Sparrows on a wire

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birds, sparrows

Sparrows on a wire.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 300mm f/4 PF at f/4 1/1000th iso 64
This image shows how shallow the DOF is at 300mm f/4, one bird is in focus the other is not

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Robotic pizza kitchen

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pizza, robots

link with a nice video: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/zume-adds-a-robotic-arm-to-its-automated-pizza-kitchen/

Earlier this year, Zume made it pretty clear that it was exploring life beyond pizza. Coffee, steamed buns and frozen yogurt have all been floated as possibilities for the newly formed Zume Inc. Of course, for its subsidiary Zume Pizza, the titular foodstuff is very much its bread and butter.

In fact, the company’s increasing the number of in-kitchen robots its implementing, with the addition of an arm into the mix. The ABB robotic arm, nicknamed “Vincenzo,” pulls pizzas from the 800-degree robotic oven and places them on nearby shelves, filling an entire rack in around four and a half minutes. Zume cites a stat from Cintas that blames restaurant gigs for as much as one-third of occupational burns. So, better robot arms than human. 

I want to see it twirl the dough 🙂

Robotic burger restaurant opens

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robots

link: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/creator-hamburger-robot/

The bots are coming. Or maybe they are here?

 

Bad news for online shoppers (like me): US Supreme court says states can charge sales tax …

Tags

internet

This is bad news …

In a five-to-four decision issued today, the Supreme Court ruled that states can make online businesses collect sales taxes — even if they don’t have a physical presence in that state.

Today’s ruling overturns a decision from the Court in 1992 that paved the way for the explosion of online retail in the United States.

At issue was the Quill Corp. v. North Dakota decision, which ruled that companies need to have at least some physical connection with a state for that state to require that company to pay taxes.

Today’s ruling caused publicly traded e-commerce company share prices to tumble, with Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Alibaba all recording losses in midday trading on their respective U.S. exchanges.

link: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/states-will-be-able-to-charge-sales-tax-on-online-purchases-thanks-to-the-supreme-court/

Summer solstice

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summer solstice

Summer starts today. My least preferred season.