Category Archives: Tourism

The price of stupidity

That is at the foundation of the severe conditioned setting of what can now laughingly called American stupidity. CBC reported yesterday ‘Conferences relocating to Canada over harsh new U.S. border measures’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6758054) with the underlying text “As Canadian travel to the U.S. continues to drop, CBC News has found several professional conferences relocated to Canada to avoid harsh new U.S. border security measures. One sociologist describes being grilled by U.S. customs officers who searched his phone and wallet.” As such not only is there grilling (and no grilled sandwich), but searching the phone and wallet? I wonder what deeds custom officers have to copy this all to third and fourth party intelligence gathering settings. I get that a passport needs to be checked (read: validated), but a phone? I might agree that a wallet could be seen as reasonable. But consider this. Tourism already is down and now conferences are the new goal? Consider that the CES has over 100,000 attendees and the SEMA show over 150,000 attendees. Then there are the defence shows and IT shows. How many events will it take for these show runners to go to Vancouver, Toronto, or Ottawa? Is this the price of stupidity? How many millions will America lose in 2026? How long until the larger players will offer their shows in Abu Dhabi where the tourism spike is going on. How long until only gamblers will visit Las Vegas? Nevada have poured serious cash into Las Vegas and now that it is regarded as hostile terrain, what will they lose? There is little interest to move to London or Paris (too touristy saturated), but Dubai and Abu Dhabi have options. Soon so will Monte Carlo and now there is already space in Toronto among the 14 locations are Metro Toronto Convention Centre and Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. Ottawa has the Ottawa Convention Centre and a few others. Basically should you consider the Mississauga location (Oracle) for a place to show the CES, America will have close to two dozen locations for people no longer interested in America violating their privacy and as the Canadian places (optionally the UAE too) show bang for their bucks. Plenty of organizers will relocate their shows. 

And there is data. CBC reported in late April that ‘Nearly 900,000 fewer people went to the U.S. in March as cross-border travel plummets’ so what damage will Florida with their Universal and Disney parks endure? Especially as their is a great alternative in Abu Dhabi. As such there is a larger case we see when we consider the Oracle CloudWorld. It was in Las Vegas, September 9–12, 2024. As such Oracle now has a larger case to present their 2025 show in Mississauga or even in Dubai (if the clientele is enticing enough). Dubai has a whole highway of entertainment structures. There is the option of renting a boat for their guests and make a presentation on the Alexandra Dhow Cruise in Dubai Marina. A setting that reeks of elegance and fine foods. America is no longer the place to be, their U.S. customs protocols made sure of that. And I only mention two locations. And after the Guardian reported last week that ‘Stockholm rejects ‘bizarre’ US letter urging city to scrap diversity initiatives’, I reckon that Stockholm would be willing to cater to American shows that now seek entertainment elsewhere. Don’t let the location fool you. Stockholm is magical and it has an amazing cuisine all over town. I reckon that soon enough the high chefs in America will seek their fortune elsewhere. So how much longer will America cater to the stupid minded? I reckon this might be the last year and anyone thinking they will be safe is likely to unknowingly handing their IP to U.S. customs (they might be in denial, as these costume officers will claim that it is protocol). So how long until that damage becomes completely non-reversible?

I will let you decide. And as I see it, Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France might have similar issues down the line. So how many tourists and conference dwellers will miss America out of from now on until December 2026? Oh and before I forget Saudi Arabia is about to set new settings in at least 3 locations, so there are these locations to consider too. 

So, good luck with the excuse of protocol and watch what the price of stupidity is about to cost America, as one source gives me “The index now sits just above the historical low of 50 in June 2022. Current Economic Conditions registered at 56.5, compared to 63.8 in March. The Index of Consumer Expectations was at 47.2, compared to 52.6 in March.” So economic expectations is at least 5 points down in about 2 months. So what more losses can we see? Canada looks forward to having a great year in catering to conferences and tourists. As is the UAE. But America is doing great (apparently), as Reuters gives us “Approval of Trump’s economic stewardship rose to 39% from 36%. Trump began his term with a 47% approval rating, and saw his popularity tick” as such how many more shocks to the system can America survive? As I personally see it: retail, tourism, and business have been hit and will be hit a few times more this year, so by the time high summer hits places like Venice beach and other tourist location will suffer the lack of tourist. But not to fret, you can find them in Canada and a few other places.

And as the larger places expand Mississauga and add a European location or one in the UAE, we will see a larger exodus to these safer places and that is a trend that is set to continue until deep into 2027, because conference are usually planned up to two years in advance. Oracle might be the most visible one but I reckon they are not alone. All these players (like Snowflake and Palantir) have customers very worried about their IP and they will press for change a lot louder than I am.

So have a great day and if you want to have fun, pass US customs with a box of 5.25” floppies and see the question marks on their eyes as they are uncertain how to proceed. 

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In memoriam

I saw the stage unfold and I am still seeing the downfall of Florida, but the UAE just added the cherry flavored candy coating to that obituary. This was always going to happen, but two elements added to this evolutionary accelerated game. First there was Governor DeSantis who (seemingly) anti-Woke decided to give Disney a run for its money in all kinds of anti settings. I do not know all the details, but they are there. As such there was a diminished setting for tourism setting the destination to Florida. No matter how great the Epic Universe looks (and it looks beyond amazing for what I can see on YouTube), the stage was set. Then we get this whatever he calls himself in the White House playing the tariff game and impeding tourism in America (as I personally see it) and the busk of all Canadian are looking for another destination (plenty of Europeans too), so that is stage 1. The diminished interest in Florida, and even if you think that is not enough (and it isn’t), the UAE and Disney create a bond which will get Disney World to Abu Dhabi on (you guessed it) Yas Island. It will be sitting next to Warner Brothers World, Ferrari World, Water World and Sea World. When Disney opens its doors the setting of Stage 2 is achieved. 

