'California did the impossible,' Brown says in State of the State

SACRAMENTO -- In a strident and sweeping State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown declared Thursday morning that "California did the impossible," bouncing back from the precipice of fiscal collapse to emerge as an economic leader.

With references to the Bible, the history of the California republic and Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Brown mapped out a vision for the state that includes big investment in its water and rail systems and schools free of regulations that he says inhibit flexibility and creativity.

Brown also called a special session of the Legislature for implementation of President Obama's healthcare law, "to deal with those issues that must be decided quickly if California is to get the Affordable Care Act started by next January."

But he stressed that his top priority is keeping the state from falling back into financial chaos.

"We have promises to keep," Brown said, alluding to his successful campaign last fall to persuade voters to raise taxes by billions of dollars. "And the most important one we made to the people if Proposition 30 passed: that we would guard jealously the money…. Fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our good intentions but the basis for realizing them."

He praised lawmakers for helping the state dig out of its fiscal morass but also called on them to show restraint. "What we need to do for our future will require more than producing hundreds of new laws each year," Brown said.

He warned of the dangers of "constantly expanding the coercive power of government by adding each year so many minute prescriptions to our already detailed and turgid legal system."

The governor cited schools as an area where the deluge of laws has undermined good policy. Returning to one of his favorite themes, he urged lawmakers to consider the "principle of subsidiarity … the idea that a central authority should only perform those tasks which cannot be performed at a more immediate or local level."

Brown repeated the call he made earlier this month to free local districts from dozens of state mandates for school spending and to shift more state money to districts with poorer students and non-native English speakers.

He said the steady tuition hikes at the state's institutions of higher education need to stop.

"I will not let the students become the default financiers of our colleges and universities," Brown said, to standing applause in the packed Assembly chamber that held the entire Legislature.

In calling a special session on healthcare, Brown said the state will next year begin providing insurance to nearly 1 million Californians under the federal law and in the coming years will steadily reduce the number of uninsured.

But he warned of attendant risks: "The ultimate costs of expanding our healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act are unknown."

The governor also used his address to tout his ambitious plans for refurbishing the state's water systems. He acknowledged that it will be costly. But inaction, he said, would likely prove more expensive, leaving California exposed to an economic disaster on the scale of that wrought elsewhere by Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

The governor also made a plug for his other costly infrastructure initiative, high-speed rail. He said the United States is lagging far behind other countries in this sector, saying that even Morocco is building a high-speed train system.

He called the state's bullet-train plan, which would eventually link San Francisco and Los Angeles, bold, like "everything about California."

The governor also announced will lead a trade mission to China to strengthen California's economic ties with that country and officially open the state's new trade and investment office in Shanghai.

evan.halper@latimes.com

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Curiosity Rover Uses Ultraviolet Vision to Work the Martian Night Shift

NASA’s Curiosity rover is working late into the night, shining white and ultraviolet light on rocks similar to the ones it hopes to drill into in the coming weeks.

Unlike its solar-powered siblings, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity has a nuclear battery that lets it run at any time of day. The rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera is fitted with four white and two ultraviolet LEDs to help it explore once the sun goes down. In addition to throwing killer Martian raves, the ultraviolet flashlight allowed the rover to look for fluorescent minerals in a rock nicknamed “Sayunei” (above).

Very little is currently known about the fluorescent properties of Martian soil and the UV LEDs are mostly being used for exploratory purposes for the time being. Tests conducted on Earth (.pdf) using Martian meteorites showed that phosphate minerals such as whitlockite glowed under UV illumination. If the science team sees anything shining green, yellow, orange, or red under the UV lights, it could indicate interesting mineralogy that might go undetected using normal white lights or sunlight.

Curiosity’s MAHLI camera also used its white light LEDs to take a closer look at “Sayunei” (below). The rover scuffed the rock with its wheel to clear it of dust and then examined it up close. The information may come in handy when Curiosity drills.

Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Adam is a Wired reporter and freelance journalist. He lives in Oakland, Ca near a lake and enjoys space, physics, and other sciency things.

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Follow @adamspacemann on Twitter.

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Aretha Franklin Approves of Beyonce’s ‘Beautiful’ Inaugural Lip-Syncing

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Aretha Franklin r-e-s-p-e-c-t’s Beyoncé’s decision to use a “beautiful” pre-recorded rendition of the national anthem during President Barack Obama‘s inaugural ceremony on Monday.

The Queen of Soul, who sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” during Obama‘s inauguration in 2009, told ABC News that the cold weather warranted Beyoncé lip-syncing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“The weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather,” Franklin said after noting the news gave her a good laugh. “When I heard that I just really cracked up. I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record … next time I’ll probably do the same.”

She says “next time,” because she wasn’t afraid to brave below-freezing temperatures in Washington D.C. when she performed live four years ago. “In 2009, I wanted everything to be live and on the real side for the moment as it actually happened. Those were my feelings for my performance, but having come face to face with 28, 22 degrees I am not surprised she pre-recorded,” Franklin continued. “She wanted her performance to be what she wanted to be and she realized it wasn’t going to be the way she wanted it to be or she was going to be running a risk. That’s probably why she pre-recorded exactly how she wanted it to be heard.”

The 70-year-old Franklin isn’t the only music star shrugging off Beyoncégate. Jennifer Lopeztold Jon Stewart on Tuesday’s episode of “The Daily Show” that “all performers do have to” lip-sync at some point in their career.

“You know, sometimes it happens,” she explained. “When you’re in certain stadiums and in certain venues, they do pre-record things.”

Lopez’s former “American Idol” judging panel partner, Steven Tyler, isn’t particularly bothered by Beyoncé lip-syncing either. “It doesn’t matter,” he told TMZ.

“Beyoncé’s so hot, she can do anything,” the Aerosmith frontman added to give some shallow perspective. “Let’s just get real.”

Whether or not Beyoncé would agree with Tyler’s flattering statement, she has yet to comment on the matter herself, aside from posting the performance on her Tumblr — an action that suggests she has no regrets.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Band that previously admitted to using a pre-recorded track to back her performance and suggested Beyoncé did the same for her vocals, has changed its tune.

“Each piece of music scheduled for performance in the Inauguration is pre-recorded for use in case of freezing temperatures, equipment failure, or extenuating circumstances,” a spokesman for the Marines told TheWrap on Tuesday. “Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter’s vocal performance, no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded.”

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Ask Well: Long-Term Use of Nicotine Gum

In small doses, like those contained in the gum, nicotine is generally considered safe. But it does have stimulant properties that can raise blood pressure, increase heart rate and constrict blood vessels. One large report from 2010 found that compared to people given a placebo, those who used nicotine replacement therapies had a higher risk of heart palpitations and chest pains.

That’s one reason that nicotine gum should, ideally, be used for no more than four to six months, said Lauren Indorf, a nurse practitioner with the Cleveland Clinic’s Tobacco Treatment Center. Yet up to 10 percent of people use it for longer periods, in some cases for a decade or more she said.

Some research has raised speculation that long-term use of nicotine might also raise the risk of cancer, though it has mostly involved laboratory and animal research, and there have not been any long-term randomized studies specifically addressing this question in people. One recent report that reviewed the evidence on nicotine replacement therapy and cancer concluded that, “the risk, if any, seems small compared with continued smoking.”

Ultimately, the biggest problem with using nicotine gum for long periods is that the longer you stay on it, the longer you remain dependent on nicotine, and thus the greater your odds of a smoking relapse, said Ms. Indorf. “What if the gum is not available one day?” she said. “Your body is still relying on nicotine.”

If you find yourself using it for longer than six months, it may be time to consider switching to sugar-free gum or even another replacement therapy, like the patch or nasal spray.

“Getting people on a different regimen helps them break the gum habit and can help taper them off nicotine,” Ms. Indorf said.

