valerie wrote: I don't mind doing surveys. The only problem here is there is tons of errors. Right now, there is a long list of surveys but the majority of them go no where when clicked. The rest jump right back before you can blink an eye. Finally, there is all those ySense surveys now that won't pay until 4 to 6 weeks.....NO FRIGGIN WAY am I going to do those! NOPE NADA NEVERRRRR! THAT has SCAM wrote all over it!

Hopeless case here anyways, I've been mentioning this for ages, the survey inventory is low quality garbage, the bottom of the barrel scratch the turd off the surface kind - Tons of ySense survey invites, which leads to PureSpectrum which leads to INSTANT screenout. Funny because there is PureSpectrum stand alone router on another site and it's not that bad, then the half dozen to dozen of off quota back to back, closed surveys, instant screenouts, it's pathetic to say the least. There used to be a good conversion ratio here, I dunno what is going on, it's like you have to dig through a pile of hot turd to find working surveys, it's frustrating, especially the off quota ones - I had that bloody ySense-PMR survey $2+ as soon as I saw it appear in my list I clicked it, it was a survey about pizza brands, more than 60% through and I get redirected to off quota. It's becoming really insulting, frustrating and ridiculous With CPX Research on site B, I would have been paid 6 cents or more - you get something if you DQ and the amount varies base don how far into the survey you are, ranging from 1-2 cents up to 4-6 cents or more even depending on the rate. Off-Quota in the middle or end of surveys is unacceptable - suppliers should incur penalties and pay the FULL price of the survey when this happens - it's pathetic because the suppliers do get paid platform fees on top of per complete fees - but the GPT site owners and members get F*** all..........

tasman1 wrote: Nice chart and info , We are now experts in poo from pigeon to human poo
Think ySense is now accredited and recognized medical research centre in poo field
Hope our paid will go up accordingly

What other GPT can you learn about animal and human poo and learn about such amazing topics, it does not exist, too bad we can't get paid to learn on a GPT Some of us here would have made a lot of money

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B.T.W I did one survey last year about poo and this chart was included
Last question was if I was honest , can they use my survey in research
Answered yes but I am sad I can not send what is smell of my poo

Really ? I never had a survey about sh** before, I've had sh** surveys but that's not the same thing
But yeah now you remind me there have been many surveys from a company they always put that question at the end, if you are honest and if they can use your data in their research, they even said not to worry we will still get paid either way - I mean this is hilarious Did you rob a bank ? No worries, you can keep the money

valerie wrote: Here ya go, happy fiber!

https://www.continence.org.au/bristol-stool-chart

Nice graphical chart they have there

VERY informative indeed, you see if people had the right type of stools (optimal) as a result of proper diet, they would not need TP or bidets. But nowadays people have to use half a roll or 1 roll per wipe, ask the hoarders who purchased hundreds of large packs of TP, that's a lot of TP

valerie wrote:

I was a member of Greenfield but I don't think I ever used it. Don't remember.

It was among the top - great way to earn extra $$$ in those days, if a site like that existed today, people would be skeptic - I was a bit too when I joined them, they ran sweepstakes too, I won twice , 1 x $100, 1 x $10, not bad, I never won a sweepstake in my life - still waiting on the $10 million from PCH

They had surveys for $5, $10, $25, and what I liked are the focus groups - basically an interactive survey where you are part of a group and discuss on a topic and answer surveys, share views, usually each session lasted between 1 and 1 1/2 hours, and it paid $50 ! I did many of those - I remember also doing 2 of those for $75 each in the same week. The most I have earned for a survey was $150, for a 15 minute phone interview. Got my check within 7 days. Those were the golden years of market research where you got paid well for your time. I think Greenfield was limited to US and Canada. Then I joined Opinion Outpost, same, surveys generally started at $3 and up, great company.........Unfortunately, Greenfield was acquired by crummy Toluna, and it went downhill quickly..........and opinion outpost was acquired by SSI, went downhill big time. IN those days there were many good stand alone survey sites, you could make far more money from those alone than doing surveys on a network through GPTs, but all the top sites ended up being swallowed and went downhill. I stopped doing surveys on stand alone sites and joined GPTs. No routers no CRAP - Greenfield and OO dealt directly with clients, NONE of that Off Quota crap, NONE of that screenout crap - if you received a survey invite it meant you were qualified. I miss the focus groups though, the MINIMUM for focus groups was $50......it could go up to $100, not bad for a 1 - 1.5 hour session and that was in USD.

