A Solid Luxury Option With a Lot of Options

A PRIZE INSIDE Mercedes has thoroughly revised its M-Class for 2012, though upgrades to the interior are perhaps the most notable

EACH morning as the sun rises over Stuttgart, Mercedes-Benz executives must give thanks for the rise, fall, evolution and endurance of the S.U.V.

It certainly took Mercedes a while to find its calling in this lucrative all-wheel-drive market: the original M-Class, an Alabama-built cracker barrel with the soul of a minivan, did not portend a bright future when it arrived in 1998. Five years later, Mercedes began officially importing its G-Class, né Geländewagen. Conceived in 1979, this $75,000 Austrian off-roader had built a tiny following strictly on the gray market, with truck-loving Yankees paying well over $100,000 for used specimens.

Such action-figure S.U.V.’s won many battles, but eventually lost the war: As the rough riders fell back, overrun by car-based crossovers, the market essentially fell into Mercedes’s lap.

What Americans want from today’s S.U.V.’s is exactly what Mercedes is genetically programmed to provide: not armor plating and off-road prowess, just space for the family to relax in peace, along with comfort and safety. If those buyers rise to the luxury ranks, said S.U.V. must add a sprinkling of techno-treats and a leather-scented wrapper that suggests a desirable ZIP code.

With this third-generation M-Class, Mercedes’s confidence that its S.U.V. values are the right ones has never been clearer. This is a subtle but enormously skilled contender in the midsize luxury class. That is, if you can forgive a price that soars with every rich schmear of options. In looks, performance and, now, luxury, ML buyers will feel as though they’re driving a mildly downsized version of the sumptuous GL, the three-row S.U.V. that’s arguably the best of the big luxury barges.

If the two-row ML dovetails with your tastes, your family size and your credit score, the only question is how to fill ’er up: gasoline or diesel?

In this corner, the ML350 4Matic will be America’s popular choice, with its 302-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6, upgraded with direct fuel injection. But after weeklong workouts with both models, I lean toward the challenger: the ML350 Bluetec 4Matic with a 240-horsepower 3-liter turbodiesel V-6.

Math majors may ask why a 240-horse diesel is preferable to a 302-horse gas engine; especially when the diesel’s base price of $51,365 is $1,500 higher. So consider another number, 455, which describes not the engine of a vintage Pontiac GTO, but the incredible torque of the Mercedes diesel. That 455 pound-feet is 55 more than last year’s ML Bluetec (horsepower has increased by 30), and it dwarfs the 273 pound-feet of the gasoline version.

The diesel’s estimated economy rating of 20 miles per gallon in town and 27 on the highway also tops the 17/22 m.p.g. estimate of the premium-unleaded ML. Both models deliver power through a seamless 7-speed automatic transmission.

The ingot-solid chassis is shared in part with the Jeep Grand Cherokee, a vestige of Daimler’s former ownership of Chrysler. The body, roughly an inch shorter and lower than before, adopts some of the stacked-Lego look of the E-Class sedan. The grille is upright and simplified, braced by an angular metal chin and an enlarged three-pointed star. Large, scooped-out air inlets, striped with LED lighting, have replaced demure fog lamps.

The cargo area is usefully box-shaped, bigger than you may expect, with a wide floor and little intrusion from the wheel wells.

Like its big brother, the GL, the M-Class looks classy and satisfied, a sport-ute with nothing to prove. It also retains its forward-slashing C-pillars, a look that some people can’t abide — a “Russian Tonka truck,” one colleague sniffed. If it’s all a little on the conservative side, so are the suburbs the M-Class will call home.

The cabin receives the more visible sprucing up, with Benz-worthy wood and leather, firm but comfortable seats and an S-Class’s worth of gizmos. Most of this costs extra, including the wood-and-leather steering wheel ($590) and soft ambient lighting ($155).

A well-designed self-parking unit uses radar to scan for available spots at up to 20 m.p.h., then neatly parallel-parks the vehicle, requiring the driver only to marvel and to brake. That feature adds $970. Do you detect a pattern? hehe.

