Yes, it sounds weird, but it dawned on me that if we create a new search term GEOINT could benefit in all kinds of ways. Consider the following and also consider the following statement “I have never been to Toronto” Now consider the thoughts I had when I was watching a video (apparently I watched more than one on Toronto walks. “If she turns left into Cumberland now, I will see Tokyo Smoke on the right and across from there Sassafras. As she passed these places I thought fashion store Kiton should be on the left across the street on the corner” This is what the human brain takes up. Yet in digital settings, with added metatags we should see a lot more. More than location, date, time and weather conditions. Then I suddenly realised that my 5G could offer more to any recording digital recording device out there. It was already on station to deliver for the new wearables, but it could go further. More than mere digital marketing. It could offer a larger scene of watchdog, the digital digital video maker, could according to their personal settings auto reject that, consider it on the fly or auto include certain tag names and tag settings. The auto part is for those making live streams, the consideration is fr those editing and smoothing audio at the end and it becomes an experience that offers more. Consider a video walk in London, giving whilst walking some highlights of Christmas shops and their golden offer. On Regent Street, Fortnum and Mason, Harrods, and so on. The options are close to never-ending and it is the station I vied for in my designs to give the power BACK to the shopkeepers. I reckon that it is not something for the GoPro 1, but it is possible that the GoPro 12 could offer something like that. It is more than ‘plus’ vision. It is the starting stage of hybrid vision and with Meta completing its first version hybrid will go a long way in any place that offers it. And there is more at that point there is the setting that real estate could set a marker on any video that crosses their location, giving a much larger consumer market penetration. The hardware is already there, the options are already there. There is now the consideration to implement it. Google clearly has the advantage via YouTube, or would that become YouBeTube? We all see the real estate pictures, but it is too made, too artificial. Yet showing videos AROUND the place, showing some WHERE you end up could also become a sales-point that gets the consumer over the line and even as Real Estate is the most clear point, it is not the only one. As I see it it pulls GEOINT into the business intelligence field a lot deeper than the mere pie charts and thematic maps. Thinking of this, I am actually surprised that Google and Facebook were not all over this when the foundation options were there about 2-3 years ago when the possibilities opened up. And it hits nearly EVERY big city in the world. A setting where the amateur video makers see a larger stage of income earning and becoming part of the revenue streams.
There are of course more options, but let’s not go into those streams just now. For now, let’s remain naive and enjoy what could be possible.
Yes, that is how I see it. You think that you have seen it all? It is about to get worse and the BBC actually is showing us the start of it. With ‘Thousands of pro-Russia Serbs march in Belgrade’ we are merely scratching the surface. The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60630351) does not give much, but it gives us “Friday’s march was a show of support for Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. Serbia has religious, ethnic and political ties with Russia that have existed for centuries” You see it is a lot worse, Serbian arms dealers are all over Europe. Paces like Rotterdam, London and Paris come to mind, but there are more and now as we see all the pro Russian events starting, we see a stage where Serbs could destabilise most of western Europe. They can fuel lone wolves tying hands all over the place and they sit back and watch the chaos unfold. A setting Moscow really likes. So how speculative is this? Well the issues with arm dealers in these three places alone are worrisome and they have been for the longest of times seeing a lot more visibility in 2020. Now with this BBC article it is still speculative to connect the two, but I am not sure that it is merely speculation. There have been issues for the longest of times and it is merely brought to the surface and a more visible pedestal now.
The problem is that a lot was not monitored for the longest of time and now the intelligence organisations are lacking information on too many sides. Some sources (unconfirmed ones) give rise to activities in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, USA, Norway, Montenegro and Austria. Do you really think it is all speculation? They have been busy under nearly everyones noses for over a decade and now that Russia is pushing the buttons, some are claiming allegiance, some are waking up and some are set to set Western Europe on fire. Which is which? I cannot tell, but there are connections on all kinds of levels. Did no one consider why Russian weaponry was relatively easy to get in Amsterdam and Rotterdam? In 2020 the Times gave us “While Serbia had a glut of Cold War-era stockpiles and a robust but underused defence industry, the Iraqi government was ill-equipped to battle an insurgency. So in late 2007 the two countries struck a £190 million deal to bring Serbian assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, ammunition, explosives and other ordnance to Iraq”, I personally believe that these pipelines were there to also get Russian weapons into Iraq, and not merely the ones they have, to a larger degree the Russians provided hardware and that sets a new station, the station of storage. The Netherlands has been (for the longest time), a transitional port of arms, but there is also the speculation (never proven) that at times a container was ‘misplaced’ and ended on Dutch soil, a container filled with arms. So, how much of this is speculation? There is a fair amount of it, but I worked in the harbours of Rotterdam, when I was young and gullible, so anything is possible. Yet in this day and age, when serbs are ‘proclaiming loyalty’ do you want to take that chance? I will let you figure it out.
