You Can't Make This Stuff Up

[Polish_Silver]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic cleric 'bans' chess and claims game spreads 'enmity and hatred'

Saudi Arabia’s highest religious cleric has declared chess “haram”, meaning it is forbidden for Muslims, while claiming the game shows “enmity and hatred”.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah al-Sheikh, the Grand Mufti, made the proclamation while taking questions during his weekly television show.

“The game of chess is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money. It causes enmity and hatred between people,” he said, according to a translation by Middle East Eye...

...Iran banned chess-playing in public and declared it haram after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 but Ayatollah Khomeni repealed the ban nine years later. The game was also proscribed the Taliban in Afghanistan...

...“I heard a news item about Saudi Arabia banning chess,” wrote satirical blogger Karl Sharro. “I guess they don't appreciate games that aim to topple the king.”

Saudi Arabian clerics have previously issued fatwas attempting to ban all-you-can-eat buffets, Pokemon and the building of snowmen.

I read that, a long time ago, the Pope banned gas lamps and subways. But I could never find the actual bans.

[Polish_Silver]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic cleric 'bans' chess and claims game spreads 'enmity and hatred'

Saudi Arabia’s highest religious cleric has declared chess “haram”, meaning it is forbidden for Muslims, while claiming the game shows “enmity and hatred”.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah al-Sheikh, the Grand Mufti, made the proclamation while taking questions during his weekly television show.

“The game of chess is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money. It causes enmity and hatred between people,” he said, according to a translation by Middle East Eye...

...Iran banned chess-playing in public and declared it haram after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 but Ayatollah Khomeni repealed the ban nine years later. The game was also proscribed the Taliban in Afghanistan...

...“I heard a news item about Saudi Arabia banning chess,” wrote satirical blogger Karl Sharro. “I guess they don't appreciate games that aim to topple the king.”

Saudi Arabian clerics have previously issued fatwas attempting to ban all-you-can-eat buffets, Pokemon and the building of snowmen.

I have read that the pope banned gas lights and subways.

I

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up - Uber Ooops

Saudi signals new investment strategies in $3.5 bln Uber deal

Thu Jun 2, 2016 10:34am EDT

DUBAI/RIYADH, June 2 Saudi Arabia has signalled it is adopting new strategies to invest its petrodollars - more aggressive, more high-profile and more closely linked to its economic development plans - with the $3.5 billion purchase of a stake in U.S. ride-hailing firm Uber...



Uber’s Deal With Saudi Arabia Hasn’t Gone Down Well With Saudi Women

June 3, 2016 — 8:12 AM MDT

The deal between the only country in the world that bans female drivers and Silicon Valley’s ride-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc. may be as unusual as it is convenient. What’s sure is that it’s caused outrage among many Saudi women.

They are angry that Uber’s new $3.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund not only means the government directly profits from the ban, but also it effectively – in their view – endorses the country’s no-women-behind-the-wheel policy...

...But it raised hackles on social media, where the hashtag سعوديات_يعلن_مقاطعه_اوبر# (Saudi women announce Uber boycott) gained traction, and women posted pictures showing them deleting Uber apps from their phones...

[jk]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up - Uber Ooops

unaccompanied women can be driven by an unrelated male?

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

If this wasn't Canada, "Vinny" might be wearing concrete shoes instead of Concrete Equities.

Vestiges of the FIRE economy live on:

Calgary man pleads guilty in $23M fraud case

UPDATED:

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 07:07 PM MDT

While one of his victims sobbed in the back of a Calgary courtroom, a city man pleaded guilty Friday for his role in bilking $23 million from hundreds of investors.

Varun "Vinny" Aurora pleaded guilty in provincial court to fraud over $5,000 in a scheme centering on Mexican real estate investments.

One of those scammed was his own father, who lost the largest amount — $901,000 — in the fraud run by Concrete Equities Inc. (CEI) that roped in 1,200 investors, about 20 of whom showed up in court.

The play, which began in 2007, sold investor units in a Mexican development known as the El Golfo project, whose purchase price Concrete Equities greatly inflated for investors.

The company "purchased it for less and just pocketed the money," said Crown prosecutor Shawn Johnston.

"It was an advanced hucksters' scheme that sold people real estate that absolutely didn't exist."...

...Johnston also noted Aurora's been fined $500,000 by the Alberta Securities Commission but has only paid "a pittance" of $63.70.

While the Crown is calling for Aurora to do the maximum 240 hours of community service as part of his sentence, defence lawyer Brian Beresh argued for 150 hours.

Beresh noted Aurora has no previous criminal record and said he has an otherwise sterling standing in the community...

