Obama drafts in Geithner to crack budget impasse

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has made Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lead White House negotiator in budget talks with Congress aimed at averting the fiscal cliff, a report said Monday.

The Wall Street Journal said Geithner was viewed on Capitol Hill as a straight-shooter who had a better chance of brokering a deal than Jacob Lew, Obama's former budget chief who has burnt his bridges with some Republicans.

If no deal is reached before the end of the year, a poison pill law of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

The report said Geithner, who is preparing to leave his post as treasury secretary early in Obama's second term, has spent months already preparing for the fiscal talks, which will begin this week in earnest in Washington.

Geithner will be joined by White House budget and tax experts, including Lew, now Obama's chief of staff, and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, the Wall Street Journal said.

They will try to hammer out an elusive compromise with congressional aides but final decisions will be made by political leaders such as Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the report said.

In recent days, several leading Republicans have indicated a willingness to accept a deal that includes more revenue from ending loopholes in the tax code in return for cuts in funding to Democrats' beloved welfare programs.

Geithner, 51, is not affiliated with any party and has spent his career in government finance and on the political sidelines.

He first joined the Treasury at age 27. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, he went to work for the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Monetary Fund.

At 42, he was tapped to be head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, considered the Fed's second-most influential post because the New York bank interacts directly with a powerful constituency that includes Wall Street.

Despite holding high office in the years leading up to the 2008 financial collapse, when regulatory authorities are accused of having been asleep at the wheel, he was tapped by Obama to lead the recovery.

Upon assuming office in early 2009, he was charged with overseeing two major bailout packages worth more than $1.5 trillion and aimed at shoring up the country's distressed banking sector.

The administration has said that the stimulus, while costly, averted another Great Depression, while conservative critics have branded it a costly expansion of government that has failed to revive the economy.

- AFP/fa

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Apple shares have fallen far enough, Citi says

Citi prefers to be optimistic when it comes to Apple.

It's not really alone in this (as the firm notes, 51 out of 56 analysts recommend investors buy Apple shares), but what is different is the optimism comes after a rough patch for Apple's stock.

Apple shares have dropped pretty badly over the past couple months -- down about 18 percent from a high of $705.07 in September -- but that decline is likely about over, Citi says.

The firm today started coverage on the electronics giant by recommending investors buy shares and saying the stock should reach $675 over the next 12 months. It notes that Apple shares typically climb 20 percent to 50 percent following selloffs similar to the most recent drop.

Apple's stock is bouncing a bit today following declines over the past couple months.

(Credit:
Google screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET)

Citi's opinion about Apple isn't much different from other analyst firms. It believes the giant's share of the smartphone market is at risk from low-end smartphones and competition from other ecosystems. It expects
tablets to grow, but that will hurt margins.

It also notes new competition is pressuring pricing, accelerates product introduction, and can hurt branding.

"Room for error is diminished, placing growing emphasis on execution," the firm noted.

All of those factors are making investors a little cautious, Citi said, and that likely will prevent shares from jumping as high as they have been. As a result, the firm says it is focusing on "incremental earnings changes," investing in periods of the great possible jump in earnings and selling shares when estimates show the greatest risk.

"This is tantamount to investing in 'product cycles,' and while we expect some investors will bristle at this approach, we believe returns will be optimized employing this approach in future," Citi said.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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President Obama Prepares for Cabinet Shuffle

Nov 26, 2012 6:45am

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

As President Obama prepares for his second term, preparations have begun for the traditional shuffling of the Cabinet.

Top priority for the president: filling slots for those top officials heading — if not running — for the door: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.

To replace Clinton, Democratic insiders suggest that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Susan Rice is the frontrunner, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also a viable candidate.

Rice has been harshly criticized by Republicans for the erroneous comments she made on Sunday news talk shows after the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, comments that were based on intelligence reports that falsely blamed the attack on a protest against an anti-Muslim video. When the president, during his recent press conference, offered a vociferous defense of Rice, many of those close to him began to suspect he was tipping his hand as to what he might decide.

To replace Geithner at Treasury, White House chief of staff Jack Lew is thought to have the inside track if he wants it, with other possibilities including Neal Wolin, the current deputy secretary of the Treasury and Lael Brainard, current under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.

Other informed sources suggest that there is consideration being given to a business/CEO type such as investor Roger Altman, former Time/Warner chair Richard Parsons, and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg.

Those are the two most pressing jobs to fill, with Clinton exhausted from a long stretch in government — eight years as first lady, eight as senator, and four as secretary of state — and the president having personally promised Geithner’s wife that he could leave as soon as possible after the election.

Any of the business/CEO types being discussed for treasury secretary could also serve as secretary of commerce, a position that for the Obama administration has proved as troublesome as the role of drummer in Spinal Tap. Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management & Budget, is said to be under consideration.

