Hotel Near FIU | "Mozilla and Samsung Announce Cooperation to Build New Browser Engine"

Source:       http://www.ghacks.net/
By:             Martin Brikmanne
Category:  Hotel Near FIU
Posted by: Homewood Suites in Miami

Hotel Near FIU

With Opera joining Google and Apple to use Webkit as the core engine of its browser, the number of major engines dropped from four to three. Only Microsoft with its Internet Explorer and Mozilla with Firefox are maintaining their own engine. Microsoft should not have any issues financing development of the engine and neither should Google, but Mozilla, a non-profit organization, depends much on the money it earns by selling the default search engine provider spot of the browser to Google.

Mozilla today announced a partnership with Samsung to build a new web browser engine for ARM devices and Android. The browser engine, based on Mozilla's Rust programming language is called Servo. It is not clear how the two partners participate in the project, but it seems that Samsung is providing Mozilla at least with the backend and infrastructure necessary to develop and create the next generation browser engine.

The announcement is vague, unfortunately, about what we can expect. What we can take away is that it will be created from the ground up with modern hardware - think multi-core processors - in mind. Mozilla believes that Rust is the perfect choice for this endeavor because of its built-in security features and precise hardware control.

Rust, which today reached v0.6, has been in development for several years and is rapidly approaching stability. It is intended to fill many of the same niches that C++ has over the past decades, with efficient high-level, multi-paradigm abstractions, and offers precise control over hardware resources. But beyond that, it is *safe by default*, preventing entire classes of memory management errors that lead to crashes and security vulnerabilities. Rust also features lightweight concurrency primitives that make it easy for programmers to leverage the power of the many CPU cores available on current and future computing platforms.

The Servo project is hosted on Github where we find additional information about the project including strategies that the team is exploring, challenges it is facing, and information about the roadmap (which does not reveal any dates yet).

With Servo in the making, it is not clear what Mozilla has in store for its current browser engine Gecko. It does not look as if Gecko will be replaced by Servo any time soon, as the latter seems to aim purely for mobile devices at the time of writing. It will be interesting to see how this evolves though.

Hotel Reservations In Miami | "Google, Leap Motion Launch 3D Google Earth Navigation"

Source:     http://www.redorbit.com/
By:            Redorbit
Category:  Hotel Reservations In Miami
Posted by: Homewood Suites Miami

Hotel Reservation in Miami

In honor of Earth Day, Google and Leap Motion announced on Monday an update to Google Earth that supports 3D navigation with input from the Leap Motion Controller.

The two companies released a video demonstration of the new features, which show a Google Earth user virtually flying around the world at will using mere hand gestures.

The Leap Motion controller will be available May 13, when pre-orders begin shipping. The device will also be sold at Best Buy retail stores for $79.99.

“When we ship soon, we’re excited to see what new explorations people leap into,” said Leap Motion’s chief executive Michael Buckwald to Anthony Wing Kosner of Forbes.

The Google Earth app has been downloaded more than one billion times since its inception, meaning there will likely be a wide variety of apps available for Leap’s motion control device in the company’s Airspace app store, which launches in May.

In addition to the Leap Motion collaboration, the latest Google Earth update adds several new map-making features and advanced printing tools, along with a variety of enhancements to Google Earth Pro, the professional version of Google’s mapping tool.

Attractions In West Miami - Napoli Knocks a Granny As Boston Beats Oakland 9-6; Plus More AL Scores

Source - http://www.nola.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

BOSTON (AP) — Mike Napoli hit a grand slam and drove in five runs, Will Middlebrooks busted out of a slump with a three-run homer and the Boston Red Sox rebounded from a doubleheader sweep by beating the Oakland Athletics 9-6 on Monday night.

The Red Sox, swept by Kansas City Sunday, scored three runs in the fourth and five in the fifth. Napoli's fourth career slam keyed the five-run fifth and helped end Oakland's eight-game winning streak against Boston.

The Athletics dropped their season-high fourth straight.

Felix Doubront (2-0) allowed three runs on three hits, walking five. He also threw two wild pitches and struck out eight in 6 2-3 innings.

A.J. Griffin (2-1) was tagged for a career-worst nine runs — seven earned — and eight hits in four-plus innings.

ORIOLES 2, BLUE JAYS 1

BALTIMORE (AP) — Nick Markakis singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Orioles a victory over the Blue Jays.

Toronto reliever Aaron Loup (1-2) began the ninth by hitting Chris Davis with a pitch. After a sacrifice bunt, Steve Pearce popped out and Nolan Reimold received an intentional walk before Alexi Casilla reached on a throwing error by shortstop Munenori Kawasaki that loaded the bases.

Markakis then sliced an 0-2 pitch to the opposite field near the left-field line.

Jim Johnson (1-1) worked a perfect ninth for the Orioles, now 5-2 on a nine-game homestand that ends Wednesday.

RAYS 5, YANKEES 1

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Matt Moore became the first Rays pitcher to win his first four starts of a season, Ryan Roberts homered twice and Tampa Bay beat CC Sabathia and the Yankees.

Moore (4-0) allowed one run, two hits, three walks and had nine strikeouts over eight innings. Roberts connected in the first and third to help the Rays take an early 5-0 lead.

Yankees infielder Kevin Youkilis, who left Saturday's game at Toronto with lower back stiffness, was a late scratch Monday after the back tightened up following batting practice.

Sabathia (3-2) had a three-game winning streak end. The left-hander gave up five runs and seven hits over seven innings.

INDIANS 3, WHITE SOX 2

CHICAGO (AP) — The Cleveland Indians had some fun with Asdrubal Cabrera after the All-Star shortstop bruised his left wrist when he fell down the steps on his way to the dugout in Houston over the weekend.

This time, Cabrera had some fun at the expense of the sloppy Chicago White Sox.

