Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Says Semi Shortage Could Last "A Couple Years"   BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, MAY 31, 2021 - 06:30 PM Brace for more pessimistic news about the global semiconductor shortage... Intel is now going on the record and doubling down on statements that its CEO made on 60 Minutes earlier this year, stating that it could take "several years" for the current supply shortage of semiconductors to be resolved.  CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the pandemic-inspired "work from home" trend caused a "cycle of explosive growth in semiconductors", according to  Reuters .  "But while the industry has taken steps to address near term constraints it could still take a couple of years for the ecosystem to address shortages of foundry capacity, substrates and components," Gelsinger commented.  Gelsinger also reiterated Intel's plans to expand: "We plan to expand to other locations in the U.S. and Europe, ensuring a sustai

Florida Rock Concert Sells $18 Tickets For Vaxxed Fans; $1,000 For Non-Vaxxed   BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, MAY 31, 2021 - 05:30 PM   It's not like we didn't tell you so...  The introduction of COVID status certificates is creating a  two-tier society  whereby vaxxed people enjoy their full rights and other perks, and non-vaxxed are heavily penalized.   The latest example is in Florida, where a concert promoter for a future rock show this summer in Tampa Bay charges $18 per ticket for vaxxed fans and $999.99 for non-vaxxed fans, according to Tampa ABC affiliate  WFTS .  "To be eligible for the DISCOUNT, you will need to bring a government-issued photo ID and your PHYSICAL COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card (if you have lost it keep reading, we got you). You will need to have had your second shot of Pfizer or Moderna, or your single shot of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine on or before 6/12/2021," Paul Williams of Leadfoot Promotions wrote on his website wher

Space Plane Startup Promises Los Angeles To Tokyo In One Hour    BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2021 - 11:00 PM   Modern transportation is experiencing significant upgrades thanks to transformative technologies. A startup space plane company is promising hypersonic flight worldwide and travel times to anywhere in about an hour.  Venus Aerospace  is building a passenger aircraft that will revolutionize the world's transportation sector with hypersonic flight. The company raised $3 million in a March funding round. It plans to build a Mach 12 hypersonic aircraft designed to travel at the edge of space, allowing passengers to go from Los Angeles to Tokyo in one hour. Traveling in a space plane is sort of like traveling in a regular plane, except for when the pilot initiates rocket boosters mid-flight that propels it to the edge of space. The aircraft then glides back into the atmosphere and can land at any conventional airport.  Two former Virgin Orbit employees started

  Windows 10 is getting biggest update in a dcade — what to expect By  Ian Morri s   about 15 hours ago Time to finally drop the 10 and call it Windows? When Microsoft announced that  Windows 10  would be the last version of its OS it was obvious that it was taking a different approach to its best-known product. For home users that has been a good thing; no more expensive updates when a new version ships, just an ongoing and steady upgrade to the OS as time goes on. In many ways, it mimics Apple’s approach to macOS.  At this year’s  Build conference , Microsoft’s developer event, its CEO Satya Nadella made some remarks that confirm the mix of rumor and leaks we’ve seen for several months now. Nadella’s keynote included some words from him about what’s next for Windows and how it would change things for the better.  As reported by  Windows Central , Nadella said, "Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater econ

"It's About Limiting Confusion": Waymo Will No Longer Use The Term "Self-Driving", Chief Safety Officer Says   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021 - 10:40 AM   When it comes to the autonomous vehicle wars in the U.S., it still looks like reining leader Waymo is setting both the pace of innovation  and the tone for safety  for the rest of the players in the industry.  <cough> Elon Musk <cough> full self driving <cough>. This week, Waymo took the  extremely responsible  step of ceasing the use of the term "self-driving" to describe its vehicles. The company said it was doing this "so as not to give drivers a false sense of security in the technology," according to Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Pena, who wrote an  op-ed for CNBC  this week. "At Waymo, where I’m Chief Safety Officer, ensuring that the public has an accurate perception of the technology is a top priority. We’re confident that autonomous driving