Taken From: (nytimes.com)

Research: Young Women Not Satisfied with Her Appearance

Most women likely to spend much time in front of the mirror as a teenager.

Try a new hair style, experiment with makeup to sing while combing her hair. But in fact, teenage girls today are different from the old days.

A survey shows that the majority of young women today are not satisfied with her appearance. In fact, 96 percent of teenage girls wished they had the body of another person who is much more slender,sexier.

Study, published in the Australian Girlfriend magazine found that most young women think they are beautiful, and they believe that losing weight is a way to make them more attractive.

Worse , 54 percent of young women aged 13-20 years with a deliberately reduce their food intake to have a dream body shape.

While 96 percent want to change your body shape if you can. phenomenon is considered dangerous for the girls because not only interfere with your diet and make the body becomes unhealthy, but also reinforces the image that thin is beautiful and happy.

Sarah Tarca, who co-editor of Girlfriend magazine in the survey that was launched by blisstree, Thursday (22/3), also found that about a quarter of teenage girls said they did not like what they see in the mirror (her body), compared to only 9 percent are proud of her figure.

US Most Annoying Tourist

The number of foreign tourist arrivals would be very enjoyable and will increase foreign exchange earnings for the country. But what would happen if the tourists are doing is not fun when they're traveling.

As quoted from huffingtonpost, Wednesday (21/03), based on the results of the poll, LivingSocial and Mandala Research in 2011 and then, which is considered the most obnoxious tourists from the United States.

Institutions are moving towards tourists assessment surveyed many people in different countries and asked, tourists from countries which are the most annoying. And the result is a tourist from United States of America ranked first as the most obnoxious tourists, followed by tourists from China, France, Japan, and Russia.

From the results of this survey revealed that one of the reasons why the U.S. is being a bitch because they have fewer public holidays than most other developed countries, because the average U.S. took 16 days off per year. In Canada the average person on vacation 21 days, England about 23 days, 27 days Australia, and Ireland 28 days.

That is why the U.S. is more fastidious tourists when on holiday compared with other tourist. Three things that they often complain about is the problem of lost luggage on planes, bad weather, and lost.

In addition there are some unique things that was revealed from the results of this survey, which is as much as 22 percent of tourists from Australia claimed to like shoplifting items from a hotel towel, bath robe, battery, remote control TV, bed linens and pillows. Not only that four out of 10 respondents from the U.S. also admitted to often steal items in the hotel such as towels, bathrobes, pillows, remote control, the Bible, and linens.

Here is a list of 16 worst behaved tourists according to a survey LivingSocial and Mandala Research:
1. United States
2. China
3. France
4. Japan
5. Russia
6. South Korea
7. India
8. Germany
9. Spain
10. England
11. Canada
12. Italy
13. Netherlands
14. Ireland
15. Switzerland
16. Australia

Ghiboo.com

Who Are the Richest Pets in the World?

Pets can make a person's life richer, and in the case of these lucky pets, their owners can return the favor long after they are gone. Here's a look at five of the richest pets in the world, including Betty White's dog, Pontiac; Tommaso the cat, who owns three Italian villas; Oprah's dogs; Chihuahua Conchita, who was owned by Gail Posner; and Gene Roddenberry's dogs, whose wealth is out of this world.

(Photo: Fotolia.com)

Pet: Pontiac
To inherit: $5 million
Owner: Betty White

At 90, actress Betty White is busier than ever. When she's not shooting her TV Land sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland," or promoting her latest memoir, "If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't)," you'll find her kicking back at her Los Angeles home with her beloved golden retriever, Pontiac. White has reportedly set up a $5 million trust fund to care for Pontiac and her other pets.

(Photo: Fotolia.com)

Pet: Tommaso
Net worth: $13 million
Owner: The late Maria Assunta

This 4-year-old stray alley cat was rescued from the streets of Rome by Maria Assunta, the wealthy, childless widow of an Italian property tycoon. When she died in December 2011, Tommaso inherited her entire estate, including cash and real estate in Rome, Milan and Calabria, Italy.

