Category Archives: Media

Basic counting

This is a simple setting, there is no ‘complication’. There is a certain need to be competent and this is seen and shown in all walks of life. So I had a few issues with the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-66229577) I am not saying the BBC did anything wrong. Consider what we are being told in the article. We are given “The event was supposed to be a massive boost for the regional cities hosting it, at a cost of A$2.6 billion (£1.4bn; $1.8bn). But the cost of staging the 12-day Games had ballooned to more than A$6bn, Mr Andrews said.” The very first question that came to mind was ‘How incompetent is Daniel Andrews?’ Don’t just take my word for it, consider the image below. Yes, it is quirky and funny, but not entirely untrue. 

You see I get that mistakes are made, we all make them. We get fuel prices wrong ($2.78 instead of $2.43), we get the price of an item can be handed wrongly, these things happen. But to make an error that amounts to 230% of the invoice requires a very special amount of stupid and I reckon that Daniel is every bit as guilty as whomever wielded the abacus that gave us such wrong numbers. 

And this is not the only case. We are given “Just one Games has been held outside the UK or Australia in the last 20 years – the 2010 outing in the Indian capital, Delhi. Originally expected to cost $270m, India ended up spending 16 times that – almost $4.1bn.” This now gives us three issues. The first is that the logistical side of the Commonwealth games will need an overhaul (if there is one left). The fact that they got the number wrong in 2010 by 1600% is clear evidence of that. 

The second part is that these numbers should have ben checked and as such subsequent games would have been ready. This seems not to be happening. The third part is a little harder. The fact that within 15 years the cost are driven up by almost 50% is one, the second is that India required $4.1 billion, so how did anyone find a way to get it done for an initial $1.8 billion? For half the price even as construction costs tend to be higher in Australia? Yes, we can fidget with currencies all we ant, but the numbers aren’t adding up and that is on Daniel Andrews, the buck literally stops there. 

It seems to me that there are too many fingers in this Commonwealth Games pie. Costs are getting out of hand and there might be valid reasons, but which paper did a thorough digging into that? I personally reckon no one is looking deeper into this as it also impacts advertisers. And the media loves its role as a courtesan.

Wo we will have to wait what will happen next, yet the larger setting is also interesting. Melbourne had the Commonwealth games in 2006, are you telling me that these venues no longer suffices? It might have been part of the scuttled calculations, but I see no mention of that. The BBC article makes no mention of the 2006 games whatsoever, which is a little weird too. So when the Commonwealth games are cancelled, I wonder if anyone will look deeper into this cesspool of incompetency. On the upside, I seem to have found another pool of revenue (or cost reduction) at present and it might apply to Amazon, Apple and Google. But I need to dig a little further before I make official mention here. It might equally impact IBM to some degree as well. 

Well, that was another fine mess I aided in creating, but that is how I roll.

Enjoy the middle of the week.

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In souls we trust

I believe that this is the setting we should be in. Make no mistake, there is every chance that I might be wrong and I understand that many will not agree with me. This all comes to blows as I saw an article whilst researching others. I initially was reading up on Andrew Tate, I saw that his house arrest had been prolonged for yet another month. I have had my issues with the arrest. In the first for MONTHS there was no formal case made and we heard all kinds of excuses and the media just accepted it, as it seemingly does whilst being a courtesan. I saw a few other issues and I still believe on a speculative foundation that this all is a play by Romanian organised crime and some business people to steal the business enterprise of the Tate’s away. It is worth hundreds of millions and a fraction of that tends to be enough to start something like that. The media (for the most) was zero help, they are all of the mind to stretch the digital dollar as far as they can and then I stumbled upon ‘“Britain will be fully Islamic soon” – Andrew Tate shocks fans by openly calling for the Islamisation of Britain’ by sportskeeda (at https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-britain-will-fully-islamic-soon-andrew-tate-shocks-fans-openly-calling-islamisation-britain). You might think that this is preposterous, but to some extend this is a global wave that is starting to happen. This world has 8 billion people in it (aka 8,000,000,000) the larger stage is that at present a little over 2 billion (aka 2,000,000,000) is Muslim, it is over 25% at present. Even as 2.6 billion are christian and we see messages how much it is growing, for the most, the people have had enough of the christian church. The exploitation, the child sex abuse, the Vatican in denial and the support of corruption on a global scale is getting out of hand. The overly American Christian waves of BS we see on a daily basis is a first example. One source (unconfirmed) gives us “Since 1970, weekly church attendance among Catholics has dropped from 55% to 20%, the number of priests declined from 59,000 to 35,000 and the number of people who left Catholicism increased from under 2 million in 1975 to over 30 million today.” The flock is leaving the shepherd by the millions, but some remain in denial. I saw another wave evolve 2-3 years back and that led to the IP I had been trying to sell to Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom Holdings, Amazon and Tencent Technologies. You see, we are given in the article “This building is literally dead centre in the middle of London’s historic centre. Amazing news. The only alternative to Islam for the brits are pride flags as they no longer have any innate culture or patriotism. Allah is the best of planners and I look forward to seeing The Islamic republic of Great Britistan in her final form. Alhamdulillah Britain will be fully Islamic soon.” I personally did not see that part, but I saw enough from the other parts to see that changes are needed and governments were actively avoiding them, which gave me the idea of IP which would get well over 50 million subscribers from the early days and that wave would evolve over time. With the claims made by Andrew Tate, these changes would herald a massive wave (in my favour), but that is not what this is about. You see, if we trust in souls the Vatican and governments would clean up their acts, but they do not. If anything they are making it worse and soon the people are driven by choices they weren’t ready to make and might not be ready to make at that point, but it would optionally prove Andrew’s setting. The fun part I that Google numbered itself out of that equation, for whatever reason, they stand to lose a lot. Microsoft will wherever the revenue is, optionally making matters worse and the others, I honestly cannot tell. American firms will get a tap on the shoulder ‘to make a choice’, but like the Huawei case there is now almost enough for them to switch, or set a double stage to provide both.

