Google Ads

Back to troubleshooting the ads for the site.

I have a feeling that this will be a bit of a process. The end goal is to get them working well enough that the visitor clicks will generate enough that we can put a prize on the Deal Pool.

I am sure that there is just something that I am missing. When they do start working, the next step will be to tune them so that they are not too much of a distraction from our discussions and debates.

Missing an old friend

I don’t know if any of the old gang still monitors for activity here anymore or not.

We lost a dear friend of the site a couple of months ago and it is still bothering me.

Our dear Badcat passed suddenly. Her husband logged into her facebook account and let us know that she was in grave condition. A couple days later he let us know of her passing.

While she did not want to return to Pennsylvania, I am very thankful that her family was able to be there for her passing not to mention being able to support her loving husband. I am not mentioning his name out of respect for his privacy. I do not know how many outside of her circle knew his name.

She was such a good friend to be over the years, we were kind of like family that was separated by an entire country, but until the last year, we were only twenty miles apart. I would have loved to gotten to meet her and her husband in person.

Fond memories of chats and debates over more than a decade. She was here not too long after the website came into existence.

We were quite the gang of digital miscreants, full of opinions that we were happy to share. We got to know where the hot buttons were for our group and tried to stay off of them for the most part, but like all families, we would tap those buttons just to make sure that the other was paying attention.

Badcat, you were loved by almost all. we know that there were some that were never going to fit in, but you didn’t care, you weren’t that kind of cat. You were and always will be Badcat.

Oregonians Feel That The Poor Are Subhuman

The title takes a short journey to connect the dots.

In 1951 Oregon passed a law that was initially to protect customer from pumps that were far less safe than today. They felt that a refueling technician was needed.

After those initial safety concerns were mitigated making pumps quite safe, they found that gasoline (and the other fuels as well) had carcinogens. The average driver did not like the smell of gas either.

Rather than having everyone pump their own fuel (or pay for full service like forty eight other sates (New Jersey is the other wimpy ass state that doesn’t allow self-serve pumping) thus minimizing the intake of carcinogens, they relegate that to the poor working class. No there are exemptions, motorcycle riders can refill their own gas tanks. Could that be a hold over of feeling that bikers are nonredeemable scourge? Since diesel is also exempt truckers are in the same class as bikers, seen as less than… You have probably seen that as well. Yes, every time that you pull in and have the minimum wage worker scratch off a ticket to a lottery of fatal health issues. The longer than they stay in their oppressed role, the more likely it is that they will win that evil lotto.

Now a couple of years ago, they allowed the people in rural regions to pump their own fuel. Could this be yet another subjugation of the country folk? I will leave that you for consideration

The Oregon voters have decided that gasoline vapors are hazardous to humans, so they have gas station attendants do the pumping. Gas station attendants are typically a low wage job with little room for progression, so they remain poor and not worthy of the protections granted to humans, thus sub-human.

Google Ads

I am tweaking the site to get it ready for more content.

Part of those tweaks was Google Ads, they were either obnoxious if you didn’t have a blocker, or invisible if you did. Since I want to use some of the money from ad clicks to put up a prize for Dead Pool, I need the ads to be clickable.

What else should be on the list of to-dos?

Covid-19 Mortality Theory

Three days ago I had put forth the theory that countries with socialized/universal health care appeared to have lower mortality rates than countries without it.

Universal healthcare is only .01% higher than non-universal healthcare countries.
When you look at countries with universal healthcare, it is more dramatically different.

Countries with universal healthcare (most of the world) had 75 countries with a sum of mortality at 62.53 this gives an average mortality rate of 0.83%.

Now if we look at countries without universal healthcare, there were 29 countries with a sum of 4.09% mortality. This gives us an average mortality rate of 0.14%.

So, my initial view an opinion was incorrect. Countries without socialized/universal health care fare better than countries with it.

If you feel that I misinterpreted the data, I am sharing it here for full transparency.
The Data is from 03/07/2020 at 17:23:12 (Perhaps my theory was good three days ago, but it isn’t now.)

The one part that did not get tossed into the equations is the people that were on cruise ships. Since they are not really part of a country since they are on the high seas.

