July 11, 2024 · 08:23

News I saw two days ago

Now, I get it. It is to days old. Does it still matter? Yes, it does. The article in New Lines Magazine (at https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/why-pilgrims-are-dying-on-the-hajj/) is giving us ‘Why Pilgrims Are Dying on the Hajj’ with the subtext “Recent deaths of the old and underprepared at Mecca were caused not just by international racketeers but by Saudi visa reforms and digitisation” and I have issues with this. You see, there are several setting mentioned. 

“underprepared at Mecca” is one. This takes a few moments to explain and I will get to that in a moment. Then we get “international racketeers” which I am on board with and “Saudi visa reforms and digitisation” which is something I have not looked at, so that might be a factor. But the story gives us an interesting part which I had not seen before. We are given “Saudi Minister of Health Fahad Al-Jalajel announced that 1,301 pilgrims had died, with nearly 1,080 of them being “not authorised to perform the Hajj.”” So as I see it 83% of the people who had died did not have access to anything because they failed to get the right visa. This does give us another side, we get that 221 people died in this setting (they who had the proper access) out of 1,800,000 pilgrims. So from that we get that 0.0122% of people were a casualty of the heat. This means that 99.98% made it. I hesitate to add an ‘OK’ because I reckon that the heat got to too many, they merely were not a casualty of the heat. Yet no one is looking at that. If you would have had a concert with Taylor Swift with 1.8 million fans the damage might have been a lot worse. This does not reflect on the number one Swiftie and it might not have been on any healthcare. But none of the media reflected on the amazing job that the people under Saudi Minister of Health Fahad Al-Jalajel had achieved under one of the most horrendous circumstances. 

So when you see these facts “underprepared at Mecca” becomes more than debatable, it is a clear bad description of a setting only muslims will understand and to be clear many muslims are from an Arabic region (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain) so for them to be hit to that degree by the heat is something else (not sure how to describe that).

We see that the article gives all kinds of emotional settings (which I get as the media relies on emotion). We are also given “Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly explained that some travel agencies organised Hajj programs using personal visitor visas, which barred holders from entering Mecca. These pilgrims had to take desert routes on foot, without adequate accommodation, exposing them to extreme heat”. A clear setting of “international racketeers” and Saudi Arabia had been drilling down on this. And the part that partially offends me is “In order for the visa brokers, whose market has flourished with the change in the kingdom’s tourism policy, to succeed in providing services to those who want to perform the Hajj without a permit” It offends me because this is the direct consequence of greed. And still the media point the finger at Saudi Arabia, even though the data (when available) clearly shows the ‘illegal’ action of the tourist and the greed of the travel brokers. So how many of these brokers have been arrested or be given the proper limelight exposing their actions? The Hajj is clearly controlled for safety and health reasons. And as I see it there is little to no blame on Saudi Arabia and specifically the minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfig Al-Rabiah, I will go on and boldly state that he (and his staff) deserves a medal for guiding 99.98% of the Muslim population through a Hajj in such unbearable heat. However, the media does not look that far, because the blame game is more rewarding. 

My side
So, why am I so focussed on this? I am not a Muslim, so that is not it. It is the unreliable one sided push by the media and second is that I thought through an IP that will benefit up to 300,000,000 Muslims. That IP comes with a payday (I have non-altruistic reasons). The point becomes more interesting as Google and Amazon fumbled that ball. So I hope that either the Saudi government, Kingdom Holding Company (Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud) or Tencent Technology does pick up that ball. A revenue stage that would ensure $5,000,000,000 in phase one and close to three times as much after that and this is annual revenue. So, I am driven to this goal. Oh, and Microsoft was not invited to this setting. They might proclaim that they are the most wealthy corporation, but like their most powerful console they claimed to have was made the bitch of Nintendo with their Switch, the weakest console of them all. That is the price of mediocrity as I personally see it. So whilst the media might be going all about how Saudi Arabia fumbled “visa reforms and digitisation”, which I cannot confirm of oppose. The clear setting is that drilling down on visa brokers by the international community becomes essential. 