And whilst you do the Intelligence organisations of Europe will have to take a harsh look at what they have on the Serbs in their domain, because they really do not get to have a choice in that matter, not anymore.
And me? I have found a few more cogs to add to the previous story, I like to remain creative.
I had no real idea what happened when I initially wrote ‘Mr. S. King resigned’ on February 8th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/08/mr-s-king-resigned/), yet just now my mind created another episode. It plays in London no less. The main character is buying stuff at Fortnum and Mason. Tea, Jam, Marmalade and a few other knick knacks. He is shopping and looking at the isles of what is available and what he needs to fill up his kitchen, and just as he is grabbing a tin of shortbread an employee approaches him.
“Sir, you will have to leave”. The man looked puzzled, looks at his watch then looks at the employee. “Have I done something wrong?” The man answered. The man looks puzzled and the employee suddenly looks uncomfortable. “One of the ladies here stated that you harassed her”. The man looked perplexed. “I just walked in” pointing at the door behind him. Just a minute ago and he pointed at the security guard. He might have noticed as he pointed at the slender man wearing a security outfit. The employee waled over and talked softly to him, the security guard nodded. The employee walked back “I am so terribly sorry”, perhaps she pointed at the wrong man. “OK, the man said. So where do I find the tea strainers? The employee took the basket from the man. Please follow me, I will assist you personally. The man followed him, and soon they found all they needed to have. The man was guided to the cash register and he packed everything and charged him. Then he added another tin of cookies. “On the house, sir. I hope you do not feel offended”, the man did not yet suddenly there was this feeling, it made the hairs stand up in the back of his neck. He looked around but there was nothing to see. He left and slowly walked down Piccadilly towards Ellington Arch and his house. He was home not 10 minutes later. He was about to unpack the back when he noticed movement, he cautiously took the tin away when he saw them. Two small Ottoman vipers, their poison was rather deadly, but not to him. He raised his hand and focussed, the vipers turned to ash and he got an unusual jolt. He was used to life force feeding him, but this was a lot more and he looked at the ash again. It was over the jars, but as he blew the ash faded to smaller particles and faded from sight. The food and everything was sealed. Yet this puzzled him. He then saw the stones on his brass mirror change and he moved towards the mirror, two eyes glowing blue appeared. You are a lot stronger, not in natural ways. What happened? The man explained the events. It is not a natural thing, but you must explore what transgressed. He sat down and focussed on his visit to the shop. He focussed on the people and saw nothing specific. Then he saw a fly and focussed on the fly. Suddenly he saw more, he saw scents and also a spot of darkness, the fly stayed away from it, so he looked at it with normal eyes again. He noticed a young man, he also saw that the man observed him in fear, but he knew not why. Then the man walked away to another exit and the shop faded. He had seen the man, so he knew what to look for, but London is big, so he decided to spend time drinking tea in the Ritz ad the Gentlemen Baristas, keeping one eye and his third eye on the street. It did not take long. Saturday he saw the man, with on his arm an elderly lady, his nana he gathered. He looked and saw something perplexing, her aura was an overwhelming shade of jade, dark and powerful. The lady shivered, and said something to the man, she panicked and went the other way dragging the man with her. He saw the panic in her, but did not see the why she was afraid. The man looked around but apparently did not know where to look. They quickly left and now the ma followed from a safe distance. He was on the other side of the street and even as his normal eyes could not see them, his third eye could and that is how he slowly followed them, increasing the distance, slowly but surely and a minute later the lady seemingly calmed down. They went into an apartment on Dover street, he followed and got a little closer, but he did keep his distance. His third eye looked at the house. Nothing seemed weird, all normal, the man looked normal too, but the woman was still unearthly jade and with that he walked away.
