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

  After Backlash, Google Turns Off 'Newspeak' Correction Tool (For Now)   Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News, April 28, 2022 Google claims that it has disabled a feature within its document editor that was correcting language to make it ‘more inclusive’, but only while it refines the tool to make it work more effectively. As  we reported  Monday, Google Docs was trialling ‘inclusive warnings’, which act like a language checker, suggesting that users refrain from using terms such as ‘policeman’ or ‘landlord’, because they are gendered, and words like ‘fierce’ and ‘annoyed’ for being threatening. Critics (even ones with rainbow flags in the bio) compared the move to the Ministry of Truth from Orwell’s 1984, policing language and making sure that its  Newspeak  is implemented whenever necessary. Now, following the backlash,  The Daily Wire  notes that Google is pausing the tool. Google spokeswoman Jenny Thomson told the out...

  Google Rolls Out Feature That Corrects You With Woke 'Inclusive' Language; Report   Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News, April 25, 2022 Google’s document editor will begin to correct the language of what people type to be more ‘inclusive’, according to a report in the Telegraph. The article, headlined  Big Brother (sorry, Big Person) is correcting you on Google , outlines how the company is to implement ‘inclusive warnings’ on Google Docs, suggesting that users refrain from using terms such as ‘policeman’ or ‘landlord’, because they are gendered. The warnings will alert users that what they have typed “may not be inclusive to all readers,” while suggesting users should “Consider using different words,” offering woke corrections like ‘police officer’ or ‘property owner’. The report notes, however, that even technical terms like ‘motherboard’ fall prey to Google’s woke correction. When Googling John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech, Google sugg...

BREAKING NEWS   Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44B and will privatize company   By  ASSOCIATED PRESS  | PUBLISHED:  April 25, 2022 at 12:32 p.m.  | UPDATED:  April 25, 2022 at 12:32 p.m. TOM KRISHER and MATT O’BRIEN Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion on Monday, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the platform where he promotes his interests, attacks critics and opines on social and economic issues to more than 83 million followers. The outspoken Tesla CEO, who is also the world’s wealthiest person, has said he wanted to buy and privatize Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech. Musk said in a joint statement with Twitter that he wants to make the service “better than ever” with new features, such as getting rid of automated “spam bots” and making its algorithms open to the public to increase trust. “Free speech is the bedrock of a f...

FCC Commissioner Criticizes Apple CEO Tim Cook Over App Store Censorship In China   Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times, April 24, 2022 A  Federal Communications Commission  (FCC) commissioner has accused Apple CEO  Tim Cook  of hypocrisy, arguing that his company’s dealings with the Chinese communist regime contradict his words about commitment to human rights. “I am concerned that your words in Washington founder upon the harsh reality of your actions in China,”  Brendan Carr , the FCC’s senior Republican, wrote in  a letter to Cook  dated April 20. Carr was referring to Cook’s  keynote speech  at the 2022 International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Global Privacy Summit on April 12. During his speech, Cook spoke about how “privacy is a fundamental human right” and touted Apple’s “commitment to protecting people from a data industrial complex built on a foundation of surveillance.” “Indeed, at the very s...

Google Chrome under attack via zero-day flaw — what to do now By  Alan Martin   April 15, 2022 published  about 5 hours ago Zero-day Chrome flaw fixed, but users should make sure they’re up to date   If you use the Google Chrome browser, you’re advised to stop what you’re doing and update immediately. Google has published a  security advisory  that accompanied the release of Chrome 100.0.4896.127 for Windows, Mac and Linux warning of a high-severity zero-day flaw that’s actively being exploited by hackers.   “Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-1364 exists in the wild,” the company wrote. For obvious reasons, Google is cagey about the exact nature of the vulnerability. These things are typically fully outlined only once the vast majority of people are protected from it, in order to blunt the risk of an attack.  But what we do know is that CVE-2022-1364 is a so-called  “confusion” weakness  in Chrome’s V8 JavaScript...

California start-up sends tiny robots on voyage into brains   by Laurent Banguet April 13, 2022 A simulation shows how a remote-controlled micro robot (with red body) could be used to puncture a cyst (represented by blue ball) in a child's brain. Sending miniature robots deep inside the human skull to treat brain disorders has long been the stuff of science fiction—but it could soon become reality, according to a California start-up. Bionaut Labs plans its first clinical trials on humans in just two years for its tiny injectable robots, which can be carefully guided through the brain using magnets. "The idea of the micro robot came about way before I was born," said co-founder and CEO Michael Shpigelmacher. "One of the most famous examples is a book by Isaac Asimov and a film called 'Fantastic Voyage,' where a crew of scientists goes inside a miniaturized spaceship into the brain, to treat a blood clot." Just as cellphones now contain extre...

'Something That’s Frightening': Robert Epstein Warns Against Big Tech Manipulation   Authored by Masooma Haq and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times , April 12, 2022 A senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, in California, Robert Epstein has been researching and looking at how the biggest tech companies influence human behavior, and conducting extensive monitoring projects of bias in these companies’ products, with a particular focus on Google. Epstein called his findings “frightening” because of the tech companies’ ability to manipulate and change people’s behavior on a global scale. “Now, put that all together, you’ve got something that’s frightening, because you have sources of influence, controlled by really a handful of executives who are not accountable to any public, not the American public, not any public anywhere. They’re only accountable to their shareholders,”  Epstein told   “American Thought Leaders”...

Pfizer Hired 600 Employees Due To 'Large Increase Of Adverse Event Reports': Document by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times  (emphasis ours), April 10, 2022 Pfizer hired 600 employees in the months after its COVID-19 vaccine was authorized in the United States due to the “large increase” of reports of side effects linked to the vaccine, according to a document prepared by the company. Pfizer has “taken a multiple actions to help alleviate the large increase of adverse event reports,” according to the document. “This includes significant technology enhancements, and process and workflow solutions, as well as increasing the number of data entry and case processing colleagues.” At the time when the document—from the first quarter of 2021—was sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),  Pfizer had onboarded about 600 extra full-time workers to deal with the jump. “More are joining each month with an expected total of more than 1,800 additional resources by the ...