Monthly Archives: February 2022

Looky looky

It is always nice to go to bed, listen to music and dream away. That is until this flipping brain of mine gets a new idea. In this case it is not new IP, but a new setting for a group of people. You see, during lockdown I got hooked on walk video’s. It was a way to see places I had never visited before, it is one way to get around and weirdly enough, these walk videos are cool. You see more than you usually do (especially in London) most of them are actually quite good, a few need tinkering (like music not so loud) but for the most they are a decent experience. Then I thought what if GoPro makes a change, offering a new stage. That got me going, you see, most walks are on a stick, decent but intense for the filming party. So we can set the movie from a shoulder mount, a chest mount, or helmet mount. Yet what is filmed? So what happens if we have something like Google glasses and the left (or right) eye shows what we see in the film. We get all kind of degrees of filming. And if we want to ignore it, we merely close that eye for a moment. I am surprised that GoPro had not considered it, or perhaps they did. Consider that the filmer now has BOTH hands free and can hold something towards the camera, the filming agent can do more and move more freely. Consider that is works with a holder, but there is a need (in many cases) to have both hands available. And perhaps there is a need for both, the need to use one hand for precision and a gooseneck mount to keep both hands free. The interesting part is that there is no setting to get the image on something like Google Glasses and that is a shame, was I the first to think of it? It seems weird with all the city walks out there on YouTube, but there you have it and in that light, I was considering revisiting the IP I had for a next Watchdogs, one with a difference (every Ip creator will tell you that part), but I reckon that is a stage we will visit again soon enough, it involves Google Glasses and another setting that I will revisit. Just like the stage of combining deeper machine learning to a lens (or google glasses), a camera lens that offer direct translations, and the fun part is we can select if that is pushed through to film, or merely seen by us, now consider filming in Japan with machine learning and deeper machine learning auto translating ANY sign it sees. Languages that we do not know will no longer stop us, it will tell the filmmaker where they are and consider linking that to one lens in google glasses that overlays the map? It that out yet? I never saw it and there are all kinds of needs for that part. What you see is what you know, if you know the language. Just a thought at 01:17. I need a hobby, I really do!

3 Comments

Filed under IT, Media, Science

An acquired taste

Yes, there are all kinds of acquired tastes, but for many the one that comes from the intelligence dish is rounded a weird taste. Ask any tom, dick and harry and they all claim to be Sean who finds the taste disgusting. You see there is something afoot in the OK corral and it isn’t the lawmakers. The BBC gives us ‘Lawmakers allege ‘secret’ CIA spying on unwitting Americans’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60351768). And before we go into the article, there is a view you need to consider. Would you rather deal with the FBI or the CIA? Or Perhaps the CII (Central Intelligence Investigations), the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigations) and there are two more to consider. The point is that the stage (and pissing contest) of the CIA and FBI is out of whack. The larger problem is not that the CIA has to deal with terrorists, it has to deal with some of them IN THE USA. The problems isn’t the funders, it is that the funders are American, or foreigners based and housed in the US. This setting continues on several fronts and I get it, the CIA keeps a tight lid on its intelligence data (as does the FBI), but the two stages are folly, the transgressor sees no borders it sees opportunities and they do not rely on borders. There is a larger failing here, but I am not certain it is the failing of the CIA. 

The article gives us “The agency has “secretly” conducted warrantless surveillance through a newly disclosed programme, Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich alleged”, as well as “A Washington Post analysis of the Snowden leak found some 90% of those being monitored were ordinary Americans “caught in a net the National Security Agency had cast for somebody else”.