Germany gives greenlight to driverless vehicles on public roads Rebecca Bellan @rebeccabellan / 7:34 PM MDT•May 24, 2021 Germany has adopted legislation that will allow driverless vehicles on public roads by 2022, laying out a path for companies to deploy robotaxis and delivery services in the country at scale. While autonomous testing is currently permitted in Germany, this would allow operations of driverless vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel. The bill, which last week passed the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, specifically looks at vehicles with Level 4 autonomy. Level 4 autonomy is a designation by the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) which means the computer handles all the driving in certain conditions or environments. In Germany, these vehicles will be limited to geographic areas. “In the future, autonomous vehicles should be able to drive nationwide without a physically present driver in specified operating areas of public road tr

Russia May Cripple Google Services Over Failure To Remove 'Illegal Content'   BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, MAY 24, 2021 - 11:15 AM   Russia may forcibly slow down Google services after the tech giant failed to remove 12 YouTube videos containing "illegal content" regarding unauthorized opposition rallies held in January 2021, according to the  Moscow Times . In response to demands by Russia's internet regulator  Roskomnadzor  to remove the 12 videos it says calls on minors to participate in unauthorized rallies, it has now emerged that  Google filed its first-ever lawsuit against the regulator  on April 23 in the Moscow Arbitration Court, which was accepted by the court on May 11. The first hearing is scheduled for  July 14 . The case relates to content deletion requests Roskomnadzor sent to Google in January,  when the regulator embarked on a high-profile  campaig n  against a host of social media giants  over a surge in the number of posts in support of jai

Oxford Secretly Used Millions Of Patients' Cell Phone Data For Vaccine 'Mobility Study' BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, MAY 24, 2021 - 09:02 AM   In a flagrant violation of patients' medical privacy that has just come to light, the British government has admitted to collecting and using smartphone data to analyze their activity without disclosing it as part of a vaccination study. A report by the Independent Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours  claimed researchers from the University of Oxford discreetly used data from mobile phones as part of their study into how vaccination affected the lifestyles' of patients.  The report was first cited by  the Telegraph. SPI-B advises the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, better known as SAGE, which is responsible for advising the government and has played a key role in the UK's battle against COVID. Oxford, which helped develop a vaccine alongside British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, was

Google Aims For Commercial Quantum Computer By 2029, What Would That Do To Bitcoin?   BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, MAY 24, 2021 - 08:30 PM Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,   Let's explore quantum computing, problems it might solve, and what it will do to current security protocols and blockchain. What is a Quantum Computer?   The New Scientist answers the question  What is a Quantum Computer? Classical computers, which include smartphones and laptops, encode information in binary “bits” that can either be 0s or 1s. In a  quantum computer , the basic unit of memory is a quantum bit or qubit. For instance, eight bits is enough for a classical computer to represent any number between 0 and 255. But eight qubits is enough for a quantum computer to represent every number between 0 and 255 at the same time . A few hundred entangled qubits would be enough to represent more numbers than there are atoms in the universe. In situations where there are a large number of pos

"The Biggest Reduction In History": Wells Fargo's Mayo Predicts 200,000 Banking Jobs Lost Over Next Decade   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 - 02:55 PM   Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo sees a major change coming in the world of U.S. banks.  In fact, he predicts that they could wind up doing away with 200,000 jobs, or 10% of the industry's total employee count, over the next decade. The shift would come as a result of looking to increase profitability in an age of automation and changing customer behavior. “This will be the biggest reduction in US bank headcount in history,” Mayo  told the Financial Times .  The jobs most at risk are in-person branch jobs and call centers; as if it wasn't already difficult enough to get  any  banking done in person or over the phone with an actual human being.  Mayo's analysis gels with Department of Labor predictions, which are calling for a 15% decline in bank teller jobs over the next decade. In addition to

Scholars Line Up To Join Anti-‘Woke’ Online Education Platform   BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021 - 10:45 PM Submitted by Peter Svab of  The Epoch Times ,   Hundreds of scholars, including some distinguished figures, have applied for positions at an online  education  startup that promises explicitly non-“woke” instruction in a number of academic disciplines. Named “ American Scholars ,” the project was started several months ago by Matthew Pohl, former University of Pennsylvania admissions officer. As soon as word got out, résumés started to stream in from academics offering their participation, its leaders said. Pohl described the project as the fruit of his gradual disillusionment with his career in the academic world, where he drove admissions at several prestigious universities. He noticed that with regard to education, most students weren’t getting their money’s worth, attributing that to the “administrative bloat” of establishment colleges, as well as the spread of