Tag Archives: Sweden

August 10, 2026 · 11:39

Moments to drink to

So, as I took notice to the settings in the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/us-booze-bans-canadians-9.7300293) where we see ‘U.S. booze might end up back on Canadian shelves, but have we lost the taste for it?’ Where we see “Majority of Canadians say they won’t buy American alcohol if it becomes available again, recent poll shows” and that is merely the beginning. I (as an Australian) am also shunning American drinks and I am not alone in this. Optionally a fair share of people in the UK are on that same setting. And there are options for us. I for one am a fan of French Cognac (Martel/Hennessy), Australian Rum (Bundaberg), London Gin (Bombay Sapphire) Finnish Vodka (Finlandia), Swedish Vodka (Absolut) and there is Scottish Whiskey, prettier stated Scotch (Glenfiddich), Italian Limoncello (Villa Massa) and optionally Ice Wine from British Columbia (never had it, but I am curious) and there are plenty of Wine suppliers in Australia, Germany and France to have a clear setting of shunning American alcoholic goods. If there is 1-3 ‘essential’ drinks that are unique to the United States we can avoid them and shame all the friends who will go to that venue. That is the effect of the bully tactics with his 51st state remark. So even as we are given “So when she read on Friday that Canada was prepared to lift a ban on American alcohol sales as part of its trade negotiations with the Trump administration, Anderson says she felt disappointed. “But just because it goes back on the shelves doesn’t mean that sales are going to go back to where they were. The damage has been done,” she told CBC in an interview.” As such I am willing to bet that this was an empty point in the settings of the Prime Minster (Mark Carney), because he knew how much Canadians and Commonwealthians were shunning alcoholic good from the United States. A bully tactic that is costing that industry their foothold in several nations. So his beautiful big bill of bankruptcy is coming along fine. So when I see “Support for a continued boycott of U.S. alcohol was highest in British Columbia, where 80.9 per cent of respondents said they were unlikely or somewhat unlikely to buy U.S. booze again if it’s made available. That was followed by 74.7 per cent of people in Ontario and 73.9 per cent of Quebecers who said the same, the poll found.” I merely wonder how steep the decline is in the Commonwealth as a whole. So while we see “Trump has threatened to impose 50 per cent tariffs on some Canadian goods on Aug. 19 if Canada fails to lift some retaliatory trade measures against the U.S., including the alcohol bans. Those bans date back to early last year, when several provinces removed U.S. alcohol from the shelves at their respective liquor boards in response to Trump slapping a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian goods.” There is a larger setting because as industries are failing to make revenue, more and more brands shutdown and they can all put the blame on the Trump Administration and even as Canadians remember how Howard Lutnick was (almost crying) like a little girl, they feel no sympathy and they remember the words given to them in “U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick criticized the current version of North America’s free trade agreement on Friday, calling it a bad deal and taking aim at Canada’s trade strategy ahead of upcoming negotiations.” And as I see it, it was what there was, in light of the 51st state banter and they reacted. So whilst the Prime minister might concede to lifting that part, the population of Canada to buy it, is another matter, it could merely gather dust on the shelves, right next to the elves there who will not be called into service for another 14 weeks. As such I wonder what will be left of the America distilleries and breweries in December 2026. Let alone (I believe) that Monty Python remarked that American beers were like making love in a canoe, it was fucking close to water. As such they could resort to Canadian, German and Belgium beers and there Canada could make trade deals too. A setting that set disaster all before President trump opened his mouth and whilst we see another dump of tariffs, the legal side will prove him wrong twice again and that is the setting of another nail of defeat in the bat of midterms. It all could have been avoided with proper respect and tally the losses that the United States are currently facing. So, as the Financial times is giving us ‘Will US inflation be cool enough to trim bets on a September rate rise?’ We have to wonder what the story is with all this whilst we also see ‘Greenback drops as weak US jobs data pushes out Fed hike expectations’ and we see “The US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said, compared with economists’ expectations for an increase of 80,000 jobs, according to a Reuters poll. The US unemployment rate fell to 4.1 per cent as the labour participation rate fell to a near five-and-a-half-year low of 61.4 per cent.” I am not sure what numbers to believe, but the overall picture puts the United States in a harmful place and the danger of self harm is clearly there, so whilst we get pumped up results in one area, the setting of ‘unfair treatment’ (a cry story from Howard Lutnick) give me the shivers, because if the media to a larger extent is pushing overhyped results in one area, whilst drowning out the negative stories on the other side there is seemingly no good US economy, it is (figuratively) an economy above a sinkhole and that tend to lead to disastrous settings. As I see it, the Trump administration should have played a different game from the start and as we see ‘The US has collected about $19b of Venezuela’s oil money. Where is it?’ (Source: AFR) with “The Trump administration has collected more than $US13 billion ($18.6 billion) in revenues from Venezuelan oil sales this year, according to FT calculations, but has said almost nothing about what has happened to the money.” The sinkhole it is set above is becoming more and more distinct and there is no escaping the fallout of that event and that is before the other elements start playing out, because they will come in the worst time possible. So we could say “We’ll drink to that”, but for the 340,000,000 citizens of the United States it is not good news. As such there is a rather large issue forming and it is not tendered to by American alcohol. Merely by other nations suddenly getting a windfall coming from American insults and those people at any given time will stand with Canadians and that lesson is about to hit hard in Washington DC. 

So have a great day this day.

