If you are a Lethal Weapon fan, you probably remember the drive thru scene with Leo Getz. He uses some colorful language to describe why you always get the wrong order at the drive thru. If you can overlook the language, it’s a hilarious scene that also holds some truth. By the time you figure out they gave you the wrong order, you’re too far away to go back and get it fixed — you’re just screwed.
If you want to reduce your odds of having a bad experience, you might want to frequent the best drive thru’s in America as determined by Insula Research’s annual Drive-Thru Performance Study. This ranking of the top 20 fast food drive thru’s in America measures their performance in four categories: order accuracy, speaker clarity, speed, and best menu board.
And the results are:
Chick-fil-A
Taco Bell
Del Taco
Krystal
Wendy’s
Chick-fil-A earned the highest composite score in the survey, topping the competition in two of the four categories: order accuracy and speaker clarity. Chick-fil-A also had the friendliest service measured by demeanor, politeness, and eye contact. Wendy’s ranked number one in the “Speed” category, and Whataburger won top honors for the best menu board.
To read the full results, check out the article in this month’s QSR Magazine .
Texting is a great way to communicate with your friends, family and colleagues. These short messages can be sent and received on your mobile phone anytime, anywhere. It’s convenient, quick, and sometimes dangerous.
A recent study of people texting while driving shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates and is much more dangerous than other driving distractions. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, one of the world’s largest vehicle safety research organizations, conducted the study. What they found is disturbing:
The collision risk was 23 times greater when drivers were texting
In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers spent almost five seconds looking at their devices — that’s enough time to cover more than the length of a football field at typical highway speeds!
Most people know they shouldn’t text while driving, but they do it anyway. They seem to think that somehow they are better than everyone else at multitasking. That viewpoint is incredibly arrogant. I don’t care how good you are, when you take your eyes off the road to look at your phone for a mere 4-5 seconds, you are endangering not only your life, but the lives of those around you.
It’s not illegal in most states, but it should be. Only 14 states ban texting while driving today. Legislators in some states say they need more information before banning the activity. I’m not sure how much more data they need. Innocent people are dying because some idiot thought texting was more important than driving. For example, Jordan Wickington, a cyclist, was killed by a speeding motorist driving 45 mph in a 30 mph zone. She never saw him because she was sending a message. She’s now spending four years in jail because of her reckless decision to text while driving. In Arizona, a head-on collision killed two 18-year-old girls. The driver was texting. These aren’t isolated cases. It’s happening more and more — and it’s frightening. According to the National Safety Council, cellphone use contributes to an estimated 6 percent of all crashes and 2,600 deaths each year.
Think you are better at multitasking than the norm? Now you can test your reaction time with an interactive game that measures how your reaction time is affected by external distractions. Give it a whirl by clicking here. And when you get in the car tomorrow, leave the cell phone in your pocket while you are driving. That text message will wait until you get to the next red light.
Hate those random sales calls during dinner or on Saturday morning when you are trying to sleep? Do you wish you could stomp them out forever? Well, new rules going into effect on September 1 could pave the way to eliminate those annoying phone calls for good.
The new Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) will ban all automated phone calls selling products or services. Now these calls will be illegal unless the telemarketer has received written permission from consumers who express interest in receiving offers by phone.
Telemarketers who violate the TSR are subject to fines of up to $16,000 per call. Even if you’ve done business with a company, they can’t add you to their automated call list unless you have specifically agreed to receive calls. The down side to the new rule is that it only applies to “robocalls.” Calls placed by humans aren’t banned. However, you can still protect yourself from these intrusive sales pitches by adding your phone numbers to the federal Do Not Call registry.
Like the Do Not Call registry, the TSR excludes debt collectors, local charities, politicians, banks and telephone companies which means you can’t expect the phone to stop ringing completely. But, maybe the TSR brings us one step closer to making that dream a reality.
Until that day comes, if you are being harassed by automated calls, you can report them to the federal trade commission online or at (877) 382-4357 (877-FTC-HELP).
There’s nothing worse than losing your wallet. Not only do you forfeit the cash that was inside, but you also have to replace all of your credit cards and id cards. It’s a slow and painful process that most people try to avoid at all costs.
Now there’s a way to increase your odds of getting your wallet back, according to Dr. Richard Wiseman (author of Quirkology). He recently conducted a psychology study to identify what would make a person more likely to return a wallet to its owner. Hundreds of wallets were scattered around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. Most of the wallets included personal items: some included pictures of elderly people, a cute puppy, family portrait or a cute baby. Other wallets contained charity donation receipts, and a few contained no personal items.
What they discovered — surprisingly enough — is that the picture of a baby drove most people to return the wallet. Nine in 10 of the strangers who retrieved the wallets with a baby picture returned them. Whereas only 53 percent returned the wallet including pictures of a puppy. The other images fared even worse, and only one in seven returned the wallets with no photographs.
According to the article on Gimundo, “the success of the baby photograph speaks to a human compassion for the young that’s been passed down through the ages. To ensure our species’ survival, scientists claim that we must feel empathy and compassion for our young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won’t feel compassion only for our own babies, but for any that we see—hence, the overwhelming desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to the baby’s parent.”
Regardless of the reason why, it seems that the best way to get your lost wallet back is to get the cutest baby pictures you can find and put them inside. Those images just might be your best insurance policy if it’s ever lost.
Now I just need to go find some cute photos of babies since I don’t have any of my own. If you’re willing to donate (the pictures, not the babies), send a them my way!
I’ve been to a few restaurants trialing table-based electronic payment systems, but London’s Inamo restaurant has taken the high tech restaurant concept to the next level. At this Oriental restaurant, you can sit down, browse through an interactive menu, and place your order without needing a server.
What’s really different about their system is that there are no embedded screens or small computer devices placed on the table. Everything is projected from above. When you sit down, the table is activated. After perusing the menu and ordering, you can play games like Battleship with your dining partner while you are waiting for your food to arrive.
Don’t like the look of your table? Change it. There are several virtual tablecloths to suit the taste of a wide variety of diners. Select pictures, colors or bright patterns. You can change it several times during your meal — a different tablecloth for each course. What fun!
Finally, you can get a bird’s eye view of the action in the kitchen and watch Inamo’s chefs cook your meal. It’s probably not as exciting as Hell’s Kitchen, but it might be entertaining if you need a break from the tabletop games.
If you need to make transportation arrangements after dinner, you can use the system to book a taxi or browse a map of the tube. When you’re ready to leave, you can view your bill and pay using the system — no waiters needed!
It’s a clever concept. I don’t know why more restaurants haven’t done it yet. Maybe it won’t be long before some of these pop up in the states. When it happens, I’ll definitely be making a reservation.
For a quick view of what it looks like, check out the video below.
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Hate those random sales calls during dinner or on Saturday morning when you are trying to sleep? Do you wish you could stomp them out forever? Well, new rules going into effect on September 1 could pave the way to eliminate those annoying phone calls for good.
There’s nothing worse than losing your wallet. Not only do you forfeit the cash that was inside, but you also have to replace all of your credit cards and id cards. It’s a slow and painful process that most people try to avoid at all costs.