July 15, 2026 · 21:01

Where’s the blame?

That is at times the question, is it Elon Musk, its version of Twitter, the ABC News, or the hacker? Personally I do not think that ABC is to blame, but they are connected to it all (they are the unwilling participant). So how did this get started? I got last night a tweet, it wasn’t the groundbreaking news I was looking for, but I needed a new idea (and I got one as you are reading) so I decided to click on it. (See image below)

So here we see a few ‘facts’ or basically news given that makes the mind curious about what is involved. I saw the ‘tweet’ with a reference to Amazon (it merely mentions that) and I do not show the on the list, so accept that. In the background was the Australian Parliament House, as such I got interested. And I got this image several times in the previous few hours (I only saw them later) but they were allegedly tweeted by @Amenenyo1, @greciaibarra528, @DriftyGar, @Lundstromm04, @MarcelWagenveld and @ezcxs I am not connected to any of them, as such they might be trolls, or spam/scam facilitators. 

Anyway it reflects towards this article from ABC news:

The article is speculatively used because it is a long article. I reckon that the scammers need time to get information from this who push the “A few minutes after yesterday’s release” article. The link goes to TR.EE, which is an Estonian address, but the article seems to reflect an address ‘ferrariracinglegends dot com’ (I used the letter to replace the character, so that you will not fall into that same setting) all this makes me think that ABS is the unwilling participant in all this. And the larger question becomes. Who is to blame? I might have fallen for that trap last week as well and I got a call from an internet phone with an IPv6 address (which I did not answer) and after that my phone gave no evidence it was called, there was no blocked call, there was no rejected call. No evidence that I was called at all. As such I am making a few assumptions and they are mine to make. But it is clear that whomever is getting into this is using more powerful tools and more agility in the internet workings all over the field. 

  1. What is Elon Musk (his Tweety setting) amounting to?
  2. Is social media to blame?
  3. Is the advertisement department to blame?
  4. How is this managed in X (formerly known as Twitter)?
  5. How is advertisement in X managed, controlled and monitored?

5 questions that are important. Because this is inhibiting what reliability X has left, when X becomes a plaything of scammers and phishers X is pretty much done for. 

So can we blame social media? It relies of propagation and influencers, and as such scammers are top tier influencers, you are basically the tool they will use to propagate their need for cash. This sound ominous, but that is what it amounts to.

So how are advertisements managed in X? That is the first real culprit, the fact that I had that advertisement any least 6 times in an hour, with 6 different addresses makes me thing that something is very wrong in this setting, especially as I am not connected to any of them. Yes I know that this could be replicated, but that evidence (which I do not have) makes the blame squarely on the advertisement department of X (as I personally see it). And as I see it, whomever manages the advertisement setting of X has some explaining to do (optionally to Elon Musk, who might be seeing a massive drop in credibility, at the max of $44,000,000,000 and he might not like what this is amounting to. Then we get to the control and monitoring of advertisements. Because this setting has references to Amazon and ABC News who are seemingly not part of this and they might be seeking legal council in all of this. 

So as you see, I have questions. I reckon I have answers too, but without clear evidence there is no way I can comment, but the questions remain and until they are resolved anyone clicking on an advertisement is setting himself up for a long fall. That is merely how I see it and I thought it ws important to spread this news as far as I could.

Have a great day you all.

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July 15, 2026 · 01:31

What a surprise

So, before I get you to the article, I want to reiterate my position. I did this a few times and here it matters. You see, on May 31st 2025 I wrote ‘All Dressed Up’ where I gave you ““The United States could experience a loss of $21 billion in tourism-related revenue this year if current trends continue, according to estimates by the U.S. Travel Association. According to the trade group, every 1% reduction in international tourist spending represents an annual loss of $1.8 billion for the U.S. economy. Furthermore, experts indicated that a strong U.S. dollar could be driving away international visitors.” Even though only Canada is ‘sifted’ out” I had some issues, because the numbers were seemingly giving added ‘benefits’ to the economic settings of this administration. And now we see CBC giving us (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cross-border-travel-down-dramatically-research-9.7198652) ‘Travel to the U.S. is down even more dramatically than we thought, data shows’ where we are seeing “While official Statistics Canada figures show a roughly 25 per cent decline in Canadian residents returning from the U.S. last year, cellphone data compiled by researchers at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities found that the year-over-year drop in cross-border trips was closer to 42 per cent.” Which is a nice sidestep and the University of Toronto has proven themselves more than once, so I am excepting this setting. This means that the numbers were off by over 15%, which gives my settings (and decently speculative) a new wave of reliability. So whilst we ‘accept’ the numbers we are also given “They found the decline was even more dramatic in some warm weather locales that have historically been hot spots for Canadians fleeing winter weather. In Myrtle Beach, S.C., the number of trips by Canadians was down 65 per cent year-over-year, according to the cellphone data, giving it the dubious title of the metro area with the steepest drop. In the Florida cities of Panama City, Orlando, Cape Coral, Miami and Naples, the number of Canadian visitors fell by 50 per cent or more. But cratering demand wasn’t recorded only in those sunny destinations. Trips to San Francisco, New York, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, Mich., Boston and other business centres have also fallen by more than half, according to the data. In fact, of the 267 U.S. metro areas analyzed by researchers, only three — Cleveland, Portland, Ore., and Gainesville, Fla. — showed an increase in visits by Canadians last year.” What a lovely way to powder a message. Canadians kept up their promise that they were sick and tired of the 51st state setting of the United States by showing a massive decline to well over 250 U.S. metro areas? That should suck to the economy of the United States and I reckon that some people in this administration long before the Tuesday, November 3 moment has come to the calendars of all American voters and as ‘they’ say, every citizen is a voter at that point. So as the USA Today gave us yesterday (at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/07/13/trump-federal-control-midterm-elections/90840111007/) ‘Trump moves to tighten federal control of elections ahead of midterms’ there is a setting that the drop in tourism will have every citizen of the United States livid. So whilst we are given “The president says he’s trying to prevent cheating, but Democrats argue he’s actually putting his thumb on the scale for the GOP by trying to block Democrats from voting.” Which is likely to be a repeat from 2016 when ‘O’Reilly’s Proof That Voter Fraud Exists Was Debunked On His Own Show Four Years Ago’, it is all kids of mean that I figure on using the words of a dedicated Republican to whistle back the BS from a republican administration. And we were given “Fox News host Bill O’Reilly argued that Mitt Romney’s failure to receive any votes in the 2012 presidential election in 59 divisions in Philadelphia was evidence that widespread voter fraud exists presidential elections. This claim was investigated and proved false on O’Reilly’s show one week after the 2012 election. O’Reilly invited lawyers Kimberly Guilfoyle and Stacy Schneider to discuss the prevalence of voter fraud in presidential elections. While both Guilfoyle and Schneider agreed that voter fraud is extremely rare, O’Reilly pointed to “reports in Philadelphia that nobody voted for Romney” as proof that voter fraud exists and asked if these reports have been investigated. From the August 16 edition of The O’Reilly Factor: O’Reilly himself investigated and debunked these allegations in 2012. Following the election, O’Reilly hosted Fox’s Megyn Kelly to investigate the “shenanigans” and why Romney got zero votes in a number of Philadelphia divisions. Kelly explained that “the same thing happened to John McCain” in 2008 because “the divisions with the unanimous Obama votes have large black, inner-city populations.”” 

