Miami Airport Hotels - PayPal Galactic Gets a Jumpstart On Space Currency

Source - http://www.pcmag.com/
By - Adario Strange
Category - Miami Airport Hotels
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Miami Airport Hotels

The tech industry's best and brightest companies are often inspired by classic works of science fiction that depict a world of device innovation and futuristic approaches to government and society. Now PayPal, one of the world's leading digital payments companies, has taken that inspiration one step further by announcing a surprising new initiative called PayPal Galactic.

In what appears to be a bid to future-proof its business of facilitating paperless currency transactions around the world, PayPal Galactic is being launched as a kind of complement to the burgeoning industry of space tourism.

"As space tourism programs are opening space travel to 'the rest of us' this drives questions about the commercialization of space," PayPal President David Marcus said in a statement. "We are launching PayPal Galactic, in conjunction with leaders in the scientific community, to increase public awareness of the important questions that need to be addressed."

For its launch, PayPal Galactic has partnered with the SETI Institute to help popularize its efforts, as well as address space tourism issues such as the future of currency in a cash-free, interplanetary society.

"PayPal envisions exploring possibilities in space the way that we do, breaking boundaries to make real progress," said SETI's Jill Tarter. "When the SETI Institute succeeds in its exploration of the universe, and as we find our place among the stars, PayPal will be there to facilitate commerce, so people can get what they need, and want, to live outside of our planet."

While the launch of an space currency program may seem a bit premature, some well-known space experts are taking the effort very seriously. In its presentation, PayPal Galactic included a comment from former astronaut Buzz Aldrin who said, "Trips to Mars, the moon, even orbit will require we provide astronauts and astro-tourists with as many comforts from home as possible, including how to pay each other… When that happens I won't be surprised if people use PayPal Galactic for the little things and the big ones."

However, while some in the real world space community are embracing PayPal's interplanetary aspirations, the science fictional aspect of the company's presentation seems almost too fanciful. In one part of PayPal Galactic's presentation the company includes a document titled "Currencies of the Future in Popular Science Fiction" which lists, as a sort of proof of concept, the fictional currencies of popular sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Wars. Also included in the presentation are illustrations of astronauts playing golf on the surface of the Moon and a young child being served by a robot while sitting inside a space station on another planet.

Nevertheless, the launch appears to be firmly rooted in reality, with Marcus appearing in a video (below) announcing the launch, alongside members of SETI and the Silicon Valley Space Center.

"We may not answer these questions today or even this year, but one thing is clear, we won't be using cash in space," Marcus said. "PayPal has already pushed payments into the Internet, onto phones and across terrestrial borders. We look forward to pushing payments from our world to the next, and beyond."

Holiday In Miami - Google Earth gets Street View And New UI In Update

Source - http://appleinsider.com/
By - AppleInsider Staff
Category - Holiday In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Holiday In Miami

Until now, users of Google's mapping products on Apple's mobile platform had to switch between Google Earth and Google Maps to access features like Street View. With Wednesday's update, however, the Internet search giant is bringing parity to the two titles in an effort to further merges its existing software lineup.

The implementation of Street View adds another layer to the satellite imagery app, and brings the usual drag-and-drop controls first introduced on the Google Maps Web client. Users can zoom into the new mode by pulling the small yellow "stickman" icon at the top right of the screen into supported street zones, which are highlighted in blue.

In use, the feature is largely the same as the Google Maps for iOS version, though it feels a bit slow to load.

Another major change is the user interface, which has moved from the four-corner button layout to a theme more in line with Google's other iOS titles. Now, the layer selection menu and search button are located at the top of the screen, while the the current location and points of interest slider is at the bottom. All assets are positioned at the top of the screen in the iPad version of the app.

Other improvements to Google Earth include an updated direction search that visualizes walking, biking and driving directions in 3D instead of a top-down view. Also added is a refreshed search result list that allows users to browse through recent searches.
 

Hotels Near Marlins Park - Last-Minute Hotel Bookings Made Cheaper

Source - http://travel.nytimes.com/
By - SETH KUGEL
Category - Hotels Near Marlins Park
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Hotels Near Marlins Park

I’m not accustomed to staying in places like Room Mate Emma, a slick boutique hotel in Barcelona. But there I was one Sunday in May, and for only 74 euros (about $99 at $1.33 to the euro). That rate, which I got through the last-minute hotel booking app Blink, was 15 euros less than the price listed on the hotel’s Web site — and a full 65 euros less than the lowest rate for several Sundays later. It was an irresistible deal.

 There are lots of ways to save money on a hotel room, but all require some sort of sacrifice: go in the off-season, stay outside the city center, share a bathroom. Now there’s a new one: book at the last minute. Over the last couple of years, the market has been flooded by apps offering discounts for travelers willing to wait until the day of their stay and reserve on their smartphones. Most consumers still prefer to book their rooms in advance at full price, of course (which is why hotels are willing to grant last-minute discounts), but the apps are a boon for impromptu or emergency trips and for the admirable breed of traveler that shuns rigid itineraries. And sometimes they pay off big. (The actual Blink price was 79 euros; I used a 5-euro voucher available to first-time customers.)

Before a recent trip to Europe I downloaded 10 of the apps to my iPhone — including ones from major sites like Booking.com and Kayak, as well as Europe-only apps like JustBook, Hot Hotels and Blink, and used them to book eight hotel stays just hours before check-in. (Most apps are also available on Android.) On most attempts, I had many appealing rooms to chose from, and prices were lower — 10 to 40 percent — than those available on the hotel’s own Web site or a standard search site like Hotels.com. As with any sale, be wary of making a decision just for the savings: 20 percent off a room you don’t want isn’t better than regular price at a place you do. Still, I got some excellent deals.

The apps saved me money even compared with booking in advance. When I checked room rates a week ahead at each hotel I booked, the last-minute rate was the winner seven of eight nights. But it’s not an easy process. I spent at least two hours every morning going through the apps, usually with a computer at my side to check user reviews, to look at locations and to see if there was anything better available through standard sites — safe to say that’s not the way most people want to spend their vacation. (The market is just begging for a meta-search app that combines all the deals in one place, as Trivago does for regular hotel searches and Kayak does for flights.)