BUT my best money that I made is CS during those years thanks to tasks - GPT is still way better than stand alone sites TODAY because it combined surveys from all sources through routers - but you gotta have some routers and good inventory - it is not the case here. HERE, you get your lucky day and earn $30 one day and the rest you are lucky to break $1

valerie wrote: Generally I would say when you really begin to see yourself changing is around the age of 50 and by the time you hit 60, you are beginning to wonder who that is looking back at you in the mirror!

That would be the Grim Reaper Some people show signs of "aging" sooner than 50, some much later. There are people in their 60s and 70s looking far better than the average - some people age well and some age prematurely, but can we attribute the term OLD by looks alone ? Some people may show signs of aging but inside they are active and have full capacity - but in a world where people are judged by their looks, it's no surprise that people are judged not only by their age but by their looks.

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For some people, no matter how well they take care of their self, they age faster and/or get disease. So genetics does play a strong role.

So this could be compelling evidence we are just a running computer software simulation I mean the genetic code is just that, code, all they need to do now is find a way to translate DNA into C++ code and back to DNA, now that would be super cool

We already have the technology to genetically modify stuff - clone humans, etc, in a distant future we might be able to just upload our brain memories and data to a computer and download it back to a cloned person - you would essentially be 100% identical on all levels.

Essentially it means your soul is already gone from the body, but what's left is just the running code, I will cover all of this in my upcoming new book titled "You are NOBODY"

It's sad though that some people were given rotten genes, and spend a life in misery, whilst some people get the lucky genes, get to eat all they want, neglect themselves and go unharmed - this is a real world version of The Sims

valerie wrote: Truthfully, I am trying to think how I accumulated those funds because I never did surveys or offers with them that I can recall. If I did, I don't remember. Referrals, I guess.

Based on online reviews, site has been a scam for years now - What's disturbing - is that to be a GPT and offer surveys you need to deal with suppliers, and suppliers will need documents and due diligence, maybe they changed hands or they were caught after all those years doing something on the sides. They could be using someone's accounts, etc. PROBUX, a fraudulent ponzi disguised as PTC, also offered GPT elements in the days, surveys, etc, it goes to show you how ANYBODY can register a company, it's cheap. Another site I am trying to figure out of they are legit or not is Bounty - Recently I took a survey here on ySense through Samplicious or ySense PMR, it was one of those sign-ups surveys - So I played along and signed up, and I did get paid the promised incentive here, installed app on phone, gave them e-mail and invite code to confirm I really did sign-up, sure enough was paid for the survey HERE, but still did not use the app yet - I still see their sign-up survey here - but I see a lot of reviews online that it is a scam, though they claim they are not - I have yet to try them. BTW, do you remember PineCone Research one of the best ? They are ROTTEN now - Some companies change hands and become far worse than they were before, you know the drill but it's sad to see good programs go downhill. You still had me confused about the brothers and hadiz part, it's like someone else was writing through you, thought your account was hacked so that $20 or $50 you had well probably referrals - you should have cashed out - never leave an outstanding balance on ANY site, legit or not I guess, because these sites rely entirely on a 3rd party payment processor - if payment processor goes down or decides to restrict or lock them out, bye bye money. There are people who had thousands of $ in their Payza and LibertyReserve accounts before they got seized by the FBI.

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I did read some place that PayPal had shut them out. Even so, why do away with check? You'd think they'd continue to use check even more so.

I remember back in the days there was a trick you could do to find out if a destination PayPal account was blocked or not. Nobody will know for sure, but an HONEST admin will warn their members - just like sites that lost their PayPal were honest about it - ClixSense and N..... continued paying their members after they lost PayPal. The fact that site mentioned nothing, lies, does not pay at all, means the intentions are bad - it could be that the original person who ran the site sold to someone else who decided to turn it into a scam I guess.

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The worst of it is, their site still states they payout with PayPal and Check. That's what really makes it scammy. If they had announced and placed it on their main page BITCOIN ONLY, that would be different. BUT here's the thing, they are not international. I think they have only allowed three countries.

I did voice over for them a long time ago to a couple of their videos. They paid me several hundred dollars for that.

