Meeting Space Santa Clarita - Exercise Cuts Kidney Stone Risk In Women

Source - http://news.yahoo.com/
By - MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Category - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

Women have another reason to exercise: It may help prevent kidney stones. You don't have to break a sweat or be a super athlete, either. Even walking for a couple hours a week can cut the risk of developing this painful and common problem by about one-third, a large study found.

"Every little bit makes a difference" and the intensity doesn't matter — just getting a minimum amount of exercise does, said Dr. Mathew Sorensen of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

He led the study, which was to be discussed Friday at an American Urological Association conference in San Diego.

About 9 percent of people will get a kidney stone sometime in their life. The problem is a little more common in men, but incidence has risen 70 percent over the last 15 years, most rapidly among women.

Obesity raises the risk as do calcium supplements, which many women take after menopause. A government task force recently advised against supplements for healthy older women, saying that relatively low-dose calcium pills don't do much to keep bones strong but make kidney stones more likely.

The new research involved nearly 85,000 women 50 and older in the government-funded Women's Health Initiative study. All had an exam to measure weight and height so doctors could figure out their body mass index, a gauge of obesity. They also filled out annual surveys on what they ate, so researchers could take into account things known to lower the risk of kidney stones, such as drinking a lot of fluids and eating less salt or meat.

Participants said how much exercise they usually got and that was translated into "METs" — a measure of how much effort an activity takes. For example, 10 METs per week is about 2 1/2 hours of walking at a moderate pace, four hours of light gardening or one hour of jogging.

After about eight years, 3 percent of the women had developed a kidney stone. Compared to women who got no leisure-time exercise, those who got up to 5 METs per week had a 16 percent lower risk for stones. The risk was 22 percent lower with 5 to 10 METs per week and 31 percent lower for 10 METs or more. Exercise beyond 10 METs added no additional benefit for kidney stone prevention. Exercise intensity didn't matter — just how much women got each week.

"We're not asking people to run marathons. This is just a very mild to moderate additional amount of activity," Sorensen said.

Why might exercise help? It changes the way the body handles nutrients and fluids that affect stone formation. Exercisers sweat out salt and tend to retain calcium in their bones, rather than having these go into the kidneys and urine where stones form. They also tend to drink water and fluids afterwards, another plus for preventing stones.

"There's something about exercise itself that probably produces things in your urine that prevent stone formation," said one expert not involved in the work, Dr. Kevin McVary. He is chairman of urology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Ill., and a spokesman for the urology group. "It's not just being skinny or not being fat, it's something about the exercise that protects you."

Exercise is known to cut the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions that raise the risk of kidney stones. Next, researchers want to study men and younger women to see if exercise helps prevent kidney stones in them, too .

Santa Clarita Local Colleges - Obama To Use Austin Visit To Push Ideas To Help Middle Class

Source - http://www.dallasnews.com/
By - TODD J. GILLMAN
Category - Santa Clarita Local Colleges
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Santa Clarita Local Colleges

President Barack Obama will use Thursday’s trip to Austin to kick off a “Middle-Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour,” showcasing high-tech companies and schools that are preparing students with cutting-edge technology skills, an aide said Sunday.

In Austin and its surroundings, Obama will visit Manor New Tech High School. He’ll also meet with technology entrepreneurs and visit a high-tech company — as yet unidentified — to spotlight Austin as a hub for innovation and job creation.

“Even though some in Congress are determined to create more self-inflicted economic wounds, there are things Washington could be doing right now to help American businesses, schools and workers,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

“We need to build on the progress we’ve made over the last four years, and that means investing in things that are already creating good-paying, stable jobs that can support a middle-class family.”

The president also will meet with Austin workers to “discuss his vision for ensuring that hard work leads to a decent living,” Earnest said.

This is Obama’s second trip to Texas in two weeks. Aides made no mention of whether the president would tuck a political fundraiser into his schedule, as he did in Dallas on the eve of the George W. Bush library dedication and in Austin two years earlier after a border tour in El Paso.

