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

The hyper-real robots that will replace receptionists, pop stars... and even sex dolls: Unnervingly human androids coming to a future very near you Incredibly life-like robots are currently causing a storm in Japan where they are being prepared for mass commercialisation With new androids creators have beaten 'Uncanny Valley syndrome' where humans are revulsed by robots that look real - but not real enough Now being put to use as receptionists and newsreaders Predicted that within a decade fully independent 'gemanoids' will be in circulation once advances in artificial intelligence are made  Scientists even talking about humans taking androids as partners  By Michael Fitzpatrick In Tokyo For Mailonline Published: 09:25 EST, 20 November 2014 | Updated: 16:47 EST, 20 November 2014 Chillingly life-like robots are causing a storm in Japan – where their creators are about to launch them as actresses, full-size mechanic...

The FBI Is Very Excited About This Machine That Can Scan Your DNA in 90 Minutes Rapid-DNA technology makes it easier than ever to grab and store your genetic profile. G-men, cops, and Homeland Security can't wait to see it everywhere. —By Shane Bauer Thu Nov. 20, 2014 6:30 AM EST Robert Schueren shook my hand firmly, handed me his business card, and flipped it over, revealing a short list of letters and numbers. "Here is my DNA profile." He smiled. "I have nothing to hide." I had come to meet Schueren, the CEO of IntegenX, at his company's headquarters in Pleasanton, California, to see its signature product: a machine the size of a large desktop printer that can unravel your genetic code in the time it takes to watch a movie. Schueren grabbed a cotton swab and dropped it into a plastic cartridge. That's what, say, a police officer would use to wipe the inside of your cheek to collect a DNA sample after an arrest, he explained. Other bits...

Exercise in a Bottle Is Next Food Frontier for Nestle By Corinne Gretler  Nov 19, 2014 5:10 AM Tucked away near Lake Geneva, a handful of Nestle SA (NESN) scientists are quietly working on realizing every couch potato’s dream: exercise that comes in a bottle. The world’s biggest food company, known for KitKat candy bars and Nespresso capsules, says it has identified how an enzyme in charge of regulating metabolism can be stimulated by a compound called C13, a potential first step in developing a way to mimic the fat-burning effect of exercise. The findings were published in the science journal Chemistry & Biology in July. While any slimming smoothies or snack bars are a long way off, eight scientists at the Nestle Institute of Health Sciences in Lausanne, Switzerland, are looking for natural substances that can act as triggers. Nestle’s commitment to this type of project illustrates how the company is working to address consumers’ disenchantment with packaged f...

May 11, 2014 3 secrets to get the lowest airfare online Holidays are on the way, and this means vacations, reunions and long weekends are just around the corner. I'm betting that whatever adventure you have planned, it's probably going to involve a flight to get there. Despite the rigmarole with checking baggage, parking your car and going through security, flying is still faster and more convenient for long distances than any other type of transportation. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most expensive and the hardest to make sure that you get a deal. Still, with a few insider tricks you can get substantial savings on your airline tickets - even tickets you've already bought. That can free up spending money for your trip, or you can put it toward expenses after you get back from vacation. Ready? Set? Save! 1. KNOW THE BEST ONLINE PLACES TO LOOK If you're just looking at prices on an airline's site, you're missing the bigg...

Billboard, Changing the Charts, Will Count Streaming Services By BEN SISARIO NOV. 19, 2014 Streaming music services like Spotify have brought big changes to the music industry. But one important part of the business has not kept up: Billboard’s album chart. Now Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan, the agency that supplies its data, will start adding streams and downloads of tracks to the formula behind the Billboard 200, which, since 1956 has functioned as the music world’s weekly scorecard. It is the biggest change since 1991, when the magazine began using hard sales data from SoundScan, a revolutionary change in a music industry that had long based its charts on highly fudgeable surveys of record stores. The new chart, covering sales and listening from Monday to Nov. 30, will be revealed on Billboard’s website on Dec. 4 and published in print in its Dec. 13 issue. Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard’s director of charts, said that by looking at streams as well as sales, the n...

Cellphone tracking: Find an address? Easy. But new devices can calculate your altitude. New devices are able to determine not only what building you and your phone are in but also which floor you’re on. (Bigstock) By Craig Timberg November 19 at 9:00 PM Cellphones long have doubled as tracking devices, capable of revealing your location to police, paramedics, even grocery stores looking to deliver coupons to nearby customers. But there’s a measurement cellphones once struggled to make: altitude. No more. Cellphone tracking is about to go vertical as the location-services industry, prodded by the U.S. government, solves the riddle of what experts call “the z vector.” Soon it will be possible to determine not only what building you and your phone are in but also whether you are on the first or 15th floor. One key is the rapid spread of barometric-pressure sensors, which have become standard features in Apple’s iPhone 6 and several Android devices. More than 100 m...

China says controls on Internet needed to maintain stability By Paul Carsten | Reuters – Wed, 19 Nov, 2014 WUZHEN China (Reuters) - Chinese officials called on Wednesday for controls on the Internet to preserve stability, saying its model for cyberspace regulation can be the framework for spawning commercial successes like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The comments, made at the start of the World Internet Conference (WIC), show China is unlikely to loosen its tight grip on the medium even as it has begun a transformation of its economic model. "This place is crowded with tourists, who are perfectly orderly, and cyberspace should also be free and open, with rules to follow and always following the rule of law," Lu Wei, China's Internet chief and director of the State Internet Information Office, said at the conference. Lu was referring to China's eastern tourist town of Wuzhen, roughly 75 miles from Shanghai, which is hosting the three-day conference....