September 3, 2024 · 19:37

The Saudi Dissent

There is a premise, the utter need of the so called utter mighty to be kept in check. That is not a new saying, it goes back to the days of the roman empire. Some refer to this as ‘power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’ This is to a larger stage true for all christian based governments. As first piece of evidence I would like to submit the Treaty of Clermont 1094, it set the beginning of the crusades under Pope Urban II. There are examples that go deep into the Roman Empire days with one year having 4 Roman emperors. But this example is the setting we get from a derivation of that saying, but more stated as ‘power corrupts, wannabe powers corrupt a lot quicker’. This is the premise and with this we get to the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz8934wrro) The piece has a setting of baloney (as the phrase goes) and with “We were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow the ground interventions,” Jabri says. “He forged the signature of his dad for that royal decree. The king’s mental capacity was deteriorating.” It is a stage where I left the article for the most, but as we now see this being copied all over the western media. It is time to take up the baton calling the media on their BS. You see, what evidence is there? Is it Saad al-Jabri? He is both an alleged traitor and alleged thief. For this I need to take you back to another article I wrote in 2020 (August 11th) in ‘The 51st State’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/08/11/the-51st-state/), I had an issue with him then. The media never caught on it seems. The first was the quote

Gulf News (at https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/report-fugitive-saudi-official-misspent-11b-in-government-funds-1.72662340) gives us ‘Fugitive Saudi official misspent $11b in government funds’, and lets face it, if I walked away with $11,000,000,000 I would move to Canada, buy the Edmonton Oilers, or the Calgary Flames, buy a nice mansion in either city, train to be their goalie and live the life until I die. It is a plan, not a plan everyone will embrace, but I like that plan, especially if I have that much money.

We then get :

Oh, and the quote gives is “Al Jabri, a 61-year-old with a doctorate in computer science, was the virtual No 2 in the Saudi Interior Ministry, which was run for years by Mohammed bin Nayef. Al Jabri ran a special ministry fund that mixed government spending on high-priority antiterrorism efforts with bonuses for himself and others, according to documents reviewed by the Journal and interviews with Saudi officials and Al Jabri’s confidants,” the WSJ report read”. In all this and in fact of that accusation of corruption and through that (as well as) “spending on high-priority antiterrorism efforts with bonuses for himself and others”, who else was paid? So in this, how much investigation was done by the FBI, for did they allegedly acquire enough self-funding to be above the law? I am merely asking!

This should have given us the setting that we need to dissect anything the man gives us especially as there is a realistic chance that the Government of Saudi Arabia has a sore feeling about the west being a speaking platform for people like that. If there was ANY evidence, we were not given it and that stage has been around for over 4 years (at present)

Then we get to 2021, the eighth of December in ‘Six of one’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/08/six-of-one/) There we get a few items, like

So as some might remember “Aljabri gained worldwide attention last year when he filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging he had been the target of a failed assassination plot orchestrated by Mohammed bin Salman”, an assassination attempt? In Canada? So why is the US courts involved? Why is this not set in Canada? Then we get “Sakab Saudi Holding Company, “had no operational business” despite receiving $8 billion US in government funding and was used “almost exclusively” as a vehicle to funnel money to the other companies”. My issue here is not merely whether this is on the up and up, it is happening under the noses (optionally with blessing) of the CSIS, this is an Unites States setting (with $8,000,000,000) and it is happening in Canada. 

As well as:

what we get is “he made at least $385M — and says there’s ‘nothing unusual’ about it”, really? Last time most people made a mere few millions, close to every tax agent within 50 miles came calling for a cup of coffee, but then I must have forgotten about the US and their $8,000,000,000 investment opportunity.

Now we get the first bullet (as the saying goes), these interviews are 4 years old, at no time was there a mention of forged signatures. And this was after 4 years of Yemeni atrocities by Houthi terrorists. So I have issues. Is this some drip-drip intelligence setting? If so, the US and its CIA, as well as the NSA have been sleeping at the wheel and this in pushed onto CSIS territory. 

He did more interviews, as far as I remember the Toronto Star, the BBC, CBC and Wall Street Journal. They all dropped the ball on journalism and now the Times is following them. I have an issue with an alleged criminal with these transgressions to get such a speaking platform. Now, there could be a case that there is evidence and I think that this needs to be shown. Oh, and I have some jealousy issues with any governmental person gets to go home with well over $385,000,000, we all would have that. Perhaps a little more transparency by the CIA would have helped that these positions of government have such pay checks. It as that simple a setting and the CIA should have seen that. These simple ad-hoc statements without evidence is something the media should know better that to merely accept them. It gives the nasty vibe that they are doing the work of governments making Saudi Arabia look bad. It is somewhat of a repetition that Clermont give us in 1094. Didn’t we basically went on a pilferage there, calling it pilgrimage? That was over 1000 years ago and we are still seeing the fallout from that event.

In a ‘fair’ space Saudi Arabia might decide to lower the delivery of oil to Europe and America by 100,000 barrels a day each and offer that to China for the same amount (no real reason that it should cost Saudi Arabia). I reckon China will happily agree and Europe as well as America? Well, you made a platform for a alleged thief and alleged traitor (the display of evidence towards the forged autograph will prove that part). I reckon that these two places will implode a lot faster then they thought. 

