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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets.
Familiar themes for those who lived through 2011, and investors should be ready to revisit them next year.
With a spiraling debt crisis in Europe, political upheaval around the world, and crumbling creditworthiness in major industrial nations, 2011 was a tough year to know where to invest. 2012 is unlikely to offer much respite.
The S&P 500, a measure of the biggest U.S. companies' market value, spent much of the year getting pushed up and down, flummoxing shorts and longs - and scaring Moms and Pops away from stocks. In the end, it will finish about where it started.
But the S&P 500's tepid performance was encouraging, compared with other world equity markets. The United States may still be seen as a safe haven, though even that looks uncertain.
For every rally built on improving economic figures this year, selloffs were never far away on worries the European debt crisis would eventually drag the continent into a recession and perhaps the United States as well. That could continue in 2012.
China and other fast-growing emerging markets can no longer be leaned on as those economies slow. In 2011's last half, the poorest-performing sectors outside of banks were most connected to global growth - materials, energy and industrial companies.
"There is a growing realization that the global economy is in jeopardy," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co in Nashville. "There is uncertainty in every corner of the world."
That uncertainty fed substantial volatility in 2011. Despite the S&P's flat performance this year, there were 66 trading days when stocks moved in a 2 percent range. In 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed during a global financial crisis, there were more than 130 trading days when stocks swung that much. But that led to a flight from equities by retail investors.
U.S. equity funds had outflows in every month since May. More than $483 billion left U.S. mutual funds in 2011 through the year's second-to-last week, even though the U.S. market outperformed foreign stocks late in the game.
BEATING GLOBAL RIVALS
The S&P 500 was up just 0.3 percent for the year on Friday afternoon. In contrast, the MSCI world stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) fell 9 percent, while the FTSEurofirst-300 index (.FTEU3) slid nearly 11 percent.
The darlings in the emerging markets fared the worst. China's Shanghai Composite index (.SSEC) lost 22 percent, India's BSE (.BSESN) sank 25 percent, and Brazil's Bovespa (.BVSP) dropped 18 percent.
Strategists say the U.S. stock market may benefit from reasonable economic growth and attractive market valuation. The S&P 500 is expected to rise 6 percent by the end of 2012, according to the most recent poll of Wall Street strategists.
Volatility is likely to persist through early 2012 because of the uncertainty in Europe and rising concern about slowed earnings growth due to recent revisions.
The S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio - what investors are willing to pay for a dollar of earnings - is under 12, below the 25-year average of 15. In weaker markets like Germany's DAX, the figure is below 9.
"We're building in a massive recession into these numbers," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. in San Francisco.
U.S. companies cutting earnings' outlooks recently outpaced those raising theirs by the greatest ratio in 10 years. Some sectors, such as materials, have seen a sharp drop in forecasts for the fourth quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Last week, downbeat earnings from Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) shook confidence in the tech sector's health before the quarterly earnings season's start in January. Oracle joined a growing list of companies, including some of technology's biggest names, whose results and outlooks have set off alarm bells.
Next year, S&P 500 earnings are seen rising 9.9 percent, down from an estimate of 13 percent in October.
RECESSION FEARS
Many economists believe the euro zone is already in recession. They forecast that the economies of the 17-nation bloc will stagnate in 2012 after contracting in this year's fourth quarter and the first quarter of the next.
Investors are worried that Italy and Spain will have to keep refinancing borrowings at unsustainable levels early next year, which could escalate the crisis.
The correlation between the U.S. stock market and the euro skyrocketed in 2011 as investors tied bets on risky assets to the euro's moves. That trend ebbed as equities rallied near the end of the year, but it is likely to flare up again.
So far the U.S. economy has stayed on course for moderate growth. Economists expect it to expand by about 2.1 percent next year. But it is unclear how a slowdown in the rest of the world will affect the economy stateside.
The key may be China rather than Europe.
"China is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and is probably the most important country to watch in terms of their contribution to global growth," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.
Chinese business confidence is weakening. A survey showed export orders fell for the first time in nearly three years.
The drop in materials shares in 2011's second half reflects worry about declining activity overseas. The S&P Materials Index (.GSPM) lost nearly 14 percent in the last six months.
GRIDLOCK SHOCK
One of the pivotal events of 2011 was the downgrade of the United States' perfect triple-A credit rating. Standard & Poor's cited congressional bickering as the reason for the downgrade.
August's stalemate in Washington over raising the debt ceiling sparked a selloff that accelerated after the downgrade.
Investors expect the gridlock in Congress to get worse as the U.S. presidential election approaches in November. The election is likely to be close, which will not make legislative efforts to tackle high debt levels and weak demand any easier.
Rancor was in view again in December as Congress struggled to pass a two-month extension of U.S. payroll-tax cuts.
"There will be less certainty about taxation and regulation so that will inhibit business formation and business growth," said Brian Battle, a trader at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.
Goldman Sachs sees global growth highly susceptible in 2012 to even minor shocks - and those shocks may be political.
"Slowing growth (and in places outright contraction), public-sector cuts, and a renegotiation of the social compact between state and society in different parts of the world is an environment ripe for political turmoil," Goldman said in a note to clients.