Apparently there are many bogus survey and GPT sites - I just hope that PayPal does not eventually add GPT as prohibited industry like they did with PTC, that would be total chaos.

Also $20 minimum to cashout is excessive - New reality, it should be $1. To discourage fraud, they could add a system where payment is delayed and where your minimum is higher to discourage multiple accounts and fraud, but $20 minimum, that is so old school Back in the Greenfield Online days, they had no problems sending me $5 checks.

valerie wrote: Lettuce is already reaching gold status here. Especially in the winter months.

Young? Young? Young? You think I'm YOUNG? I need to dye my hair blonde! An ape after my own heart!

I'm only a few years behind you Apeman. I'm older than the internet.

WELL you are in your 60s, apparently 60 is the new 40, so technically you are young (the new young)

There are people in their 80s and 90s running marathons and more active than most 20-30 year old today

Once you reach your mid 90s then you can say you are old. Now let's do a survey and ask 1000 random Americans and Canadians at what age threshold do they consider a person to be "old" ? The responses may surprise you as I believe more than 75% would answer 40. Maybe even 30 Personally, if they were to ask me, I would say the minute you are born - because you see, the moment you are born, you are already starting the process of death and inching closer and closer to your grave

Some people think old means walkers, canes, limping, crooked backs, dentures and bengay Different people have different definitions of what is "old". Some people are in their 60d-70s and still have the mentality of a 12 year old so OLD is subjective. The common stereotypes never gets old

valerie wrote: It was not very good. I mostly fast forwarded on this one. Got so tired of hearing her scream JACKSON JACKSON JACKSON. I wanted a shark to eat them.

Love and Monsters is very good.

I may watch The Marksman tonight.

Oh so that's why it is poorly rated on IMDB, figures - it's probably a cheap budget film anyway.

tasman1 wrote: Valerie and Darkstar ,you are young and you still can go to 20 -30-40-50 grand , you can still do surveys for another 50 years
For older people like myself it is different story , I plan to stop once I am 110 , hence I have only a bit over 41 year left , no chance for that big earn , my destiny is to die poor

Sure if you stay in Australia, sure you will die poor - by that time inflation will be at 30-35%. Lettuce will be a luxury item, probably on the same level as gold

I'm the young one I'm not holding my breath on reaching $20k here at this rate, but you never know, I could, if I was earning the same way I did here before 2020. My goal for this year is to reach $2000 checklist bonus total.
It's amazing when I think about it, nearly $2k only in checklist bonus. I miss the days of 40-45% US to Canada conversion

valerie wrote: I think some of this is due to the pandemic. People on lock down. People quitting their job. People living off the government stimulus handouts. People afraid to work. People afraid to go back to work. People too lazy to work. Even Yahoo, to say the least, advertised over and over for people to join survey programs to earn money.

Secondly, the inflation mode. It's turned even people with outside jobs to look inside for extra money to help cover their standard expenses that have risen due to inflation.

Thirdly, the online world has simply gained popularity since 30 years ago.

Companies and programs have grown greedier and the population has grown larger.

All this has resulted in more competition and less pay to the survey taker.

Right, good point, though I do not believe this has anything to do with the lower pay rates - the low pay rates is just greedy companies wanting to increase their profits, by taking a bigger cut, OR they are using random number generators to determine rate, with an algorithm so that most low numbers get generated over high ones. Yes the amount of people looking for work online has exploded, the ratio of demand vs. offer has become so unhealthy because there is clearly not enough work for all - is it to a point where some GPTs should just stop accepting new members until the amount of work increases ? This can easily get out of control to a point where a GPT is flooding with new members, and where majority are complaining of off quota or no surveys - I've never seen such a colossal amount of off quota like I have since 2020 - I mean Off Quota was rare in the old days - it seems ySense is getting all of those crummy surveys - because I rarely get off quotas on that other site you are on too

Peanut Labs, I rarely if at all got off quotas on that router - NOW it is nearly more than 90% of attempts - it's frustrating !

valerie wrote: It's a shame such good GPT's have turned to scams. I think a lot of it is due to payment options turning null and they don't know how to implement other options or don't want to.

At UR you can cash out at $20 but I let it ride. Now at almost $50 I decided to cash out to PayPal. Well guess what! When you go to cash out there, the only option is bitcoin. Brother are people mad as hadiz
about it too! I don't use scammy ghost coins so that's about $50 shot all to hexx.