So will this be a repeat of what we saw in 2016, and with the population of 250 U.S. metro areas extremely likely to be livid, what chance does this administration have? So whilst we return to the story and visit “In an interview with CBC News, Karen Chapple, the lead researcher and director of the School of Cities, said the drop in tourism to popular destinations like Orlando, as well as border communities like Buffalo, N.Y., has been well-documented. What her cellphone data makes clear is that the Canadian boycott is affecting cities both big and small across the States — and it’s not just leisure travel that has dried up. The self-imposed travel ban has extended to high-tech, financial and industrial centres, signaling that cross-border business and trade patterns have fundamentally shifted over the last year. “I have been using the word ‘sea change,'” Chapple said of the data she and her team uncovered. “And the places most impacted by the tariffs are also the ones most affected by the loss of travel,” she said, pointing to some Michigan cities like Flint that have trade ties to Ontario’s auto sector. “These declines are really tied to the composition of the local economies.”” A setting which my (decently speculative numbers also looked at) you see, there is a lot more to the spending of an international traveling person. They often fro not know certain things, or they might see it as impolite to use certain settings and this would have impacted local businesses a lot more. Like the local B&B places (to name merely one) and none of those earlier numbers would have seen that and now we see that there is a 15% gap between what was and seemingly what is. 

It is at this point where the CBC setting matters. As we are given “The U.S. Travel Association last year said a 10 per cent drop in Canadian tourism would cost the American economy about $2.1 billion US. If Chapple’s data is an accurate reflection of what’s going on, that means Canadians holding back on U.S. travel may have cost the economy about $8.4 billion US and counting. Speaking at a progressive political conference last weekend, Prime Minister Mark Carney applauded Canadians’ efforts to stand up to the Americans as the trade dispute with Trump drags on.” And now I get to gloat (just a little) and my story given on August 30th 2025 called ‘Vindication of a sort’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/30/vindication-of-a-sort/) where I stated 

“I speculatively expect it to be at least 80 billion” that was over two weeks ago. Now MSN gives us ‘Study Warns Trump Tariffs Could Deliver $64 Billion Hit to U.S. Tourism Businesses’, I reckon that when they start considering the bankruptcies in Florida and California are added, they will get a lot closer to my 80 billion”

So my speculation was hitting reality on nearly all thrusters and whilst bankruptcies are on a high in Florida (44,496), which dwarves the previous year (which had 32,933) and these numbers are set to May 26th 2026, as such these numbers are most likely to rise and taken that the CBC gives us alternative numbers, that jump might be a lot and I speculated it over a year ago, that is before we look at California where we see ‘California personal bankruptcies up 15% in a year’ (source: East Bay Times). The story they have comes with graphics, which are (especially for Canadians, fun to behold at https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/06/02/california-personal-bankruptcies-up-15-in-a-year/) It gives me that Texas with its 20% is still a states to consider and considering all these families renting out part of their house on a B&B setting are likely to be all personal bankruptcies. When you add all this up, you might start seeing the settings I say in 2025 because this all was set to Canadian impact, whilst I was looking at the larger international community that had enough of Trumpisms and I also considered that the Commonwealth nations might stand with Canada and select Canada as the destination for the next few years. That speculation is seemingly holding water as well, as such the United States has a real problem until deep into 2029 and with the Middle East exploring their tourism settings (especially the UAE) that hardship is nowhere near done. 

So some might see this as ego boasting, but there is no ego in place. I merely saw the numbers behind the numbers and I saw a trend evolving and I have been doing this since 1992, so I have a few markers that have been seeing the test of time. My ego does giggle at the simple fact that I was more on the nose with these numbers than all the fake AI in the land. So that part is gloating boasting and all kinds of nearly negative settings. I don’t have to give space to fake AI, it is that kind of a day today (at it is Wednesday 01:10 here), it sometimes suck to be a Fake AI, doesn’t it?

The article has one source “Barbara Barrett, executive director of the Frontier Duty Free Association, a trade group representing the mostly family-owned stores that dot the Canadian side of the border, said the steeper drop-off figures are more believable than the StatsCan data, based on how badly sales have plummeted at some of her members’ outlets.” Yes, I never considered that, but Canadians tend to buy the Canadian articles they know, as such that group is also facing dwindling numbers. For them I do feel sorry, but it is part of the whole.

So as I go to bed with a gloat, I wish you all a great day, my Wednesday ‘officially’ starts in less than 300 minutes.

