March 11, 2025 • 26 mins
(March 11,2025)\
KTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about Bluetooth chip vulnerability, microsurgery robot at Cedars Sinai, Google’s new store in Santa Monica, and AI-powered drive-thru at Weinerschnitzel. The great salt shake-up. U.S bolsters position as world’s top arms exporter.
KTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about Bluetooth chip vulnerability, microsurgery robot at Cedars Sinai, Google’s new store in Santa Monica, and AI-powered drive-thru at Weinerschnitzel. The great salt shake-up. U.S bolsters position as world’s top arms exporter.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
It is a Tuesday morning, It's going to be a
rainy Tuesday morning, March eleventh, and it is time for Oh,
by the way, quick word. As I talked about one
of the trending stories at Southwest is now going to
be charging for baggage and this is the end of
(00:31):
the era. And I made a couple of points end
of the era stories like George of Galapagos tortoise who
died he was a last one. And I mentioned the
last passenger pigeon that died at the Cincinnati Zoo in
nineteen thirty four. I stand corrected it was nineteen fourteen.
I truly apologize for being wrong on that. I am
(00:53):
so sorry. You know George, the uh Tody turtle, Yes.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Was there when Darwin was there?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, oh no, yeah, they figured he died. They don't
even know how long. Galapaco's turtles last hundreds of years.
And I actually saw George before he died. Me too, Yeah,
we had coffee together, men. Yeah, you did all right?
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Rich Tomorrow, Good morning, Rich, Hey, good morning to Bill.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Rich.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm also sad about the Southwest stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Oh yeah, for anybody to fly Southwest, it's really tough.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Or if you don't fly, what do you care?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Okay, tech guy Rich Tomorrow every Tuesday, he's heard on
rich on Tech Saturday from eleven am to two pm.
Every day he's on k t l A as their
tech reporter Instagram at rich on Tech website, rich on
tech dot tv. Rich dur Wiener Schnitzel is it's a
(01:58):
fast food joint that he and Neil can pipe in on.
This one has a reputation of being the lowest of
the low end of national chains with let's just say,
not the highest quality stuff. I like it when I
go in and have I don't know, seven chili hot
dogs for a dollar, and it's questionable as to their quality,
(02:21):
although I love it. Okay, enough of that, let's talk
about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Now, you're pretty fit, I know that, and you exercise
and you look good, your trim going to dervener Stinsel.
You'll put on twenty pounds in one afternoon.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
All right.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
What's happening at Derviner Snitsel though, is they're using AI
and that I haven't seen at fast food establishments.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, so they're using AI in the drive through.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
They partnered with a company called Presto, which you know already.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
When you go to a fast food place.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
I don't know if you've noticed this, but it starts
with one voice and then it goes to another. It'll
be like, hey, welcome to the fast food place. May
we suggest a doubly beef burrito? And you're like, no,
I don't want that and the person like, okay, well,
well would you like now? And you're just like, wait,
what changed? So they're using like a recording at the
beginning and then the real person after that. Now they're
(03:18):
switching completely to AI at a lot of these places,
or they're trying it because that voice not only can
understand what you're saying in natural language, this has come
a long way, it can also upsell you. So Wiener
Stinzel says, already, in a test with an all beef
hot dog up cell, they saw a five percent increase
in total sales. So the system can recommend things based
(03:42):
on what you are purchasing, and also the time of
day and what's trending on the menu.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
You know, I've always wondered these fast food establishments where
you drive through and I always ask where's the clown?
And they don't know what the hell I'm talking about?
Or I wanted to posit some money and they have
no idea what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But it's always it sounds like, what do you want
to double burglar? You know?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Why do they have such crap speakers that you can't
understand a word they're saying.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
I don't know. I really don't. I truly do not understand.
My kids and I will joke. We went to this
one fast food place and I kid you not bill
every single thing we said, the person said the opposite,
completely random thing. I'd like a double cheeseburger and they
said a chocolate milkshake. And we're like, We're looking around
(04:33):
like thinking we were on a reality show. It was
so bad, and I think it might have been the
person's last day. They were just having a joke. But
look these are They're all over the place, and I
think this is why people end up liking in and
Out because the person comes up to your car and
they actually speak to you as a human.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I was at an in and Out Burger yesterday and
that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The guys outside, they're on their little tablet.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's like almost like a cigarette girl, remember those in
the night clubs where they.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
All trap around and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Really kind of wild. By the way, am I allowed
to say cigarette girls? Is I consider sexist? I guess so,
and it was.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You're right.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
It may give about free smokes.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yes, you could.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
At some places you would get free cigarettes. I mean,
I know this is such a horrible conversation in the
year twenty twenty five, but yes, you used to go
to a bar and like literally people give you free
cigarettes just to get you started on them.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, great stuff. So is number one you're saying it's working.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Five percent increase in sales in terms of upsell, and
they're very good because a good server in a restaurant
can up sell a customer like crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I know, when there's someone good.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Hey, you want to try our desserts or you know,
our signature French fries.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
You don't want to miss those as a side.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
How about something for the table that you can all
share and that a lot of times you go yeah,
especially if they're described as this scrumptious signature disc that
they've got in some kind of crazy ass award, which
of course is not true.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
But I'm a yemst and but yet add data to
the mix bill and I think that's what the key
here is for these big companies is like, yes, if
you had a well trained server over the years, of
course they can upsell you. But now later on that
additional data that the company knows if someone orders a
large fries and two hot dogs, that nine times out
(06:33):
of ten they also want a diet coke or whatever.