So, enjoy your day today. I am now 575 steps and 45 minutes away from breakfast.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Tourism

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

July 9, 2024 · 17:12

Point two from yesterday

Yesterday this setting passed by my eyes. Someone had placed the CBM64 music from a game called Zoids. I remember it, because it was the only real appealing part of the game. It was based on a toy. I also remember seeing the toy. I never had a Zoid, but the setting was interesting. A smaller Zoid could be merged and create a larger Zoid. As such you can go from Spider to Scorpion and so on. That is all I remember of it. A novel idea, but it wasn’t as enticing as the toymaker was seeming to push for consumerism (to buy more and more) and I do not support consumerism with children (or really young adults). The game was basic to say the least, as such it didn’t have much of a future. 

Now ‘seeing’ that set my mind in motion. Consider the setting of combining pieces and take a game like Paradroid (CBM64 and Amiga) and my mind went on a tinkering tour. So take a setting of you waking up in a sleeping dome and you have no idea what was going on. So as you explore this ‘mall’ you find that things are dead, robots and utilities are also dead. There is a catch. You have an innate knowledge of technology and systems, but as you find out (in the beginning) your face is mangled, scars all over your face and chest. You do not remember how you got them. As such you need to get out into the open and the mall you find yourself in is dead in nearly all aspects. So as you start repairing janitor class drones (cleaning and utility drones) the place is starting to get alive. So you start with disposal, servant and maintenance classes. From there the messenger classes come into play (as you enter the second stage), this gives you the lore of the game. There is a larger stage here where you need to clean things up and get things working. That leads to a crew droid and there we have service droids and from there we get retail, medic and logistic droids. The logistic droids give you more lore on the place you have, the medical droids lead you to the medical location. This is where you can get you to be repaired (after some repairs to more maintenance droids). The crew droids are androids, below that they are small machines like your vacuum cleaner. So as this is done you get a first glimpse of where you are (more lore) and at this point you get to a point where the windows could be opened. 

The lore initial lore gets you the setting that outside is dangerous. 

So you need to be ‘careful’. So when you get to upper levels you will find broken sentinel, security and battle battle drones. Last of this is a command drone that is in charge of the facilities. 

This game would have about a 12 – 20 hour challenge per location and there are 5 locations. The Mall, the transit tunnel, the airport dome, the hangers and a fifth location (still pondering that). So whilst the game seems open and exploring, the airport dome introduces stealth to you. The security drones here are all about keeping people out of some locations. There is more, as you repair stuff (essential) you will get more security systems online. You will also get to seek security tags. They can be wearable items. And that introduces gender specific issues. You can find female or male tags and neutral tags. So you can only be ‘caught’ with your own gender tags or a neutral tags. There are also ID cards and these work nicely in the beginning but from the airport dome the ID card need to correctly suit you. 

That is as far as I got in about 2 hours. There is also the replayability (my demand), so the locations are ‘redrawn’ every time you start a new game, so as the Mall (level one) is mostly the same, walls will be redrawn making the route differently. From the transit tunnels onwards it is more of mess getting to pass and that is where replayability comes into play. So as some game makers give you more of the same, I came up with something mostly new (the ideas were already in part out), I merely redesigned this into something no one had ever played before (ain’t I great). That is me at 5 and Ubisoft at 1. Not a bad feeling to have this morning. Oh, and I just thought of a new function for the Medical systems.

So that was my second thought. Tomorrow something completely different (sorry Monte Python). So enjoy the day, Vancouver just started Monday, mine is mostly gone now. Have Fun everyone.

Gaming, Zoids, Paradroid, Ubisoft, Commodore, CBM64, Amiga, 

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

July 8, 2024 · 16:51

Two issues caught my attention.