CountryConfirmed CasesDeathsMortality RateSocialized Medicine
Mainland China8065435594.41Yes
South Korea7041440.62Yes
Italy58832333.96Yes
Iran58231452.49Yes
France949111.16Yes
Germany79900.00Yes
Others69660.86
Spain500102.00Yes
Japan46161.30Yes
US424174.01No
Switzerland26810.37Yes
UK20620.97Yes
Netherlands18810.53Yes
Belgium16900.00Yes
Sweden16100.00Yes
Norway14700.00Yes
Singapore13800.00Yes
Hong Kong10821.85Yes
Malaysia9300.00Yes
Bahrain8500.00Yes
Austria7900.00Yes
Australia6323.17Yes
Kuwait6100.00Yes
Canada5400.00Yes
Iraq5400.00No
Thailand5012.00Yes
Iceland5000.00Yes
Greece4600.00Yes
Taiwan4512.22Yes
UAE4500.00Yes
India3400.00No
San Marino2314.35Yes
Denmark2300.00Yes
Lebanon2200.00No
Paletsine2200.00No
Israel2100.00Yes
Portugal2000.00Yes
Czech Republic1900.00Yes
Ireland1800.00Yes
Vietnam1800.00No
Algeria1700.00Yes
Oman1600.00Yes
Egypt1500.00No
Finland1500.00Yes
Brazil1300.00Yes
Ecuador1300.00Yes
Russia1300.00Yes
Croatia1200.00Yes
Estonia1000.00Yes
Macau1000.00Yes
Argentina9111.11Yes
Azerbaijan900.00No
Romania900.00Yes
Qater800.00Yes
Slovenia700.00Yes
Belarus600.00Yes
Mexico600.00Yes
Pakistan600.00Yes
Philippines600.00No
Poland5120.00Yes
Fench Guiana500.00No
New Zealand500.00Yes
Saudi Arabia500.00Yes
Chile400.00Yes
Georgia400.00Yes
Hungary400.00Yes
Indonesia400.00No
Senegal400.00No
Bosnia and Herzegovina300.00Yes
Malta300.00Yes
North Macedonia300.00No
Saint Barthelemy300.00No
Dominican Republic200.00No
Luxembourg200.00Yes
Martinique200.00No
Morocco200.00No
Afghanistan100.00No
Andorra100.00Yes
Armenia100.00No
Bhutan100.00Yes
Cambodia100.00Yes
Cameroon100.00No
Colombia100.00Yes
Costa Rica100.00Yes
Faroe Islands100.00No
Gibralter100.00No
Jordan100.00No
Latvia100.00Yes
Lichtenstein100.00Yes
Lithuania100.00Yes
Monaco100.00Yes
Nepal100.00No
Nigeria100.00No
Paraguay100.00Yes
Peru100.00Yes
Serbia100.00Yes
Slovakia100.00Yes
South Africa100.00No
Sri Lanka100.00Yes
Togo100.00No
Tunisia100.00Yes
Ukraine100.00Yes
Vatican City100.00No

Walmart Door Gestapo

Does your Walmart have people at the exits wanting to check your receipt and cart/bags?

Do you allow them to intrude on your ability to exit the building unimpeded?

I would like to hear the excuses that they have given you for why they are stopping you. Please drop a comment to share your stories.

This is not a valid case of loss prevention. Having a person standing there to check receipts does not work. There are three components that need to be met for a shoplifting case:

  1. You must witness merchandise being concealed
  2. You must keep them in line of sight
  3. they must set foot outside of the building without paying

What are the chances that the well intended person at the door has witnessed any of the three from their vantage point?

I have watched the loss prevention guy in my local Walmart. We was creepy enough that I went to another staffer to verify his role. They wanted to deny knowing him until I suggested that they may have a problem within the store and that they may have a problem with a person in the store. Yes, I have worked security enough to know odd behavior well enough to notice it.

Before you play the Costco card, keep in mind that they are a club store. You pay for membership and part of the agreement is to be checked on the way out.

Yes, Frye’s Electronics has the same receipt check and I handle it the same way as Walmart. Here is what I suggest…

Simply respond in a polite manner, “No thank you, but have a nice day.”

