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PHOTO: Flickr/Michael Cory Restaurant operators are happy to accept new rules for re-opening as laid out by the Public Health Ministry, if it means they can get back to business. The measures are strict and include the need for all customers to show proof of full vaccination. According to a Bangkok Post report, the re-opening of dine-in services would be done under a “sandbox” concept across the 29 strictly-controlled dark red provinces. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration meets tomorrow, when the Public Health Ministry is expected to propose the restaurant sandbox scheme. It will require all restaurant employees to be fully vaccinated and to undergo testing with antigen test kits every 5 – 7 days. The Bangkok Post reports that restaurants will also be required to operate in well-ventilated spaces and ask customers to show proof of their vaccination status. Despite the numerous requirements, restaurant operators say they’re willing to accept the new rules. … [Read more...] about Restaurant operators accept rules for re-opening dine-in services

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Two former Cartier executives have partnered to create a firm that combines a traditional consultancy for luxury brands with a disruptive mentality. It brings together social media, web design, brand development and business strategies for companies that produce high-tech luxury products and traditional luxury goods. “We’re bringing up innovative and disruptive ideas from the traditional market,” says Mariana Serban, founder of Elements Innovate based in Paris. Serban is a veteran luxury executive with a varied cross-cultural career in France and Japan. She also has a strong educational background in Japan in international studies and business, and is a certified gemologist. In her career she was able to combine her intellect and cultural knowhow with a seemingly natural talent for sales. After working in sales for Bulgari in Japan she landed her dream job with Cartier and moved to Paris to work high jewelry sales … [Read more...] about New Digital Agency Can Help Luxury Brands Bridge Heritage And Disruption

At the end of October, Shutterstock, one of the leading stock image companies on the internet, announced it was partnering with OpenAI to launch a new tool that would integrate the generative-AI DALL-E 2 into its online marketplace. The announcement was a huge win for the still-burgeoning AI industry, but was met with shock and outrage by creatives all over the internet, many of whom see generative AI like DALL-E 2 as an existential threat to their livelihoods and the use of their images for machine learning as a form of theft. “It’s disappointing to know we have so little respect and it’s worrying to now be competing with bots for sales,” an anonymous Shutterstock photographer told Artnet News in October. So, now that the dust has settled, how is the company feeling about its OpenAI partnership? Is it still bullish on a future where machines are making our stock images for us? “I think there are two choices in this world,” says Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy. “Be the … [Read more...] about Generative AI tools are already changing the creativity landscape—and some artists aren’t happy about it

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin If you want to understand how travel insurance is changing — and how it could change the way you travel this year — you have to meet Robin. Robin (full name, Robin Assist) is a new technology-driven service platform used by insurance companies to process travel insurance claims, among other things. "Technology can really help when you're filing a claim," says Sasha Gainullin, CEO of battleface , the company that created Robin. "It can find the policy you have. It can eliminate the need for a claim form. It can identify the expense that you're filing against the policy." Tectonic changes in travel insurance for 2023 Robin could change the way you file your travel insurance claim in 2023. At the moment, travel insurance companies are sitting on hundreds of thousands of unprocessed claims from the holiday air travel meltdowns and even a few from this summer. Technology like Robin could dramatically accelerate the … [Read more...] about 6 Surprising New Developments In Travel Insurance That Will Change The Way You Plan Your Next Trip

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin England’s hospitals continue to endure “relentless” pressure on their accident and emergency services, data from England’s National Health Service shows. The latest NHS England “ situation report ” shows that ambulances took more than 77,000 people to emergency departments last week: an increase of roughly 5,000 on the week before. Bed occupancy remains stubbornly high, with more than 95% of general and acute hospital beds filled. Staff absence has fallen, however, as has the number of patients in hospital with flu. Despite ongoing pressure, NHS providers also saw a fall in delays handing over patients from ambulances to emergency departments this week: a key marker of patient flow through hospitals. Lengthy ambulance delays have become commonplace in England as hospitals have struggled to free up space for new patients in hospitals. This winter has seen particularly poor ambulance handover performance, with … [Read more...] about England’s Hospitals Under ‘Relentless Pressure’ As E.R. Woes Continue

