Category Archives: Finance

December 6, 2023 · 02:36

Angle, Bigotry, Chauvinism

Yes, all words, these three words represent the bias of the media. And it has started some time ago. But here in this case lets take a look at Sky News (at https://news.sky.com/story/unprecedented-2-400-fuel-lobbyists-at-cop28-in-dubai-claim-campaigners-13023153). Here we are given ‘‘Unprecedented’ 2,400 fuel lobbyists at COP28 in Dubai, claim campaigners’ but that is not where the bias is. As we are given names like Amin Nasser (CEO Aramco) and Sultan Al Jaber. Yet what I find weird is that there is no names linked to Brent Crude oil, there is no mention anywhere in COP28 of anyone from Brent in this. Welcome to bias.

Then we get “At least 2,456 fuel lobbyists have been given access to the COP28 summit in Dubai” so not “more than 2,400” but an actual specific number. And it comes from the group called “Kick Big Polluters Out”,  or KBPO, which could also mean Keep Boneheaded Packs Out. You see, this is not on the oil industry, but on the media. When you consider “Many of the fossil fuel lobbyists are said to have gained access by being part of a trade organisation”. This gets us two questions. Were they all in the blue zone, or the green zone and what was the spread of these people? The second part is what countries were these 2456 people from? How many from the US? How many from Venezuela and Russia? All top-line numbers we aren’t given. So is this the angle Sky News (and others) are working with, or is this part of more? Like all the BS that places like ICIJ gives us with ‘emotional’ stories, devoid of real numbers, real groupings and clusters. The media is becoming less and less reliable. 

We see names like Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor, BP, ExxonMobil and ENI. However, the name Brent Crude oil is absent, why is that? 

Why can’t the media do its job? Why can’t they give us CLEAR numbers. They got 2456, how did they get there? It might be right, but we aren’t given anything clear and that is the larger station. We aren’t given clarity and the media is making it worse through emotions, speculations and assumptions. How is that for media claiming to be independent, fair, balanced and proclaiming to be trustworthy.

The Guardian also gives us “Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest”, yet no one is asking serious questions from the media and that is the larger failing. I have shown their failures for over two years and things are (as I personally see it) getting worse. It is all about the emotion and the digital dollar, in that process clear reporting seems to be going out the window. 

I wonder if we bulk all the reporting together, will we see anything clearly reported, or should we ask people from Monash University who sees to be there too? I will let you decide, but consider all the things we aren’t being told.

I have arrived to the middle of the week, see you all soon at this point as well.

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December 5, 2023 · 15:39

Let it ride

Yup, that is the phrase and in this case it is not a gamble. For this we can go back to June 2022, the 28th to be more precise when I wrote ‘Will you feel frisky?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/06/28/will-you-feel-frisky/) I gave the readers some inkling of this before that, but I pretty much spelled it out at that point. Yesterday I saw some of the promises that the United Arab Emirates made and I realised that they could get there a few years early. The IP that Elon Musk has could be set to public viewing there and with the UAE setting it could result in the net value of Elon Musk (which according to a source) of $300,000,000,000,000 and pretty much double it to $600,000,000,000,000. That is a lot, but it is his IP and he could pull it off. It will not be overnight, but between now and 2026  it could be doubled and it merely needs one player (the United Arab Emirates) to be on board for this. After that the flood gates open and they will all shout for this solution and upping his value even more.

Some will seek ‘cheap’ solutions and when that falls over the patient ones fall over and drown, the rest will be back on track and I reckon that COP28 will make it so for Musk incorporated. So after two years of blablabla, we see that the UAE will place themselves in a unique situation. In the first to become carbon neutral way ahead of schedule, the second side is that their reliance on oil and on oil power-plants will lessen (partially) and all that was visible well over a year ago. Now the edges start to fray the impact will become more and more visible. So whilst the EU is deciding to ‘punish’ rich people and their jets instead of the 147 facilities that cause 50% of the damage. Whilst America remains undecided to make any move and their bank balance stops them from achieving anything, the Middle East will be the driving force showing the others how stupid they were. And they kept on (still) pissing of the one entrepreneur who had the solution all along. It gives me pause to laugh. You see, I have had one saying in my banners for the longest of times. Sarcasm is fine, until it backfires when it becomes irony. Now we all get to see that one part in action. Because when it does they will all shout, they will all make demands and they will all make some case for a blame game and I showed the world before June 2022 that a solution was out there. As such it was never rocket science, it was a simple application of common sense. I wonder if the woke people had a clue what it all is (or was). There is no shame if they did not, but if they were employed to do just that, how valid has their income been?

