Revenge of the replacements. As "living wages" soar, machines take over.

You want fries with that?

Exactly as predicted. Robotic hamburger flipper does it faster and better than a $15 an hour teenager.

CaliBurger has a new chef, but he won’t be needing a bathroom break. Or a smoking break. Or any breaks.

The “chef” is Flippy, an industrial robotic arm manufactured by Fanuc and brought to life by Miso Robotics‘ cloud-connected artificial intelligence platform. The automated kitchen assistant begins work week at the Pasadena restaurant, and the technology is on track to be expanded to all 10 U.S.-based CaliBurger locations by the end of the year.

David Zito, co-founder and CEO of Pasadena-based Miso Robotics, explained how the technology works:

“This combines thermal vision, 3D and computer vision data, and we use machine-learning algorithms,” he said. “It’s really a deep-learning technique where we can take all of that data and train Flippy to see what’s happening on the grill. He can react to it to make sure he’s cooking the burgers consistently every time.”

When a kitchen worker arranges patties on the grill, Flippy can detect where they are. The robot knows the temperature of the grill as well as the temperature of each patty, so he can turn them over at the right time and remove them from the grill when they are properly cooked, Zito said. That lets the kitchen staff know when to place cheese on top or when to dress the burgers.

The technology also enables Flippy to switch from using one spatula for raw meat to another for cooked meat. The robot can also clean spatulas while cooking and wipe the surface of the grill with a scraper, Zito said.

The process is precise, efficient, food-safe — and above all, consistent, he said.

“Over time, we can train Flippy to have the mind of a grill chef,” Zito said. “John has had struggles to staff the grill, and that’s an important role when you’re making the CaliBurger, their signature dish,” he said, referring to John Miller, chain chairman and CEO of the chain and related companies.

Uh Huh: 

“But this is not about labor replacement. It’s about augmenting the staff that’s in the kitchen,” he added.

You might think that the answer to this problem is more education, but the leftists have blocked that exit too:

Physics majors now required to take class in "micro-aggressions".

We'll be gone, but our children are doomed.

Again? It's friggin' March!

Folks are just getting their power back, Gideon's oyster house is finally draining, and the forecast is calling for another Nor'Easter on Wednesday. Poor Pal Nancy, who escaped last week's storm by fleeing to Florida, then New Orleans, is scheduled to return right in the midst of this one (snicker — no one can evade the wrath of the Lord forever).

A fool and his money

born stupid, or too many blows to the head, the result's the same

Idiot boxer hands stranger his bag containing $145,000 of cash and bling, disappointed when she leaves with same.

Professional pugilist Jermall Charlo, 27, was partying with his assistant and the femmes fatale at Jay-Z’s 40/40 club in Manhattan early Sunday morning when he got into a “physical altercation” with someone around 3 a.m., according to police sources.

The assistant handed one of the women the bag — containing $40,000 in cash and $115,000 worth of bling — to hold during the unsanctioned sparring match, sources said.

But when the tiff ended and the Texan light middleweight returned to his seat — he learned the woman had absconded with his pricey pack along with her four pals, according to cops.

A squandered opportunity on Greenwich Avenue

No room at the inn

Greenwich Time has an article on the retailer Richard's thriving business, a success that defies the general downward trend of brick and mortar businesses. I'll confess to abandoning the store way back when, after Ed Mitchell's bought the original store, moved it across the street and went ultra-high-end, but that was because I had no need for $5,000 suits and $100 boxers. Friends who do have those needs tell me that the personal service, already impeccable, has only gotten better, and customers love it.

Which is great: I love success stories, but it was this part of the article that caught my eye:

Richards’ shoppers know they’ll always have a spot close by, while many business owners across Greenwich’s commercial districts worry that they suffer from customers’ inability to find parking.

“That’s a huge, huge, huge competitive advantage for us,” said Mitchell.

Back in the mid-90s, after Mitchell's had purchased Richards and was building a new store and that underground parking space, it offered to let the town build our own two-level municipal lot below theirs. It would have been (relatively) inexpensive, since the pit was already going to be dug, and our parking fund had the cash to do it, but the RTM, in its wisdom, rejected the proposal. We'd have a healthier lower Greenwich Avenue today had we accepted the offer, and in view of Mr. Mitchell's comments, he must be delighted we declined.