(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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In this photo taken Dec. 2, 2011, Bill Dunphy poses for a photo in Phoenix. Dunphy, a 61-year-old small business owner, thought his colonoscopy would be free under the nation's year-old health care law. But when the doctor removed two non-cancerous polyps, turning a preventive screening into a diagnostic procedure, it allowed his insurance company to bill him $1,100. "That's bait and switch," Dunphy said. "If it isn't fraud, it's immoral." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this photo taken Dec. 2, 2011, Bill Dunphy poses for a photo in Phoenix. Dunphy, a 61-year-old small business owner, thought his colonoscopy would be free under the nation's year-old health care law. But when the doctor removed two non-cancerous polyps, turning a preventive screening into a diagnostic procedure, it allowed his insurance company to bill him $1,100. "That's bait and switch," Dunphy said. "If it isn't fraud, it's immoral." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this photo taken Dec. 2, 2011, Bill Dunphy poses for a photo in Phoenix. Dunphy, a 61-year-old small business owner, thought his colonoscopy would be free under the nation's year-old health care law. But when the doctor removed two non-cancerous polyps, turning a preventive screening into a diagnostic procedure, it allowed his insurance company to bill him $1,100. "That's bait and switch," Dunphy said. "If it isn't fraud, it's immoral." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this photo taken Dec. 2, 2011, Bill Dunphy poses for a photo in Phoenix. Dunphy, a 61-year-old small business owner, thought his colonoscopy would be free under the nation's year-old health care law. But when the doctor removed two non-cancerous polyps, turning a preventive screening into a diagnostic procedure, it allowed his insurance company to bill him $1,100. "That's bait and switch," Dunphy said. "If it isn't fraud, it's immoral." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In this photo taken Dec. 2, 2011, Bill Dunphy poses for a photo in Phoenix. Dunphy, a 61-year-old small business owner, thought his colonoscopy would be free under the nation's year-old health care law. But when the doctor removed two non-cancerous polyps, turning a preventive screening into a diagnostic procedure, it allowed his insurance company to bill him $1,100. "That's bait and switch," Dunphy said. "If it isn't fraud, it's immoral." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
CHICAGO (AP) ? Bill Dunphy thought his colonoscopy would be free.
His insurance company told him it would be covered 100 percent, with no copayment from him and no charge against his deductible. The nation's 1-year-old health law requires most insurance plans to cover all costs for preventive care including colon cancer screening. So Dunphy had the procedure in April.
Then the bill arrived: $1,100.
Dunphy, a 61-year-old Phoenix small business owner, angrily paid it out of his own pocket because of what some prevention advocates call a loophole. His doctor removed two noncancerous polyps during the colonoscopy. So while Dunphy was sedated, his preventive screening turned into a diagnostic procedure. That allowed his insurance company to bill him.
Like many Americans, Dunphy has a high-deductible insurance plan. He hadn't spent his deductible yet. So, on top of his $400 monthly premium, he had to pay the bill.
"That's bait and switch," Dunphy said. "If it isn't fraud, it's immoral."
President Barack Obama's health overhaul encourages prevention by requiring most insurance plans to pay for preventive care. On the plus side, more than 22 million Medicare patients and many more Americans with private insurance have received one or more free covered preventive services this year. From cancer screenings to flu shots, many services no longer cost patients money.
But there are confusing exceptions. As Dunphy found out, colonoscopies can go from free to pricey while the patient is under anesthesia.
Breast cancer screenings can cause confusion too. In Florida, Tampa Bay-area small business owner Dawn Thomas, 50, went for a screening mammogram. But she was told by hospital staff that her mammogram would be a diagnostic test ? not preventive screening ? because a previous mammogram had found something suspicious. (It turned out to be nothing.)
Knowing that would cost her $700, and knowing her doctor had ordered a screening mammogram, Thomas stood her ground.
"Either I get a screening today or I'm putting my clothes back on and I'm leaving," she remembers telling the hospital staff. It worked. Her mammogram was counted as preventive and she got it for free.
"A lot of women ... are getting labeled with that diagnostic code and having to pay year after year for that," Thomas said. "It's a loophole so insurance companies don't have to pay for it."
For parents with several children, costs can pile up with unexpected copays for kids needing shots. Even when copays are inexpensive, they can blemish a patient-doctor relationship. Robin Brassner of Jersey City, N.J., expected her doctor visit to be free. All she wanted was a flu shot. But the doctor charged her a $20 copay.
"He said no one really comes in for just a flu shot. They inevitably mention another ailment, so he charges," Brassner said. As a new patient, she didn't want to start the relationship by complaining, but she left feeling irritated. "Next time, I'll be a little more assertive about it," she said.
How confused are doctors?
"Extremely," said Cheryl Gregg Fahrenholz, an Ohio consultant who works with physicians. It's common for doctors to deal with 200 different insurance plans. And some older plans are exempt.
Should insurance now pay for aspirin? Aspirin to prevent heart disease and stroke is one of the covered services for older patients. But it's unclear whether insurers are supposed to pay only for doctors to tell older patients about aspirin ? or whether they're supposed to pay for the aspirin itself, said Dr. Jason Spangler, chief medical officer for the nonpartisan Partnership for Prevention.
Stop-smoking interventions are also supposed to be free. "But what does that mean?" Spangler asked. "Does it mean counseling? Nicotine replacement therapy? What about drugs (that can help smokers quit) like Wellbutrin or Chantix? That hasn't been clearly laid out."
But the greatest source of confusion is colonoscopies, a test for the nation's second leading cancer killer. Doctors use a thin, flexible tube to scan the colon and they can remove precancerous growths called polyps at the same time. The test gets credit for lowering colorectal cancer rates. It's one of several colon cancer screening methods highly recommended for adults ages 50 to 75.
But when a doctor screens and treats at the same time, the patient could get a surprise bill.
"It erodes a trust relationship the patients may have had with their doctors," said Dr. Joel Brill of the American Gastroenterological Association. "We get blamed. And it's not our fault,"
Cindy Holtzman, an insurance agent in Marietta, Ga., is telling clients to check with their insurance plans before a colonoscopy so they know what to expect.
"You could wake up with a $2,000 bill because they find that little bitty polyp," Holtzman said.
Doctors and prevention advocates are asking Congress to revise the law to waive patient costs ? including Medicare copays, which can run up to $230 ? for a screening colonoscopy where polyps are removed. The American Gastroenterological Association and the American Cancer Society are pushing Congress fix the problem because of the confusion it's causing for patients and doctors.
At least one state is taking action. After complaints piled up in Oregon, insurance regulators now are working with doctors and insurers to make sure patients aren't getting surprise charges when polyps are removed.