Consider that the lesson of the day and enjoy yours. At present I feel fine. Me against big-tech, and I am leading with 4 points. It doesn’t make me rich, but the soul (mine) is at present well nourished having a blast.

Cheerio.

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December 3, 2023 · 18:07

What makes a lobbyist?

That is a serious question, because at times I have no clue what a lobbyist is. That is the question that the CBC leaves me with. There was even more power behind the article at the Financial Times, but their paywall prevents me from mentioning them. So here we are relying on the CBC. They did nothing really wrong and the article ‘At COP28 climate summit, there’s concern oil and gas lobbyists have too much influence’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/climate-dubai-cop28-lobbyists-canada-1.7042376) is a good read. Yet the question that follows be from the beginning which we see with “With tens of thousands in Dubai for the climate talks, environmentalists and policy experts are expressing concern over the growing presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at the meetings”. So, from the start we get the connection to a lobbyist. Which according to the dictionary means “a person who takes part in an organised attempt to influence legislators.” Yet I believe it is more then that. Another version is “a special interest group that hires a lobbying organisation to influence an elected official on a particular policy” which seems to apply better. And with COP28 (any COP actually) the need for lobbyists is clear. Yet if it was ONLY fossil fuels there would not be that much attendance. You might think that “An analysis from a coalition of advocacy groups found representatives of the fossil fuel industry have been in attendance a total of 7,200 times at the annual United Nations climate talks over the past two decades” would be enough. But how many ‘representatives’ would have been in attendance 7200 times? Lets just say that it might be a career, but I think that any lobbyist would be washed out after 100 visits, let alone 7200. So, there is a part missing and when we think COP there is EPA, there is EEA, there is also WWF, Earthjuice and a lot more and at this event they all are rushing to see if their needs are being met. The last part is given by the CBC and concerns Canada. So consider “Saskatchewan is also hosting a pavilion, at a cost of $765,000, where it will hold panels by industry leaders”, now consider that to break ‘even’ they need to see around $10 million (stand, flights, hotels and so forth). So you tell me what Saskatchewan is doing there? I honestly do not know, but they are there (hopefully) for a reason. 

The fun part is that the COP28 has a green zone and a blue zone, the blue zone is only for UNFCCC. A part that the CBC did not give us (the Financial Times had that in their article). So there are two strains of lobbyists, so who goes where? All parts that were missed be many media. Another part is that a player like Bentley systems (not the car) as well as Monash University are also there, they both have their own lobbyists, but neither gave us those goods. In a semantical mood I would state that there was an event (23 AD) where less than 0.1% was a virgin (the only virgins there were the Vestal Virgins representing Vesta, the rest were men, wives, whores and slaves and the event was at Circus Maximus on the order of Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. The entire setting mattered and it matters for COP28 events too. Without the entire enchilada we get a mere slice of what is going on and in that setting we see a misrepresenting of lobbyists as well as the COP28 event. You see, the people in the green zone do not get access to the blue zone (as far as I can tell) and the blue zone is where it is all at. So as such many articles do not give us the whole story (the Financial Times was more complete). All settings that matter, all settings that were (intentional or not) missed and that is where we are at. 

So what was the missions of these lobbyists and what policies were they supporting (or not) for governments? All questions that mattered, but we aren’t told that, were we?

Enjoy Sunday, I still have 8 hours to go, Vancouver is still on Saturday, lucky bastards.

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December 1, 2023 · 21:27

Who did you once trust?