Cabrera hit a clutch two-run single in his return to the lineup and the Indians used a throwing error by reliever Matt Thornton to rally for a 3-2 victory over the White Sox on Monday night.

"I love those situations," Cabrera said.

Justin Masterson (4-1) pitched seven effective innings to help the Indians to their third consecutive win after a five-game losing streak. They have won three of four this season against the White Sox.

MARINERS 7, ASTROS 1

HOUSTON (AP) — Seattle's Felix Hernandez was relieved to reach his 100th career win on Monday night against Houston after failing to reach the milestone in three previous attempts.

"Finally," he said with a huge grin. "It took too long."

Hernandez pitched six scoreless innings and Seattle homered three times to back him up in a 7-1 victory over the Astros.

"Tonight I was like: `You've got to do it (Monday). You can't wait more and more time. You've just got to go out there and have a good game,'" he said.

Hernandez (2-2) joins Jamie Moyer (145) and Randy Johnson (130) as the only pitchers to reach 100 wins with the Mariners.

RANGERS 7, ANGELS 6

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — A.J. Pierzynski hit a tiebreaking homer with two outs in the ninth inning, and the Texas Rangers rallied from a late three-run deficit for a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.

Mitch Moreland had three hits and drove in a run for the Rangers, who also got three hits from Elvis Andrus in their fourth consecutive victory, snapping the Angels' three-game winning streak.

Chris Iannetta doubled in the go-ahead run and Luis Jimenez got his first career RBIs on a two-run single while the Angels took a 6-3 lead in the sixth inning, but Texas tied it with three runs in the seventh.

Pierzynski then hit his fourth homer of the season to right off Angels closer Ernesto Frieri (0-1).

Holiday In West Miami - Three-Pointers: Thunder Mop The Floor With Rockets In Game 1

Source - http://nba.si.com/
By - Ben Golliver
Category - Holiday In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Holiday In West Miami

The Thunder clobbered the Rockets 120-91 in Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round playoff series on Sunday night.

• Few, if any, executives were as excited by the prospect of postseason play as Rockets GM Daryl Morey.

“It would feel amazing,” Morey told the Houston Chronicle earlier this month. “You definitely appreciate making the playoffs when you’re not in for three years.”

It took just 48 minutes against the West’s No. 1 seed Thunder for “amazing” to dissipate into something else.

“That was painful,” Morey tweeted, after a 29-point drubbing that saw Thunder coach Scott Brooks pull his stars early in the fourth quarter.

The concept and symbolic importance of the postseason can easily outweigh the reality for mid-level teams, especially those as young and inexperienced as Houston. After back-to-back deep postseason runs, the Thunder looked every part of the incumbent favorite, holding the Rockets without a field goal for the games’s first five-plus minutes and toasting them with a 10-2 run to close the first half. It only degenerated from there, and Kevin McHale had no shortage of areas to improve upon for Game 2. Houston committed 15 turnovers, couldn’t find the distance on their long ball, didn’t get efficient nights from James Harden, Jeremy Lin or Chandler Parsons, couldn’t stay in front of Russell Westbrook (19 points and 10 assists), and had no consistent answer for either Kevin Durant (24 points, six rebounds and four assists) or Serge Ibaka (17 points, seven rebounds, three blocks). Some of the items on that list can be the subject of adjustments or extra attention from the coaching staff; others, especially Westbrook, aren’t going anywhere.

•  If there’s any consolation for the Rockets, it’s that they were hardly alone in feeling the pain. All eight road teams lost Game 1s during the opening weekend of the 2013 playoffs. The average margin of victory for the favorites was 16 points and six of the eight favorites won by double-figures. Even the Warriors, who managed to push the Nuggets to the final possession, will be in for choppier waters thanks to the loss of David Lee to a hip injury and the return of Kenneth Faried from an ankle sprain.

I guess that means we should extrapolate that old maxim — that a series doesn’t start until a road team wins a game — to the entire playoffs. The 2013 postseason won’t start until an underdog, any underdog, wins a game. But who will it be? Golden State? Boston? Memphis?

•  Game 1 played out like a nightmare for Harden. It was almost as if the basketball gods were throwing everything they could at him to see whether he would regret leaving the Thunder last summer. The Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd booed him, he shot just six-for-19 from the field, his team was down 13-2 before he could blink, and the disparity between the two teams in terms of length, talent and experience was self-evident throughout.

“Believe it or not I think losing like this will be good for us,” Harden said, according to NBA.com. “We’ll get better out of it, we’ll look at the film and see what we need to do to get better. But just coming out here and being in a playoff atmosphere, on the road, it’s good for us.”

The Rockets definitely got a taste of the best the Western Conference has to offer, and Harden’s attempt at optimism is in line with Morey’s pre-playoffs excitement. Given how the match-ups broke, this year was mostly about getting the Rockets’ young core their first set of playoff repetitions together, with an eye towards the future. The Rockets’ regrouping message for Game 2 should be simple: There’s no shame in getting blown out by the Thunder, who led the league with a +9.2 margin of victory, on an off night. Play sharper and shoot better and a more competitive contest awaits.

Port Of Miami Hotels - Google's Profit Rises 16%

Source - http://online.wsj.com/
By - AMIR EFRATI
Category - Port Of Miami Hotels
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Port Of Miami Hotels

Google Inc. GOOG -2.13% on Thursday provided more evidence it is weathering the storm of lower prices for online ads on mobile devices.

The Internet giant posted stable revenue growth in its first quarter as the average price of ads that it sells on websites and mobile apps continued to drop, but at a lower rate than prior quarters.

A growing percentage of activity on Google's Web-search engine is taking place through mobile devices, where online ads generally cost less than those on sites accessed by desktop PC users. Now marketers increasingly say that the prices of ads sold by Google for the mobile-device version of its search engine are going up.

