|
MicrostockGroup Sponsors
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - Big Toe
26
« on: February 23, 2024, 10:06 »
Good news again but my last year bonus plan is already finished, I can't edit any photos in Lightroom right now, does I need to wait the next bonus code to work again ? Im confused.
The new code should already be there, if you qualified.
27
« on: February 23, 2024, 08:11 »
The easiest tool for copying is not ai but a normal camera.
In fact it is usually a lot faster to copy a bestselling image by just taking a similar picture.
It really depends on what is depicted in the bestseller. It is not so easy to copy a picture of a tropical beach with palm trees or of an iceberg, unless you somewhere near them or travel there anyway. Also customers and clients, if they really want to save money, they can just take pictures with their iphones. Including things like wood backgrounds, green grass and sky etc...a lot of the content that is ultrageneric is very, very easy to take yourself.
Even images of stuff that is seemingly available everywhere are no always that easy to copy. For example really clear blue sky with a nice cloud distribution does not occur as often as you might think. And if you want a specific type of clouds like cirrus clouds, you may have to wait a long time until you get an opportunity to get a really nice picture.
28
« on: February 21, 2024, 08:20 »
The Russians have begun the procedure to denounce the 1990 treaty with Germany.
As I understand it, the Russians are planning to occupy half of Germany.
Germans! Kick out your Scholz! Demand the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Or prepare parking lots for Russian tanks.
I was in favor of sending Taurus missiles to the Ukraine, but if an invasion of Russian forces into Germany is imminent, I guess we better keep the missiles to ourselves, so that we have a chance to repel the invasion.
29
« on: February 19, 2024, 16:10 »
I am seeing more reports of new subscriptions being added instead of extending existing subs. Since it's a holiday in the US, many folks are off today. If you haven't already redeemed your code, and you have an active subscription. I recommened holding off until I can confirm whether there is an issue or not.
Thanks for your patience,
Mat Hayward
Hello Mat, how long will take until the codes expire, if they are not redeemed? The code I currently use runs until October 1 this year. If it looks like extending the period is problematic, I would just keep the new code until then and only use it, when the old one runs out.
30
« on: February 16, 2024, 08:35 »
But only exactly 2 years later, Germany finally decided to increase spending, because it knows Trump can win.
It was decided to do so in June 2022. Read the articles I linked to. Your browser should be able to translate it to English or another language you might fancy. If you are right (which is naturally not the case) and your bureaucracy has been reacting to Scholzs words for 2 years.
Perhaps it is different in your country, but the German bureaucracy does not react to a chancelors words, but only to changes in the law. And the Sondervermgen was formally decided upon in June 2022. It even required an addition to our constitution,; considering that, this was really quick. And then it is totally normal that it takes some time to spend the money, because there are laws how this has to be done, in order to ensure that you end up with the stuff you really need, at reasonable prices and without corruption. More than 8 Billion Euro from the Sondervermgen has already been spent in 2023. That already lead to an increase in the military spending compared to the GDP; just not enough to crack the 2% threshold. This will happen this year. I can give you 100%, Russian orcs will occupy Germany in a few days.
This seems quite unlikely, considering that orcs only exist in fantasy strories, not the real world. As for the real world Russian army: It has shown in the Ukraine that it's ability to conduct quick maneuver warfare is rather limited, so I do not think they will show up near Berlin any time soon.
31
« on: February 15, 2024, 17:22 »
As for Trumps statements, as our German colleagues write, this year Germany unexpectedly decided to increase its defense spending.
There is nothing unexpected about this. It is the direct result of additional funds of 100 Billion Euros provided to spend on the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, over several years to bring it up to scratch. It is a so called "Sondervermgen", which allows to circumvent the strict German anti-debt laws. It was announced on February 27 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion into the Ukraine, in a famous speech by Chancelor Olaf Scholz (the Zeitenwende Speech) and formally decided on in June 2022. It just took some time for the military bureaucracy to actually start spending the money. Just after Trump directly told Germany what awaits her.
There is no way this could possibly have had any effect whatsoever on military spending so quickly. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitenwende-Redehttps://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderverm%C3%B6gen_(Bundeswehr)
32
« on: February 15, 2024, 07:03 »
Therefore, even based on his foolish announcement, trump-the-moron, must defend them and fight his buddy putin.