The first issue is given to us by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx002795738o) The article starts with ‘‘I had to downgrade my life’ – US workers in debt to buy groceries’. In this I have a few speculations. You see Groceries are also set by ‘Permanent Price Adjustment’. This is what the producers of milk, bread and pretty much all items do. You see as they have costs and increased costs for whatever reasons. They pass on these cost to the shop, which in turn passes it onto you, the consumer. In the last 3 years things got to be more expensive and as such you feel that brunt. Per nation this varies. In Australia meat went up in total by 20% (over the last 3 years). Milk less so, but plenty of goods did go up and many have not seen an increase in income for years. So as we see “But after four years of rising prices, her support has worn thin – and every time she shops at the supermarket, she is reminded how things have changed for the worse. Ms Ellis works full-time as a nurse’s assistant and has a second part-time job” So in this case (as a republican minded person) I say that this is not on President Biden, not even on former president Trump. You see this is the consequence of having a $34,000,000,000,000 debt. As such businesses are taxed and as I see it, annually any administration will have to come up with $680,000,000,000 in interest alone. In 2023 the USA received (or allegedly received) $4,440,000,000,000. This implies that 15% of all taxed income goes towards interest on the outstanding debt and I have merely set that to 2%, Now consider that all costs that the government pays for is now down graded by 15% (more likely a higher percentage as the interest is also higher than 2%). Now consider that dairy, bread, meat and other options do not get incentives anymore (or at least a lot less). So there two items alone will be a lot more expensive. Then there is the operations of shops. It goes around again and again and that sets the price in many ways. There are more elements, but I am not privy to them. I warned on this several times over the last 8 years. There was going to be a problem and now people are seeing this happen and that is the beginning of draconian changes. So as Stacey Ellis and others see this happen, they go into ‘blame mode’ but they are blaming the wrong people. This is a failing of the entire administration and it started with former president George W. Bush in 2001. Former president Bill Clinton was the last president where green ink was gracing the US books of accounting. In 24 years all presidents have been pushing the debt forward. There was no exit strategy, just the wishful thinking that ‘tomorrow would be a better day’ and now after 24 years it is close to over. Not just in the USA, Europe is in a near similar place. That is what China had been hoping for so as they set the pressure even higher by getting the better deals, the west and others see the unfolding of economic disasters. And I am no economist! So there is the setting that plenty of others (real economics) should have known this and should have pushed for changes and taxing the rich was never an option. When government overreach with their Credit Card for 10%-20% more annually, at some point the card decline point is reached and that is where we are now. The USA, EU nations and others are getting their cards declined. Banks aren’t able to extent loans and whilst some are creative to pass credits via other nations. The banks are realising that the game is almost over. They might have a few options left but that will depend on how creative they can get. For this (also my speculative view) I point at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank. Three banks in 2023 with failures. Yet the media never looked at the abundant government loans they had in their books, it was my speculative view that their bonds were an overreach. So else did Janet Yellen keep a close view? At this point we were given ‘US prosecutors probing collapse of Silicon Valley Bank’ which was March 2023 and after that? Nothing as I can tell, as such spokespeople for the SEC, SVB and the Justice Department declined to comment. That was more than a year ago. So why isn’t the media doing their job? These are all elements of a nation that is running out of money and they are afraid to give out the real deal. I get it, it makes sense but it also means that life in the USA will be getting more and more expensive and when small farmers are breaking with the usual trend and start merely supplying their villages and their ‘friends’ the game changes even further. The big players cannot make claims they downgraded small farmers too often so that will have increased pressures to life in the city. And before you classify that this does not matter, be aware that 90% are small farms in the US. So when they hold back 10% of their farmed good for personal settings prices will be driven up even further. There is a setting where the old times could come back. I remember in the 60’s that I went to the potato farmer in a small shop in the street. That time could be back and it will implode most supermarkets. The stage is almost there that the supermarkets will be too expensive for potatoes, vegetables, fruit, dairy products and meat. When that happens the implosion that it sets off will be seen all over the US, especially in the metropolitan regions. Europe will not be far behind that. 

They are all intertwined so the first one to go will push the others over the edge. And when super markets go, where will you get your shopping? I reckon that California will hold out the longest, but in the end they too will have a problem. For the EU nations, France and Germany will hold out the longest. The UK will hold out, but how they will fare is anyones guess. I reckon that London will be the larger problem. The other cities are closer to rural regions, but for them I cannot say how it will evolve. 

So whilst the BBC gives us the partial goods. We need to see that the Stacey Ellis is but an element of a much larger problem and the media had the information for the longest of times. So why did they not inform you? Which stakeholders were part of the problem? All questions that too many are afraid to ask about. 