Top officials had until then denied – and even lied under oath to Congress – that they were knowingly collecting such data. The programme, known as Prism, was later ruled unlawful by a US court”, the problem is that the terrorists know this feud is going on and they make sure it is brought to light so that they can continue unabated. The problem is not that Americans were caught in a net, the question becomes did the NSA get the end result right? So when we are given “declined to declassify the other, citing the need to protect “sensitive tradecraft methods and operational sources”” so is the story that the CIA is pushing away democracy, or is it that that Senators Wyden and Heinrich are endangering American lives? I leave it up to you to decide, and please do not become the one moron that relies on Benjamin Franklin’s “Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither.”, Franklin actually said “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Yet that stage was specific and it was on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. “The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family,” it was 1755. In a stage where the frontiers of war were 250 years apart and the stage was unaware of terrorists, it had its saboteurs but the stage was different. In today’s world the CIA and NSA have to deal with bitcoin transfers that tend to remain off books, stakeholders that claim to be on the American side but seem to drive Iranian needs for a price and there are chaotic people doping whatever they can to get a bitcoin or two and it is in a day and age that America can no longer trust the diplomatic words of MANY nations, each nation having its own legitimate national needs, but those needs do not adhere to American National security. I do not think THAT is the point, because EVERY nation has its valid needs, yet some pucker up to Iran at a moment notice (example: Turkey), so how many turks are there in America? The intelligence gathering field is a minefield to say the least. In that atmosphere the CIA and NSA need to fight off all enemies of America both foreign and domestic, they have to because the entanglement of foreign people in America has become too great a consideration and the FBI has nowhere near the resources to do all that. 

Yet the old setting of domestic (FBI) and foreign (NSA, CIA) is a much larger folly. That level of distinction implies that too many people get to play their game with American security at their own convenience and that does not sit well with the people in the American intelligence branch. Moreover as the American military (DIA, NIA et al) cannot really operate on American soil (outside of the military. And now two democrats are asking questions. They were valid in the 60’s and 70’s, but now, in a stage where the wrong chaos could topple the entire American finance sector, it has become too dangerous. Do not get me wrong, it will topple soon enough by its own accord, we do not need lone wolf actions and foreign based actions to help that process along. And that is merely the stage we can see. You see there are 18,925,137 bitcoins in existence, representing $806,210,836,200 dollars. Consider that 10,000 bitcoins could destroy US manufacturing needs on several levels, now consider that most bitcoins are out in the open and there are close to no way of tracking it all. Do you think that the people out to actually hurt the US will declare untraceable funds? You have got to be joking. And in all this the US is not alone, a similar danger is with the UK, France, Germany and a lot more industrial nations. I reckon that the FBI, CIA and NSA need a very different charter and consider that what I state here is known with people like Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich. I get it, some politicians are real devoted democrats, but this reminds me of the person who was worried about a proper shave 2 hours before his head got cut off by the guillotine.
We understand that in the final hours when the last act is a proper one, the quality of that shave means a great deal, but is it that time yet? And can the US afford the setting it is now boasting about?

I let you consider that stage.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Military, Politics

1-800-LoadMyMissile

Yup, I had to go there. And when you see the headline ‘F-35 program seeks cyber reinforcements’ you might go there too. Now, you need to know that there is nothing wrong with the article that can be found (at https://fcw.com/defense/2022/02/f-35-program-office-seeks-cyber-reinforcements/361848/). Yet the quote given to us 2 days ago “To improve the joint strike fighters’ defences against cyber attacks, the program office responsible for it wants an open system design solution” implies there is close to nothing, all whilst this danger was out in the open for some time, so why react this late? And when we are given “the program office responsible for the aircraft is looking to create a multi-phased process that would enhance the security of F-35’s – and supporting ground systems – through newly developed or integrated technologies, such as real-time, automated in-flight detection, response and recovery” concerns should be raised. You see that dinky toy (the F-35) is not the cheapest of all Corgi toys, so something should have been in place already. The issue is not that simple, I get that. To take a more Cisco stage of expression. Every plane will need a router that has SecureX platform, Secure Firewall, Secure Endpoint and connects to the ground in a similar way and does it in real time, not the easiest of tasks and in this the real-time part will be the hardest to get working. A system that can interact with every system. 

As I personally see it (see image), it is a setting that has a number of points (like hardware points) for fire solutions, navigation, weapons systems and the security station. It cannot check all, but each system has its own header, and the headers check each other, so if one is hacked the others fix the one hacked and the system is back on tour, there is no guarantee that this will work, but hacking one system is one thing, hacking all 5 becomes virtually impossible. And there is another problem, such a system will need online load balancing. Not online like we know online, but a system that is always checking the load balance of every header station and as this is all done in real time will require an upgrade of hardware, because there is no way that the added electronics will not have an impact on current efficiency numbers and with the costs already way out of proportions, I have no idea how this gets passed the budget committee and even if they get some kind of new Cisco device (which is one of the leading cyber authorities) the hardware will not come cheap and it will require a new OS to make it work. I wonder if relaunching ADA would be a solution. It would be allowing one of ADA strengths to be deployed and if the NSA can boost the security and it is implemented with a newer version of Cisco Cyber Constructs, there is a decent chance it might work but all this requires specialists working together and in the IT field that is almost a challenge on its own (like making a submarine fly). So I have no idea where it all will end, but taking into consideration that the expected acquisition costs is set to $406.5 billion, with total lifetime cost (i.e., to 2070) to $1.5 trillion in then-year dollars, and the cyber equation will ramp up costs by another 10% (rough estimation) and my estimation is set to the fact that it is smooth sailing, but that has never been the case so there is every chance that the F-35 will break all records, including cost to produce.

