1 reserve that needs to take the time this player is out, pull them now, let the reserve get 4 minutes in and bring the player with 2 fouls back (maybe for 2 or 3 minutes). Especially if the reserve almost always plays in short 3 or 4 minute spurts don't create a situation where they need to play 12 straight minutes or something (protect, not just them getting tired but the other team figuring out how to exploit them).<p>
Related: <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/03/frank-kaminsky-college-basketball.html">Frank Kaminsky, College Basketball Player of the Year</a> - <a href="https://management.curiouscatblog.net/2015/04/06/lessons-for-managers-from-wisconsin-and-duke-basketball/">Lessons for Managers from Wisconsin and Duke Basketball</a> - <a href="https://management.curiouscatblog.net/2017/02/02/why-do-people-fail-to-adopt-better-management-methods/">Why Do People Fail to Adopt Better Methods? (underhanded free throws)</a> - <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/05/universities-again-abandon-fansmission.html">Universities Again Abandon Fans/Mission to Increase Pay to Administrative Staff/Coaches</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-80979633715112225402019-01-08T10:15:00.000-05:002019-01-09T09:03:37.717-05:00The Most Popular Social Media SitesThese are the most popular social media sites ranked by monthly active users (for the most recent date I could find data for). The data is from various sources and is the most recent reliable sources I could find (Alexa ranks as of January 2019). What constitutes a "social media" site isn't so easy to define so I use a bit of judgement on what sites of involved enough of a social element to be included.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol><li> Facebook (monthly active users 2.2 billion - Alexa Rank #3)</li>
<li> YouTube (1.6 billion - Alexa #2)</li>
<li> WeChat/Weixin (1.1 billion - #2,537)</li>
<li> Instagram (900 million - #17)</li>
<li> Tencent QQ (803 million - #6)</li>
<li> QZone (548 million) - #209</li>
<li> TikTok (500 million - #3,204)</li>
<li> Sina Weibo (446 million - #18)</li>
<li> Tumbler (350 million - #65)</li>
<li> Reddit (340 million - #13)</li>
<li> Twitter (335 million - #11)</li>
<li> Baidu Tieba (300 million)</li>
<li> Snapchat (291 million - #4,480)</li>
<li> LinkedIn (270 million - #30)</li>
<li> Pinterest (230 million - #77)</li>
<li> VK (120 million - #14)</li>
<li> Huya (100 million - #565)</li>
<li> YY (95 million - #270)</li>
<li> Taringa (75 million - #811)</li>
<li> Renren (? - #1,824)</li>
<li> Nextdoor (? - #1,310)</li>
</ol><br />
Alexa rank doesn't track smart phone app use (Alexa tracks website use, and far from perfectly but it does provide some insight into how much use popular sites get). Most of the social media sites have most use via apps but many also have useful web sites. Some have much more of a bias to smartphone apps (WeChat for example).<br />
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<br />
Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-i-would-include-in-redesigned.html">What I Would Include in a Redesigned Twitter Profile</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2008/01/dont-lock-your-content-inside.html">Don't Lock Your Content Inside a Proprietary System</a> Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-2417443677310528622019-01-03T09:42:00.000-05:002019-01-03T09:42:01.002-05:00Most Popular posts on the Curious Cat Comments blog in 2018The most popular posts on our blog (by page views in 2018):<br />
<br />
<ol> <li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/05/security-theatre-thinking-is-damaging.html">Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-readers-for-reading-rss-feeds.html">Blog Readers, for Reading RSS Feeds (2013)</a></li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2018/02/critical-thinking-is-needed-to-counter.html">Critical Thinking is Needed to Counter Propaganda (2018)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-worst-aspect-of-tpp-that-gets.html">The Worst Aspect of TPP That Gets Nearly No Attention (2016)</a>* </li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/07/when-you-see-problem-as-capitalism.html">When You See the Problem as Capitalism Instead of Corruption You Seek to Solve the Wrong Problem (2015)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/10/utopia-dreamland-in-usa-is-amazing-tv.html">Utopia (Dreamland in the USA) is an Amazing TV Program (2015), available on Netflix</a> </li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/preaching-false-ideas-to-men-known-to.html">Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots (2010)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/12/liberty-and-support-or-control-and-hate.html">Liberty and Support or Control and Hate (2013)</a> </li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/06/challenging-conventional-thinking.html">Challenging Conventional Thinking (2015)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/curious-joyful-happy-kids-grow-up.html">Curious, Joyful, Happy Kids Grow Up: Unfortunately (2010)</a></li>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqup0O8zm6RZ5JZNXBd-yBtvJlRjPkYFAS2AUdZpNDgIWxBEt6I1IHNVGqT6ENmwv8HIHjClF48-bD3MnLf3V89CMbcXM-DR9IukzNfgDAZOha3Pgz0ph7Lkls45iECsN-Ctau9A/s1600/aidan_and_zachary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqup0O8zm6RZ5JZNXBd-yBtvJlRjPkYFAS2AUdZpNDgIWxBEt6I1IHNVGqT6ENmwv8HIHjClF48-bD3MnLf3V89CMbcXM-DR9IukzNfgDAZOha3Pgz0ph7Lkls45iECsN-Ctau9A/s400/aidan_and_zachary.jpg" border="0" alt="photo of 2 children" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537399674516819522"></a>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/08/society-is-being-shaped-for-us-while-we.html">Society is being shaped for us while we are busy making other plans (2011)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/11/netflix-is-well-managed-people-are.html">Netflix is Well Managed - People are Overreacting (2011)</a></li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/07/they-will-know-we-are-christians-by-our.html">They Will Know We are Christians By Our Love (2010)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2014/09/banks-continue-to-push-for-insane.html">Banks Continue to Push for Insane Special Favors (and Sadly Get Them) (2014)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-copyright-extention-is-very-bad.html">Why Copyright Extension is a Very Bad Idea (2009)</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/bikinis-for-liberty.html">Bikinis For Liberty (2010)</a></li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2014/02/usa-encouraging-governments-worldwide.html">USA Encouraging Governments Worldwide to Spy and Hack Globally is Very Dangerous (2014)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/02/appeasing-rude-selfish-people-just.html">Appeasing Rude Selfish People Just Makes them Behave Even More Selfishly (2015)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/07/filter-out-links-to-lame-websites-on.html">Filter Out Links to Lame Websites on Reddit (2017)</a>*</li>
<li> <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/07/businesses-misusing-required-private.html">Businesses Misusing Required Private Information (2017)</a>*</li>
</ol>* new on the most popular list this year (for the 2016 list we only listed the top 10)<br />
<br />
The publication year of our most read posts this year:<br />
<br />
2018: 1 post<br />
2017: 2<br />
2016: 1<br />
2015: 4<br />
2014: 2<br />
2013: 3<br />
<br />
2011: 2<br />
2010: 4<br />
2009: 1<br />
<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="https://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2016/12/most-popular-posts-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Post on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2016)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/12/most-popular-post-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Post on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2011)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/01/most-popular-posts-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2015)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/01/most-popular-posts-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2014)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-75875928407584767732019-01-01T09:19:00.002-05:002019-01-01T09:19:29.908-05:00Egregious Billing Practices by USA Health Care Organizations<a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/12/taking-surprise-medical-bills-court-theory-mutual-assent.html">Taking Surprise Medical Bills To Court Under the Theory of “Mutual Assent”</a><br />
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<blockquote>Consumers are increasingly vulnerable to... so-called balance bills, which represent the difference between what insurers pay and hospitals’ list prices. List prices can be several times higher than what they accept from Medicare or in-network insurers.<br />
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Congress is considering bipartisan legislation to limit balance billing. But some legal scholars say that patients should already be protected against some of the highest, surprise charges under long-standing conventions of contract law.<br />
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That’s because contract law rests on the centuries-old concept of “mutual assent,” in which both sides agree to a price before services are rendered, said Barak Richman, a law professor at Duke University.<br />
<br />
Thus, many states require, and consumers expect, written estimates for a range of services before the work is done — whether by mechanics and plumbers or lawyers and financial planners.<br />
<br />
But patients rarely know upfront how much their medical care will cost, and hospitals generally provide little or no information.<br />
<br />
While consumers are obligated to pay something, the question is how much? Hospitals generally bill out-of-network care at list prices, their highest charges.<br />
<br />
Without an explicit price upfront, contract law would require medical providers to charge only “average or market prices,” Richman said.<br />
<br />
In several recent cases, for example in New York and Colorado, courts have stepped in to mediate cases where a patient received a big balance bill from an out-of-network provider. They ordered hospitals to accept amounts far closer to what they agree to from in-network private insurers or Medicare.</blockquote><br />
I strongly believe congress should pass a law outlawing the existing practices. And it is good to know the most egregious, and increasingly common, practices of the USA hospitals are already illegal. If you state hasn't already taken hospitals using such practices to court and required refunding all ill gotten gains, contact your attorney general to make sure they do so. And contact you state legislators to make sure they act also. Several states have been much more concerned with protecting their citizens from being abused by large health care providers but most states have not.<br />
<br />
The existing practices are unethical and it is unconscionable that our elected representatives have allowed such egregious practices to continue and even become more common.<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/12/democrats-and-republicans-have-failed.html">Democrats and Republicans Have Failed the USA on Health Care for Decades (2015)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/01/health-care-system-remains-broken.html">USA Health Care System Remains Broken, Neglected (2011)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-usa-should-be-ashamed-of-who-we.html">The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2012/12/decades-of-failure-by-those-responsible.html">Decades of Failure by Those Responsible for USA Health Care System Needs to be Addressed (2012)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-61867877653502693712018-12-28T11:21:00.004-05:002020-08-12T10:46:02.343-04:00Privacy Invasion as a Business PlanThe rise of the internet has resulted in many companies building business plans on invading the privacy of their users and selling the data to those wishing to track those users. For many companies this model of behavior has always been obvious. I never created an account on Facebook because of how strongly focused they have always been on invading privacy and selling that data. The distain for Facebook finally became more than a side note in 2018 (though there has long been some push back against them). Though still most people continue to use Facebook even as the extent of their bad behavior has come to light.<br />
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Certainly other companies (Google etc.) also practice gathering and aggregating information about individuals in order to profit. I have used Google from the beginning though I have reduced such use in the last few years (still using them quite a bit). <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">Duck Duck Go</a> has long been my primary search engine though I do also use Google. I added <a href="https://www.fastmail.com/">Fastmail</a> years ago, but still use some gmail accounts.<br />
<br />
The integration of online tracking and offline tracking (via credit agencies, credit card companies etc.) has greatly increased over the last 5 years with Google planning a central role (along with, of course Facebook and many others).<br />