Though the apps work on the same principle, specific features turned out to be make-or-break. Take selection. Hotel Tonight, which claims to be the original and is certainly the most ballyhooed, offers rooms daily in what it says are carefully selected hotels. But, at least in the cities I visited, those fell mostly above the 100-euro-a-night maximum I had set; perhaps for that reason, I never took one of its deals. (A Hotel Tonight spokeswoman later told me it often features deals in my price range.)

The Europe-only apps had the same curated feel as Hotel Tonight, but with better deals. And Kayak, Hotels.com and Priceline, which integrate day-of deals nicely into their regular apps, and Booking.com’s Tonight app have a wider variety of selections, better suited to budget travelers.

Hotels Now, an app that offers deals in 22 European countries and Turkey, provides a nice middle ground between curated and kitchen sink, with a wider but not overwhelming selection; not surprisingly, it’s the app where I booked three of my eight stays.

For example, a room booked through Hotels Now at the central and comfortable (if not chic) Sansi Diputació in Barcelona cost me 98 euros including taxes — compared with about 160 euros on Booking.com at the same time. At the front desk, I asked the receptionist what the absolute best price she would have given me if I had walked in off the street. Her answer: 120 euros plus taxes (about 132 euros in all).

There are a few issues. Some of the apps don’t release their deals first thing in the morning — JustBook releases at 10, Blink at 11, Hotel Tonight at noon — which makes for difficult comparison shopping, especially for someone who might be on a plane as the deals come online.

The way apps presented deals in map form was irritatingly inconsistent. I far preferred the ones that showed all available hotels on one map (like Booking’s Tonight, JustBook and Blink), rather than just one hotel at a time. (It also drove me crazy that the iOS 6 version of most of the apps I tested use Apple Maps, which doesn’t show public transportation routes, a vital factor in most lodging decisions. Android versions use the far superior Google Maps.) Blink also often forced me to choose a neighborhood first, instead of seeing deals for the whole city; what if I don’t know my way around?

More frustrations: only certain apps gave me the option of saving my credit card information (JustBook, Hot, Blink, Hotel Tonight), which made the booking process much smoother. And they vary on how many extra nights you can book (sometimes at higher prices) when you take a last-minute deal.

But the biggest flaw in using these apps is that there is simply no guarantee of a decent room, let alone a deal.

That’s what happened on the day all the apps failed me. On the Thursday morning I was to fly from Barcelona to Berlin, I was unable to find anything resembling a bargain; in fact, there were barely any hotels in my price range at all. As 11 a.m. approached, I found myself on the bus from the city center to the airport, with nowhere to sleep that night. I frantically tapped away, finally finding a vaguely satisfactory deal on Booking.com’s Tonight app, a single at the Hotel Potsdamer Hof Berlin — a mediocre-looking place in a mediocre location for 59 euros.

Six minutes remained before the Blink offers for that day went online. I decided to risk losing the Potsdamer and wait as Blink’s countdown clock ticked away. As the bus pulled into the airport, the last 15 seconds were counting down. I jumped out with my bag and crouched on the sidewalk. Five, four, three, two, one and ... what? Blink had no deals available that day for Berlin. I frantically tapped back to Tonight, hurriedly typed in my credit card number and booked, and unleashed a tweet berating Blink. Mentally drained, I wheeled my bag into the terminal.

By the time I reached my last stop, Brussels, I was sick of packing up and checking out every morning (not to mention fearing a repeat of the Berlin fiasco), so I took advantage of Hot Hotels’s multinight option, booking four nights at Hotel Centrale for $61 a night, booked in dollars. But I was socked with a 30.32-euro city tax upon checkout, a detail that had been buried in the small print that I had not scrolled down to. (Many apps put the city tax front and center before you book.)

But there were more ups than downs. Even better than that Room Mate Emma deal was the room I landed my second night in Berlin: the stylish Q! Hotel through Hotels Now for 73.50 euros. (It was listed at 105 euros on the Booking.com site.) I could tell you about the great bathroom or the quality Internet connection. But what confirmed for me that I had gotten a deal was what the desk clerk told me: “Breakfast is not included, but you can decide spontaneously to have it for 20 euros.”

Too pricey for me, of course. But for under $100 a night I was staying in a place where breakfast costs as much as a bed in a nice youth hostel. Now that’s a deal.

Suites In Miami - iOS 7 Beta Is Updated For iPad, Adds Male Siri Voice

Source - http://www.latimes.com/
By - Salvador Rodriguez
Category - Suites In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Suites In Miami

Apple released the second version of iOS 7 beta Monday, bringing the new operating system to developer's iPads for the first time.

The Cupertino, Calif., tech company unveiled iOS 7, its next mobile operating system, this month and made it available to developers immediately. However, the first release of the upcoming system worked only for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

During the unveiling of iOS 7, Apple promised that Siri would get a new voice that would sound less robotic, and that voice arrived with Monday's update. Additionally, beta users can also choose to change Siri's voice to that of a male.

PHOTOS: The 10 biggest tech gadget fails

Another part of the update is a new Voice Memos app. That app was left off the original release of iOS 7 beta but has returned in the update. The app is completely redesigned and no longer features the image of an old metal microphone.

Apple is expected to release iOS 7 to the public this year alongside its next-generation iPhone. That device is expected to come out this fall.

Hotels Near Marlins Park - China Cash Crunch Eases As Interest Rates Drop Again

Source - http://online.wsj.com/
By - SHEN HONG
Category - Hotels Near Marlins Park
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

 

Hotels Near Marlins Park

SHANGHAI--The tight supply of money in China's banking system eased again Monday after short-term interest rates dropped, as the market speculates that state banks are being pressured to lend more.

The rates declined sharply on Friday, after which there was widespread speculation that the People's Bank of China had given major lenders so-called "window guidance," to stop them hoarding cash and to restore stability in the interbank market.

The seven-day repurchase agreement rate--a benchmark of borrowing costs between banks--fell to 6.98% on a weighted-average basis, from 9.25% at Friday's close. It hit a record 28% in an isolated trade Thursday when the money shortage was most acute.

The overnight repo rate fell to 6.11% from 8.70% Friday.

"The major state lenders appeared to have again come out to push funding costs lower with some big orders, and people suspect that it must be due to pressure from the PBOC," said a trader with a local bank in Beijing.

Commercial banks' tax-related deposits at the central bank will mature this week, which will also help ease the crisis, traders said, though the amount isn't publicly known.

