Automobile, cars, new cars and used cars

Archive for August, 2011

(ARA) – Drowsy driving can put anyone at risk for an accident, and NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards wants to make sure motorists know to stay alert while driving.

Edwards, who suffers from allergies, has teamed up with the makers of the non-drowsy allergy medication, CLARITIN, for the “Clear to Drive” campaign.

The campaign aims to make sure people know how important it is to read medicine labels to see if there are any warnings about drowsiness before they get behind the wheel.

As someone who races cars for a living, driver safety is an issue that’s important to me, and that’s why I’m participating in the “Clear to Drive” campaign,” says Edwards.

When I’m driving at 180 miles per hour, I can’t risk taking a medicine that makes me drowsy. I choose CLARITIN because it gives me powerful, non-drowsy relief from my worst allergy symptoms.

As a spokesperson for the “Clear to Drive” campaign, Edwards will record a radio announcement to raise awareness about drowsy driving, which can potentially result from taking medicines that may cause drowsiness.

The radio announcement will be available on cleartodrive.com – a new Web site that will provide valuable information on safe driving. The site will also feature facts about drowsy driving and tips for preventing this growing problem.

The Dangers of Drowsy Driving

Many drivers don’t realize that some common over-the-counter medicines could cause drowsiness. In fact, according to a recent survey, four in 10 Americans (38 %) report that there have been times when they were driving and realized that the medicine they had taken was making them drowsy.

Taking a medication that may cause drowsiness can put people at risk for nodding off behind the wheel and potentially harming themselves or others,” says Marjorie Slankard, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. “It’s important to carefully read the labels of medications and understand the side effects.

Tips for Preventing Drowsy Driving

* Always remember to check medicine labels, including allergy medicines, for warnings about drowsiness before getting behind the wheel

* Avoid driving if you’re feeling drowsy

* Schedule breaks during long trips or arrange for a travel companion

* Get adequate sleep

* Stop driving if you start feeling drowsy behind the wheel

For more tips on safe driving and additional information about the “Clear to Drive” campaign, visit cleartodrive.com.

Article source

Mercedes Benz, a luxury automobile brand known for cutting edge automotive technology is now developing technologies that can make driving safer, ultimately causing a dramatic reduction in serious injuries and deaths due to collisions.  Its new prototype named Experimental Safety Vehicle is packed with innovative safety features that have never before been seen in the automotive industry, which can initiate a downward movement in auto coverage costs.

The car in essence becomes a massive airbag before a collision to prevent serious injuries to the driver and passengers.

Basically the car has built-in video cameras and sensors around its chassis that could predict and detect collisions or accidents before they occur, allowing safety features to activate before a major mishap happens.

One example of the capabilities of the prototype is that if the car detects imminent danger, seats will be pulled back inside a couple of millimetres which could substantially reduce impact force.  In addition, airbags would also be deployed prior to a collision, including one located under the car’s chassis, which not only further lessens damage to the vehicle but also substantially reduce the likelihood of serious injuries to passengers.

The airbag, which is located at the front of the chassis, can lift the car by 8 millimetres and push passengers inwards, providing added protection against collision impact.  Furthermore, it can also slow down the car and lessen brake drive.

The car can also measure the height and weight of passengers and make adjustments accordingly to the airbags ensuring maximum safety.

Other interesting features of this prototype is a sensor that warns drivers behind it if they come dangerously close to the vehicle, metallic pockets distributed throughout the chassis that can absorb impact, interior airbags that lessen injury to passengers in cases of a rollover and an easy to deploy child safety seat located at the back.

These innovations if they show up in Mercedes cars soon would surely have a dampening effect on the car insurance expenses of buyers.  Insurers take into consideration safety features of a car such as airbags and anti-lock braking system when they compute for premiums.  Another possible benefit is that other car manufacturers may also follow the lead of Mercedes and embrace these newly developed technologies, making them the benchmark for their vehicles.  If all of these possibilities materialize in the future, expenses on the part of the government concerning accident response programs can also be drastically reduced, which would help the public sector’s bottom line.

