Tag Archives: travel

April 11, 2025 · 06:42

Nuance in Black and White

That is what we get, nuance, is it black or white? That is the definition of nuance for some and in this particular case Newsweek. Don’t bother with the 16 or 256 gray scales there are, because that is where their digital money is. But I took offense and that comes with a price. I am talking about the article we see (at https://www.newsweek.com/hajj-visas-saudi-arabia-travel-2056781) with the headline ‘Saudi Arabia Bans Travel Visas for 14 Countries’. It is here we see “Saudi Arabia has banned certain types of visas for travelers from 14 countries, weeks before the annual Muslim pilgrimage known as Hajj”, so far, so good is my view on this. The added “The country is clamping down on visa numbers by temporarily halting travel documents for visitors from a string of countries, with the suspension due to remain in place until after Hajj has concluded in mid-June. Officials made the move to address overcrowding and safety concerns, according to reports.” As such I see it a something that happens and I am OK with this. The issue is seen a little further down where we see “While last summer, Hajj coincided with a vicious heatwave, and more than 1,000 pilgrims died as a result of searing temperatures of up to 125 degrees F.” The issue is that the bulk of all these departed souls came from tour operators who sold them visas on ILLEGAL reasoning. As such they had no Hajj permit and as such there were no provisions, no busses and no shelters for these people. That is the nuance that I see as ‘intentionally skipped’ by Newsweek. I wonder how it feels to be the one intentionally misinforming the people. The nations who are temporary banned from visas are Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. I presumably gather that when we look at the thousand or so victims of tour operators bungling the jobs are showing the numbers that make up these victims. Oh, and I have not ever seen any of the news outlets looking into the tour operators who ‘mis sold’ the travel arrangements for the people who went on their one way trip to Makkah. We do get that in another way “The Times of India reported that people are known to enter Saudi Arabia on visitor or Umrah visas and then overstay in order to perform Hajj without registering officially. This allows them to bypass a quota system, which allocates a set number of Hajj places to each country to help control pilgrim numbers. It is hoped that a crackdown on all types of visas until after Hajj will prevent the problem.” And Newsweek sets the second problem of misinforming their audience What I stated on issues like no provisions, no busses and no shelters for these people is skipped. The Saudi Arabian settings has settings for their pilgrims. There are shelters to temporary hide from the blazing sun, busses to take them to places (which set to be 20 miles apart) and there are water provisions all for those with the Hajj pass. These were all skipped by some and as this is set up for the 2 million pilgrims. As I personally see it, these tour operators became murderers for even entertaining that setting and those who by self interest avoided the Hajj settings did this to themselves, but I fail to see that these were all self serving. The only self serving option I saw was a tour operator making a quick additional buck or two. And Newsweek did nothing to point that out either. There were no investigations by the western media and that is offensive, especially as over a thousand people lost their lives. 

We are given in the end “Muslims with the appropriate visas will be preparing for their trip, while others may have to delay their plans until next year. Meanwhile, the kingdom’s officials will be gearing up for the annual influx of Hajj visitors.” And I like this, but the simple setting of ‘appropriate visas’ is massive and needs to be shown in these places. I reckon that Saudi Arabia needs to make a small movie, optionally on YouTube and TikTok showing the dangers of the wrong visa and optionally letting these people know that these tour operators need to be reported. I wouldn’t hurt to put the fires to the ankles of these tour operators, who I personally see as the number one culprit. 

Have a great and safe day. 

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April 9, 2025 · 16:30

A danger possibly foreseen

That was on my mind this morning. It was brought to the surface by the actor John Cryer (the famous duckster as well as a surgeon in NCIS). He referred to an NPR broadcast.