Universal and Disney which was able to keep tourism in Florida will be setting a larger exodus of Tourism towards the UAE. It makes sense that Disney wanted to get in on the Emirati business, it they had not gotten there, others would have. So the business setting was clear and I saw this evolve over a year ago (minus the Disney part). 

I even set that stage in the article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/25/those-happy-dreams/) where I wrote ‘Those happy dreams’ at that point I saw that tourism would be a larger setting and the service call to that pool of people had to be serviced differently. An overhaul of tourist serviceability through a customer care setting, in stead of a sales setting (which had been the focal point of many). With Saudi Arabia and its NEOM settings and now an even larger setting in Abu Dhabi warrants that change. I reckon that this might be a call upon Miral Experiences LLC to evolve their systems and make an Arabic solution which could also be deployed all over Saudi Arabia, an (optionally) c connected system that gives the tourist 110% of what others give them without impeding their own costs, optionally dwindling down some costs and making a system more efficient towards the tourist industry. When that is achieved other locations would follow. 

So now only will Florida not survive the outcome of all this, but it will evolve the settings for the UAE immensely. As such we could even see additional growth. And with the bullet train going from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, this high-speed train will enable individuals to travel in just 30 minutes, reaching speeds of up to 350 km/h. My sneaky brain even came up with a second train that leaves at 07:00 from Dubai, getting them ready to party in Abu Dhabi. The NM95 (painted in the Hogwarts Express colors) with NM meaning Non-Muggle and 95 being the square of 9 3/4 (ok, I did a little rounding, but 95.0625 might be a little weird on a train). So when these people depart from Dubai, in a Harry Potter (or fantastic beasts) themed train, the vacation merely goes with them on a journey. A setting where people take one week in Abu Dhabi and the second week in Dubai, with the non-tax setting of the UAE, a family buying iPhones for mum, dad and junior, the savings there pretty much enables that trip. I reckon that the UAE will be cleaning house in American tourism for years. And the stage that the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrgr2zzv00o) ‘Disney to open theme park in the Middle East’ a mere 8 hours ago will have hidden treasures for the UAE as a whole. Disney might still be grabbing their 30%, but the larger cake with be for Miral Experiences LLC and the UAE. And with the quote “It added that 120 million passengers travel through Abu Dhabi and Dubai every year, making the Emirates the biggest global airline hub in the world.” I reckon that it will grow much closer to 150,000,000 soon thereafter. 

You see, with the Harry Potter world added to Warner Brothers (somewhere in 2026) and Disney coming after that, I reckon that anyone who faced fears over the Tumpisms of tariffs and other shenanigans will see Yas Islands with its amazing mall, and theme parks and on 4-7 Dec 2025 the Formula one as well, Abu Dhabi will be the place to be starting this year. So if they evolve tourism services in the UAE, Florida is pretty much done for, as such I see a speculated ‘In Memoriam’ appear in global newspaper in the near future. And I (yet again) got here a year early. I’ll be honest, I never knew that Disney was on route, but it made sense that they would come this way. And I reckon that there is another setting. You see, the amount of power required for Yas Island might in the nearest of futures require its own small nuclear powered reactor soon enough. Abu Dhabi (as I personally see it) already required it, but a Disney resort might make that a essential thing. It would probably fuel Abu Dhabi and Dubai, so something half way makes sense.

I reckon that the spaciousness of Abu Dhabi and Yas Island would fuel the need for growing the mall as well as place 1-2 hotels in that mall as well. 

A simple setting that President Trump overlooked when he started to play the tariff war. Now that the world has had enough of it, they are seeking another destination, the world sees a large neon sign stating “نحن هنا” (I’ll let you figure that one out). A setting comes an essential solution to a lot of tourists and the UAE is almost ready to provide. With the tax breaks that the UAE offers (Apple now has a new destination for its superiorly build iPhones), tourism in Dubai will fuel Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi will fuel the need to see Dubai. Both profiting and people get a new stage that they haven’t seen before. As I see it all winners. OK, America will sulk like a little girl but they basically put this on themselves.

Have a great day muggles, try the liquorices wands if you can, if not, there is always coffee.

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Changing the reason

That is the setting and it is not a bad setting. The reporter, the spokespeople, no one broke any laws and no one created harm in the process. The latter reason is merely my reason, but with the tariff setting it matters. I am talking about the article in tech radar (at https://www.techradar.com/pro/pc-makers-are-planning-plants-in-saudi-arabia-to-try-and-avoid-us-tariffs) where we are given in the headline ‘PC makers are planning plants in Saudi Arabia to try and avoid US tariffs’, you see, it is not about tariffs at this time (perhaps partially).

You see, the article gives us “Major PC makers like Lenovo, HP and Dell are reportedly exploring building new manufacturing plants in Saudi Arabia in order to avoid high US tariffs on Chinese-made goods.” I reckon that ASUS is doing the same thing. There is a larger prospect. Consider NEOM Sindalah, NEOM Oxagon, NEOM Trojan, NEOM the Line, NEOM Magna and all its 12 subdivisions then we get the Mukaab project in Riyadh. These settings represent thousands of computers and most of them laptops and netbooks. A setting I predicted in January 2024 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/25/those-happy-dreams/) on the 25th of January 2024 I implied the need for Saudi Arabia (and the UAE) to change the way customer service was done in these places. With NICE as an example, Saudi Arabia could create a Muslim solution for this and considering the growth of travelers which is supposed to surpass 100,000,000, at present (last year) was over 800,000 people and NICE has that covered, but as it is an Israeli solution, it might not fly in Saudi Arabia or the UAE and as such the premise needed to be changed and in that article I set the premise out a little better (I had retyping my own words).