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July 14, 2026 · 05:05

Remembrance

There was a need to do this. From the United States we only hear boasts and BS, from other places we see political settings and it tires me, but the shock I felt last night was just too real for me, the world lost a giant actor. Sam Neil has left us. I have seen his works going all the way back to the 80s. So lets take a look. I first noticed him in The Omen III (1981) followed by Reilly, Ace of spies (1983) it was a different spy story and it was only later that I learned that the man had actually existed. After that Dead Calm (which I watched because Nicole Kidman was in it), Kane and Abel (1985). I loved the story and Sam made it a better series, and together with Peter Strauss it brought a great setting where these two actors brought a book to life. After that I think I watched The Hunt for Red October (1990) which I saw because of Sean Connery, but Sam Neil was well noticed. In the 90s he was noticed by me, although he was not the reason I saw the movies he was in. I saw Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), The Piano, Sirens and then there was Jurassic Park (1993) after which Sam became the reason to see movies. First there was In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Event Horizon (1997) Merlin (1998) and Bicentennial Man (1999), which I actually preferred over Steven Spielbergs A.I. and Sam gave stellar performances every time. Looking back at these works I am amazed how much he influenced some of the choices of movies I made because of his involvement. As I see it, he made these movies great because of his collaboration with other actors. As I go through the list like The Dish and Jurassic Park III and Wimbledon I am noticing that I missed some of his works over time. Which makes me a little sad, but these were times that I could only squeeze 24 hours out of any day and choices needed to be made. I reckon we all noticed him on a Cameo in Thor: Ragnarok (together with Matt Damon) giving it all a fun moment. As far as I can tell, the last thing I saw him in was Thor: Love and Thunder. I have seen other movies with him after that, but as far as I can tell, it was the latest  setting I saw him in. Weirdly enough, I feel no deep mourning. When I think of him in these movies it merely brings a smile to my face. He really livened up the movies he worked on. And even now I still consider watching the Blu-ray of Event Horizon today. This movie has a nice little story behind it. In a scene where he sees his eyeless wife I yelped in the cinema and a friend told me that an entire wave of watchers reacted to my yelp. That moment really got to me. As such I end this story with: 

I raise my glass to you in salute to an amazing career in excellence for over 4 decades. Mr Neil it was an honour watching your work and perhaps we get to meet for real in the next stage of our lives. You will be missed on the big screen. And not to forget, my condolences to his family and friends. 

I wish you all a great day today.

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July 13, 2026 · 10:15

Using the media in war

That has always ben the case, as early as the 1620s as Corantos. A first-hand battlefield datelines and updates on the war. It is a little bit disappointing as they were a stronger setting of what was to be than what the media gives us now in 2026 in the Iran settings. Headlines like ‘Iran bets Trump will blink first’ and ‘‘We’re beating them up’, Trump on fresh Iran strikes’ and lets not forget ‘U.S. insists Strait of Hormuz remains open despite Iran declaring it closed, as strikes escalate’ all less then three hours ago. So, what is the measure of a war? But I am sitting in a setting with a headline 6 hours ago. We were given ‘The Guardian view on Trump and Tehran: everyone loses when the US and Iran overplay their hands’ and I say firmly ‘No!’

You see, the media is part of this mess. When they decided to reject the evidence from Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki on the drones from the Houthi terrorists (supplied by Iran), which clearly showed that Iran was behind this all. As you ignored evidence of an attack on Aramco, whilst blatantly ignoring that Houthi forces did not have the ability to expertly drive drones 10 times into Aramco targets, simply ignoring that this required high knowledge of drone aviation, only found in a state operator like the IRGC. You pretty much tailored your own demise from September 14th, 2019 onwards showing others that you were so dependent on the digital dollar, that you catered to its infliction of whatever drove clicks best. 

This is a stage the media catered to and whilst we see other things evolve, they cater to what drives clicks. The media has lost its footing, its credibility and now they are catering to the populist voices. And in all this I might be wrong (my nautical knowledge is almost half a century old) we see “Under international law, Iran does not have the legal right to completely close or block the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, although it has used military force to heavily restrict and control traffic. The strait is governed by the regime of “transit passage” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which guarantees that all civilian ships have the right of uninterrupted navigation” (source: Opinio Juris) but the larger setting is that any water has optionally two parties. 

The Straight of Hormuz borders Oman as well, as such there is a stretch that is Omanian territory, so in my naive setting I would say that the ships go via the Omanian part of the strait. I might be oversimplifying this, because Iran would have to attack Omanian waters and in that setting all parties including the GCC could attack Iran for violating their rights. I know I am missing a few settings, but this is what seems to be possible and if the media did their work, even if it is debunking my idea it might have been fine. But they did not did they?

So whilst the media seems to have dug its own Grave by adhering to proxy wars and for the benefit of access they might have silenced a few items (allegedly), we see an incomplete picture and we are thrusted towards headlines based on the old premise she said vs she said and as far as I can see this, this is all that is left to read. 

So what is the real deal? That is the question and in the meantime Iran does what it deserves best, wield the stick of terror over all the lands and I see that these warring parties are ignoring what gives Iran power to act, as such the destruction of their harbours their railroads and their refineries could have been a solution when I gave it 4 months ago. It almost seems like the United States doesn’t want to win, merely drag this setting along. Why?

Well that is all I have at the moment, as such you all have a great day today.

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July 12, 2026 · 13:43

From a deceptive mind

Yup, that’s me. I saw an article and the sneaky mind went to work. All because some words gave me ample reasons to do so. But lets start at the beginning. It all started with a story in the Microsoft Source Australia (at https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/features/how-commonwealth-bank-and-microsoft-are-reimagining-the-future-of-customer-service/) where we see ‘How Commonwealth Bank and Microsoft are reimagining the future of customer service’ really? Reimagining? I get that Microsoft sees a blanket of opportunity, because as I see it, on a near global scale Technical Support and Customer Care will take dives and the need of clear quality is to be found nearly everywhere. But here is the kink in this cable. There already is a supplier. It is called NICE, an Israeli cloud supplier. I saw several options for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I wrote about it in the story ‘Dominoes’ on December 4th 2023 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/12/04/dominoes/). I didn’t give the entire setting, but they were here first as such the solution ‘reimagined’ is not seen by me here.