This might have been a setting in 2019, but there was enough evidence for years to change an Apple keyboard where EVERY key is a display and it can show the alphabet the user requires. IBM engineers came up with the projection keyboard in 1992. So why was it held back? The setting resurfaced with the Apple iPad, but overall it never took off and I can see a case where Apple had the option to become the number one player in the Middle East, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and a few other places. So what kept them? It cannot be revenue, they lack it and the technology has been out there for 30 years. So what is stopping them? I will let you figure that out.

Andrew further gives us “A secular UK as it is intended to be. All races and religions and cultures etc living in harmony. That seems like a better and more long term plan” I believe he is not wrong, but the media sucks up to the Vatican, the church of England, the Swedish church and a few other players and they are all in denial. So what comes next? It is anyones guess I reckon, but the growth of Islam is clear and has been clear for several years. It allowed me to create IP no one considered and there is more to come. When I unite the IP for 5G+ there will be a much larger stage and I saw that in Dubai it is already evolving. Arab News gave us 22 hours ago ‘Dubai’s real estate transactions increase 37% in Q2: report’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2339316/business-economy), this means that another IP piece I have will soon evolve, this is not wishful thinking, the quote “with the total value of properties sold touching 69.8 billion dirhams ($19 billion)” makes it so. I saw the real estate people doing the same thing over and over again. This needs a shakeup and that is where I saw the diverging of one IP into another. I didn’t initially see that in Dubai, I saw it evolve in Toronto and the step to Dubai is as I personally see it exceedingly simple. In souls we trust, all others rely on becoming a tool. It is not sweet, it is nasty, but this christian exploitative stage we are on now is running out of runway and I have no idea how it crashes next, but I reckon it will. If you doubt that, consider that I have put half a dozen IP pieces on the internet. Google and Amazon should have had it, but they did not. Why not? Are they blind, or are they hindered by blinders that are set to the coming and next quarter? And that is before you realise that I also came up with Augmented reality solutions long before Gucci was there, that is three times over. So what are they doing wrong? I will let you figure that our over a cup of coffee (which gives rest to the soul and activates the brain. I have lived on that stuff almost a lifetime. 

Enjoy the week.

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A partial view

We are at times given a partial view. We aren’t always aware, which is no ones fault, except the media. In this I saw things not add up when the BBC gave us ‘Xbox v PlayStation: The battle for control’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-65669480) where several things stood out. Before we begin, I am massively for Sony with a side order of Nintendo. Be aware, but Sony is not without faults. So lets begin. 

Sony’s getting ready to announce the PlayStation 2 (PS2) – the powerful update to its game-changing PlayStation. Rivals Sega and Nintendo, who’ve struggled to fend off the new competitor, watch nervously.” This is not entirely correct. Sony played hardball, some ‘traders’ basically gave the shops the message. If you were showing a dreamcast, you would not be allowed to get the PS2. This scared a whole range of shops and Sony gained the upper hand. This was essential for Sony because SEGA had launched Soul Caliber on Dreamcast, which is until this day one of the most perfect games EVER created. It was so close to the arcade game that people went out of their way to get game and system. I know of the ‘persuasion techniques’ as I was a witness to them in Rotterdam (Netherlands). OK, we can accept that the BBC might never have been aware. 

In 2012 the battle was almost even, the Xbox 360 was phenomenal, no one denies that (and those who do are actual idiots). I had my Xbox360 next to the PS3 and I loved both systems. The 360 had a few release titles that made it a massive contender for Sony. Then the ground fell away with some Microsoft person stating that the next one (Xbox One) was always online, there would be no 2nd hand gaming and those who wanted to play offline could remain with the Xbox 360. The BBC article gives us “The 22-second clip, now widely seen as a legendary slap down, shows PlayStation CEO Shuhei Yoshida simply handing Sony exec Adam Boyes a copy of Killzone Shadow Fall.” Yet that was not it. For that we need to take a sidestep to an article named ‘No Press, No Facebook!’ Which I wrote on August 12th 2014 (at lawlordtobe.com/2014/08/12/no-press-no-facebook/) there I wrote “It is 7.1 that is the big issue, by agreeing to this (if you do not you lose your PSN account and online abilities) you confirm that you will not resell your games or buy second hand games. This was the big killer for Microsoft in the beginning in addition to the fact that this issue hits 80 million consumers. How is this not in EVERY newspaper? Perhaps their bosses where in the act of ‘hustle for advertisement coin’ (whoring seems like such a harsh word here).” The presentation by Sony was clever but they were on the same horse as Microsoft was. I gave the screenshots and evidence to several stations but they all ignored it, most probably too busy playing Geisha for Japanese industrials. Because Microsoft had the first presentation and they scuttled themselves Sony did a 180 before the presentation and as certain trade agreements never went through (Trans-Pacific Partnership) as such things went well for Sony. 