This Austin visit — and day trips Obama will take every several weeks as part of this “Opportunity Tour” — are meant to prod Congress to embrace his views on ways to speed economic recovery.

The Austin trip is meant to put a focus on making America a magnet for jobs, ensuring that workers have the skills they need to compete and earn a livable wage. To that end, the president will push for expanded early-childhood education and a minimum-wage increase, according to aides.

Hotel In Santa Clarita - Acer Shows Off Aspire P3 Ultrabook, Aspire R7 Laptop With Innovative Designs

Source - http://www.zdnet.com/
By - Sean Portnoy
Category - Hotel In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel In Santa Clarita

Acer is looking to make a splash with its latest notebook offerings -- and it sure appears to have succeeded. The tech world is abuzz about its new Aspire R7 laptop (pictured above), which features what the company calls an "Ezel Hinge" that literally provides a different view of a portable display.

The design allows you to use the Aspire R7 in a variety of modes, from a traditional laptop to tablet style with the screen laying flat to what Acer calls "Ezel" mode, where the hinge allows you to bring the display closer or even flip it around. Despite that flexibility, the company promises that you can use the 15.6-inch display's touchscreen capabilities without it moving all around, and in theory, the Ezel mode makes using touchscreen features easier as you can pull the screen closer to you.

As a notebook, the R7 includes an Intel Core i5 CPU, 6GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive with 24GB of solid-state storage for faster boot-ups, and Dolby Home Theater sound. But the unique design is the selling point here, and fortunately Acer has made buying the R7 not so difficult on the wallet. It will be available through Best Buy for $999 and start shipping on May 17.

While not as radical as the R7, the new Aspire P3 is a convertible Ultrabook that's also moderately priced. The Windows 8 system will come with a choice of either Intel Core i3 or i5 CPUs, and its 11.6-inch IPS display detaches to function as a tablet. (You can also use it with an optional stylus.) The keyboard is tinier than a typical notebook sports, and it lacks a touchpad, though there's a USB 3.0 port that you can use to attach a mouse or other input device to. Our sister site CNET lists some additional specs, including either 2GB or 4GB of RAM and either 60GB or 120GB SSD.

Priced starting at $799.99 and available now, the P3 might be a better alternative for some users than dedicated Windows 8 tablets for a similar cost, as you essentially get a bigger screen and a keyboard and case/cover in a 3-pound package. If nothing else, it delivers on the promise of Windows 8 ushering in some different types of portable devices.
 

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita - NYC's Met To Return 2 10th-Century Stone Statues

Source - http://abcnews.go.com
By - Press Release
Category - Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita

Two ancient stone statues that have been on display in a New York City museum for nearly 20 years are being returned to Cambodia.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art said Friday the 10th-century Koh Ker stone statues are being returned after researchers discovered new evidence about how they were acquired.

The statues are called "Kneeling Attendants." The Met says the decision to return them was made after a recent meeting between museum officials and representatives of the Cambodian government in their country's capital, Phnom Penh (puh-NAHM' pehn).

The Met says it received the statues in pieces from different donors between 1987 and 1992.

A 1993 Cambodian law prohibited the removal of cultural artifacts without government permission.

Cambodian officials have claimed a similar statue was looted from a temple in Koh Ker, a remote region in the north.

Hotels In Northern California - Facebook Turns Friends Into IT Support

Source - http://www.informationweek.com/
By - Thomas Claburn
Category - Hotels In Northern California
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

Just as companies have warmed to the financial benefits of employee-supplied devices and have embraced the rent savings of offices that are open but smaller under the pretense of promoting interaction, Facebook has recognized the economic and security promise of deputizing users to provide customer support.

The social network, ever keen to increase user engagement, wants you to designate friends as Trusted Contacts who can restore access to your Facebook account "if you ever have trouble logging in." Don't call us, call a friend.

 Why might you have trouble logging in? Facebook doesn't say. A hacked account is one possibility, but presumably anyone who hijacks your account could alter your Trusted Contact list. And Facebook maintains a separate account reset process for hacked accounts, at facebook.com/hacked.