What in tarnation are you talking about ? What's a hadiz ? Did someone hack your user account here ?
Such GOOD GPT and you must wait to have $20, yikes, that doesn't sound too good to me, must be a GPT run by someone inexperienced - Maybe PayPal is down momentarily, maybe they had their account limited, though there is no reason for a GPT to lose their PayPal if they are legit.

Also you violated your own rule of thumb, your own advice remember never to leave a running balance ? Always apply that rule everywhere, says the one who has $104 in his balance, but I don't think Prodege will shut down anytime soon - but you know the drill don't leave an outstanding balance, here we don't have a choice we cannot cash out unless we meet the right gift denominations - it's bloody absurd

tasman1 wrote: I never did care if Pro... was scam or not ... it was perfect while it last , earned a lot
Once they did stop I did send a letter to admin ..... Thanks a lot for all that years ,earned a lot

You can mention the name, it's not like they are still open or anything I believe the guy ran UPBUX, then ONBUX, then PROBUX, wait were you a moderator on Probux, because I know one of the mods there made $6k - was that you ?

I am so happy I stopped dabbling in that CRAP - I was so naive back then and only later found out what model they used, basically a PTC with a ponzi element - since your "referral" averages were in direct relation with cash flow coming in I stopped getting involved in those sites and all HYIPs once I found out what they truly were, I mean I always figured that some BUX sites used bots, and some used a mix of bots/humans and some humans, but I figured sine it was a PTC and we paid for something in return it could not possibly be a ponzi, but then I saw that those BUX sites came and went in a short period of time. These sites were high risk though, they required spending a lot of money on "referrals" and then you don't know what you get, if you join too late, you lose it all, too early, you can still get scammed from a quick scam, etc. ...and to think all these BUX sites used PayPal too it's because of sites like those that PayPal stopped accepting PTCs, legit or not !

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I was paid every time there [ just not last one , some 100 buck , but that is nothing compared how much I did earn there

I don't know how you earned 4 figures there unless you were that moderator - I remember discussing with one of the mods there, he was from Australia and bragged that he earned $5k-$6k - yeah sure they had mods paid by the admin to shill - but if you were just a regular member renting referrals, there is not much big money there, even if you joined early and spent on the maximum # of referrals with a 1.5 avg. To make your kind of profits you would have to re-invest and get the maximum # of refs every day and accumulate a large amount of them - you were lucky, because most people lose money in these programs. So you knew what it was - that's so naughty

tasman1 wrote: My dear friends , accept that high earning in this job is past that will not come back
Past was good , fast good earning , I remember time when 10 000 a year was simple , I remember Pro... earning over 5000.00 a year just with rented referrals , click 4 ad daily , 1 min was all it did take daily

Probux was a ponzi scheme Tasman1, disguised as a PTC, typically of many BUX sites of the days, all of them are gone now.........the bad ones with unsustainable models that is, just like many of the BUX sites that shut down, ONBUX etc, they run for a year or so and shut down - They rented "referrals" that were essentially bots, and gave very good averages especially in the beginning, to lure re-investments, then eventually as people star to cash out, things go downhill, these BUX sites never last long - PROBUX was just run by the same owner as ONBUX and UPBUX, all the same bloody ponzi schemes, there is no work actually involved other than spending money and making money off of new investors. I hope you still don't fall for that sh** Of course there were people earning thousands of $ from these programs, easy money, no work, just theft and getting active referrals to these sites was easy too, it's much easier to lure active referrals to these sites than legit sites requiring hard work and honesty, nothing has changed to this day.

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Still I can earn 2500.00-3000.00 a year from surveys only [ 1000.00- 1300.00 a year here ]
Once again , accept new reality

Reality is, there are still people earning 4 digits a month from GPT, I know for a fact and witness it, some US members get a sh** ton of surveys on another site and earn a killing. For some reason for some / many things have changed for the worse, I dunno why - there are people here that still earn 2 digits DAILY, why is it so bad for many other countries that once did well, I dunno, they did switch things up since Appen left, and things went downhill.

I think all GPTs are facing saturation but despite that some members are still earning well - I think there is more a of a decline for non US traffic.

valerie wrote: Oh yes, if CS was still here I'd be focusing on hitting $30,000.