For the first quarter, the Mountain View, Calif., company's revenue—excluding its Motorola Mobility hardware unit, which wasn't incorporated into Google until around the middle of last year—rose 22% to $12.95 billion from a year earlier and equaled the revenue growth from the fourth quarter. With Motorola, revenue totaled $13.97 billion, up 31% from a year ago.

Google also reported a 16% rise in profit to $3.35 billion.

The average price that advertisers paid when people clicked on ads on Google sites fell 4%, compared to a 6% drop in the fourth quarter. The ad-price drop, which was paired with a 20% rise in the number of times people clicked on Google's ads, was the smallest since the company began experiencing such declines in the fourth quarter of 2011.

"Investor sentiment is more positive on Google than it's been in at least two years because people are less concerned about mobile [ad prices] being a challenge to Google's economics," among other factors, said Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Google's shares rose slightly in after-hours trading after finishing earlier at $765.91 on the Nasdaq stock market. Shares have risen by more than 8% so far this year, compared to a nearly 5% rise in the Nasdaq Composite.

Google has worked hard to boost mobile-ad prices. It has encouraged its biggest advertisers to create better websites for mobile devices to increase the chances that people who end up on the site after clicking on the companies' ads end up making a purchase.

The company also announced in February that by mid-year, current advertisers using its AdWords online-ad system—Google's primary revenue generator—will be required to pay for ads on tablet devices if they want to advertise on PCs.

Danielle Leitch, an executive at MoreVisibility Inc., which helps companies advertise online, said one client who upgraded to the new Google system ended up paying an average of 10% more for clicks on their ads, while the rate of "conversions," or sales it made to ad clickers, remained about the same.

There is other evidence of rising mobile-ad prices. Resolution Media, which helps manage more than $500 million of online-ad spending by large advertisers, said that for 70 of its clients, search-ad prices on smartphones in the first quarter were equal to that of tablets and PCs. That's a change from the fourth quarter, when smartphone prices were 30% lower as competition for ad space continued to increase.

Google's product-search service, called Google Shopping, which derives traffic from the company's main Web-search engine, also helped counteract the overall ad-price drops.

Last year, Google converted the shopping service, which had been free for retailers, into one where they must pay to be listed. That change could add as much as $1.6 billion to Google's overall revenue in 2013, said Eric Best, chief executive of Mercent Corp., which helps retailers market their products through Google.

Mr. Best said retailers are spending more for ads tied to Google Shopping because they are performing better than traditional AdWords ads.

Still, Google is increasing its presence in and spending on lower-margin businesses such as Motorola's mobile devices and Google Fiber, an ultra-fast Internet and video service that competes with offerings of incumbent telecommunications companies and will be made available to residents of Kansas City, Mo., Provo, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

In a conference call, Google CEO Larry Page said that as a company shareholder, "I'm certainly not worried about the expense" of those initiatives because the company will continue to spend 80% of its resources on "our big bets," meaning its core group of successful services, including Web search.

Google has worked to slim down Motorola to make it profitable. In March, Motorola laid off 1,200 employees, or about 10% of its workforce of more than 11,000. That came on top of layoffs of 4,000 employees last year.

On Thursday, Google said Motorola posted a first-quarter operating loss of $271 million, down from a $353 million loss in the fourth quarter and a $527 million loss in the third quarter.

Later this year, the electronics manufacturer, which has a miniscule market share in the mobile-device market, is hoping to reverse its fortunes with the launch of a new flagship smartphone known internally as the "X Phone," people familiar with the matter have said.

"I'm really excited about the potential there," Mr. Page said of Motorola, implying the division's new smartphone would be strong enough to handle being dropped by users, and that its battery life would be long.

Google also is rolling out its Google Glass wearable-computing device to software developers, who will develop apps for the device. Google Glass, which is expected to be sold to the public by the end of the year, is worn on a person's face and allows them to view a computer screen positioned above one of their eyes

"I get chills when I use a product that is the future, and that happens when I use Glass," Mr. Page said.

Overall, Google's first-quarter net income of $3.35 billion, or $9.94 a share, was up from $2.89 billion, or $8.75 a share, a year earlier.

Google said it had $50.1 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of March, up from $48 billion at the end of 2012. Its head count was flat from three months ago, at nearly 54,000.

Budget Miami Hotels - EBay’s Profit Rises 19%, But Results Miss Estimates

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/
By - JENNA WORTHAM
Category - Budget Miami Hotels
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Budget Miami Hotels

EBay continues its turnaround, from troubled online auction site to a forward-looking, mobile-oriented e-commerce company.

 In first quarter financial results released on Wednesday, revenue swelled to $3.7 billion, up 14 percent from a year earlier. EBay said net income was $677 million, or 51 cents a share, a 19 percent increase from a year earlier.

“We had a strong first quarter, with accelerating user growth across both Marketplaces and PayPal,” said John Donahoe, eBay’s president and chief executive, in a news release. “Technology is creating a commerce revolution, and we are in the forefront with strong mobile leadership and a focus on helping retailers and brands engage consumers anytime, anywhere.”

But the results, as well as second-quarter forecasts, fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, causing the stock to fall 1.6 percent in after-hours trading. The company forecast a second-quarter profit of 61 to 63 cents a share and revenue of $3.8 billion to $3.9 billion. Analysts were looking for earnings of 66 cents a share on revenue of $3.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

EBay has successfully transformed itself from a site known as the virtual equivalent of a yard sale or dusty thrift shop to a sophisticated online marketplace, now competing with Amazon and other online retailers. It said that fixed-price merchandise, as opposed to its original auctioned merchandise, is now 68 percent of all goods sold. Most recently, the company has been experimenting with same-day delivery and courier services that let customers order through their mobile devices for delivery hours later. The company reported that its core retailing business, called Marketplaces, still shows strong growth, adding close to 4 million users during the period, bringing the total to 116 million, a lift of 13 percent.