Have a great day (Second issue in next story).

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

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

July 6, 2024 · 12:15

Taking a step to the left

Something just hit me (ouch). I was wondering about people learning Arabic. I have been contemplating this. However I do not have a job requiring me to learn it. Still, the idea was in my brains and I contemplated things that would help me (without taking classes). You see we can always to some extent revert to books.

And as you see there is a a way to do this (might not be the most efficient way). As I was contemplating this I remember something from my Japanese lessons (years ago). They had a card  set they had two half (like a domino stone) there was an image of something at the top. And the beginning letter at the bottom. It looked something like the image at the bottom. 

The Japanese version is slightly different, but the idea stands (if this translation is in error, I apologise, my knowledge of Arab is is zilch, zero, rien, non-existent). Still, the thought was there Arabic has 28 letters, it could be supplemented with cards stating the days of the week, the months in a year and so on. It could be a set up to 75 to 100 cards and sold at a bundle. Now considering that there are plenty of Chinese people trying to learn the language at present. Added to that is the premise (given by pro-literacy) that 50,000,000 within the 22 Arabic speaking nations that cannot read of write. A tool like that could be useful. If the literacy needs to be evolved, having tools that empower such a setting needs to be spread more rapidly. Now I have no idea if such a card set exists, the fact that I never seen one is no indication. The internet does not give one either. So there are indications that this is an idea that someone in Saudi Arabia or the UAE could use to optionally make someone rich. There is nothing I can do because I do not know any Arabic. But with all the people that Saudi Arabia is trying to get for jobs. This is merely a tool that enables these people to learn Arabic faster, it is merely a thought I am having. 

Have a great weekend.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 6, 2024 · 00:00

The name of the game

Last night I had an idea (I’ve had many). The inspiration was a game called Midwinter. It was designed by Mike Singleton and released in 1989. He was the first to revolutionise gaming, tactical gaming. When games (for the most) all focussed on one part, he made it an open challenge and it played on the Commodore Amiga. You could do almost anything, walk to a place, drive a truck to a base, swim to a base. You name it, you could do it. We stepped a little away from that. There is a foundation to do it, but not open enough. I thought of throwing fuel on the fire and make it more challenging. To do this I turned to the war on Arrakis. It is (for the most part) really open. Consider where you and your skills decide on the abilities your troops and the enemy troops have. In the first part of the game you are an Harkonen officer. A starter, a milk mouth. You start as a soldier and you are part of the managing forces from Harkonen. So you start as a land trooper. Consider the last two Dune movies (which should be part of the design). You attack and subdue Fremen. You oversee the miners, you fight the fremen, you fly the ornithopters and you get to do this over and over again. The game is set up in time slices. As you do better and better the dials of the Harkonen are set higher and higher. When all the slices are done, when all the tasks are done, the Harkonen are set. If you score well enough you get medals awarded to you by an officer or even the Baron. The challenge is to defeat your own achievements. 

Screenshot

And the setting is that as a Caladeen (the home world of Paul Atreides) you will have to do really good to defeat the forces you enabled. The second scenario is two fold, you have to create an alliance with the Fremen (or you cannot get to stage three). You get small stages in the beginning then larger stages and the challenge is to beat yourself. The system is set by what you achieve. In stage two the Harkonen might be seen as NPC’s. Their powers are set to values you achieved in stage one. In stage three you reset YOUR values, but they are supported by the Caladeen and their presence becomes available by what you achieved in stage two. 

This is all I have for now, but the idea is that this has not been done before. Also the setting is supposed to be smooth. You can walk in the imperial palace (stage 2) and then walk up to an ornithopter and fly off, but you get to deal with Harkonen troops and Harkonen saboteurs and depending on how well you did, they become more than a nuisance. Unlike Dune: Awakening it is 

not multiplayer, that is an important difference. Here you create the levels of your opponent. 