Florida's consumer services office also reports complaints about colonoscopies and other preventive care. California insurance broker Bonnie Milani said she's lost count of the complaints she's had about bills clients have received for preventive services.
"'Confusion' is not the word I'd apply to the medical offices producing the bills," Milani said. "The word that comes to mind for me ain't nearly so nice."
When it's working as intended, the new health law encourages more patients to get preventive care. Dr. Yul Ejnes, a Rhode Island physician, said he's personally told patients with high deductible plans about the benefit. They weren't planning to schedule a colonoscopy until they heard it would be free, Ejnes said.
If too many patients get surprise bills, however, that advantage could be lost, said Stephen Finan of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He said it will take federal or state legislation to fix the colonoscopy loophole.
Dunphy, the Phoenix businessman, recalled how he felt when he got his colonoscopy bill, like something "underhanded" was going on.
"It's the intent of the law is to cover this stuff," Dunphy said. "It really made me angry."
___
AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson
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It seems Samsung will stand by its original decision after all. However, there will be a slight change as Samsung is thinking of providing a Value Pack to Galaxy S users instead of a full-fledged Android 4.0 update.
Although the phone will stay at Android 2.3, the Value Pack will try to enhance some features like improved web browsing, multi-tasking, new widgets etc. to bring the experience as close as Ice Cream Sandwich.
Samsung earlier this month adopted a similar strategy for its Wave 525 and Wave 533 devices. Instead of offering bada 2.0 to both the devices, Samsung promised to provide a Value Pack upgrade which tries to offer the ?same bada 2.0 user experience and service as much as possible despite the hardware limitations.?
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Source: http://sammyhub.com/2011/12/28/galaxy-s-may-get-a-value-pack-upgrade-instead-of-android-4-0/
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City approves tax break for jobs
Times-Journal
Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan recommended the council approve the city's $18 million 2012 fiscal year budget. Jordan said the budget showed a deficit of $426000 but the city had $500000 due in the form of grant reimbursements. ...
Source: http://ftpayne.waff.com/news/news/65266-city-approves-tax-break-jobs
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UNITED NATIONS ? The General Assembly has approved a budget of $5.15 billion to cover the United Nations' regular operations in 2012-2013, cutting its two-year budget for the first time in 13 years by 5 percent.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who proposed a 3.2 percent budget cut in October, thanked the 193-member world body for agreeing to "cut fat" at a time when governments and people everywhere are struggling because of global financial difficulties.
He said he would instruct all managers to find new ways "to do more and better with less."
U.S. deputy ambassador Joseph Torsella called the budget agreement "historic," saying it was the first time since 1998 and only the second time in the last 50 years that the U.N. regular budget declined from the previous budget's actual expenses. The U.N. spent $5.41 billion in 2010-2011.
The United States pays 22 percent of the U.N.'s administrative budget, and Torsella said the new budget "saves the American taxpayers millions of dollars and sets the United Nations on the path of real fiscal discipline and continued reform."
Over the last 20 years, he said, the U.N.'s two-year budget increased by an average of 5 percent which means the new budget represents savings to American taxpayers of as much as $100 million.
U.N. peacekeeping operations are funded separately.
The regular operating budget was adopted Saturday after an all-night session.
General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser praised the "robust and constructive engagement" of all delegations in reaching consensus on a financial plan, saying the negotiating process had been "particularly challenging this year in the wake of global financial challenges."
Ban proposed a series of changes to improve the U.N.'s efficiency, a reduction of 44 staff posts, and cost-cutting for travel, consultants, general operating expenses, supplies, materials and equipment.
Torsella said the new budget advances U.N. reforms by providing additional resources for the U.N.'s watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, agreeing to webcast all U.N. formal committee meetings, and increasing cooperation among U.N. services such as interpretation and translation.
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CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egypt's prime minister appealed to Group of Eight countries on Monday to help unlock billions of dollars in aid promised in September but not yet delivered under an initiative to support countries of the Arab spring.
Army-backed Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, who was appointed in November, met ambassadors of G8 countries to tell them Egypt needed financial support immediately, Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr said.
Under the so-called Deauville partnership, G8 countries agreed to supply economic and political aid quickly to several Arab governments in return for commitments they would pursue democratic reforms.
The partnership, which also includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey and international organizations such the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has so far pledged about $80 billion in financing to Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan over the next two years.
"The prime minister met with the ambassadors of the G8 countries to discuss Egypt's urgent economic needs and what these countries can give Egypt within the framework of the Deauville partnership," Amr told reporters after the meeting.
"The prime minister shared with the ambassadors the government's plan to ensure security and stability on the streets," he added.
Ganzouri said last week that apart from $1 billion sent by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Egypt had received little of the promised aid.
Egypt has lost billions of dollars in revenue from tourism and investors, who were frightened away by the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February.
The financing under the Deauville partnership is mostly in the form of loans rather than outright grants, and is provided half by G8 and Arab countries and half by various lenders and development banks.
In June, Egypt negotiated a $3 billion financial package from the IMF in June, only for its ruling military council to reject it a few weeks later.
(Editing by Patrick Werr and Myra MacDonald)
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President Barack Obama salutes as he steps off of Air Force One at Hickam Air Force Base in Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama salutes as he steps off of Air Force One at Hickam Air Force Base in Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Fighting to win over unhappy American voters, President Barack Obama and his Republican challengers are seizing on one of the most potent issues this election season: the struggling middle class and the widening gap between rich and poor.
Highlighted by the Occupy movement and fanned by record profits on Wall Street at a time of stubborn unemployment, economic inequality is now taking center stage in the 2012 presidential campaign, emphasized by Obama and offering opportunities and risks for him and his GOP opponents as both sides battle for the allegiance of the angst-ridden electorate.
For Obama, who calls boosting middle-class opportunity "the defining issue of our time," the question is whether he can bring voters along ? while parrying GOP accusations of class warfare ? even though he's failed to solve the country's economic woes during his first term in office.