Revenue from that division also grew 13 percent to $1.96 billion in the quarter. Four years ago, revenue in the unit was declining 18 percent. Some analysts say the future of the company depends largely on the continued success of its payments products, which primarily means PayPal, eBay’s mobile payments business, which continues to be a fountain of revenue. During the first quarter, the company said PayPal sales grew 18 percent, to $1.5 billion. The company also added 5 million PayPal customers during the quarter, bringing the total to 128 million.

Benjamin Schachter, a financial analyst at Macquarie Securities who follows eBay, said the company’s momentum is reflected in its stock price, which has steadily risen and closed at $56.10 on Wednesday.

“They’ve turned it around in the last couple of years,” he said. “But the question is, Can they keep that momentum going?”

That, he said, depends on how successfully eBay enables shoppers to buy and sell using their mobile devices as well as how they turn PayPal into an offline, real-world alternative to credit cards and cash.

“The idea is that when you walk into a store, instead of pulling out a Visa, you will pay with PayPal, either through your phone, saying your name or a separate, stand-alone device,” Mr. Schachter said. “The reason the stock is doing so well is because people are excited about the business possibilities.”

Family Hotels In Miami - Light Drinking 'Not Harmful To Baby' Say Scientists

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
By - Press Release
Category - Family Hotels In Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami


 

Family Hotels In Miami

The abilities of 10,534 UK seven-year-olds, whose mothers had either abstained from alcohol or drank lightly while pregnant, were analysed.

Little difference was found between the two groups - supporting UK government guidelines.

These advise pregnant women to abstain from alcohol, and if they drink, to consume no more than two units a week.

Prof Yvonne Kelly, co-author of the study in An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG) said: "We know heavy drinking during pregnancy has a very deleterious effect, but it is very unlikely that drinking small amounts will have an impact.

"It doesn't seem biologically plausible that small amounts of alcohol would affect development either way. The environment children grow up in is massively more important.

"While we have followed these children for the first seven years of their lives, further research is needed to detect whether any adverse effects from low levels of alcohol consumption in pregnancy emerge later in childhood."

Light drinking was classed as consuming up to two units of alcohol per week. A unit is half a pint of lager or a single measure of spirits.
'Safest option to abstain'

John Thorp, from the journal in which the paper was published said: "These findings, that drinking not more than one or two units of alcohol per week during pregnancy is not linked to developmental problems in early-mid childhood, are consistent with current UK Department of Health guidelines.

"However, it remains unclear as to what level of alcohol consumption may have adverse outcomes so this should not alter current advice and if women are worried about consumption levels the safest option would be to abstain from drinking during pregnancy."

The study collected data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a national study of infants born in the UK between 2000-2002. When these children were nine months old their mothers were asked whether they had drunk alcohol during pregnancy.

Around 57% said they abstained during pregnancy and 23% were light drinkers.

When the children reached the age of seven, their parents and school teachers were asked to assess their social and emotional behaviour - including hyperactivity and attention problems. Their maths, reading and spatial skills were also tested.

The study findings also hinted that boys born to light drinkers had fewer behavioural problems and better reading and spatial skills than those born to mothers who did not drink during pregnancy,

Prof Kelly urges people not to read too much into this: "Where there are differences the differences are very small."

Past studies have also suggested this - although it has been argued the differences may have arisen as light drinkers may come from a higher income or more educated background than abstainers.
'Reassuring'

Patrick O'Brien, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and a consultant obstetrician said the research was very well designed.

"This is a very good paper and controlled for socio-economic and cultural confounding factors as well as possible. Although it didn't control for all of them - like IQ.

"No-one is suggesting drinking alcohol while pregnant is beneficial."

Linda Geddes, author of the pregnancy book Bumpology thinks this new research is helpful.

She said: "A lot of women are conflicted - they know their mothers had a little to drink while pregnant with them, and they see friends and relatives drinking - they may think the occasional drink is OK, but they also know the absolute safest thing to do is not to drink at all as the evidence is limited and they want to do the best by their babies.

"So this research is very reassuring for pregnant women - it is probably OK to have a glass or two."

The Department of Health spokesperson said:

"The Chief Medical Officer is overseeing a review of alcohol guidelines, This will include reviewing any new evidence on alcohol and pregnancy. To encourage mothers-to-be to cut out risky health behaviours like drinking alcohol we recently relaunched Start4Life." 

Hotel Near Miami Beach - Asian Stocks Fall With Oil on Global Growth Concern; Gold Rises

Source - http://www.sfgate.com/
By - Pratish Narayanan and Ian Sayson
Category - Hotel Near Miami Beach
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Hotel Near Miami Beach

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell, headed for the biggest two-day loss in five months, and oil dropped on signs growth is losing momentum in the U.S. and China. Gold rebounded following the steepest slide in three decades.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.9 percent as of 10:58 a.m. in Hong Kong. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.3 percent, after the gauge slumped 2.3 percent yesterday. Oil fell 2.1 percent in New York and Brent crude traded below $100 a barrel for the first time since July. Gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,353.71 an ounce, after plunging 9.1 percent yesterday, the most since 1983. Australia’s dollar rose 0.2 percent versus the greenback and the yen lost 0.3 percent.

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders unexpectedly fell for a third month, manufacturing in the New York region expanded less than projected and China’s factory output moderated, data showed yesterday. Deadly bombings near the Boston Marathon’s finish line contributed to yesterday’s retreat in U.S. stocks. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations meet April 18-19 in Washington to discuss the global economy.

“The developments overnight, slump in commodities prices and the Boston marathon bombing are certainly negative for risky assets,” said Paul Joseph Garcia, who helps manage $18.4 billion at BPI Asset Management Inc. in Manila, “Expect investors to seek cash and other safe havens like the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries.”

Gold Futures

Gold futures have tumbled amid speculation Cyprus will sell the metal to raise cash and the Federal Reserve will scale back stimulus efforts, curbing the outlook for inflation. A bigger- than-forecast 0.6 percent drop in U.S. producer prices in March, reported by the government last week, was the latest sign that living costs remain subdued.