Is not a fact. If Germany will not pay enough money for defense, why should the United States send troops into German territory and defend not only, for example, Poland, but also Germany at the same time? Trump will shift responsibility for the occupation of Poland to Germany.
If Russia wants to invade Germany, they have to invade Poland first. They do not have the capabilities to land a significant number of troups with heavy arms like tanks at the German coast of the Baltic Sea, let alone supply them. Then, by defending Poland against a Russian invasion, the USA would automatically also defend Germany. Also, the US cannot really effectively defend Poland (or the Baltic states) against a Russian invasion without using German infrastructure and US owned infrastructure in Germany. The Ramstein Air Base is the headquarters of the US Air Force in Europe. Without it, the US air strike and defence capabilities in Europe would be seriously crippled. It would also be very hard to supply US troops in Europe without using German ports (or Dutch or Belgian ports, but then the supplies would have to be transported further east via German road or railway infrastructure). But this is all nonsense, of course, Trumps goal is to force Russian friends such as Germany, Hungary, and Austria to pay enough money.
Thus, the German parasites parasitized not only on the USA, but also on other EU countries, which are forced to pay 2% of their GDP for defense.
Of the countries you listed, only Hungary is relatively friendly towards Russia. Germany was in the past interested in keeping relatively good relations to Russia, partly because our politicians believed that the best insurance against war is to have good trade relations, partly because we relied (probably too much) on Russian gas for our energy supply. But of course, the Russian invasion of the Ukraine changed all that. And Austria is not part of the NATO and therefore not under any obligation to pay anything. I do agree though, that Germany should spend at least the agreed upon 2% of the GDP on defence and it looks like this year we will achieve this goal, as has already been stated in this thread. This has nothing to do with Trump, but rather with Putin.
33
« on: February 13, 2024, 12:26 »
Refugees also work and pay taxes. I saw the statistics, the amount of these taxes is no less than the aid that the EU pays to refugees.
Is Russia Today the source of these statistics?
34
« on: February 09, 2024, 06:08 »
simply, USA came to the point where they dont need and cant support Ukraine with their needs for a weapons You cant provide enough rockets for Patriot, when Shahed cost next to nothing and one missile for effective Patriot costs $4millions if they send 50 of Shaheds at the time, who will shoot all of them with that expensive Patriot missile?! And they are doing that almost daily - sending those tractor drones in waves and followed with cruise missiles simply mathematics and economics dont make sense
The Patriot system is not intended to shoot down cheap drones. The Ukraine has other systems for that like the German Flakpanzer Gepard (anti aircraft tank). The Patriot systems should be able to differentiate between drones and missiles and only shoot down the latter.
35
« on: February 06, 2024, 18:49 »
In addition to what has already been said:
I also had a number of rejected editorial images and the rejection note lists several possible reasons, one of which may be relevant:
"- Die Datei hatte kein starkes redaktionelles Konzept."
(The file did not have a strong editorial concept)
Of course this is highly subjective. Perhaps the reviewer did not recognize MGM as an important brand.
36
« on: February 05, 2024, 10:56 »
This is modern slavery without any transparency. I
As unfair as our relationship with the agencies may be, it should not be compared to slavery. If we do not like the arrangements, we can just walk away and take our images with us. Slaves do not have this option.
37
« on: January 25, 2024, 16:10 »
What can science tell me about this box.
What can the scientific minds here tell me about the box I photographed.
Not much. For a lot of reasons. First, as cascoly already hinted at, the technical quality of the image is not great. More importantly, you are withholding practically all additional information that a scientist would usually have to evaluate such a photo, like for example, where it was taken (that it was taken on Earth and not for example Bajor or Quonos is kind of a given), when it was taken, what scale it has, any information about the environment, any information you would get from touching it (you could probably tell whether it is made from clay or metal or plastic or cardboard etc.) and so on. What I can tell you is that is does not seem to be translucent, as you cannot see the background through it and it casts a shadow.
38
« on: January 24, 2024, 03:37 »
Appreciate if anyone who had encountered a similiar scenario to shed some lights on this matter or to direct me who i can contact with to seek a solution to this matter? Thanks.