These elements were all missing. As such Microsoft lost more and more.

Then there was the storage issue. Sony set the rules on what was passible, Microsoft did not. As such for a mere $100 more you could double your storage by changing the hard drive, and for gamers that was a big deal. Microsoft did not allow for that and it went from bad to worse. There was hardware, but it was clumsy and expensive. Sony had the stronger setting here and these upgrades were possible from the PS3, as such Microsoft could have redesigned their Xbox One, but they were greedy and they left that part out in the open. As such the Sony was winning well over 2:1 and with the Nintendo Switch matters went from bad to worse. Microsoft kept on claiming that it was the strongest hardware of all and within a year they were surpassed by the weakest of all (Nintendo Switch). By that time the Xbox Series X had nothing to offer for gamers and they were in third position, what we are not shown that the Switch sold 125 million, the PS4 sold 117 million (in less than 10 years) and PS5 sold 38 million. Microsoft sold 22 million over 2 systems (series S and series X). They are in third position but lagging by a massive amount. And now for something that the BBC does not have. I am adding gaming IP to Amazon Luna and Tencent Technologies for free (to make Microsoft hurt more). You see there is a downside to owning Blizzard and Activision. You need to sell a lot to make up to that $69 billion and making it more appealing to create for the other two systems (Sony and Nintendo have a good arsenal and they do not need help) as such these streamers will have additional options and it slows down Microsoft more and more (but that is for another day and I wrote about that before). 

The article also gives us the deceptive “Meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 continues to dominate the next-gen console scene. But, two and a half years since launch, it still lacks the depth of truly exclusive games that have been seen as system-sellers for previous generations.” Which is utter BS. The PS5 has it range of exclusives and it has been breaking records God of War, Horizons, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, all previously released and the new versions broke records and made gamers gasp at the view of what was being released. Microsoft isn’t out of the race yet, but it needs to throw billions at this equation and that is still part of the discussion. Microsoft has a large advantage too. Game Pass is drawing in gamers, there is no denying it, yet after the $69 billion blood bank there will be consequences. Overly hyped games like Starfield need to deliver, if not the exodus from Microsoft will become stronger and the nice part of a $69 billion courtesan without gamers is a trophy no one looks at. There is of course more to the purchase, but it will show Microsoft in a state of defeat yet again and if I get my way it will end up behind Amazon and Tencent technologies too.

The final statement is the funniest one “But after a well-received showcase and Starfield, its biggest release of 2023, still to come, Xbox isn’t out of the game yet.” You see, after Redfall (its demise and joke) the pressure is not entirely validly on Starfield, in addition Bethesda games are implied to be a Microsoft exclusive, but without the millions of Sony fans they will not be making the numbers, the trust towards Microsoft is gone and people are shying away from Diablo 4, merely because Microsoft could endanger gaming fun, as such there is a lot more to fear, but those selling the $69 billion deal will be aware of that, not? 

In the mean time, the article was short several parts and not all pro Sony. Still there is also no battle for control, Microsoft lost by a fair bit, lagging in several ways and it will get worse, because the moment they get their deal and system errors prop up things will go south fast (and not in a good way). You see that is the part Microsoft never considered, games will look for EVERY fault they can find and hit Microsoft over the head with it and they have pissed off way too many gamers. They never considered a gaming population with an actively hostile setting. They forgot what it took to make the Xbox360 a real contender, something they threw away with pretty much one presentation and that matters, because it will show the lack of control too.

Enjoy the new week.

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Overwhelmed

That happens to us all, even to me. Don’t get me wrong, I have been around the block (more than once) but even I have to admit that I was not ready for what I saw. To set the stage I have been (and spend time there) to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Stockholm, Malmo, Copenhagen, Munich, London, Birmingham, Brighton, Heraklion, Tel Aviv, New York, Chicago, Washington DC and that in reflection is used to describe what I saw. 

For several reasons I have been looking at Dubai. Initially to the Dubai Mall to consider and test one of my IP and see how it holds up. You see, it is easy to hold up any IP to places with all the defects in place. Yet can it hold up to a place that is as perfect (and as big) as the Dubai Mall? I believe it did, but not to the massive agree that it holds up to other places and seeing your IP in a diminished way also opens your ming up to optional innovations. So as I was looking at the mall I saw several walkthroughs. Some great, many less so. One provider that stood out was Alone in Dubai (at https://www.youtube.com/@aloneindubai) that provider gave me a lot more and after seeing over half a dozen of walkthrough videos I came to the initial conclusion that Dubai might be one of the most perfect places in the world. I stated ‘initially’ because I have never been there and video’s only show part of something. But what I saw showed me streets leaner than anywhere else on the planet. This is why I showed you the places I have been (I have been to a lot more places), these streets were the cleanest I have ever seen. The street radiate feelings of safety, I saw water dispensers where people and tourists could refill their bottles of water. I saw a lot that I saw before. Terraces that we see near beaches, but now nowhere near a beach. Inviting for coffee, lunch and so on. Places that we are used to seeing. Shops that we are used to see and sometimes they have a western and an Arabic facade. A global village that quite frankly blew me away and a lot of Turkish Ice cream places. Beyond this there was the skyline of Dubai which is impressive in many ways, but check out the video’s for yourself, there is nothing like a first glimpse to give you pause to question what was held in front of you and seeing that reality is different. Even outside the mall we see so much and so many places where it all seems like we have seen it all before, but we never saw it to such an immaculate degree. Then there was the Carrefour. A supermarket, yet I never saw one this big. Perhaps in America they have supermarkets that size, but the places I have been to are nowhere this big. The fish section alone was 10 times the size of the fish shops we have here. Isles with fresh fish, packaged fillet and so many choices. Isles of items we all see in our own supermarkets and the weird part was that plenty is on par with our prices, some are cheaper and some are less cheap, but there too there is the setting that the meat looks better, more high end and often at nearly the same prices. There was more of nearly everything. Something we might never have expected from a place so far from home. Today and over the last weekend I was overwhelmed by the views of a place I never expected to overwhelm me. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that the Dubai Mall was one of the most beautiful and most perfect places on the planet. What was unexpected was that Dubai was every bit as amazing as the mall was and when you see some of these videos on sights on Dubai. You will understand why it could be the best vacation spot you have ever been to in all your life.