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Media Decoder Blog: A Resurgent Netflix Beats Projections, Even Its Own

1:51 p.m. | Updated For all those who have doubted its business acumen, Netflix had a resounding answer on Wednesday: 27.15 million.

That’s the number of American homes that were subscribers to the streaming service by the end of 2012, beating the company’s own projections for the fourth quarter after a couple of quarters of underwhelming results.

Netflix’s growth spurt in streaming — up by 2.05 million customers in the United States, from 25.1 million in the third quarter — was its biggest in nearly three years, and helped the company report net income of $7.9 million, surprising many analysts who had predicted a loss.

The results reflected just how far Netflix has come since the turbulence of mid-2011, when its botched execution of a new pricing plan for its services — streaming and DVDs by mail — resulted in an online flogging by angry customers. Investors battered its stock price, sending it from a high of around $300 in 2011 to as low as $53 last year.

“It’s risen from the ashes,” said Barton Crockett, a senior analyst at Lazard Capital Markets. “A lot of investors have been very skeptical that Netflix will work. With this earnings report, they’re making a strong argument that the business is real, that it will work.”

Investors, cheered by the results, sent Netflix shares soaring. By Thursday afternoon the shares were up more than 37 percent to $141.49.

Netflix’s fourth-quarter success was a convenient reminder to the entertainment and technology industries that consumers increasingly want on-demand access to television shows and movies. Streaming services by Amazon, Hulu and Redbox are all competing on the same playing field, but for now Netflix remains the biggest such service, and thus a pioneer for all the others.

“Our growth and our competitors’ growth shows just how large the opportunity is for Internet TV, where people get to control their viewing experience,” Netflix’s chief executive, Reed Hastings, said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening.

Questions persist, though, about whether Netflix will be able to attract enough subscribers to keep paying its ever-rising bills to content providers, which total billions of dollars in the years to come. The company said on Wednesday that it might take on more debt to finance more original programs, the first of which, the political thriller “House of Cards,” will have its premiere on the service on Feb. 1. Netflix committed about $100 million to make two seasons of “House of Cards,” one of five original programs scheduled to come out on the service this year.

“The virtuous cycle for us is to gain more subscribers, get more content, gain more subscribers, get more content,” Mr. Hastings said in an earnings conference call.

The company’s $7.9 million profit for the quarter represented 13 cents a share, surprising analysts who had expected a loss of 12 cents a share. The company said revenue of $945 million, up from $875 million in the quarter in 2011, was driven in part by holiday sales of new tablets and television sets.

Netflix added nearly two million new subscribers in other countries, though it continued to lose money overseas, as expected, and said it would slow its international expansion plans in the first part of this year.

The “flix” in Netflix, its largely forgotten DVD-by-mail business, fared a bit better than the company had projected, posting a loss of just 380,000 subscribers in the quarter, to 8.22 million. The losses have slowed for four consecutive quarters, indicating that the homes that still want DVDs really want DVDs.

On the streaming side, Netflix’s retention rate improved in the fourth quarter, suggesting growing customer satisfaction.

Asked whether the company’s reputation had fully recovered after its missteps in 2011, Mr. Hastings said, “We’re on probation at this point, but we’re not out of jail.”

He has emphasized subscriber happiness, even going so far as to say on Wednesday that “we really want to make it easy to quit” Netflix. If the exit door is well marked, he asserted, subscribers will be more likely to come back.

The hope is that original programs like “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development” will lure both old and new subscribers to the service. Those programs, plus the film output deal with the Walt Disney Company announced in December, affirm that Netflix cares more and more about being a gallery — with showy pieces that cannot be seen anywhere else — and less about being a library of every film and TV show ever made.

“They’re morphing into something that people understand,” said Mr. Crockett of Lazard Capital.

Mr. Hastings said this had been happening for years, but that it was becoming more apparent now to consumers and investors.

