February 10, 2022 · 02:04

Oh darn, I am missing out

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

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

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

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

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

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February 9, 2022 · 11:24

Where am I?

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

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

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

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February 8, 2022 · 12:44

That red wire

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

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

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

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

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February 8, 2022 · 01:30

Mr. S. King resigned

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

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

Pluto/Hades

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

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

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February 7, 2022 · 15:21

Relaunching IP

It is a thought plenty of people have and I am no exception. I was contemplating things and then I realised in light of the news I covered in the last week that educating people is always better than telling them how it is. Some people are afraid that THEIR thoughts are all, but I am not the most intelligent person on the planet. I am more intelligent than mot and my IQ is around two point short from the setting that Alan Turing had, so I have that to sulk about. But the station to educate others, to teach them where to look and what to look for remains appealing. So there I was sitting and contemplating an old master called the Balance of Power. I had bought the game on the Atari ST and I loved it. The game was a little shallow, but it was new, it had never been done before and as such it kept my attention for a long time. 

Wouldn’t it be great if someone picked up that idea and turned it into something serious? No longer a mere US versus Russia, but geopolitical field that included espionage. The US, EU, Middle East (Iran or Saudi Arabia), Russia, China and Japan? Consider that we have ‘quotes’ like “Problem analysis is the process of understanding real-world problems and user’s needs and proposing solutions to meet those needs. The goal of problem analysis is to gain a better understanding of the problem being solved before developing a solution”, and there is massive support to consider. There is J. J. A. Tacq who gave us Social Science Research From Problem to Analysis (1997), there is From Secrets to Policy by Mark Lowenthal which is now in its 8th edition. Foundational materials that makes us think and consider a much larger picture. There are economic works that could help creating understanding. Even if one book gets implemented in that game it becomes a whole new beast and to get the kitty turned into a behemoth that scares every tiger in Asia work needs to be done. But the game that was meant for a 640Kb Computer now gets 10,000 times the resources and has a setting of a massive data warehouse that could enable larger prototyping than ever considered before. I see some bloggers (journalists too) working the same equation again and again, all whilst they could create something much more explanatory and insightful for all readers. Some might not care and that is OK, yet the Balance of power had appeal to a fair amount of gamers and I believe even now in a new generational setting I believe that this appeal will still be there. And the benefit of streaming implies that you can try and you can see how the pawns fall down, the rooks optionally stand up and the political board shows a lot more than you ever considered. 

We seem to think that old is gone, but games and simulators were more advanced because they overcame memory obstacles, I reckon that some programs can still make us turn out heads, especially when some of these programs were created with the limitations that 1985 had and considering that my Abandonware gave the game 4.6 out of 5 gives another reason to consider what was out there. And let’s face it, what do you have to lose?

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February 7, 2022 · 08:10

The street we know

It is a different setting, we tend to relate to the streets we tend to know. Any technology is set upon a familiar setting. The benefit is that we know where we are and as such we get to where we think we want to go faster. The negative part is that this is a problem when it is true innovation, we cannot continue an iterative line if we want true innovation. 

So when I saw ‘Saudi Arabia announces $6.4 billion investments in future tech’ (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/saudi-arabia-announces-64-billion-investments-future-tech-2022-02-01/) I took notice last week but merely that, it was to be expected. So when I looked at it again this morning, I noticed “include a $2 billion joint venture between eWTP Arabia Capital, a fund backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Alibaba, and China’s J&T Express Group, minister Abdullah Alswaha said”, I had overlooked that initially. But it makes sense, as ties with China grow, the Chinese IT sector would come in. It spells bad news for the US, for Amazon in particular. The options that were there are shrinking, they are not gone, but China is now in position to take the cream from the barrel and become the new fat cats. My IP still has options, but it might not go the highway I had hoped for (we all have that), still I do have the innovation advantage and when others fail I can step in. 