That is merely my oversimplification of the Gordian knot. Sometimes it is just better to burn what its tying. As people will shout that I am wrong. This is fair enough, but they opened the door of spouting news without evidence or justification. The interviews going back to 2020 are online and visible. So where is the mention? There is no stage of ‘it was complex’ a non-monarch is accused of forging the monarchs signature. In the western world that is high treason and in the near past they hung people for that (see: Nuremberg trials).

Oh before I forget, I just uncovered a wannabe mole in the CIA. Can I collect please? I know it will not be $385,000,000. Yet a $38,500,000 fee is reasonable (I think). It allows me my apartment in Toronto and a house in Golden Oaks Orlando. So I can celebrate an abundant retirement in Disney World and Universal world (both in Orlando). There is an option that the CIA will object to(fair enough), but then they should give us the evidence, don’t you agree? Lets not forget that the US courts did not allow the Saudi lawyers to present evidence in their courts. Turnabout is such a nasty feeling when you become the object of evidence. 

Still, have a great day. As the Vancouverians are joining us in this Tuesday, the whole planet is now aligned to the same day. Enjoy.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Military

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 2, 2024 · 14:42

A secondary marker

This is about markers and my speculation on them. I would go towards presumption, but in this instance might have the folly thought that these markets haven’t evolved since 1982 and that would indeed be folly. Still, an article in the South China Morning Post aka SCMP (at https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3276753/saudi-arabia-seeks-chinese-tech-it-reinvents-itself-car-and-automation-hub) where we see ‘Saudi Arabia seeks Chinese tech as it reinvents itself as car and automation hub’ and this goes against Trumpism to seek 60% tariff on Chinese imports. Well, China has its own solution to this. As we are given “Saudi industry and mineral resources minister Bandar Alkhorayef is leading a delegation to visit Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Singapore from Sunday until September 8, according to a statement from his office. The trip is aimed at improving relations and exploring joint venture opportunities.” 

The setting is given, but it doesn’t seem all is given (as one could accept). You see I got news (slightly unreliable) that there was a trade show recently where China had given a presentation to Arabic parties. This seems perfectly normal, the fact that Norinco is part of that seems normal enough, its a defence contractor dream and they are all hungry for Arabic dineros (aka digital currency). The parts that we do not see here is that this Chinese tech is a lot more versatile, or better stated far reaching. It implies that the tech allows Saudi Arabia to manufacture Tiger armoured vehicles with a deployment to the customers in Oman, Bahrain and Egypt to name just three. Saudi Arabia is fulfilling its promise to cater to internal manufacturing their defence needs and gain customers at the same time. As such Trumps goals are missed completely as well as losing out their own industry towards export. See how all these blocks of censorship come tumbling down? And as we take notice that Chinese is no good. Feast your eyes on this “China lacks the necessary international standards to be considered a reliable producer of foolproof weaponry” according to Euclides Tapia, professor of International Relations at the University of Panama. Yet the thing to remember is that the setting of “necessary international standards” is not clearly given and a standard that is filtered to who can be given those reminds me of the SAS standard in the 90’s ‘SAS stamp of quality’ which SAS products got. A little one sided. Still no matter what these ‘standards’ are, America, UK and the EU nations are missing out on another set of billions to the degree that now Saudi Arabia is also becoming a manufacturing party. As such the Americans woke up to a hungry tiger. With allegedly Huawei scoring the option of communication systems deployed all over Saudi Arabia both civilian and military (still unverified) we see a better relationship between Saudi Arabia and China with several middle easters nations now following suit. I reckon that Egypt is the first and most likely player to get on board with that express line. Norinco seemingly had a net income of $1.7B in 2023 with a little over $80B revenue. 

I reckon that they are hungry for more revenue, especially as in increases their net revenue and as I see it, the Saudi link get them there fast. Is it wishful thinking? Is it presumption or speculation? All great questions and yes, there is a speculative side to this. Now consider that you have a car plant, would it be such a stretch to build a second one to get the orders for the Tiger armoured vehicles? I don’t think so, especially when we consider the 2030 promise to get 50% of the defence spending in country (as was given to us 2 years ago). That one thing will not get them there, but there is more coming and this is a whopper of a delivery towards their 2030 goal.

As such there are things that need verification, or we could wait until these plants become a reality in an expected 2026 stage. So what do you think? I believe that Chinese commerce will find a way to thrive and the Trump setting made is much easier as well as make things harder for Europe. This is the consequence of arrogance when you do not have the cash to back up your actions and America and western Europe are about to learn just how much they lose out of (as per 2026/2027). So how will Norinco stock fare when this gets released?

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Military

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

August 31, 2024 · 13:24

Congestification

OK, I admit that the word seemingly does not exist (at present), but it could be. It reflects on our needs to get things done in a rush, a setting that invites a congestive setting, usually in traffic. A bottleneck setting if you like. That is what the Khaleej Times (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/transport/uae-traffic-would-an-odd-even-scheme-help-ease-peak-hour-jams) sets with ‘UAE traffic: Would an ‘odd-even scheme’ help ease peak-hour jams?’ Invites to. There is an even less nice issue that those who can afford 2 cars can take turns with car they would use. 