The drop in gold spurred speculation that some investors were selling to raise cash to cover positions acquired with borrowed money. CME Group Inc., owner of the world’s largest futures exchange, raised margin payments on gold, silver, platinum and palladium yesterday.

Bullion has dropped 19 percent in 2013, after rising for 12 years and scaling $1,900 an ounce in September 2011, as data showed the U.S. economy was improving and the Fed signaled it may rein in monetary stimulus this year. Hedge-fund manager John Paulson’s wager on gold wiped out almost $1 billion of his personal wealth in the past two trading days as the precious metal plummeted 13 percent.

Gold Slide

“Don’t forget the market is very long gold, it has been so for a long time, we have to see how much the sell-off is,” Lee Boon Keng, head of Bank Julius Baer & Co. investment solutions group in Singapore, said by phone today. “The big number people are fearful of is $1,200.” Bank Julius oversees more than $300 billion of client assets.

The S&P GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials fell 1.3 percent today, headed for the lowest close in nine months. Oil in New York touched a four-month low of $86.06 a barrel today and copper in London sank to $7,085 a metric ton yesterday, the lowest price since October 2011. Copper gained 0.5 percent today.

“Gold took a beating” because of margin calls expected on the Comex, Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago, said. “The Chinese number was the final nail on the head with people exiting from all commodities, including gold.”

About three stocks fell for each one that gained on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. The benchmark regional equities gauge, yesterday traded at 13.9 times average estimated earnings compared with 14 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 12.5 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Asian gauge retreated yesterday from the highest level in 20 months after reports showed Chinese economic growth and industrial production expanded less than economists’ estimated.

Attractions In West Miami - Antarctic Summer Ice Melting 10 Times Faster

Source - http://www.ndtv.com/
By - Agence France-Presse
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

Sydney: Summer ice in the Antarctic is melting 10 times quicker than it was 600 years ago, with the most rapid melt occurring in the last 50 years, a joint Australian-British study showed Monday.

A research team from the Australian National University and the British Antarctic Survey drilled a 364-metre (1,194 feet) long ice core from James Ross Island in the continent's north to measure past temperatures in the area.

Visible layers in the ice core indicated periods when summer snow on the ice cap thawed and then refroze.

By measuring the thickness of these melt layers, the scientists were able to examine how the history of melting compared with changes in temperature at the ice core site over the last 1,000 years.

"We found that the coolest conditions on the Antarctic peninsula and the lowest amount of summer melt occurred around 600 years ago," said lead author Nerilie Abram of the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

"At that time, temperatures were around 1.6 Celsius lower than those recorded in the late 20th century and the amount of annual snowfall that melted and refroze was about 0.5 percent.

"Today, we see almost 10 times as much of the annual snowfall melting each year.

"Whilst temperatures at this site increased gradually in phases over many hundreds of years, most of the intensification of melting has happened since the mid-20th century," she added.

The research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, is only the second reconstruction of past ice melt on the Antarctic continent.

Abram said it helped scientists gain more accurate projections about the direct and indirect contribution of Antarctica's ice shelves and glaciers to global sea level rise.

"What it means is that the Antarctic peninsula has warmed to a level where even small increases in temperature can now lead to a big increase in summer ice melt," she said.

"This has important implications for ice instability and sea level rise in a warming climate."

Robert Mulvaney, from the British Antarctic Survey, led the ice core drilling expedition and co-authored the paper.

"Having a record of previous melt intensity for the peninsula is particularly important because of the glacier retreat and ice shelf loss we are now seeing in the area," he said.

"Summer ice melt is a key process that is thought to have weakened ice shelves along the Antarctic peninsula leading to a succession of dramatic collapses, as well as speeding up glacier ice loss across the region over the last 50 years."

Holiday In West Miami - Researchers Discover Secret To Better Memory

Source - http://www.sciencerecorder.com/
By - James Fluere
Category - Holiday In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Holiday In West Miami

Researchers from the University of Tübingen have discovered that sound stimulation during sleep can enhance memory. Could this discovery be used to help students retain education material for tests? Perhaps the finding could even help someone trying to learn a foreign language.

According to a news release from Cell Press, slow oscillations in brain activity are important for retaining memories. Researchers have discovered that playing sounds timed to the rhythm of the slow brain oscillations of people who are sleeping can improve these oscillations and memory. This finding suggests that there is a noninvasive way to boost memory and enhance sleep.

According to coauthor Jan Born, of the University of Tübingen, the finding offers an excellent tool for clinical settings to improve sleep rhythms because it allows researchers to introduce auditory stimulation at low intensities.

Born and his team tried their tests on 11 individuals on different nights. During the tests, the individuals experienced sound stimulations or sham stimulations. After being exposed to stimulating sounds in sync with slow brain oscillations, the individuals were better able to recall word associations that they had completed the evening before. However, stimulation out of phase with slow brain oscillations did not have the same impact.

According to Born, the sound stimulation works only when the sounds take place in synchrony with the slow brain oscillations. Born and his colleagues offered the acoustic stimuli whenever a slow oscillation “up state” was happening soon

According to Born, this method could be used to improve other brain rhythms like those involved in the regulation of attention.

What else can enhance memory? According to a group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, peppermint can be a memory booster.

The Telegraph reports that researchers from Glyndwr University convinced administrators at All Saints Roman Catholic Primary in Liverpool to pump in the smell of peppermint , as well as the sound of rustling leaves to help improve students’ test results.

The study’s findings are described in detail in the journal Neuron.

Port Of Miami Hotels - Obama Seeks $17.7 Billion To Lasso Asteroid, Explore Space

Source - http://mashable.com/
By - Tariq Malik
Category - Port Of Miami Hotels
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Port Of Miami Hotels

NASA unveiled a $17.7 billion spending plan for 2014 today that continues major ongoing space exploration projects, while including funds to kick-start an audacious new mission to capture a small asteroid and park it near the moon so astronauts can explore it by 2025.