There is another side, a side that Amazon had in hands, you see with Neom and Vision2030 Amazon had a larger option if there was a data centre in Saudi Arabia, not a simple online store, but a real data centre, they would need one for a few reasons and even as the media gives us “showing its continued business interests there despite a public dispute between Riyadh and the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos”, we can see the hindrance there, we can see that there are issues (I am ignoring the FTI Consulting issues here), but in a larger stake worth billions, the need to find solutions are clear for Amazon. They could walk away and leave it all to AliBaba and the J&T Express Group yet who profits then? Not Amazon, not the US and it is another spark that goes into the direction of China. It is a problem for the US for two reasons. The first one is simple revenue, the US desperately needs that. The second one might not be that clear. You see Saudi Arabia has at present a full fletched 5G network, so those there can do all kinds of prototyping to a much larger extend and see the impact of congestion in a complete 5G network. You see at present we see assumptions via 4G LTE and other settings, this implies that other issues will not be captured when things go wrong. And with all the transgressions we have seen in 2020 and 2021 these systems need proper adjustment. Saudi Arabia has the advantage and now it seems so does China (outside of China), another step not to the advantage of the west (as expressions go), so how many steps do we all need to fall behind before people take this disadvantaged setting seriously?

Even now, the aftermath of Davos will be in favour of both Saudi Arabia and China. Al Jazeera reported “Observers see the high-profile conference as a way for the kingdom to redeem itself in the eyes of US President Joe Biden and the wider international community”, yet my question becomes ‘Why?’ You see, the EU and the US have shown themselves to be unreliable, all setting concepts to presentation in stead of evidence. Now that China is showing themselves to be a much larger player and a willing player could spell a massive loss in revenue. 3 billion here, 6.4 billion there, and several more billions left, right and hither. How much longer until we face the direction that we are losing out? Now this would not be a problem when we have alternatives, but there aren’t that many are there? And consider that one side gives us ‘Deficit shrinks in the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency’ (around $500,000,000,000 less loss), it is a joke when you consider that the deficit is still $2,500,000,000,000,000. And less than a months later the people are given ‘Biden’s $1.7trn social policy will send deficit soaring’, it is another setting of managing bd news and on top of that they lose revenue option after revenue option. So how does that look? The US debt has now surpassed $30,000,000,000,000,000, you have that kind of money? I do not and none of the others have it and an additional problem for the US is that the EU wants to dig into the Saudi revenue pie as well, yet at present China has the upper hand. A setting we ignore because we are lulled to sleep, and that time is gone, when the US debt comes crashing down the EU will join a massive loss and no amount of promise will aid anyone at that point. All because certain players underestimated the impact of innovation and innovation like some are marketing it is not innovation, it is a presentation nothing more. We all tend to keep to the street we know but when that street is on fire, will you merely stop the fire or see what resources are available in the next street? 

China did just that and now we see the fallout of political stupidity. Oh, and when Iran does not come across with promises that they made to some middle man, when the unfortunate adjustments come, the middle man will not care, he got his oil barrel bonus, he is just fine, but those who were behind it will get to say ‘Oops!’ Just as I expected them to do. At that point we will see another advantage to China, good going! And what happens in May/June when Iran has enough nuclear materials? What then?

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February 6, 2022 · 20:38

Time on my side

Yes, this is what it seems to be and there are no rolling stones going my way. I saw the news yesterday, but I was busy with a few other parts. So when I recall ‘Early Christmas for China’ on January 10th and ‘Just like the moon’ on September 20th 2020 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/20/just-like-the-moon/), there were even a few more mentions before that and people called me nuts, I was talking like Mr. Serious Hit. And now we see the continuation in the Business Insider with ‘As Biden struggles to define his relationship with Saudi Arabia, China is stepping in to fill the gap’ (at https://www.businessinsider.com/china-saudi-strengthen-ties-biden-struggles-define-mbs-relationship-2022-1). A stage that was out in the open, a setting where China is now ready to set the caper to take billions from the EU and the US and direct it towards China. I stated it before and now we see the mention of “In recent months, China and Saudi Arabia have grown closer, establishing new fronts of cooperation in defence and trade.” A setting that could cost the two dumb parties (EU and US) hundreds of billions. So where do you think they will get the heating relief for? How does it look when the BAE has a good system but these tea grannies protesting on behalf of the CAAT are now the cause of prolonging the UK hardship for another decade, well done ladies! A perfect setting where you had no clue what you were talking about in the first place. 