Although, it is projected that these innovations may cost a lot initially, in the long run higher demand would push production costs down, eventually making such technologies affordable even to the common man.

The source of article

YYCFL 2011-01-26 Calgary City Council – UE2011-02 Fluoride – …

Progressive Insurance tips when you are buying a used car instead of a new one.

(NAPSI)-In today’s unstable economy, you might be in the market for a used car instead of a new one.

But used car shopping isn’t easy-it requires a keen eye and an inquisitive nature. Before you buy a used vehicle, here are a few tips from leading car insurer Progressive to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth:

Ask about previous damage. Has the vehicle ever been in an accident or a flood? Get details on the extent of damage if it has. And inspect the vehicle closely, looking for these “red flags”:

Mismatched vehicle identification numbers (VINs) on the vehicle title, dashboard, driver door panel, hood or trunk;

Mismatched paint on exterior body parts, or paint-over spray on interior parts such as door edges and the engine compartment;

Missing bolts or uneven welding in major areas, such as the front-end core support or the trunk.

Ask for routine maintenance records. The owner should be able to provide information about what service work has been done.

Buy a vehicle history report. Get the vehicle’s VIN, then go to www.carfax.com or www.autocheck.com and purchase a vehicle history report. The history will show past owners of and damage to the car, as well as mileage and title history. Some state motor vehicle departments may also provide some of this information.

Check out the seller. Some unscrupulous sellers may try to sell a poorly repaired salvage vehicle, which means it’s been totaled before and they’ve rebuilt it. If you’re buying from a car dealer, check with the Better Business Bureau. If the seller is an individual, look through the classifieds for other vehicle ads with the same phone number-this is a sign of an unlicensed broker who sells used vehicles by posing as the owner.

Ask a professional to inspect the vehicle. Take the vehicle to a mechanic or body shop you trust. Have them inspect the vehicle inside and out for previous repairs and the quality of any repair work they discover.

Research insurance costs. Before you buy, ask your local independent agent or broker how much your car will cost to insure. And while you’re there, make sure you have the right coverages for your vehicle. For example, if you’re buying an older or more inexpensive car, you might want to consider dropping Comprehensive and Collision coverages.

Following these tips can help you avoid any unwelcome surprises from your new (used) car.

For more information or to find an agent nearby, visit www.progressiveagent.com.

Used car shopping requires a keen eye and an inquisitive nature.

Article source

Used Car Buying Tips

:: Wet Pack car organizers are trunk organizing storage units that are used to transportfood items that you to keep cold or hot while being transferred in your vehicle. Trunk organizers can be used for many applications and it seems like there is a model for every kind of storage solution you need. This could includeitems like, plants, groceries, wet clothes, roadside assistance items, tailgating stuff, tools, and just about any other item that can be dreamed up. Many new vehicles today have compartments that are specifically designed for storage of items themselves. This can be customized to hold a wet pack carrier for keeping drinks or perishable food items cold for an hour or more.

Using practical solutions like trunk and car organizers and wet pack carriers will keep groceries and just about anything that will fit snug and safe in them. Some have even used items like this to transport their little pets from place to place. With their waterproof nature this could be a solution to prevent accidents that might happen. Taking time to do research on what kind of wet pack will fit your car or SUVwill give you many options if you use the Internet to find the type made for your vehicle. Using accessories in a car that make it more fun to drive are also very popular too. This could include a tachometer that measures the RPM of the engine along with aftermarket fuel savers which increase efficiency and engine power.

With organizers that are made for a specific model of car or truck the organizers will stay in place. Added conveniences like having the ability to be folded and stored away until they are needed is just one of the many uses of them overall. Most have convenient handles and also can double as a tie down strap on some of the models. There are also smaller pouches that are great for easy use with some of items that can be stored there easily.

Taking some time to look at all the different features of trunk organizers that have wet packs in them can make travel with a multitude of items a breeze. Some models come with spring loaded action that will ease the use of setup and place the products in their respective places. It is time to make your life easier with a trunk organizer with a wet pack that is removable for an increased hauling area if needed.