For Republicans, Obama's potential vulnerability gives them an opening, but they also must battle perceptions that their policies favor the wealthy at a time when voters support Obama's call to raise taxes on the very rich. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has already made clear he'll resist Obama's attempts to capitalize on the issue, adopting the language of Occupy Wall Street in an interview with the Washington Post this month where he called the president "a member of the 1 percent."
For both sides, the question is how to find political advantage in light of a weak economy with unemployment above 8 percent. Since Obama is expected to run for re-election with higher unemployment than any recent president even if the economy continues to show signs of improvement, he must aim to set the terms of the debate in a way that helps him and hurts the GOP ? while Republicans will be working just as hard to deny him any advantage.
The president won a year-end victory Friday with the passage of a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut that had bipartisan support in the Senate.
The measure will keep in place a 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security payroll tax ? worth about $20 a week for a typical worker making $50,000 a year ? and prevent almost 2 million unemployed people from losing jobless benefits averaging $300 a week.
House Republicans had unsuccessfully attempted to push for further negotiations toward a yearlong extension, which allowed Obama to argue for the two-month extension of the tax cuts and prevention of a pending tax increase. The two sides resume discussions on the payroll tax cut early next year.
Obama's campaign pressed its economic argument Friday in an op-ed by Vice President Joe Biden in The Des Moines Register where Biden, taking direct aim at Romney, wrote that the former Massachusetts governor "would actually double down on the policies that caused the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression and accelerated a decades-long assault on the middle class."
Romney, campaigning in New Hampshire, quickly countered that it's Obama who is hurting the country and expressed astonishment that Biden would have the "chutzpah ... the delusion" to write such a piece. "This president and his policies have made it harder on the American people and on the middle class," Romney said.
It was a preview of an argument certain to carry through the 2012 race, as the Obama campaign, viewing Romney as the likely GOP nominee even before any votes have been cast, works vigorously to define him early on, and Romney does everything he can to resist.
And the dispute taps into a striking reality. After-tax income grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007 for the top 1 percent of the population, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found in a report this fall. But for the 20 percent of the population making the least money, income growth over the same period was only 18 percent.
Obama "is viewed as more likely to help the middle class than is the GOP, so he can capitalize on this by playing on concerns about inequality and contrasting his positions and the GOP's on issues like tax cuts for the wealthy," John Sides, political science professor at George Washington University, said by email. "However," Sides added, "it's an open question whether that strategy would enable him to overcome a weak economy and win."
Aides say Obama has long been concerned with economic inequality given his background in community organizing. But he brought the issue into much sharper focus in a speech in Osawatomie, Kan., earlier this month, where he reprised a populist message delivered in the same town by Theodore Roosevelt decades ago, and decried a growing inequality between chief executives and their workers.
"This kind of inequality ? a level that we haven't seen since the Great Depression ? hurts us all," Obama said at the time.
"This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise that's at the very heart of America: that this is a place where you can make it if you try."
The issue has become a rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street movement that's swept the country, with activists proclaiming "We are the 99 percent" ? as opposed to the "1 percent" at the top. And Obama advisers have identified this sense of inequality as the strongest current running through politics, one that they will be focusing on through Election Day.
But some polling suggests a note of caution for Obama in pressing the inequality argument. Gallup found this month that a majority of Americans don't view the country as divided into haves and have-nots. The polling also found that more people thought it was important for the government to focus on growing and expanding the economy, (82 percent) and increasing equality of opportunity (70 percent) than on reducing the income and wealth gap between the rich and poor (46 percent).
"The middle class certainly believes that it's in trouble and rightly so, because it is," said Bill Galston, a former Clinton administration domestic policy adviser now at the Brookings Institution. "But they are yet to be convinced that going after the rich will go to the heart of the problems that now afflict them."
That may suggest an opening for some GOP attacks against Obama. Romney charged in a speech in New Hampshire this month that Obama is pursuing an "entitlement society," versus the "opportunity society" that the former Massachusetts governor said he wants to offer the country. Newt Gingrich, Romney and other Republicans also regularly accuse Obama of "class warfare."
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod called such criticism the "Republican cartoon" of Obama's argument.
"In some ways the race will be different depending on who the nominee is but in some ways the same because they largely subscribe to the same economic theory" of cutting taxes for the wealthy and paring back regulations, said Axelrod. He added that Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kan., "was a very, very good statement of his values and vision and will help frame much of what comes in the next year."
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Two Earth-sized planets have been discovered circling a dying star that has passed the red giant stage. Because of their close orbits, the planets must have been engulfed by their star while it swelled up to many times its original size.
This discovery, published in the science journal Nature, may shed new light on the destiny of stellar and planetary systems, including our solar system.
When our sun nears the end of its life in about 5 billion years, it will swell up to what astronomers call a red giant, an inflated star that has used up most of its fuel. So large will the dying star grow that its fiery outer reaches will swallow the innermost planets of our solar system ? Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Researchers believed that this unimaginable inferno would make short work of any planet caught in it ? until now.
This report describes the first discovery of two planets ? or remnants thereof ? that evidently not only survived being engulfed by their parent star, but also may have helped to strip the star of most of its fiery envelope in the process. The team was led by Stephane Charpinet, an astronomer at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Plan?tologie, Universit? de Toulouse-CNRS, in France.
"When our sun swells up to become a red giant, it will engulf the Earth," said Elizabeth 'Betsy' Green, an associate astronomer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, who participated in the research. "If a tiny planet like the Earth spends 1 billion years in an environment like that, it will just evaporate. Only planets with masses very much larger than the Earth, like Jupiter or Saturn, could possibly survive."
The two planets, named KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02, circle their host star in extremely tight orbits. Having migrated so close, they probably plunged deep into the star's envelope during the red giant phase, but survived. In the most plausible configuration, the two bodies would respectively have radii of 0.76 and 0.87 times the Earth radius, making them the smallest planets so far detected around an active star other than our sun.