And the article (at https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5356476/social-security-new-rules) gave me pause. I had seen this before and after a few minutes and a ‘eureka’ moment I came up with my article ‘Utter Insanity’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/10/04/utter-insanity/) where I (read: Reuters) came up with “That could spare the United States a default, but would force other cuts, possibly in areas like Social Security or military pay.” I had come to that conclusion before that ion a few articles I mention there. It comes to ‘blows’ with “It is the relentless boasting government approach towards “My Credit Card is too big too refuse!” Yet that is at this point exactly what is going to happen next week Friday” and that moment was avoided with millimeters to spare. And now? Now we get the timeline change in a few ways. NPR gives us “Instead, they will have to seek services online or travel in-person to a local Social Security field office, which a new analysis from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, or CBPP, found amounts to a “45-mile trip for some 6 million seniors.”” Here I do not completely agree with NPR, even though they talk in my street of the equation. The added NPR setting is “More than 4 in 10 retirees apply for their Social Security benefits by phone, as do most spouses who are eligible for benefits,” researchers wrote. “So do the substantial majority of bereaved family members who are eligible for benefits following the death of a worker.” This is a valid setting, however, the American administration has valid issues with “Agency officials have said these new measures “will further safeguard Social Security records and benefits against fraudulent activity” by creating “stronger identity verification procedures.”” I agree that they need to stop Fraudulent settings, but that might not be the best way to go about it. For one, the people with clear settings because they moved to Costa Rica or another warm place where their dollars has a better spread is one reason and there are plenty of places to do that and they fall into a dark gap of nothingness. 

So I am a little on the fence with “Beginning on April 14, Social Security will perform an anti-fraud check on all claims filed over the telephone and flag claims that have fraud risk indicators,” they wrote. “We will continue to conduct 100 percent ID proofing for all in-person claims. 4.5 million telephone claims a year and 70K may be flagged.” I agree a better setting needs to be found, but in clearness the American administration has a clear point with optional Fraud. The clarity is seen in the numbers and if there aren’t any, the question becomes why isn’t there a better documented stage? I for one am in the setting that consulates and embassies need perhaps half a dozen more people in certain places to do that work. Too bad America let go over 30,000 federal employees. Perhaps that was an unforeseen blunder of mega (or is that MAGA?) proportions. 

The fact was that I saw this in 2020 and whilst there were references in 2019 going back to 2014, they were partially the same but founded on different facts. So it might seem the same, but it is not. NPR has given a rather large spotlight on something that starts next week and that will have people buzzing in all kinds of panic modes, because retirees that face this will panic and that is on the administration of THIS government, no one else.

So what is the solution? Well, I have a few ideas, but why do the work for people who are making 7 figure numbers. Let them prove their value or perhaps they might be made redundant (too save a few coins in the process). Oh, and before you think I am merely stirring the pot of panic (not entirely incorrect) I decided to give a few ideas another thought like the Google Data centre on Iceland. You see, before 2022 I had an idea, I reckon it was around 2010, I thought (in light of a few Venusian settings. I saw that there that we get “Venus has an extremely hot average surface temperature of around 867°F (464°C) due to its dense, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and a strong greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system.” As such I thought (a partial solution that these sulphur batteries might be actively recharged (and happily ignoring other needs), but for unmanned recon it could suffice. So in the meantime we get 

“Also in 2022, Researchers at Drexel University produced a prototype lithium-sulfur battery that did not degrade over 4000 charge cycles. Analysis has shown that the battery contained monoclinic gamma-phase sulfur, which has been thought to be unstable below 95 degrees Celsius, and only a few studies have shown this type of sulfur to be stable longer than 20 to 30 minutes.”

Yet in a volcano rich environment (like Iceland) these lava pockets might be the stage for thermal interaction and the lava (or magma which is a technical setting) flow could recharge almost indefinite. So we have power and as cooling might not be the issue, water is still needed to cool other stages of a plant like that. Fortunately the Greenland Sea (or North Atlantic around the polar circle) is plenty cool (read: cold), so could these two elements unite to give data centres the steps they need to become energy independent? You see, everyone needs more power, so power will cost more and more and we have Iceland in the North and New Zealand in the south, yet New Zealand doesn’t have thermal energy (as far as I know) so a different solution is needed there.

But the setting is still about social security (I got blown off track). So whilst the people are screaming for fraud setting, are there any clear numbers on how many are using social security for fraud (I am certain it is done), but are they overthrowing the system for 10-50 cases? There are 6 million seniors at risk. The question becomes how do the military deal with these cases? How many retired veterans does America have? Would their system be good enough to be adapted to the senior citizens of America? If the Military needs more staff to deal with this, I reckon that at least 20,000 people were fired and need a new job and as most embassies and consulates have military presence adding a few logistical people might be a better solution. Was that investigated? 

I reckon all good questions, but who has the answers? In the mean time Google needs to create data centers with independent power solutions, because the (around) 50 new data centers that seem to be coming all over the world will draw power dry to a dangerous level, being the odd one out will give them a leg up over anyone else. And perhaps they have a better solution than I just phrased. I am not the best, but I remain trying. That’s more than I can say for a lot of high paying people in the American administrations we see. 