<br />
One of the worst behaviors by internet companies is to collect phone numbers in order to facilitate selling and integration of private information while pretending it is somehow a security issue. Though security experts all say using phone numbers for security adds security risks instead of using much more secure methods such as a security key. Companies that use deceptive security methods to collect phone numbers in order to sell the private information of their users make it very hard to trust what else they are doing.<br />
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Twitter has long claimed a security reason to collect phone numbers [update in 2020 - <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200804/01231345032/twitter-about-to-be-hit-with-250-million-fine-using-your-two-factor-authentication-phone-numbers-emails-marketing.shtml">Twitter faces $250 million fine from the US FCC for these practices abusing the private information of users</a>]. Now they have locked one of my Twitter accounts (because I sent a string of 5 reply comments) and refused to allow me to regain access without adding a tracking phone number (I had no phone number before). For this reason I won't be using Twitter any longer.<br />
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This experience once again shows the risks of promoting connections via a system that can lock you out when they chose. It is much safer to use systems like (blog, where you own the domain, email... that are within your control). Of course nothing is 100%, email can blocked (people that try to run private email servers find they are challenged by systems setup to distrust such email). But investing time in building communities (say on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter...) is risky. At any time they can change the rules and harm what you have built.<br />
<br />
I suggest avoiding investing in Facebook, Twitter, etc.. To some extent it may make sense to invest some time in such communities but I suggest focusing most effort on things that are not built on the model of invading users privacy and selling that data to others.<br />
<br />
One of the many things Apple is doing well is positioning themselves to protect user's privacy. With so many other businesses built on invading that privacy it provides Apple both a real opportunity to help and also a marketing advantage. Other organizations and tools are also filling a need to protect people from spying and malware (some of which is getting hard to distinguish from business practices of large privacy invading companies) such as <a href="https://www.eff.org/privacybadger">EFF's Privacy Badger</a>, ublock origin and <a href="https://www.ghostery.com/">Ghostery</a>.<br />
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It is extremely difficult for individuals to protect their private information. It is essentially impossible. When companies built to sell that private information and create business processes to ease their business practices they often create a situation where their actions have resulted in false information created that somehow becomes the individual user's responsibility to fix (so when those privacy selling companies allow a person's data to be mis-used it is then called "identity theft" though it is not, it is companies misusing information and then putting on the individual the burden of fixing the errors). Europe has much better privacy rights than the USA does. But much more and better efforts are needed from governments to protect citizens from having their lives thrown into turmoil by the abuse and misuse of their private information.<br />
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Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/05/governments-shouldnt-prevent-citizens.html">Governments Shouldn't Prevent Citizens from Having Secure Software Solutions</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/07/businesses-misusing-required-private.html">Businesses Misusing Required Private Information</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/07/living-through-your-society-becoming.html">Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/07/i-can-spy-on-you-but-you-cant-spy-on-me.html">I Can Spy on You, But You Can't Spy on Me</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2008/04/freedom-increasingly-at-risk.html">Freedom Increasingly at Risk</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-43249982225026159122018-10-03T12:31:00.000-04:002018-10-03T12:32:30.608-04:00Stamping Out Curiosity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNophTR3JoVLS6kEoVL0HLHidfMXkC2sTA3hAuV9WWknNGKA9iM4-xJLgm5LCO8InBz-qGP0pfUSTvXrbqKo7UOxlFHrqGyLtT7U-3TRi2SRUR4fp0vzlO1yYZWrG9u3q3qEGXw/s1600/zack_blur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNophTR3JoVLS6kEoVL0HLHidfMXkC2sTA3hAuV9WWknNGKA9iM4-xJLgm5LCO8InBz-qGP0pfUSTvXrbqKo7UOxlFHrqGyLtT7U-3TRi2SRUR4fp0vzlO1yYZWrG9u3q3qEGXw/s1600/zack_blur.jpg" data-original-width="372" data-original-height="660" /></a></div><br />
Thoughts on LinkedIn conversation about curiosity it lean (LinkedIn's extremely poor Ux practices means I can't link to a web page of the discussion).<br />
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<blockquote>The strong sense of curiosity is in America but crushed out by bad management.<br />
Allen Scott</blockquote><br />
And crushed by poor education systems and even just peer pressure. I have written about <a href="https://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2011/10/28/encouraging-curiosity-in-kids/">encouraging curiosity in kids (and adults)</a>.<br />
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I do agree bad management reinforces the anti-curiosity culture but it goes far beyond bad management - even the anti-fact or anti-critical-thinking aspect so prevalent in media and politics is a system designed to quell thoughtful questioning of existing systems, policies, results, affects... I think the decreasing of curiosity is likely strongly influenced by psychology, aging and coping as an adult (coping becoming the focus instead of curiosity and joy). And then we have several powerful aspects of our culture that discourage cultivating curiosity.<br />
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I wrote earlier this year that <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2018/02/critical-thinking-is-needed-to-counter.html">Critical Thinking is Needed to Counter Propaganda</a>. It seems very obvious to me there has been a decades long concerted effort to decrease critical thinking, discourage curiosity and create a large group of people that will follow what they are told (Fox "News" etcetera). That makes things easy if you control what those people are told, but it also makes those uncritical and incurious followers susceptible to anyone that can create propaganda that appeals to them.<br />
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Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/curious-joyful-happy-kids-grow-up.html">Curious, Joyful, Happy Kids Grow Up: Unfortunately</a> - <a href="https://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/01/04/sarah-aged-3-learns-about-soap/">Sarah, aged 3, Learns About Soap</a> - <a href="https://management.curiouscatblog.net/2013/06/11/experience-teaches-nothing-without-theory/">Experience Teaches Nothing Without Theory</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-26406929828123123632018-06-27T19:27:00.002-04:002018-06-27T19:27:52.196-04:00Surviving Modern ConveniencesToday my car wouldn't start. I guessed the battery died.<br />
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I try to use Lyft. Their app says it is a bad connection and so it won't work (using iPhone on Sprint in Charlotte, NC - the 17th largest city in the USA). Sad but ok, whatever, deal with it. Ok try my iPad mini with ATT. Lyft connects and doesn't let me use it requires putting in a phone number before it will do anything so that I can get pin and give it to them. Ok, give them the number. Nothing ever comes from them. <br />
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Ok try Uber on iPhone. Uber asked for permission to spy all the time (not just when you are using Uber. Decline that intrusion. Now it can't find my current location. So I type it in. It finds it. Uber says it isn't available where I am and only offers their "luxury" options. <br />
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Now I could go directly to work but I have a mover scheduled to unload my large moving items at my new house this afternoon. And my dead car is blocking the garage (and there is a fairly steep hill up to the house) so backing the truck to the garage seems like a much better option so I want to move my car out of the way before they arrive (it is parked front in so jump starting it would be very hard I figure).<br />
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I select the closest Walmart (that I went to the night before 3 miles away or so). Driver shows up in the most beat up car I have ever been picked up with by Uber or Lyft (including traveling around SE Asia (where actually they were always very new and clean). This is Uber's luxury option remember. They then drive me to some other Walmart at least twice as far away.<br />
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I get a trickle charger (to charge my car battery) at Walmart and am back on my way. I use my iPhone to request Lyft and they show up. The signal strength is actually good. Now I am late to my 3rd day onsite at a new long term client. So I ask the driver to wait and let me take 5 minutes to setup the trickle charger and then he can take me to work. He asks me to add the new leg to the Lyft app. I tell him it might not work since my Sprint signal is so bad usually and I try and it fails. He says he will wait but you can tell he isn't thrilled with it. I guess that Lyft has a bad process to deal with situations like mine (or maybe he just wasn't certain how it would work).<br />
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I try calling someone at work using my iPad mini (while the ATT signal is bad, Sprint is much worse) and it connects but constantly breaks up.<br />
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But he says he will wait. I hurry up and set things up and am going out the door in maybe 3 minutes and I see him driving away. I try Lyft again and it fails again (on both phones just like earlier). <br />
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Then I try Uber and decide to give them my address again and they come pick me up. I type in the wrong address (a leading 4 instead of a leading 1, sigh). It doesn't seem we are going the right way, I figure that out and ask what address we are going to... I am amazing able to update the address in the Uber app (the connection barely works). The driver and car were nice for this trip.<br />
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Now I am late to work but am able to put in a partial days work then have to leave to meet the mover. My workplace is one of these huge building with big delays for visitors checking in... I have no idea how you can get Uber or a taxi or anything or any idea who you can ask (those I did ask have no idea either). So I decide to walk out (the equivalent of a few blocks to a sensible public street. I actually have 4 bars on 3G on Sprint (the iPhone) which is the best I have seen yet in Charlotte. I try to use the iPhone Lyft app. Won't connect due to bad connectivity. Seems much more likely it is some caching bug but whatever it doesn't work. And of course the other Lyft app (on the other device) won't let me use it (due to it not sending my pin number). So I open up Uber on my iPhone (which as with other other times today Lyft said it couldn't work due to bad connectivity the Uber app on the same phone worked fine. But now the wonderful Uber app (that I didn't allow to continuously spy) has decided that the only place I can be picked up is my house that I entered the first time. They won't let me change it.<br />
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So I have now use 3 of the 4 ride hailing options I have at hand. So I try my 4th and final option, the Uber app with full spying privileges and thankfully it works. And the can is new and clean and the driver is professional.<br />
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I get home go look at my car. The charger is off. I think wow that is pretty good I didn't think it would be finished. Put everything away and try to start the car and nothing. I put everything back the way it is and it all lights up like it is fine and charging and in about 15 seconds turns off. It must not like something, I try it a couple more times and finally reach a state where it won't turn off.<br />
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Of course when the mover arrives I the car won't start. Actually we tried to back it up the driveway some but it was too steep and couldn't make it anyway.<br />
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The modern convinces really did help in many ways (I am still hoping the trickle charger will help, though as I write this it is still questionable). The battery is about 10 months old. But while it is great to have cell phones and apps to help us when we are stuck it is very annoying to have such bad connectivity in the 19th largest city in the USA and such lame usability failure in the Uber and Lyft apps. And it is frustrating to have to deal with your own lameness that likely caused the battery to die (I left the lights on in the car - the garage had lights on so I didn't register the car lights were no going off...) and putting in the wrong address...<br />