As such with these thousands of systems required, it makes perfect sense for Lenovo to get into the game on a local setting, I might not be a huge fan of the Lenovo, but plenty of people love them and as such I see tremendous strides forward for Lenovo, my personal vote goes to ASUS, but that does not make Lenovo a bad choice, it is merely not my cup of tea. 

As such when we see “DigiTimes says HP and Dell have also sent teams to Saudi Arabia to scout out potential factory sites following local government invitations. The biggest attraction for manufacturers to relocate to Saudi Arabia are the 10% reciprocal tariffs, compared with 245% for China.” As I personally see it, it needs close tracks to each of these centers, likely it needs to favor Oxagon and Riyadh, but that is merely my point of view. Likely there will be service centers in each of the 4 locations, and relying on how Magna plays out, a larger setting is required there, but other with more geolocating intelligence is required. 

As Lenovo goes there and as the others (DELL, HP) come too, the setting for Saudi Arabia increases, there is at the near coming time a setting where these brands could service clients in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria as well. It could explode service and sales settings a lot more for these regions than the EU and USA can. So when I see the quote “However, the PC market’s immediate future remains uncertain. “In addition to the direct impact of tariffs, the stop-start nature of announcements and delays have cast uncertainty around pricing for consumer electronics this year,” Canalys Analyst Greg Davis explained.” I merely mention “Go pull the other foot”, you see the tariffs are merely an excuse and an optionally bump in revenue for these companies. I reckon that these reasons Trump (oops typo) the tariff reason at present and as Saudi Arabia makes strides to completing these settings the need for systems increase a lot and the need for servers in these locations would explode the need for CISCO equipment as well. 

This is a larger setting in the need for these companies to get ready as they might require localization and as I see it, the one who is there will get a larger options and a larger slice of the revenue stream. But that could merely be me.

Have a great day and enjoy the weekend. I have to kill hundreds of people in a place called Cyrodil this weekend and I am buying a nice house in Skingrad, but they tell me that I have weird priorities.

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Rollback

That is the word of the day, I have always had that word in my vocabulary. The setting that any solution o programmed in Clipper had the setting for a rollback. This is how I grew up (growing up in the Clipper age was a little weird). You see, I had two settings. The first was the data didn’t change and as I was a ‘little’ verbose with my data creation there was the option of registering a data version, so that was the setting. We needed a rollback in several situations and that is where the setting ends. You see, today I got to see a few news lines. 

First there was Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-jet-returns-us-china-victim-trumps-tariff-war-2025-04-20/) giving us ‘Boeing jet returns to US from China, a victim of Trump’s tariff war’, now that is a scrumptious hotdog to say the least. At almost $100 million, according to one source, that is a delicious snack to say the least and as we are told. China send it back. The tariff could cripple Xiamen Airlines as the tariff is 125%, and even as Reuters give us that the plane is a mere $55 million, we can say that the price difference is a little too much to be acceptable, the larger setting is that several players are trying to dam in the losses that are projected to become American losses. 

Most of us will have seen the trade agreements that China made with Mexico, so there is that. Then there is the setting we see at where Business Insider gives us the setting that ‘Some Canadian Stores Are Labeling US Imports With a T for ‘Tariffs’’ (business insider put it behind a paywall, so that’s all you get. And only three days ago I saw the headline ‘China’s Strategic Pivot from US to Canadian Oil Imports’ (at https://discoveryalert.com.au/news/chinas-pivot-canadian-oil-imports-2025/) I cannot vouch for this source, yet in that setting we are given “Data reveals Chinese refiners have slashed US crude purchases by approximately 90% between 2023 and 2025, redirecting roughly 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) toward alternative suppliers, with Canada capturing a substantial portion of this market share.” So the first step to a change has been given and I foresaw these changes even as I never knew about the oil. So as I see it, these changes show billions upon billions in losses for America whilst we see damage to their export, their revenue making defense industry, their tourism and we can go on a little longer. Wouldn’t it have been great if America had a rollback setting for their elections? 

So as Goldman Sachs gives us “The decline in the world’s reserve asset during an episode of elevated volatility comes as investors are increasingly focused on the US’s growing debt burden and other countries are also increasing their borrowing. “Markets are dealing with a lot of competing factors right now — fairly significant drivers where it’s hard to trade all of them at once,” says William Marshall, head of US rates strategy in Goldman Sachs Research.” Really? Only now do we see “investors are increasingly focused on the US’s growing debt burden”, that’s about 4 years too late, but whatever. I saw (and reported on this danger for a few years at least). If the EU, Japan and China dump their bonds (that will be an expensive exercise) the value of the Dollar doesn’t just drop, it ends up having getting a CCC− grade (to give a mere view on the matter). At that point the imminent suicide risk will spike all over Wall Street (a clear but reliable speculation).

