In three years I'm up to $87and it doesn't look like I'm going to reach $100 any time soon. And I think it is wrong and maybe even unethical  not to pay accumulated earnings to those who want to close their account.

If you've made $87 in three years then you're averaging $29 per year and should reach payout in less than six months if downloads continue as they have.

So far almost all the agencies that have closed have paid out at the end and DT seems to be doing OK.  No sense spending time worrying about something that likely will not happen, or at least not anytime soon.

I just requested a payout too.  No e-mail confirmation or other indication that it is moving forward.  I requested one from DT the same day and that is on its way.  One agency is legitimate the other one not so much.

I was looking through my December iStock statement and noticed a payment from DACS, of which iStock took 85%.  I always claim DACS directly and certainly don't want an agency taking 85%.  I haven't noticed this in the past but probably wasn't paying attention.  Does anybody know what this is about?  Does it affect our regular DACS payback?  Really don't want them taking 85% if I can claim it directly, although if it is in addition to the regular payback then I guess something is better than nothing.  If anybody knows more about this please let me know.

perhaps if they trust the ip address you're ok going forward

That would be my guess.

In the old days the levels system made a big difference but nowadays almost all sales are subs where the levels are irrelevant.  My last credit sale was in October where a level 2 sale netted me $3.45.  Unfortunately those are rare nowadays.  What I really hate is allowing TIFF downloads with subs - those should be limited to the smaller sizes to encourage credit sales.

I always have my cats do those challenges for me.  They're not human but they think they are.  Or at least smarter than us.

Would it be shocking that we are being visited. Or that we are being abducted. Or that there is growing concern that there is a increasing number of 'spheres' being logged around the world by military forces.

I think conclusive proof of either one of those would be quite shocking.  I hadn't heard much about the "spheres" you mentioned so looked it up and found this from last June (https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4030026-us-military-has-been-observing-metallic-orbs-making-extraordinary-maneuvers/).  Not sure if you have posted this previously.  The video linked to the article is not very convincing - very blurry - but these objects seem to have been detected by different types of sensors so definitely real.  No proof that they are extraterrestrial but certainly something interesting that needs an explanation.

I got mine on Dec. 4th.  They deducted some fees which was annoying but at least they paid everything out as promised.  RIP CanStock.

Quote from: sgoodwin4813 on July 27, 2023, 16:34

From what I've heard of the congressional hearings so far they have been vastly underwhelming.  It seems to be three "whistleblowers" who all believe that we have been visited by aliens, and at least one of them said they know 40 other guys who swear on their grandmothers' graves that they have seen alien craft and/or biologicals.  And that is it - no proof of any kind, no documentation, no testimony from any of the people who supposedly have seen these things except second- or third-hand reports.  And they can't say any more because it's classified.  So what is the point?  It all seems like a monumental waste of time to me.

So, you are relying on hearsay? Watch the hearing yourself. Documentation, including the names of involved people and addresses, has been provided to the Inspector General. Additional details have been provided behind closed doors, as I understand it. A guy who had been conducting an official investigation in this field testified under oath before the Congress. Do you grasp the magnitude of this event? That investigation had been his job, he just presented his findings in the Congress, under oath.

I've seen enough of it.  Hearsay is what Grush has provided, not me.  Looks like Congress is going to have a special investigation so maybe more will come out that way.  However, I suspect none of these mythical alien craft will appear.  I have no doubt the people testifying believe what they are saying, they just haven't provided any solid proof. 

Why is all of this confined to the US?  What about Canada, China. Brazil, Russia and other countries with large land areas?  Surely they must have been the recipients of alien spacecraft - many more than the US - yet why have we not seen aliens rolled out in those countries?  When people in other countries provide "evidence", it's always of the same type - somebody saw something they can't explain.  Nothing tangible.  Surely the US military couldn't classify materials collected in all those other countries, could they?

If this was some kind of farce, some kind of prank, then you, dear Americans, have some serious issues in your country

You haven't figured that out yet?  We have much more serious problems than aliens - a large part of the population thinks the last election was stolen, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (and none to support their conclusion) and they support someone for President as a supposed champion of democracy who's stated goal is to become a fascist dictator.  Aliens are the least of our problems.