The proposed NASA budget is part of President Barack Obama's 2014 federal budget request and would restore the U.S. space agency's funding back near its 2013 levels. The request is about $50 million less than NASA's 2013 budget but would restore deep cuts from sequestration, leaving the agency with a roughly $1 billion increase from the $16.6 billion budget actually received for 2013.

NASA's plan to send a robotic spacecraft to lasso an asteroid and tow it to the moon is a stand-out item in the 2014 budget request. The goal is to capture an asteroid and bring it closer to Earth so that a manned mission can explore the space rock by 2025 — a major U.S. spaceflight goal set by Obama in 2010.

SEE ALSO: NASA's 2014 Budget Explained in Photos

"We are developing a first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate and asteroid," NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a statement. "This mission represents an unprecedented technological feat that will lead to new scientific discoveries and technological capabilities and help protect our home planet. This asteroid initiative brings together the best of NASA’s science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve the president’s goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025."
How to Catch an Asteroid

NASA's 2014 budget sets aside a $78 million down payment for the asteroid-capture mission, as well as additional funds to search for the candidate space rock for the initial rendezvous and capture, bringing the total funding for the project to about $105 million in 2014.

In all, NASA could spend up to $2.6 billion on the asteroid-capture mission through 2025, according to a study conducted by scientists with Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies in Pasadena last year. That study reviewed the feasibility of robotically capturing a 500-ton asteroid about 23 feet (7 meters) wide and placing it in orbit near the moon by 2025.

Bolden said NASA's new mega-rocket, the Space Launch System, and its Orion deep-space capsule would be used for the manned portions of the asteroid capture mission. The agency will also "develop new technologies like solar electric propulsion and laser communications — all critical components of deep space exploration."

The Space Launch System and Orion capsule are part of NASA's Exploration Systems division, which is funded at $2.7 billion in 2014 in the new budget, down from $3 billion last year.

In addition to the asteroid mission, NASA's 2014 budget includes continued funding for the International Space Station, as well as increased support for private space taxis, which the space agency plans to rely on to launch American astronauts to the space station now that its shuttle fleet is retired. Commercial spaceflight funding in 2014 is pegged at $821.4 million, just over twice the amount received in the 2013 request.
Planetary Science, Astrophysics and Earth

NASA's planetary science projects, which took a significant funding hit last year, would stay at a $1.2 billion level in 2014 (down from $1.5 billion in 2012) under the new budget request. Astrophysics funding would dip slightly to $642.3 million (down from $648.4 million last year).

Bolden said the planetary science budget will allow NASA to continue operating its many spacecraft exploring planets across the solar system, including the flagship Mars rover Curiosity and its smaller, older cousin Opportunity. Future Mars missions, such as the Maven orbiter launching later this year, new Insight Mars lander launching in 2016 and next Mars rover launching in 2020 will also be funded, he added.

Earth science and space weather funding, however, would rise in 2014 in the new budget, with NASA seeking $1.84 billion for Earth science missions (up from $1.75 billion) to revamp the agency's long-lived Landsat Earth-monitoring satellite constellation and develop new climate sensors. The space agency's Heliosphysics division, which overseas space weather and sun-monitoring missions, would rise to $653.7 million in 2014, up from $644.9 million last year.

NASA's next major space observatory, the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, will continue under the 2014 budget request, receiving about $658.2 million. The observatory is due to launch in 2018 and serve as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which will also receive continued funding in the 2014 request.

Budget Miami Hotels - MISSING LINK between HUMANS and MONKEYS FOUND

Source - http://www.theregister.co.uk/
By - Jasper Hamill
Category - Budget Miami Hotels
Posted By -Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Budget Miami Hotels

Scientists claim to have identified the missing link between human speech and monkey chatter.

Researchers analysed the distinctive "lip-smacking" sounds made by wild gelada baboons of the Ethopian highlands and found striking similarities to human speech.

Their noises are so human-like that Thore Bergman, an assistant professor with the University of Michigan, thought he heard people talking while he was hanging out with the creatures.

"I would find myself frequently looking over my shoulder to see who was talking to me, but it was just the geladas," he said. "It was unnerving to have primate vocalizations sound so much like human voices."

Male geladas smack their lips to produce a distincive "wobble" in their calls to females. These sounds follow a similar tempo to human speech.

Bergman suggested the research identified a "plausible" explanation of how human speech evolved.

He said: “The ability to produce complex sounds might have come first. Then, when we could do that, we could attach meanings and communicate in more sophisticated ways. Or it could be that, as we needed to communicate more, we developed an ability to produce a greater variety of sounds.”

All baboons smack their lips while eating and in a social context as well. They also produce several other vocalisations. It is believed monkeys living in large groups have stronger vocal skills.

“It’s a very complex social system. They have some of the largest groups of any primate,” Bergman said. “These very large group structures may be linked to vocal complexity. There’s some evidence across primate that bigger groups make more sounds.”

The research can be found in the journal Current Biology. According to the study's abstract, the gelada baboons' "independent evolution of a speech-like vocalization involving complex facial movements provides initial support for the hypothesis that lip-smacking was a precursor to the emergence of human speech". ®

 

Family Hotels In Miami - Apple To Introduce Refreshed Mac Pros This Month According To Source

Source - http://www.slashgear.com/
By - Brittany Hillen
Category - Family Hotels In Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Family Hotels In Miami

The folks over at Mac Daily News have received a tip from a source they say has provided them with tips in the past that have proven true: Apple will be rolling out a refreshed line of Mac Pros. The tipster says the new line will be released some time this month, but didn’t supply a precise date. Not much else was said, but what is known is available after the jump.

