Chipotle unveiled two robots that can perform tasks typically completed by human workers amid rising labor costs. “Chipotle Mexican Grill announced today Autocado, its avocado processing cobotic prototype developed in partnership with Vebu that cuts, cores, and peels avocados before they are hand mashed to create the restaurant’s signature guacamole, and the Augmented Makeline, a cobotic makeline built in collaboration with Hyphen, are being tested in Chipotle restaurants for the first time,” the company announced. “Autocado is currently operating at Chipotle’s Huntington Beach, Calif. location at 20972 Magnolia St and the Augmented Makeline is being utilized at the company’s Corona del Mar (CDM), Calif. location at 3050 East Coast Hwy,” it added. With recent legislation in the state bumping the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour, it’s little surprise Chipotle debuted the robots in California. WATCH: Chipotle, $CMG, is testing bowl and salad making robots pic.twitter.com/2tkdzficxI — unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 20, 2024 Daily Mail reports: The controversial wage hike – $4 more than the minimum wage in the state for any other job – was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom at chains with more than 60 locations in the US, and came into effect on April 1. Chains including Burger King have already ramped up the roll out of digital ordering kiosks to cut the number of cashiers needed in Californian restaurants. It is not yet clear how the production costs of using Chipotle’s new machines compares to human labor when making Chipotle menu items. It is also not yet apparent how many items the digital assembly line can make per hour compared to staff. However, Chipotle argued that using the machines was not just about ‘efficiencies’ but also about the consistency of its menu items. Chipotle sidesteps Newsom's minimum wage law and rolls out two 'robot employees' at its California restaurantshttps://t.co/6VAW8TeHz2 — VOZ (@Voz_US) September 21, 2024 “These cobotic devices could help us build a stronger operational engine that delivers a great experience for our team members and our guests while maintaining Chipotle’s high culinary standards,” said Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer. “Optimizing our use of these systems and incorporating crew and customer feedback are the next steps in the stage-gate process before determining their broader pilot plans,” Garner added. From the New York Post: Many restaurant chains have in recent years rolled out technology that reduces the need for cashiers, such as self-service kiosks. Other California-based chains, Sweetgreen and Jack-in-the-Box, have also invested in private tech startups pitching a vision of burgers, fries and salad bowls made in large part by robots. However, generally fast-food workers juggle other tasks like greeting customers, sweeping the floor and retrieving supplies from a backroom — which most robots cannot handle, currently. Chipotle, which had revenue of nearly $9.9 billion last year, has not connected automation to the state’s wage hike. It has said employees who work with the automated bowl-and-salad maker will continue to make burritos and tacos, add side items and monitor the machines’ quality. The automated bowl-and-salad maker, which Chipotle calls its “augmented makeline,” automatically dispenses rice, corn, lettuce and other ingredient into a bowl beneath the counter. Chipotle said 65% of all digital orders are bowls and salads.

A U.S. Secret Service agent sustained injuries in Washington D.C. after reportedly accidentally shooting himself. “The agent, who was on duty, was handling his service weapon when the firearm discharged,” Fox News reports. The Secret Service told Fox News Digital it was a “negligent discharge.” Secret Service agent accidentally shoots himself in DC, in stable conditionhttps://t.co/QDPdhBxQ38 — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 23, 2024 Per Fox News: The USSS said the agent’s injuries were not life-threatening, adding that he was taken to an area hospital for treatment and evaluation. Lt. Paul Mayhair, a public information officer with the USSS Uniformed Division, added that there were no reported injuries to any other individuals. The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility will be reviewing the facts and circumstances of this incident. Not a joke… Secret Service agent accidentally shoots himself; expected to surviveThe injury to the agent was not life threatening. -agent was on duty during the "negligent discharge" while he was handling his weapon shortly before 8 p.mhttps://t.co/x7ghoFjViG — Shadygrooove (@shadygrooove) September 23, 2024 FOX 5 DC reports: The USSS told Fox News Digital that the “negligent discharge” occurred near 32nd and Fessenden streets in the northwest section of the city just before 8 p.m. The agent, who was on duty, was handling his service weapon when the firearm discharged. “The Secret Service’s approval rating plummeted 23 points in a new Gallup poll largely conducted before the second assassination attempt on former President Trump just over a week ago,” Axios stated. Americans’ approval rating for Secret Service tumbles 23 points. Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/Uhalq07Jzl — AF Post (@AFpost) September 23, 2024 From Axios: The poll found that the percentage of adults who say the Secret Service is doing an excellent or good job dropped to a 10-year low. Now, only 8% of U.S. adults rate the agency’s performance as “excellent” and 24% say it is “good.” Among self-identified Republicans and Republican leaning respondents, just 20% give the agency a positive rating — the lowest figure for the group to date. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, the approval rating dropped by 18 points, to 47%. In 2014, just 43% of respondents rated the secret service as excellent or good after a series of security lapses, including an intruder who jumped the White House fence and entered the building.

