Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita - Turning To Your Phone For a Better Night’s Sleep

Source            - http://www.nytimes.com/
By                   - KIT EATON
Category        - Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By       - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita

I’m terrible at sleeping. Over the years, I have tried various remedies and tricks, and they haven’t helped. I figured there wasn’t much I could do about my problem until I discovered sleep-aid smartphone apps. 

My favorite is Sleep Cycle, a $2 iOS app. Although this app doesn’t help get you to sleep, it does help you learn about your sleep habits. It’s also designed to wake you at just the right point in your sleep cycle, when you’re sleeping lightly, so you won’t feel that familiar sinking sensation after your alarm clock jerks you awake. 

The app is meant to work with your phone set on your mattress. It uses the iPhone’s sensors to monitor movements, recording when you were in different phases of sleep — from light to deep. In the morning, you get a time graph showing how well you managed to stay in deep sleep. 

There’s a notes section for each night’s data, so you can track if drinking a cup of tea upsets your sleep or if your sleep patterns are related to stress. If you’re really interested in detailed analysis of your sleep habits you can export the data to an Excel spreadsheet. 

The app’s instructions are easy to follow, and the interface is easy to use. I’ve found it usually wakes me when I’m feeling well rested. It does take a while to get used to this, because it means you’re awakened in a window around your chosen alarm time instead of, say, at 7:30 a.m. sharp. Perhaps my only criticism is the app’s array of soothing alarm sounds can get tiresome, but you can also set it to use your downloaded music.

A very similar free app on Android is Sleepbot. It also uses your device’s motion sensors to track your sleep patterns, and can wake you gently when you’re in light sleep. Its interface isn’t quite as polished nor as easy to use as Sleep Cycle’s, but this app is more powerful. 

You can set target sleep times and see over several days if you have a sleep deficit, and you can set a reminder to go to bed. It also has a sound-monitoring function so you can see if there are noises that disturb your sleep, or how your sleep correlates to quiet environments. 

Another way apps can help you sleep is by playing soothing sounds for a time and then quietly shutting off.

One of my favorite sleep apps is Simply Rain, a $1 iOS app that plays soothing rain sounds. Its interface has a large slider to control the sound volume and a small slider to adjust the intensity of the rain. 

You can choose to have different intensities of thunder sounds in the mix, and set the app to oscillate the volume to simulate the variation in a real rain shower. There’s also a simple sleep timer. I find I fall asleep easily to this sort of white noise, but it may not suit you. 

For alternative sleep sounds try Sleep Pillow Sounds, a $2 iOS app with sounds like rain on water, crackling fires or lapping waves on the shore. You can even layer these sounds on top of one another. 

The app has a cute, graphic-heavy interface and a sleep timer, but the timer has a maximum setting of only 75 minutes. It’s also possible to notice patterns in the sounds, and that may bother you. 

On Android, Relax and Sleep is a similar app. It has an impressive array of sounds, like wolf cries and a rocking chair. 

You can layer multiple sounds, setting each sound at a desired intensity. The repetitive nature of some of the sounds seemed more irritating than relaxing, but your mileage may vary. 

Finally, I’ve learned listening to audiobooks can help me sleep — it’s like being read a bedtime story. Audiobooks from Audible (free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone) are my sleep weapon of choice because of the huge selection of titles and the sleep timer function. I also use it with a sleep-monitoring app. 

Audible’s one downside is that the price of some of the audiobooks may surprise you: The first Game of Thrones book is nearly $32, unless you sign up for one of the app’s monthly membership options. 

Quick Call

Microsoft has released a suite of Bing-related apps for Windows Phone 8 devices that bring real-time news alerts on finance, news, sports and weather. These apps are free.

Hotels In Northern California - Samsung Brings Dual View Feature To OLED TV

Source - http://www.usatoday.com/
By - Mike Snider
Category - Hotels In Northern California
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

The OLED TV competition is heating up.

Samsung has joined LG Electronics in offering the long-awaited organic light-emitting diode TVs. Samsung's new 55-inch curved display, priced at $9,000 (actually $8,999.99), is shipping to retailers and is also available to order on Samsung.com.