Remember that your transaction was completed at the register. They no longer have a right to detain you. One exception that I make, is when goods are not contained in bags. If it is a gallon of milk, I don’t stop, at it is customary for that to not be bagged.

Obviously how you choose to respond to their requests is up to you, but just know that they will not stop this behavior as long as we let them get away with it.

Excuses given for stopping us:

  • It helps with inventory (as if the registers do not do this)
  • You can’t return anything without the receipt being checked

What is the term for…

What is a geologist? One who studies rocks, right?

What is a linguist? One who studies languages.

What is a separatist? One who wants to keep the races separate.

What is a sexist? One who believes that one sex is better than another.

What is a racist? A person who feels that their race is better and the others are less than human.

What is a person who believes that their religious faith is better than all others? Who knows? I am unable to find a term/label for it?

I know people who are steadfast in their religions, which is fine. The problem comes when they refuse to coexist. If you wish to believe in a boogeyman with a golden chariot that hands our chocolate chip cookies on April 21st, great! Just be sure to not interfere with those who do not share your beliefs.

What people choose to believe is up to them. The only caveat to that, is that they must not trample on others while they practice their own faith.

So, with all of the thousands of years that we have had many religions floating about, they were mostly peaceful. Sure there were periods where one religion or another would get a wild hair and try to eliminate all of the others, but for the most part co-existing until Christianity came onto the scene.

Our current world situation is one where conservative Christians and to eliminate most or all Muslims, and the far right Muslims wish to do the same.

In the end after all this time, we do not seem to have a term for a person who hates religion other than their own. This is a faith equivalent to racism. I myself, find it just as repugnant as racism.

Are you aware of a term for it? Perhaps it is a theological bigot. I did find a site that refers to Christian Bigots, and that may be appropriate. ( https://www.redletterchristians.org/am-i-a-christian-bigot/ )

Trying something new

I am playing with splitting the site into three parts.

If I get it right there will be the blog, a cybersecurity blog, and a store.

I may break the site at times as I learn new things.

 

Also on my list of things to work on is to adjust the horribly large ad block at top and bottom of the page. It is too large. I do intend on using ads, but modestly. It is how I plan on adding prizes for the Celebrity Death Pool.

Vaping with flavor

It only took a few days of reporting for my wife and I to determine where the deaths and illnesses were coming from with respect to vaping.

We called it out at that time as being bad juice as it was using an oil based additive. It is easy to understand that we do not put oils into our lungs. It coats the alvioli thus preventing the oxygen to carbon dioxide exchange.

The media jumped all over this and the pressure to ban flavors jumped to the forefront. The establishment saw the opportunity to ban something that they did not like citing bullshit theory during a “panic”. Those who view the world in an analytical manner sat back and put thought to the issue. NPR did a show covering the topic and I sent an email in hopes that they would at least be interested in a dissenting view. I got a nice form email back form them. It was clear that my experience with vaping for nearly eight years did not fit their narrative to whip up supporting a ban on vaping or flavored juices.

Now, the CDC has confirmed what Gigglez and I were saying in the first few days. Juice using vitamin E acetate is to blame for for the deaths and illnesses. What?!? It had nothing to do with flavors? What sorcery is this?

With the truth being determined and brought out into the open, do you think that the jurisdictions that enacted bans, putting people out of work, and making people go back to smoking their death sticks have reversed their actions? Nope, the scare served their purposes to control the masses. Why should they?

It is time to right the wrongs. Allow flavored e-juices to be sold again. The arguments made to ban them are just as ignorant as those about flavored cigarettes, and some alcohols.

Speaking of ignorance, vaping does not lead to smoking. It is however a viable option for smokers to reduce their health risks. Vaping is not perfect. Most people still take in nicotine, but the rest of the ingredients are food grade… so think about that for a moment. the same stuff that we take in on a daily, the powers that be want to block because they do not like the way that it looks.

When I started vaping, both my doctor and cardiologist were in support of eliminating the tars, and 3000+ chemicals going to my lungs. I have not had a single puff from an analog cigarette since I switched. I reduced my nicotine levels form 24 mg (at a high) to 8 mg. When my supply runs out, I will have the choice of either illegally making my own juice, having it shipped illegally, or going to smoking again… none of those options are appealing. Bring back the flavors.