I reckon that the one dropping them first gets the best value for it, but after that it will be a quick fall to the luxury value of zero. But it is not just America, the bonds of the EU and Japan will face a similar risk, America is merely the highest as someone thought it was a great idea to introduce the tariff game to their economy. Global News told their Canadians ‘Avoid U.S. travel if possible, Canadian academics are being urged’ with others following in similar settings. The Detroit News gives us ‘Avoid U.S. or take burner phones, Canada executives tell staff’ and there are more sources that give us that, with the added “Arrivals of noncitizens to the United States by plane declined by nearly 900,000 people, almost 10%, in March from a year earlier, according to data from the U.S. International Trade Administration. Travelers are reacting to President Donald Trump’s trade war and to stories of harsh detentions at U.S. airports. Border figures show 4,970,360 came to the U.S. from Canada in March 2024. That number dropped to 4,105,516 travelers a year later. More visitors reportedly traveled from Canada to the U.S. in March 2022 under pandemic-related travel restrictions than they did last month.” I think that Canada is the most likely of number drops, but I reckon that it is not the only one. So as I see it, the danger is not only to Tourism, but business travel too and in that case, hotels in all the major cities in the United States will report on losses of 10% or more, so what does that mean for the value of Marriott International, who operates 9,361 hotels worldwide as of 2024. In addition there is Hilton who operates over 8,400 hotels worldwide. I have no idea how many they operate in the USA, but these are merely the two larger players, especially in the business travel setting. So how many businesses are under the hammer because of this situation? And now as Canada is growing closer to the Commonwealth and they will protect their bigger brother (Canada is 9.985 million km² and the UK a mere 243,610 km²) OK, Australia is 7.688 million km², away highly smaller brother than the United Kingdom. But that setting now gives us that these business meetings are likely to be held in the United Kingdom or Australia. Hilton and the Marriott will still get their coins, but the underlying issues will hurt America to a much larger degree. And as this escalates over the next month or so, the damage to America will increase. Additional damage as China and India rolls in as expecting ‘saviors’ to Saudi Arabia and the UAE will change global politics and global economics to a much larger degree. India will get new options to get additional Pharmaceutical products sold to Saudi Arabia and that is another slice of a billion dollars. Then we get the UK, Australia and Japan hammering on improving their slice of Optical, photo, technical, medical apparatus, as such the American slice of $1.39B will decrees a lot more. All this started with tariffs and basically this setting was staged by President Trump. I merely wonder what got into him to drive America to the edge of insanity (and bankruptcy). What a miss that politics don’t have rollbacks and I reckon that the lawmakers in America will push for a larger change of settings, because I am certain that the Republicans are desperate to see this damage undone and it is me personal believe that they will accept any other politician, even a democrat to undo the damage they are seeing right now.

A mere 21 hours ago we got (at https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesia-seeks-stronger-trade-ties-with-eu-australia-to-offset-potential-us-export-losses) that Indonesia Globe gives us ‘Indonesia Seeks Stronger Trade Ties with EU, Australia to Offset Potential US Export Losses’, which is fine by me as I love the Indonesian version of Bami Goreng with Saté Ajam with peanut sauce. The best dish I ever had, even now after a decade, the scent penetrates my nose, even as I haven’t had it in over a decade. So I am looking forward to stronger ties with Indonesia and I kinda miss the spices we had in Batavia (my weird sense of humor). But the stage is drawn as more countries seek replacement for America, their tariff becomes their setting for isolation and Australia will be happy to have ties with a country that has 281.2 million potential consumers. I already gave the premise to Saudi Arabia as they have access to something Indonesia desires. As such there are more players to take over the places that America is about to lose and lose more of them. Next in line are the international students who will seek safer places to be. In this Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have good chances as they all have great places Oxford, and Cambridge might be the first you think of, but not everyone can afford these places. There is till the University College London, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Toronto, University of Manchester, University of Technology Sydney, University of Southampton. These are merely a Commonwealth grasp of those who are in the top 100 and I reckon that the losses for America start to add up now. And that was merely the Ivy League, America has more good universities and now that the international students will seek education elsewhere, the economic picture of America will deteriorate more and more. 

Wouldn’t it have been great to have some kind of political rollback in place? 
Have a great day and consider where you need to set your focus to next. 

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Mislabelled fear

That is what I saw when I took notice of the news in the Guardian called ‘US’s $2.36tn tourism business fears ‘Trump slump’ over tariff turmoil’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/15/trump-tariffs-tourism-business) we might look at “Warnings emerge even as effect of economic and political turbulence on the foreign visitors to the US is hard to define” I disagree, you see, slices from UK (69 million), Australia (26 million), New Zealand (5 million) are now avoiding America mainly because of the Canada (51st state) issue. We took offense and even as I yearn to see the Epic Universe, I have decided that if I do get to pick a vacation, I will choose Warner Brothers Abu Dhabi over Orlando. I know that Warner Brothers will still see my money, but in this case 70% will go to Miral, a United Arab Emirates operator. In that same trend many will seek out Euro Disney, Parks in Tokyo and a few other places. And this is not for a mere year, this is for the duration of the Trump administration. Some insults are just a little too much to bear. Oh, and the Canadians with their 40 million people are also avoiding America. I didn’t think that it amounted to 5%-10% of $2.36tn but that could be because America insulted a little more than just the Commonwealth setting. Perhaps others see the weak American setting, perhaps the stage of the Ukraine is equally as upsetting as the Commonwealth setting. America has been kicking the wrong legs, just as interest payments of a 36 trillion dollar debt is due, America loses a lot more income. As such there is nothing that is hard to define, it is the cost of doing business and that part is becoming increasingly hard. 

So this fear is mislabeled, the proper labelling is seen as the price of insulting people, the price of neglecting people and as we see Europe taking additional steps like the fear of espionage on their people by Americans, we need to see that this will take years to undo, especially as Orlando just launched the biggest park in human history, 110 acres (45 ha) in the park itself and the overall size is 750 acres (300 ha), which comes at a cost of $7.7 billion to build, which is stated to be one of the largest and most expensive theme parks in history. Now consider what it takes to get this going, the hotels, the retail stores staff and such costing a bundle in its own right. So as we see the $2.36tn and the 10% lessened revenue and a slice is on that part. Epic Universe will do ok, because it will have millions of Americans wanting to see this place, and the use of influencers was well played, they all showed a place that nearly everyone wants to see. As such the lessened revenue will be felt all over America. Because those wanting to see Epic Universe will take their share from the other places. And that is merely one place. A mere fortnight ago we were told “Several nations issued travel warnings about potential safety risks in America, including Japan, Australia and Canada” others will take notice and that is the larger setting for America for now. So what will Comcast Corp. do? Put it all in a bad bank mortgage and loan and write it off? That would be the economic player will do, as such America will lose a hell of a lot of taxation these several years. Another part of the equation shown in a simple setting. What will happen? That is not for me to tell. But that is the setting that the Guardian is seemingly overlooking. 