The TV and electronics maker, which, like LG, is based in South Korea, had originally priced the set to arrive in the U.S. at $15,000 — the same price as that of LG's curved OLED display that began arriving in stores last month. Samsung says it improved its manufacturing process enough to yield displays more efficiently and decided to drop the price, undercutting LG in the process.

While still pricey, the $9,000 price tag could help Samsung gain OLED market share, which, in turn, could lead to LG cutting its OLED price, says Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group. "It makes it easier to sell it to a spouse or put it on a credit card," he says. "I'm sure we'll see LG do something to bridge the gap or beat it."

Samsung's set has a unique MultiView feature that lets two people watch different programming simultaneously on the display while wearing 3-D glasses. "Some of us at Samsung call it 'the marriage saver' because my wife and I can be sitting on the couch watching two different programs on the same OLED TV," says David Das, vice president of home entertainment for Samsung Electronics America.

Each person has personal ear bud headphones built into the 3-D glasses (two pairs come with the set) that deliver individual audio streams to the viewer.

The half-inch thick display, like the new LG OLED TV, has a concave shape. "It actually mimics that of an arena or amphitheater," Das says.

Consumers have coveted OLED TVs since they first were shown more than five years ago, because the super-thin displays reproduce super-saturated colors, ultra-distinct blacks and whites and virtually no motion blur. But they have been hard to manufacture.

As few as 20,000 OLED displays may be shipped globally this year, estimates DisplaySearch analyst Ken Park. He expects that to grow to about 400,000 in 2014, before approaching 2 million in 2015. "Consumers may find it difficult to pay for hugely expensive OLED TVs, so volume will be limited until mass production is fully stabilized," Park says.

But OLED's promise remains because of the picture quality. "The images were very bright, well above what we've seen from any plasma TV, so you get an unparalleled contrast range that makes images pop off the screen," says Jim Willcox, senior electronics editor at Consumer Reports, who got to test the display.

Willcox calls the display "arguably the best all-around TV we've ever tested." He's looking forward to putting LG's competing curved display through its paces.

But because of the high price and difficulty of manufacturing, he says, "all OLED TV manufacturers face formidable challenges before these sets can become a mainstream choice for consumers."

Samsung also announced that retailers were now offering two new Ultra HD displays, a 55-inch model ($5,500) and 65-inch model ($7,500). Consumers could be overwhelmed by choice with new OLED and Ultra HD sets joining traditional big-screen flat-panel displays at retail, so Samsung will have detailed descriptions in stores.

"We feel that each of these technologies meets a certain consumer's needs," Das says. "Ultra HD offers the highest resolution, four times that of full HD; and in OLED, it is this amazing picture quality. It stops people in their tracks."

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Rich People Have Different Toxins In Their Bodies

Source - http://finance.yahoo.com/
By - Brandon Ballenger
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

For some reason, British researchers were interested in which poisons Americans’ bodies contain. What they found surprised them.

A team from the University of Exeter found that being wealthy doesn’t mean you live in a nontoxic environment. Actually, it means you have a higher risk of exposure to certain chemicals, U.S. News & World Report says.

Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers looked for associations between income level and 179 toxins found in the body. “The researchers found that, among 18 toxins that appeared to be associated with income, half were more likely to be present in richer Americans than those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum,” U.S. News says. Here are some of the chemicals wealthier people had higher levels of:

• Mercury.
• Arsenic.
• Caesium.
• Thallium.
• Perfluorinated chemicals.

These likely come from sources like fish and shellfish consumption, dental fillings, and fresh or home-grown fruits and vegetables, U.S. News says. Wealthy people also have higher levels of BP3, a toxin from sunscreen that may actually increase the risk of skin cancer, Quartz says.

Here’s what poorer people are more likely to encounter:

• Lead.
• Cadmium.
• Antimony.
• Toxins in plastic.

These chemicals probably come from smoking, poor air and water quality, or jobs in construction, manufacturing and other industrial settings.

“In some ways, in moving up the economic ladder Americans are simply trading one set of environmental toxins for another,” Quartz says.