In the dozen of so images I saw, there was one stage that did not show its nice little snout. It is the setting that one lane is reserved for busses (and emergency vehicles). Not in all the images I saw is there a bus lane showing. I know too little about Dubai to know how (or if) bus lanes are used. But that is a first that came to mind. That setting might nudge more and more car drivers to public transport. And as far as I know Dubai public transportation is really good and a lot more affordable than either Sydney or London (the one in the UK). They already have a great subway system (I saw it on YouTube), but bus lanes might be a nice stage as well. And the second part is that if you are in that traffic jam for a few hour and you see bus after bus passing you by, the inner drive to get the bus might increase. I know it is not a complete solution, but if congestion decreases by a mere 10%, it could be seen as an ad-hoc solution for Dubai and Abu Dhabi (not sure if they have a congestion problem at present). Dubai has at present a little over 3.6 million people, as such it is not the most dense city (not by a long shot) but it has a decent population. And in the United Arab Emirates with 10 million people. 40% is in Dubai and 40% is in Abu Dhabi, as such a solution for both seems essential. My personal favourite would be the bus lanes to show the car users that public transportation in some cases would be preferred (by the people) and it would grant emergency services a lane in case of congestion. That two birds and one stone symbolism. The fact that public transport is already a good option in the UAE might drive the bus lane option faster. I get that some would like to relax in the traffic jam sitting cozy in a Rolls Royce Spectre, Bugatti whatever, or a Ferrari thingamajig. But there are only so many people who could even afford one of these three bad boys. And with (additional) busses in the mix, congestion might soon be a thing of the past. And when people arrive at work refreshed from the bus ride. 

The equation seemingly solves additional problems as well. A simple setting to an overly complex problem as I see it. Will it solve all? I doubt it, but if it lowers congestion, the real question becomes, is the problem solved to an adequate level? That is the question that lingers. And the solution lies in creating two additional lanes (one for each direction) on one road where there is enough congestion. I think that it is a solution worth exploring. If it isn’t a solution, that part of the road ends up with two additional lanes. Optional an additional path to lowering congestion. 

Well, that is my Saturday with an optional solution set on paper. Now just one more thing to work on today. Have a great weekend.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

August 31, 2024 · 10:20

If you Musk, you Musk

That setting is a much larger setting then we realise. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3rnl5qv3o) gives us ‘Musk’s X banned in Brazil after disinformation row’ and I honestly don’t get it. He has the premise of gaining billions closing in on a trillion in business. We get to see “X, formerly Twitter, has been banned in Brazil after failing to meet a deadline set by a Supreme Court judge to name a new legal representative in the country” and that is merely the beginning. Judge Alexandre de Moraes has suspended X (aka Twitter) until that is done and in addition Musk sets all fines that are outstanding. I have no idea how much that amounts to. The larger premise is that Musk is sitting on IP that could gain him close to a trillion, if only these people had woken up. The current setting is that this case could invigorate a much larger anti-Musk stage and Twitter (aka X) could be banned from a whole range of nations with anti-Musk feelings. That is not a given, but Brazil just opened that door. Basically any nation with a right wing nuisance could entertain that premise diminishing Twitter and as such Jack Dorsey could buy back X/Twitter for 125 million after selling it for $44,000,000,000 not a bad deal for a 3 year gap. I surmised that it was only worth a maximum of 24 billion at that time. As such Jack Dorsey could be making a killing on the deal whilst the value of that company doubles in the first month he regains control. They say that a foolish billionaire and his money are soon parted, but here that expression takes on a whole new meaning.

And it got so far because Twitter/X, Meta and Telegram because they would not set the larger premise. There needs to be accountability and they all were eager to avoid those. Now we see that social media is being thumped on by a whole range of governments. There is such a think as accountability. I already said so in 2013, now we see that governments have had enough and this first case is likely to open the floodgates. 

If is an attack on free speech? No, I do not believe it is so. People should have free speech, but not under the guise of anonymity. If you disagree, say so, but the digital world sees a lot more flames and digital waves when they can say things without revealing themselves. It is the stopgap for chaos to spread their wings. The media has everything to do with this and they are equally guilty (like ‘unnamed sources told us’). So when was that at any time a long standing solution?

Now Elon Musk is cutting his own fingers and soon the solution he had for the world will be largely ignored, and if accepted there will be massive constraints, which would cost him up to 20% from what he could have had. In my book 20% is a lot and when you get close to a trillion it is a lot more than I have ever seen (many like me have that setting).

There is another side to this. At this point Mastodon, Reddit, Threads, Bluesky, Discord, Tumblr, and Truth Social will get to have a place to gain market share against the accounts of Twitter/X. It might not be much, but it is a start. As more nations follow suit there places will gain momentum whilst Twitter/X could she well over 10% of the accounts and even when reinstated, the time gives the others time to get the advertisement revenue that Musk losses. So how will he bring that news to the people who invested in that 44 billion dollar caper? They want to see cash and when that doesn’t come Elon Musk must put up his own cash or lose a lot more. That wasn’t hard was it?

And with the early threat that Musk is pulling out of Europe (October 2023). It becomes an early grave for Twitter. China has its own settings and that will become an increasing pressure whilst one person (aka Elon Musk) gets to live with the invoked byline ‘2022-2025 where has my $44,000,000,000 gone’. A weird setting for a person who at one time had the products that everyone on the planet wanted. 

The higher the climb the harder they fall. Enjoy your day

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Law, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 29, 2024 · 23:34

Awareness is fuel to any cause

That is the skeptical look I have. You see social media is a flammable stage of all kinds of woke and non woke commitments. Some are real and most aren’t very real in the mindset of anyone else. I am not belittling any ‘cause’ but that is how I feel. We get exposure to a million and one causes and they are the settings for a mere speculated 100,000 people. Everyone has a cause and most of them have a dozen causes. I will not bother you with the amount of influencers touching on any cause that helps THEM get more visibility. It is a crackpot mix of people at times. So when I saw the Middle East Eye give us ‘How the UAE crushes dissent by arbitrarily revoking citizenship’, I became a little more aware. The opinion story (at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-uae-crushes-dissent-arbitrarily-revoking-citizenship) gives us the link to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with the stage that he is pictured in Abu Dhabi on 6 December 2023 is a nice touch, but he is not mentioned in the opinion piece, not even once. So why is his picture there? Then we get to the MENA group, which is mentioned once “A report by the Mena Rights Group, published last month, exposed the extensive and troubling nature of this trend”, as such I have questions. With the “the extensive and troubling nature” it is the first mention I see of this. We see the mention “3 March 2011, when 133 Emirati academics, judges, lawyers, students and human rights defenders signed a petition addressed to the president of the UAE and the Federal Supreme Council, calling for democratic reforms”. As such there are seemingly mentions of this since 2011 and this I the first time I hear of it? There is no visible mention of the MENA rights group in Al Jazeera or Arab News, as such I have questions on the validity of this. We see the mention of “Many affected by this practice are either defendants in the “UAE84” trial or their family members.” With a reference that it was “politically motivated and marred by fair trial violations.” As such I raise questions. You see, if that was the case, would it not be in nearly every Muslim writing from Al Jazeera to Arab News, not to mention the Guardian, BBC and a whole range of American woke news casts? Then we get to one of the writers of the opinion piece Jenan al-Marzooqi. Is that a relative of the accused Ibrahim al-Marzooqi? It might be, but I do not know this. The opinion piece is largely a one sided mention relying on the MENA Rights group who was founded in 2018 in Geneva. I would think that if it was an actual counted group a whole range of newspapers (western and Arabic) would have made mention of it, perhaps they did, but this is the first I see of this.

We then see the mention of “citizenship revocation be applied under the principle of proportionality – a principle that was clearly disregarded in this case.” With the word proportionality referring to the link (at https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/newyork/Documents/Human-Rights-Responses-to-Foreign-Fighters-web_final.pdf) a United Nations document. This is funny, but when you read the document the reference is toward “American Convention on Human Rights, art. 20.” A serious notion, if it was not for the setting that this is playing not in America. With the stage of “deprivation of nationality must be in conformity with domestic law” we get an issue, but I am not sure it is an important one. I am not the expert on Emirati law, a setting not raised in this case. That document also gives us “Some States also allow the deprivation of nationality for naturalised mono-nationals, thereby leaving them stateless.” Is that the case in UAE law? If it is the opinion piece becomes largely pointless, if they only had thought of including that point in the opinion piece. Add to this “In July 2016, five of his six children travelled to the US for medical treatment.” Really? 5 of his 6 children? All for medical treatment? It could be, but this one liner gives a serious boost to disregarding this piece (in my humble opinion). And when we get “concluded last month with at least 43 defendants sentenced to life in prison on bogus terrorism charges” where the word ‘bogus’ is a personal view by the opinion writer and could be ignored. You see if it was serious, that line was accompanied with at least one paragraph addressing that setting, giving optional weight to the word ‘bogus’.

The more I read of this article, the more I wonder what Middle East Eye had in mind with this opinion piece. I am not saying it is invalid, it is an opinion piece after all. Validity is given through evidence, or at least that is what I have always believed. Validity and verification go hand in hand. At the end we see one answer and two more linked names. 

  • Jenan al-Marzooqi is a human rights activist and the daughter of Emirati prisoner of conscience Abdulsalam Mohammed Darwish al-Marzooqi
  • Estelle Allemann is a legal fellow at MENA Rights Group
  • Alexandra Tarzikhan is the legal adviser for Southwest Asia and North Africa with the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights.

All very neat, so we have one MENA Rights Group waving their hand for visibility, one activist and a legal adviser linked to the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights.

I would have thought that 2 of them would have created a much better piece. This gets me to the issue of what were they after? You see, I do have legal training, but I am not a lawyer, I have been a Trade Mark Attorney. And as I see it, there are all kinds of verifications missing. Basically, there is no indiction that anything illegal (according to UAE law) was done, or at least the article does not clearly shows this. I did not completely ready the links to the other articles. When a case is made in THIS opinion piece, you have to present the evidence in THIS opinion piece, not link to it. Even if you merely quote it. I feel that more and more media (news and other media) are making a mess of things. They all have to get to the news and opinion pieces faster and as such they create short cuts and deprive the readers of a complete view of the matter, whether it is an opinion piece of now and a legal adviser, as well as a Human Rights person would (or at least should) know this.

We all create awareness, mostly to fuel the fire that lights us. This is not wrong, especially in this social networking world. We have always done this to some degree, but now we have merely increased the visibility of us. Whether that is a good thing remains to be seen. If there is one winner it is the MENA rights group, they got the most visibility here.

Have a lovely day. My Friday starts in 26 minutes.

Leave a comment

Filed under Law, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

August 28, 2024 · 19:11

Here’s a crazy thought

Today I got made aware that Oslo seemingly has a water shortage. I could not believe my ears (eyes too). You see, Norway is 1,100 miles long and for about 90% of that distance it enjoys the tropical rains (read: implied sarcasm) of the Atlantic all year long. So I was a bit surprised to hear this. Now I understand the predicament, but have no fear, I is here. So here is a crazy thought. What if the snow clearing services get one additional task?

You see, Oslo gets its water from lake Maridalsvannet. And that place is almost as dry as a funny story by many politicians. So here’s a thought. It gets its water from Skjærsjøelva and Dausjøelva. So, what if we add to this? Consider this image (below)

Now consider that Skjærsjøelva is around 3 KM, Dausjøelva is even shorter. Now consider that pretty much every town in Norway needs the snow cleared. They normally place it where nature takes a hold and dissolves it into the Atlantic ‘river’, but that is merely an easy option. There is a line of towns from Rotnes up to Brandbu with a combined stage of thousands of houses, clearing snow every year. So what happens if a ditch is created, at times ceramic pipes with a diameter of 2 meters. And it is strategically placed to catch the melting snow and rainwater. It could mean a few thousand hectolitres of sweet sweet water all going straight to lake Maridalsvannet. This is not done in a day, the main line would take a few years to do, but it would mean a steady infusion of water to lake Maridalsvannet. The ceramic pipes make it environmentally friendly, and the snows will not be ‘wasted’ on the Atlantic river (small pun intended). 

I wonder if it is was feasible. You see we think merely of the river, but there are more ways to Oslo that per boat (Vikings swear by it). And the question becomes how much snow is cleared from these places in a year. It might even require a little more effort.

As towns place their snow in a specific place, on a catchment field, the melting snow as well as any rain falling there goes straight towards the pipeline. Now I get that not all towns will have one, but Rotnes has a population of 20 939. I reckon close to 10,000 houses, roads and it all has to be cleared. That implies up to 10,000 locations with 20 to 40 pounds/square foot snow. It has to be cleared every year (some multiple times a year) and the roads collect even more snow. So whilst it is blown aside, it could be specifically placed. I foresee that optionally additional water filtering is required, but it could take care of the shortage. And Oslo has an estimated 1,588,457, which is around one fourth of Norway. Will my solution solve it? Optionally over several years, as the number of snow streams are directed towards Oslo, it might solve it, in the short term it merely lessens the pressure on Oslo. 

It is all my brain could conceive in an hour and perhaps Norwegians will laugh at this thought stating they considered this a long time ago. That would be fair, I merely go where my creativity takes me. And even as Oslo is currently the most visible example, I am certain it is not the only one. We need to move into what we did, into what we optionally need to do now. The world is changing and the people are setting pressures into places pressure was never a consideration. That is all I have to contribute this day.

So consider the image below and wonder how much water is stored there? Could any of it find its way to Oslo? Just consider how much water you see there. In spring all that water is gone and a lot of it isn’t going to Oslo (not sure where the image was taken), but it is likely fuelling the Atlantic.

Have a great day and as diner is about to be served (by me, for me) I am signing off.

Leave a comment

Filed under Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

August 26, 2024 · 22:59

That earlier thought

This is a thought I wrote about some time ago (in my blog), it was an intersection of God of War 3 and something I had been working on. As such it was a thought but recently the thought had reemerged as I decided to replay Shadow of Mordor on my PS5. Something stirred and the ideas I had that should be in every game. You see God of War 3 created my thought and it was all based on the very first introduction when you see the armies of Gaia (optionally a chaos based intrusion) gave us a view of Olympus. Now God of war 3 doesn’t use it, as such I feel no guilt. 

To see the impact there needs to be a unique option that you find. As such it ‘triggers’ the introduction. The introduction is a simple path where the game is shown to you with the basic abilities that you gain. This is also the setting where you start.

Heaphestus
Heaphestus is the tinkerer of the lot. He made the olympian weapons, but he had done a lot more, as such this is where all the players begin. It is up to you to get the machines working again. Sustenance is first, food and water needs to be recharged. For this the machines work on ore to get some parts working. And that gets the whole thing up and running. Still, you need to do more. Olympus had elevated knowledge of solar energy and those need to get started. It is a mere 2 hours of the game, but that set the larger game. I decided on the thought that Olympus and others were transcribed in classical works. These works are added to the game, and as the gamer progresses in the game, he gains an above working knowledge of the gods, the earlier stage of Greek civilisation and some of the philosophers. When the machines are back online, the other rooms become accessible. 

Automatons set the stage for Olympus. They do the mundane tasks. The food machine sets the first automatons in motion. We see the stage where the machines are fed and it beacons the cloning machines to start creating the life stock that are processed for the foods that you receive. You get to create the fields for weeds, corn and grapes. As this is done (seems simplistic), you are guided to a room where several pendants are and you are only allowed to take one. 

Aphrodite, Hermes, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Apollo and Hebe are the only pendants to chose from. When one is picked the others are closed off. This is essential to create a level of replayability. At this point I am still brooding on one point. Should this be set to the creation of your character. As such if you are a man you get Hermes, Poseidon, Ares and Apollo. The female character gets Aphrodite, Athena, Hebe and one (for now) hidden character, you know spoiler alert. Each has their own part in the palace and with Heaphestus making it all available the palace opens up. Some will take a few more ‘hours’ but that is linked to the machines taking hold of Olympus. As I see it, the automatons are linked to your personal choice. A sort of greek filter of your character. The man get female automatons, the woman get male automatons. 

As you go through this place, you only get one track in the beginning. With the bracelet (or tiara) you have one path, as you play the game you unlock gems of succursus. (Read: support gems). Each support gem opens up the track for that god. It is in that ay that you get more and more access.  

Hermes
He is the messenger of the Olympus. It also means that he will open up two major parts. The owl system when the system becomes available. Lore of Olympus is opened up and the messages return to where they are. It is shown in the office of Athena where now a Athene Noctua arrives. This metal tawny rascal will be your mental guide to a lot. It will also tell you where important owls are. You still need to interact a first time though. The second setting is a mobile hub (based on a few thousand old design. To get both active, you need to repair them. This will set the stage where instruct an automaton to direct to repairing a machine. It is now that you learn that Automatons come in a variety of settings. This allows you to tinker with the machines in the space of Heaphestus and you will see that these automatons require more ore to make and as such you need to ‘dig’ in his basement and find more ores (and open) a cavernous level where low level automatons start grinding for ores. Back to Hermes, Once these machines are back online, the screens in this rooms will give information on Greece (Athens, Sparta, Heraklion, Rhodes) and you will see all kinds of news pass by, including a repetitive loop of each of these places.

The mobile stage gets you access to the rooms directly as they are opened up

Ares
He is known as the god of war, but in Olympus he is the foremost authority on security and defence, with him the defending Automatons are aligned and activated. You have no chance to beating any one of them, but in that setting, they are keeping Olympus safe and with the gems you have you will be safe in these areas. So there is a stage to keep them an authority and you need to up your stealth skills (not sure how yet).

With defence up and running, you will gain the option to create the Butcher automaton. It will prepare the life stock for consumption, it also unlocks the cooking automaton. It will also be the time to gain access to the vaults of 

Dionysus. They are open to all, so you are safe, but in that space is the wine automaton and the fruit automaton. 

Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, physical pleasure (sexual), eternal youth, grace, and beauty. These elements get us a few parts. In the first we learn that she was the orchestrator of Aesculapius the famous healer. He was killed by Zeus, but this also set the gods against one another. Aesculapius and Prometheus were hunted by the gods and they are still part of this world. The second part is the physical pleasure, with Aphrodite in play you can have sex with the automatons, but her powers are eternal youth and beauty (via Aesculapius) and it will open up another stage. The Automatons are yearning and with Aphrodite you get to see their ‘thought’ and the unmentioned sides of the automatons. Her healing niches are all over Olympus, once staged for the human servants and now you get to use them to revitalise your health from hunger, thirst and exhaustion. 

Thats the lines for now, there is more of course. But it still need to be syphoned out (it makes sense later on). You see, this would be a streaming game. Amazon Luna makes the most sense. You see as the lores unfold the optionally connected Kindle would get the classical works. It is at heart an educational game. The lore are classical works (they shouldn’t have any ‘protection’) the player gets more on the age of polytheism. I saw that need during the TV show I was designing namely Keno Diastima. And the age of that is largely lost to the Christian waves that is now losing its grip on what they enforced. The polytheism from Greece and the Nordic is getting a fresh wave of people who have had it with the deceitful clergy from Italy. This is also a setting where we can elevate knowledge of the gamer. It is not a wave of conversion, merely a side to show that we come from a larger stage. And that large stage was forgotten. It is merely a way to show the people that we come from a huge stage of excellent work. Homer, Herodotus, Aurelius (not a Greek), Plato, and so many more. For the larger extension mostly forgotten. And this game can reeducate people to see that larger stage. There is an opening market to that (or better said, I believe it is).

There are more sides, but not in this game. This game is about educating the people on the Polytheism that brought the Greek civilisation to bare. And as we learn about the Greek gods, we also learn that they had a lot more to offer than we realise. 

Games have gone into a slump of forced advertisement and targeted turbo moments, but not much more. Certain games are pushing us into microtransactions and they will make their fortune their way and by the time people figured it out too much is lost for to people who merely wanted to have a good time, paid double plus bonus. That was never what gaming was all about. Intelligent gaming can be used in other ways, to educate. Something too many game designers have forgotten about. It is the age of advertising money and too many greed driven people are pushing that wave. I believe it is time for some to push back. I think that Amazon has options here (the kindle does help), the other track doesn’t need a kindle, but Amazon is the first choice, Tencent Technology the second option. As such Microsoft loses a lot more than they bargained for. Will it work? I hope so (partially for my own reasons).

If we push the agenda of joy and education, not of advertisement, we have a chance. Some food for thought. When do you ever get something for free? Never ever, there is always another side to that coin. And that is where the greed driven are. To see that side polytheism optionally brings that first wave. And when you get to the sides of Poseidon, Apollo and Hebe we get more to see that the Greeks knew things thousands of years ago, isn’t it weird that we never evolved from there? The Vatican never aided in that struggle, did they? That’s all for now.

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 25, 2024 · 22:28

When one bank wins

This is the setting I am facing. It is set to the speculative setting of we all have a certain amount of money (me not that much), still the Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2568749/business-economy) gave me something to ponder. 

So it all starts with a certain amount of speculation. In any given en time there is an amount named X. X is a little fluidic, but X represents a real number, what that number is, will be known to just a few people, it tends to shift a lot on a day by day basis. So when we are told ‘UAE banks see 8.9% rise in short-term deposits to $14.7bn by May’ it infers that someone else lost this, optionally several players a part. Natixis made a profit and several other banks do. As of July 2024, the United States government has a monthly interest rate of 3.33 percent on its debt of over $34,000,000,000,000 dollars, which amounts to 11.2 billion. If you say that fast it doesn’t seem so much. As I personally see it, the chains around the debt driven economies are about to choke the living daylights out of its population. Yet, as some are trying to avoid to become another Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and two months after that the First Republic Bank. That was in 2023. So what (or who) handed the UAE-based banks such as neat little profitable setting? Wouldn’t you like to know? I would and there is every indication that it was all on the up and up. And the article ends with “Profitability surged to 21.5 billion dirhams, driven by higher net interest income and a significant drop in impairment charges, according to New York-based global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal” it is interesting that we do not get where these funds originated. I can understand that banks do not wash their laundry out in the open, yet after the SVB debacle, the media should hand us the goods, or at least partial goods. It is nice to see all the banks do well, yet the setting is that it comes from somewhere and the people have a right which banks are not performing as well as they should.