So have a great day and while I have my ice water, I will dream of becoming a Goalie at 63, still preferred with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Iceland will do as an alternative choice (I doubt they need me, but there you have it, I can be delusional too).

Toodles

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April 8, 2025 · 09:50

The fifth branch

That happens, even as I wrote about crossroads there is always that one intersection that has a fifth branch. The road often ignored and the road avoided, but it is there. So up first is the admittance that what you are about to read is fictive, a pure cog of my brain and optionally nothing more than the thoughts of a conspiracy theorist. And to make matters worse (for me) is that the setting go Google yesterday wasn’t completely coincidental. I wouldn’t mind taking Sergey Brin for a ride (something he didn’t ever deserve) for the simple matter of gaining $15 million. The man has an estimated value of $121.2 billion, so at the setting of him losing 5%-15%, avoiding that to hand me a $15 million (and a job) is not beyond me, I have no idea how to do that, but here comes President Trump and that story begins. 

So yesterday I got to the idea that making money of short selling stock. To do this you need a really stupid idea that will shed the markets. In this we see that over the last 48 hours the markets lost around 10 trillion dollars. So what happens when this is design? The entire tariff setting never made sense, unless it was by design and tariff on a Mc Donald Island (with only one CIEIO) and a lot of penguins, so that the President can claim medicine imbalance. In the meantime unknown ‘friends’ of his when the markets are at their lowest, buy what they can. Another party hands them the money and President Trump claims his 70%, these people will still get 30% and when you have nothing any slice of 3 trillion will do. Even at 1% that is 30 billion and I doubt they will make that much, they will make enough to have their dream retirement at 40-50, something they never thought possible ever. But there you have it and the larger setting is that when the dust settles most offices cannot investigate as too many offices has lost their staff. A weird but not impossible setting.

And the people will claim I am mad, consider that I wrote from the start it is all fictive. I will leave it to the willing courtesans (called media) to connect the dots I placed over the last week and try to cash in on their digital dollars. As for Iceland? Well when the ships (read: governments) sink due to warmongering and China has had enough reasons, issues might rise and then we see that Iceland and New Zealand are the only two safe places on the planet. I chose Iceland as with their volcanoes and hot springs they have foundations on energy production. A nice pickle I avoided didn’t I?

Anyway escape your doom with my fictive imagination and take solace in the knowledge that if this is proven true that President Trump and his gang of extras will quickly evade to Russia (the only country who didn’t get a tariff) and America will see such anger it never saw because the entire American army, the secret service and others do not have the manpower or the ammunition to stop 200,000,000 angry Americans. 

Not a bad play write even if I say so myself. So next stop more creativity for me.
Have a great day and remember the Kjötsúpa (Icelandic Lamb soup) in Reykjavik is apparently phenomenal. 

