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

"Slippery Slope" - Vaccine Passports Are A Technical & Ethical Minefield BY TYLER DURDEN SUNDAY, FEB 28, 2021 - 22:35 Authored by Melinda Mills, op-ed via The Financial Times, I remember the evening a co-worker arrived at our door waving a phone, beaming “I’ve got it!”  His Android mobile was the only way to use the UK government app that let EU citizens apply for UK settled status after Brexit. After some unsettling jokes about uploading my private biometric data on his device, we completed the deed and he disappeared into the night.  As governments around the world ponder digital vaccine passports, that evening remains in my mind. Vaccine passports are essentially certificates that link proof of vaccination to the identity of the holder, a potential silver bullet to return to our pre-Covid-19 lives.   Before the pandemic,  the EU was working on plans for cross-border electronic certificates to replace the paper booklets that many travellers carry. At this...

A Whopping 91% Of US Restaurants Will Invest In Kitchen Automation, Says Survey    BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, FEB 27, 2021 - 22:00  The virus pandemic did not change the trajectory of where the restaurant industry was headed, but it did force years of change in a short period. Restaurants are embracing artificial intelligence and automation to revolutionize their business models.  A new report via payments company Square titled " Future of Restaurants "  discusses an overview of how technology is sweeping through the industry. Square partnered with Wakefield Research to survey 500 restaurant owners and managers across the country.  They found an overwhelming number of owners and managers are pivoting towards automation in the kitchen and embracing the hub-and-spoke model.  About 91% of respondents said they have made or planning to make investments in kitchen automation technology. So what's the rush to digitize the backend of a resta...

Judge "Disturbed" To Learn Google Tracks 'Incognito' Users, Demands Answers BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, FEB 27, 2021 - 17:00   A US District Judge in San Jose, California says she was "disturbed" over Google's data collection practices, after learning that the company  still collects and uses data from users in its Chrome browser's so-called 'incognito' mode  - and has demanded an explanation " about what exactly Google does ," according to  Bloomberg . In a class-action lawsuit that describes the company's private browsing claims as a "ruse" - and "seeks $5,000 in damages for each of the millions of people whose privacy has been compromised since June of 2016," US District Judge Lucy Koh said she finds it "unusual" that the company would make the "extra effort" to gather user data if it doesn't actually use the information for targeted advertising or to build user profiles. Ko...

Artificial Intelligence Takes Over Drive-Thru Orders At This Fast-Food Restaurant   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, FEB 26, 2021 - 21:20   Today, the warning is that no low-skilled job is safe from being displaced by automation and artificial intelligence. For example, humans taking orders at drive-thru lines at fast-food restaurants are being replaced with an automated system. Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken in Englewood, Ohio, beginning this week, will be using "artificial intelligence to take orders of customers passing through the drive-thru," according to local television station  WHIO-TV .  The automated drive-thru ordering system developed by Hi Auto uses "artificial intelligence" to greet and take orders from customers.  Andrea Newport, the spokesperson for Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, said, "employees in the restaurant will be able to listen to every transaction through existing headsets and intervene in case an issue arises during the order pr...

These 7 States Are On The Verge Of Herd Immunity   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, FEB 26, 2021 - 15:00 Nothing seems to scare the establishment more than a return to 'normal'. And by 'normal', we mean a return to an environment outside of the tyrannical control of career politicians and bureaucrats who have got a taste for this 'being king' stuff and know that anyone who questions their edicts will be 'canceled' by their Covidian cultists. So, a week after Johns Hopkins surgeon, Dr. Marty Makary,  penned an Op-ed in the WSJ  saying that  we will have herd immunity by April ... and was instantly disavowed as 'dangerous', some awkward 'facts' and 'science' have been dropped by none other than FundStrat's Tom Lee. "...cumulatively and slowly, the US is seeing more states reach that combined level of vaccinations + infections approach what is seen as herd immunity.” Source So far,  South Dakota, North Dakota, Rhode Isl...

SPAC To Take Air Taxi Startup Joby Public   BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, FEB 25, 2021 - 11:20 Submitted by  Market Crumbs , SPACs have continued their hot run this year as the preferred way to bring companies to the public market. 144 SPACs have gone public so far this year, or an  average of five per day , according to Goldman Sachs' Ben Snider. With a SPAC named  Just Another Acquisition Corp. filing for an IPO  last week, there's not much left to be surprised about in the SPAC space. The latest SPAC announcement will see  air taxi startup Joby Aviation go public  through a reverse merger with Reinvent Technology Partners in a deal valuing the combined company at $6.6 billion. The deal will give Joby $1.6 billion in gross proceeds to continue development of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (“eVTOL”) aircraft. Touting its "first-mover advantage," Joby intends to use the proceeds to fund the business through the beginning of commercial op...