I reckon that this is a dangerous stance and it could fuel several other bank runs, but the reality is that the western media is not to be trusted, so where can we get the goods?

We get that debts seen all over the planet also inclines that someone is making a bundle out of that. Merely the US needs to make good on $96.8B EVERY MONTH to keep their image of ‘we are doing so well’ up, but who pays for that? Especially now that business is going to China and some to Europe. Soon, I believe that this point was already passed, to US cannot even keep up the interest payments, then what? As I see it, the big players and billionaires will place their trust funds in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Nassau. So what happens then?

I have no idea, but it will not be pretty, not for Europe, not for Japan and not for the USA. Japan has $9.2T debt, Europe has accumulated an impressive €12,732,445,200,000 debt, if the percentages are the same, we see Europe needing to find €35.3B each month and Japan a mere $25.4B a month. That money come from somewhere, does it not? Last year the US collected $4.44 trillion, this sets a dangerous premise. The interest in the US over a year is $1.16T, a simple 26% of the tax budget, lost to nothing (read: banks) and this implies that to break even the budget needs to set to 70% of the money and as we were told “The U.S. government has spent $5.60 trillion in fiscal year 2024 to ensure the well-being of the people of the United States”, which implies that not only are they not keeping a budget, they haven’t been able to keep it for years and now we see other nations getting a larger slice of the revenue pie. So, how much longer can this game be played? You think Russia is bad? I wonder how bad the USA can become when this setting implodes on America. Are the two connected? Not directly and it floats on my assumption that if one bank wins, another bank loses, which bank loses is unknown to me, I don’t have a clue, but as I see it, the media faltered in their jobs to inform the public. 

And should I be wrong, I apologise. Yet I believe to inform the readers when I can. Have a lovely Sunday, which is now starting in Vancouver, they are ready for breakfast (it’s 5AM there). 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 24, 2024 · 21:06

The price of fake stability

It is the question that flew my mind as I read a BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3lxqlwl1o) here we are given the ‘plight’ (for the lack of a better word) of Boeing. The once heralded brand of a saviour of technology. Most will wonder about “A US campaign group has accused Boeing of concealing information about electrical problems on a plane that later crashed” , as well as “The organisation said more than 1,000 planes currently flying could potentially be at risk of electrical failures as a result of production problems. The foundation’s claims relate to an aircraft which hit the ground minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa in March 2019” yet whether the truth is a given here, remains the question. We are given a host of other settings in this partial boxing ring, which leads to “among the apparent issues indicated by the documents are a lack of electrical parts, missing and improperly installed wiring, and employees being placed under extreme pressure to rework defective parts” It is anyones guess how accurate these settings are, and my thoughts are that the once great airplane brand has fallen so far. Yet at this point my speculating self started to fill doubt with conjecture, a partial presumption on my side with a larger dose of speculation. And let there be no doubt, I am about to speculate, which is what one does when the facts are not completely to be trusted and when you fail to optionally see the good in people. Yet the BBC does not entirely fail to give the goods. And it does so in the last paragraph of the matter. We are given “Mr Pierson said reports from people within the factory alleged that efforts to improve conditions on the production line had so far been “woefully inadequate” – largely because FAA inspections were known about well in advance and could be prepared for”

So why does the FAA give Boeing the goods? I believe it to be the faltering lines of the American economy. Another failing setting to NASDAQ would throw the American economy in a sliding scale towards an abyss. Whilst we are given that there is a positive year to year change, the reality is that Boeing hasn’t been positive since 2019, thats a 5 year thumper of debt when we see that Boeing had a revenue of 76.5 billion dollars and a net income of minus 600 million, we see that the numbers grow to a 77.8 billion with a net income of minus 2.2 billion. As such the Boeing numbers are not a good message and now we see that the FAA allegedly tells Boeing when they are coming for a ‘visit’? I believe that these firms are against the wall. And the previous CEO Dave Calhoun, who wielded the sceptre from January 2020 to August 7, 2024 has a lot to explain. He took over from Dennis Muilenburg who was fired amid safety concerns with the Boeing 737 MAX following two fatal crashes that claimed the lives of 346 passengers and crew on board. It is here that I personally believe that Dave Calhoun allegedly played a very dangerous game, the unsubstantiated believe that he played with lives using a set of dice. And as I see it, the FAA was willing to play with the lives of people. With the safety setting of Boeing at play, the FAA had no business to give advance warning. A setting we need to give rise to, so far 346 lives are lost and the economy is seemingly more important that hundreds of lives lost. America has an apparent 334,914,895 (2023) lives. Who cares how the Americans keep their population high, a few hundred is all that is needed, so fuck around and find out. And with another (speculated) 800 lost, due to the next 2-3 planes. the media will use all the soundbites to create flammable stories. In the mean time we see a system that is all about keeping the appearance of an economy high, does it matter how many lives are lost? In the end, when Boeing goes down, Airbus and Lockheed Martin. In retrospect United Airlines is waiting on 497 planes from Boeing, I reckon that they might want to change their order to Airbus (no idea if that is a valid option). The larger setting is that Boeing makes military aircrafts making it a touchy subject. I wonder if any media will truly take a look at how (as well as why) the FAA played chicken with American lives and the American economy. Is any of it a given? No, as I said there is a lot of presumption (read: in part speculation) on the subject. But anyone in Business Intelligence would have had similar thoughts. The problem is that this article by Theo Leggett is 15 hours old. I wonder what more information will be divulged to the people in the next 5 days. In addition there is a lot we do not know about Ed Pierson, a former manager at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington State. I speculate that the FAA will face a serious shake up, the card will most likely fall against Michael Whitaker, but that is not a given. Someone will be buried alive for playing footsie with Boeing, of that I have no doubt, who? It will be anyones guess but it will be someone high up. And the stage between Boeing and its stock for the sake of stability. A faltering fake setting of a nation that couldn’t bring its debts about and merely try to play a longer game. If they did this to Boeing, who else what given some level of protection? I don’t know, but the American media is not keen on truly digging into that hornets nest.