Part X It was time to call the game and he walked into Fortnum and Mason again, this time around there were spiders all over the place, they seemed some form of Wolf spider, a little larger than anything he had ever seen, it was early there were two customers, both ladies scared out of their mind, the staff was equally scared and it made no sense to them. The man was safe, it was like there was a circle of protection around him. The spiders came towards him and the woman suddenly stated “den boreís na me écheis” and things started to make sense. The man raised his hands and drained the spiders and got jolt after jolt, pleasurable but weird. The spiders turned to ash and faded with every breeze that got into the shop. Suddenly more snakes arrived almost from her hands, but they too turned to ash and faded. The mans looked confused. “What is happening?” He looked at the man, the man suddenly saw the ring on her hand and asked “Did you get your nana anything from Greece?” He pointed at the emerald ring. “That! On Elounda. It was only €15, I paid €20” the man thought for a moment. “I need you to sell it to me, I will pay you £50”. The man nodded “OK”, the man took the ring from the ladies hand and gave a £50 bill to the man. The people around him (all 8) were still seeking cover from something that was no longer there. He looked at the ring and it made sense. His hands made gestures, first the sphere and the ring was cast in glass, then he made the gesture of an oval and a cylinder of pure light appeared and the sphere vanished. He then looked at the old lady, he saw the damage in her mind, the change of her life force and he slowly added what he received here, only part but he saw the healing, it would take time, but time is what she had. The lady became alert again. “Are you OK?” The man asked. The lady nodded. “Where is my grandson?” The man helped her up and the grandson was there. “Are you OK nana?” “Yes, but I feel so sleepy, can we go home now?” They left and after he removed the images from the other people he left, but not before he bought two small jars of olive leave tea. One he would keep himself. It was an hour or two later when he was back in Dover street. Both Auras now looked normal, one was in bed, the man was sitting in the living room. He saw a small pebble and through it at the window. The man startled and looked out the window. The man mere gestured with his index finger that the grandson had to come to him. He was fast and got there less than 30 seconds later. “What did you do?” the grandson asked. Well, I fixed things, you started them. What did they tell you what they were selling you? A ring they found in the sand at the shores. They guaranteed me that it was a real emerald. I did not believe them, but they were willing to part with it for the amount they offered. Nana loves green, I thought it would make a nice present. What was it? It was a cursed ring, with a real emerald no less, well curse is too big a word, but it drained your nana, let’s call it that. He handed the tea leaves. Give he this at least twice a week, the body will restore and repair itself normally, today you must give her one cup of tea. The grandson nodded. Also the events will have changed her a little. How old is she? Around 73 the grandson replied. Well she will soon feel 13 year younger at the very least, if it lasts, I cannot tell, so you better get into shape and ready for long walks. The grandson nodded. Take care kid. Where is the ring now, the grandson asked. At the incenter of mount Everest. Good luck finding it there. The grandson shook his head, I never want to see that thing again. Oh, and get your nana a similar ring but with a different metal and with a similar stone. It helps the fading of memories. And as she sees a different colour metal it will enforce the fading like a bad dream. The grandson nodded and the man walked away.
Part Z The man gestured in front of the window and the light brought the sphere back, he tapped in a rhythm on the stones and the eyes appeared. This is unusual the voice spoke, you never call me. The man showed the ring in the sphere and the eyes became large and bright. “Where did you find that?” It was found on Elounda by a tourist he said. What is this? “It is Olympian, it is one of the rings of Hecate” The man explained all that happened and the eyes started to shine like the beacon of a lighthouse, it saw through the man in every way and then the voice spoke again “You are stronger, I will give new lessons soon, but for now keep the ring out of human hands and it is best you do not touch it either, Hecate has her own way with her abilities and that ring should not have been away from her. The sphere became a cylinder again and it vanished. The eyes faded and there was suddenly the ring of the doorbell. He opened the door and the postman was there. Here you are sir! And the man walked away. The man looked at the parcel, he opened it and there was a book inside. It was all leather and the pages seemed to be vellum. It merely had ‘Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια’ on the cover and when he opened it the pages were blank, but they did smell lovely. He reckoned it was the lesson he was supposed to get. Well, time to make some tea, have a piece of toast with marmalade and get to work.