That is on the edge of my mind when Reuters gives us (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-pushes-antitrust-action-against-microsoft-uk-cloud-market-2023-11-30/) ‘Google pushes for antitrust action against Microsoft in UK cloud market’. In the one hand, we get these kind of issues all the time, the big boys are fighting over terrain, nothing new here. But what does matter is ““With Microsoft’s licensing restrictions in particular, UK customers are left with no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals,” Google said in its letter to the CMA.” As well as “Asked why Amazon, which boasts a larger share of the cloud market than Microsoft, did not pose a similarly anticompetitive risk, Zavery said AWS consumers were not facing the same restrictions.” And the operative word is ‘restrictions’, a setting once employed by IBM. It comes from the old expression “Go IBM or go home”, an expression I had not heard since 1991. A setting that gives further pause when we see “Google made six recommendations to the CMA, including forcing Microsoft to improve interoperability for customers using Azure and alongside other cloud services, and banning it from withholding security updates from those that switch.” A consideration that shows us yet again what a bad choice Microsoft has become. Another source gives us “The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) launched an investigation into Britain’s cloud computing industry in October, following a referral from media regulator Ofcom which highlighted Amazon and Microsoft’s dominance of the market.” This can be seen in one view. The one part that we could consider is that one has a superior product and the other is a bully, Microsoft does not have the superior product. The marketshare settings are Amazon (33%), Azure (22%) and Google (11%), the rest (like Oracle and IBM) are a lot smaller. Now consider that one isn’t playing nice (read: playing the bully), what is the actual setting that should be? I reckon that Amazon would get a decently larger share, some will go to Google giving me pause to think that the Google/Adobe partnership becomes a lot more important and it decreases Microsoft yet again, all because they decided not to play nice, something they have done a few times over as I personally see it.

What is important is that I saw several sources, yet not one of them is a British newspaper, so when did the UK Media think that reporting on this is not in the interest of the British people? How deep are they in the pocket of Microsoft? Don’t take my work for it, seek it for yourself and see just how useless British media has become.

Enjoy the day, my weekend has started, you will be there soon too.

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November 30, 2023 · 23:47

Do two clouds make a weather system?

That is what I considered whilst contemplating a few things. It all started with the article (at https://www.consultancy-me.com/news/7298/new-google-cloud-region-in-ksa-could-add-109-billion-to-economy) where we see ‘New Google Cloud region in KSA could add $109 billion to economy’ there we are given “Google Cloud has announced the launch of a a new cloud region in Dammam, which could contribute around $109 billion to the country’s GDP by 2030. The expansion will extend Google Cloud’s high-performance, low-latency services to a wide range of customers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East”. As I personally see it, if they still had the Google Stadia (with a qualifying question) their revenue could have been almost 20% higher. It starts with around 5% in phase one with a growth to 20% in under two years. So when we are given “Another 36% of the expected activity will be in manufacturing and 3% in the public sector.” But I saw further then that. With Bangladesh and Indonesia in the setting of a much larger growth factor the oversetting of more revenue is not the first step, but it would also result in a new setting of advertising in new areas and new directions. All things they left on the floor for at least two years.

Yet this is not the larger setting, that is given to us with the second article. We see this (at https://aws.amazon.com/local/middle_east/) where we are given “We are excited to announce the new AWS Middle East (UAE) Region is now open! The AWS Middle East (UAE) Region consists of three Availability Zones and is our second region in the Middle East, joining the AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region, giving customers more choice and flexibility to leverage advanced technologies from the world’s leading cloud provider.” The larger setting is the question if they are going for the same mineshaft, or are they working together? You see, Amazon still has the Luna and as such (still with the qualifying question) they do have the edge on 5 billion leading to 20-30 billion. I cannot be more precise because there are too many factors in play and there is a factor that players like Microsoft ignore and it has cost them massively. Amazon has the edge, but the part of customer acceptance is more difficult then some make it out. I tend to minimise that I pact or go for the smallest iteration and see how far I can take it and  grow from there, as such the 5 billion was stage one. It could be more, but I lack data for that presumption and I do not like to go on a speculative side in this. I feel certain my solution works and now we see with the KSA cloud that only one factor is missing and in all these settings Google and Amazon both missed these billions. Funny isn’t it?