Traders are now turning their attention to the Monday announcement of the amount--if any--of central bank bills to be sold in a routine sale Tuesday.

The central bank sold a small amount of the bills last week, draining money from the banking system despite the tight supply. This indicates a determination to encourage discipline among lenders that may have contributed to the cash crunch through risky financing, analysts said.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee in a statement Sunday didn't refer to the surge in interbank borrowing costs, but confirmed its commitment to prudent monetary policy. It repeated boilerplate language about improving liquidity management and maintaining "steady and appropriate growth" of credit, indicating little urgency to ease the current financial system stress. 

Extended Stay In Miami - Asian Shares Hit Nine-Month Lows On Fed, China Rates Volatile

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Chikako Mogi
Category - Extended Stay In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

 

Extended Stay In Miami

As Asian shares and other assets came off their lows following Thursday's sharp sell-off, European stocks were seen inching higher, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Paris's CAC-40 .FCHI and Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI would open up as much as 0.3 percent.

A 0.5 percent rise in U.S. stock futures also hinted at a rebound on Wall Street. .L.EU.N

China's stressed money market had a respite from Thursday's acute credit squeeze, with speculation that the People's Bank of China had discreetly injected desperately-needed funds, though rates remained elevated.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS slipped 0.8 percent, after dipping 1.4 percent earlier to its lowest since September, and was set for a weekly loss of 4.3 percent, its worst weekly drop since May 2012.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average .N225 outshone the rest of the region, reversing an earlier decline of more than 2 percent to end up 1.7 percent, with a weaker yen against the dollar improving market sentiment. .T

Australian shares .AXJO trimmed earlier losses to fall 0.4 percent while South Korean shares .KS11 recovered some ground after skidding 2.4 percent to their lowest in 11 months. Hong Kong .HSI and Shanghai .SSEC also clawed back some early losses.

"Clearly, the Fed tapering is on the table now...and it will take some time for investors to digest," said Adrian Foster, head of financial markets research for Asia-Pacific at Rabobank International in Hong Kong.

He added, however, that over the longer term financial markets will regain stability, particularly the U.S. bond market, as the U.S. budget deficit is reined in.

"There are massive buying opportunities coming out of this," he said.

EMERGING MARKETS UNDER FIRE

Traders said the Bank of Korea intervened in currency markets to slow the won's slide. After the intervention the won traded around 1,151.9 per dollar, far above a session low of 1,159.4, but still sharply weaker than Thursday's domestic close of 1,145.7.

Emerging market assets are seen particularly vulnerable to the changing emphasis of the Fed's stimulus plan as money starts to find its way to rising U.S. yields and as a firming dollar begins to weigh on dollar-denominated commodities and commodity-linked currencies.

"The combination of rising asset volatility and a steepening U.S. yield curve will likely weigh on currencies reliant on capital imports," Morgan Stanley said in a research note.

"Commodity and emerging markets countries with current account deficits and large foreign funding liabilities should see significant pressure, as global rebalancing slows demand for raw materials."

The Indian rupee was at 59.3700 on Friday, after slumping to a record low of 59.9850 on Thursday as the Fed's signaling of a looming end to cheap money raised fears that the country would lose a major channel to fund its record high current account deficit.

The Australian dollar, often seen as a gauge for risk appetite, also recovered to trade at $0.9235, after taking a harsh beating overnight to touch its lowest in nearly three years of $0.9163. The resource-reliant Aussie was also weighed by Thursday's weak Chinese manufacturing activity data.

CURRENCIES

The dollar rose 0.5 percent against the yen at 97.75, moving away from its 10-week low of 93.75 yen hit last week. Against a basket of key currencies, the dollar .DXY was down 0.2 percent. <FRX/>

U.S. Treasuries stabilized in Asia, with the benchmark 10-year yield little changed from late New York levels of 2.42 percent, after hitting the highest since August 2011 at 2.471 percent on Thursday.

A sharp sell-off lured bargain hunters to gold and oil.

Spot gold surged 1.5 percent to $1,297.59 an ounce as lower prices attracted Chinese buyers, after touching its lowest since September 2010 of $1,268.89 earlier. Still, it was set for its worst week in nearly two years after tumbling more than 5 percent overnight in one of its biggest routs since the 2008 financial crisis. <GOL/>

U.S. crude futures reversed earlier losses to rise 0.4 percent to $95.52 a barrel while Brent climbed 0.6 percent to $102.72. <O/R>

Asian credit markets stabilized, with the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index widening just three basis points, after spiking 23 basis points on Thursday, reflecting the rising cost of hedging against debt defaults.

"Investors are patiently doing their homework, biding their time to take stock of the situation," a credit trader said.

Airport Hotels In Miami - Scientists Use Brain Scans To 'Read' People's Emotions

Source - http://health.usnews.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Airport Hotels In Miami
Posted  By - Homewood Suites Miami

Airport Hotels In Miami

June 19 (HealthDay News) -- Happy? Mad? Afraid? Scientists have now developed the first computer model of brain activity that can be used to identify people's emotions, according to a new study.

The technique was developed using 10 actors who were asked to randomly and repeatedly go into nine emotional states -- anger, disgust, fear, happiness, lust, pride, envy, sadness and shame -- while their brains were monitored by functional MRI.

To identify the emotions within the brain, the researchers used the participants' neural activation patterns in early scans to identify the emotions experienced in later scans.

Research on emotions has been difficult due to the lack of reliable methods to evaluate them, mostly because people tend to be reluctant to honestly divulge their feelings. Attempts are further complicated by the fact that people may not be conscious of many of their emotional responses, according to the team at Carnegie Mellon University.

"This research introduces a new method with potential to identify emotions without relying on people's ability to self-report," study lead author Karim Kassam, an assistant professor of social and decision sciences, said in a university news release.

"It could be used to assess an individual's emotional response to almost any kind of stimulus; for example, a flag, a brand name or a political candidate," Kassam explained.

The study appears in the June 19 issue of the journal PLoS One.

Study co-author Amanda Markey, a graduate student in the department of social and decision sciences, said "Despite manifest differences between people's psychology, different people tend to neurally encode emotions in remarkably similar ways."

The researchers plan to use the new computer model to tackle a number of challenging problems in emotion research, including identifying feelings that people are actively trying to suppress and multiple emotions experienced at the same time, like the blend of joy and envy you might feel when you hear about a friend's good fortune.