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August 1, 2026 · 03:19

Hatred explodes

That is what I saw in the last few days and a lot is misdirected sycophant stuff. And in support we are given (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5637p7qpno) ‘Xbox tech boss says ‘unacceptable’ outage should not have affected disc games’ where we see  “Xbox’s technology chief said an “unacceptable” outage on Monday should not have stopped people from playing their games on physical discs. “We’re looking into reports that some players were unable to access games using discs as expected during the service interruption,” Scott Van Vliet said in a statement. He said the outage, which lasted around 20 hours, was caused by a licensing issue failing to correctly check if a user was allowed to play a game.” As such Microsoft has an additional issue, but that is not my concern (I threw my Xbox away years ago) And as I see it, as systems ‘develop’ (often not in a good way) the entire licensing issue is moot, especially if there is a physical copy. So, the “outage on Monday should not have stopped people from playing their games on physical discs” and instead of setting a licensing option, handing the Xbox the license settings in a daily login was not an option? And that license file is ‘abandoned’ if it is a week old didn’t come to mind of these wannabe innovators? That stops anything messing with gamers and their need to game and as Microsoft is given a week to fix their licensing setting, it would seem enough (at present).

But I am not interested in that, it was merely a nice sidestep, the issue is Sony. I initially took notice after the reporting and I wrote about it in ‘Food for Thinking’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/07/03/food-for-thinking/), I still believe that the physical copy will be important because out will destroy the rural gaming community. And gamers have to protect one another. Then there is the Net Neutrality issue that will come up and the business end of it will rear its ugly head making gamers lose another side of things. So the thoughts of Sony do not make any sense, not at all. They know their population going back to 1994, most gamers tend to live there, where they have all their lives and outside of Japan, Korea and Sweden do not stand a chance having a decent gaming option in rural settings. As such gamers need to unite and they are

So, in less than a month, we see the exploding hatred from the announcement that Sony will go fully diskless by 2028. We have time, but the setting is that the this is merely a year and Sony tends to set boundaries this early for a reason. Optionally the PS6 is showing issues with drives and the might be the reason to do this and I saw someone throwing the setting of “No Drive, no buy” and that makes sense, Not for Sony, they will in 2028 speculatively entertain the largest walk out on a brand they grew since 1994 and I am in the same frame of mind, “no drive, no buy” setting. I would hate to lose to play the latest Santa Monica Studio games when that comes to PS6, as well as the Guerrilla Games games Horizon 3, which is implied to be a PS6 launch game. They could even boost PS6 systems selling with a pack with the first two games added for PS6, I reckon that this would propel the PS6 to unheard heights, that might be the solution that makes all sales records grow bleak. It would be an enormous result, but not without the physical drive. So, what is the issue? People will buy the drive if they need to (like the PS5pro setting) I don’t have one, because of obvious reasons and the fact that the PS5 is doing its job brilliantly and it has been doing so since December 2020, so almost 6 years and I never regretted buying it. So what is the deal, because it is nothing like Sony to drop a serious chunk of their gamers into some abyss. The setting doesn’t make sense at the moment and the only speculated thought I am having is that the issue is somehow involving the PS6. And their I have a few questions, because the PS5 is still doing massively great and the only reasons for a pushed upgrade is that the two aforementioned companies is throwing a serious upgrade to their games. Yet as I see it, Laufey is showing to be the bees knees, which means it is top tier gaming (there is nothing wrong with the legs of Deborah Ann Woll, for evidence see her work in True Blood).

So, all the evidence seems to point to issues with the PS6 and they are merely hiding that fact because it would stop them from addressing that issue, but that is purely speculative form my side if things.

I get the exploding hatred, I am not a fan, but I get that all gamers need to protect one another and that seems to get into the hatred field, gamers have a very short fuse if their universe is messed with and Sony should know that, they have over 30 years of experience dealing with gamers. As such the equation does not make sense to me. But perhaps I am not seeing all the facts. It happens, I am (just like anyone else) dependent in the news given to us and in this case it was bad news. 

So I wish all a great day and if you are a gamer, feel free to bludgeon your gaming nemesis (aka big boss) to death and make him your bitch. That top feeling tends to release the right amount of dopamine where it needs to go. For example Jacqueline Natla (big boss of first Tomb Raider), Marco Bartoli (Tomb Raider 2), Helis, aka The Terror of the Sun and I can name several others, but you get the picture. We have been slaying bosses since 1994 and we don’t want that to end. More important, we want to make sure that this is a setting rural gamers can also enjoy for many years to come. So Sony better be warned, because they have Don Mattrick to be the example, remember him in June 2013 where he made a speech and the Xbox went from 2nd place to dead last? Don’t be a Mattrick, remain faithful to your gamers. That is what I think of this.

Write more to you later readers, darn its lunchtime in Toronto, wish I was there so I could have a cheeseburger with fries and it is conveniently close to the Eaton Centre. Looks like I have to wait 300 minutes to have breakfast in Sydney. The crosses we have to carry, so unjust.

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July 27, 2026 · 09:52

The gaming concerns

We all giggle at the ‘forecast’ of some gaming bosses. I am the same, so when I saw (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9803j74091o) ‘Amazon gaming boss predicts future where players no longer need consoles’ we can anticipate “Yes, but that is not now, it will be in the not so near future” and the setting of “Amazon’s head of gaming Jeff Gattis has told the BBC he believes the rising cost of tech means people will turn to streaming games online rather than buying new consoles. He said the tech has developed a lot in recent years, making it more viable than it used to be – but accepted some people will still buy their own hardware.” The truth of the matter that streaming is the future, but the setting towards a thick client (to a console) will make the most sense close to a decade. 