That is my mere speculative thought in the equation that the FCW brought to light. 

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Military, Politics, Science

The headers of maximum data

Every now and then I keep my eyes on Zendesk. There is a reason for that, my origins are technical support and customer support. I am proud of my past, I went from nothing to a decent high ranking technical support person and I always fought for EVERY customer. I did not care whether they had one single license, or if it was an important customer who owned a site license (which drove sales insane). All were equal in my eyes and all deserved and received 100%. So when the article (at https://www.reuters.com/business/zendesk-rejects-16-bln-offer-private-equity-consortium-2022-02-10/) passed me by, I took notice. You see, the header is one ‘Zendesk rejects $16 bln offer from private equity consortium’, I remember that it started not too long ago (2007) and it grew fast. Well there is a reason for that. No matter whether you look at SCOPUS, SIEBEL or another CRM solution, they claim that they have a technical support part, it was meagre and all based on a sales foundation, which makes it (in my eyes) not a technical support solution. So beyond Zendesk there was nothing. It is a good place to be in, it allows for the growth they had. Yet the article sat with me and not entirely in a good way. The first one “facing calls from activist investors, including hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, to abandon its proposed acquisition of SurveyMonkey parent Momentive Global Inc , which it agreed in October”, is regarded (by me) as moronic, you are about to see why. The second one “Thoma Bravo had made a takeover approach to Zendesk” with the added “Thoma Bravo and Jana declined to comment.” As I personally see it, it is not about Zendesk, it is about the amount of data they wield via 17 offices in a lot more countries than 17. They are after the data. A Company with an operating income of $175,000,000 is not valued as a $16,000,000,000 on the value of its SAAS operations, that has to be about the data and that will be a scary thought. When my technical support skills, given to the customers will be used to bleed them dry of intelligence. It is a scary thought. Then there is the added. You see Marketwatch gives us “Jana Partners LLC, which is opposed to Zendesk’s deal to buy Momentive Global Inc., is planning a proxy fight, according to the WSJ report. Momentive shares were down 3%” me thinks that the acquisition implies that too many eyes will be on Zendesk for some time to come and that does not sit well with Barry Rosenstein. So for me the response becomes: “A reactive and impulsive decision? My ass!” I think that Rosenstein had similar plans as the other (unnamed) player and it seems that these management firms have data currency on the mind and Zendesk in its near unique position is one juicy steak (with sauce). So no matter how unique the placement is, as long as it has data these Investment management companies will see the long term gains and there is a larger stake (or is that steak) in play, it is not Schrems 2 (discusses yesterday), it is all those nations that lack that level of protection and it seems that these Investment management companies have an additional customer that needs no mention, no written agreement and that makes for a lot of coins and they will hand it over eagerly, especially in light of the escalation we globally see, in that setting data is everything. To add to that, I have to admit that there is another setting, which I still cannot see, it is because I know next to nothing on Orlando Bravo, the man behind Thoma Bravo. It might be that he is on the same track sharing the risk and revenue with Rosenstein, yet they are lonesome hunters (optionally predators), but because Orlando the software esquire also has Proofpoint, Sophos, Kofax, Motus and Aptus there is every consideration that Orlando Bravo has other considerations including solidifying fleet contracts to a larger and more complete approach and having a more substantial SAAS umbrella. So he is the larger unknown and there is a rather large expansion option for Zendesk, so I am not certain, but I feel certain that Orlando might have been better off without Barry, but that is just an initial vibe I am getting and that vibe is not evidence based.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics

Schrem, son of Shrek

I recently (2-3 hours ago) woke up from being asleep at the wheel. Not a car, or a boat, or a plane (which tends to have an autopilot), no my mind overlooked a little thing. I initially saw the article ‘Meta threatens to pull Facebook and Instagram from Europe if it can’t share data with the US’, and I was in a state of ‘Yea, whatever!’ And it was only this afternoon when the cogs started to rumble to signal opportunity. You see, the setting of “The comments are in relation to the Schrems II decision, which is a key ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union which, in July 2020, declared the Privacy Shield, the EU/S personal data transfer mechanism was no longer lawful. The Privacy Shield is US law that provided US authorities with the right to collect personal data about EU data subjects without, the Court says, adequate safeguards. Further, the judgement states EU data subjects lacked effective means to seek redress against the US Government” It took a while for the brain to kick in (and kick me), yet it works for me. It implies that the value of my 5G IP goes through the roof (if Amazon buys it) and the second part of this (10% of IP and sales value) implies that I could optionally become a hell of a lot richer than ever thought before. 

So the car you see above would suddenly not be an illusion. Yet why?
You see, Neom (Saudi Arabia) set a change in motion, before 2030 marketing will take a massive turn to the left, as will retail power. As 5G will take its toll on cybercrime, I created a dampening effect, it will not stop everything, but it will stop a lot. 

Consider a pyramid The pyramid you see is the result. In the old setting the yellow part is red and all that is red is what hackers get access to, one way or another. I am taking a part away, the new solution will revoke hackers access to the yellow part and that is the gain. The gain might be bigger, but that is speculation (as is the current part), but this setting will save people (banks too) billions and Schrems II adds to this part in a few ways. You see, my system was retail based, now it becomes locally based (which I have been saying a few times in the past), but I had not considered Schrems 2, because it was not on my mind. I was all about the customer, I did not consider that the larger data stages would work in my favour (and optionally in this case Amazon too). 

The larger stage will still work and in this case it will be beneficial for whomever has it, but it is not. Stage that was build FOR Schrem 2, or CONSIDERING Schrem 2. It merely works in my favour and that is the difference between this transport and the one you saw earlier. 

And until the IP is sold, that is how I remain travelling (for now), in a car with chauffeur. But at times, life throws you a curveball that homes in on the bat and that is the benefit we all hope for and I am no different in that case. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Out with the old?

It is a saying and I have heard it many times. Out with the old, in with the new. Yet in the world of media as an aggregated whole, that saying does not make much sense. For a few reasons my attention came back to Infamous:Second son I gave it an 83% rating when it initially launched (and I stand by that). You see, the game has brilliant and spectacular moments. In all but one setting it is close to brilliant. The one setting is linearity and in a near open world it is worse than a death curse. Linearity makes everything too predicable and that was the short coming of that game. It starts brilliant, the brother setting, the awakening of being a conduit and the power of smoke. It was amazing and until the second power comes into play it is all great, after that the party sizzles and linearity sets in. But that first area in Seattle is just grand. Then I thought what to do and I do not need to do anything, but Sony might. Consider that the game has a good and a bad setting. What if Reggie didn’t had a brother, but twins Delsin Rowe and Darren Rowe. One goes good, the other bad and that becomes a much larger story, one for the TV or whatever streaming service Sony has. They already own the IP, so that would not stop them and the setting could be larger, not larger in the stage, but it could give Seattle more than Amazon and Frasier (to opt an idea). The setting in the game was great and the antagonist Augustine was better thought up than most other antagonists in TV world. They both get the stage to clean Seattle each in their own way and there we need to set the station where the good one wins the concrete powers (and cleans up the streets and heals the reservation victims), as well as open up a much larger conversation. Can we separate people who are different? You see, Augustine is seen as evil, but her motives were pretty pure (from her point of view) and even as the game never went into that, the TV series might just do that and to be honest, the powers we saw in that game were freakin awesome. 