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March 15, 2025 · 04:58

Next butcher in line

Yup, that happens. So what do you do when the customers is looking at the boss of the butcher and that customer is just sick of their treatment of the surrounding the they poison? What would you do? I have my ‘go to’ guy in my corner. The name is Jimmy and he is all about chickens and has been for years. His chickens (drumsticks) are the greatest and I have them nearly every day. So what would you do if you are saddened and sickened of his dealings, by hime or his staff with to his customers? Would you take that hit and keep on serving him business? So here is ABC with the news. At https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/3-billion-united-states-meat-trade-to-china-at-risk/105052220 we are given a mere 12 hours ago ‘US meat trade days away from getting ‘kicked out’ of China’, that is the situation and even if we consider the impact on America, consider that China now has three eager supply points. You see Canada sets the sitting with “$9.5 billion in red meat products, including pork, beef, lamb, and horse, with the United States being a major destination.” Then there is Australia with “the USA is Australia’s largest beef export destination accounting for 27.5% of total beef export flows this year, which is up from 22.7% in 2023.” This represents 27.5% of 17 billion dollars a year, as such America is now on a slanty side of bad news. Last there is New Zealand with “In 2024, the United States was the leading beef export market for New Zealand, with an export value of approximately 1.74 billion New Zealand dollars.” Now when we add the numbers we get the setting that America is about to lose close to 16 billion dollars in beef import. So what happens when America gets that much of a drain of revenue? Lets be clear, that is the obvious danger and China is about to get several happy moments by sticking it to America and add the UK, who is a ‘mere’ £1.77 billion last year (2024) with a small part going to North America and that puts us deep into the 16 billion dollars. The one small side step is that the population tends to go mad when the daily requirements fall away and that is what America enabled to itself; alongside with the notion that the people in the Commonwealth are done with President Trumps barbaric setting of attacking Canada, as such we are nearly all willing to become China’s new supply agent for meat. As ABC gives us “Hundreds of abattoirs in the United States are at risk of being banned from exporting meat to China, because their China export licenses are due to expire this weekend.” So, what happens when the American population, being a mere 340,123,988 people (roughly) will not get access to their hamburgers? Did the American Capitol and White House ever hear of a stampede? That is what taking away their daily needs away amounts to and as I see it, the people surrounding President Xi Jinping are ready for and that is what (I expect) the bad news that people in the White House are in a presented stage of telling the man who ‘elevated’ the term ‘you’re fired’ to, which is a new low for that person who has to bring the bad news. And it also shifts the larger premise. You can only hold something over anyone’s head when you are the billion dollar customer they tended to push around. The Commonwealth might be in line for a new delivery address. It opens up a few doors for the inhabitants of 174 Chang’an Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing. A stage that falls in our lap because beyond ABC news, there weren’t too many sources and this news is 12 hours old. So where was the media? The Google search term “meat import America” gives us a mere two pages and no items from the BBC, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, the Boston Globe, the LA Times or the SF Courier. The Australian had it behind a pay wall, so it is not interesting what they have to say. But as ABC gives us ““The expiry date for several hundred more US establishments is in March and April and [China Customs] has not responded to US government facility registration renewal requests,” it said in statement.” With the added “So what we’re looking at right now in America, is waking up Monday morning and having $US3 billion ($A4.77B) worth of beef, pork and poultry no longer eligible to export to China”, as that being said, I would like to add “Well, Brett Stuart, the news is a lot worse. There is now also the chance you will lose 17 billion in imports because they found a new butcher. As such they could mostly be out of a job and the supermarket isles of meat might be rather empty. So how is your day going now?”

Of course this is not a given, but that is the effects of a trade war, so how are these numbers spiking up? By the way, the liquor importer Dan Murphy (Australian) is still eagerly selling ‘American Whiskey’, as such the brotherly love for Canada is a little missing, but we will get there. As such there is space for improvement. America forgot that with export, there is also import of other goods and a 25% tariff will be having a deadly impact and now China has itself a new ball game. I reckon that it will (for them) be a decent level of revenge for the setting Huawei was put under. But not to fret, Americans could all become vegetarians and start working their obesity stages by getting used to coleslaw sandwiches. 

I wonder what happens when the America media sounds the alarm bells on this premise. How much is the value of meat advertising in America? You see, that is the third stage. When two sides impact, the third side is a given. What is that worth? Do they still think that their ‘51st state’ aspirations was a good idea? 

So at what point will America decide that these billboards will be about coleslaw grazing?

The one danger no one saw coming, what happens when the meat industry will have to vie for new import addresses. How much will the price of meat options increase? Simple questions really. I wonder what news we will see from Washington DC and other places. I reckon the rice wine will flow richly at a certain address in Beijing this weekend. 

So you all have a great day and try to enjoy the alfalfa sandwich you might want to try this weekend (just for the feeling). And Canadians, have a great day too, some of the Commonwealth people do consider your options first as well. 

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February 27, 2025 · 21:19

Just this morning

This happened to me this morning. You see, I was making my morning walk and I passed a man at a parking meter. It turned out to be that it ‘didn’t work’ because the parking meter would become active at 09:00 (it was 08:43) when paid parking is required. Why? 

Not the paid parking, but the inconvenience given to the people. It took me less than 2 minutes to create a solution in my mind and parking meters are not really that sophisticated. If a parking tine is allocated, like from 09:00-19:00, at 19:05, the option of a prepay button appears and then just press the button prepay and select the time (example 2 hours). That mean that at 19:05 you have a ticket with the parking time from the next day 09:00 until 11:00. It took seconds to select that solution and without effort. So who instigated that system? Why was that not an option from day one? I walked a little more that morning and saw that none of these parking meters had that option. I would have had an excuse as I have no car, but the rest? They never used a parking meter? It takes little effort to think out off the box and select a solution that helps consumers. It took so little and as such I have to consider are these programmers just there to make money without the blame of going the extra mile? How silly of them and how silly for the communities that didn’t think the way some thing (in this case Burwood, Sydney, NSW) could be created.