That the company or the data tells them that this
is what happens on a daily basis. And so for
that system to say, oh, would you also like to
add that dessert that they know when people order this
combination of food, they typically order that as well. So
that I think is the holy grail of why these systems.
(06:53):
And by the way, of course, the human touch, which
the element of reduced labor cost is always appealing to
these companies, especially with fast food.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
If you've noticed if you go into fast food places.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Now, even when you walk in, nine times out of
ten you are ordering at a screen. Even if you
walk into the store, right, they have replaced a lot
of the humans behind the desk. Right by the way,
Wiener Stitzel is not the only company trying this. McDonald's,
Taco Bell, Wendy's. They're all giving this a try.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
And the voice themselves, I'm assuming they have figured out
the best voice to in fact convince people to upgrade,
as opposed to I've been places, and you have been
places that the person taking the order sounds like in
a Rocky sheep herder that just came to the United States.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Okay, by the way, I get a level further, Bill,
real quick. They also know that when you drive up,
if they use facial recognition, they may use a different
voice depending on what you look like, you know, male,
female kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, and can you imagine if there's a lot going
on here.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
If you've been if you've been there before, Hi, Rich,
welcome back.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, ooh darn I know.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
How did that seventeen pounder double triple cheeseburger?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How did your doctor like that one?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah? For sure?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
All right, Rich, You went to Cedars and you saw
a microsurgery robot. Now a few years ago, I went
to Cedars and I was introduced to the Da Vinci robot.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Sort of.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It wasn't really a robot. I mean, you doctor still
did what he did and I actually got to play
with it. And so tell me about your technology or
the technology that you saw.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Yeah, so great. Yes, the da Vinci has been around
for a long time. I think it's been like fifteen
maybe fifteen years, twenty years.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Maybe.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
It's been done many many surgeries. It's been incredible for doctors.
This is sort of the advancement to that. It's a
different company, but still Italian roots. I don't know why
all these robotic surgery systems come from Italy, but this
is called Somani and what this is the main difference
is is while Da Vinci, the surgeon's hands are inside
(09:12):
the machine sort of moving things around with the robot assistance.
This the doctor sits kind of off in a chair
away from the surgery and is just manipulating controllers that
then control these robotic devices.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
So it's almost like a it's.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Like a different approach versus being right on the robot
versus kind of.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Being off to the side.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And so the big deal about this thing, it's pretty impressive,
is that it can perform micro surgeries. We're talking surgeries
on blood vessels thinner than a human hair. It can
do that with extreme accuracy because it magnifies the surgical
area and eliminates the hand tremors that are present in
any hand, right, whether you're surgeon or not.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, I love what.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I'm about to do to you because I never ever
get the opportunity to correct you. And the divinc Yeah,
the Da Vinci robot does exactly that. The surgeon is
sitting in a device and he has these hand controls
and uh, the it goes into it's arthroscopic surgery and
(10:24):
he goes into the body or the device magnifies and
it stops the tremors because and it's I mean, it's
really specific, uh and does a hell of a job.
So the only thing that I didn't see is the
microsurgery part about the Da Vinci did not go that
far where it was blood vessel level.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
But it's uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
The doctor who showed me it, he had a regular
arthoscrapic surgery where you have what looks like a foosball.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Poll where you're, uh, you know, you're playing with it.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
And he had a dead chicken where I supposed to
live chicken and he had just chicken you by at
a grocery store, and I was trying to sew up
a cut they made with the legitimate or the traditional
foosball type.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Of surgery, the arthroscopic surgery.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Couldn't do it, couldn't do it. They threw me in
a Da Vinci Easiest pie. So that technology is getting better.
And by the way, the doctor can be anywhere in
the world. It just so happened that the doctor was
in the same room. But it was all done via
I think that one was hardwired, but it can be
(11:41):
done on the internet.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
So it's pretty pretty amazing technology. So I just thought I.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Could rerect and this stuff is incredible for the future.