Oprah's dogs
To inherit: $30 million
Owner: Oprah Winfrey

OK, so the Oprah Winfrey menagerie will have to split the $30 million Oprah promised them several ways. If a dog can't make a go of it on seven figures in a down economy, it's just plain overindulging.

Pet: Conchita
Net worth: $3 million
Owner: The late Gail Posner

When Miami heiress Gail Posner, wife of corporate takeover king Victor Posner, died in 2010, she left her high-fashion Chihuahua Conchita with a $3 million trust fund and an $8.3 million mansion in Miami Beach, Fla. What suits a hairless heiress most? How about a $15,000 Cartier necklace?

(Photo: Fotolia.com)

'Star Trek' dogs
Net worth: $4 million
Owner: The late Majel Roddenberry

When Majel Roddenberry, wife of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and voice of the USS Enterprise's computer on the hit TV show, died in 2009, she enabled her dogs to boldly go into a tax bracket where few dogs have gone before, thanks to a $4 million trust fund.
Taken From: Yahoo.com

AT&T relents on 'unlimited data' plan limits

NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Inc. backed away from an unpopular service policy after smartphone subscribers complained that the company placed unreasonable limits on its "unlimited data" plans.
The cellphone company said Thursday that it will slow down service for "unlimited data" subscribers after they reach 3 gigabytes of usage within a billing cycle.

The change relaxes a previous policy under which AT&T had been throttling service when subscribers entered the heaviest 5 percent of data users for that month and that area.

Under the now scuttled program, there was no way for subscribers to find out what the limit was ahead of time. AT&T would send a text message warning to people who approached the limit. The data throttling would then kick in a few days later. Thousands of subscribers complained about the policy online.

"Our unlimited plan customers have told us they want more clarity around how the program works and what they can expect," AT&T said in a statement Thursday.

According to a 2011 Nielsen study, the average smartphone user consumes about 435 megabytes of data each month. A person would have to use roughly seven times that amount to hit AT&T's 3 gigabyte throttling milestone.

An Associated Press story two weeks ago cited subscribers whose data service had been throttled at just over 2 gigabytes of data use. The story included others who had received warnings that throttling was imminent. The 2 gigabyte barrier was lower than AT&T's current "limited" plan provides. One person said his phone was practically useless for two weeks out the month because the data service was slowed so drastically.

AT&T stopped selling "unlimited data" plans nearly a year ago, but existing subscribers were allowed to keep it. The company charges $30 per month for the plan, the same amount it charges for 3 gigabytes of data on a new "tiered" or limited plan.

AT&T has about 17 million "unlimited" smartphone subscribers, most of whom use iPhones.
AT&T's reversal comes less than a week after iPhone user Matt Spaccarelli won a small claims lawsuit against the company for slowing down his service. A Simi Valley, Calif. judge awarded Spaccarelli $850, agreeing that "unlimited" service shouldn't be subject to slowdowns. AT&T argued that it never guaranteed the speed of the service, just that it would provide unlimited downloads. The company said it will appeal the decision. It bars subscribers from bringing class action suits.

As part of the new policy, the Dallas-based phone company said subscribers with "unlimited" plans and smartphones capable of using the new "LTE" data network would see the slowdown at 5 gigabytes rather than three. The LTE network is faster and doesn't have many users yet.

T-Mobile USA is already up front about the usage levels where throttling kicks in for its data plans. Verizon Wireless has a "5 percent" formula similar to AT&T's, but doesn't throttle unless the particular cell tower a heavy user is communicating with is congested at that moment. By contrast, AT&T and T-Mobile throttle speeds for the rest of the billing cycle, regardless of local conditions. Verizon's policy has drawn few complaints.

Alone among the Big Four national wireless carriers, Sprint has an unlimited data plan that isn't subject to throttling. However, it reserves the right to cancel service for those who use excessive amounts of data.
In a similar incident last fall, Verizon abandoned a planned fee for settling phone bills through last-minute credit-card payments after customers complained.

Taken From (www.yahoo.com)