US Army Building World's Most Powerful Laser To Vaporize Drones    BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 23:20   The US Army appears to be developing a laser weapon that is a "million times stronger" than anything ever used before - instead of concentrating a beam of light to destroy a target, the new weapon will fire short pulses, sort of like laser beam weapons from science-fiction movies, according to  New Scientist . The Tactical Ultrashort Pulsed Laser (UPSL)  for Army Platforms will be designed to fire pulse-like bursts for a brief 200 femtoseconds or one quadrillionth of a second. The laser, firing bullet-like pulses of light would be enough to vaporize a drone, cruise missile, mortar, and or any other threat in its vicinity. UPSL can also function as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.  "The sheer amount of intensity in a terawatt pulse laser is able to cause a non-linear effect in the air resulting in a self-focusing filament," acc...

Maryland Set To Tax Online Ads From Facebook And Google   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 22:40   Look out, Google and Facebook. Maryland is now set to become the first state in the nation to tax online ads. It's a trend, that if it catches on (and we predict it will), could likely sweep through the nation as money-hungry spend-o-crats look for more ways to finance their respective Green New Deals, government subsidized sex changes and racial equality seminars.  The state's House of Delegates and Senate both voted to override a veto of a bill from last year that would place a tax on online ads, according to  NPR . The tax would apply to companies like Facebook and Google and will range from 2.5% to 10% per ad, depending on the value of the company selling the ad.  It's expected to net the state $250 million per year, which the state then says it will use to fund an overhaul of public education that is expected to cost $4 billion. ...

Watch: Flying-Robo Harvester Picks Ripe Fruit, Set To Displace Humans   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 22:00   It's no secret by now that the rise of automation and robots is projected to displace millions of jobs in the coming years. Many low-skilled jobs will be wiped out because of robots, sending technological unemployment, the loss of jobs caused by technological change, through the roof.  The latest installment of technological change leading to short-term job loss could soon be seen in the fruit harvesting industry.  Israeli company,  Tevel Aerobotics Technologies , has developed a flying autonomous robot (FAR) that works day and night to pick fruit. Artificial intelligence embedded within the FAR determines the ripest fruit to pick through sensors and computer vision.  "The FAR robot can work 24 hours a day and picks only ripe fruit. It uses AI perception algorithms to locate the trees and vision algorithms to detect the fruit...

500,000 Jobs At Risk As Instacart Mulls Robot-Driven Warehouses   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, FEB 23, 2021 - 11:55   For the more than 500,000 Instacart gig workers fulfilling grocery orders at supermarket chains such as Giant, Food Lion, Costco, among others, the delivery service is exploring ways it can eliminate human workers by employing robots at warehouses, according to a new report via  Financial Times .  Anyone who straps on a mask, or now maybe two or three, and has shopped at a major grocery chain this year have noticed, many of whom, young millennials, running around the stores in green Instacart shirts, fulfilling orders.  While this innovative delivery service has been nothing but stellar during the virus pandemic, the San Francisco-based startup has been researching ways to automate the picking process.  "Last spring, Instacart sent out proposal requests to at least five companies that offer robotic systems that would pick goods ...

British Supreme Court Rules Uber Drivers Are Workers, Not Self-Employed   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, FEB 19, 2021 - 6:06 In a landmark decision that marks the close of a years-long legal battle,  the British Supreme Court has just ruled that Uber must classify its drivers as workers instead of the 'self-employed' designation  that currently applies to Uber drivers in the US, Europe and elsewhere. The ruling already looks set to jack up Uber's labor costs, as Uber drivers in the UK are now officially entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay. Uber's loss at the hands of Britain's Supreme Court is the last leg of a lengthy legal battle: Uber appealed to the British Supreme Court after losing three earlier rounds. Two former drivers-turned-activists celebrated the ruling: James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam - the two men who originally won an employment tribunal decision against Uber back in October 2016, told the BBC they were "thrilled and relieved" to hear...

Canada To Follow Australia's Lead In Charging Facebook For Links   BY TYLER DURDEN   SUNDAY, FEB 21, 2021 - 22:45 Authored by Jazz Shaw via HotAir.com,   After blocking links to all news content in Australia, Facebook has reportedly “friended” the country again by coming back to the negotiating table,  at least  according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison . That doesn’t mean that Mark Zuckerberg has dropped his objections to Austrailia’s pending legislation that would force the social media giant to pay for links to Australian news content, however. Neither side seems to be backing down at this point. Australia may not be in this battle alone, though. We’re learning this weekend that  Canada is drafting a similar measure  and basically daring Facebook to impose a blackout on them as well.  (NY Post) Canada is poised to take on Facebook, following the example set by Australia, which began a war with the tech giant when the country’s publis...

Jaguar To Go Fully-Electric By 2025   BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, FEB 18, 2021 - 5:00 Submitted by  Market Crumbs, As automakers transition to a future of electric vehicles, a handful of them are targeting specific dates to offer only electric vehicles. Bentley Motors announced  in November that its model range will be exclusively plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles by 2026 and full electric vehicles by 2030.  General Motors announced  just a few weeks ago that it will also phase out the internal combustion engine as it will offer only electric vehicles by 2035. Jaguar Land Rover is the latest automaker  to commit to a date to offer only electric vehicles as the company announced earlier this week the Jaguar vehicle lineup will be all-electric by 2025. The company also announced Land Rover will see offer its first all-electric variant in 2024 with a total of six pure electric variants to be offered in the next five years. By 2030, Jaguar Lan...