Yes, that is the station I found myself in this morning. It was not completely new to me, I did write about it in the past (too tired to find the exact article as I have written in excess of 2250 articles at present), but the stage is a little different now. Consider war (see the TV for specifics), we know it and it is now closer to many homes than it was months ago. But we nearly always played an EA or Ubisoft version with respawning NPC soldiers. What if the setting is staged finite and no spawning all over the place? What if the stage is London, Munich, Amsterdam or Paris? A stage where you get inserted into a random location and your war-zone is a 10 block radius from there. Google Maps has nearly every detail, so do other mapping solutions. And you could be defending, escorting local civilians and giving aid. You get no choice until you get to a certain rank. How long would YOU last? It is time to teach the gaming soldiers a little realism. And when you face that you think different on Call of Duty Beachhead with high realism. That is nothing! I think some people are catching on what it is like, somehow they take more notice on events in the Ukraine than they ever did in Yemen or Syria. I like games that have NEVER be done before. A lot of my IP is set to stages never done before and that is where we optionally see a side of gaming that is totally new and innovative. Others were there before you with other games (several examples in this year alone) and I believe that this is the way to go, whether it is a console or streaming system, innovation beats iteration EVERY. Time.
And as these systems are more powerful, we get a setting where we can launch a game like that (or kart) in our own streets, redefining gaming realism acceptance on a few levels. I remember seeing Red Dawn, the Chris Hemsworth edition (I saw both editions) and when we see one of the kids state “We are living Call of duty and it sucks”, I heard someone giggle behind me stating that this would be cool. Yes, the response of a wannabe soldier. I however was in the Middle East, I saw what Hamas did, I saw the bodies. That wakes you up real fast and perhaps a game is not the worst setting to educate people. It has been done before and perhaps it is time to unite these elements. I don’t know, is it wisdom or folly to go that way? I honestly do not. On one side I am merely creating new IP, but I want something deeper in gaming IP, and amazing story (Horizons Forbidden West) is one way to go, when it goes to stories the game Portal (by Rob Swigart) is another direction and that can be equally fulfilling. Still there is a call, not one of duty, but one of fulfilment. We all have it, we want to plant our flag, set our footprint and leave some kind of legacy. When you are a dedicated gamer, we all want to be a Sid Meier, a Peter Molyneux or a Richard Garriott. Not everyone are driven to release mutant camels and that is fair, but where we will be going (streaming systems) and what is possible is almost at the touch and I personally think it is important to push Microsoft out of this market before there way remains the only gaming-less option. The problem is that it would have been easier if Google had taken up some form of game creation department and with the fact that gaming revenue is predicted to be $138,000,000,000 by 2023 is something that seems overwhelmingly attractive, but that is me and for now my idea to sell 50,000,000+ systems remain under lock and key (on a cloud location far far from home). But it is merely one direction and there are plenty of other directions, the revenue speculation opens those doors and even as a large chunk is set to microtransactions, the people are seemingly fed up with the EA and Ubisoft stage of microtransactions. I also gave a few other options (go look for them) and they are largely set to streaming systems. So is there an upside to THIS IP I now mentioned? No, it is merely another road one could wander, and it is here because I cannot wander them all and I am handing my ideas for free use to Amazon and Sony developers. It is a choice I made as Google decided not to create games. The old stage is seemingly fading, or at least I think it is fading, and what is around the corner is almost within reach and it will be bright and exciting, that is what I think, you might think different and rely on great franchises (like Gran Turismo) to set your beaker of desire. That is fair, gaming is what YOU want it to be, I merely want there to be alternatives for you to consider trying.
OK, not my finest hour in diplomacy, but it was the only way to give the path to people thinking ‘another Amazon story’. I woke up this morning with a new IP, an IP based on Google technology, but they do not create software, so their loss. And this is freeware only for Sony and Amazon products, just another way for me to say to Microsoft “Screw you!” So in my sleep I was racing through the street, there were paths, obstacles and my mind was making sense of it all (which took a few seconds) and I was seeing the brilliance of that Nintendo kart game that can take place in your home. A good idea, but I gave it steroids and turned it into something serious. You see, there are the F1 people, who love the F1, want to race on their tracks, want to be an F1 driver and this is not for them, There are good products and they are happy there. No, this is for the people who want to race in the real world. So consider a setting where the game has 10 circuits. They can give their address, or one they wished to live and the system will design a racetrack from 2500 metres up to 5500 metres (for now) based on real Google Map data. So you get a game that will soon have thousands of tracks, and the nice part is that there is racing (just the street) and challenge where the system adds obstacles, ramps (looking like it was fake and inserted) to give that goofy feeling for when you go all out. As far as I can tell, it has NEVER been done before and there Amazon gets the inside track, because as you race what is, the system with Machine learning and deeper machine learning will try to make you a map you requested based on the area, or location you gave and adds the track for you personally to your account. A setting where a game can grown into a massive behemoth of racing fun. A setting where you can race where you always desired to race, your hometown (wherever that is), Tokyo streets, Monte Carlo (every racer wants to be there one day), London, Berlin, Amsterdam and the list just grows. I am actually amazed no one in Google was that alert, but there you have it. So I say (still lacking diplomacy) “Militant wench, have at it”, we could include boat racing, but I reckon that a place like Rotterdam will give Amazon all kinds of problems.