So when I saw “Martin Lindsay had a bold vision to reimagine the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s contact center architecture using an approach that did not yet exist. As Executive General Manager of Customer Service Direct at the banking group, Lindsay set out to bring together multiple legacy systems supporting voice, messaging and digital interactions into a single, AI-powered omni-channel platform. The goal was to create a more intuitive, conversational experience for customers, while supporting frontline teams with better tools to serve them.” I had to giggle, because that is basically what the NICE CX One platform does and in several other ways. As such is this an attempt to plagiarise an already excellent idea, or are these people making sure that the “The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) serves approximately 17 million retail, business, and institutional customers across the country, representing nearly two-thirds of the Australian population. Of this total, the bank has over 1 million business customers and 8.3 million digitally active users.” (Source: Oogly Googly Google) fall straight via Microsoft into the Cloud Act capturing settings of the United States of America? Yes, people seem to forget is trivialize that cloud act and someone needs to take a longer look at this. For example an optional pretentious Martin Lindsay who had his ideas close to 5 years after NICE did. Nice started in 1986 as Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering and that’s evolved into the setting we see now. As such what is the setting of imagination at Microsoft? (optionally at the CBA too). And as I see it, it is an Israeli company, but NiCE is an American technology company specializing in customer relations management software (NiCE CXone), artificial intelligence, and digital and workforce engagement management. OK, as I see it the cloud act is not avoided, but the fact that some (read: Microsoft Source Australia) might want to peer their sugar coated story. So when we get to “The catalyst came in early 2024, when Lindsay partnered with leaders from Microsoft to co‑engineer the solution. The timing was driven by a rapid shift in customer expectations for instant, always-on support, while the bank’s existing virtual chatbot was being wound down.” One might have a Conspiracy Theorist mind (that would be me) seeing that I saw this a year before him, that he had an idea to take the idea from NiCE and give it a swirl and optionally he saw Microsoft as a partner in alleged crime. Alleged, because I have no idea how this went, but as we look at Nice (at www.nice.com) you can see how evolved that idea already is and as such why reinvent the wheel? I have my doubts on this idea. Especially as we can see a massively evolved system, it seems to go even further than when I saw it in 2023 (which makes sense). So as I see that setting I also see “We wanted to work with Microsoft to shape their products and deliver a platform aligned to our future strategy. We knew that meant working with Microsoft as a co-creator in our vision from day one.” But I read it as “We needed a Microsoft tainted solution where I get the credit, the commission and I call Microsoft a ‘co-creator’ so that I can get my coins”, so am I pushing the conspiracy theory setting? I might be, but this is how business is done in this modern age. Because if NiCe was rejected, the story would be “We saw a solution that didn’t match with our vision, so we talked to Microsoft and see if they would help us out” and at this point you see the consultancy solution that NiCE could offer and was rejected for a much bigger bill.

Apart from that there is nothing. As I see it, the world will have a massive Technical support and Customer Care issue from 2027 onwards. As people are fired all over the place they can hire people with a telephone voice and a good setting towards data entry, both are essential in these fields. But what do I know, I have merely be set into the Technical Support world and Customer Care world since 1992. So I know a few things, which is also why I saw the essential needed setting of NiCE. 

The rest of the story was too self adoring for me to adhere to, as people see that Customer Care has a low tolerance for failure, It is essentially humorous to see that Microsoft is clearly not using their own solution. Why? Perhaps Clippy objected? That Is a mere speculation on the matter and even in this case speculations tend to matter, because the idea is seemingly nice and merely seemingly because someone else saw that sight first and as I see it, the CBA never seemingly saw it as they went shopping at Microsoft. But what do I know? 

Have a great day you all, time for some coffee.

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July 11, 2026 · 17:02

Reasons to see the Middle East

I was told in the Khaleej Times (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/gulf/saudi-arabia-tourist-package-visa-service-pilot-phase) that Saudi Arabia is adding a few options. With ‘Saudi Arabia launches new tourist visa service package for 7 countries’ we are given “Saudi Arabia has launched a new tourist visa package which will allow visitors to obtain a visa as part of a extensive travel bundle, reducing the hassle of planning and booking an entire trip. The service allows tourists to book packages that combine various elements of their trip, including airfare, accommodation at licensed tourist housing, and electronic visa processing, with the option to add experiences, activities, and events.” As I personally see it, the vacation to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, optionally with addition to Qatar could now include an additional long weekend in Riyadh (or Dammam/Jeddah) with options towards the Kingdom Tower, Riyadh City Boulevard and the Grand Mosque, there are plenty of places and they now come as an optional addition. Whilst some go to other places through the worry that Riyadh might not have the options for a long time. We see that Riyadh has plenty to do as an addition. As such that tourist visa package could be the suitor for Saudi Arabia to get tourist traction and it could use that in the big picture of tourism. So as we also see “It is issued electronically within a maximum of 48 hours after the travel package purchase is completed, eliminating the need to visit a Saudi embassy or submit a standalone visa application. By including visa arrangement services within the package, service providers will be offering clients a smoother experience and design more integrated and attractive tourism packages, encouraging visitors to extend their trips.” Beside that we are given “The pilot phase of the program will be subject to specific operational requirements. These include the readiness of digital platforms and the provision of 24/7 technical support and visitor communication services. The ‘Tourist package visa’ service reflects a broader transformation in the sector, which is based on facilitating travel, strengthening partnerships with the private sector, offering more integrated tourism experiences, and opening wider horizons for the world to discover the Kingdom and its diverse destinations. The new service is part of a series of programs and services launched by the country in recent years to facilitate tourist access and enhance their experience, in line with the objectives of Vision 2030.” I reckon that this pilot will start this summer and when it shows the benefits to the tourist traction, it should be implemented in a much wider way. As I see it, Saudi Arabia could use the tourism boost and as tourists are avoiding the United States, these people need to go somewhere. In addition 1 in 5 people are Muslim making Saudi Arabia an optional point of interest and not all are likely to see Saudi Arabia as a vacation Destination, they will see Saudi Arabia as an optional additional location to other places and the most likely location was the UAE, so as I see it, this new visa might be the solution for Saudi Arabia, especially for people who need an additional or alternative location. The fact that this visa could be done in 48 hours after application implies that some of these people can apply whilst they are on vacation. Personally I only see upsides to this setting. Especially for the tourism in Saudi Arabia. Considering that Canada and the UK already have almost 6 million muslims, add to that the 26 million muslims in Europe, there could be a decent uptake of this solution in 2027. I don’t think it is only for Muslims, especially Riyadh. But I think that this category of tourists would have a first interest in seeing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Coming to think of it (me being humorous) you could go to Dammam and see Iran on the other side of the Sea of Dammam (Iranians call it the Persian Gulf) and throw stones across the water to Iran. One can only hope that the Saudi population shares my sense of humour. Still as I see it, the addition to the visa package could be the start of a much larger intake of tourists for Saudi Arabia.

