Category Archives: sport

September 26, 2024 · 17:47

Xenophobia

Xenophobia is a real thing, it is not the version we see in Star Trek. Xenophobia quite literally translates to ‘foreign fear’. The fear of foreign issues. The media exploits it for any flames it can create, as fear invites flames, flames create ‘clicks’ and clicks translate to advertisement money. It is the simplest way for media to use people to generate revenue for them. Yet I saw the other f this exploited fear in another way last night. I was about to write an article to something related to this, as such that story gets pushed back and now I focus on this as it is related to the bigger picture. 

The first trigger were the Crusade memes we have seen this year (there were a few). Now I like the age of Crusades to some degree, but we were deceived to a much larger degree. The crusades were mostly the nobles pillaging the Arabian lands and it was done with the blessing of Pope Urban II. The treaty of Claremont (1094) gave rise to this and many people (often in states of near starving) rallied to the sound of the the call to free the land of Christ, which was largely ludicrous as that was Jerusalem and that was debatable Jewish/Saracen (Muslim). So here came the crusades and that was a massive slaughter around Accra, Jerusalem and a few other places. Yes, there are a few inaccuracies here, but the sentiment is decently sound. An interesting telling is seen in the movie Kingdom of Heaven by Ridley Scott. The western world had a decent technological advantage, but they could not stop the Arabian nations to unite in their anger to the west. Between 1092 and 1291 approximately 1.7 million people died. These people died by warfare, disease, starvation, and murder by banditry. In the current Russian losses against the Ukrainian defenders there were merely 647,800 losses, so the losses were then 300% larger. So what do you think will happen now that the Arabian lands have an economic advantage and the west no longer have a technological advantage? Did the Karen’s of this world consider that small setting in ‘their’ crusades?

And when you consider that stage, we get to the article that ‘set’ me off. It was the Daily Mail (at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-13889805/Anthony-Joshua-Daniel-Dubois-selling-national-soul-Saudi-PR-silence-criticism-SIMON-JORDAN.html) where we see ‘SIMON JORDAN: We must stop selling our sporting soul to the Saudis, I don’t like the sense that everything in this country is there solely to be bought’ It is a weird sense. You see, the owners of whatever is there to be sold, because they want money and the Saudi’s (and other nations) have it. The byline “I found it a tad perplexing to sit in our own Wembley stadium on Saturday night and listen to the national anthem of Saudi Arabia” which is nice, because on September 23 1932 the country Saudi Arabia was established. The Saudi’s are proud of this and they should be allowed to be proud. So I went over to YouTube and I found the Saudi National anthem. It was beautiful. Now, I was lucky because I cannot speak Arabic to any degree. I cannot even order a Shawarma if my life depended on it (as I die of starvation), as such YouTube was the answer as the movie had the song and the texts both in Arabic and English. 

Hasten!
To glory and supremacy,
Exalt the Creator of heavens!
And raise the green flag
Carrying the written light of aegis;
Repeat: “Allahu Akbar!”
O my country!
My country,
As pride of Muslims live on!
Long live the King
For the flag
And the land!

It reveres their country, their faith, their king and their flag. What is wrong about that? Because it isn’t revering the Union Jack? The owners (the governing body of English football, the Football Association) decided to honour the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on their national day. I see nothing wrong with that. So how did he come to “I don’t like the sense that everything in this country is there solely to be bought”? Shouldn’t his first though be “I don’t like the sense that everything in this country is there solely to be sold” In that the question refers to their inner ‘christian’ being, get cash now before it is too late. And in this America is already ahead of them, making all kinds of ‘unions’ before the wells of wealth run dry. And when we get “Though I consider myself a capitalist, I find it a little bit distasteful that we seem so willing to give away our national soul for the right price” and there is the larger story. The idea that the people would hand over ‘their national soul’, they sold their soul for a price and the buyer was willing to buy. I don’t see this part anywhere. We then get “I turned up to our most iconic sporting arena in the country, recognisable around the globe and the seat of our national game, to watch two British heavyweights Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua, and it felt like downtown Riyadh.” And I wonder (apart from the fact that Riyadh is prettier and a lot cleaner than London). Wembley Stadium is, as far as I can tell, still owned by the Football Association, so what gives? Was it merely a sign of respect to play the Saudi National anthem on their national day? I don’t know what the driving force was to playing that song, but I am willing to see that it as a sign of respect to the Saudi involvement on their national day. But what do I know. What is interesting is that the Daily Mail gives us “A British journalist has claimed he was barred from Saturday’s showpiece fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois at Wembley after labelling the event an ‘unashamed sportwashing exercise’.” Was this the case? I do not know as too many media is about creating flames. Perhaps that journalist could not afford the ticket and whomever he ‘represented’ had another journalist assigned to the event. I do not know, but I wonder what the facts are. The Daily Mail is a decent expert in creating flames and this time around they let Simon Jordan create the flames. 

That is the larger stage, the media is losing more and more reliability as they more and more depend on ‘clicks’ from flames. We do not know what to believe and the article does not help. For one, an no point do we see who the owner of Wembley Stadium is, as far as I know it is still owned by the Football Association. The article does not bear that out, not even once. Weird isn’t it. Oh and before you start a crusade, remember that wars are won by those who are better informed and as such you would get a massive beating from whomever represents the new Saracens. Something to think about.

Have a lovely day.