How much USA members make in the GPT world first depends on their time, second on active ref base, and third on legitimacy.

Time: That is how much time you have to sit in front of the computer. How much time you may focus on mobile surveys. How much time you spend promoting the GPT's that pay on refs.

Ref Base: The number of referrals are not what is important. What is important is having a few very active referrals. If you have hundreds or even thousands of referrals but no one is doing anything, you are not making anything from their activity since they are not active. You also have to look where the money is on active refs. If the GPT only pays something on their initial enrollment, time promoting it would be a waste of time (unless of course you are blogging or website in which you are listing multiples and info). I always say, the money is not in the refs, it's in the percentage of active refs and what that program will pay you.

Sure, but refs are optional to earn on a GPT - I've earned 4 figures close or exceeding some top affiliates, so living proof that it can be done without refs - my best years on GPT did not involve much of my time, I worked full time and only spent a few hours on it daily max, generally 3 hours - and on tasks, 2 figures a day was possible in those days, I mean sure when you have active referrals it significantly increases your earning potential for sure, if you can find ACTIVE refs, because having 10,000 dead referrals is good for nothing For example if you are able to find active and committed referrals like myself and Tasman1, you could earn 4 figures a month in commissions and you would not need thousands. So yeah finding referrals here is very difficult now more than ever, without the tasks, here is a scenario - you refer someone to a GPT, it's gonna be usually international traffic that is looking for easy cash - they join, try a dozen surveys, disqualify, write a scam review and leave, they leave for those bitcoin HYIP ponzi schemes instead or whatever shoddy PTC BUX is left. Getting the Tier 1 referrals is the hardest, especially here of all places If they paid us a commission for just trying survey invites, no doubt we'd make good money here

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It can be a very lucrative online way to make extra funds.

WELL you have to work 10x harder and spend 10x more. When I started this survey online thing I was making close to $600 a month, on ONE program alone - this is when the surveys paid $5, $10, $25 each, and paid by check
My first was Greenfield Online, it was a very decent survey site until they were acquired by Toluna which ran the business to the ground basically. I even won two sweepstakes draws on Greenfield, 1 for $10 and 1 for $100. Greenfield Online and Opinion Outpost were the top 2 earners in that time, with surveys paying in the dollars not cents - but these companies were acquired and basically destroyed. Opinion Outpost was acquired by SSI, sine then it ran downhill since, with surveys gong from dollars down to 60 cents.

With all the low paid crap here and there and saturation of the market, too many members looking for surveys vs. surveys available makes it far more difficult to earn now from this.

I think there is less and less survey opportunities over the years due to decline in data quality and companies moving away from incentivised traffic in favour of non cash traffic for better data quality - I think GPTs will go through some challenging years to come. It's not that it will completely collapse, but I expect a lot of acquisitions to occur, cost cutting and reduction of survey inventory across the board.

There is another good earning potential that is becoming more popular now - Market Research firms that used to conduct exclusively over the phone, are now expanding their surveys to the web - and they pay you to take those surveys. I am already signed up to one of those, they are easy to qualify for, generally short and pay well, the only catch, $20 minimum, but they pay by PayPal also, though from what I see, you can reach the minimum in a short amount of time. Otherwise network surveys on GPTs, that's going to be challenging.

valerie wrote: Some new movies on Prime:

Horizon Line - airplane disaster

Love and Monsters - looks silly

The Marksman : Liam Neeson ------ I'll watch this one tonight and maybe the Horizon Line

Bill and Ted Face the Music: comedy

Oh yeah definitely watching Horizon Line one tonight

valerie wrote: Apeman has waxy butt.

Now SEE that would be a good use for a bidet, clean all that sticky stuff and wax at the surface, they just need to make those jets stronger and add spinning brushes, now that would be innovative and make for a better clean - the challenge would be to keep those brushes clean Perhaps they could be manually rinsed and cleaned (dish washer safe), microwavable or disposable, 1 per person, no sharing recommended

valerie wrote: I don't have Netflix at this time and there has been a lot of big news about it recently.

They lost over 200,000 Netflix subscribers in their recent quarter.