The research was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Suites Near University Of Miami - Blood Tests Could Detect Sexually-Transmitted Oral Cancers

Source - http://in.reuters.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Suites Near University Of Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Suites Near University Of Miami

* Antibodies to virus can be detected by blood tests

* Could in future enable screening to catch at risk patients

* Link with oral sex highlighted by actor Michael Douglas

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Antibodies to a high-risk type of a virus that causes mouth and throat cancers when transmitted via oral sex can be detected in blood tests many years before onset of the disease, according to a World Health Organisation-led team of researchers.

In a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers said their findings may in future lead to people being screened for human papillomavirus (HPV) antibodies, giving doctors a chance to find those at high risk of oral cancers.

"Up to now, it was not known whether these antibodies were present in blood before the cancer became clinically detectable," said Paul Brennan, of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), who led the study and described the findings as "very encouraging".

"If these results are confirmed, future screening tools could be developed for early detection of the disease," he said.

While HPV is better known for causing cervical and other genital cancers, it is also responsible for an increasing number of cancers of the mouth and throat, particularly amongst men.

The issue was highlighted earlier this month by Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, who said his throat cancer was caused by HPV transmitted through oral sex.

Oral, head and neck cancers are traditionally associated with heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, but over the past few decades rates of the diseases have increased dramatically, especially in Europe and North America.

Brennan said this is probably due to HPV infections because of changing sexual practices, such as an increase in oral sex.

According to IARC data, about 30 percent of all oral cancers are estimated to be HPV-related, and the main type of HPV associated with these tumours is HPV16.

EARLIER DETECTION

A study in the British Medical Journal in 2010 also found rates of head and neck cancer linked to HPV were rising rapidly, prompting calls from some doctors for boys as well as girls to be offered vaccinations to protect them against HPV.

Two vaccines - Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Gardasil, made by Merck & Co - can prevent HPV.

This new study, by scientists from IARC as well as the German Cancer Research Center and the U.S. National Cancer Institute, used data from a large study known as EPIC, which involves 500,000 people from 10 European countries who were recruited in the 1990s and have been followed up since.

Researchers found that of the 135 people in the study who developed oral cancers, 47, or about one third of them, had HPV16 E6 antibodies up to 12 years before the onset of disease.

In a telephone interview, Brennan said early detection would also allow doctors to track patients with antibodies and intervene early if tumours develop. "The earlier the detection, the better the treatment and the greater the survival," he said.

The antibody test used in the study was relatively simple and cheap and could be developed as a tool for more widespread screening within about five years if these results are confirmed in future studies, he added.

He cautioned, however, that more work was needed to improve the tests' accuracy, since in this research there were about 1 in 100 "false positives" - where a person with the HPV16 antibodies did not go on to develop an oral cancer.

Brennan said another significant finding of the study was that patients with oral cancers linked to HPV16 were three times more likely to be alive five years after their diagnosis than oral cancer patients whose tumours were not HPV-related and may have been linked to other risks such as smoking or drinking. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Suites Near University Of Miami - Samsung To Launch Faster Galaxy S4

Source - www.smh.com.au/
By - Miyoung Kim
Category - Suites Near University Of Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Suites Near University Of Miami

Samsung plans to sell a variation of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone that will transmit data at nearly twice the normal speed, the head of its mobile business says.

J.K. Shin, also co-chief executive of the world's biggest technology firm by revenue, said the phone would be sold in South Korea as early as this month.

Samsung was in talks with several overseas carriers to take the phone, Shin said, but he declined to name them.

"We'll be the first with the commercial launch of the advanced 4G version of the smartphone," Shin said.

The new S4 will use LTE-Advanced 4G technology, an upgrade from conventional 4G called LTE, or long term evolution. LTE-Advanced offers data transmission at up to twice the normal 4G speed. The phones will be powered by Qualcomm chips.

A movie download that takes 3 minutes with conventional 4G would take slightly more than 1 minute, Samsung said, though the speed of mobile data networks is dependent on a number of factors, such as the number of people using it at any one time.

Samsung's shares have lost almost $US20 billion since June 7 after analysts cut forecasts for Galaxy S4 sales by as much as 30 per cent on industry data that showed the high-end smartphone market was getting saturated.

The same problem is hitting sales of the iPhone 5, made by Samsung's rival Apple.

Samsung's market capitalisation is still a hefty $US195 billion. Its shares closed down 0.2 per cent on Monday.

Shin showed little concern about sales prospects for the S4, which hit stores in late April. The mobile devices division is the company's biggest profit generator.

"S4 sales remain strong. It's selling far stronger than the [Galaxy] S III ... and the new LTE-Advanced phone will be another addition to our high-end segment offerings that ensure healthy profit margins," Shin said.

Shin declined to provide forecasts for S4 sales. He said the new S4 would be slightly more expensive than the current one.

The South Korean firm hopes the addition of hardware offerings such as faster data transmission, along with its widely anticipated move to introduce models with unbreakable or flexible displays, will help it protect margin growth.

"As operators seek to provide more data-centric mobile services, I think this will become mainstream 4G technology globally in the coming years," Shin said.

Shin also said sales of Samsung's tablet products in the US market jumped 3.3 times since it installed brand shops within Best Buy's stores in April, and is now considering expanding the format in Latin America and Britain. Samsung declined to name potential retailers.

Eyes on network business

Having conquered the smartphone market that Apple virtually created with the iconic iPhone in 2007, Samsung is seeking to do the same in the network business with the booming 4G mobile equipment market, challenging bigger rivals such as Ericsson, China's Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Many countries need to upgrade mobile base stations to handle not just 3G but also 4G, or build them from scratch to support 4G connections.

Shin said the network gear market was one of Samsung's fastest growing businesses, mainly thanks to 4G equipment sales which had been rising more than 30 per cent a year since 2010.

The new phone would help this part of Samsung's business, he said.

"Such technology leadership will set the pace for the competition and help us become a major player in the network gear market," Shin said.

Samsung has won some 4G network deals from all major South Korean carriers, US Sprint Nextel and Japan's KDDI and Hutchison Whampoa's British unit, but it needs to crack China to close the gap with traditional vendors in the overall gear equipment market.

Shin said there had not been much progress in Samsung's push to penetrate China's 4G equipment market yet, but it was increasing investment in the country.