So they are very very ambitious about what they think
can be done in the future. And they were talking
like perce that have never been imagined before, like an
eye transplant would be possible because of these new micro
(12:07):
surgeries with this, with this new robot. And by the way,
at Cedars, the reason I was there, they performed the
first ever FDA approved robotic headed next microsurgery in the US,
so that was a pretty big deal. And they're doing this,
you know, for head and neck cancer. I mean it's
really incredible. That is incredible, and and the fatigue side
(12:28):
of it, I know, the doctors were kind of not
you know, they mostly were promoting the patient kind of advantages.
But for the doctor, the fact that you are sitting
in a chair comfortably, and sometimes these surgeries can go
twelve hours. Yeah, that's another benefit to this is that
you're just manipulating these tiny hand controllers versus being looking
(12:50):
inside a machine.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, I mean the specificity and the control.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I wish it had been around when I underwent my circumcision,
and it would have been are far better.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Okay, hey, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
I'm not going to make the micro surgery joke to there.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
That's actually very funny.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That is actually right into that bill.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yes, I certainly do. Hey, there are Apple stores out
there all over the place.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
There's a new store in Santa Monica, but it's a
Google store.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I didn't even know Google hand stores.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, they don't have many.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
This is their sixth retail location, obviously, the first in
southern California.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Their first was up I believe it was their first
up in Mountain View.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
And they've got them in Mountain View, New York, Boston, Chicago,
and the next one's going to be in Austin. So
slow but steady, I mean, Apple has over five hundred stores.
Obviously Google taking a much slower approach, but.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
The idea is kind of the same.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
You can go in there, get help, buy stuff like
the Pixel smartphones, all their wearables, and of course get
screen repairs and all that kind of stuff on site.
But I will tell you, Bill, what I think is
interesting about this store. Not only is it is it
really beautiful in Santa Monica at the Third Street Promenade,
which they're trying to revitalize. I was there over the
weekend and they had I can't believe this. Barnes and
(14:13):
Noble went back in. Remember they used to have that
giant Barnes and Noble there. Well, they came out and
now they put a new one in.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, I hated it when Barnes and Nobles are shutting down.
It's a great place to hang out. That's one of
my favorite places. Rich As always thank you on a Tuesday.
I We'll catch you this weekend Saturday, eleven am to
two pm.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Have a good one, all right, Bill.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Now I'm bringing Neil into this conversation because this is
a foody conversation and it has to do with salt.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And have you.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Noticed virtually every recipe that's out there now that calls
for salt, calls for kosher salt, not regular salt. Now,
kosher salt is not necessarily kosher Salt's kosher. It actually
describes the fact that it is grainier, it is rougher.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
It's actually used for kosher rising because the salt extracts liquid,
and so it's used to extract the blood from the animal,
and the larger grains or corn or whatever you want
to refer to them as is better for doing that.
So the salted salt is salt, is salt, it's a chemicals.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
And that's exactly a part of koshering a cow when
a cow is slaughtered according to kosher laws. And so
here's a fact that I was fascinated by, and that
is why is it that Chef's number one use kosher
(15:52):
salt almost exclusively.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Notice the chef cooking, and I've noticed that with Neil,
it's not out of a salt shaker that's for starters,
and it's not measured out of a teaspoon, and a
recipe that says a quarter of a teaspoon or half
a teaspoon of salt. What there is is a little
salt cellar, which is a little container of salt that
(16:17):
the chef dips his fingers and grabs the salt with
his fingers and then he puts the salt on the
food by sort.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Of grinding it with his fingers.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Yeah, and you get a height of you know, twelve
inches or so fifteen inches.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, and so no, yes, And when I found this out,
I went, uhha, I want to talk to Neil about this, Okay.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
So the reason I think that it's like a flavor
or you know, kosher salt is used because it's somehow
better for your And.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And here is the reason, and I've seen Neil do this.
The reason kosher salt is used since chefs don't use
tea spoons or whatever and they grab them. They grab
a salt with their fingers. It's easier to grab with
your fingers. You actually can dip in and it is
(17:14):
a coarse salt that actually works because you can't do
that easily.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
With the salt that we normally use.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
You can kind although you can certainly do the same thing.
There is a tactile response. You can almost feel the
amount of salt you have in your hand. So when
you take coach your salt and you're taking a pinch,
you can feel how much you have, whereas table salt,
table salt mostly is garbage because the iodine.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
They put iodine in it, and that.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Is for your thyrol, your thyroid, and so it was
meant to help produce.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Certain chemical reactions and its.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Health because everybody needs thyroid, everybody.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
At the time, it was yeah, there were issues and stuff.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Not so much anymore unless your doctor tells you so sorry.
It tastes metallically to me. But as far as the nutrition,
this is the interesting thing. There's five tastes that you
have in your tongue. The tip of your tongue is sweet.