The setting of thinking the space a little further takes so little. Perhaps a brainstorming session over coffee with the project manager, but likely he has too many projects. Does that excuse him (or her)? I don’t think so. 

So what do you think? Doe parking meters in Toronto, Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, London, Paris or Munich have this option? If not why not? In a stage where so much is automated, is automated a mere excuse to not go the distance? That is the wrong kind of cost cutting. When we use ‘automation’ to do less and not better work, it isn’t automation, it is merely sloppy and lazy IT thinking. 

Have a great day today.

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January 21, 2025 · 21:51

What’s this about?

We all have that at times. We do not know the impact one wants to make and it also happens to me. At times I miss the point that a writer wanted to make. That is not his/her fault but it comes down to the reader what they take away from the event. One particular case (for me) is the writer Harry Mulisch. I tried to get through his book ‘the discovery of heaven’ at least twice but to no avail. Yet when the movie came out in 2001, I decided to see it immediately and it was amazing. So Jeroen Krabbe gave me what I needed to get and even as it was a bit strange to see Stephen Fry in a Dutch movie, he pulled it off nicely. 

So don’t dismay if someone does not get you, it comes with the territory. This intro is essential for what comes next. You see the Sydney Morning Herald (at https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/travel-news/this-city-is-about-to-give-dubai-a-real-run-for-its-dirhams-20250110-p5l3fo.html) gives us ‘This city is about to give Dubai a real run for its dirhams’ at that moment I was pretty sure it is Abu Dhabi. But lets look on. The end of the article gives us “Little surprise, then, that Abu Dhabi made it onto the latest The New York Times’ prestigious “52 Places to Go” list. One can only wonder what Dubai will do in response.” Also the beginning gives us “Now in 2025, an always somewhat more restrained and refined Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is set to finally give its glitzier, more visited, neighbour, Dubai, a real run for its dirhams.” And in the middle?

We get a collection of fast rattled near facts. We see “Saadiyat Cultural District finally near completion with Guggenheim Abu Dhabi the next high-profile component of the almost 2.5-square-kilometre precinct following the Louvre’s 2017 opening” yet for a travel editor Anthony Dennis leaves a lot in the middle and does hit off with three images. So what is this about?

I haven’t seen Abu Dhabi in any other way than YouTube videos and several of them are awesome. As such I would have written:

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (not Dubai as some will think).
Abu Dhabi has all kinds of great things to see and explore. For Families there is Yas Island. It has a huge mall and Ferrari World and within a short distance of that is Water World, Sea World, Warner Brothers World with the Warner Brothers hotel. It is not the only option as they are about to launch the Wizarding World expansion with expected Harry Potter and Co. as well as the world of Newt Scamander. Staying in the upper selection hotels has the benefit of free passes to any of the theme parks (one per day) but not to fret, Abu Dhabi has free busses going in circles to the mall and parks from anywhere on Yas Island. And Yas Island connects to anywhere in Abu Dhabi, including the airport. It is not the only place. There are renowned malls all over the place and to boot there its a lot more to do. Coming to a plot near there is the new Zayed National Museum. And in addition to that is a Natural History Museum also planned. Its centerpiece attraction is the world-famous skeleton of “Stan” the Tyrannosaurus rex, purchased by the museum in 2022 for almost $32 million. As you show your defining art side with the works of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in the background. And there is more. There is even a mall that comes equipped with  Prison Island Abu Dhabi, you might say that there is something for everyone. 

So stay tuned, this year has a good case to make Abu Dhabi your tourist destination. It will be the great moment that couples, families and of course you on a solo cruise to see the fun you can have and spread the word on social media or your YouTube channel. And you can take another gander by taking the bus and see Dubai for yourself in about 4 hours, or even better add a few days to the trip and make Dubai the next destination (or the other way around). You get to see two world places in one trip and all within a mere 4 hours apart. 

What is more satisfying to show yourself off in your new swim ware and show your world what an awesome time you had before you are back so that the queue at your desk is assured? 