You see, some might remember the Microsoft failure Crackdown 3 where we see “Crackdown 3 uses a cloud-based compute system for its multiplayer mode (Wrecking Zone) to offload physics and environment destruction calculations to Microsoft Azure servers, multiplying local hardware power by up to twenty times. It is also fully playable via video streaming through Xbox Cloud Gaming with supported subscriptions.” But the results were “However, this data-streaming system frequently triggers micro-stutters, texture pop-in, and occasional fast-travel freezes on PC and base consoles.” And be clear, I am not having a go at Microsoft here. I actually applaud that they took this leap in 2019. It could have been better to some extent, but it was clear that the hardware was nowhere near ready even for strong servers using distributed technology. And we haven’t gotten much better at it in gaming at this time. Yes, distributed streaming is the wave of the future and I whole support this, but we are not ready, none of the gaming systems are at present to exclude a console. So when we see “While cloud gaming has long been billed as the future of video games, previous efforts have failed to gain widespread adoption – leading to the high-profile closure of Google Stadia in 2023.” I saw a future which could have gotten Google $6 billion in annual revenue, but they had closed the Stadia a week earlier. As such I offered that solution to Amazon (Andy Jessy) but he never got back to me, as I see it, his loss. Now I am still awaiting Tencent with their solution to nibble on that setting and there is no doubt that my prediction of $6 billion is real and I wrote about it in my blog (go look for it) I am not the person to hand out solutions to any wannabe that asks. And it was a real setting with gaming options to over 50 million gamers in the first phase. I predicted (as clumsily as I could what would happen after) but I have nothing real to offer after that revenue hits $12 billion – $15 billion annual. And I based it on a three pronged solution, because as I see it, a console is there for more than one reason and it would be a shame merely to offer one side. Google made the most sense as they had developed two of the solutions, but these could be remade and I wholly believe in streaming technology.

So when we see “Gattis argued there was still a huge untapped audience beyond traditional console owners which Amazon was trying to reach. “There are somewhere between two-and-a-half and three billion people who play games around the world, but only a fraction of those own dedicated gaming hardware,” Gattis said.” I find these numbers a little debatable, because as I see it, those relying on their mobile are not really gamers, that requires a large screen (or TV) and a decent console or home computer but that might be merely my view and in all this there is a future for distributed gaming, but it requires what is referred to as a thick client (console/home computer) because these millions of people will flood the internet when they are merely use a think client and I merely have to point out the issues Sony had a mere two days ago, to see the setting of “Thin clients require a stable internet and thin clients are network-dependent” that is the setting and before 2040, there is no non console setting to be had, even then you will be catering to metro people and the rural gamers are left behind. A setting I find completely disgusting and unsavory. Gaming is for everyone and even if (at times) we see that there is a lot to be had from these ‘metro’ gamers. It is completely unacceptable to stop catering to rural gamers. If only to consider France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Italy, Greece and that is merely Europe. Actually Sweden has the bet internet nationwide, but if we consider nations like Saudi Arabia, USA, Canada, Australia, and a few other places. How many rural gamers will be thrown into gaming darkness because of this? I boggles the mind I say. The BBC gives us more (read th article) and a lot makes sense in all this, but the setting of ““Gamers are willing to trade a little fidelity for convenience, but not to pay premium prices for something they don’t own which stutters when the Wi-Fi dips,” he said.” Is also something that needs addressing and it is done through the subscription model, as I see it, when you are a member, you get to won a game for all time, but it requires a thick client, so games at the end of their cycle need to be downloaded to the console, with an optional SD Card, to unclog the console. That might be a first setting that will gain the favour of gamers and the idea that they have at times a month to get a simple SDCard, is not to taxing on their wallet.

A simple card that supports the total of a Blu-ray can be gotten for a mere $33, as such storage becomes near obsolete as well. As such there are options but I see it for the far future, no matter what I believe that my solution holds, it will require a thick client, as the internet at present is a little to unsafe and insecure to count on. And that is before the upcoming rematch of net neutrality, a setting so intense and massively hedged against gamers, that a thin client is too dicey a choice to make at present.

Well, that is it for now. So tune in later today for a story that will make pyromaniacs water their mouths. Have a great day all and to all have a great day gaming.

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June 25, 2026 · 15:40

Expect bubbles

That is what I was introduced to (really early) this morning and I saw a few articles, but one gave me an interesting option. So lets take a look. (At https://stocksdownunder.com/ai-bubble-chip-stocks-crash/) we are given ‘Is the AI Bubble Bursting? Why Nvidia, Micron and Chip Stocks Are Crashing’ it holds a lot of record, but I was taken with this setting ‘Is the AI Bubble Bursting or Just a Healthy Reset?’ With the text “Here is the honest answer: it could be either, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. The bear case is simple. Micron has more than tripled in value this year, and a run like that leaves very little room for disappointment. The bull case is that demand for AI memory and data centres is still strong, and analysts note the selling looked more like a rush for the exits than a real change in the companies’ earnings. We lean towards this being a crowded trade getting stress-tested, not the end of the AI story. But if the selling spreads well beyond chip stocks, that view needs to change quickly” (and at this point I learned that whoever was working on this is a noob and an idiot for his CSS settings as they are all over the place) But that is matter for another day. The “It could be either” and a third setting was the one I referred to a few days ago when simply Wall Street put out an unsigned piece that Palantir could be overvalued for well over 20%, as such this market has some people in it that would like to short stock as that is where their dollars come flying. And as we see in the article “Investors simply pay less for today for profits that may not arrive for years.” And as I see it, some investors are not beyond shorting stock if it fuels their profits, so a third reason is found. I am still on the side of the AI bubble shorting, but n that case a healthy reset of trillions is not out of the scope of things and the marshmallow field of fictive unicorns is rearing its ugly head that comes with the “late arrival of profits” and now that the investors are wondering what they got into, some will see that they are fueling a stock market that cannot survive delay upon delay and with AI not yet existing that is where it is all heading. So it is time to get another view and we see this in Clean Technica (at https://cleantechnica.com/2026/06/24/trillion-dollar-ai-bubble-on-verge-of-popping/) where we see ‘Trillion-Dollar AI Bubble On Verge Of Popping?’ And I am not adding it, because this is in part the view I have, what we see is “Yann LeCun, one of the “Godfathers of AI,” is one of the notable people who think the industry has been far too overhyped and misunderstood. He’s been pointing out that AI costs could be much higher than the amount of money customers are willing to pay for it.” It comes (also) with “Labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are going to have to increase prices, they’re going to have to cut costs, or there’s going to be a big bubble explosion,” and ““In their pursuit to boost productivity, become less reliant on human labor, and reassure investors that they’re riding the cutting edge of tech, some nagging issues are cropping up,” Futurism adds, and “over-relying on AI can prove disastrous for organizational knowledge, the critical business insights companies need to make strategic decisions.”” This is the setting that is actually fueling both the bubble burst as well as a healthy reset all at the same time and I reckon that for OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok and Microsoft that will most likely happen in the least interesting time and they will all ‘suffer’ for it, so consider when this bubble loses $4,000,000,000,000 – $5,000,000,000,000 (writing the word trillion makes it trivial) because that is likely to happen and the market is figuring out what I saw over 1-2 years ago, when you realise that all AI is fake, it is easy and let there be no mistake, all AI is fake. You see, what we are seeing is Deeper Machine Learning and Large Language Models and these are great tools and they will create markets for themself, but the people are expecting AI and that is just not true. So as AP News gives us “The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 110.40 points, or 0.4%, to 25,476.64. A 2.3% drop in Microsoft was the heaviest weight on the market. Oracle slumped 4.6%. Many large tech companies have been behind Wall Street’s record-setting run throughout the year, but analysts have warned their valuations may have become stretched.” I personally reckon that someone is likely playing a stock short game with both Oracle and Palantir. You see, no matter how you slice it, the proper Data needs for DML/LLM solutions require data technology and these two are refined into the core of that and optionally there is Snowflake as well, but it might not yet be large enough to get the attention of the stock shorting DoDo’s (lets call them that).