The new week is about to start, use the video’s to survive until the next weekend.

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Single-mindedness towards greed

That is how I see it in this case. To see this we need to take a look at the CBC article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/box-office-slump-2023-1.6906554) called ‘Blockbusters are failing spectacularly, but how that changes Hollywood is anyone’s guess’. First of all, are they failing? To the requiring mind of these movie releases they seemingly are. Yet I am not of that mindset. Lets see if I can get you on board. A second article is from the BBC and seen (at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230713-how-the-cost-of-living-crisis-is-fuelling-job-quits) where we are getting told about the cost of living. They call it ‘How the cost-of-living crisis is fuelling job quits’, especially in families with children, the revenue of worker number two is no longer covering the cost of the children. They tell us “Rising prices and interest rates are pushing some workers to move around the labour market, rather than dig in their heels at their current employers.” This is not merely a British thing, it is a global thing and when you add Australia with age discrimination we have a very different picture. We see a growing global community that can no longer AFFORD to go to the cinema. I used to go to the cinema at least once a month. Now I am happy if I can afford to go once a quarter, that is a drop of 60% and I am not alone, millions are in the same boat. To get any kind of tinsel town satisfaction we are driven to Netflix. $15 a month versus $15 per visit is simple math (if you have a proper internet connection), yet the CBC has merely one mention of Netflix and it is in the wrong direction. The article has nothing on ‘cost of living’ a clear first in any household. A week ago CBC gave its readers ‘Families face ‘hidden homelessness’ as Hamilton shelter system is consistently overwhelmed’ and no one was able to connect the dots? In ‘generalising’ statistics we tend to agree and accept that for any household collapsing, at least 50 more are on the verge to go that direction. It isn’t a foolproof stage, but with the lack of data that is a clear path to walk on and now we see that this implies that in Hamilton alone a thousand households are on the verge of collapsing. So how many of those would consider going to the cinema? It amounts to $25-$40 per person, and that is just for starters. There are travel cost to consider as well. So when you add it all up, Canada alone has close to 250,000 households that actually can no longer afford to go to the cinema. Add a few million from the US and a similar amount from the EU and it explains why people aren’t going to the silver screen, they lack funds. This doesn’t make the movie a flop. I would have loved to have seen Shazam 2 (or the new Indiana Jones, or Oppenheimer, or Mission Impossible) I just couldn’t afford the ticket. It is life on a budget and I reckon that Jackson Weaver has some rewriting to do, perhaps add a chapter (or two). The funny part is that I saw this path clearly within the first 2 minutes. Me, for now is saving up so that I can see Dune Chapter 2 on launch date (which is November 2nd). This is the reality that millions face, we aren’t happy, we aren’t thrilled. This is our lives and the people in the entertainment better take notice (like the CEO’s making 135 million plus annually). You are either getting smarter on how you do things or lose more and more money and downgrading payments of actors is definitely the wrong road to travel on.

And why is this single-mindedness? Simple, you see Google and Amazon should be running circles around me. Yet for now I am growing my IP count where they should have been ahead of me and they are not. The simple setting is that they (and Hollywood) should have the goods, but I wrote several stories (could be scripts) in directions they never contemplated. So, why not? Are they the next creative failings after Ubisoft? You tell me, I should never have been ahead or even close to equal to them, but it seems that I am. I will tell you that I am not driven by greed, I believe that this is the setting that is drowning them. When did this happen? My personal feeling is that Avatar and the Marvel movies opened a door they never saw and now they are all rushing to get to that revenue. It is a greed driven drive, which is why they will never equal people like James Gunn (even when he is wearing glasses), the creative minds like Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese are titans because it is about the creation, not the revenue (it is a nice side effect for them). Art is never bankable, but it is collectable when completed. A simple premise that most never seem to get and they all rely on one other element. People who can afford to go to the cinema and for now that equation is massively out of balance.

It might not be their fault, but it is still on their plates today. Not hard was it?

Try to enjoy the last day of your weekend.

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A 2 minute warning?