This is what I would have written, but then, I am no travel editor. So I cannot help but think what was that article actually about? That is the question I am facing. You see, it might be me (it usually is) and I don’t get it, why raise the fight between the two? We see “One can only wonder what Dubai will do in response.” I reckon that Dubai will remain Dubai and one could wonder how many more theme parks it needs, don’t get me wrong, as a tourist I would think that more is better, but what about the Emiratis? What about Sharjah? Just two thoughts that occupied my brains. 

It might be a mere personal thought, yet have the deciders of the UAE considered a hyper loop between Dubai and Abu Dhabi? That might be a real people pleaser and a media coverage maker. The idea that you can travel between the two in less than 15 minutes might also call for more business, but that is me with a slightly limited view on the matter. 

Try to have fun. I in the meantime need to find a hacker and take from him in the most gruesome way possible.

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December 19, 2024 · 00:50

The stage of tomorrow

Yes, many have a tomorrow stage, yet in all fairness as I can see it, the UAE is jumping forward by leaps and bounds. Only today did I see the announcement that was given in April that Harry Potter is coming to Abu Dhabi. The capital of the United Arab Emirates as about to make a dent in tourism. It already was, but now there is even more to enjoy. It already had Waterworld, SeaWorld, Ferrari World, the Yas Mall but now it is enhancing and enlarging Warner Brothers world with the setting of Harry Potter. I don’t know when it will open, but I reckon that it should be ready before the summer will be making its announcement in 2025. For America it might become a nasty shock. Orlando has put a decent effort in making the enhancements to Universal a massive project. The Epic Universe will be five parks in one right next to the original Universal park. And there is enough for all, but it is the first time that the Harry Potter fans in the Arabian peninsula get handed this world to their front door. There is more, because Universal might be seen as more of the same (it is not). But Abu Dhabi is presenting itself as the family outing of choice. This is not merely done through advertisements. The many families and couples visiting these parks are all outspoken positive on their adventure. Not through influencers, simple people. A family from the UK with mom, dad and son show the world what an amazing time they had. An Australian couple (not the Hemsworth family) do exactly the same and YouTube is filled with people who visited these parks and are outspoken positive over the experience. 

Now that Harry Potter is coming Abu Dhabi can be certain that thousands more visitors will be coming their way. In the us (2023) 1247 people were asked how they felt about Harry Potter. Only 3% was not a fan and 47% were avid fans. That implies that Abu Dhabi will be the place to be and with Yas Island where the parks are as well as some hotels are, the people would want to splurge in their 2025 vacation. With several parks in the vicinity (Waterworld and WB are neighbours) with the WB hotel between the two. And on the other side of the hotel is the Yas Mall with Ferrari world. OK, the hotel is 10 minutes from the Yas mall, but there are busses, and in all these places there are affordable food places. There is something for everyone. The United Arab Emirates seems to end the year on a high note and I reckon that there is plenty of fun to be had. 

I reckon that with Dubai being a mere 90 minutes by bus away, there is every reason to have a vacation in both spots. Week one in one place and week 2 in the other place. People could end up having the vacation of a lifetime. 

The one surprising thing for me was the UK couple where they also talk about the prices of the food places they visited. With the comparison of UK prices, the UK seems somewhat expensive in comparison. 

I reckon that as soon as the HP experience comes closer the YouTube presentations will show that Orlando might have priced themselves out of this race. I don’t think that everyone will take the different destination, Epic Universe looks too good for that, but some will rethink where to go to in 2025 and some should at least consider that path. There is no reason to compare the two, but consider that Yas Island has a Wet’n’Wild (Australia) alternative next to Warner Brothers world and with SeaWorld the alternative to the one in San Antonio you see three parks close to one another. Not too many places can offer this, but one of them is Abu Dhabi. And there is much more on this island.

Off-course there is an alternative reason, as the UAE is a zero tax country, the combination for a new Apple or some other thingamajig on the really cheap side makes this an easy choice and with a mere 90 minutes between Dubai and Abu Dhabi the choice for most of you becomes really simple. 

Have a great Thursday, for me it started 45 minutes ago.

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November 30, 2024 · 01:48

Google to the left, clowns to the right

I got a little surprise when I saw the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly23yknjy9o). The title ‘A fatal car crash in India sparks concerns over Google Maps’ Immediately two questions went through my brains. In the first there was How is Google involved? I like Google maps and I use it, but I do not rely on it. Too many dangers ahead of any trip and too many issues on how the data is made available. The second question came from the fact “three men died when their car veered off an unfinished bridge and fell on to a riverbed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.” The issue I see is”

  1. Were there no danger signs?
  2. Was the driver asleep (or driving way too fast)
  3. What assumptions were there to allow the thought “they believe that Google Maps led the group to take that route”.