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The suspect accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course wrote a chilling note months earlier declaring he intended to kill the 45th president, the Justice Department said Monday.

Statues of a man-beast, Nelson’s ship in a bottle, a rooster, a dinosaur, a baby on a rocking horse, and a gladiator once stood in London’s majestic Trafalgar Square, where the British naval victories of the Napoleonic Wars are commemorated. They’ve been whisked away from the Fourth Plinth and replaced with the faces of 726 […] The post Monument to Fake Dead Trans Prostitutes in Trafalgar Square appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

According to the NYPD, of the tens of thousands of retail thefts in New York City, only 327 people commit 30% of the thefts. The same group of criminals keeps getting released 6,000 times. A trio of thieves, only three, raided 300 stores. Ten people account for robbing 500 stores. New York City is designed […] The post New York City Is Designed to Protect Thieves appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Just one day before her debate with President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris finally released her policy platform to the American public — and it’s just as progressive as you would expect. The website touts the platform as a “New Way Forward,” a framing that echoes her frequent refrain “We’re not going back.” But in the few areas where her platform actually proposes specific policy positions, one thing is crystal clear: with Kamala Harris as president, we will indeed be going back – to an even more extreme version of President Biden’s failed leftist agenda. From her foreign policy and border plan, to her economic policies, to her social agenda, Harris espouses an extreme progressive ideology far more radical than her boss. Her platform would mean disaster for the economic stability, national security, and moral fabric of this country. Given rising international tensions, Harris’ foreign policy views warrant particular scrutiny. The Biden-Harris approach has led to the first major land war in Europe since World War II, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, an inflamed Middle East, and a growing threat from totalitarian regimes in China and North Korea. Her platform to address these threats only perpetuates the misguided leftist approach: appeasing adversaries and avoiding escalation at all costs. This strategy has failed to deter aggression and severely damaged U.S. national security.  But the most urgent foreign attack is the one happening at the southern border. Harris’ platform claims she knows the border is a breeding ground for crime and violence, but she and Biden failed to take any action addressing the crisis until a few months before the election. Border entries remain at historically high levels — over 10 million illegal migrants have been encountered since Biden took office in 2021 – and illicit fentanyl seizures are up 480% from 2020’s interceptions.  The influx of illegal migrants into sanctuary cities has created an overflow of chaos and crime into surrounding suburbs, displayed most recently by Venezuelan prison gang violence in Denver’s Aurora suburb. Every state is a border state under Harris’ philosophy, which leaves communities reeling from the mounting violence, crime, and economic burden of mass migration. Enough is enough — too many Americans have been attacked, assaulted, and killed by illegal migrants in crimes that could have been prevented by sound policy and strong borders.  Harris’ reckless immigration and foreign policy positions bleed into misinformed economic policies. In the name of “building an opportunity economy,” Harris’ platform proposes communist style price controls, continues Biden’s massive federal regulations that are projected to cost the American economy $1.69 trillion, and increases the corporate tax burden. Her proposals are likely to send the country spiraling into recession, sending jobs overseas, increasing the deficit, and worsening the economic pain Americans are feeling from four years of the Biden-Harris administration. The U.S. economy will only flourish when we eliminate burdensome regulation, reduce spending, encourage investment here at home, and lower taxes as we did through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This is the path toward prosperity for all. On social policy and abortion, Harris’ leftist agenda is in full force. Harris voted to block a 2019 bill that would require medical care for babies born during failed abortions, and during the debate, she refused to answer whether she supports abortions up until the moment of birth. As President, she would seek to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which, contrary to the impression left by the debate moderators, allowed individual states to sanction abortion at any time. Harris’ alarmingly progressive social platform also includes expanding and normalizing the transgender agenda, pushing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, and targeting faith-based institutions. These policies will decay our moral fabric, undermine civil society, incite division, and cause unimaginable harm to the next generation of Americans. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! In light of her extreme positions across the board, it’s no surprise that nearly half of respondents to a recent New York Times and Siena College poll think Harris is “too liberal or progressive.” Her progressive vision of freedom can only emerge by sacrificing our fundamental rights and privileges. Her “freedom to reproductive healthcare” means trampling the rights of the faithful. “Freedom from fear of gun violence” means revoking Second Amendment rights. The “freedom not just to get by, but to get ahead” means tax hikes and higher welfare spending. What America needs now more than ever are policies that reflect the country’s traditional values and meet the urgent needs of Americans suffering under crippling inflation, crime, the opioid epidemic, and significant international unrest. The Harris agenda is not, in fact, “A New Way Forward,” but a far more extreme version of the well-known failed policies of the current Biden-Harris administration. The Vice President is right, America will not go back. * * * Tim Chapman is the President at Advancing American Freedom, a public policy advocacy organization founded by Vice President Mike Pence. Chapman has more than two decades of service in the conservative movement and as an advocate for public policy. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The deadly and repressive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military right arm of the despotic Iranian theocratic government, which has been labeled a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department, has ordered its members to stop using communications devices. The move came after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Iran’s ally, Hezbollah, blew up last week. According to one official, Iran, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, is investigating mid and high-ranking members of the IRGC — which is comprised of roughly 190,000 members — suspicious that some may be surreptitiously helping Israel. “This includes scrutiny of their bank accounts both in Iran and abroad, as well as their travel history and that of their families,” the official said. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established the IRGC in May 1979 after the Islamic Revolution. It has brutally targeted Iran’s own citizens when they protest against the oppressive regime. When the U.S. designated the IRGC a terrorist group in 2019, it was the first time the U.S. had designated the military branch of a foreign country in this manner. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act stated, “The IRGC, not just the IRGC-QF [the Quds Force, the Guard’s extraterritorial branch], is responsible for implementing Iran’s international program of destabilizing activities, support for acts of international terrorism, and ballistic missile program.” The law is pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which aimed at freezing the assets of terrorists and their supporters and preventing their access to U.S. financial and commercial systems, according to the Treasury Department. Iran’s Ground Forces, Aerospace Forces, its Navy, and the Basij paramilitary are all part of the IRGC. Israel had been secretly manufacturing the pagers that Hezbollah was buying for years. The Taiwanese company Gold Apollo had contracted with a company called B.A.C. Consulting in Hungary to manufacture the pagers. B.A.C. Consulting was one of three shell companies that Israel created to mask the true manufacturer of the communications equipment: Israeli intelligence. IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, said that Israel was “very determined to create the security conditions that will return the residents to their homes, to the communities, with a high level of security, and we are ready to do all that is required to bring about these things.” He warned Hezbollah: “We still have many capabilities that we have not yet activated. We saw some of these things here, and it seems to me that the readiness is good and we are preparing these plans going forward. The rule is that every time we work on a certain stage, the next two stages are already ready to advance. At each stage, the price for Hezbollah must be high.”