Actually they lost far more - that is what they reported at the time - but after sanctions in Russia, cutting Netflix, they lost 700,000 subscribers - I said it before, these puny sanctions will hurt business here more than it will hurt Russia.
So 700k subscribers from Russia, 200,000 first quarter here, and they expect another loss of 2.5 million in the next quarter - so Netflix stock year to date has plunged by 45% But a lot of it is due to inflation, rise of cost of living, people are having to make tough decisions and cuts........there is also lots of competition with streamers.
So now Netflix is planning to evaluate what to do next - the stock plunge represents $40-$50 BILLIONS, it's no joke, I wouldn't want to be in Netflix's shoes right now - this is a big deal - and unlike Amazon and others, Netflix does not have other revenue streams - Netflix's own offerings has been mediocre overall, its own exclusive series and movies are mostly just bad........some are good but you need to go cherry picking They raised the prices, I don't think they can afford to do so again - the stock plunge was NOT due to the price hike - so now they have to find a way to generate more revenue streams which could mean ads

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Now what I hear they are focusing on, is to lower prices but the programs will have ads in them.

I do not think Netflix will impose ads - they will offer an additional plan (lower but with the ads, mostly scams, like on YouTube those crummy ads with bogus products.).

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Honestly, I don't mind ads in programs. It all goes back to what I knew as commercial breaks.

Right, because commercial breaks on TV pay the networks, and with that money networks order series, which cost generally millions per episode, other than reality TV that cost a fraction. TV Networks have a huge cost. Netflix relies on subscriptions and especially new subscriptions - there is no ad revenues - Netflix has to pay licensing to studios producing series and movies and as to original series with episodes they are very limited compared to TV series that usually have 22-24 episodes. Unfortunately Netflix uses a different ratings system than TV - a high rated Netflix series / show can be cancelled, unlike a TV Network where viewership ratings count exclusively as the highest the viewership, the higher the advertising cost for that time slot. Netflix uses a different metrics, other than viewership, the ability for content to attract NEW subscriptions - they want to GROW their revenue like all public companies, if they had shows with tons of viewers (same ones) but little to no NEW viewers, it means they would not be making MORE profits, and for a public company stagnating profits even when really high is not enough - that's part of the corporate greed - publicly run companies require growth and increasing revenues to keep your shareholders happy - if you can't grow and keep shareholders pocket full, this is what you get, a sell off. The whole idea behind streamers, and paying, is to avoid ads - I don't think people will like the idea of ads right in the middle of their shows - I do not think ads will change much or get new subscribers, at a lower price maybe it will help keep existing ones and maybe gain some new ones, but they will always continue offering a plan without ads - it would not be sustainable otherwise to offer ad only plans - besides, to get advertisers you need viewers - But if Netflix goes that route they need to stop cancelling good series and will have to rely on viewership ratings like on TV networks.

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The issue I think with ads, many have far too many. If you are streaming a movie and every ten minutes there is five or more minutes of ads, that's a big thumbs down.

On a TV network, for a 1 hour time slot, generally 40-45 minutes is for the actual show, and 15-20 minutes is ads only. So if you do the math, that is about 33% ads. Obviously this is not TV, so it's likely they will deliver shorter ads, like YouTube and perhaps less frequently than on TV, but here is another issue, they need to find a way to prevent ad blockers. People find ways to cheat advertisers online by using ad blockers on YouTube, Netflix can barely handle password sharing and VPN use, the whole ad thing may backfire too. How many advertisers will want to invest in a company that is losing 50% of its assets.

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So, in one way, we are going back to television programming. Even the newer series now only want to give you a few or less episodes at a time. Just like tv when you would watch one episode per week.

Anyway, Netflix certainly needs to generate more money and reduce their subscriber prices if they want to stay in business.

Netflix like any company has to deal too with the rising costs - The greedy studios that licenses content to Netflix are charging MORE money. All 3rd party providers they use, charge MORE MORE MORE MORE, so Netflix has to pass those increases to customers, who else This is the vicious circle of inflation.

Besides, it's not like Netflix will shut down anytime soon, they probably will end up being acquired - if stocks keep plunging, it will make for a bargain to buy - it could be a good opportunity for Amazon to buy Netflix, its direct competitor, this way Amazon will have more leverage to raise the prices

valerie wrote: I have not changed anything I am doing since the beginning other than not wearing gloves continuously.