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Hype-Williams-8614/Wet-Pack-161641.php

Diapees and Wipees Suggestions

One large room at C&G that once housed cattle stalls now contains 50 or more machine tools ranging from World War II lend-lease mills to the latest computer-controlled machining centers. Gardiner is especially proud of his homemade cam grinder. A wide assortment of lathes, gear cutters, borers, broaches, and shapers gives C&G the ability to handle the most challenging machining operations in-house. There are two dynamometers in the engine test cell, but neither has the capacity to handle the V-16′s ferocious 630 pound-feet of torque developed at only 2500 rpm.

The task of repairing the dented and Bondo-filled aluminum bodywork and creating an accurate duplicate shell was assigned to Keith Roach Manufacturing, another modest-appearing fabrication shop located 90 miles to the west near Southampton. Roach lives in a 16th-century cottage on premises where the garage space is several times larger than the living quarters. Gary Yates is Roach’s resident master metal artist.

Yates apprenticed in railway repair shops and moved on to aerospace work before joining the Roach works 13 years ago. Although he modestly describes his craft as "shape work," he’s truly a Michelangelo of metal benders. Yates passes an 18-gauge (0.04-inch thick) sheet of annealed aircraft aluminum through an English wheel — a pair of hardened steel rollers supported by a large rigid frame — to create the compound curves needed to skin a race car. In essence, each two-dimensional sheet is converted to a three-dimensional shape by stretching inner areas of the panel while the edges remain untouched. It takes a degree of hand and eye coordination found in few mortals. After the panels are joined with oxyacetylene welds, Yates’s sculpture is as smooth and perfect as polished marble.

"We stripped the V-16 car down to the last rivet," recalled Yates. "Once you take something apart, you get a feel for the details and the frame of mind of the original craftsmen. It was a real blessing to have that car and a better starting point than working from period photographs. I made patterns from the original panels to duplicate them for the museum’s clone. The original panels were then straightened and restored for reuse on Audi’s car."

While Yates crafted the two bodies, two-dozen artisans at C&G built up a pair of engines, restored the original chassis, and fabricated a second frame and all the running gear needed for the clone to be returned to Latvia. In just over two years, both of these monumental jobs were complete. Hans Stuck Jr. wowed vintage fans with several demonstration runs in the Audi-owned original at the 1997 Goodwood Festival of Speed hill-climb event. Later that year, the clone circulated a track in Latvia as part of its ceremonial return to the Riga Motormuseum.

This was merely the beginning of the third and most fruitful phase of the Auto Union renaissance, which is still under way. Impressed by the combined C&G and Keith Roach effort, Audi wrote a check to carry on the continuation process with the aim of stocking its heritage collection with truly impressive hardware. In addition to the restored D-type Grand Prix racer and C- and D-type mountain climber, the boys from Britain were commissioned to construct two running C-type GP cars (one destined for VW’s museum in Wolfsburg, Germany) and a fully functional replica of the streamliner that Bernd Rosemeyer drove to record speeds of more than 250 mph in 1937.

In 1999 Audi’s Belgian importer, S.A. D’Ieteren N.V., raised its hand to join the fun. D’Ieteren sought its own continuation Auto Union for publicity purposes and gallery display. (In business since 1805, D’Ieteren has manufactured everything from horse-drawn carriages to Studebakers and has a collection of 170 historic automobiles.) Audi gave the D’Ieteren organization its blessing with a couple of provisos attached. Their car had to be built by C&G and be available to Audi Tradition for occasional exhibitions and demonstrations. But the most interesting stipulation was which Auto Union. To maximize the scope of the newly reconstituted fleet of prewar racers, Audi urged D’Ieteren to commission a replica of the first series of Auto Unions, designated the A-type, that competed in nine 1934 GP events. Using period photos of Hans Stuck’s French Grand Prix machine as his guide, Yates began crafting body panels in the fall of 1999.