I had this problem once in the past with a number of images. It helped to make some changes to the keywords (add or remove one or more keywords, I am not sure whether changing the order would have been enough). This solved the problem, probably because it forced the system to reindex the images.
39
« on: January 21, 2024, 12:46 »
Did you know that Trump has subsidized farmers - only in Iowa - with more money than the US has provided for Ukraine? You have an idea what "America First" will mean, don't you?
Just so you know, 90% of the money Biden gives to Ukraine remains in the United States. The government pays all this money to factories in the United States so that these factories produce weapons. This is support for the American economy.
I have not checked whether this is true, but if so, isn't that what you want? Haven't you stated repeatedly in the past that the Ukraine does not need money, but weapons?
So where is the problem, when the US money is used to produce weapons for the Ukraine?
I did not write there were problems. There are no problems. I saw that Wilm thinks (and this is how it is presented in the press) that money from Biden goes to the budget of Ukraine. Therefore, I explained how US money actually moves.
Maybe not 90% stay in the USA, but 75%, for example. But I read approximately these numbers.
Then you withdraw your previous complaints that Biden mostly gives money instead of weapons?
40
« on: January 21, 2024, 12:02 »
Did you know that Trump has subsidized farmers - only in Iowa - with more money than the US has provided for Ukraine? You have an idea what "America First" will mean, don't you?
Just so you know, 90% of the money Biden gives to Ukraine remains in the United States. The government pays all this money to factories in the United States so that these factories produce weapons. This is support for the American economy.
I have not checked whether this is true, but if so, isn't that what you want? Haven't you stated repeatedly in the past that the Ukraine does not need money, but weapons? So where is the problem, when the US money is used to produce weapons for the Ukraine?
42
« on: January 16, 2024, 13:53 »
Roswell is certainly real all day long. All day long. It wasn't project mogul and it wasn't a weather balloon. In fact it's looking more and more like the genesis of this whole saga. I won't even get into Roswell because its already been verified and more to come on that when it comes.
As I stated here before, Roswell was caused by three Ferengi and a shapeshifter inadvertently travelling back in time. That was revealed when the Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men" first aired in 1995. We even have live action footage of the event. In color. What could be more convincing?
43
« on: January 14, 2024, 09:10 »
This is what Russian slaves, orcs and zombies look like. And there are 80-90% of such Russians in russia.
There is no orc in this picture. Haven't you watched Lord Of The Rings? You seem to be unaware how orcs look like.
44
« on: January 14, 2024, 06:13 »
There is a very big sway towards interdimensional. It seems to be being bandied about more and more. I'm not there on that one but it is concerning to see it more and more. Just another race seems inevitable but one or many that can open portals or doorways into our world seems incorrect.
From Northrop Grumman:
https://now.northropgrumman.com/do-doors-to-interdimensional-travel-exist
Background information from Wikipedia for those who don't know Northrop Grumman:
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 95,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers.
Good to know that there are peole at Northrop Grumman with a sense of humour. Quote from your link: " Instructions on how to make a multiverse portal are, sadly, a bit disappointing (they're for a computer game module). But interdimensional portals also turn out to be a subject of interest for many websites dealing with religion and mysticism.
And, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper, London has gained a reputation as the Grand Central Station or at least the Clapham Junction of interdimensional travel. Portals are popping up all over town, and a mysterious blog is keeping tabs on them." In the more serious part of the article they quote a phsicist who believes it may be possible to survive interdimensional travel through a black hole that is large enough, like the one in the center of our galaxy. The distance to the center of the galaxy is about 26,000 light years. As you may know from Star Trek Voyager, even at Warp 9 you would need several decades to travel this distance. Since a warp drive is unfortunatly impossible, aliens would have to travel at sublight speed, so it would take them more than 26,000 years to cover the distance. So, aliens visiting us from another dimension would have to travel to a black hole on their side, somehow avoid being crushed by the other matter falling into the hole or torn into parts by the tidal forces caused by the gravity, then arrive at the black hole on our side, somehow escape the event horizon and again avoid being crushed or torn apart and then travel at least for 26,000 years in order to get to our solar system. So, no, interdimensional travel does not really make it any easier for aliens to visit us. At least not according to the physicist cited in the article.
