A First

 This morning, the friendly Jewel employee who oversees the self-checkout machines, was running from one to another.  "It seems like they're all having problems at once," he said. "They drive me crazy."  "I'd rather have people," I replied, "but that's an old fashioned idea."

He took a moment to tell me this story:  In Korea, the grocery stores have been using robots to check people out.  On a particularly busy day, one of the robots threw itself down the stairs.  "I think it's the first case of robot suicide," he said.