So whilst we take consideration of “Saudi Arabia has long been China’s biggest trade partner in the Middle East — Saudi goods accounted for 17% of Chinese imports in 2021”, yet that is not really the real deal, it is when Saudi Arabia extends towards 25% of Chinese imports to include defence materials and optionally consultation you will see a much larger change. You see, The UAE will be invited for a special tour, Oman and Bahrain perhaps too and someone from Egypt. That is the moment when the EU and the US needs to fear the impact of reduced revenue as well as losing a political ground. You see these people were listening because the US was bringing them stuff, when that falls away the political ground changes. It is the application of money talks, bullshit walks. Political people will call it ‘A complex situation that is being monitored and looked at in conjunction with the state department and others to see what we can achieve’, but the people around that setting will have their own version of applied stupidity in politics. It was always simple. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to defend itself from future attacks from Iran and the politicians in Eu and US have done EVERYTHING to trivialise that and now another step (by China) is being made to approach Saudi Arabia. That implies that the ball is no longer on the US side, it is on the other side and is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decides to lob it towards China the US will lose more than 3-5 years of decent revenue. They will have to sell to nations that do not have the cash, their credit cards are strapped as such larger discounts will be required. The UK is in no better setting, they will lose less, but they stand to lose a massive amount of cash that was meant for the British coffers that pays for all that can soon no longer be afforded. 

So whilst Chinese President Xi Jinping sings to the record of the Rolling Stones singing ‘Time is on my side’ in the halls of the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, the people who hear it will realise that the US is now in a stage where the debt surpassed $30,000,000,000,000 and the incoming revenue is decreasing. The EU might not be in such a setting yet, but both the EU and UK will see that life will become harder soon enough. All because alleged individuals decided to dance to the needs of Iran, well played, stupid, but well done. Perhaps you will get a Harrods Christmas hamper from China. 

Oh and the fact that I saw this months ago was not future prediction, it was the simple approach towards logic; there were always two alternatives and China got there faster and more convincingly.

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February 6, 2022 · 13:03

The game for players

There was some feeling in me when I saw the Dutch NOS article. Nothing negative mind you, but the piece was lacking, lacking in several ways. This I not due to the reporter. The reporter had a valid scope, a niche they were looking into. Yet the stage is larger. The article (at https://nos.nl/l/2415646) gives us ‘The game industry cannot ignore the ‘Netflix model’ either’ it is one direction, but it is a dangerous that could cost the gamer dearly. You see, apart from the internet issues. Issues like Congestion, these issues will do more than rear its ugly head. It will drive internet prices up. In addition to this, on my simple mobile phone I had congestion for most of December 2021. So what happens when that network gets 150,000 people gaming and upgrading 30-120GB? I can tell you right now that in many places they will experience unimaginable levels of congestion. And it will get worse in rural areas of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, the US and Canada. Consider that in Europe over a third lives in a rural area. Do you think that they will accept congestion?