China's three mobile operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – plan to spend a combined 345 billion yuan this year on network upgrades. That includes investment in 4G, which multiplies mobile broadband speeds by up to five times for users of iPhone and Galaxy phones compared with 3G.

Many analysts believe Huawei and ZTE – already big suppliers of China Mobile since only 10-15 per cent of 3G network contracts went to foreign vendors – will be winners, leaving others to fight for smaller bits of the pie.

Samsung hopes to show Chinese clients that 4G networks with new technology can be built faster and with lower operating costs.

Golf Resort In Miami - Dollar Up As Fed Meeting Nears, Shares Nudge Higher

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Marc Jones
Category - Golf Resort In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Golf Resort In Miami

The dollar edged up against the yen and euro while European and Asian shares firmed after last week's tumbles on Monday, as investors hunkered down for the U.S. Federal Reserve's meeting later this week.

Uncertainty over the Fed's future policy course has triggered a sharp sell-off in broad risk assets in recent weeks and investors are hoping for some clarity on its intentions when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

After a 2.7 percent jump in Japan's Nikkei .N225 had lifted Asian markets, European shares .FTEU3 opened for the week up 0.5 percent as London's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Paris's CAC-40 .FCHI and Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI rose 0.5-0.7 percent.

The dollar .DXY was broadly stronger. The jump in the Nikkei saw the yen drop off last week's two-month high back to 95 yen to the dollar, while the greenback edged up to $1.3324 per euro.

"I think Bernanke is going to stress that any tapering off of the Fed's QE programs will dependent on the data flow but that it is still too soon at the moment to reduce the purchases," said Peter De Bruin, a senior economist at ABN Amro, adding the message should calm markets.

In the debt market, the German bund future was 31 ticks lower at 143.55 and peripheral euro zone bonds saw minor gains as the uncertainty ahead of Fed meeting capped trading volumes.

Hotel Near FIU - How Marine Mammals Hold Their Breath

Source - http://www.designntrend.com/
By - Michael Briggs
Category - Hotel Near FIU
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Hotel Near FIU

Scientists have discovered the secret to how mammals store oxygen to ensure that they can access it in extreme conditions—like the sperm whale that holds its breath for up to 90 minutes.

The team of researchers studied myoglobin, an oxygen-storing protein found in mammals' muscles, and found that in certain species, the myoglobin feature 'non-stick' properties that allow the animal to store large amounts of oxygen into their muscles.

The process has long puzzled scientists, who pondered exactly why the sperm whale can survive for 90 minutes without surfacing for oxygen while dophins and some whales can only withstand 20 minutes without coming up for air.

"At high enough concentrations, [proteins] tend to stick together, so we tried to understand how seals and whales evolved higher and higher concentrations of this protein in their muscles without a loss of function," study co-author Dr Michael Berenbrink told BBC News. 

Extracting myoglobin from various different species on the spectrum, including a cow, otter, and sperm whale, the group examined the changes in myoglobin in deep-diving mammals through 200 million years of evolutionary history. What they discovered was that the greatest deep-sea divers had myoglobin that were positively charged.

"Our study suggests that the increased electrical charge of myoglobin in mammals that have high concentrations of this protein causes electro-repulsion, like similar poles of two magnets," study lead author Dr Scott Mircet said.

"This should prevent the proteins from sticking together and allow much higher concentrations of the oxygen-storing myoglobin in the muscles of these divers."

Berenbrink added that the discovery is particularly intriguing because it showed that the physiological change accompanied the transition mammals made from land to water.

"It also allows us to estimate the dive times of the ancient ancestors of whales," he explained.

"We can look the fossils and predict the dive times they had."

The team's findings were published in the journal Science.

Golf Resort In Miami - #Ready? Clickable Hashtags Are Coming To Your Facebook

Source - http://abcnews.go.com/
By - JOANNA STERN
Category - Golf Resort In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Golf Resort In Miami

Get ready to see a lot more of the # symbol in your Facebook Newsfeed. Yes, the social network is about to start looking a bit more like that other social network you might use as it begins to roll out clickable hashtags.

Over the next few weeks all Facebook users will be able to include a hashtagged phrase, like #royalbaby or #puppies, in their posts and then watch it become clickable. When a hashtag is included in a post, clicking on it will pop out a feed that aggregates others posts that have been tagged with the same phrase.

The move will make it easier to find what other people are saying about specific topics and events, something that people have typically gone to Twitter to do over Facebook.

"To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what's happening or what people are talking about," Facebook's Greg Lindley wrote on the company's blog today. "To bring these conversations more to the forefront, we will be rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics. As a first step, we are beginning to roll out hashtags on Facebook."

 A Facebook spokesperson told ABC News that this is just one of many announcements coming in the next couple of weeks about ways people can join conversations on the service. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg similarly said that the company is making it easier to find things on Facebook at the All Things D conference earlier this month. The company rolled out its Graph Search to only a subset of users earlier this year.

Feeling Down? Looking at Your Facebook Profile for 5 Minutes Might Help

But why hashtags and not some other symbol or method? Facebook says that hashtags are already all over the service thanks to posts from Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter.

"Hashtags are already happening across Facebook, but now they will be clickable and it will pop out a hashtag feed," a Facebook spokesperson told ABC News. Facebook also added that hashtags have become a huge part of Internet vernacular.

Facebook users will be able to search for a specific hashtag from the search bar and compose posts directly from the hashtag feed. Facebook also clarified to ABC News that hashtagged posts will still respect the regular privacy settings. If you include a hashtag in a post going out to just your friends, only your friends will see it appear in that hashtag feed.

The feature will be rolled out on Facebook's desktop site starting today. The company expects all users to have the capability in the next few weeks. The mobile apps, however, will not support the hashtag feeds yet, though you will be able to place a hashtag phrase in your posts from mobile. You just won't be able to see a feed yet.

While Twitter popularized the method of tagging content, it wasn't actually Twitter that invented the hashtag. The idea was actually invented in August 2007 by Chris Messina, now a user experience designer on Google Plus. His idea was to create a place to group different tweets and he proposed the idea of using the "#" symbol.

Turns out, you're going to start seeing that symbol a lot more.

Hotels Near Doral Golf Resort - Carmakers, White House Aim To Spark Interest In Electric Vehicles

Source - http://www.detroitnews.com/
By - David Shepardson
Category - Hotels Near Doral Golf Resort
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Hotels Near Doral Golf Resort

Automakers and the Obama administration are still working to prod Americans to give electric vehicles a chance as efforts are made to improve the nation’s charging infrastructure and consumer perceptions.