The host star, KOI 55, is what astronomers call a subdwarf B star: It consists of the exposed core of a red giant that has lost nearly its entire envelope. In fact, the authors write, the planets may have contributed to the increased mass loss necessary for the formation of this type of star.
The authors concluded that planetary systems may therefore influence the evolution of their parent stars. They pointed out that the planetary system they observed offers a glimpse into the possible future of our own.
The discovery of the two planets came as a surprise because the research team had not set out to find new planets far away from our solar system, but to study pulsating stars. Caused by rhythmic expansions and contractions brought about by pressure and gravitational forces that go along with the thermonuclear fusion process inside the star, such pulsations are a defining feature of many stars.
By studying the pulsations of a star, astronomers can deduce the object's mass, temperature, size and sometimes even its interior structure. This is called asteroseismology.
"Those pulsation frequency patterns are almost like a finger print of a star," Green said. "It's very much like seismology, where one uses earthquake data to learn about the inner composition of the Earth."
To detect the frequencies with which a star pulsates, researchers have to observe it for very long periods of time, sometimes years, in order to measure tiny variations in brightness.
"The brightness variations of a star tell us about its pulsational modes if we can observe enough of them very precisely," Green said. "Let's say there is one pulsational mode every 5859.8 seconds, and there is another one every 9126.39 seconds. There could be lots of stars with rather different properties that could all manage to pulsate at those two frequencies. However, if we can measure 10, or better yet, 50 pulsational modes in one star, then it's possible to use theoretical models to say exactly what the star must be like in order to produce those particular pulsations."
"The only way to do that is to have a telescope sitting in space," she added. "On Earth, we can only observe a star at night. But unless we follow it 24/7, the mathematics give us artifacts. Observing through the atmosphere means that even in the very best of cases we can only detect brightness variations to a ten-thousandth of a percent. But if you've got 50 or a 100 modes going in a star, you need to measure better than that."
For that reason, the team used data obtained from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope for this study.
Unobstructed by the Earth's atmosphere and staring at the same patch of sky throughout its five-year mission, the Kepler Space Telescope sits in a prime spot to detect tiny variations in brightness of stars.
Green had been pursuing a survey to look for hot subdwarf stars in the galactic plane of the Milky Way.
"I had already obtained excellent high-signal to noise spectra of the hot subdwarf B star KOI 55 with our telescopes on Kitt Peak, before Kepler was even launched," she said. "Once Kepler was in orbit and began finding all these pulsational modes, my co-authors at the University of Toulouse and the University of Montreal were able to analyze this star immediately using their state-of-the art computer models."
This was the first time that researchers were able to use gravity pulsation modes, which penetrate into the core of the star, to match subdwarf B star models to learn about their interior structure.
While analyzing KOI 55's pulsations, the team noticed the intriguing presence of two tiny periodic modulations occurring every 5.76 and 8.23 hours that caused the star to flicker ever so slightly, at one five thousandth percent of its overall brightness. They showed that these two frequencies could not have been produced by the star's own internal pulsations.
The only explanation came from the existence two small planets passing in front of the star every 5.76 and 8.23 hours. To complete their orbits so rapidly, KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02 have to be extremely close to the star, much closer than Mercury is to our sun. On top of that, the sun is a cool star compared to KOI 55, which burns at about 28,000 Kelvin, or 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Planets this close to their star are tidally locked," Green said, "meaning the same side always faces the star, just like the same face of the moon always faces the Earth. The day side of Mercury is hot enough to melt lead, so you can imagine the harsh conditions on those two small planets racing around a host star that is five times hotter than our sun at such a close distance."
The extremely tight orbits are important because they tell the researchers that the planets must have been engulfed when their host stars swelled up into a red giant.
"Having migrated so close, they probably plunged deep into the star's envelope during the red giant phase, but survived," lead author Charpinet said.
"As the star puffs up and engulfs the planet, the planet has to plow through the star's hot atmosphere and that causes friction, sending it spiraling toward the star," Green added. "As it's doing that, it helps strip atmosphere off the star. At the same time, the friction with the star's envelope also strips the gaseous and liquid layers off the planet, leaving behind only some part of the solid core, scorched but still there."
"We think this is the first documented case of planets influencing a star's evolution," Charpinet said. "We know of a brown dwarf that possibly did that, but that's not a planet, and of giants planets around subdwarf B stars, but those are too far away to have had any impact on the evolution of the star itself."
"I find it incredibly fascinating that after hundreds of years of being able to only look at the outsides of stars, now we can finally investigate the interiors of a few stars ? even if only in these special types of pulsators ? and compare that with how we thought stars evolved," Green said. "We thought we had a pretty good understanding of what solar systems were like as long as we only knew one ? ours. Now we are discovering a huge variety of solar systems that are nothing like ours, including, for the first time, remnant planets around a stellar core like this one."
###
University of Arizona: http://uanews.org
Thanks to University of Arizona for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116232/Astronomers_discover_deep_fried_planets
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Living a Microsoft lifestyle using Apple iOS products - Lync, OneNote, Xbox for iPhone and iPad and more, oh my hanselman.com/blog/LivingAMi? 
Dieter_Rauscher Dieter Rauscher
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Sony Ericsson had previously confirmed that its Xperia smartphones would be getting the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, but now we have a definitive time table for several of their models. According to?a post on Sony?s official product blog, Ice Cream Sandwich updates will start rolling out beginning March 2012.
The Arc S, Neo V, and Ray are up first, getting doused with Ice Cream flavoring beginning late March or early April.
The Active, Arc, Mini, Mini Pro, Neo, Play and Xperia Pro handsets are on track to follow shortly afterward, receiving the update in late April to early May. Even the Sony Live Walkman hasn?t been neglected, as Sony Ericsson plans to upgrade it in the same time period.
For the full rundown on the Ice Cream Sandwich update for Xperia smartphones, head over to Sony Ericsson?s blog.