The most common scenario for resorting to Trusted Contacts is a forgotten password. This could be a relatively frequent occurrence, given that Facebook tends to keep users logged in, thereby obviating the need to type one's password and making it easier to forget.

Account recovery processes, however, have a long history of insecurity. For example, in 2008, the Yahoo Mail account of then vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was hacked when a University of Tennessee student reset the account password by answering what turned out to be obvious password recovery questions. The following year, Yahoo Mail's account recovery process was abused again to gain control over a Twitter administrative account.

A Facebook spokeswoman in an email said that there are also occasions when users lose access to the email account through which they log in to Facebook.

Facebook in a blog post suggests that the Trusted Contact account recovery process represents an improvement on answering security questions. "With trusted contacts, there's no need to worry about remembering the answer to your security question or filling out long web forms to prove who you are," the company says. "You can recover your account with help from your friends."

There's another security benefit too: Account compromises often occur as a result of social engineering attacks. While customer service personnel can be tricked into revealing personal information by people posing as account holders, friends presumably are less likely to be duped by an imposter soliciting sensitive data.

With Trusted Contacts, Facebook support personnel can expect fewer emails from users who can't log in to get their their social fix. What's more, Trusted Contacts could create a user retention halo effect: Users will probably be less likely to drift away from Facebook when their friends have entrusted them with the keys to their accounts.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Intel Names 30-year Veteran as New Chief

Source - http://www.ft.com/
By - Chris Nuttall
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

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has promoted 30-year veteran Brian Krzanich to the role of chief executive, as the world’s largest chipmaker by sales navigates a post-PC world dominated by smartphones and other mobile devices.

The Silicon Valley company’s chief operating officer will succeed Paul Otellini at this month’s annual meeting, becoming only the sixth person to lead Intel in its 45-year history.

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Intel broke with tradition when it appointed Mr Otellini, its first non-engineer in the top job. However, Mr Krzanich is steeped in Intel’s core manufacturing operations, having joined in 1982 as an engineer and rising to manage one of its “fabs”, the fabrication plants that produce its processors from silicon wafers.

His appointment will increase speculation that Intel could focus on growing this side of its business to become more of a foundry for outside companies, given its lead in the miniaturisation of chips.

Intel’s processors are in four out of every five PCs sold, but that market slumped a record 14 per cent in the first quarter as consumers turned to tablets and smartphones.

Mr Otellini had focused on reducing the power demands of the company’s processors to make them more appealing to those markets. However, Intel has made little impression with device manufacturers, which have preferred the chip designs of the UK’s Arm.

Mr Otellini, 62, who joined Intel in 1974 and who has been chief executive since May 2005, sensed that the company was at a pivotal point when in November he announced his decision to retire so “a new generation” of leaders could face the mobile challenge.

Mr Krzanich, 52, said Intel was well positioned to expand into mobile markets. “We have the best silicon technology and the best factories in the world bar none . . . and so I think we’re perfectly poised for growth in that area and that is absolutely our intention," he said.

Andy Bryant, Intel chairman, said Mr Krzanich was a strong leader with a passion for technology. “He has the right combination of knowledge, depth and experience to lead the company during this period of rapid technology and industry change.”

Nathan Brookwood, analyst at the Insight 64 consultancy, said moves by Intel to become more of a foundry for outside companies could be a good alternative if its mobile processor designs failed to have much impact.

“One of the things that Intel really needs to look at is how it can tie up with some of the key fabless chip suppliers, which are Arm-based companies like Apple and Qualcomm, in order to leverage its manufacturing strengths, even if it doesn’t get to leverage its processor design strength,” he said.

Intel has a handful of partnerships making chips for companies that do not compete with it on PC microprocessors, including Altera, Cisco Systems and Microsemi.

Mr Otellini had combined the roles of president and chief executive, but Intel announced that Renee James, 48, would become president. She has been an executive vice-president in charge of Intel’s software business.

Intel shares, which have fallen 18 per cent over the past year, rose 0.5 per cent to $24.11.