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February 7, 2024 · 22:41

Once more for fun

This started with a headline that caught my attention. It was ‘Top US consultancies face scrutiny over role in Saudi Arabia’s sports push’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/consultancies-saudi-arabia-sports-us-senate-disclosure-subpoena) there I immediately saw that it was written by everyones favourite Saudi basher Stephanie Kirchgaessner. Before I go out and draw first blood (always fun) I wanted to see if she had learned her lesson from the previous few times I slapped her silly online. So I decided to have a closer look. Here we are given “Major US consultancies who have advised Saudi Arabia on its global sports spending spree – including its proposed takeover of golf’s PGA Tour – are coming under fire in Washington for possible violations of federal disclosure laws.” That got my attention, but there are a few sides that need clarification. You see what exactly are the ‘federal disclosure laws’? It comes with the added “the senator has also strongly suggested that the consultancies could be violating federal disclosure rules – known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) – by not formally declaring to US authorities that they are acting as agents of the Saudi government.” And now we have a problem. You see, when we consider that the “The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA requires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities” This is not politics, this is a bloody sport organisation and Kirchgaessner should know better than to be the willing tool of Richard Blumenthal. As such, The FARA Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD). This implies that Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the NSD should be part of this and he is not mentioned, not once. So what is this about?  

Well, we get an idea in the article with “The Saudi public investment fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund chaired by the crown prince and de facto Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and is worth an estimated $776bn, is at the heart of Blumenthal’s inquiry” and my question becomes. ‘Why is the investment fund of a sovereign nation the interest of Blumenthal?’ Anyone? You see what does a democratic United States senator from Connecticut got to do with this? We never see that explanation. Don’t get me wrong, this man has done plenty of good for America and for his constituents. I merely wonder what is going on. Part of this is seen in the Financial Times (at https://www.ft.com/content/7009a1a9-8e07-4113-a47d-ee4724d3d427) when we are given “You say you are between a rock and a hard place but you have chosen sides; you have chosen the Saudi side, not the American side” with the added “US PGA Golf Tour” is a global sports organisation, PGA stands for Professional Golfers’ Association of America. Yes, the term America is in there. But the side we do not see is “Overall, the PGA Tour reported $1.9 billion in revenue in 2022, up from $1.59 billion the previous year, thanks to new multibillion-dollar TV deals. Expenses rose as well, with the organisation reporting $1.87 billion in costs, up from $1.55 billion in 2021.” So this is about $300,000,000 in debatable profits. And in all this we see certain people in the dock for explanations. Yet at what moment in time did Richard Blumenthal and Stephanie Kirchgaessner look at its board of directors? This includes Ed Herlihy (lawyer), Jimmy Dunne, Mark Flaherty, Joe Gorder and Mary Meeker? When were questions asked of them? McKinsey is a consultancy firm, gold is a sport, it is not any kind of bloody intelligence with foreign agents. That shallow ice allows me to slap Kirchgaessner yet again. And all this is out in the open, she merely reported like a meek little sheep making the Guardian a bigger joke. I saw the wreck unfold in under 10 minutes. 

So when we get to “The PIF has routinely objected to being subjected to US laws and has rebuffed repeated requests by the Senate committee to hand over documents subpoenaed by the panel. To get around the issue, Blumenthal looked to gather information from the US consultancies that have advised Saudi Arabia for answers.” It is the ‘to get around the issue’ that matters. Blumenthal wasn’t ready, wasn’t prepared and was out of his depth in this case. The first question in a senatorial interrogation would be ‘How does FARA apply to golf?’ Then I would go towards issues like outsourcing. America outsources to China for well over $23,130,000,000 billion all so that they end up with an average workforce spend of $29.10. Yes, that is America. But no one steps in on that step of greed, not even towards China, so the PGA is outsourcing itself to Saudi Arabia for the opposite reason, not to get the cost down, but to get profits up and it seems that McKinsey and Company investigated and reported on this for their client. All settings that are out in the open and the joking duet called Kirchgaessner/Blumenthal missed this? 

So when we get back to “Major US consultancies who have advised Saudi Arabia on its global sports spending spree – including its proposed takeover of golf’s PGA Tour – are coming under fire in Washington for possible violations of federal disclosure laws.” Why aren’t we seeing the board of directors of the PGA tours in the limelight? And when it comes to the US consultancies, if they are advising, there is the question will others follow that advise and if so is the acting party not up for optional consequences if laws are BROKEN? Were laws broken? Not as far as I can tell and we can point at ‘to get around the issue’ implies that Richard Blumenthal wants something else. Perhaps dip his …. In the PIF (Public Investment Fund) and slurp up whatever he can. Oh and a thought just occurred. What do you think happens when Saudi Arabia retracts all fundings from America? Did you work that out? When Saudi Arabia sells all the US treasury bonds they have, will the heartbeat of America be measured in Weeks, or seconds? If Saudi Arabia offloads $107,000,000,000 in bonds the US economy will face a harsh reality that it needs money overnight and when others leave America to get by it is all over. Perhaps the ultimate nightmare for Wall Street that desperately requires some kind of soft landing at present. And it could have been averted, just like the losses that the US defense providers face to the extend of many billions (up to 50 of them close to immediate). How much losses can America survive? If there was a clear case of national security I would be fine with this all, but the Guardian gives us no information other than a Saudi hater who is out of her depth and no clear information on the entire McKinsey setting. Too much alleged emotions and no relevant information. 

So this was one more slap just for the fun of it. Enjoy the midweek.

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February 3, 2024 · 22:47

What are sports to you?

A question I have been pondering. It started a week or so as the Swift hatred entered my Twitter account. I have no idea why there was so much hatred. She is gorgeous, she is a singer and from one photo I saw she has the muscle tone of an olympic athlete. So, what is not to like or love about that youthful young sprout? But this is about sports and for this we need to go back to early 2003. I got my Xbox with a new mobile subscription. I wasn’t looking for it, I had my PS2 and I was happy. I had nothing against the Xbox, gaming is gaming. And on a nice summer 5 friends and me making a team of 6 decided to have a little American Football match. With the EA game that as possible, so on Saturday we started the elimination game each a 15 minute game (I believe) and I ended up 4th. I lost the last game against the Steelers and the steelers went to the podium to get 3rd. The final that was to be played Sunday (we were all tired) was set to noon (a Gary Cooper reason). And the final match a two times 30 minutes game was set between packers and raiders and the raiders won. It was perhaps one of the nicest weekends that year. There were snacks, there were suds, there was cake in-between and we were all having a great time. Even now 20 years later I still remember that weekend. Gaming and sports. I was playing the 49ers for the most nerdy, dorky reasons of all. I saw one of their cheerleader calendars that year and San Francisco seemed like a cool city. 

Does there need to be another reason? I like my hockey, my NHL games. So as the 49ers are due towards the Super Bowl these thoughts came flooding back to me. 

And as I was looking at the news I see how Taylor Swift could make the flight back from Japan with the words ‘You need to calm down: Taylor Swift can fly from Tokyo to Super Bowl in time, says Japan embassy’ (source: The Guardian) is the world mad? First if she can’t make it, she can watch it on TV. She has a jet with TV. She is a multi billion dollar business woman and she has her brand, just like Travis Kelce has his job and his job is on the line that day. He might not be the quarterback, but this is the game of a lifetime and he is just as important as the other players. This is one match when being a team matters. Prima Donna’s never make it to the finish line. They need their team and this is the grand slam of finals in sports. 

I doubt I’ll see it, I am not a football fan and I am not sure if it makes the Australian TV. I will keep an eye on the Google Scores. And it all matters, as I see “Big name advertisers from Netflix to Google paid as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot during the game, seeking to capture the attention of the roughly 100 million viewers who tune in each year.” Everyone wants to cash in, everyone wants to see part of that 100,000,000 audience. I get it, but it is about the sports (and perhaps the halftime show)

But what does it mean to you? You see EA has its franchise, but when did they go out to make it about a friends sphere? Not what THEY believe it to be, but what you believe it to be. You see, I never got to safe that game (and now It doesn’t matter as I do not have an Xbox), but the option to set that match in PDF, or perhaps the game created a social media page. When was that done? We underestimate the connection of sports and play and the franchise holders underestimate it even more. In a global view it matters to people in Pakistan and India to keep scores of their achievements in cricket and I reckon in other games too. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are not far behind them. These 4 make up for a 2 billion population, not all are into sports, but it ends up being a lot more than the population of America. These franchise holders have been catering to the wrong cluster as far as I can tell. Now that sports are going to be a much larger presentation all over the Middle East these people need to consider changing gears and they need to do this before their next games come out. Whomever does it will have options to really become a larger player in sports. But it all reflects back to ‘What do sports mean to you?’ It is not the easiest question. Even kids misalign their views because of what they feel of any sport. But ask any Pakistani Kid and for the most their will answer that Cricket is their life. And Cricket (on PS5) heard that call. Yet we also get The user score for NHL 24 on Metacritic has the game received as “generally unfavourable”. Not a good thing. And it gets worse for them. The Middle East has no representation as far as I can tell and in the upcoming years it will matter. It might not be NHL, the Emirates Ice Hockey League (EHL) is starting to get noticed and that implies fans and youthful players. I believe that gaming can head it off giving the young players something to care for. And in all this sport is caring and caring is sports. You might think I am wrong and that is fine, but consider the numbers. How many people play the Cricket game per nation? I never found these statistics and now they matter. You see there is a shift and it is turning towards the Middle East. Not for American Football and not for the Super Bowl, but this even shows how much sports have been in decline in the west. Soccer players will disagree and I hand that to them, it is all about Europe there. Yet there is a shift there too. We are catering to the wrong crowds and these franchises better wake up soon because that is how rifts start. That is optionally how new and better franchises are created. By the way, in 2003 I could set my entire game towards a SF49 interface. Later it was dropped. Why? Consider the thought behind that change and wonder how there is not a shift amongst gamers. The NHL games never gave me that option, other then my home stadium and a collection of players and outfits. But the interface was generic. Why not appeal to their fans? Why can’t actual scores not be added to the game tweaking statistics? All ideas that have been floating around for at least a decade, but we aren’t seeing any of it in the NFL, NHL or NBA games. Why is that? What are games to you and what are game to them? When you consider that these franchises are merely interested in money, where does that leave you? I let you ponder that and you all as you enter the last week before the Super Bowl. Sports are more than one game, but this is their moment, their aim for the throne of footballs. We can merely sit by and watch it on TV (or if you are rich and lucky) watch it in person. 

So have fun and watch out for that wicket this day.

 

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December 9, 2023 · 00:49

Vroom, vroom

I had some issues, not with the topic, the topic is fine. It is not my niche of gaming. And in light of the Gaming Awards 2023 it matters. You see, after spending $100,000,000,000 Microsoft ends with one trophy. Their Forza game gets it, so congratulations Microsoft. As a Sony Disciple I would go for Gran Turismo, although, I do not care for that game (either). I played it last on my PS2, Forza on my Xbox360 last and neither appeals to me.  I played some F1 and it is nice for a few go’s but that is it. I a not alone, but it is a small cluster of people. We aren’t racers and as such the game was lost on me. You see, I had real fun with Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox360) and I had loads of fun with Need for Speed Underground (Gamecube). There was an element of fun, the fun of racing and that had centre shift with me. Then of course there is the old Outrun (Amiga) and there were a few more on both Amiga and CBM64. The issue wasn’t the ‘simulator’ part, it was the fun part and both Sony and Microsoft have been so in each others face on the perfect simulator that they forgot about having fun. And this is on both Sony and Microsoft. Gaming is supposed to be fun, not some adrenaline race to all achievements. Did they both forget that? Why do you think that Minecraft is such a success? Why do you think that some shooting games are now introducing some kind of lego system? It is because the people just wanting to have fun whilst they are unwinding are adding up to a serious sized cluster and they are all realising that Tencent Technologies is trying to adhere to that cluster. As such they have now an additional handhold on the gaming population. Amazon with its Luna didn’t wake up and as I see it that could sent 50,000,000 people towards the Tencent Handheld and when it gets its own docking station (it might already have such a solution) it will also start biting into the Nintendo population as well. They all fell asleep and all whilst I was trying to warn Amazon of this danger, they decided to ignore me (which is their right). Now the station changes and I reckon by Q4 2024 Tencent technologies will be more than a blip, it will become a serious threat to the others. Amazon loses first, but the dock as long as Nintendo is the only one, will last them for as long as they have that advantage. Sony remains afloat, it has its own fanbase and is a solid setting, but by the end of 2024, Tencent is more and more likely ending up in third position, gaining on Nintendo with each quarter, how fast and how much? That is anyones guess, but if they deploy as I envisioned it, Nintendo could be the number three system by the end of 2025. It is that much of a race at present and lets not forget, that Tencent did this in under 4 years, surpassing Microsoft in all sales achievements. I saw this happening, but I had hoped that Amazon Luna would be in second place, that is now less and less likely. 

The setting mattes, because whilst everyone is caressing their ego (Larian Studios has every right to do so) as well as Remedy Entertainment who brought us Alan Wake 2. Both games could most likely port to the Tencent, as such they keep on winning. Microsoft has no options, they just spend $100,000,000,000 (for Blizzard, Bethesda and Mojang), they have no reserves left. They divided gamers, they conquered brands and these conquests did not result in awards or high ratings. 

A setting that Tencent Technologies can now use to their advantage. They seemingly all seem to forget about the fun and if Tencent remember that part they could gain massively in the gaming community. It is merely my point of view and some will say that it is the wrong point of view. But when you look back, how did these other games do? How long were they played? How many are now playing Forza or Gran Turismo? They didn’t do bad (neither of them) but I believe they both could have done a lot better and that is where I think the fun part is the problem, it is largely missing. They went all out in making the simulator and graphics the important part and forgot that plenty just want to race a track for the fun of it and that makes it more Project Gotham Racing then anything else. 

Enjoy the weekend. 

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October 16, 2023 · 10:38

Everyone’s Amazing Freebee

Yup, this happens. We all like freebee’s and this might not be the exclusive one. But the idea is (as per now) handed to Electronic Arts. You see, this started in the very early morning when I saw the image below pass by. So basically whomever created that image is to blame/congratulate on the idea I just had.

You see, that person made an awesome cover. Or that person has way to much free time on his/her hands. But it got me thinking. My connection to Madden is sparingly and not that much. It started somewhere in the 90’s with Sierra On Line Front Page Sports. 

We had a collection of players and we all played our games and then we compared statistics. I choose the San Francisco 49ers. I got nowhere near the top 3, but it was fun for all around. I then stopped playing the game until Madden NFL 2003 (I think) which I got on the original Xbox. It had the cool option to change the desktop depending on your favourite team, and as such I chose the 49ers. I got one additional version about a decade ago and that was it.

My largest issue is not on the makers, well perhaps it is. I have little to no knowledge on Football and the NFL and that results in the game not having a learning curve for those with little or no knowledge of the game. If someone objects that this is my flaw, I will accept that. But the opportunity to get a larger following on the game is lost and that is on Electronic Arts. Especially as streaming systems are starting to grow, giving players a game with a learning and educations curve will be important, that is pretty much a given and that applies to all sports (NBA, NFL, NHL, FIFA). The time to cater to merely the devoted fans comes to an end, too much needed to be vested in any game to rely on ‘self education’ to get ahead in a sports game. There is also the need to connect to others in a multitude of manners. Scores sharing (to a multi player pool) multiplayer when the two teams meet and so on. Parts can be done now, but it is (as far as I could tell) pretty limited. 

So the idea comes from the cover and that is the fat that more could be done. In this case an evolution in commentators. For example a celebrity could comment on the game. In the season there would be a 10% chance, during the playoffs 25% and the Super Bowl will have a 100% chance and there we get the larger issue. We know that Taylor Swift will have a vested interest to commentate on the Kansas Chiefs (a tall order if ever there was one), Jeremy Renner is a devoted 49ers fan, Arizona Cardinals has its own Oklahoma based fan Blake Shelton, George Clooney is a die hard Cincinnati Bengals fan and that list goes on and it would be up to EA to find the willing and right celebrity for the 32 NFL teams. I am amazed that no one thought of this before. Perhaps they did, but until the PS5 and Streaming systems there wasn’t enough options to implement that and that is fair enough. The nice part is that the next Madden is roughly 8 months, 22 days and 15 hours away. As such Electronic Arts does have enough time to consider and implement (or reject) the notion of adding to the franchise. I also believe that the personalisation that the original Xbox version had should return and a much better or enhanced educational system for those not struck by NFL devotion. There is off course a stage that this could apply to the other franchises, but that would be up for Electronic Arts to consider. 

Whether they do or don’t (it is up to them) my creative vibes remain active and now they went in a direction I didn’t count on. Perhaps all the newspapers focussing on the Gaza clambake was cause of all this. I don’t know, but whomever posted the initial Madden 25 file, thank you. It gave me something to think about and start Monday on a non work related cause.

Enjoy Monday.

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October 11, 2023 · 03:55

The number is three

Weirdly enough, my mind came up with something that was out there and for some reason it matters. The rhyme goes like “They touch, they break, they steal. No one here is free. Here they come, they come for three, unless you stop the melody.” You see, there is a second meaning to steal, it can also mean ‘move somewhere quietly’, we forget that sometimes, we all do. And with this I saw a few articles. 

The first step
The first article is seen (at https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/05/australia-fifa-world-cup-2034-bid-saudi-arabia-challenge) where we hear ‘Australia given 25-day deadline to challenge Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup bid’. It is here that we see “Football Australia, state and federal governments and potential Asian co-hosts have been given 25 days by Fifa to decide whether they will bid for the 2034 men’s World Cup”. Other articles give us that Australia is pissed.  The why part is out there and it is not asked. Consider that I wrote some time ago regarding “Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions secretary Tim Ada told the inquiry that the event’s costs had nearly doubled from $2.6 billion in March 2022 to $4.5 billion a year later.” As such, they already fumbled the ball once, so now they want to give that another try, now with FIFA? And why is 2034 so important? We have 2026 (USA, Canada, Mexico) and in 2030 we get that on October 4th 2023 it was announced that Spain, Portugal and Morocco would host the majority of the 2030 FIFA World Cup in an unanimous decision from the FIFA Council, with one “celebratory game” each being held in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. The game is evolving, it is too big for one place, so who would be able to afford to host the games? The general costs were in 2014 (Brazil) $19.7 billion, in 2018 (Russia) $16 billion, and 2022 (Qatar) had a $229 billion cost message. We can agree that the last one was outlandishly big, but a country that could not fork over $5,000,000,000 for the Commonwealth Games will share well over triple that with New Zealand? What is wrong with people? I am not debating that this event is good for a nation who hosts this, but Australia and a few other places are not in a financial sound place. Saudi Arabia is one of the few nations who have that kind of money available. The 2030 innovations that the kingdom is showing could (or should) show the world that Saudi Arabia has what it needs to make it work. 

We are all in the need for games, but these games (FIFA, Commonwealth Games, Olympics) are slowly pricing themselves out of a global market and no one is asking serious questions here. I get why the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants this and lets be clear, they can afford it. Australia? I am not certain, yet the errors made last year and the triple costs now make me wonder if some politicians have any idea the amount of money that they are spending. 

The second step
The second step is not that clear, we are given (at https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/hamas-strike-israel-force-market-190723900.html) ‘Hamas’ strike on Israel will force the market to ‘beg’ Saudi Arabia to pump out more oil, famed crude trader says’, so when the market begs. How sturdy are they? The fact that this event is used as an excuse to beg for more oil. How shoddy as their position to begin with? The USA and EU are not reliant on either Hamas or Israel for oil and their oil needs are not on the USA or EU. OK, perhaps Israel might benefit, but Gaza does not. So when I see “the militant group’s raid will disrupt longer-term supplies, with Riyadh unlikely to start pumping out more crude until Brent hits $110 a barrel.” I wonder who believes that setting. I get that oil prices will increase that was already a given, but that is mostly due to the fact that OPEC has decided to decrease outputs. It was the hard lesson the USA had to learn from being politically utterly stupid. The price it had in June 2022 will be returned to and most likely get surpassed, neither of the two Gaza players had a hand in that. Yes, these tanks will require fuel, but that would be on Israel. 

The third step
The last step comes from Business News Australia. The article (at https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/blog/trademark-group-connects-aussie-businesses-to-saudi-boom) gives us ‘“Like Dubai 20 years ago”: Trademark Group connects Aussie businesses to Saudi boom’, we get the notion and the act to get close to any business boom that can be ‘exploited’. As such we are given “Australian businesses that missed out on the Dubai growth story of the past 20 years have been urged to take a closer look at Saudi Arabia, a country that Trademark Group founder and CEO Sam Jamsheedi describes as the sleeping giant of the Gulf region.” Yes, I agree. But I saw that essential setting over two years ago and I wrote about that in this blog on numerous occasions. As such it is nice that Sam Jamsheedi woke up to the notion two years late. My issue with the article is not the notion. It is also accepted that we see “Each industry that the Saudis are trying to develop provides massive opportunities for Australia businesses to capitalise on – from construction and agriculture to food, beverage and even sport.” In this I agree, yet my thoughts are where the article failed. You see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation, it largely acts and reacts as the Quran inspires them. Yet the article does not even once mention ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslim’ settings. That was my first stage when I was testing my IP. Yet Muslim rules are all over Saudi Arabia, they are in advertising which is a first hurdle ANY business needs to overcome. They need to test that their advertising adheres to those rules. The article makes no mention there either. It reads like a wishful thinking article, all whilst basic needs are not mentioned. It reads to me that these are ‘small’ hurdles that they will overcome in due time. That is an entirely wrong setting to take. 

We see three settings, They touch (oil), they break (FIFA), they sneak (Business) and they all want a piece from Saudi Arabia. Yes, the second one is flimsy, but when we see the cost part, I am almost clueless that Australia is setting it all up. It is my speculative view that with Qatar players like Coca Cola missed out on too much and now they are anxious and eager to make sure that FIFA is set in a place where their interests are larger like in Australia. All at the same time we see a setting of 5G and a few other settings where Australia is not in the best place and I feel 99% certain that the drain on 5G will be enormous in 2034 and I am not entirely certain that Australia will be ready at that point. They politicised too much, which made them massively non acting, merely talking loud. As such, when we were given in May 2023 the setting of New guidelines, we were also given “These renewed warnings come amid the Australian government’s plan to strengthen national security and make Australia one of the most secure countries in the world by 2030” that sounds nice, but the fact that the nation is lacking security settings for 8 years is flimsy to say the least. But no one is looking at that, are they? I still get 4G mentions all over Sydney today, as such I fail to see that they are ready by the time it matters and it mattered yesterday. We are presented several issues and no one is looking at the picture we should be seeing. As I personally see it “unless you stop the melody” refers to presentations given and these presentations are lacking on several levels. Feel free to disagree, but when you look behind the presentations you need to see a solid setting, solid numbers and solid facts. We aren’t given those. Why not?

Enjoy the final part of the first half of the week.

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September 10, 2023 · 21:05

As ideas evolve

This is a story with a few sides. The most prominent side is based on the continuation of Ludum Scriptor, which I wrote 2 days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/09/08/ludum-scriptor/) there is set out a new premise, one that could have larger benefits. You see, as I was evolving certain ideas. One of them was to give football and fantasy football a new tool to provide their thoughts for progressing their game.

An old game for football addicts was Subutteo. We forgot about the old ideas, but they were good ideas. Now consider that with Deeper Machine Learning we an create any football game and as they are virtual and not based on plastic, they will look a lot more like the players. Any team in the world. Football, NFL, NBA, NHL and that list goes on. People can write and blog about their teams, they can write it in any way they want and that was when the wheels went in overdrive. You see, player cards and all kinds of other means could be made available for bloggers all over the world. And that list does not stop, not for some time. You see Deeper Machine learning as a tool for something like I wrote can do more and YOUR imagination can only drive it further.

Why Microsoft will fail
That was my premise and I kept on referring to a chihuahua stating ‘Try Azure, Azure smells nice’ was only to some degree a joke. But someone on LinkedIn gave me an idea.

You see being on par for a year gets you 1 (or 1365), but the smallest increase gets you to 37.7, 37 times the one you were one year later. And then there is the decrease. Even when you consider 0.99365. You end up with a mere 0.03, that is the difference between the innovator and the copycat. Microsoft lost out sixfold and they will lose out more and more. They are buying all kinds of firms, but like in the 90’s it is a recipe for disaster and innovators will walk out, they nearly always do. You see, in the end it will bite their bottom line and soon their board of directors will make knee jerk decisions making matters worse. When I stated I would make my IP public domain before I allow Microsoft access to it I was not kidding. Microsoft is as I personally see it becoming the larger problem in any equation and it does not stop there. I made mention of Deeper Machine Learning. This is awesome, it is not AI (AI does not yet exist) but it got me thinking. You see, we now see mention of AI in construction. This is about to go bad, really bad and Trusting these buildings will become folly soon enough. I will try to explain that soon enough. 

The evolution
I looked at the idea before I figured out that there were 600 million bloggers. I have no idea there are on the Vlogger side, but I expect that we are looking at interesting numbers. There are millions of fantasy football fans, hundreds of millions of sports fans and giving them space to expose that idea to them will offer more and more space others would like to try that option. We are in all effect dipping our toes in the water and all these numbers does not mean success, lets be clear about it. My idea remains that, an idea that could be liked by a lot of people, all that considering that others have done close to nothing, makes my idea stellar to say the least. 

When you consider that and when you consider creating ML and DML tools aiding people will create evolution of their work and optionally more people considering this. Not all people are creative, they merely think that their writing is not enough, these tools will enable those on the fence and that is already a win for the exploring team. What matters is that on the end of the weekend I came up with more, all whilst others seemingly came up empty. A nice end to the weekend. I have been considering additions to the field of Vloggers and also places where vloggers can propagate their work. Bloggers have their own space and for that I have additional ideas too. An active field where we switch the awakening to the pro-active, but that is for another day. I did my cerebral activity to keep me happy, time for some Ravioli.

Enjoy Sunday.

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July 29, 2023 · 08:55

It only took three years

That was what pushed into view. I was about to write about something else, a movie idea I had. Yet several other messages came into view which pushed me to realign my focus. You see, I had the view just before CES2020 that Huawei was going to be a large player, much larger than anyone guessed. Even I had not thought that far ahead as certain plays by the STC (Saudi Telecom Company) were not in view yet. Now it becomes a much bigger play and two players (Huawei and STC) could reenforce each other, a setting that was not visible in 2019. So lets take a look.

Article One
The first article was brought to us by the Hindustan Times last year (the year of Soylent Green, another idea that I already wrote about but came to the top of my mind again last night). Here (at https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/huawei-launches-harmonyos-to-compete-with-google-s-android-71622644049707.html) we are given the idea that Huawei is pushing for a release to 200 million mobile phones. An achievable mark to say the least, the rest was bla bla but the notion was given. 

Article Two
Tech outlook gave us two days ago (at https://www.thetechoutlook.com/news/technology/os/harmony-os-4-0-to-debut-on-august-4-mate-60-5g-expected-to-debut-alongside/) ‘Harmony OS 4.0 to debut on August 4’ and that is the part certain people were all waiting for. The text “Apart from Harmony OS 4.0, the Chinese manufacturer is rumoured to announce the Huawei Mate 60 5G at the HDC 2023 event. As mentioned above, it will be the brand’s first 5G flagship phone after facing US sanctions. While the Mate 60 series is expected to be announced at HDC 2023, the company will hold a dedicated launch event for it in September or October this year.” You see the ‘US sanctions’ part reads nice, but the play doesn’t go there. STC and Huawei has as of the coming month a larger setting. This setting will include Egypt, BanglaDash and Indonesia. This gives them a lot more than the targeted 200 million phones and the moment STC enters the EU they will have the needed traction, the STC 5G network will have some serious ‘umph’ as the expression goes. More important, a network that stretches to that degree will push the US and EU out of a few areas, or at least make them suffer the loss of expected revenue by some analytics, they will tumble twice over. 