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NEW YORK ? A New York City man has been charged with dousing a woman with a flammable liquid and setting her afire with a Molotov cocktail inside an elevator.
Police say Jerome Isaac, of Brooklyn, was arrested Sunday on murder and arson charges in the death of 73-year-old Deloris Gillespie.
Authorities say the 47-year-old Isaac ambushed Gillespie in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment building on Saturday afternoon. The attack was recorded by two video cameras, including one inside the small elevator.
Police say Isaac reeked of gasoline when he walked into a police station overnight and implicated himself in Gillespie's death.
Before the arrest, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne wouldn't comment on a motive but said the suspect knew Gillespie.
It wasn't immediately clear if Isaac had a lawyer.
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Bloc Quebecois resurgent: poll
OTTAWA (Reuters) ? The separatist Bloc Quebecois has staged a comeback and is now tied in public support with the federalist party that has the most Quebec seats in the House of Commons, a Harris-Decima poll released on Thursday shows. The Bloc, which wants independence for the French-speaking province of Quebec, had been reduced in the May federal election to four seats from 47. The House has 308 seats, 75 of which are from Quebec.
RIM offers dismal outlook, shares tumble
TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion posted a 27 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday and provided a dismal outlook for BlackBerry shipments in its historically strong Christmas period, sending its shares tumbling. RIM's shares shed more than 6 percent in after-hours trade as investors fretted about the weak performance of a line of improved BlackBerry 7 smartphones in the holiday season and the high cost RIM is paying to stick with its poor-selling PlayBook tablet.
TransCanada bets expansion plan will help Keystone
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Buoyed by renewed pledges of customer support, TransCanada Corp said on Thursday it not only wants to proceed with its stalled Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline but to undertake a $600 million expansion and extension. The company is betting its proposed expansion of the original $7 billion plan to carry Alberta oil sands crude to the Gulf Coast will hammer home Keystone's economic benefits to politicians and trump the environmental worries that have prompted a lengthy delay in its U.S. approval process.
Investor pushes for leadership change at RIM
(Reuters) - An investor at Research In Motion has asked two directors at the struggling Canadian smartphone maker to push for a change in the company's governance. Activist shareholder Jaguar Financial, which has been asking the BlackBerry maker to sell itself in whole or parts, said it wants the roles of the company's chairman and chief executive to be separated.
Keystone XL still ahead of rivals: TransCanada CEO
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp still has a big advantage in the race to supply U.S. oil markets with Canadian supplies, despite a year's delay to its $7 billion Keystone XL project, because of the preparation already done, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Thursday. The company's customers have shown they believe the controversial pipeline is still the best option for expanding Canadian oil sands and North Dakota shale oil production by signing up for more capacity and backing an extension of the line in Texas, Girling told Reuters in an interview.
Exclusive: Business borrowing signals Canadian growth: PayNet
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian commercial lending growth accelerated in the third quarter, showing smaller businesses expanded even as Europe's deepening debt crisis rattled investors worldwide, according to a PayNet Inc report. PayNet, which tracks commercial financing to thousands of small and medium-sized companies, said on Thursday its Canadian Business Lending Index rose 6 percent from the second quarter and 13 percent year over year.
Sobeys to buy 250 Shell gas stations in Canada
(Reuters) - Empire Co Ltd's Sobeys grocery chain is expanding its high-margin retail gasoline business in Eastern Canada, announcing plans on Thursday to buy 250 gas stations from Shell Canada. But Empire's shares dropped as Sobeys' gross profit margin fell to 23.91 percent in its latest quarter from 24.73 percent a year earlier. The company said about half the decrease was due to an accounting change.
Parliament approves Wheat Board bill
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Parliament gave final approval on Thursday to a government bill to end the Canadian Wheat Board's 68-year-old grain marketing monopoly, but legal challenges threaten to leave farmers and the grain industry in limbo into the New Year. The Senate easily passed the Conservative government's legislation to end the CWB's monopoly on sales of western wheat and barley for export or milling. It had already passed through the House of Commons and is expected to get royal assent by Friday morning to enable it to become law, effective next August.
Canada seeks a way to limit health-spending increases
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's top finance officials will try at a meeting next week to come to grips with the thorny problem of how to limit the rising costs of the country's universal public health-care system in the face of an aging population. Health care in Canada is a responsibility of the provinces, and since 2004 the federal government has been increasing by 6 percent a year the amount of money it provides them to help pay for the system. It has committed to keep on doing so through 2016, and since 2006 it has increased its annual payments to C$27 billion ($26 billion) from C$19 billion.
Canada set for tamer growth as factories struggle
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian factory sales slumped in October after three months of gains, confirming suspicions the final stretch to the end of the year will see a slowdown from the brisk economic growth of earlier months. Despite the struggling manufacturers, the economy overall in the second half has been stronger than anticipated. The Bank of Canada will likely feel compelled to keep interest rates on hold at 1 percent as a safeguard against any noxious effects from the European debt crisis.
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PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? Papua New Guinea politics were deadlocked Thursday, with two men claiming to be prime minister, two governments saying they hold power, rival police chiefs maintaining the peace ? and no one sure who actually was in charge.
The power struggle in the most populous South Pacific island nation has exasperated the public and prompted union leaders to call on both men claiming to be prime minister to find a solution before the situation worsens.
The Supreme Court and Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio have backed 76-year-old Sir Michael Somare, who the court ruled was illegally removed as prime minister while getting medical treatment outside the country. But lawmakers loyal to his rival Peter O'Neill have passed retroactive legislation recognizing him as leader.
At a news conference Thursday, O'Neill said he had ordered police to take control of government offices, including the prime minister's office, where Somare and his followers were working. But O'Neill said he had no authority to issue arrest warrants for Somare or Somare's ministers.
Somare's spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Somare had been scheduled to hold a news conference earlier Thursday, but it was delayed without explanation.