Then you go back one into the sides. You flank
that and that's salt. Then you go beyond that and
(18:29):
that's bitter on the sides.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
And then.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
In the very far back of the tongue if you
imagine singularly right behind is you get uh. So you
have sour on the sides and then bitter on the
very far back. Oh, salt is the only thing that
is salty. You can have dozens of things that are sweet,
dozens of things that are sour, dozens of things that
are are bitter. So salt is very specific to our
(18:55):
needs a balance of water and the electricity.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
That Okay, let me throw something at you.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Because you go to the market, especially any market that
has you know, a big variety of stuff, you know,
high end stuff, and you see so many salts, even
Costco Himalayan sea salt because there's so many oceans and
the Himalayas.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Actually you see sea.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Salt and Himalaya is salt, and that those are the two.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I can think of. But yeah, there are a bunch.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Of salt there is. I've gone to salt tastings. I've
done salt tastings where all you do is taste salt.
The flavor base and the nutrients that are in them
are going to be different.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And these are not flavors that are added. This is
the natural flavor of salt. Salt and added salt or
infused salts. That's totally different.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
I'm saying that regionally, you can get salt that is
different in flavor. However, the chemical comm pound of the
salt is going to be identical in salt, but the
other nutrients or other things that are in that salt
will make them taste different without them being infused.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, that's the natural stuff, like the metal in the soil.
If it's evaporated salt, for example, which a lot of
mass produced salt or a lot of produce salt comes
from big areas that are filled with water, salt water
and it's evaporated outs in the light.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
We've been to Morocco, for example, and we saw these
large flat areas look like lakes and salt flats, and
they on the edges.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It's evaporated out and you buy salt.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
Done this with you, but we'll do it sometime. I
have Himalay pink Himalayan salt bricks that I put directly
onto my grill and I grill shrimp on them, thin
cuts of filet mignon, things like that, and allowed the
natural salt to kind of embed itself into the meat
protein while I'm grilling directly on And because the properties
(21:12):
of that salt, it works really well under that circumstance.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
But not all salts.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Would do the When you have the Himalayan brick salt,
do the neighbor cows come over and burn their tongues?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
No? I don't have a lot of neighbor cows in the.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
City, so they you can't must be an Orange County thing.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
We know, salts, yes, no, nothing left.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Right, yeah, just wondering, all right, Neil, don't forget.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
On Fridays with Neil, we do Foody Friday, of course,
and that's from eight to eight thirty and then every
Saturday two to five it's Neil's Fork Report. It's a
show all about food all right, okay, ah, yeah, every year,
every year we do that.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Just for people who haven't listened.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Now I want to finish the show with what's going
on geopolitically, as you are aware of, the President has
stopped all military aid to Ukraine and stopped the intelligence sharing,
which means Russia has gone berserk and.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Europe is reeling.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Not only is Ukraine reeling, And if it's the question
of bringing Ukraine to the table, it's working because Ukraine
has no choice without military aid.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So what's going on.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Europe is worried about the same thing they get on
the wrong side of the United States and arm start
or arm stop flowing into Europe.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And here is the issue. Doesn't Europe produce its own arms,
of course it does.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
However, there are military arms that come into Europe European
countries that are all American F thirty five fighters. For example,
high end missile systems, Patriot anti missile system defense system
those are bought by Britain, Germany and Italy. The Hei
(23:05):
Mars rocket system. You heard that about that early on.
It's a very sophisticated rocket system and it's a surface
to surface system. And here's what's happening is as the
years go by, more and more arms are being bought
from America. And right now the US accounts for forty
(23:28):
three percent of global weapons exports for the past five years,
up from thirty five percent that happened the five the
five year previously. A German lawmaker who sits on a
defense spending committee in the Parliament says the debate has
(23:48):
already started because overall arms imports by European members of
NATO more than doubled in the.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Five years twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
So as Europe is now trying to figure out we
may not get help from the Trump administration. He already
threatened to pull out of NATO, and he said he
would unless European countries ratchet up what they.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Agreed to pay into NATO.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
We know he has pulled us out of the Paris Accords,
out of the World Health Organization, and he's pretty mercurial.
Europe pisses him off. He can say, okay, stopping all
aid military aid to insert name of country here that
he is not happy with. And so it is a
(24:41):
new world, not only in the United States, but the
entire world is reeling. I mean, look what happened to
the market. It was down another five hundred points yesterday.
I mean it has dropped precipitously over the last week.