Mr. Hastings’s letter to investors brought up the elephant in the room, the activist investor Carl C. Icahn, who acquired nearly 10 percent of the company’s stock last October. Mr. Icahn, known for his campaigns for corporate sales and revampings, stated then that Netflix “may hold significant strategic value for a variety of significantly larger companies.”

Netflix subsequently put into place a shareholder rights plan, known as a poison pill, to protect itself against a forced sale by Mr. Icahn.

The company said on Wednesday, “We have no further news about his intentions, but have had constructive conversations with him about building a more valuable company.”

Factoring in the stock’s 30 percent rise since November and the after-hours action on Wednesday, Mr. Icahn’s stake has now more than doubled in value, to more than $700 million from roughly $320 million.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/24/2013, on page B1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A Resurgent Netflix Beats Projections, Even Its Own.

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House approves short-term suspension of debt ceiling

WASHINGTON – House Republicans approved a temporary suspension of the $16.4-trillion ceiling on the nation’s debt Wednesday, allowing the federal government to continue borrowing through spring while Washington shifts to more ambitious budget battles.

Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) convinced his rebellious majority to go along with the new strategy by promising them the opportunity in the months ahead to extract deep spending cuts to Medicare and other domestic programs.

The approach was a seismic political shift for Republicans who in the past had pressed for simultaneous cuts, which House Democrats dismissed as “irresponsible” and a “gimmick.”

The vote was 285-144, and despite the robust support it would not have passed without Democrats -- 33 Republicans opposed it.

QUIZ: Test your knowledge about the debt limit

“We know with certainty that a debt crisis is coming to America,” said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former vice presidential nominee, who helped lead the debate on the House floor as chairman of the House Budget Committee. “We have a moral obligation to fix that.”

Republicans are preparing an extraordinary fiscal plan, due in April, that would bring federal budgets into balance in 10 years – an austerity measure far more severe than last year's budget from Ryan that slashed the safety net.

After President Obama won modest tax hikes on the wealthy in the year-end "fiscal cliff" deal, Republicans say the next round of savings must come from the spending side of the ledger.

“Whatever new taxes the president is going to get, he got,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, said this week. “We’re now going to focus on the real problem, which is not that we tax too little, but that we spend too much.”

The White House, and Democrats in Congress, disagree and say more tax hikes – especially closing corporate tax loopholes – must be part of the equation. Two deadlines in March will force the issue.

Complete coverage of the 2013 inauguration

“Democrats are eager to contrast our pro-growth, pro-middle class-budget priorities with the House Republicans,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. She said the GOP budget under Ryan “would end Medicare as we know it, gut investments in jobs and programs middle-class families depend on, and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.”

The vote Wednesday puts the White House and Congress on another collision course in the budget battles that are expected to consume the first months of Obama’s second term.

On March 1, the federal budget faces $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that both sides want to alter. Later, on March 27, Congress will need to approve funding for routine government operations, or risk a shutdown.

By May 18, the debt ceiling would need to be raised again after this suspension expires, though the Treasury Department could take measures to extend borrowing into summer.

Failure to raise the debt limit to cover the nation’s already accrued bills would send the country into a large-scale default – what Obama has compared to dining and dashing out on the bill.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s second inauguration

Democrats in the House complained that Republicans were simply setting up another "fiscal cliff."

“House Republicans continue to play with economic fire,” said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.)

The bill approved Wednesday now goes to the Senate, and the White House has said the president would not oppose it.

Even though conservatives off Capitol Hill remain divided over raising the debt limit, Boehner sweetened the legislation to attract Republican support by attaching a provision that would temporarily withhold the pay of senators or representatives if their chamber fails to produce an annual budget by the mid-April deadline.

The “no budget, no pay” provision was particularly popular with conservatives, and was aimed squarely at Senate Democrats, who have declined to approve a formal budget in recent years.

Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaroinDC

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Coming This Year to Afghanistan: Way More Artillery Strikes

As the U.S. tries to hand over responsibility for the Afghan war to the new Afghan military it’s built, some very old weapons systems are poised to become crucial: the mortar and the howitzer.