But despite the findings, the risks are far from equal, U.S. News says. For the wealthier class, many toxins are avoidable: More money can be spent on higher quality products with fewer chemicals, and they can live in less toxic neighborhoods. For the working class, many toxins are an inescapable fact of life.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Cellphone Use While Driving May 'not' Be Hazardous

Source - http://www.dvice.com/
By - Adario Strange
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

The perils of texting while driving have become so obvious to many nations with large driving populations that laws have sprouted up in recent years outlawing such behavior in a number of cities. In fact, the idea that driving while using gadgetry is dangerous is so widely accepted that even Google Glass, a product that isn't even widely available yet, is already facing scrutiny related to road safety in some parts. That said, a new study offers a surprising counter narrative that threatens to upend the notions surrounding safety concerns while using mobile devices in cars.

The study, conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics, concludes that, contrary to popular belief, talking on a cellphone while driving does "not" increase the risk of automobile crashes. Using calling and crash data from approximately 8 million crashes across nine states from a period between 2002 to 2005, the study found no direct correlation between increased cellphone use after 9 p.m. (a time when a discount-related uptick in phone usage was detected) and actual crash rates.

Citing the results from the study, researcher Saurabh Bhargava said, "While our findings may strike many as counterintuitive, our results are precise enough to statistically call into question the effects typically found in the academic literature. Our study differs from most prior work in that it leverages a naturally occurring experiment in a real-world context."

These findings also fly in the face of recent research by AAA that indicated that even minimal distractions from mobile devices while driving can be dangerous. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this new study is only related to talking on a cellphone. It did not study the potential dangers of texting or surfing the Internet on your mobile device while driving.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - 5 Things: Why Does Your Dog Yawn So Much?

Source - http://nashua.patch.com/
By -  Carol Robidoux
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

1. Someone Gets Paid to Study This:  In a study published Wednesday in the open access journal PLOS ONE, University of Tokyo researchers say dogs are more responsive to their owners' yawns than to a stranger's yawn -- a sign that dogs are more empathetic than previously understood. In the study, 25 dogs were observed in their owners' homes. Researchers recorded their responses to watching their owners yawn, then watching an unfamiliar researcher yawn. They yawned nearly fives times more often in response to their owners' yawns.

2. Christie v. Rubio in a NH Popularity Poll: Politico.com reports that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio lost favor with many New Hampshire voters in recent months while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie saw a surge in support, according to a poll released Aug. 6. Rubio dropped 9 percentage points since April and fell from first to fifth among likely GOP contenders for the 2016 election, according to a Granite State Poll, sponsored by WMUR-TV, and conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Rubio was the choice of 12 percent of voters in February and 15 percent in April, but just 6 percent in July.

3. Cocoa Boosts Memory: Drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day may help older people keep their brains sharp and improve their memory, U.S. researchers say. Study author Dr. Farzaneh A. Sorond of Harvard Medical School in Boston said the study involved 60 people with an average age of 73 who did not have dementia. Keeps the blood flowing, it seems.

4. George W. Gets Heart Healthier: President George W. Bush was hospitalized Tuesday morning after having a procedure to open a blocked heart artery. The procedure was successful, and according to Bush's office, the 67-year-old former president should be able to "resume his normal schedule on Thursday." including a statement issued by Bush's office.

5. Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks: This letter to the Animal Doc Michael Fox in WaPo dispels the long-running adage that you can't teach a dog new tricks. I like it when that happens.

Meeting Space Santa Clarita - China Trade Growth Supports Shares, Dollar Weak

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Richard Hubbard
Category - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By -  Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

The better tone ended three days of steady falls in MSCI's world equity index .MIWD00000PUS caused by expectations the Federal Reserve could soon start to wind down its stimulus program, which has driven this year's rally in stocks.

"A lot of risk assets over the past few weeks have been on a negative trend, and I think a few people are thinking this Chinese data is an opportunity to buy," said Angus Campbell, market analyst at FXPro.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.8 percent after the Chinese data, recovering more than half of Wednesday's losses, while Europe's shares .FTEU3 edged up about 0.1 percent in early dealing.