As President Trump says yes on tariffs, no on tariff's
yes on tariffs, will hold off tariffs for a month,
(25:03):
but we'll now do tariffs.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
On this particular product coming in.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
And the markets are really and Europe also is preparing
to reel, not knowing what's going to happen. New world,
new world here, new world there, new world all over
the place. All right, we're done, guys, coming up, Gary
and Shannon. We start all over again tomorrow morning. And
(25:30):
that's with Amy. Wake up, Call Amy and Will and
then come at six o'clock. Neil and I joined the
show right up until nine and Kno of course always
here running the place and deciding what we talk about
because well, frankly, I'm a panty waste and I can't
make a decision, and women make the decision in my life.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Did you sleep okay, Linday? Did you sleep okay?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Exactly? See case in point. Thank you Neil for bringing
that up. You make me feel like a real You
make me feel like a real man. All Right, We're done, guys,
finished until tomorrow and watch out for the rain Handle
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Crew KFI am sixty, you've been listening to The Bill
Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
It is a Tuesday morning, It's going to be a
rainy Tuesday morning, March eleventh, and it is time for Oh,
by the way, quick word. As I talked about one
of the trending stories at Southwest is now going to
be charging for baggage and this is the end of
(00:31):
the era. And I made a couple of points end
of the era stories like George of Galapagos tortoise who
died he was a last one. And I mentioned the
last passenger pigeon that died at the Cincinnati Zoo in
nineteen thirty four. I stand corrected it was nineteen fourteen.
I truly apologize for being wrong on that. I am
(00:53):
so sorry. You know George, the uh Tody turtle, Yes.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Was there when Darwin was there?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, oh no, yeah, they figured he died. They don't
even know how long. Galapaco's turtles last hundreds of years.
And I actually saw George before he died. Me too, Yeah,
we had coffee together, men. Yeah, you did all right?
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Rich Tomorrow, Good morning, Rich, Hey, good morning to Bill.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Rich.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm also sad about the Southwest stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Oh yeah, for anybody to fly Southwest, it's really tough.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Or if you don't fly, what do you care?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Okay, tech guy Rich Tomorrow every Tuesday, he's heard on
rich on Tech Saturday from eleven am to two pm.
Every day he's on k t l A as their
tech reporter Instagram at rich on Tech website, rich on
tech dot tv. Rich dur Wiener Schnitzel is it's a
(01:58):
fast food joint that he and Neil can pipe in on.
This one has a reputation of being the lowest of
the low end of national chains with let's just say,
not the highest quality stuff. I like it when I
go in and have I don't know, seven chili hot
dogs for a dollar, and it's questionable as to their quality,
(02:21):
although I love it. Okay, enough of that, let's talk
about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Now, you're pretty fit, I know that, and you exercise
and you look good, your trim going to dervener Stinsel.
You'll put on twenty pounds in one afternoon.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
All right.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
What's happening at Derviner Snitsel though, is they're using AI
and that I haven't seen at fast food establishments.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, so they're using AI in the drive through.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
They partnered with a company called Presto, which you know already.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
When you go to a fast food place.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
I don't know if you've noticed this, but it starts
with one voice and then it goes to another. It'll
be like, hey, welcome to the fast food place. May
we suggest a doubly beef burrito? And you're like, no,
I don't want that and the person like, okay, well,
well would you like now? And you're just like, wait,
what changed? So they're using like a recording at the
beginning and then the real person after that. Now they're
(03:18):
switching completely to AI at a lot of these places,
or they're trying it because that voice not only can
understand what you're saying in natural language, this has come
a long way, it can also upsell you. So Wiener
Stinzel says, already, in a test with an all beef
hot dog up cell, they saw a five percent increase
in total sales. So the system can recommend things based
(03:42):
on what you are purchasing, and also the time of
day and what's trending on the menu.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
You know, I've always wondered these fast food establishments where
you drive through and I always ask where's the clown?
And they don't know what the hell I'm talking about?
Or I wanted to posit some money and they have
no idea what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But it's always it sounds like, what do you want
to double burglar? You know?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Why do they have such crap speakers that you can't
understand a word they're saying.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
I don't know. I really don't. I truly do not understand.
My kids and I will joke. We went to this
one fast food place and I kid you not bill
every single thing we said, the person said the opposite,
completely random thing. I'd like a double cheeseburger and they
said a chocolate milkshake. And we're like, We're looking around
(04:33):
like thinking we were on a reality show. It was
so bad, and I think it might have been the
person's last day. They were just having a joke. But
look these are They're all over the place, and I
think this is why people end up liking in and
Out because the person comes up to your car and
they actually speak to you as a human.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I was at an in and Out Burger yesterday and
that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The guys outside, they're on their little tablet.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's like almost like a cigarette girl, remember those in
the night clubs where they.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
All trap around and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Really kind of wild. By the way, am I allowed
to say cigarette girls? Is I consider sexist? I guess so,
and it was.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You're right.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
It may give about free smokes.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yes, you could.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
At some places you would get free cigarettes. I mean,
I know this is such a horrible conversation in the
year twenty twenty five, but yes, you used to go
to a bar and like literally people give you free
cigarettes just to get you started on them.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, great stuff. So is number one you're saying it's working.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Five percent increase in sales in terms of upsell, and
they're very good because a good server in a restaurant
can up sell a customer like crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I know, when there's someone good.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Hey, you want to try our desserts or you know,
our signature French fries.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
You don't want to miss those as a side.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
How about something for the table that you can all
share and that a lot of times you go yeah,
especially if they're described as this scrumptious signature disc that
they've got in some kind of crazy ass award, which
of course is not true.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
But I'm a yemst and but yet add data to
the mix bill and I think that's what the key
here is for these big companies is like, yes, if
you had a well trained server over the years, of
course they can upsell you. But now later on that
additional data that the company knows if someone orders a
large fries and two hot dogs, that nine times out
(06:33):
of ten they also want a diet coke or whatever.
