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

  German Court Orders YouTube To Pay 100,000 Euros For Censoring Pandemic Protest Footage   BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, JUL 12, 2021 - 02:45 AM YouTube has been fined 100,000 euros by the German Higher Regional Court at Dresden  after it wrongly deleted a user's video which showed massive pandemic lockdown protests in Switzerland  - and then failed to reinstate the video 'immediately' after the court ordered it to do so on April 20. Instead, the company waited nearly a month to revive the video, which led to last week's fine, issued on July 5th, according to  WELT . de . Lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel, who represents the account operator, considers the court's decision to be a guideline for freedom of expression on the Internet. " With the historically high fine, the Higher Regional Court makes it very clear that court decisions must be observed without restriction, regardless of whether YouTube assumes a violation of its guidelines or not ," said Steinhö...

  Volocopter's Flying Taxi Secures Production Organization Approval As Commercialization Nears   BY TYLER DURDEN SUNDAY, JUL 11, 2021 - 06:00 PM   eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) air taxis are emerging as a revolutionary means of transportation across metro areas. Though no urban air mobility service exists at the moment, plenty of startups have touted their future air taxi designs and or test flights.  One company that could be way ahead of the competition is closer than ever to commercialization.  German aircraft manufacturer Volocopter GmbH  announced  Tuesday that it had received Production Organization Approval (POA) with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Notably, Volocopter was the first eVTOL company to obtain Design Organizations Approvals (DOA) in 2019.  Volocopter also announced it had acquired German manufacturer of sailplanes DG Flugzeugbau for production of the new eVTOL. This means with a DOA...

  Made-in-Israel anti-viral nasal spray found effective against COVID Enovid, a spray developed in Canada by SaNOtize and manufactured in Israel has been found to reduce viral loads in confirmed COVID-19 cases by 95% in 24 hours and 99% in 72 hours By  JERUSALEM POST STAFF    JULY 11, 2021 18:32 An anti-viral nasal spray called  Enovid  that was developed in Canada and tested in the UK can reduce the viral loads in confirmed COVID-19 cases by 95% in 24 hours and 99% in 72 hours, a press release said on Sunday.  The Israeli-manufactured spray can be used up to five times a day after coming in contact with viruses, according to the release. It's suitable for children as young as 12 years old, and the Ministry of Health approved it in January this year. It will go on sale in the coming week.  "The spray we developed has been proven not only as a virus blocker that causes Covid-19 but also as a killer," Dr. Gili Regev, CEO and founder o...

  Did A Korean Research Team Just Find The "Holy Grail" Of Water Desalinization   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, JUL 09, 2021 - 03:50 PM   Could the holy grail of turning salt water to drinkable water  finally  be upon us? A new  report  from  Interesting Engineering  seems to suggest that could be the case - detailing a new nanofiber membrane, developed by Yunchul Woo and his team at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, that appears to be "stable in the long term" for desalinization. And it can be done "in minutes", the report says. Membranes had been used in the past, but there is often a challenge in keeping them dry for long periods of time. When they become wet, their filtration characteristics become ineffective and large amounts of salt can pass through.  Woo's team has created a membrane "made of nanofibres that have been fabricated into a three-dimensional hierarchical structure" by usin...

Apple Cofounder Steve Wozniak Embraces "Right To Repair" Movement   BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, JUL 09, 2021 - 05:45 AM   Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak embraced the "right to repair" movement in a Cameo video. He said Apple itself wouldn't have existed without an open technology world.  "We wouldn't have had an Apple, had I not grown up in a very open technology world," said Wozniak. "Back then, when you bought electronic thing like TV's and radios, every bit of the circuits and designs were included on paper. Total open source." Nowadays, Apple, Microsoft, and other technology companies have strict repair restrictions on their products.  "It's time to recognize the Right to Repair more fully,"  Wozniak said in a Wednesday Cameo video requested by repair expert  Louis Rossman . Cameo is a site where people pay celebrities for a short video message.  "I am so busy with so many other things in my life that ...

Google Sued By 36 States, DC Over Alleged Antitrust Violations   BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, JUL 08, 2021 - 02:39 PM Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times,   Google  on Wednesday was hit by a lawsuit from a group of state attorneys over  alleged violation of antitrust laws by its Android app store. Attorneys general for 36 states and the District of Columbia sued the Big Tech company in a 144-page complaint filed in a Northern California federal court. The group alleges that Google’s Play store for Android apps violates antitrust laws. The complaint centers on the control Google is able to exert on its Play store,  allowing it to collect commissions of up to 30 percent on digital transactions within apps installed on Android-powered smartphones.  Those devices represent more than 80 percent of the worldwide smartphone market. Led by Utah, North Carolina, Tennessee, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, and Nebraska, it marks the fourth majo...

Pentagon Cancels $10 Billion JEDI Cloud Deal Awarded To Microsoft   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, JUL 06, 2021 - 12:42 PM   The Department of Defense on Tuesday announced the cancellation of a $10 billion 'JEDI' cloud services contract awarded to Microsoft in 2019, instead of Amazon - which thought it was a shoe-in before the Trump administration told Bezos and crew to pound sand. According to the Pentagon, "due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs." That said,  the DoD wants Amazon and Microsoft to 'split' a  new  version of JEDI  - as the need for enterprise-scale cloud capabilities still exists, according to  CNBC . The Pentagon said in the press release that it still needs enterprise-scale cloud capability and announced a new multi-vendor contract known as the  Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability . The agency said it plans to solicit proposals from bo...