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And this is one of what seem like several such episodes each day for the last few weeks. I agreed to move states within about 10 days to a full time job on site with a client. I didn't really have a desire to do so but I have worked for the company as an offsite consultant for years and understood the situation they were in where I really was the best option and it was fairly important. So far it has been a struggle. I hope soon I will have passed through this spate of frustrations. If I had this one episode happen some week it wouldn't bug me much. But day after day of multiple such things is wearing me down.<br />
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And since I have no decent internet connection I can't even Netflix and chill :-(<br />
Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-81397383791399381782018-05-25T11:40:00.000-04:002018-05-25T11:40:08.818-04:00More Bad Ux by Google and the Value of RSS Feeds to Avoid Bad UX PracticesThese are my slighted edited comments on the Vlogbrothers video by Hank Green on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDPCLiDf1qs">very bad User Experience of YouTube Subscriptions</a> that Google made even worse recently (I take it that is what happened, I avoid that by using RSS feeds to access the content I want to view).<br />
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Google has been really bad at UX (user experience) for a long time. I <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-readers-for-reading-rss-feeds.html">use RSS feeds to manage the content I want to enjoy</a> and it works great (for blogs and You Tube and podcasts). Thankfully Google hasn't broken this yet (though given their track record in the last 10 years it would not surprise me if they do at some point).<br />
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Of course it will be easy for creators to generate their own RSS feed for their videos if Google does break it. I created several feeds on my personal site for (<a href="https://johnhunter.com/feed/">selected blog posts by John Hunter</a> and a <a href="https://johnhunter.com/feed/history">time travel feed for my blog posts*</a>).<br />
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By the way Hank, it would be great if you would create RSS feeds that let me do things like subscribe to specific courses in crash course. Frankly, I have long thought it is pretty lame that this doesn't exist. This link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSYw502dJNY&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTfqc0h6Pe8vb">Crash Course literature videos</a> for example should have an RSS feed of all the videos. Given Google's lame Ux it isn't so amazing that it is missing an RSS feed. But it is super easy to create a RSS feed from some [whatever your corporate overload name is - nerdfighters or ?] that let people easily have feeds that have good Ux and give them the granularity to pick what they want to add to an RSS reader.<br />
<br />
As you mentioned in your video, while many users may have failed to take advantage of RSS readers, many power users have. So cater to them. Also encourage others to use this extremely useful tool which does many great things including shielding your from the extremely bad Ux practices of many of the huge internet giants.<br />
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* the Curious Cat time travel feed adds a new post each day using posts from my blogging history (which stretches back 14 years now).<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/curiouscattravel">Curious Cat Travel YouTube channel</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/07/filter-out-links-to-lame-websites-on.html">Filter Out Links to Lame Websites on Reddit</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2014/07/getting-around-bad-web-page-layouts.html">Getting Around Bad Web Page Layouts</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/09/poor-web-site-user-experience-ux.html">Poor Web Site User Experience (Ux) for Investing Data</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-27248450293225098612018-02-16T15:00:00.002-05:002019-06-17T11:49:46.983-04:00Critical Thinking is Needed to Counter PropagandaAs everyone expected the continuing investigation by the US Justice Department has further detailed the attempts by Russians to spread propaganda and influence the USA election. I find it amazing that the Trump Administration and many Republican representatives have continually attempted to discredit the attempts to investigate the actions taken by Russians to interfere in the USA election.<br />
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As with any attempts to manipulate people through propaganda, misinformation and distraction the solution is critical thinking and transparency.<br />
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The attempts by talking heads to turn the focus to the paper and pencil used (or the which particular websites were) to spread the misinformation and propaganda should be a transparent attempt to misdirect our next steps. What is needed is for this investigation to continue and expand. And I really don't understand how political leaders can be cooperating with attempts to block investigations into the attempts to subvert democracy by foreign actors.<br />
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Acting as though Facebook or Twitter are the focus is about as useful as saying text and spoken language are responsible. Sure there is some amount of looking at the lack of transparency of any speech (and who is hiding behind the lack of transparency). And to some extent that specific risk (people pretending to be something other than what they are) is an issue on various webs sites. But the issue isn't the website it is the lack of transparency and that lack of transparency is what needs to be addressed (whether it is on Twitter or using front interest groups to hide the identity of those special interests, or using advocacy groups to run ads on TV without disclosing clearly who is funding those organizations, etc.).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img img width="760" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypW-3yGaX5uf-JSZoWq80uH8SXAMWPYmo4j18ewOOunoF2R9NO44YkPU1yMPVYsDVGvUyhIGdRwu_KuvLoreEcQ5rOx1ODZmXy7o8d6Dt75SvBPvgiTpp2_Z3Z8hdC9gz_gOILg/s1600/white_house-south.jpg" data-original-width="900" data-original-height="480" /><br />
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Photo of the White House in Washington, DC<br />
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There is a great deal of history of Russian money being used to finance Donald Trump's businesses. Donald Trump's refusal to provide transparency about that should have been enough to keep people from voting for him to be President but it was not. Given that history and the evidence that has been known to our political representatives for more than a year it is unconscionable that many of them have not demanded investigation into these very deep ties and the deep ties to others in the administration (such as Jared Kushner).<br />
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That Russians used propaganda and misinformation to attempt to get voters to vote for Trump is important. But the main thing that should have prevented those attempts is sensible critical thinking. The best defense against propaganda is critical thinking and transparency. If the population is trained and accepts being lead to conclusions with obvious propaganda it doesn't matter if you shut off one path for propaganda, others will emerge.<br />
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What you need to do is create an expectation of reasoned debate. Sadly the USA has done a very poor job of this. We have allowed politicians get away with obviously false claims. We have promoted not critical thinking but the unthinking following of propaganda.<br />
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Until we greatly increase the respect for critical thought and debate we are in trouble. It doesn't matter much what form those seeking to use propaganda use to manipulate people what matters is how susceptible a large number of people are to propaganda.<br />
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All talking heads that are interested in democracy and patriotism should be calling on the exploration and the making visible the ties between those with large financial ties to Russia and the attempts to block and weaken efforts to investigate the meddling in our election. My guess is we will instead see the continued attempts oto hindering investigations into making visible what should be made transparent.<br />
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On an somewhat related and important matter, for at least 10 years the extremely poor computer security of the voting process has been noted by computer experts and ignored by our governments (federal, state and local). It doesn't appear that direct hacking of votes took place in the last election. The continued failure to adopt secure voting methods is a disgrace. And it seems we may well continue to neglect this matter until an election is impacted with direct evidence of large scale abuse. This is obviously an extremely poor way to manage a process that is critical to a functioning democracy.<br />
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Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/preaching-false-ideas-to-men-known-to.html">Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-usa-should-be-ashamed-of-who-we.html">The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-people-we-elect-recently-are.html">The People We Elect Recently Are Dramatically Falling Us</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/07/when-you-see-problem-as-capitalism.html">When You See the Problem as Capitalism Instead of Corruption You Seek to Solve the Wrong Problem</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2012/01/money-is-corrupting-our-political.html">Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-51244221153419092692017-07-18T10:50:00.002-04:002019-01-09T09:23:30.787-05:00Follow me on Twitter: @aJohnHunterFollow me on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/aJohnHunter">@aJohnHunter</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOiXiItySlNtQfECDl3q2VAOtXl94bUrrukUu63I9MnE_eTGULfqPNOvEmlLOKbHunyU_10VqF5HB0N8jxwrr384fVvZjsrvUAH8HxPvB4jvUqwjL-KJzXtJmabuv7qPbwkA9Tw/s1600/twitter-ajohnhunter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOiXiItySlNtQfECDl3q2VAOtXl94bUrrukUu63I9MnE_eTGULfqPNOvEmlLOKbHunyU_10VqF5HB0N8jxwrr384fVvZjsrvUAH8HxPvB4jvUqwjL-KJzXtJmabuv7qPbwkA9Tw/s640/twitter-ajohnhunter.png" width="800" height="429" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="858" /></a></div><br />
Also see:<br />
<ul><li> <a href="http://johnhunter.com/feed/">RSS feed for select John Hunter blog posts</a></li>
<li> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/curiouscat/">Reddit: /u/curiouscat</a></li>
<li> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/curiouscattravel">Curious Cat Travel videos</a></li>
<li> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://plus.google.com/114308510941297788149/posts">John Hunter on Google+</a></li>
</ul><br />
I provide a resource <a href="http://johnhunter.com/john_hunter_online">showing how find links to me elsewhere online</a>, for those that are interested. Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-69097883999074070962017-07-15T07:01:00.001-04:002017-07-15T07:01:18.944-04:00Businesses Misusing Required Private InformationIt should be the law that if you are required to provide private information such as phone number, address etc. to a business that they cannot use that information without expressed written permission.<br />
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So if a financial institution requires a physical address due to the laws our politicians have passed they shouldn't be allowed to then use that to send you junk email, sell your name and address to others to send you junk mail, etc.. If they have a legal requirement to send you something, fine.<br />
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I had a large financial institution send junk mail and then refuse to not send junk mail without a phone call from me. I can buy and sell stocks online, I can send big amounts of money to and from the account online, but I can't stop them from misusing my private information without calling them. <br />
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Such institutions also call me to marketing various services (though usually there is some way to stop them doing so if you can figure out where they have hidden the process to stop them from misusing your private information). Again they should be required to separately collect private information for marketing efforts (or to sell it to others...).<br />
