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

Farm Robot Zaps Weeds With High-Powered Lasers, Eliminates Need For Toxic Herbicides   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, APR 30, 2021 - 09:20 PM   In the same way, a self-driving car sees its surroundings on city streets, sensors that use machine learning technology allow farm robots to navigate fields. Automation is a growing presence in the farm industry, and a new generation of autonomous robots is helping farmers shape tomorrow's crops. Crops that can be harvested with barely any or no herbicides would be beneficial not just to humans but also to the environment. An oddly-shaped autonomous farm tractor can eliminate the need for toxic herbicides by using high-powered lasers to weed about 20 acres per day to solve this dilemma.  Robotics company Carbon Robotics unveiled its newest weed elimination robot, Autonomous Weeder, which leverages artificial intelligence, sensors, and lasers to eliminate weeds on commercial farms. "Traditional chemicals used by farmers, such as he

  Majority Of US Companies Will Require Workers To Provide Proof Of Vaccination   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, APR 30, 2021 - 09:55 PM   It looks like American colleges won't be alone in making vaccination mandatory for any students who want to return to campus next semester. Despite the White House's determination that vaccination shouldn't be mandatory by law, more than 60% of American companies are reportedly leaning toward requiring proof of vaccination from their employees. According to a new survey from the Rockefeller Foundation, 65% of businesses will offer some kind of incentive for employees to get vaccinated, while 63% said they will require proof of vaccination before workers can return to the office. Another 35% said disciplinary actions are on the table, including the possibility of termination, for those who refuse vaccines. The survey, released Thursday, represents the responses of 957 businesses across 24 industries. Most of the respondents were US bus

EU Says Apple's App Store Breaks Anti-Trust Rules As Court Showdown With Epic Games Looms   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, APR 30, 2021 - 09:04 AM   A long-awaited legal showdown between Apple and "Fortnite" maker Epic Games  will start May 3, when a federal judge will hear arguments  as Epic alleges that Apple's control of the iOS app store, and the fees it charges developers, makes it an illegal monopoly, the EU's anti-trust czar Margrethe Vestager (who has a reputation for attacking American tech giants on anti-trust grounds) has just launched a similar crusade of her own. Via a charge sheet issued Friday, Vestager and the EU have determined that Apple is guilty of antitrust violations for allegedly abusing its control of its app store when it comes to music-streaming apps like Spotify, a European company that competes against Apple's "Apple Music" with its popular music-and-podcast streaming app, and which complained to Vestager about Apple. W

Spotify Challenges Apple With New Subscriptions Podcasting Platform   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, APR 27, 2021 - 03:45 PM   Days after Apple announced plans to launch its first subscription podcasting platform, Spotify - after making a splash last year when it recruited Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian and a handful of other big name stars to its podcasting platform - is planning a similar paid platform that will charge creators a much smaller slice of revenues. Spotify  unveiled "Anchor", its paid podcast platform, in a  post on Tuesday where it touted the "massive opportunity" for content creators to monetize their work. "Today, we’re rolling out a paid subscription platform for podcasters that gives them maximized revenue, wide reach, and discoverability. The program begins rolling out in the U.S. today and will expand internationally in the coming months," the company said in a statement. In comments to  the Verge , Mike Mignano, head of podcaster miss

Apple, Google 'Kill' Advertising Cookies In Major Privacy Overhaul   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, APR 27, 2021 - 03:10 PM   Google and Apple are each making major changes to the way advertisers can track and target consumers, which will effectively kill the decades-old 'cookies' used to tailor ads based on websites you've visited. Apple's plan,  unveiled Monday, has made privacy advocates happy but has ad-tech firms, mobile app developers and rivals (primarily Facebook, which could lose up to 3% of revenue according to Bank of America)  fuming ,  Bloomberg  reports. Starting Monday, Apple's iOS will require apps running on its devices  to obtain user permission before tracking any activity across other apps and websites  - a move similar to what they've already done with their Safari web browser. Ever use an app and see a screen pop up asking to use your phone’s microphone or camera? Apple’s change will work like that . Apps that want to track fo

Bill Gates Doubles Down On Opposition To "Open Vaccine" Movement   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, APR 27, 2021 - 02:55 PM   Roughly one year after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seized control of the global response to COVID-19 with the goal of providing "equitable access" to a vaccine, Bill Gates & Co. have accomplished the opposite:  The Covid-19 ACT-Accelerator mechanism, backed by the Gates Foundation, has a stated policy of respecting the exclusive intellectual property rights of western drugmakers. At the same time, the WHO-backed alternative solution, known as Covid-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-TAP, which was supposed to foster an open-source pool of vaccine and drug technology, has mostly faltered. As India's second-wave COVID-19 outbreak spirals out of control, more parties have come forward to criticize Gates for his support of IP protections. Considering the scarcity of the medicines, there have been increasing calls from countries lik