Yes, we can relate. Yet some will think it is about the 1976 movie, and they are not entirely incorrect. It has a different relationship. It is about a BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230712-consumer-brands-leave-social-media-meta-threads) where we see ‘Why your favourite brand may be taking a social media break’. It is here where the speculations start. We are given “Like many of us, big companies are struggling to keep up with the number of social media platforms vying for their time and attention. They’re faced with the important choice of which apps to choose, in a market where social media can be an important brand-building tool and enable them to target consumers where they are most active.” You see there is more than one stream in motion. It goes beyond sniping (or shotgun marketing for that matter). It is about amount of considering versus smart considering. It was never far of my mind. You see my IP was set on a premise and even as it had options for advertising, or sniping. It was never about the timeline. Facebook overplayed its hand. Not initially, but over time people are starting to resent this approach. And like that 1976 movie, you could take a sniper rifle into the LA Colosseum and seek your target. One building with packed people, the chance to find your target is decently high. Now consider that Facebook was the Gatling gun and people started to shy away from that building you see that building holds 77,500 people. The Gatling gun (modern version) shoots up to 6,000 rounds a minute, as such the entire stadium is covered in 13 minutes. A sniping rifle can never get there, but its usage is different, each shot is a kill. It is precise and takes time. Sniping advertising is the same. It take time and effort (and causes less alarm). Yet the return on investment is almost always there and that was the approach I had in my new solution. It allows the ‘target’ the choice and that is the operative word. I do not think that brands are taking a social media break. They are (finally) figuring out that you can either market more and more, or you can start being smart about how you market your brand (almost like SPSS Answertree, 1998). And brands are figuring out that they start need to become smart about there approach (which would work out nicely for me as well). The article mentions Lush cosmetics and “The beauty company initially dropped off the platforms in 2019, due to concerns about fighting with ever-changing social media algorithms as well as the company’s worry about the potentially negative impact of social media on young people.” I reckon they were ahead of the pack when they decided that and they were considering what was wise, what was clever and how to be smart about it. Meta cares about its own bottom dollar first and that is where the users see the impact of a free service. I got there in 2021 and my models are looking very awesome, and their view is improving by the month. As such I mentioned a few months ago that I would indirectly be taking business away from Meta (and others), now if Amazon wakes up, they could end up with the home and away advantage all at the same time. If not it will fall to Tencent Technologies. I reckon that they are about to realise what I found and my mind would be worth a lot overnight. Apple is still not out of the race I reckon (if they have the answer to the qualifying question) but it is too much speculation. This is about marketing and that is only the start. You see, no matter how we see it. Whether we consider shotgun marketing, sniping marketing, blanket marketing and a few other methods. In the end these are the old ways and when the new ways come to pass a lot of granular discussions go out of the window. You all saw Meta (or Facebook), YouTube and Instagram marketing as the next wave, it was never that, it was a digital approach to Direct Marketing and SPSS shot that to smithereens in 1998 when they gave the audiences on global level Answertree. When you realise the simplicity and the connected improved results of that solution, that is when you realise that the age of Meta is nearly over. They had a good run mind you. They ran marketing into new directions for 19 years, just like Direct Marketing did 2 decades before and whatever came before that. This doesn’t mean that Meta is ending, but it will see a reduced interest and others will push the next wave. Who it will be? I have no idea, I am not tapping the vein of marketing. I merely saw another option that could have benefits for me, merely a benefit and that was enough for me. The next marketing wave is for whomever has a life dedicated to marketing, it is not me.

So there might be a 2 minute warning, although in marketing terms it is most likely a 2 years warning, as such someone will be raking in new solutions somewhere in 2025 and I reckon that this is when other options will be drowning out the voices of fake news and real news and create a new setting of what consolidates the marketing and advertising surrounding it. But that is my speculated view on the matter.

Enjoy the weekend, just 48 hours at best to go.

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One voice is still a voice

I made mention of this all over June. The production cuts that Saudi Arabia set out to do would have impact. Some called me stupid, most ignored the issue. Yet Bloomberg gives us ‘Saudi Arabia’s Oil Production Cuts Are Quietly Starting to Bite’ (at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-arabia-oil-production-cuts-105634851.html), as such you need to consider. Not merely that I was right. The larger setting is that this is only one week into the new amounts and it is starting to bite. So how will the setting of less oil be in a month time? And before you know it North America and Europe enter autumn with all the heat they require at that point. We are then given “Brent oil traded in London had been stuck around the $75-a-barrel mark for weeks. That shifted a little Friday, when the contracts rose to about $78, a level they have largely held at since.” A setting we get and understand, but as the supply landscape is redefined, that price cannot be held and I reckon that in a month time it will hit the $90 mark and after that it gets nasty in a hurry. And there is an additional quote that matters. We are given “In the latest move, at least two processors in Asia sought less from the Saudis for cargoes shipped next month, and another said it won’t take any cargoes after an unexpected price increase.” This sounds nice on paper, but when we have 15 processors al vying for the 1 million barrels out there, at least 5 will have no oil to process. It is simple math and at that point the item of sulphur content will not hold much water. And whilst people are shouting where is our oil, I see a group of people that forgot that Saudi Arabia is building a new refinery in China which will gobble up almost a million barrels a day and China who got the deal with a clause accepting that payments are in Yuan is slightly too happy and when Europe (America and Canada too) realise that the reduction in oil is permanent and that China is now in a stage with loads of oil to fuel their economy. That is the point when people realise that they are losing a lot more than they bargained for. If only the US hadn’t pissed of Elon Musk to the degree they had. Yet this is about oil and not about batteries. The simplest setting is that this ‘biting’ is happening after less than 2 weeks into the reductions. So what will be the case in 4 weeks? Is someone considering that Janet Yellen had a portfolio of begging prescriptions towards China? I have no idea where this will end, yet I remember the ‘carless Sundays’ in the Netherlands in 1973. We might have that soon enough and now all over Europe and optionally America too. In 1973 it was fun. I got to test my roller skates on the A27 (a Dutch highway) which extension past Hilversum was brand new and I got to test that tarmac and not a car in sight, good times. Yet now it will be different and I reckon that the economic image will change for a lot of nations. It will not be a simple ‘lets add some money we do not have’. Now several members of the EU will be waging some kind of personal war to get the oil they all need. And I gave fair warning around two years ago. And it was not rocket science, it was simply based on the old premise ‘do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and that is how the escalation wth the UK (and their CAAT) and the US with whatever premise they thought they had and now they all want oil that they are denied. It sucks to be them soon enough.

