jikFord Resurrecting The Lincoln Continentalde

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(Ford Motor Co.)

After rolling off into the sunset 13 years ago like a luxury dinosaur (a dinosaur with wheels, okay?), the Lincoln Continental is reversing back onto the scene. Ford Motor Co. says it’s bringing a new Continental to the market soon, with a full-size sedan going on sale next year.

The Continental was pushed into the storage closet after Ford acquired other luxury brands like Jaguar and Volvo, and competing cars came in from elsewhere in Europe and Asia. Ford turned to naming its luxury cars things like the LS and MKS to emulate those foreign rivals, instead of giving cars names that are actual words.

That’s changing now with the return of the Continental. The new version of the vehicle will be shown at this week’s New York auto show in concept form, reports the Associated Press.

The Continental dates back to 1938, when Henry Ford’s son Edsel wanted a convertible for his spring vacation. After impressing folks in Palm Beach with the car, Edsel made it part of Lincoln’s lineup.

In its attempt to score with new customers, the Ford’s CEO Mark Fields says the company wants drivers to get an experience that’s laid back.

“We want folks to get into our vehicles and — for lack of a better term — chill,” Fields said.

The concept car features a bunch of technological doodaddery, including moonroof glass that turns opaque at the push of a button. Another button makes the front passenger seat slide forward while the rear passenger seat reclines, which is a feature built with China in mind. Luxury car owners there often have their own drivers, and Lincoln cars are pretty popular over there right now. Here in the U.S., you can just call your friend Jeeves and make’em drive you around, like I do.

It’s likely that the Continental will push out the MKS, which has been on the top of Lincoln’s car roster for the last seven years.

Lincoln Continental, the car of presidents, is returning [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikConey Island’s Legendary Cyclone Roller Coaster Strands Riders On Opening Dayde

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(YouTube)

There’s nothing like that first day at the amusement park, when it feels like spring is maybe, possibly, finally on its way, when you get to climb into that roller coaster for its very first ride of the season… and then you’re stuck high up in the air, wondering how it all went wrong. That’s the tale of yesterday’s Coney Island visitors who scored a free ride on opening day yesterday.

The Cyclone roller coaster is 88 years old, and as such, beloved by visitors to Luna Park in Brooklyn’s Coney Island area. The first 100 people to enter the park yesterday were offered the first ride of the season for free, reports CBS New York, in what was supposed to be a gloriously happy event.

Instead, riders were forced to climb down from the coaster when it got stuck near the summit during its opening cruise, about 10 feet from the highest point. About two dozen riders were helped down and along a walkway next to the tracks by staff members, after 15 minutes of being stranded on the train.

Though officials say a safety mechanism keeps the train from rolling backwards on an upward climb, riders say it wasn’t fun.

“We could feel that there was something wrong,” one woman told CBS New York. “It started slowing down.”

It’s unclear what caused the train to get stuck, but a spokeswoman said it was likely a small mechanical glitch. The ride will remain closed until an inspection finds that it’s safe to reopen.

Coney Island Cyclone Gets Stuck On First Public Ride Of Season [CBS New York]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikChemotherapy Patient Says Walmart Employees Mocked Her In Restroomde

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A Louisiana woman who had recently completed chemotherapy treatment and who underwent a double mastectomy last summer claims that Walmart employees laughed at her in the store bathroom after confusing her with a man.

The customer tells KNOE-TV that she’d gone to the Walmart with her family on Friday and was in the restroom, when, “All of a sudden, these two employees come bursting in, ‘Sir, you can’t be in here! Sir, you can’t be here.’ They started laughing and they went out.”

The woman says the employees later returned to the restroom, where she claims to have overheard them saying things like, “That was a woman? She looked like a man.”

Walmart is apologizing for to the customer and says that the employees have been suspended pending an investigation.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikTens Of Thousands Of British Airways Frequent Flyer Accounts Hackedde

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(David Transier)

If you’re having issues accessing your British Airways account to book your next flight, it’s likely a result of a weekend hack targeting the airline.

Reuters reports that tens of thousands of British Airways frequent flier executive club accounts were compromised in the latest in a string of online hacks.