At the Electric Drive Transportation Association annual conference here Tuesday, automakers touted efforts to improve charging times, and the U.S. Department of Energy unveiled a Web tool to help consumers see the cost differences between electric and gas-powered vehicles.

The department said eGallon offers “a quick and simple way” for consumers to compare the costs of driving each.

Today’s national average eGallon price is about $1.14, meaning that a typical electric vehicle could travel as far on $1.14 worth of electricity as a similar vehicle could travel on a gallon of gasoline, the department said. In Michigan, the eGallon price is $1.39 compared to $3.84 a gallon for gasoline.

“Consumers can see gasoline prices posted at the corner gas station, but are left in the dark on the cost of fueling an electric vehicle. The eGallon will bring greater transparency to vehicle operating costs, and help drivers figure out how much they might save on fuel by choosing an electric vehicle. It also shows the low and steady price of fueling with electricity,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Not only can electric vehicles save consumers on fuel and reduce our dependence on oil, they also represent an opportunity for America to lead in a growing, global manufacturing industry.”

General Motors Co. praised the effort.

“Those kind of simple reinforcing tools and messages are extremely compelling,” said Britta Gross, director of Advanced Vehicle Commercialization Policy at GM. “There’s a complete misunderstanding about that joy of driving (a plug-in hybrid) so we have got to jump on board this thing.”

Electric-vehicle sales have lagged expectations and many startup electric vehicle and battery companies have filed for bankruptcy or struggled.

Nissan Motor Co. said it is working on selling certified pre-owned Leaf EVs.

GM and BMW AG, meanwhile, announced that they have reached a milestone in adopting a new auto industry standard for DC Fast Charging. Teams from both companies worked jointly to ensure the conformity of Fast Charge stations by charging pre-production versions of the BMW i3 and the Chevrolet Spark EV. The goal is to have charging stations that many different EVs from different automakers can use across the country.

Testing is under way in Germany to ensure other automakers’ EVs conform to the standard, which will allow an 80 percent charge in just 20 minutes.

Hotel Reservations In Miami - Apple Launches MacBook Air With Better Battery Life, Shows Off New Mac Pro

Source - http://www.firstpost.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Hotel Reservations In Miami 
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Hotel Reservations In Miami

Apple revealed a completely redesigned version of the Mac Pro desktop and the new MacBook Air. The desktop will be released later in the year and offers high-spread processing in a rather shocking, cylindrical design.

The new Mac Pro has the Intel Xeon processors, dual workstation-class GPUs for Graphics and is only is 9.9-inches tall.

Key features include:

• Intel Xeon E5 chipset with upto 12 processor cores.

• It has two AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs.

• According to Apple, the all-new Mac Pro is up to 2.5 times faster than the current Mac Pro and delivers     up to an amazing 7 teraflops of compute power.

• It has 4 USB 3.0 ports, 6 Thunderbolt ports. Users can connect three 4k displays to the machine.

• The new Mac Pro also features PCIe-based flash storage that is up to 10 times faster than conventional desktop hard drives.

MacBook Air: Apple also upgraded the MacBook Air series with faster processors and better battery life.

The new MacBook Air has fourth-generation Intel ‘Haswell’ processors with Core i5 and Core i7 versions available. It also comes with New Intel HD Graphics 5000 which according to Apple provide up to 40 percent faster graphics. It also has the faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi and flash storage starting at 128GB.

The 13-inch MacBook Air now comes with up to 12 hours of battery life, while the 11-inch MacBook Air delivers up to 9 hours of battery life.

The 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.3 GHz processor4GB of memory and 128GB of flash storage starts at $999. The 256GB flash storage storage version starts at $1,199. The 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.3 GHz processor 4GB of memory and i128GB flash storage starts at $1,099 and 256GB flash storage starts at $1,299.

The MacBook Air is available in US stores today.

Budget Hotels In Miami - Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Images Leak Online

Source - http://gadgets.ndtv.com/
By - Gurman Bhatia
Category - Budget Hotels In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Budget Hotels In Miami

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has officially made an online appearance. The device whose specifications and details have been out since a long time, finally was seen in its press shots.

While SamMobile published a press photograph of the device, TechTastic uploaded a couple of live shots.

According to previous rumours, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom will feature a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 540x960 pixels. It will be powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core processor and offer 8GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card. The phone's USP will be its 16-megapixel rear camera with 10x optical zoom. The device will also come with a 1.9-megapixel front facing camera. The phone is said to come with Bluetooth 4.0LE, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, A-GPS connectivity options and a 1900mAh battery.

It can be seen in the images that the camera based smartphone comes with a dedicated camera button, the power button and the volume rocker on the right. Just like the entire Galaxy S4 family, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is expected to run Android 4.2.2 and Samsung's TouchWiz UI.

The smartphone camera hybrid will be Samsung's first camera-focussed Android smartphone, to go with its Android-based camera Samsung Galaxy Camera. Samsung had recently announced the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, a mid-range version of the Galaxy S4. The device has specifications similar to Galaxy S4 Zoom. The South-Korean manufacturer had also announced the Galaxy S4 Active, a rugged water and dust resistant version of the Galaxy S4.

While the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S4 range comprising of the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Mini and Galaxy S4 Active have either been launched or announced, it is only the Galaxy S4 Zoom that is still under the wraps. The device is expected to be launched at the Samsung press event in London on June 20th. 

Suites Near International Dolphin Mall - Samsung Elec shares hit 7-week low On Worries Of Slowing Growth

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Suites Near International Dolphin Mall
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Suites Near International Dolphin Mall

The South Korean firm introduced two stripped-down versions of its flagship Galaxy S4 in recent weeks as it looks to widen its lead with products spanning both the high and cheap-and-cheerful ends of the market.

Its growing shift to cheap models, however, sparked concerns of margin decline and slowing growth momentum for its high-end model the S4.

"Sales of high-end handsets are lagging behind expectations, while low- to mid-end handsets are selling briskly worldwide," said Kim Young-chan, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp.

"As the portion of low- to mid-range handsets is expected to increase in Samsung's overall mobile phone business, this has also sparked concerns about thinning margins and lower growth."