When the A-type is completed this spring, it will serve as the alpha of the collection — the machine with which professor Porsche commenced the Age of Titans. That makes the streamliner the omega of this resurrection, although strictly speaking, it was the penultimate Auto Union. Yates characterized the streamliner project: "[It's] like building an aircraft. Huge skin panels are riveted to an internal framework of support panels. I started with full-size patterns drawn by hand. Then we made a wooden buck with transverse sections spaced every 200 millimeters [8 inches] at the ends and 400 millimeters [16 inches] through the middle. To learn how the internal supports and ducts were made, I actually studied photos of the aftermath of Rosemeyer’s fatal crash. The panels had to be worked very carefully to get the light lines exactly right. Start to finish, the streamliner body required nine months of effort."

Yates’s panels flow like quicksilver. Audi’s legacy, lost for decades, now shines brightly in the expertly crafted light lines of a job well done.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/auto_reunion-feature/audi_27s_legacy_shines_page_4

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by Patricia Strasser There are numerous recycling-related games you can teach children. A few games that utilize plastic bottles are an on-the-spot craft making challenge, a plastic bottle scavenger hunt, a planting contest, and a bottle tossing game.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 17 times

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by Fess Woebin Decades ago Marilyn Monroe declared that diamonds are a girl’s best friends. Her song has become more of an adage and now applies to men as well.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 24 times

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by Fess Woebin One of the most important pieces of jewelry that a person may purchase can be their marriage rings. Whether one is purchasing a bridal set or separate wedding rings for men and women, they are often not regarded as simply just another piece of jewelry.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 4 times

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by Fess Woebin When looking for wedding rings for men, many people choose to go with something rather traditional and basic, such as a gold or silver band. However, there are a number of different options and today’s designs for men can vary tremendously from what men have traditionally worn.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 9 times

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by Fess Woebin Titanium rings are an excellent choice in wedding bands for men. The use of this material in jewelry is fairly new, but it has been used to make medical and surgical tools for quite a while.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 6 times

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by Derek Blandford It’s sad to think about, but right now, this very minute, there are thousands of men worldwide who are wondering how to win back an ex girlfriend. If you are here reading this, then it is likely you are currently faced with the same situation.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 36 times

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by Fess Woebin While a lot of thought, time, and attention may go into choosing engagement and wedding rings for women, having symbolic pieces of jewelry may be equally important to many men as well. The thought of wearing something that is too delicate or not in keeping with their particular image, however, may cause hesitation or outright refusal.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 17 times

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by Fess Woebin Couples today have a lot more choices available when shopping for engagement rings. Not only can they select from an assortment of different materials they also have greater price options.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 7 times

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by Fess Woebin Silver rings have been a popular trend in women’s fashion for some time. Now this trend is transferring into men’s fashion too. Nowhere is this trend hotter than in the wedding band market.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 17 times

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by Fess Woebin There are some pieces of jewelry that have become classic items to wear. This is true for some styles of gold rings created as wedding bands. Gold wedding rings for men are usually designed as part of a set, which includes the women’s band as well.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 76 times

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by Fess Woebin Men now have more choices when it comes to wedding rings, and tungsten rings are now one of these options. Wedding rings for men used to consist of just a few metals, mainly silver and gold.

Published 15Jun2011, viewed 35 times

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by Hype Williams This article provides tips on finding the best hair curler.

Published 14Jun2011, viewed 18 times

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by Derek Blandford Nothing is more exciting and more painful than being in love with an amazing woman. When she decides to call it quits and you’re still in love with her, dealing with and trying to control your emotions while figuring out how to get her back is almost too much to bear. This deep desire to be hers again causes you to do some unthinkable things.

Published 27Jun2011, viewed 28 times

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by Derek Blandford I hear this question a lot from men going through a breakup, “Can I still get my girlfriend back if she’s dating someone else?” The answer is yes, but in order to do so, you need to understand the dynamics of a rebound relationship. When your girlfriend starts dating someone else after a breakup, winning her back will require some delicate tactics most men simply aren’t good at.

Published 27Jun2011, viewed 35 times

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by Derek Blandford How can I get my girlfriend back? It’s a question you’re probably asking yourself right now, and you’re searching for a solution. There are many different paths you can take to get your girlfriend back, but they all begin in the same place.