[vt]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

So have these:

[lektrode]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

and one wonders why, what - with all the emphasis on 'gender neutral' non-discriminatory everything these daze?

why are 'ladies' and 'mens' restrooms even still allowed (and NOT been 'legislated' out of existence)

when the solution to this one couldnt be more obvious:

get rid of urinals (which i for one detest using, having spent most of the past going on 30years in shorts, get tired/annoyed of the feeling of 'splash back' on my bare legs, so usually go into a stall to pee... ummm... standing UP ;)

make ALL toilet facilities 'unisex' all with stalls
problem solved, with no class-actions, no US Dept of 'justice' decrees, no Supreme Court Rulings (for 'the special people' who want 'special rooms' just for them, if they dont get to pee - or 'feel uncomfortable' - in 'gender specific' highschool/public bathrooms...)

but guess that would be 'too easy'
that and might/would cut into employment in all the 'social engineering' and 'gender studies' industrial-complexes,
most of whom tend to vote a certain way...

[shiny!]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Remember back in the Dark Ages when retail X-mas displays started after Thanksgiving? Then started before Thanksgiving? Then started in early November and everybody thought it was crass commercialism? Then started before Halloween and people shook their heads in disbelief?

Today is Oct. 5th. I just got back from Costco which has Xmas trees and Xmas displays filling up half the store. It just reeks of retailer desperation. Worst of all (for me), the stuff I went in to buy isn't being stocked anymore because they had to make room for Xmas. Ho-Ho-Humbug!

[lektrode]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

you mean, i'm assuming - back in the good ole daze when it wasnt considered (by some)
to be a 'micro-aggression' or 'racist' or 'islamaphobic' or even 'anti-semitic' even

to say:

Merry Christmas ?

Remember back in the Dark Ages when retail X-mas displays started after Thanksgiving? Then started before Thanksgiving? Then started in early November and everybody thought it was crass commercialism? Then started before Halloween and people shook their heads in disbelief?

Today is Oct. 5th. I just got back from Costco which has Xmas trees and Xmas displays filling up half the store. It just reeks of retailer desperation. Worst of all (for me), the stuff I went in to buy isn't being stocked anymore because they had to make room for Xmas. Ho-Ho-Humbug!

yeah, its pretty disgusting, what the entire 'holiday season' - that begins any time after labor day - has become.

[BK]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up - Elizabeth Holmes -Theranos- her Dad is former Enron VP

Yup, where else can you learn how to run a good scam than from your Dad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes

Early life and education

Holmes was born in February 1984 in Washington, D.C. Her father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, worked at Enron[3] as well as in the United States, Africa, and China in governmental agencies such as USAID.[4] Her mother, Noel Anne (Dauost),[5] worked as a congressional committee staffer. She has a brother, Christian Holmes V, who is the director of product management at Theranos.

Her parents' work in disaster relief encouraged Holmes to pursue science and service early in her life.[6] When Holmes was nine, her family moved to Houston and then China, where—she later claimed—she started a business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities.[7][8] Growing up, her family moved frequently, which made it challenging for Holmes to make close friends.[5] In a 2014 interview, she described herself growing up as having been a "happy loner."[5]

After graduating from St. John's School in Houston in 2002, Holmes enrolled at Stanford University to study chemical engineering, but she left Stanford after 2 years before completing her undergraduate degree.[9]


https://casetext.com/case/in-re-enron-corp-909

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I am still trying to figure out where all this leads, but as I watch the antics of the young Saudi Prince I become more convinced his ego is driving him to out-Mohammed, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the "rock star" former Crown Prince and now Emir of Dubai. Its been a long time since I have witnessed such a concerted reputation shaping media campaign so filled with mountains of utter bullshzt.

For generations Saudi Arabia has been one of the most insulated, isolated, medieval societies on the face of the earth. Technology producer...

I think the last article posted, from Vanity Fair, came the closest to describing ("...the fresh, young face of reform-minded authoritarianism...") the absurdity of this circus tour ("Fresh off a kidnapping spree in his native Riyadh, M.B.S. pitches Los Angeles liberals on a post-oil utopia in Saudi Arabia."). Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.



http://www.scmp.com/news/world/middl...ring-hyperloop

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince is making moves to bring a Hyperloop system to Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s millennial Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman met with Richard Branson to discuss bringing a high-speed Hyperloop transit system to Saudi Arabia...

...The Crown Prince unveiled the Vision 2030 Hyperloop Pod, illustrating the cooperation between the Kingdom and Virgin as part of the Prince’s Vision 2030 goal to modernise transport systems.

“Hyperloop is the catalyst to enable all fourth generation technologies to flourish in the Kingdom while creating a vibrant society and thriving economy through visionary cities and high-tech clusters,” Prince Mohammed said in a statement from Virgin Hyperloop...



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ctic-port.html

Saudi Crown Prince is given a private tour of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic port after pumping £762m into the tycoon's space companies

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia has visited Virgin founder Richard Branson at the entrepreneur's California space port...