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It is unacceptable we are required to provide private information and then need to jump through hoops to not have it misused. They should have to request the information specifically for their own marketing and other purposes. They should not be able to misuse legally required private information. They should have to collect private information from you explicitly for such purposes.Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-34446553041680738952017-07-02T12:26:00.001-04:002017-08-07T10:15:55.284-04:00Filter Out Links to Lame Websites on RedditThe Reddit Enhancement Suite is a great browser extension to enhance Reddit browsing. One of the very useful features is the ability to filter out all the links from sites that are not worth your time. I use it to filter out links to Twitter in several subreddits and for "newspapers" that post clickbait and misleading content (several UK "newspapers). I also use it to filter out links to sites with bad practices such as autoplay videos or popups.<br />
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Follow this link <a href="https://www.reddit.com/#res:settings/filteReddit">to add a filter</a>. I have found it hard to locate by browsing but at the current time it is found under the [SubReddit] section and then [filteReddit]. Hopefully they keep the url and don't force you to try and figure out where it has moved to (if you are browsing this after they make updates to the software).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvufZP3yOjyALxv4f4awXAF2yFexpRVq00MAEcoJCwARNOm_uPYSIYFx7IlozOhWxxwNoiHHFv6E3LePghb1hAx2b2IU8hL62h_V4-atxv3Iz9RAQdJFA6bkbuzJdQXOGpKPuHRg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-07-02+at+12.13.54+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvufZP3yOjyALxv4f4awXAF2yFexpRVq00MAEcoJCwARNOm_uPYSIYFx7IlozOhWxxwNoiHHFv6E3LePghb1hAx2b2IU8hL62h_V4-atxv3Iz9RAQdJFA6bkbuzJdQXOGpKPuHRg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-07-02+at+12.13.54+PM.png" width="800" height="291" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="582" /></a></div><br />
I first discovered this since /r/CollegeBasketball was full of all sorts of useless Twitter links. Removing them made the subreddit much better for me.<br />
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And now using it to remove the poor usability sites and to eliminate all the clickbait "newspapers" makes it much better. Having to try and remember which UK "news" sites were even as reliable as a random middle school kid was too complicated. I knew The Guardian and BBC were pretty good but sorting through the links from all the others was wasting my time. Now they no longer clutter up my Reddit browsing.<br />
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The image shows the options which include removing matching content from specific subreddits, removing it from everywhere and also removing it everywhere except specific subreddits (which I can imagine is occasionally useful - I put in an example just to show how it works).<br />
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I am adding more sites to improve my experience with Reddit and figured I would take the opportunity to share this useful feature in this blog post.<br />
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Related: <a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2016/12/27/most-popular-links-on-management-sub-reddit-in-2016/">Most Popular Links on Management Sub-Reddit in 2016</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2012/06/curious-cat-list-of-super-useful.html">Curious Cat List of Super Useful Websites (2012)</a> - <a href="https://curiouscat.com/browse">Curious Cat Interesting Web Sites to Browse</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-30609431593670427432017-05-18T09:39:00.000-04:002017-05-18T09:39:21.842-04:00Economically Lucky or Not?Most people on earth today and people on earth in all of history and people in the USA even in the last 120 years had it much harder than young people in the USA today. There is a very small window of people luckier economically: <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/10/26/the-usa-doesnt-understand-that-the-1950s-and-1960s-are-not-a-reasonable-basis-for-setting-expectations/">The USA Doesn’t Understand that the 1950s and 1960s are Not a Reasonable Basis for Setting Expectations</a>.<br />
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Yes, that group of even luckier people is often some of those a few decades or even 50 years older in the USA (there may also be a few places in Europe in the last 50 years).<br />
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So while it is true compared to some of the luckiest people economically in all of history those young people in the USA today have it harder when compared to most every group (those in the USA previously, those alive today elsewhere...) they are extremely lucky.<br />
<br />
I do agree that the policies in the USA that last 50 years that have <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2006/10/15/estate-tax-repeal/">dramatically helped trust fund babies</a> and <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/11/07/how-economic-inequality-harms-societies/">increased income inequality</a> are unwise and harmful. We should fix those problems. But even with those problems there are very few places that someone could be randomly placed into where their economic luck is as good as those born in the USA in the last 30 years.<br />
Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-28918391256222326032017-05-06T10:41:00.000-04:002017-05-06T10:45:10.370-04:00Moz Page Authority and MozRank History for Some of My Web Sites (May 2017)MozRank compares to the previously interesting Google pagerank (a measure of the pages linking to the page, with greater value given to links from high ranking pages). <a href="http://blog.multipagerank.com/glossary/moz-page-authority/">Moz Page Authority</a> is meant to more closely measure the importance of links by considering not just the number but also the quality of the links. This is oversimplified but essentially can be seen as if a page had a high number of links (even from other pages with high numbers of links to them) but those links were not deemed to be high quality the Moz Page Authority would be lower. <br />
<br />
In the chart below the MozRank is shown inside ( ) after Aug 2014. [] indicate Google PageRank measures. Those without parenthesis are Moz Page Authority divided by 10 (because SEO Moz also decided to scale MozPA up to 100 while Google PageRank tops out at 10 and I already been listing the data listed in the 10 scale the last few years).<br />
<br />
<table><tr><td>Site</td><td>May 2017</td><td>Apr 2016</td><td>Sep 2015</td><td>Aug 2014 (MozRank)</td><td>Dec 2013<br />
[GPR]</td><td>Oct 2011</td></tr>
<tr><td>MozPA > 5</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Management Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.7 (6.3)</td><td align="center">6.1 (5.8)</td><td align="center">6.0 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.9 (6.0)</td><td>6.1 [5]</td><td> 5.5 [5] </td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://blog.deming.org/">The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.5 (5.8)</td><td align="center">5.7 [6.6]</td><td align="center">6.4 (6.2)</td><td align="center">5.2 (6.0)</td><td>5.5 [5]</td><td align="center">-</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Engineering and Science Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.4 (6.4)</td><td align="center">5.8 (5.7)</td><td align="center">5.6 (6.0)</td><td align="center">5.5 (6.0)</td><td>5.8 [5]</td> <td>5.3 [6]</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.3 (6.3)</td><td align="center">5.7 (5.9)</td><td align="center">5.5 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.5 (6.1)</td><td>4 [5.7]</td><td>5.3 [4]</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://johnhunter.com/">John Hunter</a></td><td align="center">5.0 (6.4)</td><td align="center">5.0 (6.1)</td><td align="center">6.2 (6.1)</td><td align="center">4.8 (6.1)</td><td>5.0 [5]</td><td>5.4 [4]</td></tr>
<tr><td><a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/curiouscat_com">@CuriousCat_com</a></td><td align="center">6.3 (5.1)</td><td align="center">5.6 (4.3)</td><td align="center">5.8 (4.4)</td><td align="center">5.8 (4.6)</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.kiva.org/lender/johnhunter">My Kiva page</a></td><td align="center">5.3 (5.3)</td><td align="center">5.5 (4.4)</td><td align="center">5.8 (5.1)</td><td align="center">5.6 (4.7)<td>5.8 [-]</td><td>4.0 [-]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/">Curiouscat.com</a></td><td align="center">5.0 (5.0)</td><td align="center">5.1 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.9 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.0 (6.0)</td><td>**</td><td>5.6 [4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA > 4</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://travel-photos.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Travel Photo Blog</a></td><td>4.9 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.3 (5.8)</td><td align="center">5.1 (5.9)</td><td align="center">5.0 (5.9)</td><td>4 [5.0]</td><td>3 [4.9]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/">Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections*</a><td align="center">4.7 (5.7)</td></td><td align="center">4.7 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.6 (5.7)</td><td align="center">4.6 (5.6)</td><td>3.3 [**]</td><td>5.5 [5]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/07/07/economic-strength-through-technology-leadership/">Economic Strength Through Technology Leadership*</a></td><td align="center">4.3 (6.2)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.8)</td><td>4.1 [5.8]</td><td>4.2 [-]</td><td>4.7 [4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://quotes.deming.org/">W. Edwards Deming quotes</a></td><td align="center">4.3 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.9 (6.5)</td><td align="center">3.3 (5.7)</td><td align="center">new</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/guides/sixsigma.cfm">Six Sigma Management Resources*</a></td><td align="center">4.3 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.6 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.7)</td><td align="center">4.7 (5.6)</td><td>4.9 [**]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://malaysia.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Living in Malaysia</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.7)</td><td align="center">5.2 (5.8)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.8)</td><td>4.0 [4]</td><td>4.1 [3]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://singapore.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Living in Singapore</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.4 (5.7)</td><td align="center">5.1 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.7)</td><td>4 [4.1]</td><td>3 [4.0]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://code.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Curious Cat Code (programming)</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.5)</td><td>4.1 [4]</td><td>4.2 [4]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://gadgets.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Curious Cat Gadgets</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.4 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.7 (5.7)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.5)</td><td>4.1 [4]</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://architecture.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Architecture and home design inspiration</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.1)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.5 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.5)</td><td>4.0 [3]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/">Curious Cat Comments</a> (this blog)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.1)</td><td>3.9 [3]</td><td>3.8 [-]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://williamghunter.net/">Life and Legacy of William Hunter</a></td><td align="center">4.0 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.4)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.6)</td><td>3.7 (5.5)</td><td>4.0 [4]</td><td>4.5 [4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2010/11/08/good-process-improvement-practices/">Good Process Improvement Practices</a>*</td><td align="center">5.0 (5.5)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.2)</td><td>4.0 [3]</td><td>4.1 [3]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://multipagerank.com/">Multi Site PageRank Checker</a></td><td align="center">4.0 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.1 (4.9)</td><td>4.1 [4]</td><td>4.7 [3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>Site</td><td>May 2017</td><td>Apr 2016</td><td>Sep 2015</td><td>Aug 2014 (MozRank)</td><td>Dec 2013<br />