It might be quietly biting now, but in 4-8 weeks it will not be quiet and when Europe (as well as the US) enters winter that setting will not be a nice one.

Enjoy the almost middle of the week.

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Tweeter and Sylvester Musk

There is a stage out there, I cannot say whether I am seeing it right, or wrong. I could be massively wrong, but this is how I see it. It started yesterday with one article and the articles started to pile up and an image was created. Now do no take my interpretation as gospel. I could be wrong, this I say upfront. The story you are about to read had been shaping for some time, yet yesterday the BBC struck a chord within me. As such this all escalated with ‘Twitter Blue accounts fuel Ukraine War misinformation’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66113460). It was not new, I have other sources making similar claims and they were supporting this with data evidence. I had seen at least one of the claims and I rejected it outright. Twitter is not a valid source, but they do carry valid sources (BBC, the Guardian, Washington Post, NY Times). I might not agree with them, but for the most they tend to properly inform their audience. As such when I saw ““French police are fired upon with American rifles that may have come from Ukraine,” reads the headline.” I knew this was a lie, propagated by someone really stupid (usually) or trolls (often enough) and here we get “BBC Verify has traced it back to pro-Kremlin channels on the Telegram messaging app” and now we have the beginning of a larger setting. Too many people are realising that when you take the blue mark (at $8 per month) you get to spout all kinds of lies gaining followers and reducing Twitter to a populist cloud of misinformation. So as we are told (n the end) “Twitter’s press office acknowledged receipt of our enquiry, but declined to comment” we need to realise that even as Jack Dorsey is not a reliable person, this was NEVER on his watch. He was able to stop many of these issues giving a larger station to laces like Threads to grow and grow they most likely will at present. To see this we need to take the second article. This time it is the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/10/twitter-faces-legal-challenge-after-failing-to-remove-reported-hate-tweets) who gives us ‘Twitter faces legal challenge after failing to remove reported hate tweets’ in this article we see “Twitter faces a landmark legal challenge after the social media giant failed to remove a series of hate-filled tweets reported by users in what could be a turning point in establishing new standards of scrutiny regarding online antisemitism” it is merely one side of a multitude of sides that are haunting Twitter and optionally pushing people to the less agreeable data capturing driven Threads. It is about to become a fight between two parties and the stag is lighting up by the notion, which of the two are the lesser of two evils. And the interesting quote here is “Twitter has received notice of the legal action and has since acted to block some of the offending tweets.” Where they only act when legally being pushed to. It is a dangerous station as it is the setting that populist sources rely on. You see Twitter has had an average of 350,000 tweet per minute and that makes sifting through the fake imagery and discriminating seas of dumbo’s a real challenge. I cannot say how it is as the limits make the old setting incorrect and I have no idea how Manny tweets we get now, yet 10,000 tweets a day for verified users implies that it pays for misinformation to get the blue checkmark at $8 a month. As such for $800 a month a troll farm can instil massive amounts of damage and there is no one to stop them and as it implies, until Twitter gets a legal summons they aren’t likely to do anything either. 

Yet this is not the whole picture, to see a little bit more of this situation we need to add one more article which aired a few hours ago by both the BBC and the Guardian. Here we see ‘Top US senator calls for probe into KSI and Logan Paul energy drink’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66150857) the texts we need to consider are “US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called on regulators to investigate an energy drink promoted by high-profile YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul” as well as “In 2022, Logan Paul and KSI – who have around 48 million YouTube followers between them – launched the caffeine-free Prime Hydration drink” and the coup de grace comes from “The caffeinated Prime Energy drink was launched in January this year. It is promoted by the company as being sugar-free and vegan.” This now gets me to my speculated view. “A company relies on two stupid people to set the stage for a population (Logan Paul and KSI), these people get their coin and as we are given “a caffeine-free Prime Hydration drink” as such these two never did anything wrong, this is seemingly clear. What happens next is that the company released their caffeinated Prime Energy drink on the coat tails of the previous and as the company owns BOTH drinks they will not sue themselves for ‘Is one more alike than the other’ and they get to ride the wave on a high and now we see Chuck Schumer starting an investigation. The company is racking in the dollars, two YouTubers are used to maximum effect and no one did anything wrong? And this is not even the start, this is also about to get a lot worse. When the people behind this new Twitter are setting a much larger stage of ‘Not our problem’ we will have one. The media lost most credibility they had, social media is racking in before it collapses on the draconian overreach of most governments and I am watching on the sidelines when I can get my slice of a multi billion dollar pie, because as that gets worse my position merely improves. I need to consider who I prefer to sell to Google (least likely), Amazon, Apple, Kingdom Holdings (preferred) or Tencent Technologies. 

