What did you do in the garden today?

[Happy hen lover]

No, I really mean shoes. I ordered two pairs of Clark shoes. They’re amazingly comfortable.

They're my second favorite next to my good ol Birks.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I don’t use Google except for my work email.
I use Brave and Duck Duck Go. You should do some searches and see what you get via DDG and Google. It’s not that they are tracking you, they push the stuff they want you to see - manipulate. FB manipulates by the way you can’t discuss some things - censoring.
In the last 5 years it has become outrageous how bias and manipulative they are

Absolutely. I have the Duck Duck Go & Chrome icons on my phone, so it is as easy to use 1 as it is the other. I've done searches just out of curiosity & yes the search results do vary. For example, if you had Googled something a month or 2 ago, then search for something completely unrelated now, they'll still "remember" what topic you had searched before & that will be reflected in ads. Now I have that setting, as much privacy & not to tailor ads, but that doesn't matter, I still get ads mysteriously pop up relating to something I was reading about months ago. It's kinda eerie. With DDG I only see what I am searching for at that very moment. Some apps are not supported by DDG, so ads on those apps will still follow the "you should be interested in" category. You cannot totally escape how the system is set up...it is what it is.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

They're my second favorite next to my good ol Birks.

I loved Clark's shoes when I was in the corporate world, they had the most comfortable. Had to wear heels with bsns suits, well the Clark's 1.5" with cushy insole was so nice. How those gals wear those 3" to 4" heels is a mystery to me.

I am still looking for the most comfortable sneakers. I bought some Brooks & they're ok but I miss a good sturdy yet comfortable shoe. Back in the day Reebok walking shoes were amazing but they changed. I have muck boots for wet chores but mostly in summer I want a good type of sneaker shoe mostly. Does anyone have a good suggestion? Shoes you wear affect your feet, ankles, knees, hips & lower back, too, as we older gardeners know all too well.

 

[igorsMistress]

Same thing as TT. TT might have an influence on public opinion (among some demographics) but for the Chinese government, that's just to identify and influence the latest trends.
They don't necessarily care what each of us do or buy, or where we go on the internet, as individuals, because just as you say, most of us aren't important people.
What they do care about is the aggregated information from millions of us unimportant people. What are the current "lifestyle" trends that people actually buy, and how much of those are driven or influenced by TT or other influencer-driven sites? How can they make TT more influential? What brands do the most people buy from and how should they imitate them or steal their intellectual property without getting caught, what price points are the cut-off for a certain percentage of people, what quality defects are red-flags for the most amount of people? And what quality defects can they get away with for the highest percentage of overseas buyers? What is the exact percentage of cheap crap they can get away with selling, and how many fake reviews does it take to drive up that percentage point into how much profitability?
Yes, Amazon and other sellers, pretty much everyone who sells things online (the company I work for as well) does their best to do the same, by analyzing aggregated customer information.
But!
I believe the stealing of CC information and intellectual property rights are not directly done or paid for by the Chinese government, only because they don't want to be seen as breaking International Trade treaties. I DO believe they outsource many of these aggregated-information-analysis tasks to hacking companies, and turn a blind eye to other things those companies may be doing or generating profits from, like selling CC card information, names and addresses to hackers, getting in the backdoor of smaller sellers who might not be able to afford sophisticated security protocols to steal their intellectual property rights.

Sorry this was so TL,DR! It just happened to be today, that at work I had to take a class about all this stuff to keep our logistics compliant with Customs and border controls and internet security. The class didn't point out anything negative about China at all, I just couldn't help but draw conclusions.

Don’t be sorry, we need to talk about stuff like this. I see your point, thanks for your perspective. I sometimes think governments don’t really care about getting caught though. What’s going to happen? Nothing. We the people, no matter where we live, are just fodder for those in power. We’re the machine making them more money.

 

[igorsMistress]

Absolutely. I have the Duck Duck Go & Chrome icons on my phone, so it is as easy to use 1 as it is the other. I've done searches just out of curiosity & yes the search results do vary. For example, if you had Googled something a month or 2 ago, then search for something completely unrelated now, they'll still "remember" what topic you had searched before & that will be reflected in ads. Now I have that setting, as much privacy & not to tailor ads, but that doesn't matter, I still get ads mysteriously pop up relating to something I was reading about months ago. It's kinda eerie. With DDG I only see what I am searching for at that very moment. Some apps are not supported by DDG, so ads on those apps will still follow the "you should be interested in" category. You cannot totally escape how the system is set up...it is what it is.

I use DDG also, far less annoying than google.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I loved Clark's shoes when I was in the corporate world, they had the most comfortable. Had to wear heels with bsns suits, well the Clark's 1.5" with cushy insole was so nice. How those gals wear those 3" to 4" heels is a mystery to me.

I am still looking for the most comfortable sneakers. I bought some Brooks & they're ok but I miss a good sturdy yet comfortable shoe. Back in the day Reebok walking shoes were amazing but they changed. I have muck boots for wet chores but mostly in summer I want a good type of sneaker shoe mostly. Does anyone have a good suggestion? Shoes you wear affect your feet, ankles, knees, hips & lower b toack, too, as we older gardeners know all too well.

I like my NB very light and airy sneakers. I had just washed them.

( I'm pretty much a sandal gal from no snow to snow season tho)
My hubby loves his Salamon speedcross sneakers. He wears sneakers or slippers all year never barefooted ! We're opposite in a lot of ways.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I like/use DDG also.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Poll: bush beans or pole beans. ?
I have more vertical than lateral acreage cuz I'm old so raised is best option.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I like my NB very light and airy sneakers. I had just washed them. View attachment 3875533 ( I'm pretty much a sandal gal from no snow to snow season tho)
My hubby loves his Salamon speedcross sneakers. He wears sneakers or slippers all year never barefooted ! We're opposite in a lot of ways.

They look like my Brooks, very light & airy, no sweating which is great. But they are not good for when I am gardening or doing flock chores at all. The muck boots are sturdy but I cannot wear them in the heat of summer, hot feet are not a good thing. The old Reeboks were so comfortable, combo of leather & breathable. They changed, not comfortable anymore.

 

[igorsMistress]

Poll: bush beans or pole beans. ?
I have more vertical than lateral acreage cuz I'm old so raised is best option.

Pole then, more room.