Published 27Jun2011, viewed 30 times

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by Derek Blandford No one ever wants to cope with a breakup, but relationships end every single day. However, they also begin anew every single day. If you’ve just watched your very own, real life Prince Charming walk out the door, then you’re probably experiencing the pain, frustration, confusion, and depression that comes along with figuring out if you want him back and if you do, how to go about getting him back.

Published 27Jun2011, viewed 27 times

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by Derek Blandford Dealing with a breakup is tough. You’ve watched the girl of your dreams walk out the door, and you feel frustrated and confused not knowing if there’s any way to get her back. In fact, you aren’t even sure if it’s possible to get her back. The truth is, you have absolutely no chance of winning her back until you’ve prepared yourself to do so.

Published 27Jun2011, viewed 27 times

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by Derek Blandford What can I do if my girlfriend left me? I feel miserable, depressed, and just want to curl up into a ball and forget it ever happened. I love her like crazy, and I want her back. I just can’t get her out of my mind, and I’m beating myself up over the breakup. If I could take all the things I’ve done and said back, I would.

Published 20Jun2011, viewed 30 times

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by Derek Blandford Your real life Cinderella left you, and now you want to know how to get your girlfriend back. Your situation seems hopeless, and you just don’t know where to start. There’s a strong urge inside you to do something dramatic that will sweep your girl off her feet and make her fall passionately in love with you all over again.

Published 13Jun2011, viewed 21 times

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by Derek Blandford It’s the desperate mans’ cry for help. When a man falls desperately in love with a woman, it changes him without him even knowing it. Once strong, independent, and confident, the in love man suddenly becomes weak and needy in the aftermath of a breakup. If you want to get your girlfriend back, you need to recognize the signs of dependence and reverse the pattern immediately.

Published 13Jun2011, viewed 20 times

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by Andrea Carless Why do you want to get into a relationship? Is it because you don’t want to feel lonely and alone anymore? What does your heart really need? Do you want to find out the answers? Come and read some more!

Published 13Jun2011, viewed 81 times

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by Derek Blandford Figuring out how to win back a girl after a breakup is much like walking through a field of land mines. There’s many different ways to reach the other side, but the one thing you MUST do is avoid the mines. In the case of relationships, the land mines are the critical mistakes that will push your ex further away if you’re not careful to avoid them.

Published 26Jun2011, viewed 24 times

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by Derek Blandford It’s never easy learning how to deal with a breakup. In fact, it can be downright miserable. Physically and mentally, a breakup can leave you feeling drained, frustrated, angry, and confused. When you don’t know how to deal with these emotions, it’s easy to find yourself in a self destructive pattern that uses drugs, alcohol, or revenge as the answer.

Published 26Jun2011, viewed 26 times

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by Derek Blandford You’ve just gone through a bad breakup. Things turned ugly in a hurry. Now, you regret what happened and the things that were said. You’re desperate to get her back, but you’re wondering, “Does she still love me?” To answer that question there are certain signs you can look for to determine if she still cares about you enough to give the relationship another chance now or in the future.

Published 26Jun2011, viewed 27 times

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by Derek Blandford Men have it tough when it comes to relationships and breakups. Most of us have no clue about getting a girlfriend back because everything we have watched and learned while growing up has taught us the wrong tips and techniques. What makes for a good Hollywood movie and big profits at the box office doesn’t always make for sound, practical advice that actually works.

Published 26Jun2011, viewed 23 times

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Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Social/more/125

You might not expect that aging hearses, ambulances, and funeral limousines would comprise an emotionally sturdy basis for an enterprising car club. But 1193 dues-paying members of the 25-year-old Professional Car Society (PCS) will smilingly prove you wrong. About half are funeral directors, who come by their vehicular enthusiasm professionally. The remainder are a peculiar but upbeat amalgam of emergency-medical technicians, limo-livery owners, graveside-equipment suppliers, die-hard Cadillac collectors, fast-wrinkling hippies, and introverted dressed-in-black techno-Goths applying makeup to resemble Lily in

The Munsters .