That the company or the data tells them that this
is what happens on a daily basis. And so for
that system to say, oh, would you also like to
add that dessert that they know when people order this
combination of food, they typically order that as well. So
that I think is the holy grail of why these systems.
(06:53):
And by the way, of course, the human touch, which
the element of reduced labor cost is always appealing to
these companies, especially with fast food.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
If you've noticed if you go into fast food places.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Now, even when you walk in, nine times out of
ten you are ordering at a screen. Even if you
walk into the store, right, they have replaced a lot
of the humans behind the desk. Right by the way,
Wiener Stitzel is not the only company trying this. McDonald's,
Taco Bell, Wendy's. They're all giving this a try.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
And the voice themselves, I'm assuming they have figured out
the best voice to in fact convince people to upgrade,
as opposed to I've been places, and you have been
places that the person taking the order sounds like in
a Rocky sheep herder that just came to the United States.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Okay, by the way, I get a level further, Bill,
real quick. They also know that when you drive up,
if they use facial recognition, they may use a different
voice depending on what you look like, you know, male,
female kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, and can you imagine if there's a lot going
on here.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
If you've been if you've been there before, Hi, Rich,
welcome back.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, ooh darn I know.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
How did that seventeen pounder double triple cheeseburger?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How did your doctor like that one?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah? For sure?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
All right, Rich, You went to Cedars and you saw
a microsurgery robot. Now a few years ago, I went
to Cedars and I was introduced to the Da Vinci robot.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Sort of.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It wasn't really a robot. I mean, you doctor still
did what he did and I actually got to play
with it. And so tell me about your technology or
the technology that you saw.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Yeah, so great. Yes, the da Vinci has been around
for a long time. I think it's been like fifteen
maybe fifteen years, twenty years.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Maybe.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
It's been done many many surgeries. It's been incredible for doctors.
This is sort of the advancement to that. It's a
different company, but still Italian roots. I don't know why
all these robotic surgery systems come from Italy, but this
is called Somani and what this is the main difference
is is while Da Vinci, the surgeon's hands are inside
(09:12):
the machine sort of moving things around with the robot assistance.
This the doctor sits kind of off in a chair
away from the surgery and is just manipulating controllers that
then control these robotic devices.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
So it's almost like a it's.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Like a different approach versus being right on the robot
versus kind of.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Being off to the side.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And so the big deal about this thing, it's pretty impressive,
is that it can perform micro surgeries. We're talking surgeries
on blood vessels thinner than a human hair. It can
do that with extreme accuracy because it magnifies the surgical
area and eliminates the hand tremors that are present in
any hand, right, whether you're surgeon or not.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, I love what.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I'm about to do to you because I never ever
get the opportunity to correct you. And the divinc Yeah,
the Da Vinci robot does exactly that. The surgeon is
sitting in a device and he has these hand controls
and uh, the it goes into it's arthroscopic surgery and
(10:24):
he goes into the body or the device magnifies and
it stops the tremors because and it's I mean, it's
really specific, uh and does a hell of a job.
So the only thing that I didn't see is the
microsurgery part about the Da Vinci did not go that
far where it was blood vessel level.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
But it's uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
The doctor who showed me it, he had a regular
arthoscrapic surgery where you have what looks like a foosball.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Poll where you're, uh, you know, you're playing with it.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
And he had a dead chicken where I supposed to
live chicken and he had just chicken you by at
a grocery store, and I was trying to sew up
a cut they made with the legitimate or the traditional
foosball type.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Of surgery, the arthroscopic surgery.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Couldn't do it, couldn't do it. They threw me in
a Da Vinci Easiest pie. So that technology is getting better.
And by the way, the doctor can be anywhere in
the world. It just so happened that the doctor was
in the same room. But it was all done via
I think that one was hardwired, but it can be
(11:41):
done on the internet.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
So it's pretty pretty amazing technology. So I just thought I.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Could rerect and this stuff is incredible for the future.
So they are very very ambitious about what they think
can be done in the future. And they were talking
like perce that have never been imagined before, like an
eye transplant would be possible because of these new micro
(12:07):
surgeries with this, with this new robot. And by the way,
at Cedars, the reason I was there, they performed the
first ever FDA approved robotic headed next microsurgery in the US,
so that was a pretty big deal. And they're doing this,
you know, for head and neck cancer. I mean it's
really incredible. That is incredible, and and the fatigue side
(12:28):
of it, I know, the doctors were kind of not
you know, they mostly were promoting the patient kind of advantages.