45
« on: January 14, 2024, 05:56 »
You know what happens in the modern democratic World when you criticize government of the country in which you live.
Nothing bad happens to people in the democratic world to people who criticize their government. Then again, Russia isn't part of the democratic world, so you wouldn't know about that. The death of Gonzalo Lpez is another example of this.
Do you mean this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_LopezHe was killed in a shoot out with the police because he opened fire with an AR-15style rifle on the police officers trying to arrest him, having murdered five people, including three children, earlier the same day. So, no, he is not really an example of what happens when you criticize your government in the democratic world.
46
« on: January 11, 2024, 16:44 »
Big Toe, I'll say it briefly. Everything is exactly the opposite of what you wrote.
Well, since in your world everything seems to be upside down, the logical conclusion from your statement is that everything is exactly as I wrote.
47
« on: January 11, 2024, 12:56 »
1. $43.9 Billions is what percentage of the US military budget? The full-scale war has been going on for 2 years now, take this into account in your calculations.
The US military budget for 2024 is estimated to be about $842 billion. 3,5% of that are about 29,5 billion. The data from the support tracker covers aid from January 24 2022 until October 31 2023. So that amounts to about 26,3 billion per year. So the 3,5% of the military budget would only be a slight increase in military aid, with cutting the financial support to zero. So overall, the Ukraine would fare worse. You may belittle financial aid, but you absolutely need money to run a country under war conditions. You have to pay your soldiers, import stuff important for the war effort that are not weapons, for example to repair destroyed infrastructure or trucks and you can also use money to buy weapons from countries that are willing to deliver some, but do not want to give it away for free. 2. You can get by with much smaller amounts if you send the necessary weapons to Ukraine. The necessary weapons are aviation, medium- and long-range missiles, and tanks.
Is that so? Well, you got a significant number of modern Leopard 2 tanks from Germany and other European countries. Before they were delivered, they were viewed as a gamechanger by many people and there was a lot of pressure on the German government to send the tanks and allow other countries to do so. So they were delivered, but the effect seems to have been relatively insignificant for a number of reasons. They had a lot of problems with Russian mine fields, helicopters and drones and of course Russia also have a large number of anti-tank weapons. I suspect it may be the same with modern planes in realistic numbers. They will be vulnerable to Russian air defence and the Ukraine will still not be able to offer a lot of air support for offensives without risking the planes. More and longer reaching missiles may be more important, as they are more difficult to defend and allow striking behind the front, but they are not a panacea.
48
« on: January 11, 2024, 07:45 »
Big Toe, of the money that the Democrats gave to Ukraine, the amount of military assistance is not very large. Therefore, if even this 3% will be used to send weapons specifically (and if also the weapons that Ukraine is requesting, it will be very good). According to the Ukraine Support Tracker, the USA have send $43,9 Billions worth in military aid and $25 Billions financial aid, so I guess it depends on whether you call $43,9 Billions very large. https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/I also know that only Biden and the US Democrats are cowards and dealers in Ukrainian blood. And how do you know that? Therefore, it is logical to assume that the Republicans will send the necessary weapons to Ukraine.
Must be some kind of alternative logic.
49
« on: January 11, 2024, 06:50 »
https://twitter.com/i/status/1744512622194528333
Nikki Haley wants to give Ukraine a lot of weapons!
+100
She does not say this in the video.
She said in on multiple occasions. For example here:
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1742750667033215234
She specified that she is not in favor of sending money, but weapons.
Too bad she has no chance to win the GoP nomination!
Yes, she also states in the video that stoker linked to that the USA should send weapons instead of money, because apparently, foreigners can't be trusted with money. She does not say "a lot", though, at least not in the sense I assume Stoker would understand it. She says supporting the Ukraine would cost only three and a half percent of the US military budget. Given the size of the budget, that is a substantiel amount, but it does not exceed the military aid the US has already send to the Ukraine and she also said that the Europeans have paid more and should pay more, as it is in their neighbourhood. So it sounds to me that she will more or less continue the military aid the US currently sends, which obvioulsy does not satisfy Stoker.
|
Sponsors
Microstock Poll Results
Sponsors
|
Show Posts