I am a little surprised that no one had thought of that track with a game that was optionally much larger than we all thought it could be. Especially as studios are vying for streaming successes. Sony has a few IP’s in stock that they could alter in many ways and Infamous:Second Son is merely one of them.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Media, movies, Stories

Oh darn, I am missing out

Now to be honest, there was never much of a chance to begin with, but who would not want 3.75% commission, especially as it is based on a number amounting to billions. And as I said in several articles, the US is about to lose out on these billions. And guess what, after all the name calling I was handed (some are blindly accepting US stories that it will blow over), the setting given to us by Asia Times is ‘Saudi Arabia has a plan to buy fewer US weapons’, a mere 5 hours ago. It is supported by “Kingdom has launched an inward-looking strategy to develop its own defence industries with the help of foreign partners” (at https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/saudi-arabia-has-a-plan-to-buy-fewer-us-weapons/) in all honesty, this was always going to happen, but that industrial move was initially going to be US settings, now there is every chance that China gets to do this and that would imply losses into the hundreds of billions. The article gives us “Saudi Arabia has signed several Memoranda of Understanding between GAMI, the Ministry of Investment and UK-based Cranfield University. GAMI also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Italian defence manufacturer Leonardo to create and develop investment opportunities in education and train specialised military industries”, yet I believe that this setting is one that China relishes, as such whatever the west is thinking, be careful what you do next. You se, Cranfield themselves give us “A number of Cranfield graduates also hold leading roles in Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) including the Head and the Chief Design Engineer of the China Gas Turbine division”, Is this where it will go? No, there is no data supporting this, it is based on the stages that we have seen all over the news and if Saudi Arabia decides to get their hardware from the BAE, I would be happy (as a Commonwealthian), I would still be a little sour missing out on the 3.75%, but that was never a given in the first place. And all this is not really news, the internal defence growth was at least 2 years old and it makes sense for Saudi Arabia to have its own military manufacturing complex. So we aren’t seeing anything news, other than the Italian involvement here. So whilst some will stare at “Cranfield is ranked 45th in the world for Aero, Mech, Manufacturing by QS rankings.” It seems to me that Saudi Arabia is making headway in this stage and that means that the US is in deeper trouble than it realises. The UK could avoid some issues if they can get a handles on the CAAT Tea grannies. 

You see, over the next decade all nations need whatever revenue they can get and the UK is not out of the race yet, the question becomes what can they offer over China and that is a hard nut to crack, China has all kinds of advantages after the UK and US dropped the ball, and they did so several times in a row, so they are catering to a client (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) that has had enough of the games that some governments have been playing (as well as catering to Iran at the same time). 

Saudi Arabia was always intent on growing its own defence solutions and I believe about 3-4 years ago mention of 50% by 2030 was stated and they are on track to do that. I believe that GAMI (General Authority for Military Industries) is roaring to get things going. And it seems that they are very serious to get it going, so it is up to the UK to find solutions that help them and not China. Personally I believe that the UK will have to sweeten the deal by a lot, but that is personal speculation. I do still believe that China has the inside track here, but that too is speculation on other sources, sources I never was able to vet. 

And there is a second path here, I do believe that the longer term planning for Saudi Arabia implies that Egypt is a growing connection here, so if China wins that path, they could optionally have the advantage with Egypt and its $2,000,000,000 for 2022/2023. A setting that should cause concern in Washington. You see, if China takes over the $ 1.3 billion annually support from the US, the factional setting for the Middle East will change pretty dramatically. Even as the US is seemingly out with the Saudi Government, it is merely that seemingly. The US has a massive disadvantage especially when they were all huffy and puffy on Saudi Arabia, reality bites and that presentable stage will have to be stopped at the earliest convenience (not for me, I am happy if the BAE takes over), yet these stages (also the one the CAAT forced) are all stages that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took notice of and China will be happy to show that with every presentation they bring. So China might have the lead, but the UK is still in the race and that is good for the UK. The Asia Times is not bringing too much news, yet the fact that it is on the front of the media is always an optional sign that more will be coming soon enough. 

Time will tell, and I reckon it is sooner rather than later.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics, Science

Where am I?