Budget Hotel in Santa Clarita | "Samsung Galaxy S 4 is Loaded With Gee Whiz Features"

Source:     http://www.usatoday.com/

By:            Edward C. Baig

Category:  Budget Hotel in Santa Clarita

Posted by: Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotel in Santa Clarita

NEW YORK — You get the impression that Samsung is auditioning for a Las Vegas magic act. When it comes to the brand new Galaxy S 4, the South Korean electronics giant seemingly has an endless bag of parlor tricks. The smartphone is the highly anticipated successor to the Galaxy S III and I like it a lot, even if some of the new features come off as "look what we can do" as opposed to "look how we can make your experience better."

Want to answer a call or skip a song with the wave of your hand? Go right ahead. Want to pause a video by looking away from the screen? You can do that, too. Did someone walk in front of your family just as you were capturing the perfect pose? Poof — the interloper can be made to disappear from the picture. You can also use your phone as a remote control for your television — whether the TV is from Samsung or not — and receive recommendations of what to watch.

Samsung's latest phone is loaded with so many stunts that the company wisely starts folks out with a "learn about key features" wizard. Newbies can also go with a newly enhanced "Easy Mode" home screen, with a simpler layout and bigger icons than the standard screens. An improved notifications panel can also make it a little easier to tame the device.

Some of the features on the S 4 launched on prior Galaxys, and perhaps you even took advantage of them. For example, there's S Beam, in which you can exchange data with a friend by bumping your Galaxy phone against his or hers. 

But the S 4 is teeming with fresh capabilities. Some are fun and innovative, such as a dual-shot photography feature that lets you simultaneously snap a picture using the 13-megapixel front camera and 2-megapixel rear camera. You can see your own face beaming in an image that also shows your kid whacking the ball in Little League. But several other "touch-less" features weren't always functional or easy to figure out. (Samsung has embedded eight sensors on the device.) 

That's not to diminish what taken as a whole is a handset worth coveting. There's good reason Samsung's Galaxy smartphones have climbed to the top of the Android charts and emerged as the leading competitor to Apple's iPhone. Some features may be gimmicky, but this is still a phone you're going to want.

The S 4 hardware is state of the art, even if the plastic-y back, which feels just like the S III, doesn't quite have the premium feel of another recent new Android rival, the HTC One. The speakers aren't as good as HTC's, either.

Samsung certainly has no reason to apologize for the S 4's beautiful 5-inch full HD Super Amoled (1920 x 1080) display, which is fortified by an advanced version of protective Gorilla Glass. At less than a third of an inch thick, the phone is more svelte than the S III and, at 4.6 ounces, a hair lighter. 

Even at that, Samsung has been able to pack in a more powerful battery, which, as a bragging point against the iPhone, can be replaced by the user. When the back cover is removed, you can also slide in an optional microSD card to bolster the 16 GB or 32 GB of on-board storage by up to 64 GB.

The S 4 has a powerful quad-core processor. It runs Android version 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

Devices start arriving Thursday and will eventually be available in the U.S. from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, as well as from U.S. Cellular, Cricket and C Spire. Major retailers will also carry it.

AT&T is selling the 16 GB version for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Sprint is trying to lure new customers with an incentive that drops the cost to $149.99. That's what T-Mobile will charge upfront on top of monthly payments under its new pricing structure. (I tested the T-Mobile version of the phone but couldn't tap into 4G LTE since that network is not available yet on T-Mobile in and around New York City.) Verizon starts pre-orders on Thursday for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with availability May 30.

Some of the coolest new features come with the camera. I especially liked the dual-camera mode for combining images from the front and rear cameras into one, though it was sometimes a challenge to frame the image just right. Your mug appears in a small resizable rectangle that you can drag about the screen.

"Drama shot" was also pretty nifty. You can take a picture of your kid running the bases or doing a somersault — the idea is you're tracking movement. The camera can take up to 100 images in a burst. Once processed, you can choose which of the frames ought to be combined in the final picture, which shows the

I wasn't able to test every last feature on the phone, including Group Play, which lets you play games or share files with other people nearby who also have the device. Then again, I can't imagine using every last feature anyway. For all the fancy tricks, the real magic comes from sticking to the basics on what is a very appealing phone.