I’ll be honest, I saw the play, but not to this degree as the STC was not on my radar. I reckon that there was always a chance that Etisalat (UAE) would grow, but that is not in the cards at present. This is important as the needs of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are in the same direction, but they are not aligned. That difference is important and there is a chance that the STC will offer services that include the UAE. I reckon that the UAE might want to connect to Center3 and the STC for the additional business it will bring them, but that would be pure speculation on my side.

What does matter is that with the release of Harmony 4, on August 4th a new play opens up and it might go a long way to allow a digital setting to the MBC group to the settings they have in play at the moment. They will push the sports and news groups that are in the making with larger digital channels, just after they make their IPO offer (which Bloomberg mentioned only 3 weeks ago), now with the channels and digital groups in play it goes well beyond the shores we see at present and with Huawei at the mobile front, they can offer something larger than most have ever had and it will appeal to the hungry revenue entrepreneurs in Indonesia and BanglaDash. They will add hundreds of millions to their pool, hundreds of millions that haven’t ever had access to anything (of that nature). I reckon that by Q1 2024 the STC could have doubled in value and they were never a small player to begin with. Now add Egypt and you get a much larger population, mostly Muslim and all eager to be economic players. I reckon that BRICS had a few ideas on adding Saudi Arabia. And the US? Well they are still screaming middle east stability and requiring cheap oil in a play that is already outdated. And as we can clearly see, Saudi Arabia and China are getting along just fine, no EU or US required. That was a danger for some time and new we are about to see the fruition of these players. You still think the US was in Saudi Arabia for merely ‘stability’ reasons? Come to think of it Janet Yellen was in China recently, with these elements now in view was it really about what they say it was? 

This is in part speculation, it does not make it true, yet you have to wonder if I saw these events unfold, they did not? I might not have seen the impact of the STC and MBC groups in 2019, but these people (Jellen and Blinken) get a large 6 figure income more than me (Jellen gets a 7 figure income), you mean they were in the dark? Go cry me a river, please.

Huawei should have enough to get their target from Egypt, Indonesia and BanglaDash alone and they have close to half a dozen nations more on their mind (China being not the smallest one) and as expansions go, with the Huawei 5G network in play, the STC can grow a lot faster, allowing the MBC sports and news channels to reach a few additional nations. This alone will make people in the EU want to see what they are missing out of. I reckon that the advertisements alone will pay for this caper and then some. A stage that grew in under 4 years, as such the EU and US now have a problem. You see all these TV channels and media players are about to become obsolete to a much larger degree. They can shout MAGA and Karen’s all they like, the rest are able to switch the channel to something they would much rather watch and there it seems that the MBC Group has you covered. I personally wonder what Murdoch is worth by the end of 2024, because when the advertisers go away, he is just shouting arranged news to people who are not interested in listening, that part of the pool he soiled himself as I personally see it.

Enjoy the weekend, or as they say at MBC in Arabic “رحلة جديدة في الخدمات الرقمية”

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July 27, 2023 · 13:47

Sportwashing, what does it mean?

I have had my issues with the media for the longest of times. This time something on sportwashing, written by a woman (of course) where the Guardian gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/26/revealed-saudi-arabia-6bn-spend-on-sportswashing) ‘Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s $6bn spend on ‘sportswashing’’. This setting comes across as a massive joke (to say the least). So when we are given “Billions deployed since early 2021 in a move critics say is an attempt to distract from human rights record”, so who are these critics? Names please? The reality is a lot easier to set in. This is not about some wash, this is about the beginning of the end for media players all over the globe. The setting al almost 2000 years old and was given to us by Decimus Junius Juvenalis who phrased ‘panem et circenses’. He accused his world of “to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace, by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses).” The west (especially America) took this to heart and for decades it worked for them. We all got the NFL, NBA, NHL and so on. The problem becomes when the well dries up, when the coffers are empty. This was an event that people like Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula) faced and now the west does too. That being said, as I stated a few times over, Saudi Arabia is about to become the largest 5G hub in history, connecting Africa, Asia and Europe via Saudi Arabia (STC), as such the new (soon to become released) news channel makes sense. In addition to that they need to create waves of watchers and as these high end sports will all set the focus to Saudi Arabia. Football, Formula One, eSports, Golf and that list keeps on growing. Soon all eyes will be on the STC and the MBC Group soon enough and that matters, the MBC group started in 1991 and in 31 years they grew and they are about to become the biggest player of them all. I saw part of this and adjusted my IP accordingly (to some degree). And as they go live, the advertisers will walk away from the BS channels we watched for decades. Advertisers will go where the money is and that has nothing to do with sportwashing. That is the business of the day. As such I have no idea where people like Ruth Michaelson get their ideas but they are massively flawed. Then she starts to add fictive settings based on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, which is interesting (apart from that essay joke by the UN), no one ever presented clear and defining evidence on that part. It is my speculation that some people accepted some form of guilt after the immense bashing by the media and political players (I will exempt the Washington Post from this). It all starts to take shape and tis shape took some time to gather as this was a long play and the media is finally starting to figure out what I saw well over a year ago. These media people are about to become obsolete. All these ads in the UK and US, now pushing female football. This is simple, as I see it the other gender will be broadcasted all over the channels that the MBC group has and once they start owning stations in Europe the final part of this strategy becomes clear and just like Google buying YouTube, the MBC group will gather billions in advertisement revenue within the span of a year making Fox News close to obsolete, moreover over 300 sports channels will at some point show the MBC group logo and that is when the coins really start flowing into the coffers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Losers like Microsoft and peers like Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta will bend over backwards to connect in some partnership to the MBC group. As such the evidence is out there in all kinds of messages and news casts. You’ll have to dig, because the western press has been drowning whatever news came from the KSA, but it is out there, as such I wonder who came up with the lame term ‘Whitewashing’ more important, as the media does close to nothing to the actions in places like Iran, do you think that Saudi Arabia needs to spend billions to hide whatever Human Rights issue is in play in Saudi Arabia? What a farce that presumption is. Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations rule and act according to the Quran, the rules of Islam and they are just a few steps away from being the most dominant religion on the planet. Perhaps doing something about catholic paedophiles well over a decade ago was the best course, but feel free to disagree on that one. And there is a second upside, the NHL will prosper as other nations add their visibility to the global population, not in the least by the UAE Ice Sports Federation and its 50 members. Did you know that the Ice Sports Federation in the UAE was that big? What else are you not ware of and what is being kept out of western news? So which Cricket fan saw any matches on TV that were Pakistani or Indian based? Consider all the sports we will be getting soon and wonder why the others did not give us that, kept it from us. Why?  It boils down to money and short earned cash at that, when you play the long game the earning are different and the earnings could be long term. So consider all the sports that the US and EU have to bid for, all whilst they have no money left, only on paper, but that does not pay the invoice, especially when the banks fold. 