[GPR]</td><td>Oct 2011</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA > 3.5</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2006/07/01/the-future-is-engineering/">The Future is Engineering*</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (6.2)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.7)</td><td>4.3 [4]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2015/05/13/the-aim-should-be-the-best-life-not-work-v-life-balance/">The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance*</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.5 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.3)</td><td>new</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/09/14/the-engineer-that-made-your-cat-a-photographer/">The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (6.2)</td><td align="center">3.5 (5.2)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.8)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.7)</td><td>4.1 [3]</td><td>4.7 [4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://evop.blogspot.com/">Curious Cat Management Comments</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.0)</td><td>3.9 [3]</td><td>4.5 [3]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscat.net/articles">Management Articles*</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (5.1)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.5)</td><td>3.9 [3]</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-media.com/management-matters/">Management Matters (my book)*</a></td><td align="center">3.8 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.5 (4.6)</td><td>3.8 (5.4)</td><td>3.5 [4]</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/dictionary">Management Dictionary</a>*</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.0)</td><td align="center">4.4 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.4)</td><td>2.6 [**]</td><td>5.4 [5]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://blog.curious-cat-travel.net/">Curious Cat Travel Blog</a></td><td align="center">3.7 (6.1)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.9)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.8)</td><td>New</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/">Curious Cat Travel Destinations</a></td><td align="center">3.7 (5.8)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.7)</td><td align="center">3.6 (5.8)</td><td>3.4 (5.7)</td><td>3.2 [3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management-quotes.net/">Management and Leadership Quotes</a></td><td align="center">3.5 (6.1)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.4)</td><td align="center">3.7 (5.8)</td><td>3.6 (5.7)</td><td>3.7 [4]</td><td>5.2 [2]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA > 3</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://statisticsforexperimenters.net/">Statistics for Experimenters</a></td><td align="center">3.4 (6.1)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.6 (5.7)</td><td align="center">3.7 (5.7)</td><td>3.9 [4]</td><td>4.5 [3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://blog.multipagerank.com/">Improving Your Search Engine Ranking Blog</a></td><td align="center">3.4 (5.5)</td><td align="center">3.3 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.1 (4.1)</td><td>New</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://moneyite.com/">Freelance Lifestyle, Finance and Entrepreneurship Blog</a></td><td align="center">3.3 (5.2)</td><td align="center">3.5 (5.1)</td><td align="center">4.5 (5.2)</td><td>new</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/travel/photos">Curious Cat Travel Photos</a></td><td align="center">3.3 (5.0)</td><td align="center">3.7 (5.2)</td><td align="center">3.2 (4.7)</td><td>New</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="https://hexawise.com/blog">Hexawise blog</a></td><td align="center">3.3 (?)</td><td align="center">?</td><td align="center">?</td><td align="center">3.6 (4.9)</td><td align="center">3.8 [4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://justinhunter.com/">Justin Hunter</a> (my brother)</td><td align="center">3.2 (5.5)</td><td align="center">3.4 (5.1)</td><td align="center">3.4 (5.4)</td><td>3.3 (4.8)</td><td>3.4 [-]</td><td>2.9 [2]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.wordpress.com/">CuriousCat Wordpress</a></td><td align="center">3.2 (3.4)</td><td align="center">3.4 (3.9)</td><td align="center">3.6 (4.4)</td><td>3.4 (3.8)</td><td>3.5 [1]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>Site</td><td>May 2017</td><td>Apr 2016</td><td>Sep 2015</td><td>Aug 2014 (MozRank)</td><td>Dec 2013<br />
[GPR]</td><td>Oct 2011</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA < 3</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://hexawise.tv/">Hexawise.tv</a><td align="center">2.8 (?)</td><td align="center">2.4 (5.3)</td><td align="center">2.8 (5.4)</td></td><td>2.8 (4.9)</td><td>2.8 [2]</td><td>-</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/invest/dictionary">Investment Dictionary*</a></td><td align="center">2.7 (4.1)</td><td align="center">4.5 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.7 (6.0)</td><td>4.6 (5.9)</td><td>4.8 [**]</td><td>5.2 [4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/deming/">W. Edwards Deming on Management</a>*</td><td align="center">2.7 (?)</td><td align="center">2.0 (4.4)</td><td align="center">4.7 (5.5)</td><td>4.7 (5.3)</td><td>4.9 [**]</td><td>4.5 [4]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/countries/singapore/marina_bay_sands.html">Curious Cat Travel Destinations: Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)</a></td><td align="center">2.4 (4.8)</td><td align="center">3.6 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.2 (5.3)</td><td align="center">2.9 (5.3)</td><td>2.9 [2]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/countries/france/">Curious Cat Travel Destinations: France</a></td><td align="center">1.9 (?)</td><td align="center">1.9 (5.2)</td><td align="center">2.0 (5.2)</td><td align="center">1.4 (5.1)</td><td>1.3 [-]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/psci">Public Sector Continuous Improvement Site*</a></td><td align="center">1.6 (?)</td><td align="center">2.9 (4.8)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.4)</td><td>5.0 [**]</td><td>5.0 [5]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://managementimprovement.net/">Management Improvement Resources</a></td><td align="center">1.5 (?)</td><td align="center">3.0 (5.1)</td><td align="center">3.1 (5.1)</td><td>3.0 (4.7)</td><td>3.1 [3]</td><td>3.8 [3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://johor-bahru-real-estate.com/">Johor Bahru Real Estate</a></td><td align="center">1.3 (?)</td><td align="center">3.0 (5.0)</td><td align="center">3.0 (5.4)</td><td>2.8 (5.3)</td><td>3.0 [2]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
</table><br />
* internal pages<br />
** new url or old url forwarded (so Google losses track of the page rank for awhile)<br />
- didn't exist yet or google didn't rank it for some reason<br />
[blank] I don't know what the pagerank was, sometimes the site didn't exist yet.<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2016/04/moz-page-authority-and-mozrank-history.html">Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (April 2016)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/05/moz-page-authority-and-mozrank-history.html">Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (May 2015)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/12/historic-pagerank-and-mozpageauthority.html">Historic PageRank and MozPageAuthority for Various Sites (December 2013)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-64997414127894183992017-05-04T20:34:00.001-04:002017-05-04T20:34:36.250-04:00The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have ElectedThe bill passed by the House of Representatives in the USA today to cut taxes for the very rich and eliminate heath care coverage for tens of millions of people was a disgrace.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/05/04/every-republican-who-voted-for-this-abomination-must-be-held-accountable/">Every Republican who voted for this abomination must be held accountable</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote>I won’t mince words. The health-care bill that the House of Representatives passed this afternoon, in an incredibly narrow 217-to-213 vote, is not just wrong, or misguided, or problematic or foolish. <b>It is an abomination.</b> If there has been a piece of legislation in our lifetimes that boiled over with as much malice and indifference to human suffering, I can’t recall what it might have been. And every member of the House who voted for it must be held accountable.</blockquote><br />
He is right. We have to stop voting in such reprehensible individuals.<br />
<br />
The last 2 administrations have been very disappointing. The actions of the administration and the Republicans in the House and Senate now though are taking things to a level not seen since at least Watergate and maybe back to McCarthism.<br />
<br />
It is shocking to see the country so let down by those we vote in and day after day see that disgrace trumped by even greater failures of basic decency, honesty or competence.Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-2056913405591289102017-04-14T14:06:00.001-04:002017-04-14T14:06:06.464-04:00Naming the Results of Corruption as "Free Market" Failures is Damaging to SocietyWe shouldn't allow those using plain corruption to call it "free market." They, and their talking heads, seek to do so in order to prevent sensible actions being taken to address the corruption. <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2008/03/31/not-understanding-capitalism/">It is much better for them if people think what they are doing is capitalism instead of just being criminals</a>. That is the same as allowing kleptocrat dictators to call what they do "democracy."<br />
<br />
Corruption destroys the potential value to the public. It does that when it corrupts free markets. And it does it when it is used for other purposes (corrupting the rule of law, etc.).<br />
<br />
If we call corruption - "free market" - it makes it difficult to design the correct counter measure to address the damage being done to society.<br />
<br />
Those practicing corruption win if those that what to have society address the damage being done think the problem is free markets instead of focusing on the real problem which is corruption. There may well also be some issues with how free markets work and therefore putting in place political adjustments is sensible to discuss in terms of "free market" adjustments. But most often people complaining about the failures of "free markets" are complaining about straight up corruption. And failing to address the problem for what it is results in what we see now - those problems growing instead of being addressed.<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/12/05/we-need-to-be-more-capitalist-and-less-cronyist/">We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/10/20/political-and-corporate-cronyism-are-not-capitalism/">Political and Corporate Cronyism are not Capitalism</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2008/06/10/monopolies-and-oligopolies-do-not-a-free-market-make/">Monopolies and Oligopolies do not a Free Market Make</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-13343790231006321972017-01-29T11:20:00.000-05:002018-02-16T15:05:23.527-05:00The Continued Fall of the USA's Political Leaders that We Give Power ToA few days into the new President's administration and it is as bad as anyone paying attention would have expected. It is very sad the USA elected Trump and the Senators and Representatives standing with him. The consequences of electing Trump and the others that support his actions and that are choosing not to protect the USA constitution will be very damaging.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img width="760" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYSjFo8kYAPkUkt3vI7uSCHrko3PrvftsYVX1EN9nXrBap5W42NZ6RKolCMp0dMjIb-PYu-Qj17-9bSS2kmVSKRGe8P1poRFRvzFmFs9iBmaKSmoUlaz2_a6UAPpZ1NAw8nLN3Q/s1600/white_house-south.jpg" /><br/><br />
Photo of the White House by John Hunter. This house should be a place worthy of respect (even for those with political differences) but the current occupants are straining that hope.</div><br />
As a kid in high school I couldn't understand how the USA could fail as badly as McCarthyism; Japanese internment; Nixon's enemies list, watergate etc.. Other failures I would witness later, while a shockingly abhorrent, such as the Iran-Contra scandal flaunting of the rule of law and the failure to do anything about it I saw as sad but not surprising.<br />
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The USA we created <b>isn't a binary no-Trump = good v. yes-Trump = bad</b>. The current situation was created by us voting for who we did for decades. The actions of the people we put in power, created the system where Trump could be elected and have huge support from the others we elected.<br />
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There were many warning signs of how bad it was during the last 2 administrations. True, it is much worse now, but we were on the path here. But we have created a toxic system that was intentionally shaped by those we granted political power. They shaped a system that ignore facts, devolve discussion into 1984 News Speak, ignore the rule of law when it was convenient for whoever was on your side in the battle for power, pretend complex realities have simple solutions, badly distorted democracy with unconscionable gerrymandering, etc..<br />