Jawlah, a prominent Arabic digital media platform and news organization focused on venture capital (VC), startups, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA region (Middle East/ North Africa) gives us (at https://jawlah.co/en/59212) where we see ‘Fears of an AI bubble burst after a sharp tech stock sell-off’, which I reckon is fair enough. But the interesting part is where we see “The decline followed a near-800% surge in Micron’s stock over the past year, driven largely by rising demand for memory chips needed to run AI globally — gains some analysts believe may have overestimated expected returns”, as well as “Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, explains the volatility: “The market swings between a wave of optimism that AI will change everything and renewed skepticism that it is just an expensive bubble whose returns do not justify the current spending.”.” And I am here in opposition, it is not “renewed skepticism”, it is the mere setting that those willing to hand out trillions should never have been so optimistic without proper case files and validation, so whilst they might get their cash back in 2045 when actual AI comes into play, the rest until then will be massively overvalued.  As I, as a non-believer, see it, someone listened to a sales person with the mindset of a second hand car salesman that stated “Look, we have AI” and the rest followed like crazy to get those coins rolling their way and now we are optionally seeing the start of an AI bubble. I am trodding carefully because there is disagreement whether it is an actual bubble popping. I reckon it requires an actual econometrist to call that for real and I ain’t one of those actuary types (nowhere near).

What we see is that we are given “it has erased approximately $2.7 trillion in market value across AI-linked companies”, all whilst the reasoning is “massive debt-funded data center expansions, mounting hardware costs, and growing investor scrutiny over artificial intelligence’s actual return on investment” which (as I personally see it) is only partially true. As I see it, the data sovereignty in Europe and the Commonwealth is setting the drain on the Return on Investments (ROI) towards these massive debt-funded data center expansions and that will hit business in the United States a lot harder than anywhere else. You see the United States has over 4,000 data centers. So how many are still under debt? And when a response group of over 700 million people walk away from that, with an additional optional population of up to 2.7 billion people (that is the complete Commonwealth), so it will not be that much, but I reckon at least 50%, that is 4,000 centers that will now lose close to 2 billion people (or 2,000 million), so where is that unused potential going? That is what I saw almost a year ago (actually a lot earlier, but until President Trump come, most people let the states quo continue) and that has now changed. So as others players (like DayOne) and there is someone in Sweden who saw this coming a few years ago and put his money where his thoughts were. I forgot that players name, but they are likely to make massive gains. All out off the hands of the United States. That part is not represented in any of these articles, but it is a factor in all of this.

So, we are expecting bubbles and I reckon a few other setting will rear its ugly heads, but the markets will all attribute this towards bubbles, because some is massively unhappy to attribute the other losses towards an US Administration that should have known better, but that is merely me looking at other factors in all this. The larger issue in all this is that some solutions are likely to be rather good and I hope that they are allowed to continue, because investors and speculators will want their returns at whatever expense they can get and some will suffer because of that greed driven taint in all this. But I might be the next village idiot in all this. Just like that seer in the 3rd century that saw large walls of stone with thousands of people and it was written off as a lying loon (he saw the Altiero Spinelli building in Brussels) but that is a story for another day.

So whatever you do, don’t rush into or out of anything without clearly seeing the ramifications. Have a great day today.

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April 18, 2026 · 12:36

The danger of assumption

I saw the CBC news, then I saw a YouTube video and as there is some relation, I thought it important to illustrate this as I am a Commonwealthian, as such I stand with Canada. The news (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lockheed-martin-officials-canada-tout-maintenance-plan-f35s-9.7168398) where we see ‘Lockheed Martin officials coming to Canada to tout maintenance plan for F-35s’ I the first degree I was clearly on the Canadian side (I still am, in case you worry). We were given “Canada ordered 88 F-35s in 2023, but began reassessing its options after Trump took office” with an additional “Canada has a firm order for 16 F-35 aircraft, to begin delivery later this year, to replace Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18s. As CBC recently revealed, Canada has discreetly begun to incur expenses toward acquiring another 14 F-35 aircraft. Several politicians have been invited to Tuesday’s event in Mirabel, but National Defence Minister David McGuinty and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly do not plan to attend. Senior American executives from Lockheed Martin and L3Harris are expected at the event.” It comes with the added “In its media advisory, Lockheed Martin said its agreement with L3Harris “will provide Canada with greater control over aircraft maintenance, reduce reliance on overseas logistics and enhance operational readiness.” L3Harris is still trying to convince the governments of Canada and Quebec to offer funding to help modernize its facilities in Mirabel. The company has said thousands of jobs in the region are at stake. L3Harris is hoping to transform its Mirabel facilities, which are currently used to service CF-18s, into a maintenance depot for Canadian and American F-35s.” As I see it, it is an act of desperation. The much larger setting of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen a Swedish solution, is cheaper, is more reliable in cold environments and it comes with added of economic settings for Canada. Lockheed Martin has no real answer and President Trump made the sale of 88 F-35 a liability and Canada is looking for a better solution, one that takes the pressures away from the United States giving Canada. The Swedish solution makes perfect sense for Canada and as such Canada is seemingly (I use seemingly as I have never seen the original sales documents) chasing Sweden and its Saab solution. The simple bottom line is that Canada can get 2 Saabs for every F35, as such it is quite the cost saving. As such Lockheed Martin is scared, its own president endangered the sale for billions and that is a problem, as such the options given to Canada is fluidic, more options and there is the fear factor, a fear factor for the United States, because Canada when it pulls out the American pillars of economy and taxation are almost certain to collapse. And Lockheed Martin is the first corporation to fae billion dollar losses because of the silliness of one particular person in Washington.