Twitter Admits To Censoring Criticism Of The Indian Government   BY TYLER DURDEN SUNDAY, APR 25, 2021 - 10:20 AM Authored by Jonathan Turley,   On Saturday, Twitter admitted that it is  actively working with the Indian government to censor criticism of its handling of the pandemic  as the number of cases and deaths continues to skyrocket. There are widespread reports that the Indian government has  misrepresented the number of deaths  and the true rate of cases could be  as much as 30 times higher  than reported.   The country has a shortage of beds, oxygen, and other essentials due to a failure to adequately prepare for a new surge. Not surprisingly, the Indian government has moved to crackdown on criticism. This included a call to Twitter to censor such information and Twitter has, of course, complied. With the  support of many Democratic leaders in the United States , Twitter now regularly censors viewpoints in the United States and India had no trouble in enlisting it to cr

"This Is Massive": Shadowy DARPA-Linked Company Took Over 'Chunk' Of Pentagon's Internet In Inauguration Day Mystery   BY TYLER DURDEN SUNDAY, APR 25, 2021 - 12:25 PM   A shadowy company set up last September linked to a DARPA / FBI contractor who peddled a 'lawful intercept' internet spy device to government agencies and law enforcement a decade ago,  took over a massive portion of the Pentagon's idle internet addresses on the day of President Biden's inauguration , according to an in-depth investigation by the  Associated Press . The valuable internet real estate has since quadrupled to 175 million IP addresses which were previously owned by the US Department of Defense - about 1/25th the size of the current internet, and over twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon. " It is massive. That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet ," said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network

Scientists Are Now Growing Human-Monkey Chimeric Embryos   BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, APR 24, 2021 - 10:50 PM   In a move that is undoubtedly going to raise all sorts of ethical and scientific questions, scientists have now successfully grown human-monkey chimeric embryos for up to 20 days. The international team of scientists was led by gene expression expert Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from the Salk Institute in California,  according to RT . Along with his team, he "implanted human stem cells into primate embryos which then grew for up to up to 20 days." While the experiment toes many ethical lines, the potential benefits of helping humans understand evolution and biology seem to have outweighed the negatives - for the time being, at least.  Belmonte said: “As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease. An important goal of experime

"It's On" - Germany, France Back EU Push To Sue AstraZeneca Over Botched Vaccine Rollout   BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, APR 24, 2021 - 07:35 AM   Following reports that  Germany and other major EU members were reluctant to sue AstraZeneca  over the botched rollout of its COVID-19 vaccine, it looks like Berlin and Paris have actually signed on. According to the latest round of reports, almost every EU country has now signed on, opening the door for the EU Commission to launch the lawsuit as soon as Friday. As  Politico reminds  us, 5 or 6 major EU nations had expressed some reservations about a lawsuit when EU ambassadors met earlier this week, arguing that legal action could further worsen AstraZeneca's already-tarnished image. But as many member states continue to impose age limits on the AstraZeneca jab, it seems they've given up on these concerns. One by one, each country reportedly fell in line, with France backing the lawsuit on Thursday night, followed

Mysterious New Grocery Store In Connecticut Could Be A Fully Automated Amazon Supermarket   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, APR 23, 2021 - 01:10 PM   Amazon reportedly has plans for dozens of new Amazon Fresh supermarkets across the country that feature automated checkout technology and will entirely transform the supermarket industry.  The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is quietly building a national grocery chain of at least 37 stores from Philadelphia to the Sacramento suburbs, with 12 stores in operation.  Some of the Amazon Fresh supermarkets already employ fleets of smart grocery carts called "Dash Carts," whose sensors and cameras add up purchases as shoppers walk the aisles. While the intelligent carts make shopping seamless, Amazon could be developing even more advanced automated checkout technology.  A  Bloomberg  investigation into a store being constructed in Brookfield, Connecticut, may provide clues into Amazon's next big move in the supermarket industry

US Postal Service Running 'Covert Operations Program' To Spy On Americans' Social Media Posts, Share With Agencies   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, APR 21, 2021 - 01:36 PM   The US Postal Service (USPS) has been running a secret program to  track and collect Americans' social media posts  - including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by  Yahoo News . The surveillance program - operated by the law enforcement arm of the USPS, is known as  iCOP  or "Internet Covert Operations Program" - has not been previously made public according to the report. The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies. - Yahoo News " Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occu