"We are sick and tired of the selfish behavior by our politicians," said Michael Malabang, head of the country's Trade Union Congress, which represents tens of thousands of private and public sector workers across Papua New Guinea, a former Australian territory rich in mineral resources. "We don't want a total public service breakdown, and it is coming to that stage."
The standoff began Monday, when the Supreme Court ruled that O'Neill's election by parliament in August was unconstitutional and said Somare should be reinstated as prime minister. Lawmakers backing O'Neill stormed the gates of Ogio's official residence on Tuesday, demanding he meet with O'Neill. Ogio, who represents British Queen Elizabeth II ? the country's head of state ? said he'd decide by Wednesday who should be prime minister.
On Wednesday, Ogio swore in Somare's Cabinet. Somare insisted he did not need to be sworn in, because the Supreme Court had already reinstated him as prime minister.
But a majority of the country's 109 lawmakers voted later Wednesday to suspend Ogio and replace him temporarily with Speaker Jeffery Nape. Nape then swore O'Neill in as prime minister.
"(Ogio) has failed to swear in the new prime minister according to the advice of the Parliament," O'Neill told Parliament in proposing the motion suspending the governor-general.
Somare dismissed Ogio's suspension as corrupt.
"We're the government despite that fact Parliament is still going on," Somare told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio from the prime minister's office.
O'Neill's lawmaker supporters have occupied Parliament since Monday when the Supreme Court ruling was issued. On Wednesday they voted to appeal that ruling.
One of Somare's first acts after the Supreme Court ordered his return to power was to reinstate former Police Commissioner Fred Yakasa and oust O'Neill's appointee, Tom Kulunga. Both police chiefs were present at the governor-general's home and held discussions with lawmakers loyal to O'Neill.
Somare has based himself at the popular Ela Beach Hotel, where he has set up a Cabinet made up mostly of ministers from his previous government.
"The only two people who can make a difference are Sir Michael and Mr. O'Neill," said Malabang, head of the trade union. "They have to calm down and come together for the sake of our people."
Somare spent five months in Singapore undergoing three heart operations before returning to parliament Sept. 6.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said Papua New Guinea had entered uncharted waters with the two men claiming to be prime minister.
Australia shares an important trade relationship with Papua New Guinea, which is rich in mineral resources including oil, gold and copper, and crops such as coffee and cocoa. Australia is Papua New Guinea's top export market, as well as its top source of imports. Papua New Guinea relies on Australia for fuel, food, cars and foreign aid.
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NEW YORK ? Ah, the warm feelings of the holidays: Comfort and joy. Good cheer.
And buyer's remorse.
People who rushed to snag discounts on TVs, toys and other gifts are quickly returning them for much-needed cash. The shopping season started out strong for stores, but it looks like the spending binge has given way to a holiday hangover.
Return rates spiked when the Great Recession struck and have stayed high. For every dollar stores take in this holiday season, they'll have to give back 9.9 cents in returns, up from 9.8 last year, according to the National Retail Federation's survey of 110 retailers. In better economic times, it's about 7 cents.
This time of year, fractions of a penny add up. Stores are expected to ring up $453 billion during the holiday season. Merchants make up to 40 percent of their annual sales in the last two months of the year.
Returns are typically associated more with January than December. After all, that hot pink sweater with yellow stars on the sleeves may not be exactly what your sister had in mind. But these days, more is going back before it ever gets to Santa's sack.
"When the bills come in and the money isn't there, you have to return," says Jennifer Kersten, 33, of Miami. She spent $300 the day after Thanksgiving on books, movies and clothes for her nephews. Last week she returned half of it.
Some reasons for the many unhappy returns:
? Shoppers are binging on big discounts. Stores are desperate to get people in the door. But the same shoppers who find a "60 percent off" tag too good to resist may realize at home that they busted the budget.
? Stores have made it easier to take things back. Nordstrom is letting online shoppers return items at no extra charge this year. It used to charge $6. Other stores are offering more time to return or rolling out "no questions asked" policies ? no tag or receipt required. But that can backfire.
"Spurring more returns wasn't part of the plan," says Al Sambar, a retail strategist for consulting firm Kurt Salmon.
? Stores are undercutting each other in a tough economy. Wanda Vazquez spent $39.99 at a New York Target on iPad speakers for her 12-year-old daughter, then returned them when she found something similar for $16.99 at Marshalls.
Consumer electronics in particular are being returned at a rapid clip. Stores and manufacturers are expected to spend $17 billion re-boxing, repairing, restocking and reselling electronics this year, up 21 percent from four years ago.
At about half of the 100 electronics manufacturers and stores surveyed by Accenture, a consulting firm, return rates have increased over the past three to five years. Most of the items are returned without flaws.
In an industry where profit margins are thin and competition is brutal, those return rates are unsustainable, says Mitch Cline, managing director of Accenture's electronics and high-tech group.
Several retailers declined to talk about returns. But if they need any evidence of growing remorse among their shoppers, all they have to do is look at the overstuffed aisles of liquidator warehouses.
Liquidation.com, which buys returned merchandise from big stores like Wal-Mart and auctions it to small businesses and dollar stores, says return rates are 12 percent to 15 percent, two percentage points higher than last year and double the rate in better times.
Its four warehouses across the country are packed with thousands more smartphones, TVs other holiday castaways than a year ago, says Bill Angrick, CEO of the site's parent company, Liquidity Services.
To get rid of all that extra stuff, the company says it is holding 20 percent more online auctions than it did last year, though it declined to give a total.
"This is going to be a record year for returns," Angrick says. "People are still reluctant to spend."
Dave Vehec, senior vice president of GENCO ATC, a liquidator that sells returned merchandise from six of the nation's top 10 retailers, also says stores are reporting a spike in returns this year.
Americans spent $52.4 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, the highest total for that period, according to the NRF. But business has fallen. Sales last week were down 1.9 percent from a year ago, according to research firm ShopperTrak.
