The EPIC hotel in Miami has stopped booking new guests after one guest died and two more fell ill from contracting Legionnaire's Disease at the hotel earlier this fall.

The EPIC, a Kimpton Hotel, has transferred all current guests to nearby hotels while the Miami-Dade Health Department investigates the situation. Legionnaire's disease is an acute respiratory infection usually contracted from infected water delivery systems.

Earlier this year, the EPIC made efforts to improve its drinking water throughout the hotel. The Miami Herald reports: "An investigation this week by county and state officials revealed that the hotel had installed a water filter powerful enough to remove chlorine from its city-supplied water, a move that encouraged bacterial growth."

The hotel has been closed indefinitely to new guests but remains open while hotel staff and the health department resolve the issue. The hotel posted a note on its website detailing the precautionary measures currently being taken:

• Immediate notification and communication of precautionary measures to guests and staff
• Relocation of guests to area hotels to maximize guest care and minimize inconvenience
• Efforts underway to notify future guests booked during this time, to make alternative arrangements
• Worked together with the health department to conduct a thorough inspection of the hotel's water system
• Proceeded with all remedial procedures in conjunction with the health department to restore full system operations

There is no immediate reopen date on the hotel's website.

Story via HotelChatter

EPIC Hotel guest dies after contracting Legionnaire's Disease originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bosh	Rihanna felt like �Britney Spears� after she was attacked by Chris Brown. Bosh She said: �I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears. That was the level of media chaos that happened the next day. ... and more »

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My colleague Deirdre Woollard has been entertainingly chronicling former baseball star Lenny Dykstra's travails in bankruptcy court. Now it seems the hard-charging athlete-turned-entrepreneur is trying to raise a little ready money by selling off some of his prized possessions. Among the lots at Patrizzi & Co.'s Dec. 14th Exceptional Watchmaking Masterpieces auction in NYC is Dykstra's 18K white gold Patek Philippe (above) made in 2004. The fine and rare annual calendar timepiece shows the phases of the moon and has a power reserve indication. Estimated at $28,000 - $ 35,000, it comes accompanied by a photograph of Dykstra playing with the New York Mets. Also included in the sale are two major pieces of Dykstra sporting memorabilia: a 1986 New York Mets World Series trophy and plaque, estimated at $18,000 - $25,000; and a Silver Slugger Award from 1993 with a Louisville Slugger bat and National League Player of the Week 1990 plaque, estimated at $12,000 - $16,000.

Filed under: Timepieces, Auctions, Celebrity Shopping, Sports, Wealth

Lenny Dykstra's Patek Philippe and More at Auction originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CBC.ca

Courtney Love Loses Custody of Daughter She Shares With Kurt Cobain Gather.com Less than a week ago, Love reportedly posted a statement on her Facebook account accusing Jamie Spears of sexually abusing his daughter pop star Britney ... Courtney Love Loses Legal Guardianship Of Her Daughter To Kurt's FamilyX17 Online (blog) all 187 news articles »

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Filed under: Blogging, Web services, Microblogging

Megablogging, meet microblogging. WordPress now supports posting to and reading your WordPress blogs through any Twitter client that allows custom APIs. Following a WordPress blog on Twitter means you get snippets and links to new posts, just like you'd get any other tweet. Connecting your own WordPress blog to Twitter means you can tweet and blog simultaneously.

WordPress' Matt Mullenweg wrote a blog post explaining how to connect Twitter and Wordpress using Tweetie 2 on the iPhone. Basically, you just need to find your Twitter client's Custom API settings (for Tweetie 2, they're behind the little gear icon on the Add Account screen) and enter https://twitter-api.wordpress.com/ as the API root.

WordPress can also attach geotagging information from Twitter to your posts, if your client supports it. If you've got multiple blogs, you can go to the profile settings in your WordPress dashboard and choose which one to associate with each of your Twitter accounts. We're used to thinking of tweeting and blogging as two separate things, but the WordPress team sees them as closely related, and API support is a pretty cool extension of that philosophy.

Wordpress enables posting and reading via Twitter API originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unorthodox media center PCs aren't anything new; if you can dream it up, there's most likely an option out there with your name on it. Piixl's newest entry, however, has a fairly decent shot at appealing to more than just the home theater junkies, but only time will tell if the London-based startup can convince consumers that they really need another slab of machinery behind their flat-panel. The EdgeCenter 3770 is essentially an ultraslim HTPC with an enclosure that's engineered to mount directly behind flat-panel HDTVs through their VESA mounting interface. The whole thing is just 30mm deep and can fit screens ranging from 37- to 70-inches, and if you're worried about it being underpowered, don't be. The base configuration is equipped with a 3Ghz Core 2 Duo chip, while Core i5 and Core i7 options (not to mention discrete GPUs) are available for those with the spare poundage. Interested parties can order theirs now starting at £2,490 ($4,043), though it's frighteningly easy to push that well into five figure territory.

Continue reading Piixl EdgeCenter 3770 media PC slides behind your flat panel, doesn't get the attention it deserves

Piixl EdgeCenter 3770 media PC slides behind your flat panel, doesn't get the attention it deserves originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at Engadget HD, we'd prefer not to just focus on high-def happenings in the US of A. Thus, we round up the best of the best from the international front each week and present it here, bundled together in a single, easy to digest list. If something went down in your corner of the globe over the past seven days (or few weeks,) let the rest of the world know it in comments. 'Til next week, Totsiens!

Read - City's ITV studio saved in revamp (UK)
Read - The Movie Network launches two more high-definition channels (Canada)
Read - CTV British Columbia goes high definition
Read - Bell TV dropping standard definition satellite receivers
Read - Sky Deutschland focuses on HD
Read - Behind the scenes with Sky 3D TV
Read - Foxtel remote record from your iPhone
Read - Astro to go HD (Malaysia)
Read - Freesat: Canvas could bring us HD VOD
Read - SA sports fans to get dedicated HD channel this month
Read - Verismo Networks and Net2Vu Team Up to Bring Internet TV to the Caribbean
Read - NHK, Nat Geo Collaborate on HD Series
Read - Rogers widens its lead in bringing Canadians the most HD choices and more HD channels
Read - Freesat reveals high def highlights for Christmas (UK)
Read - Viewers must wait for HD Freeview boxes (UK)
Read - ORF LAUNCHES SECOND HD CHANNEL ON ASTRA (Germany)
Read - Humax Freeview HD 2010 line unveiled! (UK)
Read - E4 HD to launch on Sky (UK)
Read - Penthouse HD launched on KabelBW
Read - AP puts HD news production on the backburner
Read - Enhanced 'HD' sports coverage on DirecTV (Trinidad & Tobago)

International HD news roundup originally appeared on Engadget HD on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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