The setting does not need to styled by Dune. But that was the setting I had. You could do this as a re-write of the game Knights of the sky where you get to start in the German airforce and after that can choose French or British airforces. Knights of the sky was not high defined graphics. But now you can to this in Unreal Engine 5 on a PS5 and get the whole battlefield on your computer. The setting of gaming like this is almost the same. You get to set the power of the opposing forces (NPC’s) with THEIR quirkiness but with the fighting powers of you. Go look at the history of gaming. It has not been done before. Old games setting the taste of the new game. But with a larger defining edge. As I see it, it will give a larger timeline because as you get into Stage three of the first game, you might want to redo stage one and make the game harder to beat. A game that you can replay over and over again, because as you upgrade the scores of one opponent, your challenge will be greater. How are those spice truffles?

Perhaps over time I will write more, consider that you have to train a mentat (Piter de Vries/Thufir Hawat), a troop trainer (Glossu Rabban/Gurney Halleck) and so on. There is more thinking to do, because the need for training Piter de Vries or Thufir Hawat sets a taste to the game, but we do not see them in the movies to that degree. So how to go about it? It could be that the palace has a strategic room and as you do troop management, it sets the properties on how you are directed playing the game, so as these two are added later in the game, the troops will be according to what you decided on in the strategic room. I do not have all the answers yet, but as you can see, so far the gaming industry has done nothing of a kind and they had decades to get their ideas straight. 

Well that is enough for today, Saturday starts in 4 minutes.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 4, 2024 · 20:03

In the beginning

Two issues came to light, the first one is about an American cop. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72ver6172do) where we see ‘A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans’. We are given “A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.

A former Florida police officer who relocated to Moscow is one of the key figures behind it.” We knew this, it is nothing new. The Dutch company Trollrensics is actively hunting down trolls and illustrating all the fake news we see (well most of it anyways). This article brought a small art to light that requires actions by both Amazon, Google and Microsoft. You see the BBC gives us “But before the truth could even get its shoes on, the lie had gone viral. Influencers had already picked up the false story and spread it widely”. This is a dangerous setting. Influencers are all about the traffic, they mostly lack integrity and have no clue on the desire to gain followers and their desire to get their golden YouTube sign. 

It is time that the United States and the European Union start to pressure these tech firms to chastise these influencers. If they cannot give ample validation of how they got the evidence how they verified the authenticity they get the full brunt of the consequences. If they are found spreading fake news, their Google rating is diminished, their video’s are all downgraded. And their video’s are skipped in searches unless a person asks for this (former) influencer by name (at which point several people can find the seekers). It is a little crude but the Russians are becoming too much of a nuisance. Oh, and by the way if they follow through on the threat to bomb the Netherlands, I will put my nuclear deterrent (a solution to make a nuclear reactor meltdown) on every BBS in Chechnya. See how they like that condition. Russia made enough enemies, if they have to protect every nuclear reactor in Russia they will lose 15% of their deployable troops protecting buildings they never had to before. Actions are needed and no one is doing them, they are all concerned with the bottom line. You see spreading fake news and false information is not a freedom. In this day and age it is a duty of everyone to not spread fake news and misinformation. Now I understand that not everyone is able to distinguish fake news from real news. I usually seek two official sources (the Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera, Arab News, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times) there are more but you get the gist. The complication is John Mark Dougan, an American ex-cop. Just questioning. Why would anyone in Florida relocate to Moscow? No matter how valid his reason is. As we are given “an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election” we are given the notion that this is all about Trump (my speculation) and it goes from bad to worse. As such I need to do something. I am not a man of action (when you pass the 60 mark that happens) but I have a decent imagination to look outside of the box. Russia has 38 active nuclear reactors. They collectively have 200,000 people working there. Consider that the Russians would need to check them all, secure them all. That implies thousands of troops. Then they need to inspect all new arrivals. It will be a nightmare I reckon. In the mean time they face Chechnya and Pro Ukrainian Russian troops. Plenty to worry about and with the solution out in the open, the Russians get a new danger and optionally their other enemies come out of the woodwork. 

