Audiophiliac readers' show off their hi-fis and home theaters

Reader Al F.'s old Apogree speakers and Krell amplifiers.(Credit:Al F.)I never had any doubt that readers of this blog have the coolest systems, but the magnitude of the flood of homemade speakers, desktop systems, headphones, and all sorts of groovy turntables totally knocked me out. There's some sweet gear here, so click to the slideshow and check out the systems. Thanks to all who sent JPEGs --...

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Sequester blame game goes on as shutdown looms

President Obama on Saturday called for a "caucus of common sense" to step forward and stop the sequester, which began cutting $85 billion of federal spending out of the economy on Friday. Play VideoSequester to affect all federal agencies "I know there are Republicans in Congress who would rather see tax loopholes closed than let these cuts go through," he said in his weekly address. "And I know...

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Rescuers Search for Man as Fla. Sinkhole Grows

Rescuers early Saturday morning returned to the site where a sinkhole swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom after the home's foundation collapsed.Jeff Bush was in his bedroom when a sinkhole opened up and trapped him underneath his home at 11 p.m. Thursday night.While the sinkhole was initially estimated to be 15 feet deep on Thursday night, the chasm has continued to grow. Officials...

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Education Minister urges schools to maintain long-term partnerships

SINGAPORE: Singapore Education Minister Heng Swee Keat has urged schools here to maintain long-term partnerships, which will enrich the community. He was speaking at Yishun Junior College's (YJC) Celebrating Values Day on Saturday.It is a carnival to raise funds for charities such as the President's Challenge and Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore.YJC has roped in partners...

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FCC to investigate phone-unlocking ban -- report

This might be illegal, too.(Credit:Amanda Kooser/CNET)The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) might investigate whether it should be illegal for consumers to unlock their mobile phones.Speaking to TechCrunch in an interview published yesterday, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said that the ban is "something that we will look at at the FCC to see if we can and should enable consumers to use unlocked...

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Man feared dead in 100-foot sinkhole near Tampa

Last Updated 10:01 a.m. ET SEFFNER, Fla. A man was missing and feared dead early Friday after a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near Tampa. His brother says the man screamed for help before he disappeared. The 36-year-old man's brother told rescue crews he heard a loud crash around 11 p.m. Thursday, then heard his brother screaming for help."When he got there, there was no bedroom...

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Obama, Congress Fail to Avert Sequester Cuts

President Obama and congressional leaders today failed to reach a breakthrough to avert a sweeping package of automatic spending cuts, setting into motion $85 billion of across-the-board belt-tightening that neither had wanted to see.Obama met for just over an hour at the White House today with Republican leaders House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell...

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Turkish PM's Zionism comments "objectionable:" Kerry

ANKARA (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday the United States found a comment by Turkey's prime minister, likening Zionism to crimes against humanity, "objectionable", overshadowing their talks on the crisis in neighboring Syria. Kerry, on his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office, met Turkish leaders for talks meant to focus on Syria's civil war and bilateral...

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Golf: McIlroy pulls out of PGA event with toothache

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida: World No. 1 and defending champion Rory McIlroy withdrew from the US PGA Honda Classic during his second round on Friday, saying he was struggling due to pain from a sore wisdom tooth.McIlroy struggled through the back nine on Friday, his opening nine holes of the round, and hit his approach at the 18th into water. He then walked off the course and quickly...

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A look ahead at next year's Mobile World Congress 2014

The lights are on -- it's time to go home. Mobile industry trade show Mobile World Congress is winding down, with new phones and tablets and software dominating the headlines. But what does this year's show tell us about what to expect at MWC 2014? The standout trend of this year's show that has the potential to be fully realised next year is the arrival of new operating systems, to challenge...

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Manning makes sudden admission in WikiLeaks case

Updated at 12:57 p.m. ET FORT MEADE, Md. An Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history offered guilty pleas Thursday to 10 of 22 charges against him and a military judge said she would allow the soldier to read a statement explaining his actions. Pfc. Bradley Manning would plead guilty to sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy...

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Benedict Departs Vatican for the Last Time as Pope

Pope Benedict XVI bade his final farewell to the faithful today, lifting off from the Vatican in a white helicopter as the first pope to resign in six centuries.Just before 5 p.m. local time, Benedict, 85, walked out of the Vatican for the last time as pope, waving to a cheering crowd in the Courtyard of San Damaso as he entered a black Mercedes for the short drive to a nearby...

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Football: 'Business as usual' for Chelsea after Rafa blast

LONDON: Chelsea insisted Thursday would be just another day at the office despite interim manager Rafael Benitez hitting out at the club's fans and management the day before.Benitez launched a broadside following his side's 2-0 win at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday, criticising fans for protesting against him and questioning why he was only appointed on a temporary...