In the end with the examples that we are seeing today and as we saw them over the last few months as these populations clusters scatter wherever they feel the safest. I lean back and realise that I had the right combination from the start and as the setting decreases in stability (Twitter) we see governments trying some knee jerk reaction towards a solution that was too late to be implemented in the first place. I reckon that after the second child death all will run for the hills and I will watch it happen. What did you think would happen when a child gets 4 times the caffeine meant for an adult? The company might try to hide behind “it is not recommended for children under the age of 18, people who are sensitive to caffeine, pregnant women or women who are breastfeeding”, yet the larger station will be that it was promoted as “as being sugar-free and vegan” and more alike then the ‘less healthy’ version. If it is the one word ‘Energy’ and ‘hydration’ that company has a problem and I reckon that Logan Paul and KSI better start moving, because when the children start dying their 48,000,000 followers will go somewhere else, and fast. 

There is now a station where we have fake information, false information and deceptive information and the people at large can no longer tell the difference between them. As such what will happen next you think? In the meantime other companies will look at the setting that Prime had and they will try to reflect on how they could cash in, the bottom line for them is the dollar (or soon enough the Yuen). I reckon that ChatGPT with their deeper machine learning will add to the confusion. So when you consider that Spark is another word for energy and Sparkling for hydration, what happens when these two drinks are identified as ‘spark’ drink and ‘sparkling’ drink? What is the result when people like Chuck Schumer and whomever brought it to THEIR attention miss it too? How many people will have to dies for people to take notice? I don’t Carew, I have no children, but consider what was done in Yemen, there 11,000 children have died so far. What did you do? I did nothing either, I will admit that. But at least I tried to bring it to the front page of plenty of places, more than many other did.

Enjoy your first day after the weekend.

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The pot saw the black kettle

Yup, we all see that at times. We see the good, the bad and the opposite. And as such the media is all about giving us a partial story. Still this is not always on them, I get that. So when I saw Reuters giving us ‘Yellen criticises China’s ‘punitive’ actions against US companies, urges market reforms’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/yellen-urges-china-adopt-market-reforms-insists-us-not-decoupling-2023-07-07/) my very first thought was “Is she for real?” 

Thi is a setting that started years ago with the US riling up support AGAINST Huawei. We saw the dozen countries all going against Huawei. The larger station is not that they went up against Huawei, the bigger part is that NONE OF THEM ever gave us ANY evidence that Huawei was a security risk. This is not me being pro Huawei or being pro China. This is me being pro evidence and we were never given any evidence. One case (that was settled) in 2010 is all we got and all the stories were laced with ‘could/‘ and ‘might be’. Cisco was the same danger but no one spoke out, not even when Cisco had its set of security issues. These things happen. Yet the US is still operating its set of systems. There is GARLICK, LADYLOVE, MOONPENNY, JACKKNIFE, TIMBERLINE, STELLAR, IRONSAND and that list goes on for a while. Yet China is the big evil and no evidence is clearly presented. 

So now we get “U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on Friday for market reforms in China and criticised its recent tough actions against U.S. companies and mineral export controls, while China’s premier called on her to “meet China halfway” and put bilateral relations back on track.” I t3end to say, either stop the anti-Huawei stages or present actual and FACTUAL evidence that Huawei is a national security issue. There is close to nothing else. And as for the ‘mineral export controls’, well there might be a reason China needs them, there is also the case that stopping Huawei without evidence comes at a price and it seems that the mineral export is part of that price. So whilst the world is seeking for gallium and germanium (the second one is not found in Germany) the US needs to realise that their stance as a bully comes at a price and now that these prices are set in the open, the US doesn’t get to say “meet China halfway”. It intentionally destroyed the Huawei 5G wave because Americans were too stupid to take the lead in 5G technology and counter what was out there. Even I have 5G IP that the US (and others) do not have. All because the fat cats were lazy in an age when China became a true innovator. As such, as we are told “a technology war with the United States and potentially causing more disruption to global supply chains” the setting is not incorrect but not complete. You see these two substances are decently rare and China has the largest load. The US cannot claim the amounts from Japan or the UK (Or France, or the EU) as such they are in a bind and this is what comes with the bully tactic we have seen these last 5 years. Gallum is a different story. I have no precise numbers, but China is not the largest exporter, it apparently is Brazil with the US in second place. But I reckon that the two together will set a larger station and yes it comes from China. So as we consider “Yellen met with Premier Li Qiang on Friday during a visit to Beijing aimed at repairing fractious U.S.-Chinese economic relations, but made clear in her public remarks that Washington and its Western allies will continue to hit back at what she called China’s “unfair economic practices.”” As unfair economic practices go, 11 years ago we were given “A 2012 White House-ordered security review found no evidence that Huawei spied for China and said instead that security vulnerabilities on its products posed a greater threat to its users. The details of the leaked review came a week after a US House Intelligence Committee report which warned against letting Huawei supply critical telecommunications infrastructure in the United States.” I reckon that with leaked their own stables are in order? In addition to that, the stage is escalating and now we see that as shortages of Gallum and Germanium imply that there is a danger to US National security, with their stockpiles having no reserves left. As such I have a two set mind. Janet Yellen as the champion for bullies should not talk about “market reforms”. On the other hand, I am not claiming that China is innocent. I want to see evidence that they are not and so far going back at least 5 years, the US and the EU NEVER presented this. This is the station we face and as I personally see it Janet Yellen is the new US version of Don Quichotte and China is the next windmill. And as I see it, the stage that STC and Saudi Arabia is embarking on, the shortage that the US faces in Germanium and Gallum implies that the lag that the US faces will close to exponentially increase during late 2024. This is a setting that was to some unexpected, but the Reuters article gives us a list of people and they are all monitoring the supply. This implies to me that the setting is not as good as some make it out to be and it sets a different stage for the UK and France. As the US shortages increase it will stage a takeover of these suppliers by the US a lot stronger and faster than anyone had foreseen. This is (as I personally reckon)  a station of close to exponential danger to these nations. It might be the reason why Janet Yellen was send and not some one form the US State department. Did no one consider that question? Why was Janet Yellen send? It is pure speculation on my side, but I reckon that Premier Li Qiang is having a great time. It might be the first time he is talking from a position of great strength, but I could be wrong here.