A simple idea boosted to a real challenge, and should you wonder why Microsoft cannot come up with it. Well that is simple, they can buy creativity, they merely lack the ability to create something. For that they have Mojang, Bethesda and Blizzard. Those who buy are limited to their knowledge of Excel (or so they say).
Enjoy this midweek! The weekend will be 68 hours away for some.
It is always nice to go to bed, listen to music and dream away. That is until this flipping brain of mine gets a new idea. In this case it is not new IP, but a new setting for a group of people. You see, during lockdown I got hooked on walk video’s. It was a way to see places I had never visited before, it is one way to get around and weirdly enough, these walk videos are cool. You see more than you usually do (especially in London) most of them are actually quite good, a few need tinkering (like music not so loud) but for the most they are a decent experience. Then I thought what if GoPro makes a change, offering a new stage. That got me going, you see, most walks are on a stick, decent but intense for the filming party. So we can set the movie from a shoulder mount, a chest mount, or helmet mount. Yet what is filmed? So what happens if we have something like Google glasses and the left (or right) eye shows what we see in the film. We get all kind of degrees of filming. And if we want to ignore it, we merely close that eye for a moment. I am surprised that GoPro had not considered it, or perhaps they did. Consider that the filmer now has BOTH hands free and can hold something towards the camera, the filming agent can do more and move more freely. Consider that is works with a holder, but there is a need (in many cases) to have both hands available. And perhaps there is a need for both, the need to use one hand for precision and a gooseneck mount to keep both hands free. The interesting part is that there is no setting to get the image on something like Google Glasses and that is a shame, was I the first to think of it? It seems weird with all the city walks out there on YouTube, but there you have it and in that light, I was considering revisiting the IP I had for a next Watchdogs, one with a difference (every Ip creator will tell you that part), but I reckon that is a stage we will visit again soon enough, it involves Google Glasses and another setting that I will revisit. Just like the stage of combining deeper machine learning to a lens (or google glasses), a camera lens that offer direct translations, and the fun part is we can select if that is pushed through to film, or merely seen by us, now consider filming in Japan with machine learning and deeper machine learning auto translating ANY sign it sees. Languages that we do not know will no longer stop us, it will tell the filmmaker where they are and consider linking that to one lens in google glasses that overlays the map? It that out yet? I never saw it and there are all kinds of needs for that part. What you see is what you know, if you know the language. Just a thought at 01:17. I need a hobby, I really do!
That is the question that overcame me. I was considering a new IP on gaming and it is actually going well, but about that soon. Leave it to me to create a Blizzard contender but now as public domain (for Sony and Amazon). And I do need a hobby so it might as well be sawing the chair-legs away from the Microsoft board of directors. Anyway, as I was contemplating a new path in IP, the Guardian gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/20/tower-twice-grenfell-height-planned-single-staircase-urw) with the title ‘Tower twice Grenfell’s height planned nearby with single staircase’, so the initial example on June 14th 2017 was not enough, construction and architectural companies in the UK as vying for the title of who can kill the surplus population the fastest. A few small details, the Grenfell tower was 67 metres high and became a coffin for 72 people. Now we see that the mistake is overtaken by to buildings, one of 130 metres, one 174 metres and again the singular stairs. I reckon that cladding will not be a problem either, there are always ways to avoid cost overruns. So when we are given “A planning application for a 51-storey residential tower in Docklands with one fire escape has been paused after a safety outcry”, my initial thought was “At what point will Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wake the fuck up?”. Not only was once not enough, we now see two plans, one in Docklands and one close to Grenfell, so the people will not see this nightmare, once, they optionally (if they are lucky) see it twice, what a joy greed makes!