As such we get to the first setting. An incomplete bridge sets the premise that there would be warnings all over the bridge and the road preceding the bridge. A little presumption from me, yet that setting has been a fact in many many countries. Signs like ‘incomplete bridge’, ‘hazard ahead’ and a few other signs like blinking lights.

Then we get to the driving. Was the driver paying attention. Were speed limits invoked. You can put all the signs you want, but if you go on an uncompleted bridge at 315KM/H there is the chance you might not find the breaks in time. The added setting of the driver paying attention to the road might also be a clear sign. Now to the Google Maps error. We presume it is an error, because if the road was assigned we would expect it to be completed. As such we get to the why it was in Google maps. This does not make Google responsible, but it would make sense that there people might have taken a wrongful turn. You can have any kind and level of tools aiding you, yet the setting becomes the driver and what he did. There is the thought the driver got Kristy Swanson’ed like Charlie Sheen did in the Chase (1994). 

I would be a little distracted. Then there is the distracted driver everyone talks to while he is driving. All options that makes it not a Google issue. And there is the fact that Google was mentioned. Now, I cannot say which bridge it was (lack of clarity) but in Google maps I see 

I cannot say whether it is this bridge, but the BBC didn’t bother with these details either, as such I can clearly see that THIS bridge is under construction. So did anyone get these details. And when we see the image the Hindustan Times gives us, I get back to the original presumption. Where were the danger signs? When you see the image of the bridge it would be the first I would think of, Google wouldn’t be in my mindset. 

So as I see it Google has no blame here. It ties to give as best the information it is given and that is all it can do, the rest is with the Clowns thinking that they can blame Google at the drop of a hat, any hat.

So even as the Google people are cooperating, the first call should be the department responsible for the roadsigns, especially the fat whether the ‘Danger Warning’ was ever placed in the first place. And as we are given “Authorities have named four engineers from the state’s road department and an unnamed official from Google Maps in a police complaint on charges of culpable homicide.” I merely wonder if there was a mess up in India and the actual premise should have been “Authorities have named four engineers from the state’s road department in a police complaint on charges of culpable homicide.” Is this about the guilt, the responsibility or the setting that Google is asked to fork over 5.5 Rupee for the event. 

I have my thought on the mess and none of them involve Google. Oh and another thing. How can we be certain that the driver wasn’t using Bing Maps? Not blaming Microsoft here, because as I see it they would be equally not guilty in this setting. But what data did the police have that Google was involved in the first place? 

Have a great day and watch out for crossing sharks today.

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November 21, 2024 · 23:10

One pond is not like the other

This happens. We are not always aware, but it pays off to check. It is an easy mistake to make in Europe and America, but there are rules and thinking that you are from a ‘free’ society does not mean you can ignore the rules another place has. As such we get to The Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/20/london-18-year-old-arrested-in-dubai-for-sex-with-17-year-old). You see, there are strict rules in some places. Most of them involve drugs, criminal activities or sex. We are given “We really liked each other but she was secretive with her family because they were strict. My parents knew about our relationship but she couldn’t tell hers. She had to meet me without telling them it was to see a boy.” And there we see the first red flag. With “she was secretive with her family because they were strict” we get the problem. And with “Fakana was charged because the girl’s mother found their chats and pictures back in the UK.

It is understood the woman subsequently contacted police in Dubai and Fakana was arrested.” And with the premise of “Sex outside marriage is legal for tourists, but only if both parties are over 18.” We see an entire life getting squandered. I have no clear picture how the mother was about it all, but as she called the police in Dubai I can guess that she was not OK with it. And the bleeding heart stage of “Fakana’s family has called on the foreign secretary, David Lammy – their local MP – to intervene.” We get nothing. You see he broke the law and that is the real drive. The UAE sees crime and deals harshly with it. We can ‘break down’ the setting as much as we want and the Guardian does this in the byline with “Marcus Fakana could face two decades in jail for having sex with girl, also from London, while on holiday in UAE”, no the setting is much simpler. He had sex with an underage girl and the parents (at least the mother) of the girl are not OK with it. Don’t get me wrong, I was a teenager once (I think that was at the time of the Crusades) and I get the setting, but the law is the law. And he should be lucky. If he had smoked a joint afterwards he might hang in the real sense of the word. And he is lucky because the punishment in the UAE for rape of a minor is the firing squad. And if she maintains that she was not ready for that he gets to feel what many have felt before. That is the part we do not see here. 

