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Technology is advancing every day and we are adapting it at a fast pace. For example how would you like a dog that you don’t have to clean-up after, doesn’t have any accidents, feeding is not an issue, and behaves perfectly when you take it for a walk and does not shed?

Doesn’t that sound good? Many people in China think so . . . It has become common place to see many young Chinese taking their Robot Dogs out on walks. They have a number of built-in features like following, rolling, sitting, running and carrying weights up to 10 pounds. The dogs can have a camera installed in their heads to identify and bypass obstacles and even recognize people around them.

The question arises why a person will want to have a robot dog as a pet instead of an actual one. There are many who want a hassle-free companion and even though robots aren’t perfect but are easier maintenance. It seems as the pandemic hit the globe, people found new ways to maintain distance and go hassle-free with technology, from robots serving at restaurants to machine dogs patrolling parks.

Recently, photos and videos of people walking robot dogs instead of actual canines have become a usual sight in China. Most of these people are from the younger generation.

This story just leaves me with more questions that answers.

Today, Americans can buy cheaper hearing aids for mild-to-moderate hearing loss from a range of common retailers, including Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart, without a prescription—finally making the critical health devices more affordable and accessible to the estimated 28.8 million adults who could benefit from them.

The US Food and Drug Administration estimates the change could lower the average cost of obtaining a hearing aid by as much as $3,000. As of today, Walgreens is selling an over-the-counter model similar to hearing aids that range from $2,000 to $8,000 per pair at specialty retailers for just $799 per pair on its shelves, the White House said Monday. Likewise, Walmart said that, as of today, it is selling over-the-counter hearing aids ranging from $199 to $999 per pair, which are comparable to prescription hearing aids priced at $4,400 to $5,500 per pair.

The move is years in the making. In 2017, Congress passed a bipartisan proposal directing the FDA to set rules for selling over-the-counter devices. But the rules were slow to come. In July 2021, President Biden signed an executive order spurring the FDA to produce the rules, which the agency finalized in August of this year. Often thousands of dollars and prescription only, aids now start at $199 at Walmart.

For all the benefits that remote working brings, there’s no arguing about the fact that having employees that work exclusively from home brings certain management challenges. For instance, how do you ensure that an employee is doing what they are being paid to do during the hours they’re contracted to work? If your employee took on a new full-time job without telling you, how would you know that they were claiming two pay checks at the end of each month?

While the idea of working two full-time jobs is many employees’ idea of hell, the reality is that it does happen, and appears to have become more prevalent – or at least, easier to get away with – since remote working became the standard for many.

Software company Canopy, for example, has revealed it recently fired two newly hired engineers after discovering that they were already employed full-time at another company. Canopy reported that the unnamed developers, who were already holding down jobs at an undisclosed “big tech company”, were caught after management flagged problems with their performance.

Financial services company Equifax also recently sacked a number of staff for secretly juggling multiple full-time jobs.

Equifax fired 24 members of staff after after finding that they multiple jobs (in some cases, up to three).

The trend of taking on secret second jobs – also known as “overemployment” – is gaining support in some corners of the online world; indeed, there are Reddit forums and even entire websites dedicated to helping remote workers (primarily tech workers) find second jobs and hide them from their employers.

Germany announced Monday that it is issuing fines of $5 million against the operators of the messaging app Telegram for failing to comply with German law.

(Telegram messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct. Synced. Telegram lets you access your chats from multiple devices.)

The Federal Office of Justice said Telegram FZ-LLC hasn’t established a lawful way for reporting illegal content or named an entity in Germany to receive official communication. (Because of secure, private, encryption how would Telegram know what the the content is? That’s the point of the app.) Both are required under German laws that regulate large online platforms.

German officials said they have repeatedly failed in their attempts to serve papers to Dubai-based Telegram, despite support from authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

UberEats announced that customer is certain markets age 19 years or older can officially purchase weed on demand from Uber Eats. The food delivery service has partnered with Leafly, an online marijuana retailer, to connect customers with local dispensaries in Toronto. This is the first time marijuana delivery is available on a third-party food ordering platform like Uber Eats. Customers can begin purchasing cannabis products in the Uber Eats app today.

It’s not clear when/if this partnership will expand to the rest of Canada (or even the United States), but Uber says it has no formal plans to expand this particular offering to customers in the US as the legality of cannabis consumption varies heavily from state to state.