So when the guardian treats us to “Grenfell United, a group representing the survivors and bereaved, said: “After half a decade of campaigning for safer homes, it’s shocking to hear that a new tower block, a stone’s throw from Grenfell, rigged with a fire safety defect before it’s even been built, is being planned.” It considers a single staircase inadequate for use by residents and firefighters if an evacuation is needed, even though it is allowable under building regulations.” I am left with the cornerstones.
Why is this still allowed under building regulations?
Why did the Guardian and Grenfell United need to bring this to the people attention?
What on earth is the Mayor of London doing by allowing this targeted killing of London citizens under his watch?
You think that point 3 is overreaching? Consider the Guardian, yes I have had disagreements with them, yet they are giving us a while places like the BBC people (and others too) seemingly have nothing. So at what point will the BBC wake up, when will the larger news take this up and asks loudly the serious questions that should be asked?
I know, only 72 died, London has roughly 9,000,000 people, so it is nothing. If this upsets you excellent! You see, we saw all the trial shenanigans. Now consider the video (from a firefighter) that some might have seen (at https://youtu.be/QM4RJE81fh4) and now consider and wonder how these two plans were set in motion, moreover we get to hear “a 51-storey residential tower in Docklands with one fire escape has been paused after a safety outcry” at what point will you consider ‘has been paused after a safety outcry’. This required an outcry? This was not stopped from the moment the plans were submitted? It would have been long before the people and in particular Grenfell United would have been aware.
So when we see the video with the response from a firefighter ‘How is that even possible?” and now the Guardian informs us that two more apartment buildings, buildings that are even higher are planned, I reckon that a lot of people want to know who is at the helm of these folly pieces and a list of civil servants that are seemingly asleep at the wheel of city governance, because as I personally see it heads will roll on this one. So we might be drawn by “as some safety experts call current staircase rules ‘madness’”, I would be much more interested on the setting that someone signed off on this, because we see “has been paused”, this implies that someone gave the signal to go ahead on this, or not?
So when the Guardian gives us “as part of a complex of 1,760 new homes being planned by the owner of the Westfield shopping centre in west London.” I merely wonder if that Westfield complex has an undertaker on the spot, because for them business will be booming with up to 3,500-4,000 new customers soon enough. You think I am too blunt? Consider that being soft seemingly did nothing and the fact that someone was optionally willing to repeat the 72 deaths with up to 4,000 souls for bartering in a second attempt. I believe we need a sledgehammer, not the subtlety of tweezers. We did that in 2017 and it seemingly led nowhere. So as the Guardian gives us “but it will rely on the same “stay put” strategy that failed on 14 June 2017 contributing to deaths, according to planning documents.” I feel anger, but mostly because there is some logic in the ‘stay put’ setting, yet it cannot be denied that is failed completely in Grenfell, so why were ALL London building plans not stopped to investigate the logical sanity of that procedure? And moreover, why is that setting as well as the conclusions of that not in EVERY newspaper in the Commonwealth?
I will let you ponder on this whilst I continue on the idea that gives Blizzard a run for their money, mostly it is me having a go at Microsoft for buying an ice-cream cone for $37,000,000,000 whilst the supermarket 253.4 meters away sells them by the bucket for $50,000,000. It is only a mere factor of 740, and if I get a decent result on my first attempt Microsoft stock would go straight to the basement, and that is before they get a clue on the other issues that Activision might give them, which makes my attempt a lot easier. Ah well, I hope to give you the news soon.
When a hobby give that much satisfaction, it is almost criminal to be on an income (I would still take it), and the better case for laughter is that one in 740 implies that statistics would fall towards me no matter how it goes. Consider a dartboard. How many darts will it take for you to throw 180? Microsoft can only win if I fail 740 times any success hit sooner becomes a massive cost for them. And there is the rub, only if I fail more than 740 times will Microsoft win, now you try on a dartboard and see how many times it took you to get 180. That is the folly Microsoft started and I am about to rain the size of a blizzard on their parade. Life can be fun and rewarding at times, unless you live in an apartment building in London.