Naturally, this appealed with such unendurable urgency that I immediately borrowed a nine-day-old polar-white $75,475 Sayers & Scovill Cadillac DeVille Masterpiece hearse (see Specialty File that follows this story) in which to make the 1000-mile pilgrimage to the club’s annual convention. The location: Lebanon, Missouri. I had no idea why.

Day One Here’s why: Lebanon is home to our PCS host, Ken Howe, who owns the town’s largest funeral home. Ken is thin, angular, mid-30s, with dark, close-cropped hair. He never stops smiling and walks always on his toes, as if fearful of making noise. He wears a tie and a starched white shirt, which is impressive because it’s 99 degrees in Lebanon. Ken is fond of saying, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

Ken treats the membership to a private tour of his sprawling Holman-Howe funeral home. Parked out front is his own S&S Masterpiece-identical to mine, save its aqua paint-plus an aqua six-door DeVille limo, an aqua DeVille Touring Sedan, and a Chevy Suburban. The latter is Holman-Howe’s "first-call car," for discreetly collecting the freshly deceased at hospitals, airports, and rest homes. It is not uncommon for a funeral home to command a quarter-million-dollar fleet like Ken’s, though it requires the clients to perish at a rate of 200 per annum and to eschew the escalating trend toward cremation.

"I got diabetes, but I think I can make it through the tour," says a club member I’ve already dubbed Carl The Talker.

"I got emphysema, but I think I can make it through the tour," adds The Talker’s wife.

Ken nods, smiles, and continues narrating our walk-through, which presently leads into a tasteful but darkened alcove that, as my eyes adjust, I discover is occupied by a woman who is not a club member. Here’s how I know: She is dead.

"This old girl was just a beautiful person," gushes Ken with earnest affection. "I’m glad we got her into a quality casket."

Nearby, I hear the whir of a video camera. It’s balanced atop the shoulder of a Goth with a full Prince Valiant haircut and a double-breasted black suit. Why he is not prostrate from the heat is a matter for medical professionals to evaluate. Equally peculiar, he’s taping every minute of the PCS proceedings, as if he were some sort of high-tech Secretary at Arms. In truth, he’s creating a two-hour video that will be offered to clubbies at a once-in-a-lifetime price.

"She’s in a better place," observes The Talker of the inert form in Chapel Two.

"Like where?" I ask. "Lufthansa’s first-class lounge?"

Ignoring my impertinence, he continues, "It’s too bad that at funerals it’s disrespectful to pay attention to the cars rather than the service. Course, I still look at ‘em anyway."

"Then that’s disrespectful," informs The Talker’s wife.

"One more word," says Carl in a steaming hiss,

"and it’s right to the car."

Ken smiles, opting to ignore this exchange, and leads us into his bright, ultramodern showroom of caskets, filled with Batesville’s best: nickel, bronze, stainless, chromium, and hardwood boxes, some fetching as much as $8500. Minutes later, we’re in the embalming studio, which resembles your mother’s kitchen except for the hospital gurneys in front of the sinks. Here Carl The Talker points to a canister strung up like a blood-transfusion bottle.

 

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q4/an_undertaking_of_moribund_fellowship-feature

:: Twitter is by far the most used social networking application available, and that makes it an incredibly powerful marketing tool. Nevertheless, Twitter is quite difficult to use effectively, and failure here is much more prevalent than in other mediums. In order to help you avoid failing, here is a series of tried and true Twitter marketing tips.

1. Define the Target Market Precisely, and Stay Focused.

The biggest mistake new Twitter marketers make is that they attempt to reach everyone who might be interested in their product or service. But Twitter doesn’t work that way. In order to maintain subscribers, you have to engage. For examples, consider how many of the largest corporations use Twitter solely to target their young consumers.

2. Proactively Acquire Followers.

Another big yet common mistake is the expectation that followers will magically arrive. Instead, we must earn our followers. A great way to do this is to follow high-profile individuals and groups in the appropriate market, and then communicate with them, which will draw attention to your account if that communication is engaging enough.