But that is another matter. For now we need to take care of the influencers. They are the first hurdle to stop traction of fake news. In this Amazon, Google and Microsoft could change the rating of anyone spreading fake news, Google especially. Put their ratings to minus 150 and the influencers seize to be a relenting problem. Remove these accounts and their flocks disperse. Now I am not sure if Google can do that. You know that any account holder of a Google/Youtube account has rights. Just changing this on the fly does not go over well. But Google can stop the fake news from spreading, they can also look at the followers of that influencer. But I get ahead of the issues. Something needs to be done and not enough (as far as I can tell) is being done. 

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Media, Military, Science

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

July 3, 2024 · 06:08

Setting the greater stage

An interesting article passed me by last night. It was Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2541361) giving us ‘Arabic Language Month in India organized by Saudi Arabia’. We are given “The King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language has launched Arabic Language Month in India, reported Saudi Press Agency. The program will run in New Delhi and Kerala until July 26”. It is a clever setting and it is a new take and a larger take on increasing the stage they face. Saudi Arabia needs workers and it needs to increase their cultural footprint. This is an interesting way to do this. The language stage allows for Saudi Arabia to show what they have to offer whilst at the same time increasing knowledge of the Arabic language. In those places they could also start filtering if a person would suit living and working in Saudi Arabia. It comes with the added setting of “Additionally, it will highlight Saudi Arabia’s efforts in this field in line with the objectives of the Human Capability Development Program, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 realization programs”. Even if you do not agree, this is a Saudi initiative “the directives of Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Saudi minister of culture, to further the Arabic language locally and globally” the additional part comes that Saudi Arabia has thousands of jobs in 10 sectors. With that and the stage where Saudi Arabia is one of the highest paying employers in the region, we see an option for hundreds of Indians. Should this work out the way I think it could work out (for Saudi Arabia that is), places like Aramco and several places in hospitality and Tourism would enjoy an increasing workforce for some time to come. For the students there is the option to gain linguistic skills so that they start their new position with increased levels of knowledge. All plus sides. There is also the upsides for teachers towards globalisation. 

Wednesday is upon me (06:00), so I am about to enjoy the day with a helping of breakfast. Enjoy yours.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Tourism

Tagged as , , , ,

July 2, 2024 · 03:20

What makes a role model

I was relaxing a few hours ago when two tweets crossed my screen. They both are about Taylor Swift. The first one

states “Young girls do not need to aspire to marriage and children. I personally have no interest in Taylor Swift but there are worse role models than someone who evidently works hard and is financially independent and also made huge donations towards food banks.” The second Tweet 

Gives us the part of the bad role model and that she was 34 and unmarried. The Newsweek opinion piece which is titled ‘Taylor Swift Is Not a Good Role Model’ (at https://www.newsweek.com/taylor-swift-not-good-role-model-opinion-1916799) gives us a few parts. “At 34, Swift remains unmarried and childless, a fact that some might argue is irrelevant to her status as a role model. But, I suggest, it’s crucial to consider what kind of example this sets for young girls.” Is nice and it comes after on how she is a powerhouse for commerce and merchandising. But what is forgotten? You see Taylor started as a musician, she composed her work, she set the tones, the tunes and it held a chord in the hearts of her fans. It does not depend what gender they are. We see events that are overwhelmingly female in attendance and that is fine. She is a powerhouse of music and it is attracting a large female audience. I think that she is a good role model. The larger issue is that this is an opinion piece, not an actual article. I do wonder why Newsweek did not add an actual Newsweek writer to add at the end. 

In this my background is that I like the numbers I heard. I have one album (1989 TS) when it originally was released. I saw one evening the clip of Blank Space and it made me interested in her. I also saw the song Shake it of was included on that album, so I got it. It is the only album I have, but it is a good album. When you consider that she was the orchestrator of nearly all parts of it (I do not know how deep she was involved in the clip) makes her a good role model. She is bringing an unique style of music, an alternative sound that appeals to millions of people. That alone makes her a role model. Then there are the 11 studio albums, 4 re-recorded albums and 7 EP’s and 4 live albums. Her albums tallied millions of CD’s in sales. This alone makes her a good role model. By the way how many male role models over 34 are unmarried? The more I read up on her, the more awesome she is shown to be. 