The plan for 2013 is for the 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to draw down to an as-yet-undecided size at an as-yet-undecided pace. Those that remain will take a back seat to Afghans by the spring, as the Afghans plan and execute their own operations, a subtle shift from the “partnered” patrols the U.S. emphasized in 2012. Only the Afghans don’t yet have some of the crucial equipment, particularly fighter aircraft and attack helicopters, to help units that come under fire.

With the Afghans’ relative absence of close air support, “what we must do, then, is bring the surface fire capability to fruition, and that’s the indirect fire, observed indirect fire,” Army Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, the day-to-day commander of the war, told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Chief among them: the D-30 howitzer, a Russian-built 12 mm gun, and 60 mm mortars.

“So now instead of calling back up into the air, they have those organic capabilities inside those formations,” Terry said.

Pentagon officials cautioned that that doesn’t mean the U.S. air war is going to come to an end in 2013. But it’s on a downward trajectory. According to U.S. Air Force statistics, in 2012, U.S. warplanes fired their weapons 4,095 times, the lowest level recorded since 2009′s pre-surge 4,165 weapons releases. Close air support sorties in total were down to 28,471 last year — higher than in 2009, but still lower than their 2010 and 2011 levels.

But the whole idea is to shift the burden of the war onto the nascent Afghan forces. And with Afghan air power running behind Afghan ground forces, protecting Afghan forces under attack is going to be largely a ground responsibility. Terry praised “Afghan solutions” like the rise of a “mobile strike force, an armored wheeled-based platform” that seven Afghan battalions will use. As of now, it’s unarmed, so its purpose is to help Afghan troops survive an attack rather than repel one, but “potentially we’ll look at if we need to put a gun system on one of those platforms.”

Less clear is what the smaller complement of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2013 will do in their forthcoming “security force assistance” formations, of which there will be over 400. Their mission will be to train, advise and assist the Afghans as the Afghan troops plan and execute their own fights. But Terry signaled that U.S. forces won’t just be sitting on their bases and advising headquarters staffs.

“This is not simply about doing less,” Terry said, but rather about giving the “right resources” to the Afghans, at the battalion-level and above, so they can hold territory from insurgents.

“Those [U.S.] organizations are not purely headquarters focused, but they are focused, then, on increasing the capability with the Afghans. It doesn’t mean they won’t be going out on patrol with them, either,” Terry said, adding that “some of this training will obviously have to be done in contact” with insurgents — especially providing some of the “enabling capabilities,” like the air support that only the U.S. can provide for now.

Until the Afghans build up their own air force and air-attack specialties, Afghanistan’s soldiers are about to launch a lot more artillery strikes.

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Live Nation to rock London Olympic park in 2013

LONDON (Reuters) – Live Nation Entertainment said on Tuesday it had secured exclusive rights to host major music concerts in London’s Olympic Park and Stadium complex in 2013.

Live Nation, which hosted more than 400 concerts and performances across Europe in the past year, said it has already planned to hold its Wireless Festival and Hard Rock Calling events at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the summer.

“We are delighted to be staging music concerts at the London Olympics venue, which last year became a globally-recognized site for outstanding performances – both in sport and music,” John Reid, president of concerts at Live Nation Europe said in a statement on the company’s website.

The announcement is a boost for the British government, which provided almost 9 billion pounds ($ 14.25 billion) of public money to build and provide security for the London 2012 Games, quashing criticism that the east London site could become an expensive white elephant after a glorious summer of sporting drama.

The London Legacy Development Corp (LLDC), set up to transform the park into a viable space for entertainment, leisure and work, said the concerts will form part of a series of events that include a cycling festival, a weekend of music and other activities.

LLDC Chairman and London Mayor Boris Johnson said the Live Nation deal was a ringing endorsement of the efforts made to transform the park.

“Along with the other major international sports events we have already secured this latest news proves that the park has a very bright future indeed,” Johnson said in a statement on the LLDC website.