There is an abundance of party timers and as long as they party in Europe they tend to be fine. When the age difference is low (like in this case) many places have the Romeo and Juliet law. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia (mostly Muslim countries) do not. So the ‘excuse’ “has since turned 18” will not work. She was a minor in the eyes of the law. As such the sentence “Detained in Dubai, which campaigns to help people it says have suffered injustice in the UAE” does not work. He broke the law and she was still a minor. All that beside the point that the UAE has strict laws regarding sex outside marriage. And that should have been the first issue for the parents of Marcus Fakana. It pays to know the minimum of local laws. And do not blame Islamic law. In North Carolina and Virginia Oral Sex is a Felony, and that is regardless of the marital status. So, rejoice his life could have been blown after he was blown. 

And the media is partly responsible for this mess (to a degree). The Independent gives us ‘Briton, 18, facing 20-year jail sentence in Dubai over holiday romance with 17-year-old girl’, no, he had sex with a minor. And the word minor is not given once in the article in the Independent. The Standard makes the same mistake. We are led to believe that it is so unfair. But the simplicity is that countries have laws and other countries have different laws and this is one law the parents should have made clear to their son. And as for the excuse ““The girl was just a few months younger than Marcus and he didn’t know that at the time,” said Radha Stirling, the chief executive of Detained in Dubai” I get that she has a job to do and with that the second excuse should not hold water either, it is “This is not something Dubai should be prosecuting.” Yes Dubai should. You see, she was a minor. Ignorance is not a valid defence. I personally believe that he should not serve 20 years, but there need to be consequences. The media handling of the issues is making that clear. Perhaps a month (at the most) and after that he becomes persona non grata. I reckon that he gets that in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and several other nations will deny him access to.

I am for the most a black letter law person. I do believe in the spirit of the law and for me (and many others) this is not a serious case, but for the parents of the girl it is. In islamic law the ‘spoiled’ woman is not a good one (sorry for that term). And it could have been prevented if Marcus would have been told of the laws of the land he visits. 

So I am willing to blame the parents more than Marcus, but in the end he must face the music.

Enjoy the day, it is almost Friday here

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November 19, 2024 · 00:43

Where is the west now?

The Arab News gave me an article that made me shiver. No, this is not some BBC article or a similar article by the Guardian. The article (at https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2579777/world) gives us ‘Emergency declared in New Delhi as smog hits highest level this year’. This is not some article about luxury jets. We are given “Pollution in Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area — home to around 55 million people — reached the “severe plus” category as some areas reached an Air Quality Index score of 484, this year’s highest, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.” It comes with an added “Delhi was ranked as the most polluted city in the world on Monday by Swiss group IQAir, with a concentration of PM 2.5, 138.4 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended levels.” That is not nothing. 138.4 times higher. Or as they might say 13840% of the recommended levels. We see Reuters, AP News, not the BBC and not the Guardian. I reckon that it doesn’t involve jets from the ultra rich. We are given that “Mahesh Palawat, vice president of meteorology and climate change at forecast company Skymet Weather, said people in the capital region are faced with serious health risks.” This is a frightening revelation. I keep on wondering how it could have gotten this bad. I have experienced smog in Europe, but I reckon that the Indians see that as a cool summer breeze compared to what they face. I wonder if there is a to the point card with up to date information (per day) how the rest of the world would react. I also wonder who will get the blame for this. I do believe that there would be enough blame to go around in the Indian political structure. Yet there is in me a realisation that New Delhi needs to do something about the population. As of 2024, the population of New Delhi, the capital of India, is over 33 million people. This is a 2.63% increase from the previous year. So at what point does the setting of ‘full’ apply? Consider that New Delhi has 30% more people than the entirety of Australia (or 90% of Canada for that matter). We at least have a decent amount of land to spread that population around, as does Canada, India seemingly has not. 

So whilst we get “On the AQI scale from 0 to 500, good air quality is represented by levels below 50, while levels above 300 are dangerous.” And the levels in New Delhi are 50% higher than dangerous. So when will we see the Guardian or the BBC offer ‘solutions’.

Have a healthy day, optionally with a decent amount of fresh air.

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