I agree with the opinion with the Tweeter that Newsweek needs to be ashamed of themselves. I agree with the Tweeter. It needs to be said that it is an opinions piece. And I get the gist that Newsweek published this piece as it attracts views. The question is whether Newsweek has become so desperate for views? Was there nothing else they could publish as an opinion piece? Just a thought.

Have a great day everyone.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Media

Tagged as , , , ,

July 1, 2024 · 10:51

The changes to a Digital Currency

I was alerted to a story on https://www.cointribune.com/en/saudi-arabia-joins-the-wrong-blockchain/ stating ‘Saudi Arabia joins the wrong Blockchain…’, well that is merely a matter of opinion. You see the CBDC (aka mBridge) is a digital currency that is controlled by banks. It is under control by China (read Tencent) and is a system that runs next to swift. It could rival it over the next few years and moreover could overtake swift too (speculative view by the writer, aka me). The involvement of Saudi Arabia implies “The kingdom’s integration into the BRICS club is far from trivial. Member countries are clearly expressing their intention to purge the dollar from their exchanges. The arrival of the Saudis could mean that Saudi oil exports to China could one day be conducted via the mBridge blockchain, in yuan”, implies is as I word it, but the implications as quoted is the first major dent into the ‘settings’ that could take a lot of Wall Street out of the frame, again this is purely speculative. Another source, Forbes gives us (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/08/24/bitcoin-vs-cbdcs-analyzing-universal-access-in-digital-currency/) ‘Bitcoin Vs. CBDCs: Analyzing Universal Access In Digital Currency’, which they gave us last August. They also give us “The digital cash revolution was spearheaded first by bitcoin and then by other cryptocurrencies, which has led to the birth of Central Bank Digital Currencies.” This is followed up by “it’s the rise of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies that may represent the most transformative phase in this evolution.” I think that is the larger issue. I don’t trust Bitcoin, not because of the digital setting, but the picture that it is not supported by any coins, or gold make it a virtual currency. ‘Everyone’ is on board for what they think it will bring. But the larger picture becomes that a virtual setting could from today ($62,730.9037) and when it goes to $50,184.7258 tomorrow (worst case scenario) there is nothing stopping it, moreover I reckon that all these pensioners hoping to get rich of this, this downfall will result in lots of pensioners ending with nothing. That was the fear I alway had. This is why I do not trust it. The CBDC (mBridge) is as said cemented in “the country’s central bank.” Forbes also gives us on the of the 23rd of June (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/06/23/cross-border-cbdc-focused-project-mbridge-moves-forward/) “For more than three years, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been working on a cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) project known as mBridge. In a nutshell, the project aims to improve efficiency, speed and transparency in cross-border payments.” It is the transparency that matters and the fact that it is under control of a nations central bank. This implies that banks are ultimately responsible for issues, with Bitcoin this is anyones guess. The text “MBridge recently took an important step forward with the completion of its minimal viable product (MVP) stage and the decision by Saudi Arabia to join the project.” You see this means that mBridge would be getting support from places like Aramco and China with their Yuan. This puts the USA on a slippery slope (commercial wise) if the oil dollar pushed to nowhere, the Yuan will gain strides of upgrades. Additional we get “According to China’s Digital Currency Research Institute (DCRI), mBridge transactions take seven seconds and cut cross-border payment costs by 50%.” I believe that the 7 second delay is only applicable to cross border issues and I do believe that this is a temporary delay (before the first upgrade a time upgrade), the reducing of cost by 50% would be cheered by all sides of the equation (probable with the exception of Wall Street). The article ends with “but risks to the initiative will rise sharply if it becomes seen as part of broader U.S.-China competition” a political setting, but as that rises the USA (and optionally the EU) will lose a lot more. For the most the people are fed up with the American bully tactics. It is hurting their pocket. Consider that a decade ago where everyone copied the narrative “Washington officials began warning of Huawei’s ability to embed spying capabilities in its gear” but never was any EVIDENCE presented by anyone. We get setting like ‘could’ and ‘the possibility arises’’. The former director of German intelligence stated to Deutsche Welle that they didn’t understand that technology. So where is the evidence? America presented a case that was settled a decade earlier. China has issues with the US and EU. This is their shot across the bough. And it is one that matters. With billions in revenue gained, with the BRICS setting and with a setting that could replace the oil dollar with the Yuan, Wall Street would lose a lot. So whilst the American administration begs for cheaper oil, all whilst they pretty much shot themselves in the foot. 2025 and 2026 might prove disastrous for both the US and EU. The EU will accept the mBridge solution a lot earlier than the US would and when the Bitcoin loses 20% or more in value. Many pensions will be reduced to zero. It was the risk of a decentralised system with no foundation in any bank or in a commodity like gold, but that is merely my point of view.

