Robot waiters coming soon
Source: The Nation
One of several new IT systems planned by restaurant chain
Diners at MK Restaurants – Thailand’s biggest chain of suki restaurants – will soon be served by “robotic service agents” instead of human waiters and waitresses.
Deploying robots to serve the food is MK’s latest move to impress its customers with a big IT project. It plans to launch a trial with a first batch of 10 robots within six to 10 months.
Managing director Rit Thirakomen said MK would spend Bt10 million on developing the first 10 robotic service agents, or Bt1 million each. They would pilot a new food-serving feature, the objectives of which were to increase customer satisfaction at MK Restaurants and encourage local development of commercial robots. Read more
What went wrong with economics
Source: The Economist print edition
And how the discipline should change to avoid the mistakes of the past
OF ALL the economic bubbles that have been pricked, few have burst more spectacularly than the reputation of economics itself. A few years ago, the dismal science was being acclaimed as a way of explaining ever more forms of human behaviour, from drug-dealing to sumo-wrestling. Wall Street ransacked the best universities for game theorists and options modellers. And on the public stage, economists were seen as far more trustworthy than politicians. John McCain joked that Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, was so indispensable that if he died, the president should “prop him up and put a pair of dark glasses on him.”
In the wake of the biggest economic calamity in 80 years that reputation has taken a beating. In the public mind an arrogant profession has been humbled. Though economists are still at the centre of the policy debate—think of Ben Bernanke or Larry Summers in America or Mervyn King in Britain—their pronouncements are viewed with more scepticism than before. The profession itself is suffering from guilt and rancour. In a recent lecture, Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel prize in economics in 2008, argued that much of the past 30 years of macroeconomics was “spectacularly useless at best, and positively harmful at worst.” Barry Eichengreen, a prominent American economic historian, says the crisis has “cast into doubt much of what we thought we knew about economics.” Read more
Two Illinois Banks Seized, Bringing U.S. Tally This Year to 36
Filed under: Financial, Mainstream Media, Thailand focused, US focused
May 22 (Bloomberg) — Two Illinois banks with combined assets of almost $1 billion were closed by regulators, pushing the toll of failed U.S. lenders to 36 this year amid the longest recession since the 1930s.
Strategic Capital Bank in Champaign and Citizens National Bank in Macomb were closed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver of both, the FDIC said. Strategic Capital’s deposits were assumed by Midland States Bank of Effingham, Illinois, and deposits at Citizens National were purchased by Morton Community Bank.
“Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage,” the FDIC said. Read more
Depression News: A Thailand Airline Surviving
Filed under: International, Random Rants, Thailand focused
Source: The Nation
January 22, 2009
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THAI cut domestic, international prices
Thai Airways International Plc (THAI) is cutting domestic airfare in between 45-55 percent from market price while dipping ticket price for international routes up to 50 percent, aims to stimulate traveling in first quarter this year.
“This is the first time the airline offers such extra lower airfare,” Chris Chantalitanon, director area for Thailand, Indochina and Myanmar , said Wednesday.
Exclusive Report: Bangkok Nightclub Fire Kills 63
The Sojourner
Economy Exposed.com
January 2, 2009 (revised January 5, 2009)
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Eye Witness and Survivor
On January 1, 2009 just into the New and and Year, fireworks caused a fire, burning down one of the most famous clubs in Bangkok, Thailand.
People interviewed at the scene by Economy Exposed.com correspondents received news that second floor party goers noticed that the usually temperature controlled club began to get warm quickly noticing that there was a fire starting on the roof of the club, probably started by the fireworks that were fired inside the club in celebration of the party, at the time the singers on stage were completely unaware of the fire immediately above them and continued the show on the stage. Read more
101 Health Steps- Dried food, dehydrated food, and nutrition lossSource: Foodnsport.com Ref.: Dr. Douglas Graham Dehydrated food is not a whole food; it has had its water taken out. As such, it could never be as good as the whole, fresh food, even if the water is replaced. Some of the nutrients inevitably get damaged in the process of dehydration and rehydration. This becomes a personal [...] […]
- What are the Protein RDA’s?Ref.: http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Adult: 56 Grams of protein each day Note: Growing boys need less at 52 (ages 14-18) 10-35% of daily calories is also recommended to come from protein — Source: WHO (Official Website) Recommended intake for protein (grams/day) in The UK, USA, and […]
- Study links sugary soft drinks to pancreas cancerSource: Reuters – People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a much higher risk of pancreatic cancer, an unusual but deadly cancer, researchers reported on Monday. People who drank mostly fruit juice instead of sodas did not have the same risk, the study of 60,000 people in Singapore found. Sugar may be [...] […]
- Food combining and physiologySource: 101healthsteps.com Some of the greats in physiology, including the late Shelton, Pavlov, Tilden, Wiley, McLeod, Howe, Cabot, Stiles, and Mottram just to name a few, have shown us how the digestive system functions and benefits us if given the chance to. Throughout the years, we have leaned that putrefaction, the cause of odorous stool, diarrhea, gas […]
- Dried food, dehydrated food, and nutrition loss