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The current president and his leadership team certainly are taking the toxic situation created by those we elected for the last few decades and are taking it extremes even more damaging than those that designed it wished for it to be. But when you create and promote a dumpster fire in order to get whatever your short term desires are you can't disown responsibility for the damage that dumpster fire continues to do after you.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img width="760" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxaZhoiPT-cotAL-Gd9VN5NeHQRzinvwFnVM0GsLw2xnc0njeLWYiUXoJnj0EmhQgmyt4AWG_Q6BwpFBGlu4r9Yjqv6_DMbYi7jvTfzvmgy-B3YVpEZnauvrEXNlgYjWfuMsw5Qw/s1600/capital-dc.jpg" /></br><br />
Photo of the USA capital by John Hunter. If those elected officials voting in this building the next few years continue as they have done in the few decades we are going to suffer greatly for the mistake of electing them.</div><br />
The kids of kids today are going to be wondering the same thing about us that I did about our McCarthyism, Japanese internment... supporting ancestors. It is devastating that for decades we allowed our political parties to destroy the fundamental aspects of what the USA should stand for.<br />
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The challenges we face as a society are great enough without continuing to put in power the people that have lead the USA to the extremely sad state of affairs we see today with the actions of the current president and his supporters in the White House, on Capital Hill and in the State houses and legislatures around the country.<br />
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Sure the current president is a huge mistake we will suffer greatly for voting into office. But the problem is much deeper than just him. The political leadership has been allowed to rot to the core. He is merely a symptom of how bad we have allowed things to get.<br />
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We need to fundamentally change who we give power to if we want change. We need to provide power to those that seek to fix problems. We need to give power to those that acknowledge scientific and economic reality. We need to <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/12/liberty-and-support-or-control-and-hate.html">elect people that appose hate</a>. We need to elect people that care more for the country than for personal aggrandizement and reward. We need to elect people that care more for the country than following the orders of their party.<br />
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Things are much worse today than a year ago but if we believe the problem is the current president we will fail to address the real problem. He is just a symptom of how messed up our country is. Replace him with his Vice President or most of the other leadership of his party and maybe a few of the most extreme embarrassments to the country would go away but the core of what they stand for doesn't change. The president is not a King or Dictator. The Courts, House and Senate can (and the Constitution depends on them doing so) block actions that damage the country. But the House and Senate are not doing so.<br />
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As the current system has evolved the politicians state a few words about they believe in such and such and don't support this other thing and then they go ahead and vote for this other thing while undermining such and such. They have created a system in order to promote the belief that what they actually do isn't what matters but what they say. That way they can fully support actions that they claim to not support. Sure the current president is even less concerned with the truth but he is just extending the policy of News Speak that became the standard practice for both parties over the last few decades.<br />
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If we are lucky a few Republicans will stand with the USA and the Constitution and join Democrats that mainly will appose just because the current president isn't from their party and we will avoid some of the worst of what we can expect. But we may very well not be lucky for a several years. Being stuck in a position where we have to hope for a few politicians to be courageous is not a good position to be in given the poor performance of our politicians the last few decades.<br />
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Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/07/living-through-your-society-becoming.html">Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State (2013)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/05/security-theatre-thinking-is-damaging.html">Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2008/04/freedom-increasingly-at-risk.html">Freedom Increasingly at Risk (2008)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2014/11/18/the-aim-of-modern-day-political-parties-is-to-scare-donors-into-giving-cash/">The Aim of Modern Day Political Parties is To Scare Donors Into Giving Cash (2014)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/04/selling-out-country-we-are-electing.html">Selling Out the Country: We are Electing the Wrong People to Control Our Government (2015)</a> - <a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2007/02/18/swat-raids-systemic-failures/">SWAT Raids – Systemic Failures? (2007)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/10/13/anti-market-policies-from-our-talking-head-and-political-class/">Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Head and Political Class (2011)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/12/05/we-need-to-be-more-capitalist-and-less-cronyist/">We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist (2011)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/03/preaching-false-ideas-to-men-known-to.html">Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots (2010)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2012/06/11/is-adding-more-banker-and-politician-bailouts-the-answer/">Adding More Banker and Politician Bailouts is not the Answer (2012)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2009/04/26/failure-to-regulate-financial-markets-leads-to-predictable-consequences/">Failure to Regulate Financial Markets Leads to Predictable Consequences (2009)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2009/03/dont-excuse-immoral-looters.html">Don't Excuse Immoral Looters (2009)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2007/10/09/lobbyists-keep-tax-off-billion-dollar-private-equities-deals-and-on-for-our-grandchildren/">Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren (2007)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-5687776572665947872017-01-16T15:47:00.001-05:002017-04-14T14:08:15.297-04:00Government Debt - How Safe or Costly is It?My comments on: <a href="https://ournextlife.com/2017/01/16/debt-is-a-funny-thing/">Debt’s a Funny Thing // Plus: Why We’re Not Prepaying Our Rental Mortgage</a><br />
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<blockquote>There’s also the national debt, which it turns out is not really like debt you or I might have at all, and — this was mind-blowing to me — most economists don’t even think the national debt is bad, and some actually think we should have more national debt...</blockquote><br />
Government debt is indeed different than personal debt. It is true some of the USA debt we owe to ourselves (we also owe a lot to China, Japan and others). The situation is fairly odd now for the USA in that the interest rates are extremely low. That makes the huge amount of debt less painful - but even now 15% of the spending by the government is just paying interest. And that could easily double without interest rates really even getting high. That is a real problem. To the extent we owe it to ourselves it is less of a problem but we owe lots to people overseas which means we are going to be paying back hundreds of billions of dollars to people in China, Japan... At these rates it might be fine (or even a good deal) sometime in the next 20 years it is likely to be very costly.<br />
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I wrote about the issue of <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2014/12/10/government-debt-held-within-the-country-versus-that-held-externally/">government debt and the different impact of it being held overseas or within the country</a>.<br />
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Japan has far more debt than even the USA. But it is also much more owed to themselves than is true in the USA.<br />
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The USA also has significant advantages over other countries. We can hold more debt safely than other countries due to the perception of the safety of the US$ and the size of the USA economy.<br />
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Related: <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2014/02/18/chart-of-net-government-debt-from-1980-to-2013-by-country/">Chart of Net Government Debt from 1980 to 2013 by Country</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2012/02/27/what-currency-is-the-least-bad/">Which Currency is the Least Bad? (2012 - USD)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2009/02/17/who-will-buy-all-the-usas-debt/">Who Will Buy All the USA’s Debt? (2009)</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2007/06/23/usa-federal-debt-now-516348-per-household/">USA Federal Debt Now $516,348 Per Household (2007)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-30770314711973624122016-12-24T11:24:00.000-05:002016-12-24T11:24:00.155-05:00Most Popular posts on the Curious Cat Comments blog in 2016The most popular posts on our blog (by page views in 2016):<br />
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<ul> <li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/10/utopia-dreamland-in-usa-is-amazing-tv.html">Utopia (Dreamland in the USA) is an Amazing TV Program (2015), available on Netflix</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/05/security-theatre-thinking-is-damaging.html">Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/12/liberty-and-support-or-control-and-hate.html">Liberty and Support or Control and Hate (2013)</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-readers-for-reading-rss-feeds.html">Blog Readers (for Reading RSS Feeds)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/11/netflix-is-well-managed-people-are.html">Netflix is Well Managed - People are Overreacting (2011)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/08/society-is-being-shaped-for-us-while-we.html">Society is being shaped for us while we are busy making other plans (2011)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/curious-joyful-happy-kids-grow-up.html">Curious, Joyful, Happy Kids Grow Up: Unfortunately</a></li>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqup0O8zm6RZ5JZNXBd-yBtvJlRjPkYFAS2AUdZpNDgIWxBEt6I1IHNVGqT6ENmwv8HIHjClF48-bD3MnLf3V89CMbcXM-DR9IukzNfgDAZOha3Pgz0ph7Lkls45iECsN-Ctau9A/s1600/aidan_and_zachary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqup0O8zm6RZ5JZNXBd-yBtvJlRjPkYFAS2AUdZpNDgIWxBEt6I1IHNVGqT6ENmwv8HIHjClF48-bD3MnLf3V89CMbcXM-DR9IukzNfgDAZOha3Pgz0ph7Lkls45iECsN-Ctau9A/s400/aidan_and_zachary.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537399674516819522"></a>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-copyright-extention-is-very-bad.html">Why Copyright Extension is a Very Bad Idea (2009)</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/bikinis-for-liberty.html">Bikinis For Liberty (2010)</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2005/11/manufacturing-job-losses-usa-2-million.html">Manufacturing Job Losses: USA 2 million, China 15 million (2005)</a></li>
</ul><br />
The publication year of our most read posts this year:<br />
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2015: 1 post<br />
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2013: 3<br />
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2011: 2<br />
2010: 2<br />
2009: 1<br />
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2005: 1<br />
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Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/12/most-popular-post-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Post on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2011)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/01/most-popular-posts-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2015)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/01/most-popular-posts-on-curious-cat.html">Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Comments Blog (2014)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-82882660376368488332016-12-07T16:59:00.001-05:002016-12-07T16:59:19.034-05:00Subscribe to blog posts by John HunterI have added an <a href="http://johnhunter.com/feed">RSS feed to the blog posts I add to JohnHunter.com</a>. I add items there for some, but not all of my posts, from my various blogs.<br />
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There is a list of <a href="http://curiouscatblog.net/">blogs I author</a> on my Curious Cat blog site. I write on several topics including<br />
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<ul> <li> Management and Leadership</li>
<li> Money, Investing, Lifestyle and Personal Finance</li>
<li> Travel</li>
<li> Technology, Computer Programming, Engineering and Science</li>
<li> Society</li>
</ul><br />