But the two sides do give rise to a few connected things and as I saw my augmented reality implementations there could even be more revenue on the horizon. All sides missed by the two biggest tech companies on the planet and Microsoft was in the wind, they were clueless. You see now why I predicted their downfall? A company that big and they had no idea what they were missing, that is why I do not want them near my IP. I had hoped for the Kingdom Holdings to accept the offer, but they didn’t. The reason why is not important. Now the question becomes will Google adjust their decisions? Will Amazon consider they additional revenue? They are both mere steps away from completion (Google needs one more step). 

But that is merely my point of view. Enjoy the day.

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November 30, 2023 · 02:23

Memories

We all have them. And for a lot of us it goes back to almost simpler times and we miss them. As such I was hit by them when I got to the page (at https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-wallpaper-takes-spot-on-microsofts-new-ugly-sweater) with the appealing title ‘Microsoft’s 2023 ugly sweater lets you wear the famous Windows XP wallpaper’ I had to read it. You see, I was never aware that they had an ugly sweater and one could say that it is so ugly, it is actually cool again.

That is not me. You see, the Bliss image takes me back to 2004. Things were simpler then and to be honest, I have never known a negative day with my XP, not with Office, not with the Adobe suite. In those days things actually worked correctly. Yes, they screwed it up with Vista, but that is the nature of the beast. 

I was set in a stage of things working, Microsoft not being evil (or more accurately not being stupid). Bliss and XP took me back to the good times and that matters to a lot of people, we all revere the good times we had (or have). The really odd part is that for the bulk of all people, the good times is in the past, in some cases the distant past. 

As such, whomever brought life to this idea at Microsoft has earned a raise. To be honest I did not expect Microsoft to ever surprise me, but they did. And for all the good times reporting they are giving the world with expectations being surpassed. Lets not forget that they just spend well over $65,000,000,000 on a setting that has given them a few issues. One voice gives us “Bethesda tried to make a brand new game concept/idea using old ideas and an old game engine. It just didn’t work. Even modders will have a hard time because the game engine is one of the biggest problems and modders can only work within the limitations of the engine”, you think it is the big tamale, but it is not. You see, most people will overlook the fact that fixing the game is seemingly in the hand of modders. So, when did you rely on your price turkey being fixed by a third party? Add to that the redfall fiasco and you have the making of a problem and the beginning of what I would consider a fiasco. We see all kinds of news on exclusive games coming in 2024, but the larger setting is already that the games they have so far just aren’t adding up. You see I do not care about the Xbox, I dumped mine. What is important that Sony games were better because Microsoft was on their heels, now that the PlayStation has an overwhelming advantage, they might not go all out on the PS6 (whenever that one comes). Good gaming is where it is at and that is why I have been handing over gaming IP to the independent developers (as long as they were not releasing on Xbox). Simple, Microsoft bought it all, now they can prove they actually have it all and have good gaming solutions WITHOUT my IP, they paid enough for it, so now prove it.