YOU haven't but many have, and put those who continue following at great risk - since the masks aim more at protecting others than oneself - if you are wearing a mask, and everyone else around you isn't, you are at great risk - a mask greatly reduces the trajectory of droplets for those wearing it - BUT when YOU have a mask and others don't, you are continually exposed to droplets, and your mask would be at most 30% or less effective at blocking the small particles. and I'm sure you are not wearing N95's Even N95s are not 100%. If EVERYONE PROPERLY wears a mask it would help because exposure would be limited, the droplets in the air would be significantly reduced.

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And, I have never had covid.

Never say never - You cannot know for sure, that's the tricky part of this sneaky virus, and disturbing too - most cases are asymptomatic - there is in theory a large number of the population that has it without their knowledge, they act as the spreaders. There are people who have been infected and never had a single bloody symptom - they only found out after preventive testing after being exposed to people around them who have had it. You could have had COVID and infected thousands of people around you Besides, you are living in the middle of the woods, in a secluded area which helps too compared to living in a densely populated town.

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In the USA it is a yoyo. Recently many places, airports, stopped the rule for mask. In the mean time, hospitals are on the rise again with covid patients.

It's a crazy world!

Yeah the US is particular, unfortunately vaccination rates in America is disappointingly low combined with a high level of unhealthy population with comorbidities - which explains the high level of hospitalisations - a large number of the population is overweight, and has health issues putting them at high risk - Here, in Canadada land - Ontario and Quebec are the worst for COVID19 cases - Quebec has the highest vaccination rate, with over 95%, yet it has the highest cases - BUT the hospitalisations in Quebec are a far cry compared to those in the US though - so vaccines do work, not for preventing infections but keeping hospitals lower than other countries. Also in the US adherence to masks and COVID19 guidelines are a big damn joke The US is a BAD example on how to deal with COVID and manage it - Biden's management of this pandemic is appalling at best, much like his management of everything - his administration is a SHAM, other than throwing out money everywhere, what a mess So yeah unfortunately in the US it is a YOYO, a hell of a long stringed YOYO Here in Canada are we better ? WELL no, we have a bad example as PM - though in some provinces they have managed well, in other provinces they haven't. But like you said it won't matter anyway sine we may not even be alive in 4 to 6 weeks

Just as I predicted against all those quacks and charlatans with an M.D. in their title who said countless times since 2021 that we are entering an endemic stage to this pandemic, even this year "experts" claimed Omicron was the vaccine we never had and would bring us to herd immunity. Nope, I never fell for that tosh - and right now the virus is spreading faster, and faster, cases are going up globally which means variants now come out faster since the virus is continually changing.

So after BA1 and BA2, came BA3 and BA4, now BA5 and BA6, and the newest addition BA2.12.1, it is a sub-variant of BA2, and you would think that people already are protected through cross immunity - NO CHANCE - people are getting re-infected over and over - The politicians have given in to the selfless prats who cry freedom, and cannot wear a bloody mask or wash their filthy hands - so 2 years wasted on nothing and today no more masks, no more nothing pretending as if it's all gone - and now we have to learn to live with a virus that is EVERYWHERE and that EVERYONE will catch at least once, eventually.

Do we have Omicron specific vaccines yet ? NO - they had so much time to produce one, and an Omicron specific vaccine would have given enough cross immunity against future variants of Omicron - but of course the big pharmas wants us to continue getting booster shot of their original, weak vaccine, every 3-6 months.

What about this Paxlovid scam ? that costs an arm and 3 legs - if it truly prevents 80-90% severity, then why are hospital cases exploding around the world ?

China has kept numbers low through its zero covid policy and strict lockdowns - NOW it is struggling to contain the spread because those variants are so infectious and so much more transmissible - so even strict measures cannot STOP the virus - BUT..............it can just slow it down and reduce cases - so in other words in an ideal world we should wear gloves, masks and face shields in public, keep good distance and avoid crowds. Welcome to the new world where we live with a dangerous virus among thousands others and war that might be inching us closer to our extinction

valerie wrote: Her Last Will

Sorry about that. I also just noticed it has 4 stars on Prime so I am not the only one that liked it.

Well last night as I opened Netflix I saw "Choose or Die" that came up, new 2022 Netflix film - So I decided to watch it.......................................Good story poor execution, confusing and horrible ending, yep Netflix basically accepts anything - so why not submit stuff to Netflix, easy money

I have also added Occulus, also playing on Netflix, to my long list of stuff to watch, will watch it tonight.