The source is quoted as having specifically said “Mac Pro,” and so it is not currently know whether this means the refresh will be in the form of a tower or miniature tower or something else altogether. And while the plan is to announce the new Mac Pros this month, the source is reported as saying that the timeline could get bumped to next month or June.

As with all rumors of this nature, there’s no way to know whether or not it is true – Apple certainly won’t confirm it – and Mac Daily News says that it is not able to confirm the information either, only repeating what it was told by someone who has supplied them with correct information in the past. Because of this, we’re filing it away into the rumor folder for now, but will be keeping an eye out.

As we reported on January 31, Apple has stopped selling Mac Pros in Europe, with reasons being cited as “[Mac Pros] are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date.” Sales were discontinued on March 1, following low demand and a noted lack of big updates from Apple.

Hotel Near Miami Beach - Boston To Get New Bank Of America ATMs With Video Chats

Source - http://bostonglobe.com/
By - Callum Borchers
Category - Hotel Near Miami Beach
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Hotel Near Miami Beach

After years of trying to take tellers out of banking, Bank of America will put people back into the experience — via video — in the very machines that replaced them.

The financial services giant said Thursday that it will begin offering live video chats with tellers later this month through a new generation of interactive ATMs that will debut at Bank of America’s Back Bay branch at 133 Massachusetts Ave.

Customers and remote tellers will be able to see and speak to one another in the same way that people talk on the popular video-calling service Skype — face-to-screen interactions that will make possible transactions that cannot be completed on traditional ATMs, such as cashing checks down to the penny and receiving bills in a variety of denominations, including $1, $5, $20, and $100.

It’s Max Headroom, the 1980s artificial intelligence character, come to life, said Mark P. Schwanhausser, director of multichannel financial services at Javelin Strategy & Research in Pleasanton, Calif.

“There is a little bit of irony when you put it in terms of adding a teller after all the push for electronic banking,” Schwanhausser said. “What this points to is that customers are comfortable with technology when it works, but sometimes you need some hand holding.”

Despite the popularity of electronic banking — about 30 million of Bank of America’s 53 million customers regularly bank online, according to the company — the industry is recognizing that people still crave human interaction. In a study of Generation Y’s banking habits published in January, Javelin found that 40 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds — more likely than anyone else to bank online — said they prefer completing transactions with a teller.

Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., is promising that the video service, dubbed Teller Assist, will give customers the same quality of assistance they receive when they go into a brick-and-mortar office. Remote tellers will be based at call centers in Jacksonville, Fla., and Newark, Del., and will be available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.

The bank plans to expand Teller Assist, which provides live help in English or Spanish, to other parts of the country later this year. Eventually, the machines will be able to accept checks and give cash back, split a single deposit into two or more accounts, and process loan or credit card payments.

“We know that customers want to bank on their schedule — not ours — so we are constantly looking at how to deliver more convenient banking options to them,” said Katy Knox, vice president for retail banking and distribution at Bank of America.

The rollout of interactive ATMs by Bank of America represents a major milestone for NCR Corp., which manufactures the machines and showcased them at a banking conference in Boston just over a year ago.

Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the country, and the largest in Massachusetts. It has approximately 5,500 retail banking offices and more than 16,000 ATMs nationwide. It has 256 branches and 1,113 ATMs in Massachusetts.

So far, banks in 20 states have added NCR’s interactive ATMs, including a small community bank in Indiana that already has 50 in operation. In Lowell, LowellBank installed New England’s first interactive ATM in December.

“The response has been good,” said chief executive Richard E. Bolton Jr. “People primarily like using it before we open and after we close, when they normally wouldn’t be able to speak with a teller.”

NCR research has shown that half of all banking transactions still take place at teller windows, said Brian Bailey, NCR’s vice president for branch transformation. In many ways, Bailey said, interactive ATMs are the best of both worlds for banks: They can provide the customers with the personal touch of branch banking while achieving some of the cost savings of electronic banking.

“This isn’t about a cut and run to a teller-less world,” said Bailey. “It’s a realization that a large segment of the population still prefers to do their banking at branch offices.”

Attractions In West Miami - Samsung To Launch Experience Shops In 1400 Best Buy Stores

Source - http://www.slashgear.com/
By - Brittany Hillen
Category - Attractions In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Attractions In West Miami

Samsung has teamed up with Best Buy to bring 1,400 in-store Experience Shops, according to a statement released Thursay. The stores will begin rolling out some time this month, with the Korean manufacturer stating that 900 Experience Shops will be up and running in select Best Buys by the beginning of May, with the rest of them rolling out “by early summer,” although no hard dates were provided.

The Samsung Experience Shops will feature, as you might have guessed, Samsung mobile products: tablets, smartphones, and laptops, among other items. As such, consumers will have access to a wide array of Samsung products to handle and test via the store-within-a-store setup. These Samsung stores will have variables sizes, with some being larger and others being smaller – the biggest store is about 460 square feet.

Some of the 1400 Best Buy stores that will feature the Experience Shops will also offer Samsung Smart Service, which involves both so-called Samsung Experience Consultants and trained Best Buy employees that will help consumers shop for gadgets. These individuals will be trained in warranties, activating devices, providing support, and more.

Samsung Telecommunications America’s President Dale Sohn had this to say: “With the Samsung Experience Shops, we are ensuring consumers get the most of that innovation by learning how to leverage their mobile devices across our ecosystem of consumer electronics. Consumers will have one place to not only explore and learn about our full portfolio of mobile products, but also the support of a Samsung expert to help with selecting and servicing them.”

Hotels In West Miami - Scientists Reportedly Discover Gate To Hell

Source - http://news.yahoo.com/
By - Claudine Zap
Category - Hotels In West Miami
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

 

Hotels In West Miami

It sounds like something out of a horror movie. But Italian scientists say that the “Gate to Hell” is the real deal—poisonous vapors and all.