Stores are already being squeezed by rising costs for materials and labor. Returns make it worse. When you return a sweater, a paid worker has to restock it. Return a computer after just turning it on, and the hard drive has to be scrubbed.
It adds up to lost dollars for stores, which have to eat as much as 12 percent of the cost for returned clothes and 50 percent for returned electronics.
Shoppers, of course, are more concerned with their own bottom line.
That's why Lisa Dublin, a New York mother of three, last weekend returned half of the $200 she spent at Banana Republic. The clothes were going to be gifts for her 15-year-old son.
Dublin, 33, also returned a pair of knee-high boots she'd bought for herself at Charlotte Russe for $25, marked down from $40. It was a good deal, she says, but not good enough.
"I have been buying a bunch of stuff at a time," Dublin says. "Then, when I get home I analyze and figure out what I really need."
___
AP Business Writer Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
___
Anne D'Innocenzio can be reached at http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio.
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60-Second Science |
Space
When rocky planets form that have more carbon than does Earth, vast quantities of diamond may be a natural result. Karen Hopkin reports.
December 14, 2011
Subscribe via iTunes
When it comes to sheer celestial bling, stars might not corner the market on twinkle. Because beneath their rocky exteriors, some terrestrial planets may be half diamond. So said scientists at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. [Cayman T. Unterborn, Wendy R. Panero and Jason E. Kabbes, Diamond, Carbide and Carbonate Planets]
The researchers were fixing to study how diamonds form here on Earth, under the conditions found in the planet?s lower mantle. So they took a tiny sample of iron, carbon, and oxygen, elements abundant in Earth?s interior, and cooked it up at about 3800 degrees Fahrenheit and 9.5 million pounds of pressure per square inch. What they saw was that iron hooks up with oxygen to produce rust, and leaves behind pockets of carbon, which become diamond.
Now, what happens if they look not at Earth but at a planet in a solar system where there?s even more carbon? According to the model, the carbon merges with iron to form a core made of steel, leaving a carbon mantle rich with diamond.
Whether the Milky Way harbors such gems is still an open question. One thing is for sure: they probably wouldn?t harbor life. Because diamonds readily transfer heat. So a planet made of diamond would be one cold stone.
?Karen Hopkin
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
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This handout provided by Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office shows FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. Babbitt was placed on a leave of absence Monday and U.S. officials said his employment is under review following his arrest for drunken driving in suburban Northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office)
This handout provided by Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office shows FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. Babbitt was placed on a leave of absence Monday and U.S. officials said his employment is under review following his arrest for drunken driving in suburban Northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt was placed on a leave of absence Monday as Department of Transportation officials decide how to handle Babbitt's weekend arrest on charges of drunken driving in suburban northern Virginia.
DOT officials are in "discussions with legal counsel about Administrator Babbitt's employment status," said a statement released by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's office Monday afternoon.
The Federal Aviation Administration is part of the Transportation Department. Babbitt is about halfway through a five-year term.
Babbitt, 65, was charged with driving while intoxicated after a patrol officer spotted him driving on the wrong side of the street and pulled him over about 10:30 p.m. EST Saturday in Fairfax City, Va., police in the Washington, D.C., suburb said.
Babbitt, who lives in nearby Reston, Va., was the only occupant in the vehicle, the statement said. Police said he cooperated and was released on his own recognizance.
Babbitt apparently delayed telling administration officials about the arrest. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama and Transportation Department officials learned of the arrest Monday afternoon, about an hour before a 1:30 p.m. EST statement was released saying Babbitt had been placed on leave at his request.
Separately, Fairfax City police issued a statement on the arrest to the media at about noon Monday. They refused to disclose the results of Babbitt's blood alcohol test. The legal limit is .08.
LaHood has aggressively campaigned against drunken driving, and is working with police agencies and safety advocates on an annual holiday crack down on drinking and driving later this month. Safety advocates credit LaHood with doing more to raise the visibility of human factors in highway safety ? including drunken driving, drivers distracted by cell phone use, and parents who fail to buckle in their children ? than any previous transportation secretary.
Deputy FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will serve as acting administrator, the DOT statement said. In recent months Huerta has been leading the FAA's troubled NextGen effort to transition from an air traffic control system based on World War II-era radar technology to one based on satellite technology.
Babbitt was a former airline captain and internationally recognized expert in aviation and labor relations when Obama tapped him in 2009 to head the FAA, which has nearly 40,000 employees. He was a pilot for the now-defunct Eastern Airlines for 25 years, and had served as president of the Air Line Pilots Association. As head of ALPA in 1990s, he championed the "one level of safety" initiative implemented in 1995 to improve safety standards across the airline industry.
Babbitt's nomination in 2009 was warmly received by both industry officials and airline unions. His easy manner and insider's knowledge of the airline industry generated respect in Congress, where he regularly testified on safety issues and in support of NextGen.
Babbitt took over at the FAA when the agency was still reeling from the exposure of widespread safety gaps in the regional airline industry. The problems were revealed by a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the February 2009 crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo, N.Y., that killed 50 people.
Babbitt and LaHood promised to immediately implement a series of safety initiatives. At Babbitt's urging airlines adopted a series of voluntary safety measures. But safety advocates say voluntary measures aren't enough. The FAA under Babbitt has also initiated several efforts to craft major new safety regulations, ranging from preventing pilot fatigue to boosting experience levels and training of airline pilots.
But several of those efforts have stalled as industry opponents lobbied White House officials against the proposed regulations, saying they would cost too much or be too burdensome.
The biggest crisis of Babbitt's FAA tenure occurred last spring when nine air traffic controllers were allegedly caught sleeping on the job or where unresponsive to radio calls while on duty over a period of several weeks. The head of FAA's Air Traffic Organization was forced to resign during the ensuing uproar.
As FAA's top official, Babbitt has the final say in disciplinary proceedings involving controllers who violate the agency's drug and alcohol regulations.
___
Barakat reported from Fairfax, Va.
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