But for the doctor, the fact that you are sitting
in a chair comfortably, and sometimes these surgeries can go
twelve hours. Yeah, that's another benefit to this is that
you're just manipulating these tiny hand controllers versus being looking
(12:50):
inside a machine.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, I mean the specificity and the control.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I wish it had been around when I underwent my circumcision,
and it would have been are far better.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Okay, hey, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
I'm not going to make the micro surgery joke to there.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
That's actually very funny.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That is actually right into that bill.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yes, I certainly do. Hey, there are Apple stores out
there all over the place.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
There's a new store in Santa Monica, but it's a
Google store.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I didn't even know Google hand stores.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, they don't have many.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
This is their sixth retail location, obviously, the first in
southern California.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Their first was up I believe it was their first
up in Mountain View.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
And they've got them in Mountain View, New York, Boston, Chicago,
and the next one's going to be in Austin. So
slow but steady, I mean, Apple has over five hundred stores.
Obviously Google taking a much slower approach, but.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
The idea is kind of the same.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
You can go in there, get help, buy stuff like
the Pixel smartphones, all their wearables, and of course get
screen repairs and all that kind of stuff on site.
But I will tell you, Bill, what I think is
interesting about this store. Not only is it is it
really beautiful in Santa Monica at the Third Street Promenade,
which they're trying to revitalize. I was there over the
weekend and they had I can't believe this. Barnes and
(14:13):
Noble went back in. Remember they used to have that
giant Barnes and Noble there. Well, they came out and
now they put a new one in.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, I hated it when Barnes and Nobles are shutting down.
It's a great place to hang out. That's one of
my favorite places. Rich As always thank you on a Tuesday.
I We'll catch you this weekend Saturday, eleven am to
two pm.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Have a good one, all right, Bill.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Now I'm bringing Neil into this conversation because this is
a foody conversation and it has to do with salt.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And have you.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Noticed virtually every recipe that's out there now that calls
for salt, calls for kosher salt, not regular salt. Now,
kosher salt is not necessarily kosher Salt's kosher. It actually
describes the fact that it is grainier, it is rougher.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
It's actually used for kosher rising because the salt extracts liquid,
and so it's used to extract the blood from the animal,
and the larger grains or corn or whatever you want
to refer to them as is better for doing that.
So the salted salt is salt, is salt, it's a chemicals.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
And that's exactly a part of koshering a cow when
a cow is slaughtered according to kosher laws. And so
here's a fact that I was fascinated by, and that
is why is it that Chef's number one use kosher
(15:52):
salt almost exclusively.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Notice the chef cooking, and I've noticed that with Neil,
it's not out of a salt shaker that's for starters,
and it's not measured out of a teaspoon, and a
recipe that says a quarter of a teaspoon or half
a teaspoon of salt. What there is is a little
salt cellar, which is a little container of salt that
(16:17):
the chef dips his fingers and grabs the salt with
his fingers and then he puts the salt on the
food by sort.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Of grinding it with his fingers.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Yeah, and you get a height of you know, twelve
inches or so fifteen inches.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, and so no, yes, And when I found this out,
I went, uhha, I want to talk to Neil about this, Okay.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
So the reason I think that it's like a flavor
or you know, kosher salt is used because it's somehow
better for your And.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And here is the reason, and I've seen Neil do this.
The reason kosher salt is used since chefs don't use
tea spoons or whatever and they grab them. They grab
a salt with their fingers. It's easier to grab with
your fingers. You actually can dip in and it is
(17:14):
a coarse salt that actually works because you can't do
that easily.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
With the salt that we normally use.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
You can kind although you can certainly do the same thing.
There is a tactile response. You can almost feel the
amount of salt you have in your hand. So when
you take coach your salt and you're taking a pinch,
you can feel how much you have, whereas table salt,
table salt mostly is garbage because the iodine.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
They put iodine in it, and that.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Is for your thyrol, your thyroid, and so it was
meant to help produce.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Certain chemical reactions and its.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Health because everybody needs thyroid, everybody.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
At the time, it was yeah, there were issues and stuff.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Not so much anymore unless your doctor tells you so sorry.
It tastes metallically to me. But as far as the nutrition,
this is the interesting thing. There's five tastes that you
have in your tongue. The tip of your tongue is sweet.
Then you go back one into the sides. You flank
that and that's salt. Then you go beyond that and
(18:29):
that's bitter on the sides.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
And then.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
In the very far back of the tongue if you
imagine singularly right behind is you get uh. So you
have sour on the sides and then bitter on the
very far back. Oh, salt is the only thing that
is salty. You can have dozens of things that are sweet,
dozens of things that are sour, dozens of things that
are are bitter. So salt is very specific to our
(18:55):
needs a balance of water and the electricity.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
That Okay, let me throw something at you.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Because you go to the market, especially any market that
has you know, a big variety of stuff, you know,
high end stuff, and you see so many salts, even
Costco Himalayan sea salt because there's so many oceans and
the Himalayas.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Actually you see sea.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Salt and Himalaya is salt, and that those are the two.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I can think of. But yeah, there are a bunch.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Of salt there is. I've gone to salt tastings. I've
done salt tastings where all you do is taste salt.