Enjoy the day, one day left to the day before the weekend that comes.

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July 25, 2023 · 15:39

Say What?

Yes, at times we get that. I have had my issues with the media for the longest time, but today was the wrong day to rub me the wrong way. It all started a few hours ago when the BBC decided to make ‘Obamas’ chef Tafari Campbell dies in paddle-boarding accident’ news (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66297450). I have no idea who he was and I mean no disrespect to Tafari Campbell. I think it is cool to get a job for one of the coolest presidents in America’s history, but lets be clear, the man was a cook. The starting text “Tafari Campbell, 45, worked in the White House before staying on with the Obama family after Mr Obama left office in 2016.” Is pretty much it, the rest should not matter to anyone. To give you a rundown of some of the things that the BBC did not tell you

Saudi Arabia (Front Sport Office)
There we see the news (at https://frontofficesports.com/saudi-arabia-reportedly-offers-1-1-billion-for-kylian-mbappe/) that a football player namely Kylian Mbappe got an amazing lucrative option, a one year deal for $1.1 billion dollars. I honestly have no idea why the man is worth that much, but basically, he’ll make in one year enough to retire from life in luxury. Now, I found a few more articles on this event, just not the BBC. I would never pay that much for anyone, even if I had the money, but that is not something I would have to justify anyway. And as news goes, it is new, sports is news to a whole range of people all over the world. And there is more!

Iran (CNN)
Here we get a human interest story. The story (at https://www.cnn.com/style/article/iran-film-festival-canceled-scli-intl/index.html) gives us ‘Iran bans film festival over poster of actress without hijab’, an action that is not entirely unexpected. One could argue that the people of that festival wanted the festival cancelled by default. We get a picture (picture was nice), and the story comes with the added text ““The minister of culture and Islamic guidance has personally issued an order to ban the 13th edition of the ISFA Film Festival, after using a photo of a woman without a hijab on its poster in violation of the law,” ministry spokesperson Mohammad Mehdi Samoui said in a statement, according to IRNA.” It is hard to ‘reflect’ on laws, especially on laws as they are in existence in Islamic nations, but there was a bright light for Iran, the BBC skated around it and gave the limelight to a dead chef.

Unite Arab Emirates (Khaleej Times)
A new stage and a clear news stage. The article (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/lifestyle/health/uae-new-case-of-mers-virus-confirmed-in-al-ain-says-who) gives us ‘UAE: New case of Mers virus confirmed in Al Ain, says WHO’, news if there ever was one. Mers (aka Middle East respiratory syndrome) is rare but serious. It is apparently spread through close contact with camels, camel products, or an infected person. It is one of those illnesses that go from animal to person and the WHO (World Health Organisation) has now confirmed a total of “All 108 identified contacts were monitored for 14 days from the last date of exposure to the patient”, in a population it does not seem much, but it is a serious issue and on a population of 9.5 million it is not much, but the disease is rare, as such the issue becomes foreground and limelight news. Interesting the BBC did not have this either, but the death of a chef, yes they did have that one.

At times I wonder who decides on the pressures of what makes the news, more important, what non-News makes that cut. Three stories that outrank a paddle boarding accident (by a lot). For something like the The Virginian-Pilot it is news. It was a person from Virginia and he did serve in the White House, no one denies that. Other local newspapers might follow suit on that. Why on earth the BBC did, I have no idea. Not in an age where events have the world stage. To underline this, the sports section gives us all kinds of news, but there is no coverage of the world championships in Japan? How does that compute? The top 25 articles over the last 24 hours and Swimming does not make that cut? Who runs that degenerative toko? (toko is slang for shop)
You see, another source gives us “28-strong British team look to make their mark just one year out from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris”, a team of 28 swimmers and the BBC cannot find the time to give its viewers and readers one story n this? What is wrong with them?

Overall there is a debatable side to more and more news agents, not merely on what the report, but also on things they let pass by. I want you to take a look for yourself and wonder why certain news events never make it to the BBC or several other news agents in the west. 

Enjoy the day! 

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