Shares of Samsung, worth around $220 billion at its last closing price on Wednesday, fell as much as 4.5 percent in early trade but later pared losses to a drop of 2.8 percent at 1.48 million won ($1,300).

Global smartphone vendors are trying to expand their offerings to the more popular mid to low end segment to better compete with Chinese manufacturers, which dominate the sector.

The slide in Samsung shares comes after Woori Securities slashed its price target for Samsung by 4.8 percent to 2.0 million won this week, citing weakening profit growth of its mobile business, which generates around 70 percent of Samsung's total profit.

It also cut 2013 and 2014 earnings per share forecasts by 9.2 percent and 11.7 percent respectively.

"It's a general consensus that the profitability of Samsung's mobile business will weaken and it's already largely priced in its share prices," Young Park, a Woori Securities analyst, said in his Wednesday note.

"Should the pace of the profit deterioration stay moderate, it could help stabilize the stock price."

JPMorgan also slashed its earnings estimates and said monthly orders for the S4 have been cut by 20-30 percent to 7-8 million from July due to weak demand in Europe and South Korea. ($1 = 1115.8500 Korean won) (Reporting by Miyoung Kim, Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Miami Airport Hotels - Neighbors Shocked By 84-Year-Old Woman's Powerball Win

Source - http://www.freep.com/
By - Larry Copeland
Category - Miami Airport Hotels
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Miami Airport Hotels

Florida's newest multimillionaire lives in a one-bedroom home in a low-slung gray duplex.

At least for now.

But after winning a $590.5 million Powerball lottery -- the most ever for a single lottery winner in the USA -- Gloria Mackenzie's neighbors don't expect her to be here long. On Wednesday, she opted for the lottery's lump-sum payment of $370.8 million. That leaves her with about $278.2 million at her disposal after taxes.

"I don't believe she's coming back here," said Jorge Trapero, 70, who lives in the other side of the duplex. "Would you do that?"

Neighbors describe Mackenzie, 84, as a quiet, self-sufficient lady who is friendly but keeps to herself. They had no idea she had hit the jackpot.

"When we moved in about a year ago, we saw she was an elderly lady and told her to let us know if she ever needed anything," said neighbor Paul Bathrick, 37. "She never took us up on that. I just hope we get a chance to tell her congratulations when she comes to get her stuff. I don't expect her to be living in this crappy place anymore."

Trapero said Mackenzie left a few weeks ago with her son, who lives in Jacksonville, and he didn't see her for a while. The son told him she was sick, he said.

When Trapero saw Mackenzie, he clapped and cheered. "I kinda think she thought I knew she had won," he said. "But none of us knew."

Mackenzie's car was in her driveway, but neighbors haven't seen her in several days. Several media people were staking out the house Wednesday night.

Affordable Vacations In Miami - Samsung's Surprise Patent Win Could Block Apple iPhone 4 Sales In US

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/
By - Charles Arthur
Category - Affordable Vacations In Miami 
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Affordable Vacations In Miami

Samsung has won a surprise victory in a patent battle with Apple that could see the iPhone 4 and 3G-capable iPad 2 banned from sale in the US.

The decision – over a patent deemed essential to conform with the 3G standards, which Samsung has pledged to license freely – will be appealed against by Apple, which said that it will have "no impact" on the availability of its products in the US.

The final judgment by the International Trade Commission, which only adjudicates on requests for import bans to the US, will intensify debate over the US patent system, which is seen as hobbling competition in some fields. It came just hours after Barack Obama pledged to shake up his country's patent litigation system, with reform of the ITC among its objectives.

The ITC decided that the provision of 3G mobile data links in the iPhone 4, released in 2010, and 3G-capable iPad 2, infringed US patent 7,706,348. It rejected Apple's contention that Samsung had failed to license the patent on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" (FRAND) terms, as is required for standards-essential patents (SEPs). The iPhone 5 and 4S, and iPads released in 2012, are unaffected by the decision.

Apple and Samsung have been fighting a war of attrition through the various patent courts in the US and around the world in which they have sought to ban and otherwise limit sales of each other's products in Europe, the US, Australia and Asia. The ITC decision is the most significant win for Samsung in the US after a series of losses and indeterminate rulings there.

The decision to allow Samsung's request for a ban is controversial, because the FTC in January demanded a consent order from Google in which it would pledge that its Motorola subsidiary would not seek sales bans against "willing licensees" of SEPs.

It will also focus attention on the ITC, which has been used by a number of companies including Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and others to seek import bans over alleged patent infringement against rivals in the hugely valuable smartphone business. On Tuesday, Obama announced plans to overhaul many of the US's patent litigation systems, including "change the ITC standard for obtaining an injunction to better align it" with the tests applied in US federal courts. Those effectively preclude sales bans over SEPs on willing licensees.

In Europe, the antitrust arm of the European Commission has indicated it will take legal action, perhaps including fines, against Samsung for seeking sales bans over SEPs against Apple – the same scenario in which the ITC has backed Samsung. One of the ITC's commissioners dissented from Tuesday's ruling, citing "public interest grounds".

Normally, the owner of a patented technology can decide whether or not to license it, and what rate to charge for it. But with SEPs, the owner pledges to a standards body to offer it on FRAND terms to any licensee. The payment for such patents is usually small – perhaps amounting to a fraction of a penny per use – in return for widespread use. That allows other companies to build their products to an agreed standard. Systems such as the 3G and Wi-Fi wireless networking and the H.264 video encoding/decoding standards incorporate hundreds of patents, all of which are licensed under FRAND terms.

In its judgment, the ITC said that Samsung's FRAND declarations "do not preclude" a sales ban. However, that is at odds with the FTC and European Commission position over SEPs.

"We believe the ITC's final determination has confirmed Apple's history of free-riding on Samsung's technological innovations," Samsung said in a statement to the AllThingsD website. "Our decades of research and development in mobile technologies will continue, and we will continue to offer innovative products to consumers in the US."

Apple said it was "disappointed" with the decision and that it would appeal to a federal court. Its only other alternative to avoid the import ban would be to appeal directly to Obama.

"Samsung is using a strategy which has been rejected by courts and regulators around the world," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to AllThingsD. "They've admitted that it's against the interests of consumers in Europe and elsewhere, yet here in the US Samsung continues to try to block the sale of Apple products by using patents they agreed to license to anyone for a reasonable fee."