So as we are given “Warnings that international tourism to the US could be hit by Donald Trump’s effort to re-engineer economic and political relations with the rest of the world are slowly emerging.” With an added “The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority said last week it was projecting a 5% decline in room tax revenue for its upcoming budget – a decline that may reflect Trump’s trade disputes with Canada and Mexico. Those countries account for 2.6 million visitors to sin city, or half of international travel trade.” As such these two countries account for half the international trade? It seems that America created its own downfall, as I personally see it. And as we see the trend evolve, we need to understand that next year that trend will continue and as Europe, the Commonwealth and others will seek other paths to joy like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Paris (EuroDisney), London,  Beijing, Tokyo and other places, the losses for America will add and add. 

They wanted to overwhelm the tourist industry and due to political pressures, they merely shown the other places that they might be more desirable. As such, the problem wasn’t hard to define, the Americans merely needed to look into themselves and the problem will exasperate. Consider these places and how they rely on international students to get cheap labour, as the BBC reported last week “Marco Rubio says US revoked at least 300 foreign students’ visas”, and that will have a trickle effect on those still seeking international student visas, they are more likely to seek education from other, non-US places. And the top 50 of universities has plenty of offers on the table for its pending international students. This might seem little, but plenty of business rely on the next batch of international students. So as you are sitting in a theme park hoping for a quick coffee, think again, they might be down a number of staff members because this is a short term impact, the term of summer and that is about to hit all the places that rely on the new batch of international students and with them gone their hiring approach needs to change fast. 

All these elements can be foreseen, but are these places taking notice? America is going through huge changes at present and that place is not ready to face the serious impact of the political pressures they tried to set to other nations. These nations are now retaliating in other ways and Canada seeking other location, other drinks and other choices was a mere first step. With Europe joining their homegrown defense spending, America will lose more and more. All this I put in my blog over the last 3-5 years. Even without President Trump the signs were clear, now they are merely escalating revenue losses and that is impacting America in a few ways. Tourism is merely the latter step, but this is the more visible one. It trickles down to nearly every level of the population, still, that might prove fruitful for people who had been unable to find a job. Still the report of a loss of $118B – $236B is not nothing, add to that lessened defense spending and the people not coming now, will hit tourism the clearest, but this loss will go into nearly very level of the American industry and that impacts small businesses a lot more than foreseen. 

This is merely my view on the matter, but I have been writing on these dangers for some time. Have a great day.

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The fifth branch

That happens, even as I wrote about crossroads there is always that one intersection that has a fifth branch. The road often ignored and the road avoided, but it is there. So up first is the admittance that what you are about to read is fictive, a pure cog of my brain and optionally nothing more than the thoughts of a conspiracy theorist. And to make matters worse (for me) is that the setting go Google yesterday wasn’t completely coincidental. I wouldn’t mind taking Sergey Brin for a ride (something he didn’t ever deserve) for the simple matter of gaining $15 million. The man has an estimated value of $121.2 billion, so at the setting of him losing 5%-15%, avoiding that to hand me a $15 million (and a job) is not beyond me, I have no idea how to do that, but here comes President Trump and that story begins. 

So yesterday I got to the idea that making money of short selling stock. To do this you need a really stupid idea that will shed the markets. In this we see that over the last 48 hours the markets lost around 10 trillion dollars. So what happens when this is design? The entire tariff setting never made sense, unless it was by design and tariff on a Mc Donald Island (with only one CIEIO) and a lot of penguins, so that the President can claim medicine imbalance. In the meantime unknown ‘friends’ of his when the markets are at their lowest, buy what they can. Another party hands them the money and President Trump claims his 70%, these people will still get 30% and when you have nothing any slice of 3 trillion will do. Even at 1% that is 30 billion and I doubt they will make that much, they will make enough to have their dream retirement at 40-50, something they never thought possible ever. But there you have it and the larger setting is that when the dust settles most offices cannot investigate as too many offices has lost their staff. A weird but not impossible setting.

And the people will claim I am mad, consider that I wrote from the start it is all fictive. I will leave it to the willing courtesans (called media) to connect the dots I placed over the last week and try to cash in on their digital dollars. As for Iceland? Well when the ships (read: governments) sink due to warmongering and China has had enough reasons, issues might rise and then we see that Iceland and New Zealand are the only two safe places on the planet. I chose Iceland as with their volcanoes and hot springs they have foundations on energy production. A nice pickle I avoided didn’t I?

Anyway escape your doom with my fictive imagination and take solace in the knowledge that if this is proven true that President Trump and his gang of extras will quickly evade to Russia (the only country who didn’t get a tariff) and America will see such anger it never saw because the entire American army, the secret service and others do not have the manpower or the ammunition to stop 200,000,000 angry Americans. 

Not a bad play write even if I say so myself. So next stop more creativity for me.
Have a great day and remember the Kjötsúpa (Icelandic Lamb soup) in Reykjavik is apparently phenomenal. 

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Crossroads to the past

At this time the world is waiting what insanity goes our way. The tariffs are here, the news is shouting against each other trying to get the audience to listen to ‘their’ version of what is likely to be. I gave my view in the past and so far I see nothing to change my mind. An additional side was given to my mind when I considered what the friends of President Trump would do. When you know that negative impacts are coming, such a revelation is nearly as successful as making a killing in the markets on things that go right. As markets are shedding billions (up to now, over 8 trillion has been written off) and I reckon that someone was making a killing all on their own.

