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THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL Bank (ECB) broke with its policy of not speculating on future actions after it declared it will keep record low interest rates for an ‘extended period’.
At ECB’s monthly meeting, President Mario Draghi said that ‘market volatility’ was the reason behind the decision to offer ‘forward guidance’. The ECB kept its base rate at the record low level of 0.5 per cent with Reuters reporting that he gave no specific indication of the ECB’s plan for the rate over the next year, “It’s not six months, it’s not 12 months. It’s an extended period of time.”
To add to the surprise of the meeting, Draghi added that not only would rates remain low but he said the council discussed the option of cutting them further. The poor growth figures outlined by Draghi left no doubt as to why the ECB discussed taking this bold step.
Real GDP declined by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, following a contraction of 0.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2012. At the same time, labour market conditions remain weak.
The announcement from Draghi came soon after new Bank of England governor Mark Carney made a similar pledge about its future rate. At his first committee meeting, Carney’s statement said that market assumptions of an imminent rate rise were ‘not warranted’.
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This wont end well. Have they not seen the movie Alien.
@Niallers: HAL 9000
@SFNutters: IG-88
@Means of escape: it looks a lot like the chappiee bot.
@Means of escape: or Android (the 1982 film with Klaus Kinsky) or even Saturn 3 (also released in 1982, with Kirk Douglas and Harvey Kitel).
@David Jordan: Prefer the real steel robot/cobot.
@Niallers: beat me to it :D
Have ye not seen 2001? What could possibly go wrong HAL? ‘I am afraid I can’t tell you, John.’
@willow moon: An interesting fact about HAL in 2001 A Space Oddessy. The acronym HAL is IBM shifted one letter forwards. However this was a complete coincidence. Arthur C Clarke (the author) never knew this until a fan pointed out out years later.
@Paraic: one letter backwards
@SFNutters: Meant to say: “HAL is IBM WHEN shifted one letter forwards”. Typo.
Danger Will Robinson, Danger!
@Leroy Brown: lol lost in space tv programme
A robot in space ummm. A Russian robot, christ
@Tommy C: it’s a robot.. but its russian… my gawd!
Ed-209: “Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.”
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Will he be back?
Really like this cobot as its human mimic controlled. I wonder how big the time delay is and how they plan to overcome this in realtime control.
@Simon O Flaherty: the minimum lag could be as little as 0.24 second to the ISS but likely longer as the instructions would he complicated. Still basically immediate control. Here is an article I got the answer from https://www.wired.com/2013/02/a-duet-from-space/
@Edmund Murphy: Interesting article, thanks.
It’s ok though, battery technology is still too primitive so he will need to be plugged in to the mains. Just unplug it if it misbehaves.
Once robots have long lasting power sources though, that’s a different story.
This robot can’t even stand. If you look at it well it held by 2 ropes.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: it is designed to operate in a zero gravity environment where launch weight is a major issue. I’m surprised they even bothered to give it legs and not a second set of hands. Not being able to stand is no issue.
I hope he doesn’t do a Hal 9000 on them!
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