Yes, we all look at ideas that make us rich, we all do. I am no exception. I have my IP, a few in 5G, a few in consoles, in movies, in TV series, in NextGen printable hardware and at least one in books. So until they are all sold I am content. This is the stage where I saw another piece of IP waiting to come to fruition. I see it, yet it is not my forte, in this Google has a massive opportunity and so far no one saw the setting on their retina’s, or on their displays. As I see it Google Maps could be extended and it could extent YouTube creators. Yet I see no start of this, as such I decided to make it public domain and let you all fight over it, or fight over it with Google. You see during lockdown I mentioned that there are all these city walks, yet no one considered to link them to Google maps and to combine them, so that someone looking at the map could click on the YouTube video giving us a real view (more than street view). So when we look at the Map of Toronto (Johny Strides), London (Mostly Walking), Monaco (Tourist Channel), yet also in the other direction. There is for example POPTravel giving us Stockholm, Munich, Heraklion and London. All stages many want to see, but no one made the connection to link these sources to Google maps (or any other map for that matter). I wonder why, if information is selectable, sliceable, dice able and optionally can be set into a funnel, why did no one consider that the funnel can be reversed and that sliced and diced information can be aggregated, so I am a little surprised that this service was not added, making more people look at the information that w could see (via Youtube). I know that some maps show images, but the city walks are a great source of impression. I wonder if no one else made that leap and it could spur YouTube members into optional additional creativity.
Where is the walking route?
Just a thought I had at 10:34 (after a cup of coffee, who is demanding credit for the thought), A stage we all face, we all have and whilst we all make statements like this, until the thought is set to paper and set to the public it basically does not exist. It is one of the oldest rules. If it is not written down it does not exist. I think it comes from the age of Caesar Augustus (63BC-14AD), so it is not a new rule and many should know this part, or they should have been made aware of this.
Good hunting and good fortune to you all (or is that Google hunting for good fortune?)
We can consider me being the Monday morning quarterback, it would be fair to call me this. I have been for the longest time a champion of science, I believe that not unlike evidence in law, science is the cornerstone of all daily life decisions. So I tend to take sides with science for nearly all cases. Yet today, in opposition of a piece in the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/britain-got-it-wrong-on-covid-long-lockdown-did-more-harm-than-good-says-scientist) I take another side, the non-scientist setting. I oppose the views of Professor Mark Woolhouse. So feel free to oppose my views, which would be fair enough. But in all matters take a long hard look at some of the things we are handed here today. I believe that not unlike some wannabe journalists who wanted to cash in on Jamal Khashoggi with their fiction view of ‘Blood and Oil’ this professor might be trying to find the same rabbit in a different hat with ‘The Year the World Went Mad: A Scientific Memoir’.
So where do I oppose? It starts with “I am afraid Gove’s statement was simply not true,” he says. “In fact, this is a very discriminatory virus. Some people are much more at risk from it than others. People over 75 are an astonishing 10,000 times more at risk than those who are under 15.” In March 2020 there was a lot we never knew. Do not forget that the disease was out for only 2-3 months, and it had not spread to the degree it has now. China had no answers, and the people who were responsible for calling this a pandemic did not do so. In addition, the media gave us “This might become a pandemic” all whilst the points of calling it a pandemic had already passed. I wrote about it on February 3rd 2020 in ‘Corona? I Never touch the stuff!’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/02/03/corona-i-never-touch-the-stuff/), a month before we see given here. I already saw the pandemic threshold passed, yet most media were in denial with “This might become a pandemic” as such, it seems to me that Professor Mark Woolhouse will have to explain a few things. Then we get to “We did serious harm to our children and young adults who were robbed of their education, jobs and normal existence, as well as suffering damage to their future prospects, while they were left to inherit a record-breaking mountain of public debt” in this is resort to the blunt ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ In the first there was a lot we did not know, and for the longest time there are still questions, so the response I see with “We did serious harm to our children and young adults who were robbed of their education, jobs and normal existence” is something I would like to refer to as bullshit marketing. You see the first peak of daily deaths did not start until April 13th 2020, with 6916 dead people (aka the non-living).
I found a table from April 2020 from New York. In this table we see 6839 died, but the interesting part is that 5151 cases had an underlying condition and in that case the older you get the higher the chance of an underlying condition, and in that up to 44 years old 312 died. Most with an underlying condition, but there was a lot not known in that setting. More important, there was no vaccine, there was no protection. The Pfizer solution was still in clinical trials in November 2020. And when you start looking at the facts as they were known, I believe that Mark Woolhouse is trimming his own trumpet for the sake of book-sales (a speculative view, but it is my view).
Were mistakes made? Yes, of course mistakes were made, they were made all over the world and with the US having an idiot as president in those days did not help much. There was a large void of knowledge and there was a large void of experience, so looking at the facts after the fact does not help much (apparently it might help a certain professor with a book to sell). And in all this the professor does not take into account the anti-lockdown idiots spreading the disease, the ignorant anti-vaxxers adding fuel to the fire and then the people who were ignorant of the way the disease spread going to relative, friends and so forth needing their social moment.