Still, that is not my problem. The benefits of being poor, no stock to worry about. Still my mind gave me an idea.

You see all whilst I was considering my next challenge (I am currently walking the length of the UK) and my next challenge will be Iceland (1332 km).

It came to me as I had a few thoughts (none related to markets) and the setting as I saw them gave me an idea. The setting is set around Google who found a way to use the thermal energy to power a new data centre and the idea is that with the water around Iceland being used to cool the systems. Google had a novel way to have a data centre that could connect both Canada and the United States to Europe and the UK, the possibilities are without limits. Yet as the building goes on, a person gets ‘infected’ by a group of Light Elves (Ljósalfar). That person get visions and goes off the rails. He is sent to the UK to recover, but the problems are slowly increasing. A second person also gets ‘infected’ but reacts better to it and this starts the unification between man and elf. 

My mind is still working out a few kinks in the cables as they come to mind. One of these is that these Icelandic houses (for elves) as they were build were ‘infected’ with talismans to bind elves and that remains a ‘mystery’ in the story. And I reckon that the end goal are the Norns, the Nordic fates had moved to Iceland. The three goddesses known as Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld, who weave the threads of fate and tend to the world tree. But their powers are set in 6 jewels. A ring and a necklace that each of the three had. The women are not there, but their jewels are. And the elves are the only one who could see where they are. 

The idea is to map out Iceland in near perfection a whole island to investigate (a small wink towards Midwinter) The idea is to have a new kind of RPG, mostly stealth based (which makes for a non-weaponized game. But the setting are evolving in my mind and I have an idea to make the game more technology minded and also intertwining with mythological sides. Still too much to figure out. And it is fun, Microsoft gives us “Our 23 game development studios focus on delivering great games for everyone, wherever they play”, I on the other hand are a mere person who set out the creation of gaming IP by myself and I created the setting of close to 15 games, so how many games did they create? How many are on the minds of gamers? I bet there are a few but how many people are involved with ‘these’ games. 23 studios? Should be at least 50-100. Me and my mere simple lonely person did it all myself. No matter what happens. I feel decently proud to have been able to create all this IP (and other hardware IP). I remained creative whist other do whatever they do. 

I shouldn’t play my own harp, but at this point I created at least 3 unique original IP and that is nothing to be humble about. And this game I merely thought into existence today. I feel proud of my own abilities at this time. And I haven’t even decided whether this could be a game or a movie.

Time to create another chapter I reckon, not sure where my creativity will lead me. Have a great day.

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Software directions

That tends to be the norm, some software BI person looks at where the masses are and then shoots his net, so that he can catch the biggest population. And I (initially) tended to think the same way. We can call this the wrong way. 

So this started last night when Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/can-gaming-save-the-apple-vision-pro/) gave me ‘Can Gaming Save the Apple Vision Pro?’, OK, I admit, the story was two weeks old, and none the less relevant to this conversation. Personally I didn’t know that the Vision Pro required saving, but that is my wimple setting. You see, new devices open up new frontiers and on November 9th 2024 I gave the world (apple too) ‘The Easy Lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and in under an hour I designed a near original game an adaptation from a world favorite game. Yes it took me less than an hour to think of a solution. 

Now there is another idea based on all time favorites and used in a very different different setting. You see, people look in the same direction over and over and hoping that something new hits them. I look in the opposite direction and that is why I have over half a dozen original IP settings and this one could bring Ubisoft the fortune it so immensely desired, the dream of growing to greatness. The funny part is that most of the work is done already. You see, schooling is required all over the world and the chances are that Ubisoft overlooked it. And apparently Timmy the Cook did too (said to be the CEO of Apple). 

The setting is larger to be considered as more and more need is out there for languages. OK, there are some hangups. But the larger setting becomes visible in mere minutes and 80% of the gamers have had that feeling, especially those who played any of the Assassins Creed games. You see, we all want to be that assassin, but the missed part is that they loved walking down the streets of Florence, Rome, The America’s, New York, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Iran and Japan. The one thing that Ubisoft excelled in were the graphics. When these games get upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 it becomes a very different game. Now on Apple Vision Pro (optionally MetaQuest as well) people can actually practice their language skills in a private setting and there are millions ready to get ready. Now there is no killing, there is no climbing all over the place. It becomes a walking setting, with optional reward settings and Ubisoft actually opened the door to this when they had the expansion The Discovery Tour added to the game AC Origin. It gave us a different setting to the game and also gave us just how deep they had taken the game. Now consider that we get access to languages English is gotten from AC Syndicate and Watchdogs Legion, and optionally AC3. French from AC Unity (when it is properly fixed), Arabic from Mirage, Italian and Latin from AC Brotherhood and optionally AC2, Greek and Egyptian from AC Origin, and most of the work is already done. Now there is one setting that takes precedence.

