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

Goldman Partners With Amazon To Launch New Cloud Computing Platform BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, NOV 30, 2021 - 10:05 PM   Goldman Sachs and Amazon are launching their most ambitious collaboration yet:  a new cloud computing service geared toward Wall Street firms to help them with high-frequency trading and other practices. And all these firms need to do is agree to entrust their entire back-end IT setup to the Vampire Squid to access what Amazon is touting as one of the fastest and most useful back-end systems available to Wall Street firms looking to transition on to the cloud. The new product - the result of a two-year collaboration with Amazon - will allow buy-side and sell-side firms to access all of Goldman's tools for quickly analyzing market data while enabling clients to set up high-speed trading strategies. Instead of simply relying on Goldman for prime brokerage services, hedge funds could soon outsource most of their IT setup to Wall Street's most powerful inve

How To Escape Google   Submitted by swprs.org, November 26, 2021   Do you belong to the 94% of Internet users who have no clue? Google Search has a US online search  market share  of about 70%, or even 94% if Google Images, Google Maps and Google-owned YouTube are added (see chart above). If you belong to these 94%, there is some bad news for you. As a well-known US podcaster recently  discovered ,  Google is indeed “hiding information” from its users . This has actually been known for  many years , but it has become especially obvious and serious during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, censorship by Google has become so bad that nowadays, advanced Internet users are using Google primarily to monitor the current extent of censorship, not to actually search for anything. US researcher Dr. Robert Epstein termed it the  Search Engine Manipulation Effect  (SEME). Of note, Google censorship affects not just search results, but even  search suggestions . In other words, Goog

Italy Fines Apple, Amazon $230M Over 'Secret' Deal To Limit Resellers   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, NOV 24, 2021 - 04:15 AM   The European Union's top bureaucrats aren't the only officials on the continent focused on demanding fairness and accountability  from American big tech firms like Google, Apple and Amazon. This week, Italy fined tech giants Amazon and Apple roughly $230M, accusing the firms of anti-competitive activities by claiming  they secretly cooperated to restrict sales of Apple products in Italy on platforms run by Amazon.  The two tech giants allegedly struck a deal back in 2018, which allegedly enabled  only 'selected resellers' to sell Apple products and Beats electronic accessories on Amazon.it. Italy’s antitrust authority ruled that the firms acted in violation of EU laws and affected competition on prices. Apple and Amazon were ordered to scrap their deal and the restrictions it imposes, and give all retailers of Apple and Beats produ

NYC Passes Bill To Restrict 'Racist, Sexist' Hiring Software   BY TYLER DURDEN SUNDAY, NOV 21, 2021 - 07:00 PM’   New York City is on track to become the first city in the nation to ban automated hiring tools  unless a yearly bias audit can prove that the software won't discriminate based on an applicant's race or gender , and would force makers of said AI tools to open up their black box algos to scrutiny. The bill, passed by the city council in early November and would go into effect January 2023 if signed into law, would also give candidates the option of choosing an alternative process (a human) to review their job applications, according to the  Associated Press . "I believe this technology is incredibly positive but it can produce a lot of harms if there isn’t more transparency, " said Frida Polli, co-founder and CEO of New York startup Pymetrics, which has lobbied for the legislation that favors firms such as hers which publish 'fairness a

Pfizer Will Allow Generic Covid Pill To Be Made And Sold Cheaply In Poor Countries BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, NOV 16, 2021 - 09:50 AM   Pfizer has signed an agreement with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool to license its new experimental Covid-19 pill to generic companies that can supply it to 95 low- and middle-income countries. The move is similar to what Merck has done previously. According to Bloomberg , Pfizer's license will cover countries that make up about 53% of the world's population. For the length of time that Covid is declared a public health emergency, Pfizer won't get royalties from sales in middle-income countries, and for low-income countries, Pfizer won't get royalties at all. The pact also includes some upper-middle income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the report says.  "Numerous generic countries can cheaply produce" Pfizer's pills, Bloomberg wrote, adding that Pfzier has been under "considerable pressure&quo

YouTube Co-Founder Slams Company's Removal Of 'Dislike' Button As "Stupid Move" BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, NOV 16, 2021 - 09:04 AM Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News, The co-founder of YouTube has labelled the company’s decision to remove the ‘dislike’ button as a “Stupid move.” Jawed Karim, who sold his stake in YouTube for $65 million in 2006, was the first person to ever upload a video to YouTube and he used that video to comment on the scrapping of the ‘thumb down’ button. In the description section of the video, which shows the engineer visiting San Diego zoo 16 years ago, Karim edited in the comment  “When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube.” YouTube announced it will hide ‘dislikes’ from videos, reasoning that it will curb “creator harassment,” yet critics pointed out that this is merely a way of removing the huge amount of downvotes on videos posted by the Biden administration. 