It’s too flip to refer to it as a consolation prize, but informed sources say that — with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also planning on leaving — Kerry could be offered the position secretary of defense if he wants it, though the Massachusetts senator has suggested he only wants State. Another option, Michelle Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense for Policy, would be the first female to serve in that position. There was some discussion of National Security Adviser Tom Donilon moving across the river, but it seems clear, sources say, that he’s staying where he is.

If Lew leaves to take the position at Treasury, some possible replacements for him as chief of staff include deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough or Vice President Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain. Tom Nides, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, has also been discussed.

President Obama’s senior adviser David Plouffe has also long discussed leaving the White House. There are many options to fill his shoes, including the elevation of communications director Dan Pfeiffer. Also possible: bringing back former press secretary Robert Gibbs, or former deputy chief of staff/campaign manager Jim Messina. Another option might be to bring in some of the people who were part of the messaging shop in the campaign — David Simus, who served as director of opinion research for the campaign, or Larry Grisolano, who did ads for campaign.

– Jake Tapper

SHOWS: World News

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Keystroke-logger checks your identity as you type

WHETHER an aggressive finger-jabber or a fluent touch-typist, the way you type says more about you than you might think. A biometric authentication system monitors the telltale timing gaps between the letters you type to continually verify your identity.

The traditional password is notoriously troublesome as a way of keeping your devices secure. Many people use simple, easy-to-guess passwords like qwerty or 123456, or reuse the same one across multiple services, putting only one line of defence in front of their entire digital life.

David Hibler of Christopher Newport University, Virginia, and colleagues designed software called URIEL, which uses the average time between keystrokes as a surprisingly accurate way of identifying an individual. The software learns the user's typing style by measuring the time between key presses over 10 areas of the keyboard as a user types, and learns who they are as they type words from a specific ...

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Portugal MPs to adopt unpopular austerity budget

LISBON: Portugal's parliament is due to adopt on Tuesday a massively unpopular 2013 budget that will make unprecedented austerity reforms in a bid to satisfy international creditors helping the country fight off economic collapse.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's centre-right government has a comfortable majority in parliament, virtually guaranteeing the budget will pass.

But lawmakers will face anger from many constituents, with a protest outside parliament against "austerity and recession" called by the country's main labour federation, the CGTP.

The CGTP organised a crippling general strike on November 14, a day of anti-austerity protests across southern Europe that boiled over into sporadic clashes -- including in Portugal, where protests outside parliament turned violent, leaving 50 people wounded.

Police officers, soldiers, firefighters and students have also staged major protests in recent weeks as public angst over the country's dire economic straits has grown.

The Portuguese economy, in recession since 2010, is expected to contract by three percent this year and one percent in 2013, while unemployment hit a record 15.8 percent of the workforce in the third quarter of this year.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund granted the country rescue funding of 78 billion euros ($100 billion) in May 2011 in exchange for drastic economic reforms aimed at reducing the country's swollen public deficit and debt.

But the austerity underpinning the reforms is weighing heavily on economic activity and the government's ability to fight unemployment.

The new budget aims at 5.3 billion euros in additional savings, achieved in part through further spending cuts but mostly through a tax hike that even Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar acknowledged is "enormous".

Next year, the government will also introduce a package of state reforms seeking to cut public spending by another four billion euros by the end of 2014.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warmly praised the government for its efforts at reform during a visit to Portugal this month, and the country has just passed a new quarterly audit by its creditors, the EU, IMF and European Central Bank -- the so-called "troika".

But the IMF has acknowledged the country faces serious economic risks.

"The near-term outlook is uncertain, and sizeable medium-term economic challenges remain," said an IMF statement on November 20.

As the government fights an uphill battle to cut spending and raise tax revenues wherever it can, the IMF said the success of Portugal's international rescue plan would depend in part on a factor beyond the country's control: the economic environment across the 17-nation eurozone.

The Socialist opposition has for its part condemned the austerity policies as "excessive", despite signing off on the international rescue plan.

"The deficit is not under control, the debt has risen to nearly 120 percent (of gross domestic product), unemployment is the highest in our history and the economy is collapsing," Socialist party secretary-general Antonio Jose Seguro said Saturday.

-AFP/ac

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No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to $425 Million

Nov 25, 2012 10:37am

                                                                (Image Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

The Powerball jackpot has swelled to $425 million, the largest in the lottery’s history, after no tickets matched the winning numbers in a drawing Saturday night.

The Powerball numbers for Saturday were 22-32-37-44-50, and the Powerball was 34.

Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the jackpot could get even bigger before Wednesday, because sales tend to increase in the run-up to a big drawing.

The previous top windfall was $365 million. The jackpot was claimed by eight co-workers in Lincoln, Neb., in 2006.

PHOTOS: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

While millions of Americans can have fun dreaming about how they’d spend the jackpot, the odds of winning are 1 in 175,000,000, according to lottery officials.