And in London that is a large powder-keg waiting to explode and now that it is doing just that we see the blame game in effect. So consider the anti-lockdown protest, it only 10 people had it at that point, at least 1000 could have it 3 days later. And everyone remains in denial, oh boo hoo hoo!
So when we get to “the country should have put far more effort into protecting the vulnerable. Well over 30,000 people died of Covid-19 in Britain’s care homes. On average, each home got an extra £250,000 from the government to protect against the virus, he calculates. “Much more should have been spent on providing protection for care homes,” says Woolhouse, who also castigates the government for offering nothing more than a letter telling those shielding elderly parents and other vulnerable individuals in their own homes to take precautions.” Where is the time line? When did we know what we know now and that is before we add the complications of Alpha, Delta and Omicron. And with the last quote “By contrast, we spent almost nothing on protecting the vulnerable in the community. We should and could have invested in both suppression and protection. We effectively chose just one.”
In the first, the government could not afford both paths (slight speculation), there were too many unknown factors and with Omicron raging now, anti-vaxxer idiots and anti-lockdown dumbo’s, how can you protect a community? You can claim you can but stupid people will do whatever they feel like, the vulnerable be damned. That is how people tend to be.
So this is my view on the matter and it is a rare event when I oppose a scientist, especially a professor, but here I feel it was needed. And I had a few more views concerning covid over that year and last year too. I kept it low, because I am not a medici (ha ha ha), yet the larger stage is also ignored in the story. The media was fear mongering all over the place and that too resulted in negative actions. There were several factors and I believe that too many factors were unknown, or untested for the longest of times.
So, if you decide I am the Monday morning quarterback it is fine, I gave my reasoning and my views that go back to February 2020 when it was in the earliest stage. So I am not exactly the Monday morning quarterback, but I am definitely a virtual one. Consider the facts and consider the blah blah from Professor Mark Woolhouse and draw your own conclusions.
Who remembers George A Romero’s Dawn of the dead (1978)? I remember seeing it in the cinema. And the idea stuck with me. Dreams of having an entire shopping mall to myself. The idea stuck for a long time and even as games entered our lives, the setting was never close enough. The idea that we had an entire City centre to ourselves, preferably without the zombies. Not some game where the enemies spawn again, but a stage where there is a city centre, complete with 35000 zombies, a finite number and as we secure our place, grow our place, we renew the settings of security, safety and goods. And I voiced it before and now we seemingly have the game ‘The day before’ a game that seemingly is close enough to my dreams to make it a reality. The game can be played single player (a must for me). And the idea that the game will grow appeals to me. Consider that the mechanics, once they are ready allows for the game to seek us in other ways too. An alien invasion (Skyline, 2010), a pandemic (Contagion, 2011) and the list goes on. Now, I have no idea on how The Day before is set or how it works, but I saw a small play video and my old thoughts of Day of the Dead returned. The idea that you need to stamp out your safe space. Get goods, get sustenance, get ammo, find weapons and so on is very appealing. You wonder how far you get, how long you will last and none of that respawn shit. One life, and between 35,000 and 350,000 opponents. How will you fare? I wonder how far I will get. And for the makers of that game it offers a new kind of DLC/Expansion. We might have 3-5 locations to start, but the appeal to see how far you get in London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Munich, Paris, Moscow and so on, the chance for the makers of The Day before (Fntastic) are close to endless and it does not stop there. The setting of a real final number is appealing on several levels. The idea to redo Day of the dead in Harrods London will be appealing to thousands if not millions of gamers. Setting up the New York City Police Department – 5th Precinct as your own fortress (Assault On Precinct 13 anyone?) is close to intoxicating. And from there the world of us getting close to the movies we watched will be enticing and I reckon for a large audience. In previous years it was merely a ruse, now with the PS5, it becomes an achievable reality. And as I see it 2022-2025 could optionally become great gaming years.
And when the survival part in us is quenched we can return to our normal daily routine of being a sniper (Ghost warrior), or perhaps a racer (Gran Turismo) some will prefer their daily life as pilots (MS Flight simulator), no matter to what life we return, we do so knowing that more and better games are coming our way, preferably less glitchy then Ubisoft is making out to be.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 