We ask ourselves that question, but last night I ended up in perhaps the weirdest place of all. It started with the setting of what I had been writing about the last two days. I saw some kind of palace in Tartarus. The design was based on circles and levels. One circle was the arena, one circle the food hall and one circle the baths. The man in charge (Nikolaos) was above all others, almost like a smaller circle, but shaped like crescent moons. The food-hall and baths led to barracks where the others stayed. One of several palaces in Tartarus, well protected by his personal guards and order troops. The bathhouse had a spherical roof. With small holes it was like a black roof with the holes giving light like the stars do, yet the stars were shown in different ways. One was like a cone shell, yet I heard it being called Libra. It was confusing. And that was when weird went towards absurd. I was suddenly in front of a castle door, not a real door, but like those heavy carton doors like in a trade show. The doors were from some castle (also in carton), when you entered you saw a spectacle, carton people, real people (visitors) and There was the mayor (Richard Garriott) and he was in his mid 20’s. It was the launch of a game, the relaunch of Ultima 1, yet there were things out of place. I saw ‘Return of the spectres’ which was Ultima 5. There was a window with the Avatar fighting (all in cardboard) with the saying ‘Sartre me, Sartre you’ like a taunt. There was a large playing card in another window. It was Iolo, with some kind of crossbow hidden in his right arm. There was an inn (an actual inn) and people were drinking goblets of beer and sausages were served. On the upper floor I saw a woman around 25, long blond hair looking gorgeous, seemingly portraying Jaana champion of Justice, next to her a raven haired Mariah the champion of honesty. Ginger Julia champion of sacrifice was playing the flute.

The scene was weird, like I was both in the future and the past, but I had never seen a trade show that held such a scene, or such a display of a castle, so I was wondering where it was all coming from. Still the idea to relaunch Ultima one, and set Mondain the wizard as a champion of the spectres (Hate, falsehood and cowardice) they were portrayed in names by Astaroth, Faulinei and Nosfentor. It could very well work, especially if the world you go through is a lot like what Bethesda has done in Oblivion and Skyrim. On the other hand in a similar shape it might be a great fit for the Nintendo Switch. 

It is clear that the series need more work, but what happens when we set Tartarus on a neutral stage. We are told that Tartarus is where the dishonored and the evil go, but what if that is not entirely correct? What if Tartarus is a place that holds all those who were unworthy to enter the Elysian Fields? That implies that there is a whole range of grey that is added to the dark and the black. A stage where Nikolaos opts for two solutions, the first to rebuild tartarus, but in another stage to see what to do with those unworthy of tartarus. A stage of creating a way to separate the two groups? It is interesting, and in that he would need champions and task masters. Champions of weapons, of shields, of physicality and of sustenance. In perhaps one of the most brutal environments, how to reason with those who lost the will or ability to reason? It makes for an interesting puzzle, one I would like to solve.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Stories

That red wire

In consideration of the previous story I was contemplating a few things. You see a bright person in the 80’s came to the conclusion that any TV series needs a red wire. It was all good in the 70’s, but the stories were almost made to formula. Intro-hero-setback-optional setback 2-clues-conclusion. And many series had a similar construct. So this bright person set a red wire throughout the story which would find conclusion around the finale of the season. It was a bright idea and it has been around for decades. It has various names, but it remained a red wire. So as I am contemplating the journey for Nikolaos the red wire comes to mind. At which point I also recalled season 6 of Dr. Who (that series with the pretty redhead and a time traveller). In one episode (Demon’s run) by Steven Moffat we get introduced to a line. “Demons run when a good man goes to war” In this I considered that line, but something else as well. You see organised crime has one thing in common with corrupt politicians. It is unfathomable loss. When you hold the corrupt politician to account by killing his or her children and grand children, they will suddenly be about the innocent people. They never cared when they were filling their pockets, but they forgot about that. So if the power of Nikolaos is not merely his ancestry, what if he had to align Tartarus? What if his job is to find the champions to do his bidding, how powerful would the person be that was robbed again and again? What happens when his vengeance, the everlasting executing of the children and grandchildren that robbed him again and again in an arena whilst the transgressors watch to see their children being slaughtered and unable to do anything about it? What level of loyalty will Nikolaos get from the person he enabled to get even with the demons who robbed and haunted him? And the red wire is not merely that, it was to create the location, to create the prisons from which the people watch their children die, the seats where the lesser demons are entertained and the list goes on. What if the arch-demon is not created from evil, but from good?

What could the lesson of frustration do when it gets pushed beyond limits? You see, this is not some raving, some of this comes from Marcus Aurelius, who gives us “The art of tempering your fury with an infuriating existential truth”, it is not about the fury we get from some, but from those who place themselves ABOVE the law. Like the corrupt, and that sets a larger piece in motion. “he considered what makes life worth living and instructed himself: “Tone your wants and tastes low down enough, and make much of negatives, and of mere daylight and the skies.” He spared himself the additional self-inflicted suffering of outrage at how his body failed him”, but this goes beyond the setting of body and soul, it comes from the setting that those who intentionally harm ones body and soul, ones sanity will push for larger dangers, the danger that the man does not break, but gives up and gives in to an unfathomable level of insanity killing their children again and again, a never ending rage. If we consider that evil never had that, it is fuelled by mere greed, those who they go after will have been good (to some degree) it could fuel a much larger rage than anyone has ever considered. I believe it is one of the settings why we anger over treason, treason against the values we embraced for a life time. And the path to impose an enduring unfathomable loss is reached. 

You see Machiavelli gives us “Nothing makes a republic so stable and strong as organising it in such a way that the agitation of the hatreds which excite it has a means of expressing itself provided for by the laws”, stability stops or lessens treason, but the greed driven will always find a path that tells them that it is acceptable what they do, as such in that setting the transgressions against a good man are intolerable and seen beyond what any fury would give us. It is the one lesson that ends the sanity of the corrupt person, the corrupt politician is hit even harder as he was seen representing the state and as such the fury intensifies. So in that setting we see any good man become infuriating beyond what any demon could fathom making any good man the most dangerous of arch-demons. And let’s be clear, if there is a hell and it is ruled by an angel, would that angel in its foundation not fear the arch demon? If Tartarus is set on a different premise, would such an arch demon not an asset? 

To get there we cannot have a simple 2 or 3 episode finale, it needs to be fuelled by a red wire throughout the season. Its lesson reverberating throughout the season as the Olympians teach Nikolaos why mankind was so dangerous. We see it now with political ploys, interest groups trivialising pollution, media siding with the advertiser and we can call many more examples, but the people are the ones in the middle, so when they get angry that nation stops. We have seen it in many places. Yet consider a fictive example in the US, what do you think happens when 250,000,000 people have had enough? Do you think this is impossible when the US collapses? Do you think the Wall Street executive that hesitates to run for his (or her) life has any chance to get out alive? In a nation where its army can turn on that nation becomes the most volatile of nations, and when a person is perceived as the good man, when he calls for war, do you think that will end nicely? Unfathomable loss can be seen in many ways, but it is never seen from the point of the corrupt. Consider what they hold dear and consider what they fear. Treason is the most explosive of powder kegs and when we see that, we see the beginning of a red wire, when that is set in motion we merely need to check the list of all the elements required to make the story complete. So as I see an arena with an audience and in the honor box we see the parents of the children getting slaughtered again and again, all screaming for mercy, for their innocent children all whilst the audience cheers, another life cut down and the rage of the good man who was transgressed upon ready to kill again and again and again. To get to that stage we need to set the elements and that is still some achievement, but Marcus Aurelius is there to temper the idea and that is also the best ammunition to use. You see, Marcus Aurelius gives us “by gently encouraging them to think the same way” yet that too becomes a weapon, especially when the good man has nothing left, robbed by the corrupt and that becomes fuel to the fire. Because the good man will never accept corruption as a vice and therefor corruption fuels as corruption does and in this both mercy and innocence are the first victims in this internal war. Corruption and treason have a much larger role to play and that becomes part of the red wire. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Stories

Mr. S. King resigned

Intro
Yup, that is the setting. My mind casually created new IP, this IP is (me thinks) a TV series, as I have not dreamt it all it is still in the open, but it is a weird one. It is seemingly a thriller/horror making this the domain of Steven King and I have no idea what I am doing here. Yet the idea to some extent was with me before, yet in that instance there were differences and the story was going in a very different direction. But here we are in St. Helier a man is sitting on a bollard watching the boats. He does this often although he does not know why. He feels that it gives him rest, a feeling of completion, but the reason eludes him. It was about an hour alter when a boat docks and the people run from the boat screaming. He looks at the boat but he sees nothing. People, staff from the boat, all in a panic. His curiosity gets the better of him and he approaches the boat. He watches as the people run screaming and then the silence surrounds the boat. He looks at the boat, but he sees nothing, there is no fire, there is no crazy person, it is dead quiet. Then he sees it, it is inside the boat, first one, than half a dozen then dozens scorpions all crawling over the boat and the dead people in the cabin. He had no idea how dangerous they were, but the people on the boat indicated that these were dangerous. He looks at the boat, the removes the plank and cut the lines. Scorpions cannot swim, or at least that is how the story goes. He pushes the bot way just as the police arrives alarmed. They ask him what he think he was doing. He points at the aft deck and the police now sees them too. The policeman in charge grabs with microphone from his collar and talks into the mouthpiece. He is asking for assistance. 