Enjoy today, it is still yesterday in Vancouver and Toronto. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics, Science

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

June 29, 2024 · 12:00

As limits are reached

The Khaleej Times give us (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-summer-switch-off-non-essential-appliances-for-one-hour-every-day-urges-sharjah-authority) ‘UAE summer: Switch off non-essential appliances during peak hour daily, urges Sharjah authority’ where it starts with “Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority said the Conservation Hour or Peak Hour initiative will start in July and last until September” with the additional “Along that line, the authority has called on those living in Sharjah to participate in an initiative called Conservation Hour or Peak Hour from July to September”, for those unaware Sharjah is directly North of Dubai. The addition given is “The initiative will require residents to switch off non-essential electrical appliances during peak hours, which is from 2:30pm to 3:30pm, every day”, this situation was going to happen and it will be a global problem. I raised the issue in January 2023. The first part was in ‘Inactivity by the overpaid‘(at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/13/inactivity-by-the-overpaid/). There I raised “There will be a power shortage by 2030. Personally I think that he is overly optimistic. I would reckon that clear shortages will be visible no later than 2027 in the Netherlands” In this Article I raised the issue that I made in May 2022 and again in June 2022. There I looked at solutions. There were a few sides and Dubai would benefit from that solution. Part of that solution was given in ‘Will you feel frisky?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/06/28/will-you-feel-frisky/). There you see that the concrete that sets the floors/ceilings have space in every building to leave a mica underground, with on top of that solar panels. Now ads I see it Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah all have hundreds of buildings that benefit from these panels (the sunny side of the building) In my case I illuminated London as well as Austin Texas the day before. However this is now a race. There is a limit on solar panels. First one in, the less limitations that place has. As we now see, Sharjah is at present the first to step on the breaks. 6 years before the NOS (Dutch news media), as such I believe that the limitations will be seen all over Europe in the next two years, depending on the summers. London, Paris, Orleans, Cannes, Nice, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, and several other places. In my view I see the following solution:

The mat with the solar panel. That panel is set to be connectable to other mats, I envision a sort of Scalextric (that old racing game) connection on one side the can be connected to a wire, that connect the panels on the separate levels to a battery on top of the building. I just used the Tesla solution, but other solutions could be used. Depending on the size of the building it would be an expected 2 x 2 or 4 x 2. So that one side can be fully charged and the other set of batteries is used to fuel the net. 

Now this solution does not fully solve it (initially), but it will reduce the stress on the electricity net. As more buildings are fitted out with this solution, more stress on the electricity net is reduced. I reckon that two dozen buildings all over Sharjah might reduce the pressure enough for the peak pressure to go away. And it will push a zero carbon setting too. 

All this is not a given, but I reckon that Chinese developers will see this as a way to come in as this path could see billion in revenue. Tesla has the battery advantage, I have no idea what China has in this area. You know what is the most striking one? I had in part the solution here in this blog two years before the rest had admitted that there is a power problem coming our way. The issue becomes that as time passes, not enough time will remain to implement the solution as well as the given that too many places at the point need this solution all at the same time and no one will be able to deliver this solution. To give a rough estimate Manhattan, Texas and Los Angeles will need a rough 12000 batteries. London is another 3500 batteries and I have no idea what the EU will need. Consider that one source gave the 2030 option, it would imply that at least 20,000-35,000 batteries are needed. I am certain that these numbers are hard to reach. So that leaves the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia and several other countries. Soon enough it will become a rat-race for the components. 

Enjoy Saturday, preferably with all appliances still getting power.

1 Comment

Filed under IT, Science

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