The setting that spending on nearly any kind in the United States are seen as the more risky spending is now seen as other spending settings is considered and there is a win for Sweden as well as the EU on other fields. There was a second setting, but it seems that there is a level of inaccurate settings by Today Canada stating that yesterday at 03:45 Trump stated “51st state soon”, it would be anger instilling, but I found no evidence that this actually happened and if it was on Trump social media, everyone would be shouting it. 

So that is not a factor, but the underlying setting is (which the media is ignoring too) the underlying setting is that the United States is (as I personally see it) almost completely out of cash. They are shifting all kinds of posts that they can pay later for what they need to pay now. I have given these views in the past (not interested in hashing out the same) but the setting adds up. As such I believe that CBC is reporting on the desperation of gaining the favour of Canada and they are willing to bend over backwards. And as a definite winner is not announced (not in the media) Lockheed Martin believes it has options for now. And whatever the actual sentimentality is towards Canada, there is a firm believe that President Trump has actually united the world. As far as I know the United States is now (for the most) the most hatred nation in the western world. So president Trump united all the nations. The fact that it is against the united States might be a mere blip on his radar. The problem is that the media is no help as they lost too much credibility and as such the influencers and doom speakers are now calling for out attention (players like Today Canada) and should they be right, then they should present the evidence, not just the images of old, with suiting dialogue. And as I usually check all the sources handed to me, Today Canada fell through the basket a fake news bringers.

But the setting is still of importance not directly what President Trump did or did not do, but the need to vetting the information we get must be vetted. Some (like CBC) get a pass through the credibility they earned over time, which means that there is credibility. 

So as we see the desperation of Lockheed Martin and the setting of the Saab Gripen, it would help if the world (and Canadians in particular) get a nice setting of what the story with Saab and Lockheed Martin is, what has been agreed upon and what is clearly set and what is still in tentative settings. We all get that there are tentative settings, but as I see it, with the United States any other option seems more reliable (as I personally see it). 

And whilst we can assume most things, we can at times presume a few things and those with reliability are more credible and with personal exposure to facts presumption gains more weight and those who blindly assume will lose whatever reliability they had.

Have a great day.

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February 17, 2026 · 19:32

Choices of an inspiring nation

We might not always agree with the choices ones nation makes, but there is no denying that the Olympics are the proper breeding grounds for Nationalism. At present the rankings are held by Norway – Italy and the United Stated, but this is a tally that could change at least twice a day and the Netherlands is racing the United States as both have 6 golden medals. And there is more, but this is not about the medals. Fayik ABDI (KSA) did not get any, but the setting that someone from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is participating is blowing my mind. There is an absolute absence of snow in the 2,149,690 square kilometers it inhabits. As such to see someone in that tally getting so kind of placed in the 95th position is quite remarkable. Yes, there are all kind of people making some yabayaba statement, but I was born in the Netherlands, they have snow there. I have also lived in Sweden. Another nation with plenty of snow and I never made that list (as did millions of Dutch and Swedes), so come to think to it a remarkable setting. The same goes for Alex Astridge, a 19 year old Emirati who is set to become the first male Alpine skier from the desert nation to compete at the Olympic Winter Games. I did not see the results, but there is an expected setting that he is not making that list. No worries, he is at least an Olympic competitor, something billions of people will never be able to do. 

And whilst some might belittle that setting, keep in mind that they never made it anywhere there. I almost got there in my younger days (in fencing), but I never had the required points to qualify and I saw one of my opponents get there (and I was happy for him) He was Oscar Kardolus and today I learned he is no longer among us. He was a great fencer. For comparison he got the Dutch title 18 times. I was not good enough to get it even once (to make sure you won’t think that I am on his level). As such we are all a little more nationalistic during the Olympics. Even those who are by large not interested in sports. 

So whilst we are watching how our nations are doing during these days and we are keeping our forgers crossed for others. Like most of the Commonwealth is keeping its fingers crossed for Canada (women’s hockey) to slap USA silly (if at all possible) and whilst almost whole of Canada is holding its breath for the semi-finals on February 21st and the finals on February 22nd, most of the Commonwealth will hold its breath too, especially as they are likely to face off against USA as well. And to some it might not make sense, but then I was never one to watch submarine racing either (that’s a spectator sport) and the funnies keep on coming. So whilst you might avoid sport events, almost 95% of any nation is watching with baited breath on how its nation is doing, even if they realise that their contender might never make the podium. Sport achievements are respected almost everywhere and that is something, because its roots were seen in Ancient Olympics 776 BC, something that was brought back to life in the 1896 Summer Olympics. A sporting event that brings people together for 2800 years now (minus the interruption) I personally see this setting as a great way to bring some ‘parties’ together in an informal way to get a dialogue started. Sometimes a non-formal setting might be the way to get a discussion going. That being said I am massively against politic entering the Olympic field, but on the audience stand, people start talking (as people do) and when they are on their nationalistic foot, optional open, especially when their team is winning. 