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Tim Cook doesn't like Apple's falling share price, either

Apple's iPhone 5.(Credit:CNET) If you're an Apple shareholder and are pretty pissed about the company's recent stock drop, you can at least take comfort in knowing you're not alone. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook says today during the electronics giant's annual shareholder meeting that he knows people are upset about the stock drop. "I don't like it either," Cook said. Nor does the board and management,...

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Anti-virus firm makes new revelation on Stuxnet

Updated at 11:22 a.m. ET LONDON The sophisticated cyberweapon which targeted an Iranian nuclear plant is older than previously believed, an anti-virus firm said Tuesday, peeling back another layer of mystery on a series of attacks attributed to U.S. and Israeli intelligence. The Stuxnet worm, aimed at the centrifuges in Iran's Natanz plant, transformed the cybersecurity field because it was the...

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Bring on the Cuts: Some Want the Sequester

Mark Lucas wouldn't mind seeing America's defense budget cut by billions."There's quite a bit of waste within the military," Lucas, who serves as Iowa state director for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), told ABC News. "Being in there for 10 years, I've seen quite a bit of it."With the budget sequester set to kick in on Friday, the former Army ranger is among...

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Iran upbeat on nuclear talks, West still wary

ALMATY (Reuters) - Iran was upbeat on Wednesday after talks with world powers about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again, but Western officials said it had yet to take concrete steps to ease their fears of a secret weapons program. The United States, China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany offered to ease sanctions slightly in return for Iran curbing its most sensitive...

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Iran tells Zardari pipeline must advance despite US

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday told the visiting Pakistani president that a much-delayed $7.5 billion gas pipeline project must go ahead despite US opposition."The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is an important example of Tehran-Islamabad cooperation, and despite hostilities towards the expansion of ties we must overcome this opposition decisively," Khamenei...

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Twitter's Windows Phone app joins the 21st century

Twitter updated its Windows Phone app this morning, bringing it in line with its iOS and Android apps.(Credit:Twitter)Twitter today updated its Windows Phone app, adding a slew of new discovery features that had been included in the social network's iOS and Android apps for some time.In a blog post, Twitter said that it had fundamentally redesigned the Windows Phone version of its app to be "in line...

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At least 19 tourists die in balloon crash in Egypt

Updated 9:02 a.m. EST LUXOR, Egypt A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 19 foreign tourists, a security official said. The death toll rose Tuesday afternoon after a British tourist died of his injuries. It was one of the worst accidents involving tourists in Egypt and is likely to push the key tourism...

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Italy parties seek way out of election stalemate

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties looked for a way forward on Tuesday after an election that gave none of them a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability and European financial crisis. The results, notably by the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower...

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Portugal may get more time to cut deficit: prime minister

LISBON: Portugal's prime minister on Tuesday said his country may be granted more time to meet its fiscal targets as the implementation of its international bailout was under review."There is a possibility of getting one year more to adjust the state deficit and it is very likely that this is up for discussion", Pedro Passos Coelho said as the so-called Troika of public creditors -- the...

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Feature phones still outshine smartphones in key countries

Kyocera's Durapro feature phone.(Credit:Kyocera)Smartphones may be hot in the U.S. and U.K, but feature phones dominate in such countries as India and Russia, according to the folks at Nielsen.Released today, Nielsen's "2013 Mobile Consumer Report" found that smartphones owners make up the majority of mobile phone users in nations such as the U.S., the U.K., South Korea, and China.But in other countries,...

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Addressing controversy, Menendez invokes words of MLK

Amid a handful of allegations that threaten to mar his reputation in the Senate, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., continues to maintain his innocence, decrying the accusations as right-wing attempts to "destroy" his career and invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in asserting his faith that justice will win out. Menendez, who was re-elected to his seat in November, has since been hit with allegations...

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Secret Vatican Dossier for 'Pope's Eyes Only'

Feb 25, 2013 9:05am ROME – Pope Benedict XVI decided to keep secret the contents of an investigative report on the “Vatileaks” scandal, ruling that the only person who will get to see it will be the next pope.The top secret dossier details the findings of an internal investigation the pope launch last April into the so-called Vatileaks affair, in which Benedict’s...

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Powers to offer Iran sanctions relief at nuclear talks

ALMATY (Reuters) - Major powers will offer Iran some sanctions relief during talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week if Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear program, a U.S. official said on Monday. But the Islamic Republic could face more economic pain if it fails to address international concerns about its atomic activities, the official said ahead of the February 26-27 meeting in the central...

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