World's Largest 3D-Printed Neighborhood Coming To Austin, Texas    BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, NOV 12, 2021 - 08:00 PM   Construction of the world's largest community of 3D-printed homes is expected to break ground next year in Austin, Texas.  Lennar, the nation's second-largest homebuilder, has teamed up with ICON, a technology pioneer specializing in large-scale 3D printing, to "print" 100 single-story houses using a giant 3D printer on-site to lay concrete-based building material.  Lennar Co-CEO Jon Jaffe recently stressed that the entire building industry faced shortages of materials and skyrocketing costs. To solve this problem, the company is turning to 3D printing:  "Labor and material shortages are two of the biggest factors pushing the dream of homeownership out of reach for many American families.  "Lennar has always expanded the boundaries of technological innovation to keep quality homes affordable, and 3D printing is an immensely e

Congolese Refugees Use Bitcoin To Build Grassroots Economy   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, NOV 12, 2021 - 05:00 AM Authored by Alex McShane via BitcoinMagazine.com, After the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo volcano on 22 May 2021, a restaurant worker and a blogger teamed up in the city of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo and taught displaced families how to use Bitcoin ,  TechCrunch  reported. Blogger Gloire Wanzavalere went to a refugee camp that popped up in Goma, offering to give Bitcoin to displaced families. Gloire told  TechCrunch  that he discovered most of the families had traded what few belongings they had managed to escape with, thus they did not have the paperwork required to open bank accounts or acquire phones. “These people lost everything. I understood it was rational for them to sell what they had left in order to buy food,”  Gloire told  TechCrunch . “So we bought phones for eight people…twelve people benefited from our initiative, four among them already had their

Rolls-Royce To Develop Mini Nuke Reactors To Decarbonize Power Grid    BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, NOV 09, 2021 - 10:45 PM   In a world where ESG is all the rage, and the transition from coal to cleaner energy sources is paramount, the UK has become the latest country to embrace nuclear power.  According to a company  press release , Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc raised $617 million to fund "the next generation of low cost, low carbon nuclear power technology." Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited, and Exelon Generation Limited will develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that will allow the country to meet net-zero commitments. SMRs will be built in the UK and open for export to customers worldwide.  With every passing week, our core thesis set here last December (see " Uranium Stocks Soar: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze ") is that nuclear would be widely embraced as a net-zero enabling technology for power grids. Warren East, the Ro

Mastercard Launches Bitcoin Payment Cards in Asia-Pacific   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, NOV 09, 2021 - 08:25 PM Authored by 'Namcios' via BitcoinMagazine.com,   The card giant partnered with three bitcoin service providers in the region to enable consumers to spend BTC anywhere that accepts Mastercard... Consumers and businesses in the Asia Pacific region can now apply for bitcoin-linked Mastercard credit, debit, and prepaid cards. The card giant partnered with cryptocurrency service providers Amber, Bitkub, and CoinJar to enable customers to pay for regular purchases with BTC. On the backend, cryptocurrency in the user’s account is instantly converted into fiat currency to allow the payment. Card giant Mastercard has partnered with cryptocurrency service providers Amber Group, Bitkub, and CoinJar to offer bitcoin-linked payment cards across the Asia Pacific region, the company said in a  statement  on November 8. These firms are the fi

Facebook Abandons Facial Recognition Features, Deletes 1 Billion User 'Templates'   BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, NOV 03, 2021 - 04:15 AM   Facebook (now Meta) just announced that it's shutting down its pioneering facial recognition system, which was first implemented years ago by offering suggestions for tagging people who appeared in photos shared on Meta's Facebook platform. In  a statement , Meta said it's shutting down the facial recognition system on Facebook. Even users who have opted in to the Facial Recognition system will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos.  Users will no longer be automatically recognized and tagged in photos and videos, and Meta will also delete more than 1 billion user's individual facial recognition templates. The decision is "part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products. As part of this change, people who have opted in to our Face Recognition setting will no