In the end this started with the sweater, because that showed us our memories for better and simpler times. It matters to me because the Xbox360 was awesome. Now we see that the Xbox One and the two iterations after that, they are nowhere near what they had. They might claim they have the most powerful console in the world, but the Nintendo Switch being the weakest of them all had much better sales results. It is that bad for Microsoft. We see the mention that Azure is doing better, but what we aren’t told is the simple fact that Oracle saved their bacon. Bing currently has a market share of 3.02% or Microsoft has failed to pick up even 3% of market share in its 10 years of selling Surface PCs. A mere 11% against the 39% that Apple has with the iPad, a superior system. We can argue on how it will come (not ever likely), ore can see that consider that Microsoft is the De Ponzi solution to tech schemes (a I personally see it). Buying more and more and when it does collapse (still set for December 2026) this all falls away. I reckon that late 2025 people will start to realise how dangerous Microsoft has become and I reckon that a early indication will be that Azure users will move towards the AWS flock. It is a speculative view but I believe that I will be proven correct in a years time. The fact that Microsoft is either in denial or refuses to see this is up for debate. But the surprise was the ugly sweater, that win they deserved and according to some sources is almost sold out, so they have that going for them. So what revenue was theirs? And how much revenue are they not getting from their Surface Pro, their Xbox, their Bing and their Azure? That is merely four sides where they never got any decent traction. So what happens when a Google/Adobe partnership impedes on their Office and Office365 setting? How far from home will they be then? Their Office solution is keeping them afloat. For the most their Excel is doing all the heavy lifting. Their Outlook showed issues in the last 24 hours. So when others come calling with solutions that actually work Microsoft will have a a lot more problems and no sweater will save them then. 

Believe me, don’t believe me. It is up to you, but when you start looking at multiple reliable sources the puzzle becomes a reality and it is not a pretty picture, no bliss in sight.

Enjoy the day.

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November 29, 2023 · 07:05

Egg timer? What egg timer?

Yes, we get that. There are egg timers that give us what we were waiting for. I stated on November 17th (12 days ago) “A complete overhaul was the only option and now with BRICS and China pushing in on the little revenue they had left, they have no options now and their competitors are moving in on whatever revenue they had left.” I said so in ‘It’s that time again’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/11/17/its-that-time-again/) Now Politico gives us ‘Brussels wants to beat the Pentagon at its own game on arms sales’ (at https://www.politico.eu/article/european-union-weapons-sales-united-states-defense/) there we see “The European Commission is hinting at a new mechanism similar to the US Foreign Military Sales to facilitate arms exports”, well that didn’t take long, did it? So when we see “In order to claw back the initiative, the European Commission is raising the prospect of copying the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) scheme” we see one thing, but I think it is more about stopping the Chinese sales system of becoming too successful. I fear it might be a little too late for that. There is every indication that China is almost ready to the defence needs of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Too little, too late and as I see it, a little over two years too late. I reckon they ill soon be fishing on the wrong side of the net. So whilst we are now given “In early 2024, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton is expected to present a European Defence Industrial Strategy to help support the Continent’s European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB). The consultation document is one of five papers circulated to national delegations to get their views on what the strategy should look like.” You see several reports are out there in the trend of “Riyadh eyes air defence systems and drones as part of possible yuan-based deal while Cairo plans to buy J-10C fighter jets”, so whilst the Europeans are trying to figure out “how to go about it” Saudi Arabia and Egypt are at this point getting catered to by China. As such we see that the China North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO) is actively talking to the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), who is interested in diversifying. 

So that is billions missed, just as I predicted almost two years ago. Now that it is happening, some are ‘reporting’ all whilst whatever intension Europe has with “on what the strategy should look like”, Beijing is not merely getting its feet wet, it is catering to a new clientele and China is hungry for that revenue. So when was the last time you left billions on the floor? As I personally see it Amazon did so a year ago (but they have plenty of cash), the US government does not, it has a debt of $31,000,000,000,000 as such every billion lost is another carve on the debt stick and the next shutdown is expected to be around January 19th 2024 if they cannot agree on a new continuing resolution a lot will fall away. That was a given, but with Europe now tying to get defence money, giving the US less and already China is in the mix (has been for months) with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and they are expected to score some revenue from the United Arab Emirates as well, this upcoming CR will be missing a few revenue posts and not much is needed to make it all fall over. The larger setting is not merely defence, the UAE will (according to one source) be looking at ships as well. As such there is every chance that the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) could be up for some UAE coast guard ships. As I understand it, it has something to do with the Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co (ADSB). So is it mere consultancy? Ships design? I honestly do not know, but what does matter is that they used to have an American fleet, now as that falls away a lot more revenue will be missed by American companies. 