A rise in German exports for June, coming after startling jumps in industry orders and factory output, added to the steadier tone and raised hopes Europe's largest economy could record a bounce in growth.

"Exports are likely to rise more strongly in the second half of the year because euro zone countries such as Italy and Spain will have stabilized, said Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit Group.

With the Chinese data raising hopes of better demand for raw materials, the commodities-linked Australian dollar rose 0.9 percent to $.09073 and copper hit its highest in nearly two months

The U.S. dollar languished at a seven-week low against a basket of major currencies as yields on Treasury bonds eased back from highs reached on talk the Fed may begin to trim its bond purchases as early as next month. <FED/>

Investors have been betting the Fed would be well ahead of other central banks in scaling back its easy money policy, but inconclusive economic data and mixed comments from Fed officials in recent weeks mean the timing of the move is still unclear.

The dollar index .DXY dropped to 81.167, bringing its losses to 4 percent in just a month while the euro rose to a seven-week high of $1.3353.

Ten-year German bond yields eased in line with the U.S. Treasury market moves, dipping 2.2 basis points to 1.67 percent.

Traders said news out of Japan was also supportive of euro zone government debt, analysts said.

Japanese investors piled into foreign bonds in July, making their biggest net purchase in three years - early evidence that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's expansionary policies are having the desired effect.

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita - Some Blood Pressure Drugs May Raise Breast Cancer Risk

Source - http://news.yahoo.com/
By - Bahar Gholipour
Category - Family Hotels In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita

Taking one type of high blood pressure medication might increase women's risk of breast cancer, a new study suggests.

The researchers found women in the study who had been taking calcium-channel blockers to treat high blood pressure for more than 10 years were 2.5 times more likely to have breast cancer, compared with women who did not use blood pressure medication, or who used other types.

"While the results are intriguing, we really need to wait until we see confirmatory studies before we make any kind of recommendations," said study researcher Dr. Christopher Li, an epidemiologist and breast cancer researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"People should absolutely not stop taking their medication," Li said.

About 1,900 women with breast cancer participated in the study, as well as about 850 women with no cancer who served as the control group. The researchers didn't find a link between an increased breast cancer risk and other types of high blood pressure medications, such as beta-blockers or diuretics, according to the study published today (August 5) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Medications for treating high blood pressure, called antihypertensives, are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States with an estimated 678 million prescriptions filled in 2010, including 98 million prescriptions for calcium-channel blockers, the researchers said.

"This is not the first time that the specter of a link between [calcium-channel blockers] and breast cancer risk has arisen," Dr. Patricia Coogan,professor of epidemiology at Boston University, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study in the journal.

But previous studies had yielded mixed results. They did not have a sufficient number of participants, or did not investigate long-term use of antihypertensives. The new study "is a very well-done study and therefore there appears to be a hypothesis that now needs to be confirmed," Coogan said.

The study shows a link, but does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the drugs and breast cancer.

The evidence "is not at the stage where women should be panicking about taking these drugs," Coogan told LiveScience.

Calcium-channel blockers work by slowing the movement of calcium into muscle cells, which dilates blood vessels, reduces the force of the heart's contractions and slows the heartbeat.

In deciding which drug to use to treat a patient's high blood pressure, doctors may consider how the patient responds to different medications, and their other conditions.

"There are people who don't tolerate some of the other classes of medications, and respond well to calcium-channel blockers," said Dr. Randy Wexler from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.

"We still have to look at things in terms of the overall risk. Don't forget that heart disease is still one of the biggest problems in the United States," Wexler said.

However, if patients are concerned, and because there are several classes of hypertensives, patients can certainly discuss their options with their physician, and look into alternative blood pressure treatments, Wexler said.

The next step in the current research would be to look at more groups of people who take blood pressure medications, as well as to better understand the underlying mechanism by which the calcium-channel blockers may affect cancer risk, the researchers said.

"Antihypertensives only came on the market in the past few decades, so there has not been sufficient number of long-term users of these medications," Li said.

"We are now getting to the point where we have enough people who've been exposed to these medications for long periods of time to evaluate such long-term potential risks," he said.