As I see it, the Arabian peninsula could be the hottest tourist ticket for 2027/2028, but what do I know. I am not a tourist operator. So you all have a great day, time for me to start making my pasta meal.

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July 10, 2026 · 22:16

Is it the water level?

Yup, we are all in that setting, but are we merely waving to the music of Debbie Harry or are we watching the waves from the shorelines. That is merely two options, but when some say that the tide is high, they might be referring to bubbles, the AI bubble to be more precise. I am not some economist saying that bubbles are blasphemy and I am no economist, but I have looked at numbers for decades and the numbers we are given do not add up, and when I was watching Inside Job something hit me, there was a familiar pattern evolving, not evolving, repeating is a better word and I have been saying this for some time. Yet today, a mere 10 minutes ago I see ‘UK Places Microsoft, Google, Amazon And Oracle Under Financial Oversight’ (at https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2026/07/10/uk-places-microsoft-google-amazon-and-oracle-under-financial-oversight/) where we see “The UK has placed Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Oracle under direct regulatory oversight after designating the cloud service providers as critical third parties to the country’s financial system. Reuters reported that effective July 13, the designation covers Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd, Google Cloud EMEA Ltd, Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL and Oracle Corporation UK Ltd, reflecting the financial sector’s growing dependence on cloud infrastructure”, so whilst the story ends with “The designation will bring the four technology firms under direct regulatory oversight as part of efforts to safeguard the stability and continuity of the UK’s financial sector.” And it comes after we were given (at https://m.au.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/oracle-stock-shrugs-off-sp-downgrade-to-bbb-but-120b-debt-shadow-looms-4526441) where we see ‘Oracle stock shrugs off S&P downgrade to ’BBB-’, but $160B debt shadow looms’ where we see “Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) shares managed to gain 2.7% on Thursday, defying a credit rating downgrade from S&P Global Ratings. While shares edged slightly lower from their midday highs, the tech giant still traded firmly in positive territory. Investors chose to focus on Oracle’s staggering $638 billion backlog of cloud contracts rather than the immediately apparent threat to its balance sheet: S&P downgraded Oracle’s long-term issuer credit rating to ’BBB-’ from ’BBB’, retaining a stable outlook.”

Now, I am not having anything against Oracle. They have always been on the foreground of technology and innovation in its field and it is unlikely to ever change. But there is a larger setting, the entire AI bubble as I see it, it will hit them too. They all over invested in that setting and they are likely the biggest catchers of the implosion of that event. But I am still in arms over ““The official position of the Secretary and the U.S. Treasury is that Artificial intelligence will be a key driver of America’s new Golden Age,” the spokesperson said. “AI has the potential to deliver unprecedented productivity gains, expand economic opportunity, and empower American workers and businesses.”” You see, there is no golden age, there is no AI, not yet at least. There is DML and LLM and they are great, they can hand innovation and prosperity in several ways. It merely isn’ AI and that needs to be said, because soon the class actions will go for the “It’s AI and we cannot really predict what AI does” but it isn’t, it is DML and that requires a programmer, it requires data and these two hinder stones are the backdrop for prosecution. Only last week we were given ‘Anthropic Faces a New $75 Million Lawsuit for Pirating Books to Train Claude AI’ and less than 24 hours ago Harvard Business Review ‘You Outsourced the AI—but you still own the risk’ where we see “As enterprises increasingly embed third-party systems into their workflows, technological risk has led to new legal and operational responsibilities. Leaders may have little visibility into how a model was trained or how it changes, yet when it discriminates, mishandles data, or harms a customer, regulators and plaintiffs often look first to the company that deployed it. Peloton learned how that exposure can arise. Visitors to its website see a familiar invitation to “chat,” powered by a third-party vendor. According to a class-action complaint, the vendor recorded and stored conversations and used the data to improve its machine-learning models. Peloton neither built nor trained the system. Even so, a California federal judge allowed a claim against the company to proceed. The parties later jointly dismissed the case, without publicly disclosing the terms.”

Now consider the amalgamation of these factors (apart from some saying there is no bubble) there is (allegedly) “Worldwide spending on AI is forecast to reach $2.5 trillion. Venture capital and private corporate investments in AI firms sit near $258.7 billion globally, with over $750 billion in dedicated infrastructure and data center capital expenditure from major tech hyperscalers” we then see that the big players (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle) are basically overextended, facing class actions and all of them are looking at all sorts of financial hardship, because at some stage all these players will be made to rephrase the simple truth that AI is not DML/LLM, it requires more and when the programming is put under a loop that setting comes crashing down. I saw it two years ago that this is the only outcome in some sales people overselling what they had and the simplest setting is not a mere Quantum computer. It requires shallow circuits and what I tend to call The Epsilon processor. True AI cannot exist in a binary setting. The last one is my interpretation of it all and some might disagree. But the Epsilon processor allows for Null, False, True, Both and it is the Both part that makes true AI possible and of course a matching operating systems will be required as well a data carrier and in that case Oracle and Snowflake have the grounds for success. As I see it, all others will fall behind these two. 