I am currently in the process of adding items for the past few years (as I stopped updating this part of the JohnHunter.com website for awhile).<br />
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I believe RSS feed readers are one of the most valuable tools for those learning online. I wrote about <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-readers-for-reading-rss-feeds.html">what RSS feed readers are and how to use them previously</a>.Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-89104669027470076682016-07-27T11:49:00.000-04:002016-07-27T20:45:31.071-04:00The Worst Aspect of TPP That Gets Nearly No AttentionSadly among the worst aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP (and also the TTIP) is the promotion of the <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2008/07/22/copywrong/">copyright cartel</a>'s agenda along with very bad patent policy. Almost no one with political power is even talking about these huge problems with it.<br />
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I support free trade. I don't support the politically motivated trade agreements that impose the USA political donors' wishes on citizens of the USA and other countries.<br />
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The point that I most agree with, that those with power who are opposing the TPP mention, is the ludicrous abdication of national rights expressed in the trade deals (allowing companies to sue countries, say for enforcing their reasonable patent rules that the company doesn't like and has bought differing rules from the USA political parties).<br />
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It is true that we have to work together, and in doing so we need to reach agreements between countries that require making compromises. The TPP just has many horrible provisions paid for by USA political donors that are being imposed on other countries (and those countries are being paid to give the USA donors the favors via promises of USA military protection, access to USA markets etc.). It is a bad deal for nearly everyone. But the favors create a few huge winners that can pay to grease the wheels to buy passage in the USA (and elsewhere).<br />
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We need free trade that removes barriers to trade not that gives payoffs to USA political donors. Along with removing barriers a few conditions are justified but they should be kept as small as possible (things like no child labor, no slave labor, environmental requirements, safety requirements on exported material, etc.). <br />
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Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2012/01/money-is-corrupting-our-political.html">Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-copyright-extention-is-very-bad.html">Why Copyright Extension is a Very Bad Idea</a> - <a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2011/12/05/we-need-to-be-more-capitalist-and-less-cronyist/">We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/07/i-can-spy-on-you-but-you-cant-spy-on-me.html">I Can Spy on You, But You Can't Spy on Me</a> Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-43545612582022019532016-06-19T12:07:00.000-04:002016-06-19T12:07:00.142-04:00Active PhotosI don't know how I did this but I am looking through some photos I took a few weeks ago and I have a video that is a string of photos with a few seconds of video on each side. I believe some version of Apple iPhones have added this active photo mode with a second of video or something. I managed to do it with my <a href="http://gadgets.curiouscatnetwork.com/2014/11/14/canon-powershot-sx60-hs-digital-camera/">Canon PowerShot SX60 HS Digital Camera</a>.<br />
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I have occasionally managed to turn on the video without noticing so I get a bit of video instead of a photo. But this is weird it is a video that jumps from place to place. It is really weird. I have no idea how I would make it do this if I tried. If it was one long video I could understand but it isn't it is like it started and stopped when I tried to focus for a photo and then a bit after the photo was taken.<br />
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In addition to that video I have the individual photos that I took while the video was recording.<br />
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See <a href="http://curiouscat.com/travel/photos/">Curious Cat photos</a>.Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-35802403319045644342016-06-14T21:21:00.001-04:002016-06-16T12:09:51.322-04:00Netflix Throws Users Under the BusFirst Netflix was an awesome streaming service that just worked and was focused on providing users a great experience.<br />
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Even at the beginning (or at least my beginning) they through Ubuntu users under the bus and just said we won't serve you. So I didn't use it. Later I got a Mac and then I decided to give it a try and it was wonderful, it just worked (well after requiring you install Microsoft Silverlight).<br />
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But most large companies just expect users to fit themselves into whatever constraints the big companies wish to impose (see Comcast, United Airlines, Verizon etc.). So compared to these really bad companies using Netflix was wonderful.<br />
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There are many issues with bad connections etc. and Netflix while not perfect (they would often only buffer a short amount and fail when the bad connection failed or got to slow) but they were much better than others at just working.<br />
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The last 6 months though it is more and more like the typical experience of some huge company that just expects you to cope with whatever they force you to do.<br />
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They continually won't work when I forget I have to sign off my vpn to use them. They blame others for this bad service (blaming others for treating customer badly is of course what all the companies people originally sought to escape the Time Warners, AT&T, etc. of the world by using Netflix. Oh well so one more time Netflix is selling us out.<br />
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Then then continually degraded the usability of the website. They seem intent on reducing the usability so that they can only bother to design as if we all were limited to smart phones. So if you have a computer and want to have more information available on your screen too bad, we are going to force you to pretend you are limited to a smart phone interface.<br />
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I found it frustrating. Netflix had gone from one of the few companies I really enjoyed dealing with (Trader Joes's is one on that short list) to the typical company that I could tolerate. Instead of the joy of it just working it became a relief when it just worked and if I was surprised it wasn't because of something good but yet another annoyance as they moved from a company that was a joy to yet another Comcast of the world.<br />
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And the latest disgrace from Netflix they won't play the show at all. They break the playback with one of their typical "we are treating you now just like Microsoft treated people in 1995" you are doing something we decided to not allow you to do. We now have the market power where we can just have you jump through whatever hoops we want and you can't do anything about it. <br />
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The latest message "Please ensure your monitor is HDCP compliant and is not mirrored using Airplay."<br />
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Why am I being bothered with this junk. Just like dealing with Microsoft decades ago when they would just have you jump through hoops try and figure out what they would let you do in order to use what you paid for. Netflix now justing just not "just work" it is constantly a struggle for how they are going to break things now.<br />
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I have never had a company I found to be really good fall so fast and completely lose any concern for their customers experience.<br />
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The shows they pay others for (including most of those they brand as Netflix but many of which they don't even own - they just are licensing certain rights to them) are decent. A few are really good. And Netflix is cheap for what you get. But I am very disappointed I now have to feel like I do using the typical disaster customer service companies (Comcast, any USA airline, Verizon, etc.). Every time it isn't a disaster I feel relieved (but having anxiety every time I use a service that the company is going to annoy me is not what I want). My expectations are just please don't torture me or completely block my ability to use what I pay for since you do that so often all I can hope for is the absence of lousy treatment. Actually getting good treatment is a distant illusion.<br />
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It is so sad. As I say the content isn't bad if you can fight through the lousy roadblocks they have put in the way of getting to it in the last few years. And the price is cheap. I would gladly pay double the price to just go back to the "it just works" Netflix instead of the current we are going to make it hard for you to do what you want Netflix we have now. And while I wouldn't be as happy I would pay 3 or even 4 times to get that back.<br />
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But this lousy treatment is moving me closer and closer to just dropping them. Something I never thought would be possible 2 or 3 years ago.<br />
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I actually tried to get a preview of Amazon Video (or whatever they call their thing) but couldn't find how to do it. I tried to use their help system but it failed (I know from experience they have a poorly coded website that has fragile code and breaks in the help area and that happened again so I gave up. I might try HBO. I really am amazed Netflix has managed to make using their service so annoying I don't want to put up with it.<br />
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I hardly see any commercials anymore (only when watching sports) but there is one where one company makes fun of the takeover by some horrible cable company making all sorts of idiotic steps. I know that didn't happen to Netflix but as a customer that is exactly what it feels like. Some bozos took over and just decided to drop any care about the customer experience. <br />
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It is annoying that so many companies have this attitude but often I can just avoid dealing with them. Though sometimes you have no real choice - you need to fly someone there is a good chance Southwest Airlines [the only non-horrible USA airline in my experience) might not fly there or you have to choose Verizon or Comcast or even have no choice for an ISP... But Netflix was something I had really grown to enjoy. I fear Amazon's isn't likely to be very good for Ux. But I think I will try it. And even if that doesn't work I may still drop Netflix just to avoid the pitiful Ux practices they have adopted in the last few years.<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2015/10/utopia-dreamland-in-usa-is-amazing-tv.html">Utopia (Dreamland in the USA) is an Amazing TV Program (2015)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2011/11/netflix-is-well-managed-people-are.html">Netflix is Well Managed - People are Overreacting to Short Term Issues (2011)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2012/06/curious-cat-list-of-super-useful.html">Curious Cat List of Super Useful Websites (2012), Netflix wouldn't make the list now, but it did then</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11120692.post-20139137125722588872016-04-05T15:45:00.000-04:002016-04-05T15:45:24.769-04:00Moz Page Authority and MozRank History for Some of My Web Sites (April 2016)MozRank compares to the previous interesting Google pagerank (a measure of the pages linking to the page, with greater value given to links from high ranking pages). Moz Page Authority is meant to more closely measure the importance of links by considering not just the number but also the quality of the links. This is oversimplified but essentially can be seen as if a page had a high number of links (even from other pages with high numbers of links to them) but those links were not deemed to be high quality the Moz Page Authority would be lower. So things like having links from trusted authority sites would pass on that trusted authority (a bit) to the linked site. And things that are seen as lower quality (could be lots of different things: poor links from that page, text that seems spammy or not of high quality, lots of pages without much content, slow loading site or things like <a href="http://blog.multipagerank.com/2015/04/new-site-spam-flags-score-from-moz/">Moz detailed in the Spam Flag Score</a>, etc.) would harm the <a href="http://blog.multipagerank.com/glossary/moz-page-authority/">Moz Page Authority number</a>.<br />
<br />