...Branson and his guest also reportedly discussed ways to boost technology development in Saudi Arabia, moving it from a consumer to a producer...




https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/07/heres-a-look-at-who.html
The Saudi Crown Prince hung out this week with Google execs Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/w...salman-us.html
Oprah, Rupert Murdoch, Harvard: Saudi Prince’s U.S. Tour




https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/prince-mohammed-does-hollywood

PRINCE MOHAMMED DOES HOLLYWOOD

Fresh off a kidnapping spree in his native Riyadh, M.B.S. pitches Los Angeles liberals on a post-oil utopia in Saudi Arabia.

Fresh off a kidnapping spree in his hometown of Riyadh, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the fresh, young face of reform-minded authoritarianism in Saudi Arabia, arrived in the United States last month on a mission to sell his vision for a post-oil utopia on the Arabian Peninsula. Fortunately, the power brokers in Washington, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, were more easily subdued than the crown prince’s political enemies back home. Whereas Salman’s rivals had to be imprisoned in a five-star Ritz-Carlton until they relinquished their assets, America’s elites were won over with the more traditional combination of wining, dining, and financing from the sovereign wealth fund that M.B.S., as the prince is known, now controls.

The final leg of the epic, three-week roadshow saw M.B.S. hobnobbing in Los Angeles, where industry moguls jostled to capitalize on the conservative kingdom’s newfound openness to Western entertainment. On Wednesday night, M.B.S. was welcomed to a Hollywood dinner hosted by producer-director Brian Grazer and his wife Veronica,alongside William Morris Endeavor boss Ari Emanuel, who is finalizing a deal with M.B.S. for a $400-million stake in Emanuel’s talent agency. The guest list was saturated with executives, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Disney’s Bob Iger, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel, as well as tech entrepreneur Kobe Bryant,whom the prince reportedly made a special request to meet. Having traded his traditional ceremonial garb for a suit, M.B.S. kibitzed with former Trump aide Dina Powell and Vice co-founder Shane Smith; discussed the exploding use of Snapchat in Saudi Arabia; and asked Kobe how he got his Oscar. Topics that were deemed off-limits included the 32-year-old’s bombing campaign in Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians; his abduction of Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, in November; and the decidedly un-Hollywood-like repression of independent media and journalists, one of whom was recently imprisoned for five years for “insulting” the royal court.

Prince Mohammed must have been tired when he returned to the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, which he had booked in its entirety...

[Polish_Silver]

calling SA medieval is not FAIR

. . .

For generations Saudi Arabia has been one of the most insulated, isolated, medieval societies on the face of the earth. Technology producer...

...

I recently had the privilege of talking with a young woman who had the visited the kingdom.
She told me she would never go back. The reason was that the had walked down a street
with a lock of hair showing, and a policeman had reprimanded her in the most rude fashion. M
Fluent in Arabic, she was in a good position to judge the state of affairs.

I have read various historical and fictional accounts of life in medieval Europe,
and in none of them were women criticized for showing hair in public. European attitudes
were quite different.


I think it is utterly unfair to medieval Europe to call Saudi Arabia "Medieval".

[touchring]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I am still trying to figure out where all this leads, but as I watch the antics of the young Saudi Prince I become more convinced his ego is driving him to out-Mohammed, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the "rock star" former Crown Prince and now Emir of Dubai. Its been a long time since I have witnessed such a concerted reputation shaping media campaign so filled with mountains of utter bullshzt.

For generations Saudi Arabia has been one of the most insulated, isolated, medieval societies on the face of the earth. Technology producer...

Like you I'm a skeptic of MBS when he seized and exorted from the princes but his idea of pushing technology in Saud Arabia is not an impossible move.

For the following reason, there are many cases of authoritarian governments and conservative societies where given enough government support and money, it is possible to have some form of technology industry.

1. Technology talents, programmers and engineers can be recruited from South Asia, which already supplies a lot of professionals to the Gulf states.
2. Technology is male dominated and this fits well with the Saudi society.
3. Technology is usually non-political and non-religious and won't conflict with the Saudi system.
4. Technology has no physical form so you only see the end result and not the "medieval" society that creates it.
5. Technology jobs are generally comfy office jobs and fits well with the Saudi weather and Saudi citizenry.
6. The Internet works well in the Middle East and can involve the entire society, there is no male-female division.

[seobook]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

3. Technology is usually non-political and non-religious and won't conflict with the Saudi system.

Wherever wealth & power accumulates, so to does political power.

4. Technology has no physical form so you only see the end result and not the "medieval" society that creates it.

Arguably the big tech companies are commoditizing the compliments aggressively, which is killing the value of the compliments, which whacks share prices, causes PE firms to buy "distressed" firms & load them up further on debt, and then eventually the commoditizer swoops in and buys what they helped gut after the field has been napalmed.

Eventually it goes full circle: Netflix has considered buying theaters, including Mark Cuban's Landmark, to gain an Oscar edge, sources say