The flavor base and the nutrients that are in them
are going to be different.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And these are not flavors that are added. This is
the natural flavor of salt. Salt and added salt or
infused salts. That's totally different.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
I'm saying that regionally, you can get salt that is
different in flavor. However, the chemical comm pound of the
salt is going to be identical in salt, but the
other nutrients or other things that are in that salt
will make them taste different without them being infused.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, that's the natural stuff, like the metal in the soil.
If it's evaporated salt, for example, which a lot of
mass produced salt or a lot of produce salt comes
from big areas that are filled with water, salt water
and it's evaporated outs in the light.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
We've been to Morocco, for example, and we saw these
large flat areas look like lakes and salt flats, and
they on the edges.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It's evaporated out and you buy salt.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
Done this with you, but we'll do it sometime. I
have Himalay pink Himalayan salt bricks that I put directly
onto my grill and I grill shrimp on them, thin
cuts of filet mignon, things like that, and allowed the
natural salt to kind of embed itself into the meat
protein while I'm grilling directly on And because the properties
(21:12):
of that salt, it works really well under that circumstance.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
But not all salts.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Would do the When you have the Himalayan brick salt,
do the neighbor cows come over and burn their tongues?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
No? I don't have a lot of neighbor cows in the.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
City, so they you can't must be an Orange County thing.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
We know, salts, yes, no, nothing left.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Right, yeah, just wondering, all right, Neil, don't forget.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
On Fridays with Neil, we do Foody Friday, of course,
and that's from eight to eight thirty and then every
Saturday two to five it's Neil's Fork Report. It's a
show all about food all right, okay, ah, yeah, every year,
every year we do that.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Just for people who haven't listened.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Now I want to finish the show with what's going
on geopolitically, as you are aware of, the President has
stopped all military aid to Ukraine and stopped the intelligence sharing,
which means Russia has gone berserk and.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Europe is reeling.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Not only is Ukraine reeling, And if it's the question
of bringing Ukraine to the table, it's working because Ukraine
has no choice without military aid.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So what's going on.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Europe is worried about the same thing they get on
the wrong side of the United States and arm start
or arm stop flowing into Europe.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And here is the issue. Doesn't Europe produce its own arms,
of course it does.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
However, there are military arms that come into Europe European
countries that are all American F thirty five fighters. For example,
high end missile systems, Patriot anti missile system defense system
those are bought by Britain, Germany and Italy. The Hei
(23:05):
Mars rocket system. You heard that about that early on.
It's a very sophisticated rocket system and it's a surface
to surface system. And here's what's happening is as the
years go by, more and more arms are being bought
from America. And right now the US accounts for forty
(23:28):
three percent of global weapons exports for the past five years,
up from thirty five percent that happened the five the
five year previously. A German lawmaker who sits on a
defense spending committee in the Parliament says the debate has
(23:48):
already started because overall arms imports by European members of
NATO more than doubled in the.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Five years twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
So as Europe is now trying to figure out we
may not get help from the Trump administration. He already
threatened to pull out of NATO, and he said he
would unless European countries ratchet up what they.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Agreed to pay into NATO.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
We know he has pulled us out of the Paris Accords,
out of the World Health Organization, and he's pretty mercurial.
Europe pisses him off. He can say, okay, stopping all
aid military aid to insert name of country here that
he is not happy with. And so it is a
(24:41):
new world, not only in the United States, but the
entire world is reeling. I mean, look what happened to
the market. It was down another five hundred points yesterday.
I mean it has dropped precipitously over the last week.
As President Trump says yes on tariffs, no on tariff's
yes on tariffs, will hold off tariffs for a month,
(25:03):
but we'll now do tariffs.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
On this particular product coming in.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
And the markets are really and Europe also is preparing
to reel, not knowing what's going to happen. New world,
new world here, new world there, new world all over
the place. All right, we're done, guys, coming up, Gary
and Shannon. We start all over again tomorrow morning. And
(25:30):
that's with Amy. Wake up, Call Amy and Will and
then come at six o'clock. Neil and I joined the
show right up until nine and Kno of course always
here running the place and deciding what we talk about
because well, frankly, I'm a panty waste and I can't
make a decision, and women make the decision in my life.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Did you sleep okay, Linday? Did you sleep okay?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Exactly? See case in point. Thank you Neil for bringing
that up. You make me feel like a real You
make me feel like a real man. All Right, We're done, guys,
finished until tomorrow and watch out for the rain Handle
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Crew KFI am sixty, you've been listening to The Bill
Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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