In this world we need to have these moments in time, especially when the media and some other players can no longer be trusted. The neutral places where a dialogue can be called for might be the best setting to have.

Have a great day.

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January 27, 2026 · 05:22

What The Actual Fuck

That was the first thought that I had when US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra opened his mouth again. Then again, his lifetime service ends in 1089 days, so Canada survive his term for another three years? So what brought this about? Well, CBC gives us (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/norad-canada-us-f35-9.7059800) ‘NORAD pact would change if Canada pulls back from F-35 order, warns U.S. ambassador’ where we see “and would fly them more often into Canadian airspace to address threats approaching the U.S.” what does that flagrantly inappropriate piece of (whatever he is) think he is by violating Canadian airspace without consent of the Canadian government? A case might be made on Changing NORAD, they are usually too busy tracking Santa Claus with their systems, making these systems active one day a year. But to give Canada the setting that we  are given that “Ambassador Hoekstra describes the current defence relationship as “awesome,” but says such interventions by the U.S. military over Canada would increase if Canada does not increase its purchase of F-35s beyond the 16 currently on order.” And the setting that America has any input in HOW MANY and which airplanes come the Seraglio of the United States (their new nickname) is beyond his seat and beyond his entitlement (as I personally see it). So when I see “U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada is warning of consequences to the continental defence pact if Canada does not move forward with the purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets.” I feel entitled to loosely lose it. Canada is making his requirement known and it is THEIR opinion that the Saab JAS 39 Gripen can do the job as the choice for Canadian defence, that is up to the people who are empowered (in Canada) to do so, not for the White House, or are the losses that the White House enacted over themselves no longer paying for the electricity bill? You know that stuff that is coming from Canada and now comes with a 100% tariff?

In this light I would personally offer the setting that the 88 F-35’s are an option when it comes with a 63.4% discount, but then it would still be up for Minister Mélanie Joly and Minister David McGuinty to give that go ahead, but in no way is there any acceptance that this is up to American Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, or to even suggest that USA planes fly into Canada (without permission) and take optionally seen as hostile actions. And as NORAD is also in Alaska, there is enough time for the Canadian air force to take positive actions before there is an actual issue on United States soil. 

So even as the article in CBC ends with ““That’s crazy. We’re not a threat,” said Hoekstra.” I would like to add “Not we, you are the threat Ambassador Hoekstra” and you better realise that really soon before you run your mouth again in anti-Canadian outbursts, as the selling through threats of buying airlines to counter invasion tactics, it shows the ‘craft’ level of a lousy second hand car salesman and Canada made its choice when it selected the Saab to do the job at  25% of the cost and perhaps it was partially selected because your boss ran his mouth with those ‘51st state’ remarks. So at present there are concerns that the United States needs to sell at least 105 F-35 airplanes to counter the setting of “US Treasury bonds experienced a significant sell-off, with yields on 10-year notes reaching 4.3% and 30-year yields touching 4.9%. This surge in yields, the highest since September 2025, was driven by concerns over potential trade wars with Europe and geopolitical tensions. Foreign investors hold roughly 31% ($9.4 trillion) of US debt, and some European entities have signaled a re-evaluation of their holdings.” It comes with the unconfirmed information from a source that Goldman Sachs had sold over 800 billion in bonds. I only had one source and no validation of this, not with the SEC (who had over 4200 documents of actions by Goldman Sachs), but it might not be easy to find as 800 billion+ implies that the United States and its dollar are pretty much done for, not something you want to herald to the media. And I was ready to reject it, but in comes Ambassador Pete Hoekstra making demands that Canada takes a 100% of the 88 Lockheed Martin dinky toys (could be corgi toys), now that lose statement of sold bonds seems a little too ‘conveniently’ out there. But there is another setting, since when does any government bully its way to the purchase line with an overpriced drone that requires a pilot? So, are you feeling the animosity yet Ambassador Hoekstra? And I am a mere Australian, but that makes me a Commonwealthian and one that stands with its Canadian brothers (sisters too). You seemingly forgot that you are merely boasting towards Canadians, but as it stands you are offending Australians (aka Aussies), New Zealanders (aka Kiwi’s) and the United Kingdom (aka Britons) as well. As such you might want to pick up your book ‘101 ways for being clever in diplomacy’ up again, you might have looked into that in your first year in addressing negotiation, international relations, and conflict resolution. Optionally books given to you by UNITAR, but that is mere speculation by me. 

And perhaps you want to point pout where you can do such a thing as the 11 principles that govern NORAD include (as 6th principle) “No permanent change of station for forces under NORAD control can occur without national authority approval.” Or even principle 11 which gives us “The agreement includes provisions for review or renewal (originally set for 10 years).” When exactly is that renewal due? I might be foggy on this part. So exactly who is in charge of NORAD? We are given “The Commander and Deputy Commander will not be from the same country; appointments require approval from both nations.” So when did you discuss this matter with General Gregory Guillot of the United States Air Force? Or perhaps his deputy (which I personally doubt) which is General Iain S. Huddleston of the Royal Canadian Air Force. And perhaps you might want to refresh my mind on where it stands what flying materials each player brings to the NORAD table. As I stated, I might be foggy on that part and in this the media is no help at all.

But I reckon you know all this because you opened your mouth and as such you would have reviewed the materials before speaking. It might be an incorrect view on the matter but don’t several diplomacy books tell the diplomat to any table prepared for what is to come? Sun Tzu (not a diplomat) tells us that victory is secured through meticulous preparation and strategic calculation before a battle begins. And as you entered that field speaking, I gathered that you would have been prepared for that and as such you would have familiarised yourself with the doctrine of NORAD. Was I right?

So you all have a great day and as I stood up for my Canadian brethren (sisters too) I feel great and I am now 150 minutes from breakfast, so I feel good. Especially as I feel the urgent urge for coffee at this time.