About a month ago I saw someone program a chatbot to take on scam centers. His view was that when they are held busy by chatbots, scammers cannot scam. But that impact is larger. People can now be set in chatbots engaging in the use of natural speech. As such there is a unification of skills and in that setting Ubisoft could offer a much larger population. According to ‘records’ in 2022, the United Kingdom had the most students learning English as a foreign language. There were approximately 262,400 students who were learning English as a second language that year, followed by Ireland with almost 116,000 foreign students. The third place ranking was completed by Canada, with around 105,000 students learning English as a foreign language. That implies a population of billions who want to learn English. When the modules are ready Ubisoft could cater to millions of people who want to learn any of these languages and with a subscription model they could cater to hundreds of thousands of them. To make it fun they could add the villa in Monteriggioni and as language assignments are completed they could get another painting added to the villa. There is also the notion that ‘midterms’ in several stages would upgrade Monteriggioni. You will not get a well and a few other things, but most other upgrades become possible. And as you engage with the people in Florence and Rome you could get lots of interactions. With Latin you get the added nun/priest outfits and get access to the old Vatican. Linguistic skills are valued globally and for those who want to learn Arabic there is the world of Mirage (just Bagdad) and there we will see what more there is to learn. Any language student gets assigned an address and as your skills progress you will get a ‘better’ address. All this was already possible and now it serves a much better purpose. There is classic English (AC Syndicate) and modern English (Watchdogs Legion) the setting already exist for the most. But the added setting of interactive chatbots will push the Ip to new heights and the graphic skills of Ubisoft have seldom been questioned (only in AC Unity). So this took a little more than an hour, but it was there for the longest of time. It just required Yves Guillemot to wake up to see what he had and now that this writing is out in the open, he could wake up and seek new frontiers. There is the thought that Unreal Engine might not be a solution everywhere, but it will give the most lifelike views on Vision Pro and MetaQuest. As such it just fits better. 

Software directions are out in the open. The trick is not to take the mundane direction that everyone seems to be taking. As such I offer this thought to the wannabe captains of industry.

Have a great day and think of what language you would like to learn, because that is a universal thought we all have. It might be that you want to learn the dead languages (Greek and Latin), you might want to broaden your horizon with English, French, Italian and Japanese and for those wishing to learn Spanish, a case can be made to include AC Black Flag. The rest? Well that gives a person a dozen languages to learn, but cases can be made for other languages as well. How that goes? It would be up to Ubisoft. 

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True to the old word

The ‘old’ saying is “Where are idiots grouped”, the answer is “Usually between Canada and Mexico”, I don’t completely agree as politicians are for the most to some degree a global problem. But you get the gist of the matter. It gets to be funnier as we look at the numbers on Fentanyl smuggling where 86.4% of the convictions are US citizens. Take that and the anger from Canadian people (regarding the 51st state) and we have ourselves a clambake. And that is getting more traction now. The setting has gone viral as many places (I am reluctant to hide behind the operative word ‘all’) have removed America booze from the shopping racks (example: LCBO). For others (Australia) it could be seen as good news as Bundaberg Rum might grace the stalls of these shops, UK already had their gin setting, but that could grow a lot more now that brands like American Gin are removed (sorry Mr. Reynolds) as well, and the removal of several Vodka brands will be good news for Sweden. The branding marks will currently see a shift in consumer ‘appreciation’ as over $20,000,000,000 is removed from America’s branding. I reckon that soon others will see places like Coca Cola will soon also have an impact. Then there is tourism, that ship still under investigation might also see impacts. I think that the numbers for the tourist operators (like Disney, Warner Brothers and Universal) might see a bad summer coming. I don’t think that they have a large dip as they were seemingly over capacitated, but there will be an impact. As such the estimated impact from Canada on Fentanyl is getting a weird impact. According to some, the In the first 10 months of 2024, the Canadian border service reported seizing 10.8lb (4.9kg) of fentanyl entering from the US, while US Border Patrol intercepted 32.1lb (14.6kg) of fentanyl coming from Canada. And if the NPR is to be believed that joke has a nasty sting as in 2024, only about 43 pounds of fentanyl was seized at America’s northern border. That compares with roughly 21,100 pounds seized at the southern border. So the difference of this implies that the 43 pounds of substance caught on the Canadian side amounts to a mere 0.002 of the actual problem and that is now costing America an additional $20B plus change and commission. So how does that go over with Wall Street? So in a short moment, Alcohol, Tourism and retail is impacted in America. If we can believe Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario) has given the headline ‘Ontario premier Doug Ford cancels $100-million Starlink contract’, it becomes a comedy should Huawei fill that gap. So how is that Trump ego going at present? As Canadian tourists generated $20.5 billion in spending and supported 140,000 American jobs last year. They could see an optional 40% drop at present, I personally believe that this could be as much as 60% in an area where spend was 20% down from pre-Covid settings. And others are taking notice Especially the UK, Australia and New Zealand. They might not amount to much, but they do have an impact. I for one had dreamt (I have silly dreams) of seeing Universal Orlando once, but at present I will chose Abu Dhabi over USA. Warner Brothers would still see my money, but where in America my contribution would be close to 100%, In Abu Dhabi they merely fetch 30% of my money and the rest is all for Miral Experiences L.L.C. As such I become an asset feed to Julien Kauffmann. And consider I am merely one person, now consider that 40% of the commonwealth sees this the same way? How much damage did President Trump do to his own economy? If he was the King of Australia I would advice the board of Governors in Australia to muzzle him. This typically refers to the Reserve Bank Board, which oversees the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and is made up of the Governor (currently Michele Bullock), Deputy Governor, and other appointed members. So, what did Wall Street duo to reign in this level of idiocy? (Just to coin a phrase). 