What a weird weekend this is, enjoy yours.

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Two voices do not make a truth

This is a setting we must accept. Even as I am one of these two voices I accept that two rights don’t make a truth. Yet the implied stage is now setting a dimension for a larger orchestra. To this we look at Ben Rich (at https://au.news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-using-sportswashing-simply-202104084.html) where he gives us some of the ideas that matter. He gives us “While human rights abuses will undoubtedly continue to plague the Saudis’ efforts, bin Salman is betting big they won’t stand in the way of other states and companies engaging with an increasingly open and cosmopolitan kingdom. If history is anything to go by, he may just be right.” And even as he does not give us some elements, like the building of an Saudi English speaking news channel to rival El-Jazeera (see the Financial Times at https://www.ft.com/content/2c6f8228-5bcb-46dc-a817-0990727b7d35) there is more than simple sport washing. Saudi Arabia is setting itself up to be the axial of 5G telecom (with a little help from Huawei). Going well beyond its own borders, it is about to become the center between Europe and Asia pushing deeper and deeper into Europe. I reckon that within a few steps (timeline is too hazy) it will equal, if not surpass Vodafone. That would make Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC) one of the larger telecom giants on the planet. Less then 10 years ago that would have been an illusion, but Huawei had the goods and as America and its minions made all the claims for an anti-Huawei lacking evidence, we now see that the KSA has the fastest 5G on the planet and it is nation wide. The US is nowhere close to these numbers, at present only South Korea and Canada are close and they are about 30% behind. That is the reality of doing what needs to be done. There is even more in eSports and a few other areas. It is not about what is the best, it is who is wielding technology power and as we see the numbers it is no longer the US, even Europe is lagging behind. This is the larger stage that allows Saudi Arabia to be the voice of tomorrow before Vision2030 is due. As we see that Fox News is no longer a consideration regarding the joke they have become we see a lagging CNN and beyond that there is BBC World and Al Jazeera. This gives Saudi Arabia the push they need to become a larger voice on the news channels and did anyone consider where the advertisement money will go at that point? We could consider that Fox’s ad revenue also surged 43% to $1.88 billion. Yet at what cost and when the people shy away from Fox (as they are about to do) where will that ad revenue end up? I am not saying that this will end up in Saudi hands. Yet the world has 1.8 billion Muslims. Wo where do you think that they will put there advertisement money? One of my IP’s were banking on that and even as advertisement money was not a goal for me (merely a soft sideline) others will see it as serious money. It will also entice places like Bangladesh and Indonesia to the world stage, it will allow Egypt to be more prominent on the Mediterranean area and that list goes on. These are merely two of the elements that Ben Rich does not touch on. He shows us other matters and I believe him to be right. 

Yet the elements when combined gives us a larger stage created by Saudi Arabia and created for muslims and that is part of my IP. I wanted to fight islamophobia and I am about to be proven right. Not through my own IP, but in other ways too. The US (EU too) has overplayed its hand and from the initial pariah that Pre-President Biden proclaimed Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to be, this same person is about to become a world leading voice on the global stage and it was something that I saw coming 3 years ago. The laughable joke (aka an essay by United Nations Eggy Calamari) has shown the world that presentation is only nice if you have the evidence to support it and we are about to face a new stage where the evidence is shown and presented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, all leading up to vision2030, optionally up to 2 years ahead of schedule. 

As I see it that gives the song Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival an interesting twist. You see one man’s bad moon is another man’s illumination. Or as the expression goes some persons junk is another persons treasure, which is good unless you are adopted. what matter is that the stage we see and the stage we get onto are not the same and the presenters have given us a stage for decades that no longer applies and even now we are given the runaround. But over the next few years we see that the media that was in charge no longer has holds on any of us and that is when the STC gets to reveal and release their news channel and all the lost revenue attached to that. As such, how much credence do you think a player like Fox News will have after 2025? I leave it up to you to ponder this.

Enjoy the day and the weekend that is about to follow (all 48 hours of them).

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