All this and the larger setting isn’t merely what Politico tells you, it is the second degree that the Saudi and Egyptian deals open the doors for. I think that Bangladesh is next on the Chinese sights. China has a two sided tactic, gain revenue and stop America from getting revenue. It is the same setting we saw with Evergreen in 1989. Yung-Fa Chang played his hand brilliantly, a setting where players like Nedlloyd had close to complete control was lost in less than 5 years to Evergreen. I reckon that we get a similar kind of play towards the larger naval needs of Bangladesh and Indonesia. After that there will not be much left for America. They already broke their own windows with their ‘elite’ approach towards the F-22 Raptor. I am not criticising this. It was the demand of the US to keep sole custody of that dinky toy. Yet now Chengdu has several nations vying for their J-20 and with the range options, that is a thing coveted by many defence forces all over the globe and there Saudi Arabia, UAE and optionally Egypt and Indonesia as well is a setting of several billions right of the bat, and I expect that the USA cannot counter those odds on revenue. Yet there are a few options for Europe as well. If they push their agenda Chengdu will have to compete with the Eurofighter Typhoon. I have no idea who will win that revenue race, but Europe better be moving fast, the early bird that hesitates becomes worm food. As for the technical side, I am not a pilot. Yet in all this the Evergreen approach comes to mind, so America and Europe are quickly running out of time and Europe’s voiced response of “on what the strategy should look like” sounded nice in 2021, but not now. It’s crunch time for them at this point.

Enjoy your day today.

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November 28, 2023 · 00:55

Jokes in denial

Yup, we see that at times, we see the jokes making claims and then we see them equally in denial making us wonder what this was all about. This doesn’t start with the BBC article, yet it is a good starting point to make my case. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67508331) gives us ‘COP28: UAE planned to use climate talks to make oil deals’ and my first reaction is ‘and?’ You see good business is where you find it and a climate change event has hundreds of people all looking for an edge to make their bank accounts fat. This is not new, FIFA has done it for decades as has plenty of other players. But I digress. 

You see, we are then given “The documents – obtained by independent journalists at the Centre for Climate Reporting working alongside the BBC – were prepared by the UAE’s COP28 team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments ahead of the COP28 summit, which starts on 30 November.” As such, where is the evidence? A mention of an independent journalist? Which one? Then we see a screenshot of something I could optionally create with PC Write in seconds (a 1983 text editor). If this is such a large issues, where is the ACTUAL evidence? This is the ICIJ joke all over again. Now consider the quote “This year it is being hosted by the UAE in Dubai and is due to be attended by 167 world leaders, including the Pope and King Charles III.” Now consider the setting the UK is in. Should the option arise where the UAE could sell the UK oil at $2 cheaper. Do you think that the UK would not accept? Consider that the UK In 2021, some 13 million metric tons of crude oil from Norway and that the larger image is “Norway ($11.7B), United States ($5.48B), Russia ($1.41B), Libya ($1.37B), and Nigeria ($1.19B)” (estimated numbers in 2021). That means that the UK would save well over a billion dollars. With the shortages they currently have a billion solves a lot of issues. Should it therefor not be done? Oh, and that is if there is ACTUAL evidence on the matter. I am willing to go on faith that ANY event will open doors to business arrangements. It will not hinder or lessen the impact of COP28 will it? And all this is related to someone claiming that they have documents, so where are they? What are these sources? Two simple questions.

The joke in denial
Now it is time to refer to the joke in denial. 

This all started with ‘Uniform Nameless Entitlement Perforation’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/12/10/uniform-nameless-entitlement-perforation/), it was my response to that Guardian idiot with its ‘jets for the rich must stop’ You see the EEA had given us a document on environmental damage in December 2020, it shows that 147 facilities created 50% of that damage. I even added that document at the end.1% creates 50% of all the damage and the Guardian and the BBC never picked up on it, they didn’t even attack the document, they never drilled into the data. They did NOTHING. That makes them the jokes in denial. Now, if they opposed the document and handed us the evidence that would have been fair. But we got nothing and now we get even more garbage without actual or factual evidence. Why is that?