The LLDC is negotiating with West Ham United to try to finalise a deal for the Premier League soccer club to move into the Olympic Stadium.

The deal also provides Live Nation with a venue to stage events that had become a bone of contention for some residents living near London’s Royal Parks, who complained that its summer concerts failed to end at the appointed time and were too loud.

Concert-goers were surprised in July when microphones were suddenly switched off on Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen in mid-duet when a Hyde Park concert ran over time.

Financial terms of the London Olympic venue contract have not been disclosed. Details of the music acts and dates to perform at the site will be announced in the first quarter of 2013, Live Nation said.

($ 1 = 0.6316 British pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Keith Weir)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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SciTimes Update : Science News From Around the Web

Wednesday in Science, we’re reading about killer penguins, texting moms, asteroid mining, designing a more pleasurable condom and a maple leaf controversy in Canada. Check out these and other science headlines from around the Web.

The Last 925,000 Pounds Are Always the Hardest: Boston’s citywide challenge to lose one million pounds in a year appears to have fallen about 925,000 pounds short, The Wall Street Journal reports. With just a few months left to go, the city’s collective weight loss has reached only about 75,000 pounds. Why did the city diet fail? Maybe it was the “Scooper Bowl” all-you-can-eat ice cream festival.

Andy Isaacson for The New York Times

An Adélie penguin colony in Cape Royds, Antarctica.

No Escape from a Hungry Penguin: Hungry penguins with tiny video cameras strapped to their backs have given scientists a rare glimpse of their killer feeding habits, reports The Guardian. In more than 14 hours of filming using cameras strapped to 11 Adélie penguins, not once did a bird fail to capture its prey. Penguins are such efficient killers, most of their victims have no time to hide, while others try in vain to flee. Watch it all on Penguin-cam.

The Condom Gets a Makeover: Most condoms are made of latex. Los Angeles design company Strata has developed a new silicone condom it claims not only does a better job blocking viruses and bacteria, but also scores more points in the pleasure department. You can learn more about the “Origami” condom and watch a video at New Scientist (registration required).

Mathieu Belanger/Reuters

New Canadian money seems to depict a species of maple leaf that is not Canadian in origin.

Canada Turns Over a New Leaf: Canada’s new $20, $50 and $100 bills appear to have the wrong maple leaf on them, reports BBC Canada. Botanists say the bills feature a Norwegian maple leaf, with five lobes, rather than the Canadian sugar maple leaf, which has just three lobes. Bank of Canada officials say the image is a “stylized blend” of maple leaves created with the help of a botanist and designed to avoid regional bias.

Universal Art: Scientists use thin sections of meteorites to study the history of the universe. But to the rest of us, they are just really pretty. Scientific American offers a slide show revealing the stained-glass beauty in ancient meteorites.

Erin Siegal/Reuters

An employee at Google resting in a nap pod, which blocks out light and sound.

Businesses Invest in Sleep: Tired office workers cost businesses billions in productivity and it’s estimated that one in three workers doesn’t get enough rest. As a result, some companies are now offering sleep talks and special lighting to promote better sleep among the staff, reports The Wall Street Journal. Google offers its workers a sleep pod for midday power naps.

Men More Likely to Cheat at Science: Men are more likely than women to commit scientific fraud, reports Science Daily. A new study in the journal mBio found that in 215 cases of scientific fraud in the records of the United States Office of Research Integrity, 65 percent were blamed on men.

Anti-Bacterial Soap Ingredient Found in Lakes: Triclosan, the common ingredient found in antibacterial soaps and toothpastes, is showing up in increasing amounts in Minnesota lakes, Science360 reports.

Mining Asteroids: A team of entrepreneurs and engineers announced plans for a space mining company that would turn asteroids into rocket fuel, solar panels and components for spacecraft orbiting the earth, reports The Christian Science Monitor. In theory, mining asteroids should be cheaper than hauling materials from earth. Watch a video discussion on CBS This Morning. National Geographic also reports on the perils and promise of mining asteroids.