The article also gives us “Something that I find immensely interesting as a consumer, but which I am concerned about as a producer.” She mainly fears that it could lead to a devaluation of games. “If you can spend a few euros a month, millions of hours of content then why pay 35 euros for those 2 hours of film on such a classic disc?”” This is a fair point, the article is all about Microsoft, but Microsoft does not care about gamers, it cares about its own bottom line. After the Xbox has become a failure, it is now concentrating on Xbox Cloud gaming. It needs a win anyway it can and for some it is a solution, there is no denying that, but for a lot it is stepping back to an era before the Xbox 360. Yes, the math works for them, but the technical issues do not. Microsoft is throwing its support towards an outdated consumerism, have ALL THESE GAMES for only $10 a month. The point is that it sounds good, it really does, but overall the quality of games is stagnating, I will make a massive exception for the Flight Simulator 2020. Beyond that the games they have, the good games were bought, and they spend $80,000,000,000 for the good games. Blizzard, Bethesda and Mojang. Three houses at that amount. Yes, Microsoft is buying what it can and diversifying by not making games available (or delayed and limited) on other platforms. Sony hit back buy buying Bungie. It becomes a weird gaming field. But when we see the article giving us ““In the longer term it will be even more difficult to make games independently,” says Joost van Dongen, co-founder of Ronimo (Awesomenauts). “Companies like Microsoft are becoming gatekeepers to the game industry. They determine which games they like and invest in and which they don’t.” He also fears that consumers will soon no longer be used to paying separately for a game.” It is in part true. Some will see the benefit (the next 2 years) to buy physical copies. That is until there is a proper deployed and supported 5G stage. After that all bets are off. In the stage of gatekeeper there is support against that stage, but it is the show Microsoft will be running. Sony has a different setting (for now) but the appeal of Netflix approach is there, there is no denying it. Only when we see that the creators give us a massive quality of gaming, that is when the story changes and the Netflix minded approach falls over. Yet that is also a problem. Consider going to the supermarket. A isle full of pasta. So who buys brand A, Brand B, Brand C or its Home-brand? Look at your groceries, make the list for yourself. Who buys Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and who buys the Supermarket label? I get it, it is often about budget, but when YOUR budget decides the quality of games, that is when you have truly lost. Consider Ubisoft, personally I see that they created 2 decent AC games. 2 out of 7. AC Black Flag (not really an AC game, but a nice Pirate game), AC Origins which was pretty spectacular. Every year another AC game was worse than a flop, it was burning an IP in public. And when streaming offers ‘early access’ games released at 80% whilst the games is getting ‘fixed’ is the way things will go. The stage of streaming also means that short cuts can be introduced, no gold master trajectory. 

In the article we see that stage (not mentioned as such) as “Lucia de Visser of Total Mayhem Games fears that it will become more difficult for her game studio to choose what kind of games are made. “For us, this is a very large asset, more important than big bags of money from publishers. It becomes increasingly difficult to determine that yourself, of course, if a one-sided market arises in which the revenue model, the distribution channel and the target group are already determined.”” But here we see something a lot more disturbing. “more difficult for her game studio to choose what kind of games are made”, it is business model over quality of gaming and the art of the game, business decides the art. It is the most dangerous of concepts as it will decide what people will have to accept, just like the home brand and there my case is made the clearest of all. In that model there would never be a Horizon forbidden west. No Ghost of Tsushima, optionally no Spiderman Miles Morales. The art on these (as well as Ratchet and Clank) are beyond anything Microsoft has created for years and the games that has this were bought. Even I (over the last few months) handed over IP for a game for Amazon Luna and Sony free of charge, I set up the concept in days, with at least 4 unique never seen before approaches to games. And these two players do not need to pay $80,000,000,000 They got it for free showing you all that art can win over business sense. The sense of business that Microsoft shows seems appealing until you realise that this is all your world will be. There is a bit of Karel Appel, H.R. Giger and/or Maud Lewis in all of us, we merely need to find it and tap into that and through that we get the option to end the short sightedness of players like Microsoft. As I see it you can always  get a gamer to play, but you can never play the gamer. It is a sure thing to end your investments, gaming comes from a core of art, never from a heart of business.

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February 5, 2022 · 22:05

Tumour is the edge of humour

Yes, that is quite the sentence is it not? Humour is a funny thing. For me, I like humour delivered intelligent and/or edgy. The brits are great at dark and black humour. It is the kind I like. I do not know too many national humours, yet every nations has its own likings. So when I saw the BBC giving me ‘Jimmy Carr sparks fury with Holocaust routine in Netflix special’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60261876) I had to stop and read it. You see, Jimmy Carr is not for everyone and he is upfront about this. And let’s be clear, he is not for everyone, several comedians bare (or is it bear) that template. 

Now the joke is funny, and it is a truth, he is actually giving a spin to a truth and that is a given setting we did not anticipate. He even makes fun of the Jehovah’s witnesses and their watchtower. Yes, we can get angry, or, here’s a thought, we switch OFF the TV if it upsets us. Have people contemplated this? This is not Bernie reincarnated, this is not a concert of Babe the piglet or even a Tele-tubby, it is humour by the formerly youthful, now not so young Jimmy Carr. We know what he is like, there is nothing out of bounds for him and he gets us by going one way and taking a sharp right whilst we were looking to the left. So I say ‘Well Done Jimmy!’ And in the light of the joke, how many people knew the death camp fate of gypsies, homosexuals and other non Arian likings? 

I know (for a few reasons) the scope of some events during WW2. And also let’s be clear, he was not making fun of the jews (in this instance), he was using a specific method to give us a truth with a twist. And yes, some people find it upsetting, but guess what, they had the option of watching something else. There will always be the setting where we watch something that offends us. It is an absolute given. You see, there are some that give us that at present at total 500,000 movies have been made. The idea that you like them all is absolute zero. So the idiocy (as I see it) to create fury is dumb on a few levels. On the one hand those who didn’t know his show will now check it out. On the other hand, those creating fury are merely enabling voices for censorship. Democracy is a great thing, yet that means that we are confronted with things we do not like. That is the consequence. So one side opens the other and that is good. It is important to see where our borders are, it is good to know what is too much for us and when we face it we look away, we change channels or we switch off what is there. It is our right to do so. On one side we should congratulate Netflix for giving edgy stuff, it shows that Netflix is taking a larger circumference towards what an audience wants and they also give us what some might not want. It offers us the chance to find out.

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February 5, 2022 · 00:07

Is the MetaVerse a Meta or a Verse?

That is not the question, it is a mere thought and we need to ponder it. You see, I do believe that Meta is close to launching a new dimension in social media, in advertisements and through that we will see a new opening in the approach to marketing and advertising. Google is not ready but could be ready in time, the same could be said for Amazon. Microsoft is however not making that setting with their 5% in Bing, it will die and awkward death. Awkward because the people they approached will leave them. Meta will not offer the handle and handshake that Bing (or Chrome) requires and Bing has nowhere to go. Or as someone in the 90’s once said “All dressed up and no one to blow”, I giggle as it applies more to the outdated marketing tactics then it does the ladies on 42nd street (if you catch my drift). 

So when I see ‘Facebook parent company Meta plummets 26 per cent, loses $332 billion in worst one-day company drop’ (source: ABC). There is no opposition, this is what happened. Yet what is noticeable that the drop is due to “well below analysts’ expectations for the current quarter, a disappointment for a company that investors have become accustomed to delivering spectacular growth” There are two sides here. On the one side either the investors have no long term goal and no comprehension on what Meta is ready to achieve, in that regard the analysts are equally in the dark on what is about to happen. So even as Marky Mark of the book of faces can hold onto what he has now as the next wave will increase his fortune by well over 300% (a personal rough speculation), so the term ‘disappointment for a company’ is the setting of a person who has no clue what is about to unfold. Or it is a person with the narrow focus on the now regardless of what tomorrow will bring. The second setting is seen with ““The downgrade in the earnings outlook by Meta and other companies took markets by surprise,” said Kenneth Broux, a strategist at Societe Generale in London” I am not sure whether this is a repetition of the other fellows view or if it is set on parallel yet not equal measurements. I am not an economist. The Amazon idea (at least one of them) could be applied to Meta, yet it would limit my revenue and I am kinda set on getting my $50,000,000 (post taxation) in the first wave. The second wave would bring me more but there is no way in hell a person like Jeff Bezos would shell out that kind of money without clear numbers (no matter how rich he is) and what I am about to do has NEVER been done before. So there is the turmoil for me. There are a few other reasons why pushing Amazon to higher levels are more rewarding for me (there is the option to kick Microsoft in the balls) a thought that is massively rewarding all on its own, yet it could optionally hurt Google and I have nothing against Google. They are about to get hit by TikTok and the impact of HarmonyOS is getting delayed but it is not out of the way yet, so Google has to face that too. Yet Meta is a drive that Google could benefit to if they resolve locality in their products, because that will be a given. It slightly opposes the 4 clusters that Amazon will gain but it will not hurt Google, Amazon on the other hand would strengthen their clusters through Meta and could optionally several smaller clusters too, Microsoft has close to NOTHING there, all lost marketshare. 