Therefore, the Moz Page Authority number is more important than MozRank. MozRank however is closer Google pagerank.<br />
<br />
In the chart below the MozRank is shown inside ( ) after Aug 2014. [] indicate Google PageRank measures. Those without parenthesis are Moz Page Authority divided by 10 (because SEO Moz also decided to scale MozPA up to 100 while Google PageRank tops out at 10 and I already been listing the data listed in the 10 scale the last few years).<br />
<br />
<table><tbody>
<tr><td>Site</td><td>Apr 2016</td><td>Sep 2015</td><td>Aug 2014 (MozRank)</td><td>Dec 2013<br />
[GPR]</td><td>Oct 2011</td><td> Dec 2010</td></tr>
<tr><td>MozPA > 5</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://blog.deming.org/">The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.7 [6.6]</td><td align="center">6.4 (6.2)</td><td align="center">5.2 (6.0)</td><td>5.5 [5]</td><td align="center">-</td><td align="center">-</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Management Blog</a></td><td align="center">6.1 (5.8)</td><td align="center">6.0 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.9 (6.0)</td><td>6.1 [5]</td><td> 5.5 [5] </td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Engineering and Science Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.8 (5.7)</td><td align="center">5.6 (6.0)</td><td align="center">5.5 (6.0)</td><td>5.8 [5]</td>
<td>5.3 [6]</td><td align="center">4</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.7 (5.9)</td><td align="center">5.5 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.5 (6.1)</td><td>4 [5.7]</td><td>5.3 [4]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr>
<tr><td><a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/curiouscat_com">@CuriousCat_com</a></td><td align="center">5.6 (4.3)</td><td align="center">5.8 (4.4)</td><td align="center">5.8 (4.6)</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align="center"></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.kiva.org/lender/johnhunter">My Kiva page</a></td><td align="center">5.5 (4.4)</td><td align="center">5.8 (5.1)</td><td align="center">5.6 (4.7)<td>5.8 [-]</td><td>4.0 [-]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/">Curiouscat.com</a></td><td align="center">5.1 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.9 (6.1)</td><td align="center">5.0 (6.0)</td><td>**</td><td>5.6 [4]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://travel-photos.curiouscatblog.net/">Curious Cat Travel Photo Blog</a></td><td align="center">5.3 (5.8)</td><td align="center">5.1 (5.9)</td><td align="center">5.0 (5.9)</td><td>4 [5.0]</td><td>3 [4.9]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://johnhunter.com/">John Hunter</a></td><td align="center">5.0 (6.1)</td><td align="center">6.2 (6.1)</td><td align="center">4.8 (6.1)</td><td>5.0 [5]</td><td>5.4 [4]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA > 4</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/">Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections*</a></td><td align="center">4.7 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.6 (5.7)</td><td align="center">4.6 (5.6)</td><td>3.3 [**]</td><td>5.5 [5]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/guides/sixsigma.cfm">Six Sigma Management Resources*</a></td><td align="center">4.6 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.7)</td><td align="center">4.7 (5.6)</td><td>4.9 [**]</td><td>[4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/invest/dictionary">Investment Dictionary*</a></td><td align="center">4.5 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.7 (6.0)</td><td>4.6 (5.9)</td><td>4.8 [**]</td><td>5.2 [4]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2015/05/13/the-aim-should-be-the-best-life-not-work-v-life-balance/">The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance*</a></td><td align="center">4.5 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.3)</td><td>new</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://singapore.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Living in Singapore</a></td><td align="center">4.4 (5.7)</td><td align="center">5.1 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.7)</td><td>4 [4.1]</td><td>3 [4.0]</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://gadgets.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Curious Cat Gadgets</a></td><td align="center">4.4 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.7 (5.7)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.5)</td><td>4.1 [4]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/dictionary">Management Dictionary</a>*</td><td align="center">4.4 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.4)</td><td>2.6 [**]</td><td>5.4 [5]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://blog.curious-cat-travel.net/">Curious Cat Travel Blog</a></td><td align="center">4.3 (5.9)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.8)</td><td>New</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://malaysia.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Living in Malaysia</a></td><td align="center">4.3 (5.7)</td><td align="center">5.2 (5.8)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.8)</td><td>4.0 [4]</td><td>4.1 [3]</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://code.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Curious Cat Code (programming)</a></td><td align="center">4.3 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.5)</td><td>4.1 [4]</td><td>4.2 [4]</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://architecture.curiouscatnetwork.com/">Architecture and home design inspiration</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.5 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.5)</td><td>4.0 [3]</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://evop.blogspot.com/">Curious Cat Management Comments</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.3)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.0)</td><td>3.9 [3]</td><td>4.5 [3]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://multipagerank.com/">Multi Site PageRank Checker</a></td><td align="center">4.2 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.1 (4.9)</td><td>4.1 [4]</td><td>4.7 [3]</td><td align="center">[2]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscat.net/articles">Management Articles*</a></td><td align="center">4.1 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.6)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.5)</td><td>3.9 [3]</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2006/07/01/the-future-is-engineering/">The Future is Engineering*</a></td><td align="center">4.1 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.8)</td><td align="center">4.3 (5.7)</td><td>4.3 [4]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://williamghunter.net/">Life and Legacy of William Hunter</a></td><td align="center">4.0 (5.4)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.6)</td><td>3.7 (5.5)</td><td>4.0 [4]</td><td>4.5 [4]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-media.com/management-matters/">Management Matters (my book)*</a></td><td align="center">4.0 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.6)</td><td align="center">3.5 (4.6)</td><td>3.8 (5.4)</td><td>3.5 [4]</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/07/07/economic-strength-through-technology-leadership/">Economic Strength Through Technology Leadership*</a></td><td align="center">4.0 (5.4)</td><td align="center">4.1 (5.8)</td><td>4.1 [5.8]</td><td>4.2 [-]</td><td>4.7 [4]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/">Curious Cat Comments</a> (this blog)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.1)</td><td>3.9 [3]</td><td>3.8 [-]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td>Site</td><td>May 2015 (MozRank)</td><td>Aug 2014 (MozRank)</td><td>Dec 2013<br />
[GPR]</td><td>Feb 2013</td><td>Oct 2011</td><td> Dec 2010</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA > 3.5</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://quotes.deming.org/">W. Edwards Deming quotes</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (6.5)</td><td align="center">3.3 (5.7)</td><td align="center">new</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align="center"></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/">Curious Cat Travel Destinations</a></td><td align="center">3.9 (5.7)</td><td align="center">3.6 (5.8)</td><td>3.4 (5.7)</td><td>3.2 [3]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2010/11/08/good-process-improvement-practices/">Good Process Improvement Practices</a>*</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.0 (5.2)</td><td align="center">4.2 (5.2)</td><td>4.0 [3]</td><td>4.1 [3]</td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://management-quotes.net/">Management and Leadership Quotes</a></td><td align="center">3.8 (5.4)</td><td align="center">3.7 (5.8)</td><td>3.6 (5.7)</td><td>3.7 [4]</td><td>5.2 [2]</td><td>[2]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://statisticsforexperimenters.net/">Statistics for Experimenters</a></td><td align="center">3.8 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.6 (5.7)</td><td align="center">3.7 (5.7)</td><td>3.9 [4]</td><td>4.5 [3]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/travel/photos">Curious Cat Travel Photos</a></td><td align="center">3.7 (5.2)</td><td align="center">3.2 (4.7)</td><td>New</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/countries/singapore/marina_bay_sands.html">Curious Cat Travel Destinations: Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)</a></td><td align="center">3.6 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.2 (5.3)</td><td align="center">2.9 (5.3)</td><td>2.9 [2]</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/09/14/the-engineer-that-made-your-cat-a-photographer/">The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer</a></td><td align="center">3.5 (5.2)</td><td align="center">3.8 (5.8)</td><td align="center">3.9 (5.7)</td><td>4.1 [3]</td><td>4.7 [4]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://moneyite.com/">Freelance Lifestyle, Finance and Entrepreneurship Blog</a></td><td align="center">3.5 (5.1)</td><td align="center">4.5 (5.2)</td><td>new</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA > 3</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://justinhunter.com/">Justin Hunter</a> (my brother)</td><td align="center">3.4 (5.1)</td><td align="center">3.4 (5.4)</td><td>3.3 (4.8)</td><td>3.4 [-]</td><td>2.9 [2]</td><td>[2]</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.wordpress.com/">CuriousCat Wordpress</a></td><td align="center">3.4 (3.9)</td><td align="center">3.6 (4.4)</td><td>3.4 (3.8)</td><td>3.5 [1]</td><td>[-]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://blog.multipagerank.com/">Improving Your Search Engine Ranking Blog</a></td><td align="center">3.3 (5.3)</td><td align="center">3.1 (4.1)</td><td>New</td><td></td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://managementimprovement.net/">Management Improvement Resources</a></td><td align="center">3.0 (5.1)</td><td align="center">3.1 (5.1)</td><td>3.0 (4.7)</td><td>3.1 [3]</td><td>3.8 [3]</td><td align="center">[3]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://johor-bahru-real-estate.com/">Johor Bahru Real Estate</a></td><td align="center">3.0 (5.0)</td><td align="center">3.0 (5.4)</td><td>2.8 (5.3)</td><td>3.0 [2]</td><td>-</td></tr><br />
<br />
<br />
<tr><td>MozPA < 3</td></tr><br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/psci">Public Sector Continuous Improvement Site*</a></td><td align="center">2.9 (4.8)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.5)</td><td align="center">4.8 (5.4)</td><td>5.0 [**]</td><td>5.0 [5]</td><td>[4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://hexawise.tv/">Hexawise.tv</a><td align="center">2.4 (5.3)</td><td align="center">2.8 (5.4)</td></td><td>2.8 (4.9)</td><td>2.8 [2]</td><td>-</td><td></td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curiouscat.com/management/deming/">W. Edwards Deming on Management</a>*</td><td align="center">2.0 (4.4)</td><td align="center">4.7 (5.5)</td><td>4.7 (5.3)</td><td>4.9 [**]</td><td>4.5 [4]</td><td align="center">[4]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/countries/france/">Curious Cat Travel Destinations: France</a></td><td align="center">1.9 (5.2)</td><td align="center">2.0 (5.2)</td><td align="center">1.4 (5.1)</td><td>1.3 [-]</td><td>[-]</td></tr><br />
<br />
<tr><td><a href="http://curious-cat-travel.net/countries/australia/">Curious Cat Travel Destinations: Australia</a></td><td align="center">1.9 (5.0)</td><td align="center">2.1 (5.1)</td><td align="center">1.5 (4.9)</td><td>1.3 [-]</td><td>[-]</td></tr><br />
<br />
</tbody></table><br />
* internal pages<br />
** new url or old url forwarded (so Google losses track of the page rank for awhile)<br />
- didn't exist yet or google didn't rank it for some reason<br />
[blank] I don't know what the pagerank was, sometimes the site didn't exist yet.<br />
<br />
Related: <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2014/08/mozpageauthority-for-various-sites.html">Moz Page Authority for Various Sites (August 2014)</a> - <a href="http://curiouscatlinks.blogspot.com/2013/12/historic-pagerank-and-mozpageauthority.html">Historic PageRank and MozPageAuthority for Various Sites (December 2013)</a>Curious Cathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05269438998983808916noreply@blogger.com0