And last month we were given that “400 newspapers sued OpenAI and Microsoft for scraping their content without permission or compensation to train artificial intelligence programs” even my data has been scraped. So how many will be successful? How many will fail? I have no idea, but the odds are decently stacked against these salespeople. And as the courts rule against these Fake AI bringers (as I see it) there will be a rush of people making a case, all who were sold AI (without clear DML/LLM settings in their contracts) are seeing their pupils transform into dollar signs and they will try to clean house. So when all these settings happen, is the stage for a bubble that far fetched? 

I am watching and watching and noting what is due. I reckon that at some point I get the one piece of evidence that will allow me to do just that, 2700 (out of nearly 4000) article scraped seemingly give me an optional case for some dollars (five million plus would be great). And I am not the greediest player in town. So at what point will the investors of $2.5 trillion ring the bell wanting to see payment for their investments? Goldman Sachs gave us last month ‘The AI Investment Boom: When Will It Pay Off?’ With “The economics of artificial intelligence are more questionable today than two years ago, says Goldman Sachs Research’s Jim Covello, as enterprise buyers, model companies, and hyperscalers have yet to show returns on their spend. In a conversation with Alison Nathan and George Lee on Goldman Sachs Exchanges, Covello discusses where we’ve seen economic value accrue to date and why semiconductor companies can’t continue to be the sole beneficiaries of the AI buildout.” As such we see people with serious economic skills worrying and wondering what comes next and I was there at least a year ago. So when will others see the doubt that I am seeing? The money people call the bubble a blasphemy, but they have vested interests. I do not. I merely see the flaws on technology that is at least 15-20 years away, data that is largely unvalidated and unverified and at this juncture people are investing trillions? Makes me all tingly that too many people are greed driven and too much vested to be part of a boom that does not exist, just like the settings of 2008, Inside Job showed that clearly and it seems that we have a similar setting evolve at least two times the previous caper. So if you consider that with all the reserves that hit took the economy 2 decades to fix and at present the reserves are gone, so what will happen now? Why aren’t others taking the stand the UK is making? Because others are in the believe that “America’s new Golden Age” is here? When you realize that it will take close to two decades to arrive, how long until too many investors pull the plug and go somewhere else? What will happen then? That is what I see coming, because at some point more and more people wake up, this is bound to happen, it always does.

So is the water high enough? Have a great day.

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July 10, 2026 · 02:16

And so, part 3

And so the continuing story of a quack whose gone to the dogs (always good fun to laugh at myself) but there is a part 3 and there is more, but I cannot give the game away (at present). So as I was designing and redesigning the game I my mind (not graphically) there was the setting of the next part which is a little in the open. It becomes the stage of ‘Heralding’ my entry as a Fakir of Baghdad. It is the fist definite stage on becoming a person for good, or a person of debatable conditioning. You see, Evil is only in existence of this who ‘claim’ themselves to be good, evil is their opposite, or so they seem to think. But being evil is merely a stepping stone. It is always carved to the degree others think what evil was. But we have good and an opposite and that is where the game goes. As I see it, as a Fakir you will get a malleable setting. The good get the power of water, the others get the setting of fire and as you complete the stage you get introduced to either and take another trip to a cave the damp cave for the water Djini Zarek or fire Djini Zulrekh. The setting will decide how the Italian fortress of the game is dealt with. The Arabian lands are dry, the water had left them, but what you will discover is that the Italians built over a earlier stage of the underground waters, they dammed the waters in and kept a well for themselves. As such you are treated by Zulrekh as the instigator of flames, burning the enemy down and the Italians become the firewood of your power. As you became Fakir, you were also given access to a staff (which must be bought) the staff is the same either way, but the way the staff is gained is important. In a previous mission you were able to get a staff, but either you steal it, or you perform tasks to get it. If you steal the staff, you get a beggars staff which is an oak staff and you get the dream to find Zulrekh in the cinder cave, if you perform the tasks you get the dream of the Water Djini Zarek who invites you to the damp cave. That is the step that defines your route.  Zarek tells you:

Hello young one, You did well, you please me with the route that is fluidic like water. You did the task and now I seek you out, there is much to tell. The western Italici decided to put there fortress on top of the streams that feed Bagdad, they blocked the waters keeping little for themselves. This water can no longer feed Baghdad, the tigris still flows, but no longer to Baghdad. They must now travel to the Tigris every day to get their waters. But water is strong, so I will teach you how water breaks stone and you can crush the Italians by crushing the walls of their dam and their fortress and the waters will return to the people feeding their needs. Water is an elemental power and it is strong, so you will face new hardships, but you will come out stronger and more fluidic than you have ever been. In this cave challenge you will only get a stream of water, as you smother fire you also give animals a route to escape and as the animals escape your stream becomes stronger and you will be able to stop the flames.

The idea becomes to soften the earth and washing the mud over the cinders fueling the fire. The challenge is not hard, but it shows how a simple stream washes sand, making it mud, as the stream becomes stronger you can unset boulders and they will move over the hay smothering the fuel for the flames. As you do this, you are attacked by scorpions and you can direct the stream over the scorpions washing them away. This is almost how it needs to be, I reckon that some ‘prototyping’ will be required, 

Zulrekh tells you:

Young one, your enemy has a fortress, it must burn, their people must burn, it is the only way. And in this task you end the fuel that stops the Arabian people being free. You must attack their ability to wage war against us, they become the fuel to your fire and that fire will fuel your powers too, it is your destiny to free the people to your needs and as they serve you, you will serve my needs too. 

And as such you are given the task of flaming the small boys in armor that represent the Italians and as such your flames become stronger and as you burn these little warriors you also gain mana and power just like the washed scorpions did, in the end both will give you a mana segment and your mana will get +5 making your actions stronger. As you play either you get the same rewards, only at the end you will get a different runic stone and the garbs of the Fakir will transform into either red/black or blue/green the clothes are almost the same, merely cosmetically colored and looks differ, but there is no power benefit. 

The idea is that if you take this route, you will never see the buried well, you will never free the stream but over time you will redirect the Tigris, but many will be lost to all this (which you will not know). It sets a double dialogue over the game and subsequent settings. I was not happy how some quests in other games went, it is normally not this or that, but to get two storylines and other storylines subsequently is another thing, it makes is a game with two faces and two outcomes. And as you get some direction and choices you will see that the game gives you more. I also think that these acts will shape your coat of arms, The red and black colours in your shield comes from Zulrekh, the blue and green colours come from Zarek and in the end the game shapes your coat of arms and gives you the ‘immortal’ setting on Baghdad. 

As such I also envisioned for the Spanish fortress a new challenge, but I am talking about some historic events (as they tend to be) where the Spaniards saw the impact of pestilence of Tharvex or the Azrakhil’s ghoulish hunger. It reflects on Spanish food and their need for Tapas (not entirely true, but it gave me the idea) on that others will learn and whilst we get to that as you have become a person of nobility, you will have gained most places and now it becomes about getting known and accepted all over Baghdad. It is from there you have access to the palace of the Vizier (your old place) and whilst it had fallen into disrepair, your actions will breath it new life and as such the entrance with your coat of arm and stature will proper (either way) and it merely looks cosmetically different and whilst one is darker then the other, it is still a place for you. And as such you will gain the same settings, although there are cosmetic differences to both settings, in the end the same parts are found. 

The ending is still in my mind and it has a sneaky movie reference, all the way from Kentucky. So whether you go with blow one’s own horn (my personal pride) or toot your own horn which tends to lean towards a humble statement. But the reality is that some make claim to be such innovative game designers. And I outdid them in three days, all whilst some of those braggers had a over a dozen people working on it. I did this myself and I handed it to the UAE and their gaming ventures, as such a can toot all I care for. 

You all have a great day It is time for me to snore a forest into plywood, have fun.

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July 9, 2026 · 10:16

Setting the game

This is a mere fraction of what is to come (optionally not all revealed here) and it drove my idea. The ending is also known to me, but it is too sweet a setting and the gamers would get to see this instance, there is no question whether they make it, you see, for many gamers it is about the journey and I believe that this journey is worth taking (a designer always thinks that). So whilst some are dissing others for not enough challenge, people like Bethesda saw what actually mattered, not what some drove for adrenaline rushes are at times great, but there are enough games to do that. And in all this Metroid Prime served the real gamers. Puzzles that mattered, challenges that were met and amazement along the way. That was where I found myself. In all this I added two or three additional settings, but this for now is merely a story.

Hello young one, I am Qandisha, the Djini of time. My brethren made an error. By their setting you were the greatest fear to face, but they were not even close. The Italicus and the Hispanus were more dangerous, they believe in demons as old as us, but nowhere near dangerous, but with a lack of faith comes a shield that stops my brethren. These people have weaknesses, they are especially driven by greed and lust as such other Djini can feast on them, but the lands are dying making others a setback unto mortality. So I saw the flaw in their reasoning and as I grasp you from your past we can only repair into what was. It is now 50 summers from what was, this cannot be undone, but I can take you from the moment before you died and place you here. You have no longer any memory of what was and this is your new station as a mere beggar. Prove my right and rise to the occasion and you could surpass what was your old station and you can reclaim your future as well as the future of the Arabian lands. You will see with new eyes and I will grant you the power to see the mana in the land, the magic of the Arabian sands and the land of the Djini. Go now and reclaim the lands of what was and remake the bad destiny your Arabian brethren are on now.

At this point you are thrust into the sewers of Baghdad and in filthy rags you are trust into the near darkness of the sewers. In this you get to loo around and you see a stave, unremarkable, but still glowing. As it is, it is a stave of Yew, it seems to bend a little and was a mere 18 inches long, but it was better than nothing. In the sewers you face rats and a few exits, but the guards will not let you out, you are a beggar and the streets do not need beggars. There is however other entrances thorough the sewers, some are hidden from view, but only one is open, dark and making you retreat in fear (an intentional setting), so as you go through the sewers you face rats and every rat you kill gives you +1 mana, and you need to kill 100 in total, the sewers have hidden pockets of 20 rats, so it is not a steeple chase, and as you kill 100 you gain a health segment, at this point, you get automatic healing, and some puddles glow orange. When you put the stave in your health segment loads up fast and when you have this added health your attack becomes +5. So whilst you you get more rats killed (another 200) you can get a second segment and now the fist cave does not seem so scary and is a little less dark. This is the first Cave of Prophesy. In this place you will find the Jinniya of fireless smoke. You will face her and whilst she is smoke she cannot be hit, but with your +5 attack, you can harm her when you successfully hit her. It takes 50 hits. So when you defeat her you get the next setting

Young one, show mercy and I will grant you a gift, one never bestowed on any mortal before. I am Qiwa Jinniya of illusion, I can teach you how to become smoke and traverse like smoke, but it takes strength and even as these powers restore, there is limited time you can use this power. So stand in this circle and walk to one other circle (a pentagram appears with every point a circle) So you can now move as smoke and let the Northstar guide you. 