To put that in perspective, a ticket holder is 25 times less likely to win the jackpot then they are to win an Academy Award.

Even still, the old saying holds true: “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Papa pipefish's pregnancy good for young's immunity

MALE pipefish pregnancy may suit the females, but it's a real boon for their offspring.

In human fetuses, antibodies from the mother's egg and others that pass across the placenta help build its developing immune system. Sperm are too small to carry antibodies, so males aren't thought to contribute.

Not so in pipefish, where the male carries the pregnancy. To see if the immune priming might come from both the mother's egg and via the father's placenta-like structure, Olivia Roth at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and colleagues exposed lab-grown male and female broad-nosed pipefish to dead bacteria. The fish were then left to mate and the resulting offspring were later also exposed.

The young had the strongest immune response if both parents had been exposed to the bacteria, suggesting both provided antibodies (The American Naturalist, doi.org/jrq).

Pipefish may not be the only fathers that help build their offspring's immune system. Pigeons of both sexes have been shown to "lactate" antibody-rich "milk" in their crops for their chicks.

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Badminton: Lee, Chen in Hong Kong Open men's final

HONG KONG: Lee Chong Wei will meet Chinese second seed Chen Long in the final of the Hong Kong Open after the Malaysian world number one breezed past Japan's Kenichi Tago on Saturday.

The top-seed and Olympic silver medallist saw off sixth seeded Tago 21-19, 21-15 in 45 minutes, with the Malaysian smashing his way to the $350,000 Badminton World Federation Super Series tournament final.

Lee will face Chen after the latter beat unseeded Tommy Sugiarto from Indonesia 21-18, 21-10.

In the women's draw, China's top seed Wang Yihan overcame Germany's Juliane Schenk 21-8, 19-21, 21-15, to set up an all-Chinese final after her compatriot Li Xuerui defeated another Chinese player Wang Ling 21-12, 21-13.

In the men's doubles China's second seed Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng fended off a fierce challenge from compatriots Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 in a 62-minute encounter.

They will meet Malaysia's top pair Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong after they advanced to the finals beating Taipei's unseeded Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin 22-20, 21-13.

In the women's doubles, it will be another all-Chinese finals between top seed Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei and the controversial duo Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, who were disqualified during this summer's Olympic Games for playing to lose.

Yu, who along with Wang, raised eyebrows when she won last week's China Open, after apparently announcing her retirement a day after her expulsion in August.

But Yu on Tuesday denied she was quitting and said she now wants to focus on the sport.

-AFP/ac

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Are the Beatles groovy again?

The Beatles albums, recorded between 1963 and 1970, were made in the analog era. People all over the world enjoyed the Fab Four's music in a 100 percent all-analog state until 1986, when the entire catalog was digitally remastered. That was four years after the CD was introduced, and those not very good-sounding CDs sold in vast numbers in the 1980s, 1990s, and right up through 2009 when the catalog was remastered again in high-resolution 24-bit/192-kHz audio. Great, but the high-resolution versions of the albums remain safely in the vaults. The down-converted versions that were used to master the 16-bit/44.1 CDs in 2009 were used again to master the 14 new LPs on thick 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl (it was actually the 24-bit/44.1 master that was used for the LPs).

That's strange, but the engineers claim the analog masters are too fragile to withstand the rigors of mastering, but why go with the dumbed-down CD masters?

Whatever, the LPs are what they are, so I eagerly sliced open the shrink wrap and put the new "Rubber Soul," "White Album," and "Abbey Road" LPs on my VPI Classic turntable and listened. Well, they didn't sound like CDs, and that was a relief. The music is still great, but how did the digitized LPs compare with my analog originals? The new ones are different. They're a little warmer, and the new pressings aren't superquiet; there's more surface noise than I'd like. They're also no quieter than my old Japanese, American, or British LPs. Apparently, there have been major quality-control issues with the LPs. Amazon sells the new LPs for $23.98 each, and I don't think the new records justify the premium pricing. I recommend searching out the old all-analog British pressings.

Capitol Records/Apple Corps will host in-store Beatles LP listening events at high-end audio retailers in the following cities. Call to confirm the event is running as scheduled.

Monday, November 26, 7 p.m. at Audio Alternative in Lilburn, Ga.

Tuesday, November 27, 6 p.m. at Audio Concepts in Dallas, Texas

Wednesday, November 28, 7 p.m. at Whetstone Audio, Austin, Texas

Monday, December 3, 6 p.m. at Pro Musica in Chicago, Ill.

Tuesday, December 4, 6 p.m. at Goodwin's High End in Waltham, Mass.

Wednesday, December 5, 7 p.m. at In Living Stereo in New York, N.Y.

Thursday, December 6, 7 p.m. at Community Audio in Philadelphia, Pa.

Friday, December 7, 6 p.m. at Q in Home Entertainment in Fairfax, Va.

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