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January 20, 2026 · 22:57

Thoughts of a different streak

That is what is bothering me. You see I had a weird ‘daydream’ there could be all kinds of reasons to have this dream, but it struck me as weird at the time. You see I was offered a sweet position in the Starlink program in tech support and I was placed in Abu Dhabi, there were two other tech support locations. Toronto and Sydney these three centers give reasons for 24 hours support and I was added to the Abu Dhabi station (from Sydney). It was a nice dream of having a decently paid job, but that was not the part that was bugging me. In the dream The US Department of War had taken control of Starlink (I have no idea why) and its was supposed to be a short term one. But the issue kept nagging on me. Why would they even need it? And these aren’t facts. It was a dream I had, a day dream no less, no nothing factual.

My brain has seemingly connected the fact “Astronomy Disruption: This leakage disrupts radio telescope observations, specifically in the 10.7 to 12.7 GHz range, making it harder for astronomers to observe the universe” as well as “Starlink satellites are emitting unintended, low-level electromagnetic radiation that interferes with radio astronomy” but my brain (not to most obliging element in this universe) is connecting this to an old intrusion solution I devised. It was the Hop+1 solution I thought through when we saw the news on the Sony Intrusion and we now see “refers to the major 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), where hackers (Guardians of Peace) stole massive amounts of sensitive data, leaked unreleased films, and disrupted operations, linked to North Korea due to the film The Interview. There were also significant breaches involving the PlayStation Network (PSN) in 2011 (77 million accounts) and 2014, and a 2023 incident affecting Sony employees via a MOVEit vulnerability. ” I was of the mindset (as North Korea was pointed at) that they lacked the knowledge to do this. I wrote this piece on September 30th 2017 in ‘The Good, the Bad, and North Korea’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/09/30/the-good-the-bad-and-north-korea/). The article has a few other points, but my mind started to think that this was most likely an inside job, but in other setting how could it be done and with the Defence department and the NSA in mind, I created HOP+1. I make some mention of it in there. The insides were a little too well working (in my mind) to publish it out there, no need to give hackers any more handles. But then mind might have been mulling over, that if there is leakage and disruption, it might be used in other ways too. It might not have the desired initial effect, but as I see it, these satellites will have been set to a reengineered setting of Cisco solutions. And that would make sense and as such HOP+1 would be back in business.

Is it that simple? I have no idea, but my brain is trying to tell me something that I cannot yet see (or I am blatantly ignoring myself) and in part there is a setting that HOP+1 relied on an inside intrusion (or break-in) at a location that in on the hop path, no bunnies required and the outcome is usually successful as I have seen the laziness of IT people all over the lands (Netherlands, UK, Germany, Sweden, USA and Australia) as such I feel that my HOP+1 would work, but in Starlink, these blighters cannot be reached with a normal staircase, so I have no idea, but I think my mind has worked out what could be done with a program approach in the setting from 10.7 to 12.7 GHz range, but I am fishing here (my brain won’t tell me what it has figured out. Perhaps it is making me go through the motions. 

Well that is it for now, perhaps there will be another sequence on this if I figure out what I had figured out. It is almost midnight (70 minutes from now) so have a great day I will turn the Sahara forests into a desert by snoring all the wood away.

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January 4, 2026 · 02:07

The other channel

That was in my mind when I was rewatching Teen Wolf today. What as a funny movie in 1985 became a stellar TV series with its much darker supernatural vibe was an amazing achievement and I was thinking that Europe has had its own successes in the timeframe of 70’s to 90’s. There was a lot of American series, but they have had some local successes and that is the price that Pinewood Toronto Studios or Canadian Broadcasting Centre (CBC Studios), there is the idea that Bardel Entertainment or Mercury Filmworks could translate some of this to Cartoons with a Canadian twist to it. 

There are legions of options, but in the trend of Canada becoming more and more independent of America, I have been twisting my brain on how to do that. I was considering giving them my first TV serious, but it was written to an Islamic public, so it might not apply to any Canadian studio unless the stream to either Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Indonesia. The setting bares thought, but that might be for later. At this point I am looking to what we can do now.

The Netherlands had Q&Q (70’s) about a young photography enthusiast and as he falls the photo takes a picture and when the develops the film the snapped picture is a blurry picture of a man seemingly dead. Optionally that could take place in Biidaasige Park (a speculation I am making) and that is before you look at TV series in Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France and a few other places. I reckon that the French series might get rewritten for Grandé Studios. I merely wonder if this was done already, or was there never a need for this? But as the appeal for America is waning and whilst they are eager to export, Canada needs an alternative and whilst Canada makes great TV, the idea to cater to itself has of course a few benefits and the appeal that they unite a lot more closer to the EU will have a few benefits too. And as the options are given a lot more considerations. The idea of Canadian TV emerging with additional materials that is devoid of American interference, but that might merely be my idea of true independence. 

A setting that bares thought, because there are plenty of Canadian that are clever (besides Ryan Reynolds who is utterly bonkers) but until they realise that we are on their side (mostly those in the Commonwealth) we need to give the idea and bring the ideas that could propel them further, especially without America, as it is more intent to thwart their bankruptcy be accusing Venezuela for Drugs offenses, whilst they merely want the oil Venezuela has. It might be my assumption, but no one in the American administration gives clear explanation and some of it comes across as utter BS (that what makes the grass grow in Texas). The setting requires the rest of the world to isolate America. It is not something I would suggest, but it comes down to that at present, especially when they are still going after Greenland and optionally Canada too. 

As such the setting I am having is how could I help? And my creativity went haywire. I designed a game (which I published earlier in my blog) and I am considering a few more options, but I halted at TV, because I never considered it before. And I have three scripts that could help (when they are completed) and I have something new on the route as well, merely one was done, but it was for an Islamic audience. So as an idea I grabbed to the old IP that is decades old. It might revitalize TV and give a few other options for IP registration and optional rewrite. That could lead to Canada exporting TV series as well. But that would be for another day.