The way the moon looks changes all throughout the year. If you’re a fan of celestial events, you probably already know that quite a few this year have been particularly rare. This includes September’s full supermoon, featuring a partial lunar eclipse. But recent sightings of the moon have left everyone puzzled. This strange view of the moon can be seen in a popular video shared online, and it shows what appears to be a face by the moon. Yes, you read that correctly: a face by the moon! In this video, a faint blurriness can be seen just next to the moon. But the more the person recording zooms in, the clearer this area becomes. According to the person who posted the video, a face can be seen. See it for yourself in the video below. @alienmysteries Replying to @StuD Face beside the moon footage from Scotland Highlands is breathtaking! This is the most detailed footage seen of this phenomenon. #extraterrestrial #moon #sky #wearenotalone #phenomenon #mystery #facebesidethemoon #fyp ♬ Glimpse (Slowed + Reverb) – Gabriel Albuquerqüe Strange Face Seen by the Moon Has People From All Over the World Speculating While this image is faint, thousands in the comments agree that it does look like a face. What people can’t agree on, however, is the exact origin of the face. Some believe that the video has been edited. Others think it’s simply a reflection in the mirror. Then there are those who are sure that it’s something called pareidolia. Odds are, you have experienced pareidolia at some point in your life. This term refers to situations where a person sees a pattern or the image of a face where there isn’t one. For example, noticing shapes or faces in clouds or oddly-shaped food. In any case, this video certainly has people talking. “Has anyone thought that maybe there’s faces all over the sky and you only see the ones closest to the moon as it illuminates them??” someone jokes, with another adding, “Wait, what if we actually live on a tiny follicle in this man’s room, this is his lamp lol. It’s giving Horton Hears a Who!” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Thousands Stumped By Mysterious Face Spotted Next To The Moon appeared first on InspireMore.