3. Quantity Matters

Do not waste time wrestling with quality versus quantity. An active presence is a key to recognition and to maintaining a large subscriber base. That doesn’t mean you ought to tweet nonsense, but your followers will quickly forget a tweet that falls flat, and that failed tweet still has the cumulative effect of making your presence felt.

4. Share Content from Others.

A good means of consistently delivering interesting tweets is to share tweets from others that you think will engage your base. This has a number of positive effects, including possible recognition from the original poster. A consistent effort in this regard can get you talked about by Twitter users who are influential within the target niche.

5. Leverage Automation.

We don’t have to do all tweeting by hand, and we can use automation to great effect to maintain our presence. For instance, a number of sites provide free Twitter automation based on RSS. Simply choose a relevant, high-profile blog, and then the service auto-tweets each time it publishes a post; you can even filter it based on tags and such.

6. Use Followers like a Focus Group.

Most Twitter users understand that they have to engage their audience, but they find it difficult to so. The truth is it’s not that difficult if you approach your followers as you would a focus group. Twitter followers follow because they’re interested. They also want to exchange ideas. After all, communication is what social networking is all about.

7. Do Not Fear Controversy.

In fact, controversy is so effective that many Twitter marketers go out of their way to create it. You don’t necessarily have to go that far, but if you have a hot topic that is relevant to your niche, you should tweet it, encourage conversation and run with it as far as it will take you. Of course, always be careful not to alienate your base.

8. Be Human.

When operating a business online, people tend to act professional to the point where it becomes impersonal. We don’t want to make this mistake on Twitter because emotional connection is a big part of what makes Twitter so productive.

Be business like, but don’t be afraid to have fun and to engage with your base on a personal level, have fun with your twitter marketing.

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Timothy-Capper-9241/Twitter-191206.php

(Social Media Marketing) Maximize Your Exposure Increase Your Profits

Born in 2004, the

defines sleek, its elegant body seemingly drawn entirely from the simple sweep of the body-side crease. In the car business, falling in love with a design is dangerous, but we did. As

(and one frightening concept said to lend cues to upcoming Benzes) trickled out, we feared the next-generation CLS might be headed in the direction of a Hollywood plastic-surgery disaster.

Although slightly obscured, the most recent photos captured by our spies prove the 2012 CLS will thankfully do without the superfluous forms of the F800 Style concept, although the shape won’t be quite as dramatic as the

Mercedes trucked to Detroit. The new look does little to quell the debate in our office about whether or not the upcoming car will be an improvement on the last generation.

Our past peek at a car wearing tight-fitting vinyl camouflage had already exposed the modifications to the new design. The nose is reshaped with a larger grille, more sculpting to the front bumper, and bigger headlights. The grille has to grow to match up with the taller hood, raised to provide more space between sheetmetal and hard bits in accordance with stringent new European pedestrian-protection standards. (Relatively speaking, sheetmetal is softer than engine components, and more space between hood and engine ostensibly means less-severe injuries in car/human collisions.) The most controversial aspect of the new shape will likely be the buff new E-class–style rear haunches, which are decidedly outside the standard of conservative elegance established by the first CLS. Like the rest of the Mercedes-Benz lineup, the 2012 car is going in a more muscular, angular direction.

That muscularity will extend under the hood as well, with “CLS350 CGI” trunk badging suggesting that the car captured here sports the

, the first member of Mercedes-Benz’s forthcoming engine family we’ll see in the U.S. The rest of the CLS’s U.S. engine choices will be drawn from this family—indeed, that family will replace the current engines across the Mercedes board—including a twin-turbocharged 429-hp, 4.6-liter V-8 and an even more powerful, 536-hp, turbocharged 5.5-liter eight for AMG models.

The—at this point—almost fully uncovered CLS will make its official debut later this year, with sales beginning shortly thereafter elsewhere in the world, but likely not before 2011 in the U.S.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/spied/10q2/2012_mercedes-benz_cls-class-spied

All-new Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class and the original CLS