Part X
The man is walking on the northern shores, he is walking wet trying to clear his mind, the last two days had been rather weird. It was when he came to Le Pinacle when he heard some kind of song, but he could not see anyone. He saw the ruins, it was where the music was seemingly coming from. He had been there several times when he was really young, but not in years. He walked towards parts of the ruins when he noticed the brazier. He did not remember a brazier, and walked over to check it. There were flames coming from it, the coals were weirdly cool, but the flames were hot. He looked and wondered what was going on, the music was slightly louder but there did not seem to be anyone playing. He looked for a radio, perhaps someone hd left the radio. He didn’t seem to see it, but there he noticed a stone trapdoor, or what might be one, the stoned were different and as he picked up the stone square, the square gave way, came up like it was on a joint. He looked down and saw the steps in the wall, stones coming out from the wall like small plateaus forming a ladder. He was curious, he had never noticed the stones before. He climbed down and down and down. It took a long time and they must have been 20-30 meters below sea level when the stones came to a floor, slightly wet sand was greeting him. He saw another brazier and another. It was a not so long corridor going into a room. The room was not big and it held a statue. The weirdest thing happened. The statue moved.

Pluto/Hades

The stone man looked at him. “Hello grandson. I am Hades” The man had no idea what to think. He was quite perplexed. The statue continued “In this temple of Pluto I can talk to you. The ship is part of a test, your first test but not the only one. Solve the test to open up memories and knowledge. Solve the riddle to find out what happened and what can be done to stop it. It is up to you to decide. Your first gift awaits you when you are ready, for you are the grandson of Hades and Zeus, son or Ares and Macaria. Let the testing begin.

Part Z
The man looked at the bot, he saw the focal point and realised that this was a curse. A curse by people who did not know what they had unleashed. He took control of the boat and set course due south. The boat was able to move decently fast so it took less than 3 hours to get to St. Malo There he saw the people taunting the boat, not realising what they had unleashed. In the time it took the boat to get there the catapult was done, he grabbed the statue hidden behind the cupboard and the scorpions who hd left him alone at first now came at him. He jumped over the railing and the scorpions followed slowly. He was at the catapult and put the statue in it. He thought that the people were screaming now, they screamed mercy, but the truth is that any curse needs time to complete and as he fired the statue, the scorpions vanished. Yet at the dicks of St. Malo things were different. People started to scream and run. As the statue broke into a thousand pieces he saw what seemed to be shades. They dissipated from the statue, but he could still see them. It would take days for the curse to wear off and many would die in the process. He looked at the carnage unfolding and he set course for St. Helier. It took another three hours to arrive and the police was already waiting for him. The police was shouting at him but he was not really listening. He docked the boat threw the keys at the captain and stated that the ship was clean. He made no other gestures and let them worry about the mess he had created with the hoses. The captain looked at the mess and then at him. “Scorpions cannot swim” and walked away. The police did not stop him, the captain had made a gesture t the policeman in charge. The news of St. Malo would reach them soon enough. He walked away and cautiously walked back to the shrine in the ruins. The statue of Pluto came back to life. “Why this way?” The man looked at his grandfather. A curse by people for people seems weird to dump it on Poseidon. “Great Uncle Poseidon please” the statue responded. “My apologies grandfather. Was this the right solution?” There is no right or wrong he heard. You made choices and choices have over time consequences. Time will tell what you set in motion, but yes, your great uncle would be upset to see a curse like that on the floor of his domain. There will be another test soon, but for now rejoice and start your journey. Reach out your right hand and receive your first present. He reached out and there was a small column of smoke and a bident formed in his hand. The Bident was light, but felt like steel. He opened his hand and the bident disappeared. The statue of his grandfather looked at him. You need to learn so much more, but we have time. I am immortal, you for now are not. The statue felt silent. He walked back and climbed the stair stones. When he emerged he heard voices. They were a little in the distance and he walked away from the sounds. He was about to look round when the darkness set in, the brazier was gone and where the trapdoor was was only rubble now. He quietly walked away, he had a lot to consider. 

4 Comments

Filed under Stories