[I have a feeling that even if a giant UFO landed in front of the White House and aliens came out, many denialists would still deny it, because it doesn't fit into their world view. It would be "a trick of the light", or the infamous "swamp gas".

That is where you are dead wrong.  Those of us who are skeptical of alien contact are not that way because of a world view but because of a lack of evidence.  Provide even one alien craft or a body of an extraterrestrial that can be verified by independent scientific analysis and most of us will accept it.  But if the only "evidence" is that somebody saw something they can't explain then that doesn't cut it.  We will see what comes out of the continuing congressional hearings but I wouldn't hold my breath that they will uncover anything substantive - I just don't think there is anything more to provide.

From what I've heard of the congressional hearings so far they have been vastly underwhelming.  It seems to be three "whistleblowers" who all believe that we have been visited by aliens, and at least one of them said they know 40 other guys who swear on their grandmothers' graves that they have seen alien craft and/or biologicals.  And that is it - no proof of any kind, no documentation, no testimony from any of the people who supposedly have seen these things except second- or third-hand reports.  And they can't say any more because it's classified.  So what is the point?  It all seems like a monumental waste of time to me.

I have no doubt that there are videos that can't be completely explained, many first-hand reports of pilots and others seeing weird phenomena, or other minor things like that.  But actual alien spacecraft or bodies?  So far no evidence.  At all.  If there are really that many alien encounters nowadays there is little possibility that the military or whoever else could cover it up - if someone found a spaceship or part of one or actual alien bodies it would be all over the internet before you could say "TikTok".

Congress should stop wasting their time.  If they want to get to the truth, then put on some pressure to declassify what the whistleblowers are talking about and give the world a look.  Show me some actual physical evidence and I will believe it, but "whistleblowers" saying they believe it and know a bunch of other guys who swear it's true without providing any actual evidence doesn't cut it.  Lots of people believe things that aren't true but will swear up and down that they have seen it with their own eyes.  I still remember the bigfoot show where people all over the US are sure they've seen sasquatch but are not deterred by the complete lack of any physical evidence.  Somebody on Nextdoor not long ago tried to tell me how they've seen mountain lions in Indiana for decades - even though they have been extinct in the state for more than 100 years (other than the very occasional one that wanders in from North Dakota, which we did have once about a dozen years ago).  That person grew up in the country and was sure that mountain lions are there.  They really believed it.  I'm sure they saw something - a bobcat maybe or a large domestic feline - but it wasn't a mountain lion.  Just like the African lion that was recently reported in Germany that turned out most likely to be a wild boar.  It's the same with the aliens - just because you've seen something you can't explain doesn't mean it's extraterrestrial (or a terrestrial myth).  It would be very easy to confirm - make something available for independent analysis by the global scientific community.  All of the technological progress that has occurred during my lifetime (which is getting to be a while now) was mostly the next obvious thing - there are no major jumps I can think of that would have resulted from an injection of alien technology.  If the US military is benefitting from alien technology then they need to find some better aliens - we are certainly better than the Russians but only incrementally so, and not really at all when you consider the obscene amounts of money that have been spent.  No more congressional showboating, let's see the evidence!  If it doesn't exist then stop fooling around.

I do not know if we descended from apes. Therefore I wouldn't claim it to be so. Some skeptics would argue that if we descended from apes ... why do we still have apes.

You may not know it, but science has proven 100% that we descended from apelike creatures.  We did not descend from the current apes, nor they from us, but we all derived from a common ancestor that lived a few million years ago.  We still have other apes because they live in different environments and have not gone extinct, the same reason we have many wild species of cats, or birds or any other creatures.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on July 03, 2023, 09:25

How would someone identify an alien skeleton?

obviously through dna analysis. Assuming they aren't actually descended from us they should in theory be different from us. But this planet is old. Maybe like we broke away from the apes "allegedly", they broke away much sooner.

Well if they "broke away" from us then they must have originated on Earth and wouldn't actually be aliens.  Maybe they originated in Atlantis and took off in space ships before their city was flooded and are now coming back to visit?