The announcement of the finding of the ruins of Pluto’s Gate (Plutonium in Latin) at an archeology conference in Turkey last month, was recently reported by Discovery News. Francesco D'Andria, professor of classic archaeology at the University of Salento in Lecce, Italy, who has been excavating the ancient Greco-Roman World Heritage Site of Hierapolis for years, led the research team.

D’Andria told Discovery News he used ancient mythology as his guide to locate the legendary portal to the underworld. “We found the Plutonium by reconstructing the route of a thermal spring. Indeed, Pamukkale' springs, which produce the famous white travertine terraces originate from this cave.”

Scribes like Cicero and the Greek geographer Strabo mentioned the gate to hell as located at the ancient site in Turkey, noted Discovery, but nobody had been able to find it until now.

“Pluto’s Gate” has been documented in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, which noted in its description of ancient Hierapolis, “Adjoining the temple on the SE is the Plutoneion, which constituted the city's chief claim to fame. It was described by Strabo as an orifice in a ridge of the hillside, in front of which was a fenced enclosure filled with thick mist immediately fatal to any who entered.”

Strabo (64 B.C.- 24 B.C.) wrote, “This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell.”

The portal to the underworld seems just as bad for your health today. The professor said, “We could see the cave's lethal properties during the excavation. Several birds died as they tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes.”

According to Discovery News, the fumes emanated from a cave below the site, which includes ionic columns with inscriptions to Pluto and Kore, gods of the underworld. Also discovered: the remains of a temple, and a pool and stairs placed above the cave. D'Andria is now working on a digital rendering of the site.

Amazingly, this isn’t the first entry to the underworld in the world. In the Karakum Desert, reports the Daily Mail, a fiery pit that’s been lit up for over 40 years has inspired visitors to Derweze in Turkmenistan—and on the Web. Geologists drilling in the area came across a natural gas cavern. Hoping to burn off the gas, they set it on fire. The flames continued to burn, leading locals to dub the site the “door to hell.

Miami Hotel Meeting Space - Obama To Unveil Initiative To Map The Human Brain

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/
By - JOHN MARKOFF
Category - Miami Hotel Meeting Space
Posted By - Inn and Suites In West Miami

Miami Hotel Meeting Space

President Obama on Tuesday will announce a broad new research initiative, starting with $100 million in 2014, to invent and refine new technologies to understand the human brain, senior administration officials said Monday.

 A senior administration scientist compared the new initiative to the Human Genome Project, in that it is directed at a problem that has seemed insoluble up to now: the recording and mapping of brain circuits in action in an effort to “show how millions of brain cells interact.”

It is different, however, in that it has, as yet, no clearly defined goals or endpoint. Coming up with those goals will be up to the scientists involved and may take more than year.

The effort will require the development of new tools not yet available to neuroscientists and, eventually, perhaps lead to progress in treating diseases like Alzheimer’s and epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. It will involve both government agencies and private institutions.

The initiative, which scientists involved in promoting the idea have been calling the Brain Activity Map project, will officially be known as Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or Brain for short; it has been designated a grand challenge of the 21st century by the Obama administration.

Three government agencies will be involved: the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. A working group at the N.I.H., described by the officials as a “dream team,” and led by Cori Bargmann of Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University, will be charged with coming up with a plan, a time frame, specific goals and cost estimates for future budgets.

The initiative exists as part of a vast landscape of neuroscience research supported by billions of dollars in federal money. But Dr. Newsome said that he thought a small amount of money applied in the right way could nudge neuroscience in a new direction.

“The goal here is a whole new playing field, whole new ways of thinking,” he said. “We are really out to catalyze a paradigm shift.”

Brain researchers can now insert wires in the brain of animals, or sometimes human beings, to record the electrical activity of brain cells called neurons, as they communicate with each other. But, Dr. Newsome said, they can record at most hundreds at a time.

New technology would need to be developed to record thousands or hundreds of thousands of neurons at once. And, Dr. Newsome said, new theoretical approaches, new mathematics and new computer science are all needed to deal with the amount of data that will be garnered.

As part of the initiative, the president will require a study of the ethical implications of these sorts of advances in neuroscience.

While news of the announcement has been greeted with enthusiasm by many researchers in fields as diverse as neuroscience, nanotechnology and computer science, there are skeptics.

“The underlying assumptions about ‘mapping the entire brain’ are very controversial,” said Donald Stein, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta. He said changes in brain chemistry were “not likely to be able to be imaged by the current technologies that these people are proposing.”

Emphasizing the development of technologies first, he said, is not a good approach. “I think the monies could be better spent by first figuring out what needs to be measured and then figuring out the most appropriate means to measure them.” he said. “In my mind, the technology ought to follow the concepts rather than the other way around.”

However, supporters of the initiative argued that it could have a similar impact as the Sputnik satellite had in the 1950s, when the United States started a significant nationwide effort to invest in science and technology.

“This is a different time,” said Michael Roukes, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology. “It makes sense to have a brain activity map now because the maturation of an array of nanotechnologies can be brought to bear on the problem.”

While the dollar amount committed by the Obama administration does not match the level of spending on the Human Genome Project, scientists said that whatever was spent on the brain initiative would have a significant multiplier effect. The Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is contributing money, said Terrence J. Sejnowski, head of the institute’s computational biology laboratory, adding that the project would have an impact across the entire University of California, San Diego, campus, where the institute is based.

“One concrete example is that the chancellor has gotten excited about this and has decided that it is a great thing to invest in,” Dr. Sejnowski said. “That means hiring new faculty and creating new space.”

The project grew out of an interdisciplinary meeting of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in London in September 2011. Miyoung Chun, a molecular biologist who is vice president of scientific programs at the Kavli Foundation, had organized the conference. Her foundation, she said, supports the idea that the next big scientific discoveries will come from interdisciplinary research.

“Federal funding is scarce these days, and I realized we need inspiring projects that can awake everyone’s imagination,” she said. “It occurred to me that this is a very inspiring idea.”