So as we look at the second article That gives us ‘Facebook owner Meta sees biggest ever stock market loss’ (source: BBC). There we see “Meta also warned of slowing revenue growth in the face of competition from rival platforms including TikTok and YouTube, while advertisers were also cutting spending” the lack of ‘temporary’ is a little astounding. There is reduced spending by advertisers yet with the labour lack they have they will have to create a pipeline soon enough and that means advertising and spending, interesting how the BBC overlooked that. And yes TikTok is a threat, but more to YouTube than Meta and the deployment of Meta will take care of that. The question is how Meta will deal with the lull in technology that they face. Let’s give you an example.  You are in the MetaVerse. In that life you have the house you could never afford, you watch TV on a screen you could never afford and you watch the things you love. There we see advertisements and Meta cashes in. Yet over time you get billboard digital screens on billboard (perhaps the three in Ebbing Missouri), but all those elements require new technology and Meta could create them and lose a lot of time or they could set a partnership with Google and Amazon and set a might higher bar. Google and Amazon have their terrains and Meta has an advantage in partnerships, opposing those two will drag the issues in too many dimensions (literally) and it opens up a massively large bag of worms. None of those matters are seen and they will come in 2022/2023. When Google and Amazon set out THEIR plan it will need to be one that embraces Meta. Zuckerberg was one clever cookie when he did the change he wants. The covid issue worked FOR him a little but in this setting (loss of revenue) it works against him. The nice part for him is that those who walked away will have to negotiate new contracts in MetaVerse so that will make his gains a lot better than the losses he has now.

No matter where I look I see everyone parroting the loss story and it is true, he lost (for now) and no one has a clue what is about to happen and hows social media will change the face of both marketing and advertising and when those with their clever little API realises that it stops working in MetaVerse we will get some watchdog howling on behalf of the exploiters who suddenly get the notice that their well is now dry. All revenue belong to Zuckerberg again. A setting none of them seem to realise. I am just happy that my 5G IP is still safe and MetaVerse will not hinder it. It might benefit me, but it is too soon to tell, it could if Amazon gets the proper idea on where marketing and deployed advertising goes, but there are a few if’s in that setting I get that and I am pretty sure that the CTO of Amazon (Werner Vogels) is that clever as well. 

So whatever Meta will become, it is not a verse, perhaps according to the journalists who look at the now and rhyme to yesterday. Yet I am certain that they are utterly in the dark about tomorrow and in most dimensions tomorrow never rhymes, perhaps to borrow and sorrow but not to the tile of style that tomorrow brings, because the rhyme depends on what is, not what might be and what might be will be illuminating to say the least, not the hallucinating of a beast. That is what we face, when Meta deploys we will face an entirely new beast, one advertisers and marketing departments never faced before and as they run from training to training the first 6 months and try to comprehend that they suddenly had to learn a new beast for months, those who were ready will have the entire field for the better part of 6 months at the very least, it will change the game for years and as I see it Google and Amazon have the options, Microsoft falls away like it always does, shouting Azure whilst the never learned the blues.

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