This is also a setting, on the wall is one place that shows the Northstar, if you want to that point you are shown to be good, all others are dark settings, it does not impede you or set you, but the light path becomes less optional in the story. Then a door appears and behind that door is clothing of a citizen, a ring and a runic stone. The stone is a smoke stone, the clothes are of a decent civilian, you are no longer a beggar and are is the second setting, you have to go through a gate you did not pass through to be let through, or you have to go through as smoke (if there is not longer any non-visited gates available) After you get through the gates you are officially a citizen. Ad not you can see that part of Baghdad. As I see it now, there are 4 exits and they are all the same with optional quests in all of them, these parts of Bagdad lead to other 4 parts who have a special place in them (like palaces and fortresses). And as you make ways into the segments you are awarded mana points (no matter whether the acts are good or bad) and the good acts give you renown, the bad acts infamy. This is the first setting towards the end goal. After you do 5 good or 5 bad things, the other option disappears. 

As such you get to find issues in Baghdad, resolve them and find mana pools, as you find new solutions, you gain more mana, so after one renown/infamy point, the mana pools become +2 stronger and you get to see more colored options. 

So this is what I found yesterday. A small step for me, a giant leap for gamers and the UAE (I think I borrowed that expression from somewhere) I think the moon spoke to me. Well, should you wonder why Microsoft cannot come with anything else then iterated repeats of what already exists, Sony, Nintendo and I feel the same way and hopefully soon a new player (gossip: It is the UAE) will show Microsoft why they never should have bothered with gaming anyway, it costed them $100 billion and they seemingly have very little to show for it. 

So you all have a great day today.

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July 8, 2026 · 17:38

Reengineering greatness

We all do that at times and I had an idea. You see there is one FPS that I love above all else. That is Metroid Prime on the Gamecube and the Switch. It is by far the most perfect FPS game ever. I have played in at least 6 times (and I never scored 100% on any of them) I am not angry, disappointed or frustrated. The game is just too perfect. And nearly anyone I know who played that game thinks so too. The game scored 97% and when you play the game you’ll understand why. So why make a copy? Well, not a copy, but my mind set to work to base a game on this game and as I promised, this setting too is now immediately co-owned by the UAE. 

So how to make a new game based on this. Well, I went with the ‘hero’ of this story to be Jafar, or at least someone like him. And I set the idea on the locations of an Arabic setting. Like the game locations that Metroid Prime used, I use a similar setting. There is The Royal palace, The palace of the Fakir, the streets of Baghdad, the sewers of Baghdad, the caves of prophesy perhaps a few more. But these are intertwined (like Metroid Prime) and as such created with artistic precision (not my forte, that I live to the graphical experts). So there is a setting where the Vizier is in his office (the council chambers) and you get the intro of the story and like Metroid prime (also in the first Assassins Creed) you are in a setting where you get attacked and get to more through the council chambers from room to room, taking care of business. In the end you are overwhelmed and cast out of the chambers and thrown into the sewers where the story begins. In this you start as a simple fakir, changed by prophesy and now without powers you are alone. In the sewers you are seeking your fortune and by resolving issues you are given your first token. The token of the streets of Baghdad, with that token you can now move through the sewers and into the streets of Baghdad. The tokens are collected in a neck charm, there is also a dark charm, it gets you into the caves of prophecy. To gain favor you need to get the clothes of office, from a simple civilian you get the cloaks of the fakir, the fakir will lead to the suit of the trader, the thobes of nobility and as such the clothes give access to places, as well as a Topi. There are also jewels, rings that give powers, the bracelets of strength and several more.

But this is a story and a challenge. As you gain your first station you will also get the stave of an element (ice of fire) and these settings are gained in part in the caves of prophecy where you will face several djini. If you survive the first fight you get a stave, in subsequent fights you will get a Kufi marker for which you can imbue its power in to gems or add to the staff. The idea is to make yourself stronger and more able to withstand the dangers you face. I am also considering to add a magic carpet (it is an Arabic story after all) but it comes with limitations. The idea of this story is that the lands are in danger and to restore the lands you need to gain powers. Between when you were in the council chambers and now (the start of the game) decades have passed (it becomes clear during the game) so the grandeur of Baghdad (which you see in the beginning) is gone and now you need to restore the land. So as you go through all the levels, where you resolve things the lands are restored. So there are a few versions of the game. From destroyed to great (dark) and great (light). I am partial to replayability. So that is a clear setting for the game. The idea is to add Zarek, Zulrekh, Kavira, Vizaresh, Sakhr, Azrakhil, Tharvex, Samirah, Ishara, Qandisha, Manlen, Qiwa and Salen. The female Ifrit have powers of restoration, healing, illusionary powers and mid powers. The make Ifrit have strength, elemental powers. There is the need for limitations. You can only have a specific amount of powers and elemental powers. Hence the Kufi markers and as you gain powers and abilities you will find new places and stronger staves and wands. So you can upgrade and whilst you are free to explore there is the chance that you are hindered by some powers. For example water and fire powers do not mix, neither do earth and air, but other axes are OK and the stages that two elements will result into a third power. But that is for later. 

The story becomes that in this land, all is lost as friends of the nobles strangled the land into nothingness, the old Malik as well as the Sultan were killed in a tragic accident. As they were replaced, the milking the land and the people began. The challenges are set as the replacements were in league with the Western leaders, the Italians and the Spanish. As such you are called by the djinn, and they didn’t have powers over the western people. As such they are in panic, the westerners are new, they are not swayed and as such one djini (essential to the story) makes a wager where she is games it all for the restoration of you and you are taken out of your own time and pushed into the future without knowledge of what was and as such you start. So whilst we are given the story (which is fed in small instances) the story develops and as you are pushed into the realm of the Djini, you are heading into two directions. The path of light or the path of the dark. And if shapes the lands you are trying to safe. There is a lot more, but that is for next time. I did this in under two hours, as such I did not do too badly. No matter what it is based on, the story and the settings are unique, the story was made up today may me and even if it is founded on the Original Metroid Prime, the scenery, the people and the opponents are nothing alike. And as far was I can tell, there is no FPS based on the Arabic lands. So that is a first too.

Have a great day and try to wake up your creativity today.

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