News from (my other) smarter younger brother

Have gun, will travel. It isn't the 7% solution, but the patented C. Fountain freedom arms .45 Long Colt solution  should work wonders, nonetheless 

Anthony sends along a link about wild cattle terrorizing Californian granola munchers and ripping up the environment, with this note: 

Read the linked article and see how far into it you get before a cheap and easy solution pops into your head. Then keep reading it till that same solution occurs to the reporter. Spoiler alert: you'll reach the end of the article first.

Brother Anthony has a wry sense of humor.

It's impossible to capture the full feeling of this article in a snippet, at least for this writer, but here's the headline to give you a flavor and I hope serve as an enticement to read the whole thing:

Feral cattle terrorize hikers and devour native plants in a California national monument

And as long as we're doing videos this morning, here's another great song

"It's a little bit of everything", by Dawes. Here's its composer, Taylor Goldsmith, doing it solo.

Saturday morning video

Absolutely apropos of nothing, here's a video of one of my favorite singers, Iris DeMent, heard while I'm enjoying my morning coffee. No intended message here —  not even an implied endorsement of her message — I just like her quirky voice, and a bit of tolerance could certainly benefit our country these days.

Finally, we can do something more than merely boycotting: time to get your LL Bean refunds

Make 'em pay

L.L. Bean has caved into the latest gun control craze and has proudly announced that it has raised the age of people allowed to purchase guns from 18 to 21. Pure showmanship: the company sells a few shotguns and hunting rifles from its main showroom in Freeport, period, but I consider this announcement as a betrayal of the sportsmen who have supported them all these years.

I'm presently located just ten miles down the road from that Freeport store. Today, I'm collecting everything I still have that I've ever purchased from Bean's: fly rods, shotgun, pack, ice fishing traps, fishing tackle, boots, slippers, shirts, and anything else I can locate, and will appear there tomorrow demanding a full refund for all. I'll videotape the event and post the result here tomorrow.Should be fun.

In the meantime, I'll point out that their "100% satisfaction guarantee" is still in force: this would be a fine time for readers to use it.

UPDATE: After checking around,. Bean's will still honor its lifetime satisfaction guarantee for any item purchased before February 9, 2018, when it announced its change of policy. Send 'em in.

Closing price disclosed: Pecksland's bad news continues

124 Pecksland, purchased for $3.495 million in 2006 and relisted (and resisted) at that price in 2015, closes at $2.295 after three years on the market.

There are some decent, relatively (as compared to Riverside/Old Greenwich) good values up in this neighborhood.

I'm guessing it was white liberal racists who insisted on this: gorilla statue removed from city park

"Incredibly strong, 100% tough" Racist! Watch for a boycott campaign against its manufacturer 

"Beloved" gorilla statue evicted from playground from fear that its presence offends blacks

If you associate a gorilla with a human (hum-cis?) being, you might think of a hulking, brutish fellow, of any race. But not in Texas: there, according to some people, gorillas are a stand-in for Africans, and a symbol of white oppression.

A Texas community is up in arms after a popular gorilla statue was removed from its cage at a carnival-themed playground due to complaints that it was "racially insensitive."

“Dobby” the gorilla was removed on Monday after proudly standing in the Corsicana Community Park for 19 years.

The city alerted residents in a Facebook post that the gorilla was removed because "it was determined to be potentially racially insensitive.”

Corsicana Mayor Don Denbow made the same point in a letter to the Corsicana Daily Sun Tuesday evening. The mayor said there had always been complaints about the display, but they had increased in recent years, paralleling the rise of political correctness and victim culture.

About 45 complaints led to the removal of Dobby, Denbow said.

But disappointment over the gorilla's removal was voiced by people of a variety of races in interviews with the local Fox News affiliate. In fact, the local media has been unable to find anyone who actually supported the boneheaded move.

"It's like part of the childhood," one local resident said. "I used to play here." He told Fox 4 that there should have been a vote on it.

A woman said that "if they're really that sensitive there's a whole lotta things they can do. They can come vote. If they're really sensitive they can come to the city commission's meeting."

"The gorilla's been here since I can remember," a young mother complained. "My kids know this park as the gorilla park."

Last week, a statue of President William McKinley, Civil War veteran, abolitionist, and fairly harmless guy whose assassination ushered Teddy Roosevelt into the White House, was plucked from public view in Arcata CA, because its presence offended the descendants of an Indian tribe. 

McKinley was no gorilla, nor is a gorilla a black man, but we're living in absolutely bat-shit crazy times.