So whilst we turn to another channel, we need to see that Canada might become that channel and that needs to be invoked with creativity out of all other directions, not just mine, but from Europe and the rest of the Commonwealth as well. We need to support our Canadian brother, at least that is my personal believe and when we create that setting, we all avoid a larger pressure from America and Hollywood. A simple bonus setting we are all entitled to. But feel free to disagree with me on this, I reckon Canadians won’t.

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December 22, 2025 · 17:44

Why is a stage a stage?

That is at times a decent question. Even for me, because as I write this, I do so subjectively, nearly every writer does. Writer about his point of view and I am no better (or worse for that matter). It is the merging of two points of view and these points of view are others points of view and they have their own reasoning. It is not about good or bad, points of view almost never are in a set stage. But they must be watched as they influence your own point of view and whilst some are eager to give them all a one sided setting, I learned that this is not something that tends to help. Especially if points of view are multidimensional. As such, I give two points of view and blend them to my own stage.

The first was given by Yahoo Finance (at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-oracle-became-a-poster-child-for-ai-bubble-fears-150039511.html) I don’t agree with that point of view but it was a decent setting of a stage. And stages are where we are.

The first setting gives us ‘How Oracle became a ‘poster child’ for AI bubble fears’ I don’t believe in that setting, but it matters for the whole story. “Oracle (ORCL) stock’s boom and bust in 2025 has become emblematic of the tech trade’s central conflict: Investors can’t decide whether AI is a generational opportunity or a looming risk.” But then we get “AI optimism continued to push Oracle shares higher following its quarterly earnings reports in June and September, with AI-driven deals set to push cloud segment revenue to $166 billion in 2030. The stock’s surge in September briefly made Ellison the world’s wealthiest person. But AI euphoria quickly gave way to doubt. Investors became increasingly concerned over the rising use of debt to fund tech firms’ AI spending, just as the payoff of that spending remains hotly debated. Those concerns are evidenced in the budding demand for Big Tech credit default swaps (CDS) — financial contracts that act as insurance by letting investors bet on the likelihood that a company will default on its debt.” And that setting is somewhat important, and for those who remember the 2008 crash, they fear the stage the the CDS and that is fine, I don’t think that this setting is great, but the stage of letting investors bet on the likelihood that a company will default on its debt is not really great, it is the stage where some will set or even orchestrate the need for some to fall and that is what makes the bubble burst and I gave that setting before (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/12/02/aftermath/) in the story ‘Aftermath’ where I highlighted parts of the equation. It is the second part that is the setting of the stage and it is about stages. You see, we all envision a stage whether it is the real stage sets part of the question and when we consider the stage we think matters, we might look at the size, the lighting or how we move on that stage. All matters for consideration but I digress. The second story was given to us by the Motley Fool (at https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/09/16/prediction-oracle-will-surpass-amazon-microsoft-an/) and there we get ‘Prediction: Oracle Will Surpass Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to Become the Top Cloud for Artificial Intelligence (AI) By 2031’ where we see “Oracle forecasts that revenue from its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) segment could grow from around $10 billion in its last fiscal year (fiscal 2025), to $18 billion in its current fiscal year (fiscal 2026), $32 billion in fiscal 2027, $73 billion in fiscal 2028, $114 billion in fiscal 2029, and $144 billion in fiscal 2030 — corresponding with calendar year 2031.” As well as “Oracle’s push into cloud infrastructure is arguably its boldest bet in the company’s history. Oracle isn’t cutting corners, either; it is bringing on dozens of data centers online in just a few years. It has built 34 multi-cloud data centers and should have another 37 online in less than a year.” Now we have seen two not aligned stages, but the actual stage it a lot larger. You see, the others all ‘want to align’ with Oracle, but that merely means that they want the solutions that Oracle has or get the customers that have selected Oracle, but the others forget something that matters. Oracle has been the data innovator for over 45 years and no one can touch what they achieved, even in the early 90’s they were the only one who could set tables within tables and it took others close to a decade to even get close. Azure, AWS and others never got ahead of Oracle, they merely reengineered what Oracle already figured out and there is more to come. 

You see the two stages are in a larger third stage and as I see it, Oracle has focussed on the data that is needed for DML and LLM settings, but they must know that actual AI requires more and it starts with two elements Verification and Validation. There two parts are the achilles heel for anyone making the statements that this is AI (which it is not) and no matter how much you train data sets, when Validation and verification are absent the GIGO law comes into play. It was uttered in the 60’s and means Garbage In, Garbage Out. Without Validation and Verification all data becomes part of the GIGO law. Most do not realise this, or they simply do not care, but Oracle figured this out long ago (A speculative thought) and we need to consider the Oracle might be trailing on some new technology, but they are ahead in many ways, more so than either Azure or AWS. And the largest settings we see at this point if that some are ‘gambling’ that Oracle messes up, but I think that is not the case. Oracle is hanging on and that is what matters. The data centers that are coming and that are build need to make money, but that is not the stage of Oracle, they got the equipment in, they got the software in and now as these centers start making money, Oracle gets their share and as such they are the facilitators of wealth and that is until there is an actual AI and as I see it, Oracle will be the only one who will set the premise of that and that is why Oracle will surpass all others. Even Google and IBM will seek the shores of Oracle. 

A stage that might take a while, but in all this, any training data centre will owe Oracle money (and a lot of it), so Oracle can play the long game, because in that stage only Oracle will come out on top. That is how is see the stage, the size a lot larger, the lights will put Oracle in the limelight and all others will remember why Oracle is the only one who is master of data storage technology and that is why I believe that the second is part of the real future of Oracle and whomever connects to Oracle. But in all this Oracle is the most essential data solution technology out there and when I saw the ‘negative’ settings around on December 2nd, I knew that it was doom speak of some for whatever reason they had. I knew that Oracle had a different future ahead of them, a much brighter one.

Have a great day, today was cooler, so I feel decently rested, but in these warm days before Christmas I rather miss the white cold of Sweden (or Canada). 

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