Consider that this day and have fun.

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November 26, 2023 · 20:43

Collapsed Intelligence Agency

Yup, this is about the CIA, unlike the No Such Agency, this one does exist. Now, I do not now, or never ever worked for them. As such I am not in the know. All those people claiming to be in the know from an anonymous source tend to be bullshitting you and I have no such intent. 

This all started when I got my fingers on this from an educational place called Imprimis (at https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/why-the-cia-no-longer-works-and-how-to-fix-it/) the article comes to us by way of Charles S. Faddis. 

It is an interesting read and it focusses on bureaucratisation and politicisation (zzzzzz’s fixed). The first part gives us “Now it is run by people who look for ops with no possible downside and, therefore, no particular upside either.” And the second part is “The CIA has proved unable to put a source inside a Chinese bio lab, within the leadership structure of the Taliban, or next to Vladimir Putin. Those kinds of operations require the willingness to take risks and the ability to manage those risks. We no longer have either”

I cannot disagree with this, but I feel it is too shallow. The first quote makes sense, but there is a larger station. The CIA needs a strong political branch and that one is missing. Most politicians are looking for their own gravy train, the CIA ain’t it. The second part requires resources and as China is closing the borders and Chinese Americans aren’t lining up for a tour that gets their Chinese family members pushed towards vacation park Qincheng, people aren’t willing to line up. Resources are close to all but gone. Now there is every chance that I am wrong, but I feel that I am hitting the nail close to the edge.

The second part gives us “No military relief force was sent by the Obama administration.” This sounds nice, but what is the logistic trail before the president orders actions? That part is not given to us. The 2016 movie ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ gives us most clearly that from start to finish 13 hours passed. Some time before could have given these places that there was an issue, but was there enough operational time? It is perhaps the one part missing from the movie, but the movie wasn’t about that, so I get it. My version is seen with “The CIA had given them bad intelligence”, so was it a political player or an intelligence player who screwed things up? All speculations and no supportive data. 

After that the article is all about ‘solutions’ and for me it does not hold water. In the first the CIA needs clear budgets and a nation that is broke becomes a problem, the CIA becomes the anchor no political player wants. They will not say it out loud but their actions will cripple the CIA. There is some truth in education and training but that is for actual agents to report on. There is every chance that I do not know enough. What is clear that they cannot hide behind some fake AI solution, they need proper hardware and proper data solutions. Any political push for AI instigation will cripple the CIA even further. In the end these political players will say ‘sorry, this was apparently too complex for me’ and walk away with a fat check. As I see it, the CIA needs a new way to collect data, through news, through embassies, through consulates and it can no longer be some unique setting. The US State department needs to become the friend of the alphabet groups, not having some pissing content in whomever pond they are. The very first need is quality data that has been verified, the first stage of bad intelligence is missing the correct data.

When we look at the paper we can agree on some parts, but only if we walk with blinders. You see the quote “But the fact that it took us almost ten years after 9/11 to find and kill Bin Laden should give us pause.” What we aren’t given and what the movie ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ clearly gives us is that Bin Laden was in Pakistan, an ally no less and he was in Abbottabad, a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul and NO ONE in Pakistan saw this? When was the last time Al Qaeda was spotted in Annapolis (or walking around without a care in the world)? So how much resources did the CIA have in Pakistan? Why was an American ally unaware of all this? This was not on the CIA, one could argue that the US State department failed to a much larger degree, but the article does not bear this out (intentional typo).

Yes, the CIA has problems, but they aren’t all on them. Some are and this article does give us that, but the larger station is not on the CIA, as I personally see it, it is on Congress and it is on too many Alphabet units all doubling on things and data is a huge thing here, especially when three organisations (CIA, NSA and the US State department) need to start playing nice and create a much better data system. It is definitely one side that is draining all three.

But that is merely my views, but what do I know?

Enjoying Sunday, Monday starts in 200 minutes (for me at least).