As I said, plenty of speculation/presumption, the facts? Well, as I see it the media is no longer to be trusted, so who is? It is anyones guess I think.

Have a great day and try to enjoy tomorrow, that is, if you are not being a passenger on a Boeing.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

August 23, 2024 · 22:27

Is that so?

I was taken aback a little when I read the Khaleej Times yesterday. The article (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/old-smartphones-lying-in-cupboards-why-uae-residents-fear-recycling-their-devices) gave me pause to consider this. You see, when we see ‘Old smartphones lying in cupboards? Why UAE residents fear recycling their devices’ we can make all kinds of assumptions, but the clarity should be clear. There are a whole range of people who do not like their data up for grabs. The funny part is that Norton solved the issue over 40 years ago. Now we get a whole range of other options. But the simple sentiment is clear, and this is on Google and Apple to follow suit. 

I reckon that the solution will be similar for pretty much the same for both systems. The idea is that once you have transferred your mobile and data to the new phone, the old phone is pretty much redundant. So here comes Google/Apple and with their cable (in case of Google a USB-C) we can go to town, well, basically, the new phone can. 

So as I see it, the steps are as follows:

  1. Recharge old phone completely.
  2. Connect the recharged new phone to old phone.
  3. Instruct the new phone to wipe the old phone.
  4. Old phone gets wiped.

As the new phone gets the instruction to wipe the old phone, it will wipe, not delete to old phone.

This means that the new phone knows what the old phone is and will overwrite it with the value ‘EA’ (that was the old value). As such every bit off the old phone is overwritten with the value ‘EA’. It can be nearly any value, but this was the old setting I had in the 80’s. Because it is overwritten, there is nothing to undelete (read: restore). All data is wiped and no longer retrievable. In my case it was done 5 times (in case something is missed). As such the reference that the Khaleej Times gives us with “According to industry experts, fear of inappropriate use of data is one of the biggest deterrents to recycling devices among UAE residents” is no longer in effect. That being said, these ‘industry experts’ should know about this solution. And it is time for Google and Apple to be clear to the customers that their data is safe in this way. There are still a few other risks that people have, as they will readily put their data on social media, but their phones will be ‘saved’. 

What I don’t get is that both Google and Apple never touched on this subject before (as far as I know). Because iPads and other tablets face similar issues. I basically did this in my own way, in the more recent fields I did the same on my own way, but Google and Apple should have had these solutions in play already, so why was this skipped?

I cannot tell, but this article made me wonder why it was not taken care of. You see Peter Norton Computing has been around for 40 years, in 1990 it was taken over by Symantec and they had the goods, so why didn’t Apple and Google wake up to this setting? I never saw it (as far as I can remember) and it is not a weird setting. Consider all these corporate mobiles. At some point their IT departments will take a safe road by wiping their mobiles. So, why was this seemingly not done? I use the word ‘seemingly’ because it seems weird that it is only me who gets the idea. You see, doing a factory reset (as stated) gives us: “Doing a factory reset will delete nearly everything on the device”, it is the adaptation of the word ‘nearly’, I have an issue with that. Nearly isn’t everything, but what is not wiped? I reckon only the layer 1 people at Apple/Google can clearly identify them. There is still the setting that is set in motion. You could a ‘layered’ wiping of all memory through the new phone, optionally moving data from the old phone to the new phone (which Google/Android has). And doing it from phone to phone could optionally move ‘forgotten’ stuff to the new phone as well.

Oh, and that was the second part, the Khaleej Times never even mentions the factory reset part and the added GenAI settings that we see now more and more makes the wiping of old devices a lot more essential. In my story on August 11th 2024 which was ‘Setting of the day’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/08/11/setting-of-the-day/) gave us via Wired “Microsoft’s AI Can Be Turned Into an Automated Phishing Machine” we see the additional need for a complete wiping of all data. And as far as I can tell, there is no guarantee that some eager beaver will leave ‘discarded’ data alone. As such I feel that Apple and Google need to strap on their goods and get cracking to take the chance of certain solutions not to get a handle on your data.

I might not need it (I have other systems running) but the bulk of the users could use that little more protection. #Justsaying.

So let this be an idea that these two players get to seemingly rectify in the very near future. Darn, my Saturday starts in 92.4 minutes.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,