The company says that no personal information was stolen, but that to fix the issue it must freeze affected accounts.

While putting a hold on the accounts means some frequent fliers won’t be able to access their air miles, the airline expects the system to be back to normal in a few days.

“We would like to reassure customers that, at this stage we are not aware of any access to any subsequent information pages within accounts, including travel histories or payment card details,” a company spokesperson tells Reuters.

In all, British Airways says the number of hacked accounts is only a small fraction of the company’s millions of frequent flyers.

The hackers are believed to have launched their offensive “via an automated process” using information obtained elsewhere on the internet to access the accounts, the spokesperson says.

British Airways says some frequent flyer accounts hacked [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

jikJetBlue System-Wide Computer Failure Leads To Long Lines, Delaysde

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(Boss Meg)

If you’re stuck in a long line at the airport right now, you’re not alone: JetBlue’s computer system failed this morning, forcing the airline to check all its passengers in manually.

The system-wide outage caused delays in several airports this morning, after the glitch affected a number of computerized functions at the airline, a spokesman told Bloomberg.

The situation was resolved by about 6:15 a.m. in New York, with the airline saying it’s “working to resume normal operations now,” but warning that there may be “some delays” throughout the day, without offering specifics.

“We apologize. The cause of the system-wide outage has been resolved. We should have you on your way shortly,” the company wrote to various customers on Twitter, as fliers complained about delays and slow lines.

Such glitches can have a ripple effect, as delayed flights cause passengers to miss connections and snarl air traffic control as airports try to accommodate the changes in schedules.



JetBlue Fliers Slowed as Computer Failure Spurs Manual Check-Ins [Bloomberg]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikReport: McDonald’s To Begin Testing All-Day Breakfast In Certain Marketsde

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(fredboness)

A little more than a month after a survey found 70% of Americans want restaurants to serve breakfast throughout the day, reports have begun to surface that the Golden Arches plans to do just that.

Citing analysts from Janney Capital Markets, CNBC reports that McDonald’s is taking a step toward making breakfast an all-day option by testing the service at select locations starting in the next few months.

A request for comment from McDonald’s was not immediately returned to CNBC.

Moving toward an all-day breakfast menu would be a huge change for McDonald’s, as most of the company’s locations stop serving the meals after 10:30 a.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends. There are a few locations around the country that serve select breakfast items as part of their late-night menu.

Testing the all-day breakfast menu makes sense for McDonald’s, analysts from Janney say.

“We believe customers generally want to see McDonald’s offer breakfast items all day,” they tell CNBC.

McDonald’s plunge into the all-day-breakfast-craze, could have something to do with a recent National Restaurant Association survey that found nearly 70% of Americans want breakfast available all day, and that younger adults love eating the meals for dinner more than any other age group.

The fast-food company has been struggling in recent months to revamp its image and bring in a younger clientele following years of declining sales.

In the past, the company – which has mulled the idea of all-day breakfast before – blamed a limited amount of space on kitchen grills as the reason not to expand the morning menu items.

QSR Magazine echoed those issues back in February, saying the added logistics and costs of serving two entire menus’ worth of food could be too much for a smaller, fast-food sized kitchen.

McDonald’s to test all-day breakfast soon: Report [CNBC]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

jikLululemon’s New Anti-Ball-Crushing Pants Are A Huge Hitde

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If any athletic wear company knows about the importance of paying attention to their customers’ genitals, it’s Lululemon. The company lost much of its leadership and annoyed a lot of people over a 2013 fiasco involving pants that were inexplicably translucent in the crotch area. Now the company has found success by explicitly marketing a new line of pants for men for their non-testicle-crushing properties.

I was not aware this was an issue in the pants industry, but the “action slacks,” called the ABC Pant, have been a huge hit so far. While Lululemon is normally associated with women, their menswear sales are up. ABC, of course, stands for “anti-ball-crushing.”

How much will trousers with precision anti-ball-crushing engineering set you back? The ABC pants cost $128.

Lululemon’s smash new hit: Pants with manhood in mind [CNN]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist