"cars" news and stories

Have you ever mentally shaken a fist at someone driving recklessly, chatting on his or her cell phone instead of watching the road? Probably. Have you even done that while sipping a shake or eating a snack-sized bag of chips, still sitting in traffic? If so, you were no better off than that other guy.

After extensive testing on car simulators, researchers in England concluded that eating or drinking while driving seriously impairs your reaction time and increases the likelihood of getting into an accident, despite the fact that many drivers actually drive more slowly while eating.

The simulation involved driving through a city environment and, at some point, being confronted with a pedestrian stepping out into the street. 9 out of 10 eating drivers had an accident. Some say that this is proof that eating in the car should be regulated, but if so, will changing the radio station be next?

Your best bet is to drive with your own safety in mind and try to take a sip or two of your coffee while stopped at a red light, not while merging onto the highway.

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Wired News has a hilarious analysis of limited-edition sugary cereals inspired by summer movies. All of us out here in the bloggosphere owe a debt of gratitude to Lore Sjöberg, who took one for the team by sampling these insulin-shock inducing breakfast cereals.

He leads off with Kellogg's Pirates of the Caribbean, which he quickly dismisses as sort of a combination of Cocoa Puffs and Count Chocula, not that that's a bad thing. His description of the chocolate pearl-shaped cereal with pirate-shaped marshmallows had me busting a gut. He likens the marshmallows to bowler hats, extracted incisors and a silhouette of Bob Ross. Guess they couldn't figure out how to make it look like Johnny Depp.

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It's a happy day for anyone concerned about overweight kids. In more McDonald's news, Disney is ending its relationship with the fast food chain amid concerns about childhood obesity, according to the Los Angeles Times.  For the last decade, the studio marketed its movies by stuffing little Nemo and 101 Dalmatian figurines into Happy Meals. The deal, with netted Disney $100 million, will end this summer following the release of Pixar's "Cars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

With drive-thru service now accounting for up to 70% of fast food sales, the mind boggles to hear that companies are trying to speed up their drive thru service. One method of speeding up service is to route calls to call centers - instead of simply receiving them inside the restaurant over a speaker or radio - to increase accuracy. Companies have found this to be relatively effective, particularly in areas where their employees have limited English skills. The call centers enter the menu items onto a central computer, which transmits the order directly into the restaurant's computers. Another strategy is to replace the traditional written menu board with a photo illustrated or digital one, hoping that tempting food imagery will help customers choose their food faster. There are even computer programs that average how much food needs to be cooking at any given moment.

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