So, as we realize that over the course of Rome’s long history, taxation was frequently a source of outrage and grief. Indeed there is a basic lesson to be learned from Roman history, namely that people did not like paying taxes they found unjust. And this setting comes from 357AD. As such it is over 1700 years old. Even Julius Caesar, according to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus “declared that he would rather lose his life than allow it to be done. For he knew that the incurable wounds of such arrangements, or rather derangements had often driven provinces to extreme poverty.” So President Trump (and his advisors) had examples coming from history and now the stone is set and Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs of 10-15%, starting 10 February, on various US imports, including coal, crude oil and large cars. (Source: BBC) and that has larger repercussions. Huawei is sensing blood in the water and at present they are ‘arming’ their devices with Linux (I reckon for Europe and other places). People might not ‘go’ for HarmonyOS at present but they now have a foot in the door and with a linux setting they could get into the Commonwealth to a larger degree (Canada included) as America now has to prove that there is an actual danger (which they never did). And only yesterday ‘Huawei Unveils Latest Suite of Intelligent Campus Solutions to Accelerate Intelligent Campus 2.0 Development’ that is the business opening to more. By providing high-quality 10 Gbps network experiences, it accelerates the digital transformation of enterprises across various sectors. No American solution got this close before (only on leaflets as far as I could tell). So whilst Huawei was stated to look out for what was coming, they opened the door to a juicy steak for all the greed hungry entrepreneurs sailing the global waters and they will get their grain. With ‘Intelligent Stadium Solution: Redefining Sports Venues’ they stand to win the hearts over in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including people in Glasgow (2026), 2027 Cricket World Cup (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia),  French Alps (2030), 2031 Cricket World Cup (India and Bangladesh) and Brisbane (2032). So when you add that up, how much of the world stage will Huawei capture? And China will be there to laugh out loud, especially as America NEVER showed any evidence and that has been voiced by Germany more than once. 

So how stupid was starting a trade war founded on tariffs and based on a ludicrous setting whilst Canada was a mere 0.002 of the actual problem? Oh, for desert we get the quote we were fed less than 10 minutes ago (source: USA Today) ‘Canadian province leader threatens to cut off energy to 3 US states, imposes 25% surcharge’ and I suggest that the MAGA fans in Michigan, Minnesota, and New York find a good hiding spot, because when that energy block comes through a lot of people will curse the day President Trump was reelected for some time. And then there is the energy coming at +25%, so how much energy does New York need?

Have a great day and happy trails to Bundaberg Rum as they now have an open door to an optional 40 million additional consumers.

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The who now?

I do not know all the inn’s and out’s of sports, I freely admit that. I live in Australia and like Canada we enjoy an over interested sport community (read: a sport mindset population). 

So when I saw news item named ‘Saudi Arabia to host Islamic Games again’, I went ‘The who now?’ And this isn’t a new thing. As I read “Two decades after hosting the inaugural edition in Mecca, the nation is once again at the heart of regional sport. In November, Riyadh will welcome the world’s top athletes for the sixth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games, event aiming to strengthen brotherhood among Muslim-majority nations.” So this isn’t a new thing. It has been going on for two decades. And we are about to face the 6th edition of these games. So how come I was utterly unaware of the existence of these games? I don’t need to be muslim to enjoy games I cannot participate in (for the most, with one or two exceptions I am not able to participate on any level in sports). So I was taken aback. 

Let’s recap for the sports ignorant people who might never have heard of these events as well and I am looking at the media with utter disdain at present for not illuminating these games. The first were held in Mecca. The Islamic Solidarity Games and these games involve elite athletes of the OIC competing in a variety of sports, as such we get to see the creme de la creme in sports compete. The first were as said in Mecca (2005), the 2010 in Tehran were cancelled, in 2013 it was Indonesia to host these games, which were done in Palembang, then it was up to Baku to host them in 2017, in 2021 Turkey hosted them in Konya and now, in August 2025 they will be held in Riyadh. So what exposure did these games get? I would have loved to have seen them in Indonesia. That place doesn’t get to much exposure other then touristy occasions. 

So what sports are shown?
Well, at present 28 sports have been shown and the bulk of these sports were shown as:

Athletics (since 2005), Basketball (since 2005), Diving (since 2005), Equestrian (2005–2013), Football (since 2005), Gymnastics (since 2017), Judo (since 2017), Karate (since 2005), Swimming (since 2005), Water polo (since 2005), Weightlifting (since 2005), Wrestling (since 2017)

These are the sports we are ‘familiar’ with in a Olympic setting. Right Nike? (I am talking to the goddess, not the brand next to me now). A little less known are the sports below, or at least I don’t remember seeing them in an Olympic setting. Nike is shaking her head in disbelieve and rolling her eyes. They are: 

Bodybuilding (2025), Handball (since 2005), Table tennis (since 2005), Taekwondo (since 2005), Tennis (since 2005), Volleyball (since 2005), Wushu (since 2013)

The list is important as they are ‘enjoyed’ watching by the bulk of the world, as such I cannot believe that I had never heard of these games. 

Media bashing
You might think that I am making light of the situation and perhaps that is true, but can anyone explain how any person remains devoid of this knowledge when we have countries like Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand and America where sports seems to be on the mind of men optionally a lot more than sex? The old story (according to women) is that men look for their golf balls more than a g-spot? (no idea what they mean with that). 

It might sound weird, but there is a decent Islamic population in at least 4 of them, so why don’t these Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation and Islamic Solidarity Games enjoy a lot more exposure? As second issue I would raise that there is another hurdle optionally failed. The fact that in these 20 years Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates wasn’t a host. There might be many valid reasons, but with all the exposure that Abu Dhabi enjoys, these games could be flooded in the limelight as I personally see it. So will they host these games in 2030?

At present I am learning a whole new chapter in sports. And the next chapter will shock you. When I enter “Islamic Solidarity Games Riyadh” in Google Search I do not get ONE news agency on page one. Worse still, one mention from the BBC on page 4 which was given in 2010. The western world is sunning these games to THAT degree. The western world was eager to paint Saudi Arabia black at every occasion they could find regarding the 2034 FIFA World Cup. So where are they now?

I think the western media needs to take a hard look at themselves when it comes to sport reporting. We have seen a lot of media engaged in ‘Whitewashing sports’ when it comes to Saudi Arabia, so who will take the front space when it comes to showing the thousands of athletes and the struggles they face with these games? There is something to scold western papers on the fact that they are seemingly shunning thousands of athletes. 

The more I see exposed by the biassed western media, the more l appreciate having a cat.

Have a great day, I am 165 minutes away from breakfast (we all have our little day to day priorities). 

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