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November 25, 2023 · 02:11

Stopped making sense

Yes, at some point my mind stops making sense. Even to me. The weird part was that I had no idea whether it was simply a dream, the setting for a video game, a script or even the future. OK, the last speculation was definitely not the case. 

I was on trip with a motorcycle, riding the roads and taking trains in or around Switzerland. The roads had gotten so bad that bikes were allowed on trains (for an extra fee). I was being hunted by an assassin with a chrome coloured .22 with a silencer and that dweep was really accurate with that party popper. I had escaped his vision and I got somewhere around Lausanne (I had to look it up). The thinks that make it all unreal was in the first the bike, which was the bike Kaneda drove in Akira. The second part was the hotel outside of Lausanne. I had room 25334. I have never ever seen or been in a hotel with numbers that high. My mind filled in the blanks from trips to that region. 

The thing that is the most elusive were the roads. The roads had to a larger degree collapsed. They were pretty good in Switzerland, but with Germany’s economy collapsed the roads in Bavaria were dismal, no mentionable repairs had been made in close to a decade and certain seismic shifts broke the roads even further. 

There was a stage where it could have been the setting for a new game, gaming with a difference. You see GaaS (or streaming service) allows for a larger stage of gaming. Consider that a game has more than one side. Consider the setting where you have a management game for infrastructure on your mobile. A match 3, or a Tetris, or puzzle game (or all) that gives you funds for your infrastructure. The results comes into play in the larger game. If you do not do that (always valid) you aggregated average of a cluster of gamers is what the game uses to improve infrastructure and utilities. This would show in all kinds of ways. The hotel was perhaps a reference to the collapsing cities. As economies go bust many buildings will lack maintenance. The cities would become deathtraps. Certain ‘luxury’ hotels would be available all over the world for those who could afford it and local hotels in places that still run would be the envy for those who could not afford to stay there and boosting local economies for those who could. 

It is an evolving idea, but the premise that this is an optional truth coming to us in the near future has been a driving force in gaming for the longest of times. What does matter is how we push that future. I believe that streaming systems will become the future. By being inclusive in more than one direction is one way to go, not the only one, but one direction that many game makers have ignored (for too long). There is also the other side (one I am not ignoring) not all lie the match 3 games. They are algorithms that are designed to make you almost succeed. I hate them. But there are other directions, other games you could play on your mobile. So how to connect them? How to get another game to entice people to play and then connect them to the stage of the larger game? This is not always an easy task, but it is a challenge worth meeting. 

Then there is another path that occurred to me and that one is specifically for Ubisoft. Sony had the Playstation Home (2008-2015) and many miss that open simplicity. Ubisoft has/had AC Brotherhood, AC Black Flag, AC Origin and AC Mirage. Just 4 out of a lot of options. Any person can get an account and can select a world and they end up being in that world owning a house (partially random) and for $1-3 a month the can have a house in a second location. There is also the upgrade. As you select for the upgrade in location one (a more unique setting) you get the second location for free (or the second location upgrades the building in location one). It allows for a new setting for fans. A place they loved they can live there, walk around that town or city and  live to some degree in that temporal environment. Now consider that Ubisoft adds a VR engine. Now the AC fans will get a jug of lemonade from places they revere. And there as an additional setting. It is an environment where Ubisoft has exclusive marketing rights. A place where they can evolve NPC characters and it is in a system where there will be millions of fans. All the places we ran through, but now we can call Alexandria, Aaru, Aten, Duat, Krokodilopolis, Baghdad, Firenze, Rome, Venice, Monteriggioni or Havana our home. As these places evolve and as our systems evolve, we could end up with an actual address that can be wielded in the real world. 

As such our secondary address could become an actual address. These are services now laughed at, but 25 years ago web addresses were laughed at, now over 1,500,000,000 people have one and they are holding onto this for dear life. Ubisoft lost (read: squandered) so many IP options, perhaps it is time to look back in seeing what they could regain and it is their advantage, the graphics are already there. The places to see are already theirs.

Just a though and it might not make a lot of sense, but in 1995 a web location made no sense at all either. Evolution is where you see it.

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