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Alcohol Hinders Sleep: While many people think a nightcap might help them sleep, drinking alcohol before bedtime actually reduces sleep quality, reports WebMD. The review of 27 studies found that while alcohol does allow healthy people to fall asleep quicker and sleep more deeply for a while, it also reduces rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Moms Text Behind the Wheel: Having a baby on board does not curb a new mother’s texting and cellphone use, reports USA Today. A new survey shows that 78 percent of mothers with children under age 2 acknowledge talking on the phone while driving with their babies. Meanwhile, 26 percent say they text or check their e-mail – behavior that rivals that of teenage drivers. Nearly two-thirds of them said that they have turned around to deal with their baby in the back seat while driving.

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DealBook: At Davos, Financial Leaders Debate Reform and Monetary Policy

DAVOS, Switzerland — Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, apologized again for the bank’s recent $6 billion trading loss, this time in front of an audience that included the elite of the financial world. But in keeping with his confident demeanor, it was a diet portion of humble pie.

“If you’re a shareholder of mine, I apologize,” Mr. Dimon said at the World Economic Forum annual meeting here. But he quickly added, “We did have record profits. Life goes on.”

During an often contentious panel discussion in Davos that included several other bank executives, Mr. Dimon clashed with a top official of the International Monetary Fund about whether the banking system was still too dangerous.

Zhu Min, deputy director of the I.M.F., said the financial industry was too large in proportion to the economy. More than four years after the financial crisis, Mr. Min noted that banks still operated on too much borrowed money and still traded in overly complicated derivatives that were impossible for outsiders to understand.

“The whole financial sector is too big,” Mr. Min said.

Mr. Dimon responded that JPMorgan was fulfilling its duty to lend to businesses and governments. He said JPMorgan and other banks no longer dealt with subprime mortgages and some of the other complex financial concoctions that led to the crisis. He also said JPMorgan had not abandoned Spain or Italy despite the risks in those highly indebted countries.

“Everyone I know is trying to do a good job for their clients,” Mr. Dimon said during a debate moderated by Maria Bartiromo of the cable channel CNBC on the opening day of the meeting.

During the same discussion, Axel Weber, the chairman of UBS and former president of the Bundesbank, harshly criticized the European Central Bank and other central banks for keeping interest rates at record lows.

Mr. Weber said it was wrong to combat a crisis caused by excessive borrowing by encouraging even more borrowing. Record low official interest rates and other extraordinary measures to pump cash into the economy would eventually backfire, he said.

“We are trying to solve the crisis with more leveraging,” he said. “We are having a better life at the expense of future generations.”

Mr. Weber was once the front-runner to become president of the European Central Bank. But he resigned as head of the German central bank in 2011 after clashing with other members of the E.C.B. governing council over its purchases of euro zone government bonds.

Mario Draghi, who became president of the European Central Bank instead, has since calmed financial markets with a promise to buy government bonds in whatever amounts needed to contain borrowing costs for countries like Spain.

“I haven’t changed my views too much” on bond purchases, said Mr. Weber, who did not mention Mr. Draghi by name.

Mr. Weber has since presided over attempts by UBS to deal with the aftermath of the financial crisis and wrongdoing by some bank employees. UBS, based in Zurich, agreed to pay a $1.5 billion fine as part of a settlement last month over the manipulation of crucial benchmarks used to set mortgage and other interest rates.

“There have been excesses,” Mr. Weber said on Wednesday. “We need to fix them and move forward.”

Participants in the panel agreed that new bank regulations had fallen far short of what was needed to prevent problems at individual lenders from causing wider economic and financial crises, though they disagreed on what could be done better.

“We just experienced the worst financial crisis since the 1930s,” Mr. Min of the I.M.F. said. “We’re not safer yet.”

Mr. Dimon said conditions for economic growth were good “if we do all the right things.”

“If not,” he added, “we could be experiencing crises for another 10 years.”

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