Apple has been seeking a US sales ban without success on a number of Samsung smartphones and tablets after it won a jury verdict and $1.05bn in damages against the South Korean company in a Californian court in August 2012. That case revolved around patents which Apple has not made part of a standard, and which it said Samsung knowingly infringed. The jury rejected counterclaims by Samsung that Apple had infringed a number of SEPs.

Lucy Koh, the judge in the case, has so far declined to allow that ban, and has ordered a retrial affecting about $400m of the damages award.

Trip To Miami - iPhone 5, 4S, 4 & iPad 1-Retina Hackable

Source - http://wirelessandmobilenews.com/
By - Lynn Walford
Category - Trip To Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Trip To Miami

Apple's iPhone and iPad products are usually deemed un-hackable because of defense mechanisms in the closed platform. However, hackers could get through another way, by a rogue charger. The device will be shown at the Black Hat Conference in late July in Las Vegas.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have found a way to get into Apple devices with sneaky,  spy charger.

The researchers "investigated the extent to which security threats were considered when performing everyday activities such as charging a device...The results were alarming: despite the plethora of defense mechanisms in iOS, we successfully injected arbitrary software into current-generation Apple devices running the latest operating system (OS) software." noted the team

An iPhone, iPod or iPad can be compromised within one minute of being plugged into a malicious charger using the USB.

All users are affected, because the charger uses neither a jailbroken device nor user interaction."

Mactans is a malicious charger that will demonstrated at the conference.. Latrodectus mactans is the scientific name for the deadly black widow spider. The hacking charger was built cheaply and in short time.

The researchers will also recommend ways to stop these kinds of hacks.

Suites In Miami - Bank Of America $8.5 Billion Mortgage Settlement Case Opens

Source - http://finance.yahoo.com/
By -  Karen Freifeld
Category - Suites In Miami
 Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Suites In Miami

Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) proposed $8.5 billion settlement with investors in mortgage securities that went bad during the financial crisis offers billions more than they are likely to get if they go to trial, a lawyer for the trustee who helped negotiate the deal argued Monday.

Matthew Ingber, a lawyer for Bank of New York Mellon, the trustee overseeing the securities, made the case for the deal as a long-awaiting proceeding for approval of the settlement got underway in state court in New York.

Bank of America agreed to the settlement in June 2011 to resolve the claims of investors in bonds issued by mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp, which Bank of America bought in 2008.

Twenty-two institutional investors, including BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), MetLife Inc (MET.N) and Allianz SE's (ALVG.DE) Pacific Investment Management Co entered into the settlement. American International Group Inc (AIG.N) and others have objected, saying the settlement offered them only a fraction of the money they lost.

Bank of New York Mellon, as the trustee, is asking a New York state court to approve the settlement and make it binding on all the investors.

In court on Monday, Ingber said Countrywide had a maximum of $4.8 billion in assets to pay a judgment on the claims. If the settlement is not approved, investors probably won't be able to hold Bank of America responsible for misrepresentations made by Countrywide on the quality of the underlying mortgages, he said.

"You may hear a lot from the objectors about what the trustee should have done or could have done or might have done," Ingber told Justice Barbara Kapnick, who must decide whether to approve the deal. "But, your honor, all those coulda, woulda, shoulda are irrelevant if the pot of gold isn't going to be there."

Opening arguments are set to continue on Tuesday, with Texas attorney Kathy Patrick making the case for the institutional investors who support the settlement.

The opponents are expected to argue that losses to the trusts might exceed $100 billion. They claim BNY Mellon placed its interests and those of Bank of America above those of bond holders. And they point out BNY Mellon gets trust business from Bank of America.

Colorado attorney Dan Reilly, who represents AIG, said last week the proposed deal "offers pennies on the dollar" to the bond holders.

A lawyer for the federal home loan banks of Boston, Indianapolis and Chicago is expected to join AIG in an opening statement on behalf of the objectors on Tuesday.

Ingber argued Monday that the trustee did not receive any money or a release of claims in the settlement agreement. He told Kapnick the questions she had to answer were whether the trustee entered into the deal in good faith and whether the settlement was reasonable.

"This was an easy call and it was done for all the right reasons," Ingber said. "Approval of this settlement is a win for all investors."

Kapnick has set aside the first two weeks of June to hear the case. She said that because of other cases, she will then recess until July.

Holiday In Miami - Healthy Lifestyle Habits May Improve Your Memory Too

Source - http://www.usatoday.com/
By - Cathy Payne
Category - Holiday In Miami
Posted By - Homewood Suites Miami

Holiday In Miami

Do you remember what you had for breakfast? If you're a healthy eater, there's a greater chance that you'll recall.

A healthy lifestyle is linked to better memory across all adult age groups, even if you're younger than 40, a new study finds.

UCLA researchers and the Gallup organization worked on a poll of 18,552 U.S. adults 18 and older.

Healthy eating, not smoking, and exercising regularly were linked to better self-perceived memory abilities. Respondents across all age groups who engaged in just one healthy behavior were 21% less likely to report memory problems than those who didn't engage in such behaviors.

Researchers say they were surprised to find that about 14% of the youngest group (ages 18-39) complained about their memory. About 22% of middle-age adults (ages 40-59) and 26% of older adults (ages 60-99) did.

"Memory issues were to be expected in the middle-aged and older groups, but not in younger people," says the study's lead author, Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center.

In general, younger people's memory problems may differ from those in older adults, Small says. For example, stress may play a bigger role, he adds. Still, the survey's findings reinforce the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle at all ages to help limit cognitive decline, he says.

"Along with the other healthy behaviors, it's likely that healthy eating is helping keep the heart and blood vessels healthy," says Mary Ann Johnson, national spokeswoman for the not-for-profit American Society for Nutrition. "The brain needs a healthy blood supply to function."

She says protecting your memory isn't just for older adults. "We think of losing one's memory as late in life, but it is a very long process that has been playing out over decades."

Neil Levin, spokesman for the not-for-profit American Nutrition Association, says, "The earlier signs of people's memory starting to decline in younger years are not necessarily associated with Alzheimer's," he says, but certain behaviors may be risk factors.

"A lot of young people tend to feel either they are invulnerable or they are not going to live a long time so they might engage in riskier behaviors in terms of diet, smoking and lack of exercise that would affect them long-term," he adds.

Small, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, says that if younger people are experiencing memory problems, they should see their doctor. "The sooner they get help, the better the outcome."