In 2021, privacy consultants working for two Dutch universities issued a critical report card on Google’s education apps, a set of classroom tools like Google Docs that are used by more than 170 million students and educators worldwide. The audit warned that Google’s tools for schools lacked a number of privacy protections — like narrow limits on how the company could use students’ and teachers’ personal data — that were required by European law. Although the company addressed some of the concerns, the report said, Google declined to comply with Dutch requests to reduce a number of “high risks” cited in the audit. It took a threat from the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the nation’s privacy regulator, to help break the deadlock: Dutch schools would soon have to stop using Google’s education tools, the government agency said, if the products continued to pose those risks. Two years later, Google has developed new privacy measures and transparency tools to address the Dutch … [Read more...] about How the Netherlands is taming Big Tech

If there’s an idea that might reduce health care costs, there’s a good chance Colorado’s trying it out. The state’s Office of Saving People Money on Health Care laid out a plan in 2020 that included passing a partial public option; extending the reinsurance program; launching a statewide purchasing alliance; importing prescription drugs; launching a drug affordability board; and increasing transparency in hospital and prescription drug prices. Other than the importation plan, which has to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, all of those agenda items have at least started to be put into practice. Most are in the early stages, however, making it difficult to assess if they’ll succeed in bringing costs down. Colorado is ultimately pursuing two paths to lowering health care costs, said Bob Smith, executive director of the Colorado Business Group on Health. The Colorado option insurance plan is an example of setting rates, while the purchasing alliance is an … [Read more...] about Colorado’s trying a public option, drug importation and more. What’s actually lowering health care costs?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Budget 2023 on February 1. Ahead of the annual budget presentation, an India-centric top US strategic and business advocacy group has urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to simplify and rationalise direct and indirect taxation system in India, a move it believes would increase the confidence of global investors and yield greater foreign direct investment. Direct taxes can be in the form of income tax, capital gains tax or securities transaction tax, while indirect taxes such as GST, Customs Duty or VAT are levied on all end-consumers to buy any goods or services. "Rationalise corporate tax rates for foreign companies," said the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) in its submission to the finance ministry ahead of the annual budget presentations on February 1. It said that the rate for foreign companies, including banks be reduced to bring parity and sought to rationalise tax for new manufacturing … [Read more...] about Union Budget 2023: US industry urges FM to rationalise, simplify direct and indirect taxes in India

The Indian hockey team in Bhubaneswar during the 2023 World Hockey Cup. (Twitter/@TheHockeyIndia) Last week India failed to reach the quarter finals of the World Cup Hockey tournament after losing to New Zealand , a team ranked six places below it. For the record India hasn’t entered the medals round of the quadrennial event for 48 years. But a bronze medal at the Olympics in 2021 and the privilege of playing at home cheered on by thousands of fans, gave rise to hopes that this time the well-trained team would go deep, at least into the last four stages . In the event, it struggled to beat a young Spanish side and later a Wales team playing in its first ever World Cup. Against New Zealand, the Indian team had a comfortable 3-1 advantage with 20 minutes left. But with the Kiwis capitalized on its opponent’s mounting anxiety and India just seemed to crumble. Not too long ago, the even more fancied Indian cricket team had lost to the same country in the finals of … [Read more...] about Hockey debacle highlights Indian sports teams’ tendency to choke

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Devil take the hindmost, Cyberknife is retiring to a cushy life of siring colts and fillies at Spendthrift after his richest race ever, the $3 million Pegasus World Cup this afternoon at Gulfstream. That outcome will be decided approximately one minute and fifty-odd seconds after the 5:40 p.m. post time (ET), but it’s a good moment before we whip out our fat wads and shove them through the windows, to take a closer look at the Pegasus favorite. As we said of his nearest rival Proxy earlier , Cyberknife is a journeyman, but of a very elite sort. Classically, “journeymen” don’t win Breeders’ Cup races, no matter which of the many Breeders’ races in which they hit the wire first. But Cyberknife is a journeyman in a finicky, not-always-at-the-top-of-his-game kind of way, and it has caused some ripples in his stats. Before we take a closer race-day look at Cyberknife, herewith, today’s odds. Nota bene : We’re going to be … [Read more...] about Pegasus World Cup 2023: Race-Day Odds, Bets You Should Make, And Cyberknife’s Final, Complex Battle