DUBAI (Reuters) ? Saudi Arabia is pressing ahead with a long-awaited plan to open up its stock market to foreigners and is now hoping to formalize its rules by January 15, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
"The dialogue is clearly intensifying, and they are looking at mid-January for publishing the term sheet for access," said the source, who declined to be identified.
The country has been considering a wider opening of its market for several years and, earlier this month, two industry sources revealed that it planned to offer a limited direct foreign ownership. At the time, sources expected this to happen by mid to late first quarter of 2012.
The opening up of the stock market is likely to attract considerable interest as it offers foreigners a chance to invest directly in blue chips like Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC) (2010.SE), the world's most valuable chemical company. Other big players in the exchange include Samba Financial (1090.SE), the country's second-largest lender by market value, and former monopoly Saudi Telecom (7040.SE).
Foreign investors currently are allowed to invest in Saudi Arabian companies only by share swap transactions via international investment banks, who deal with local partners.
"We expect costs for trading to come down by 70-80 basis points if we're allowed direct access," said the source, who expected implementation of the guidelines to follow in the first or second quarter of the year.
He said that the main points of contention centered around rules governing the number of custodians, financial institutions that offer a range of services including arranging settlements of trade and administering dividends.
"The local banks do not want to be cut out of the deal; all the big international banks are setting up offices in Saudi and the Saudi banks are fighting the likes of HSBC," he said.
"If you take 5 percent of market cap and custodial fees thereon of 10-12 basis points, that's a lot at stake," said the source.
The Saudi Stock Exchange is the largest market in the Middle East with around 150 listed companies valued at $337 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. By comparison, Dubai exchange's market cap is $28.5 billion while Qatar's is $97 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.
A spokesman for the Capital Markets Authority, the country's stock market regulator, was not immediately available for comment.
STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION
According to the latest version of proposals which the CMA has circulated to investors, each qualified foreign investor (QFI) and its affiliates may own a maximum of 5 percent of any listed Saudi firm.
The maximum that all categories of foreign investors -- QFIs and those who don't qualify -- can own in any Saudi company will be 49 percent, with the portion cumulatively controlled by QFIs and QFI-approved clients capped at 20 percent.
"The draft Qualified Foreign Investor limits that are circulating are certainly a step in the right direction. It looks like a number of larger funds will be owning direct Saudi equities, rather than Swaps or P notes, sometime in 2012," said Daniel Broby, chief investment officer at Silk Invest in London.
"They will clearly want to be careful about opening capital markets from a domestic perspective, but once they go on that track, it's hoped that they won't reverse," he said.
Another source said that the Saudis' main concern appeared to be sudden inflows and outflows of portfolio money.
"They are going to be very strict on things like the Know Your Customer (KYC) document. Saudis are concerned about hot money -- they're worried about who would invest and so they would be doing as much due diligence that would not necessarily be normal for them," he said.
According to one version of the proposals that were sent around, the Saudis wanted fund investors to provide projections on returns, an unusual requirement that the first source said was unlikely to survive when the final rules were published.
There will also be rules about the size of the institutions allowed to invest. According to the proposals, the minimum assets under management will be $5 billion.
Your momma always said your handsome mug would take you places. Now it might allow you to access your iPad. An Apple patent application released today describes a facial recognition system that requires minimal computing power, and works whether you're indoors or out -- we don't use our tablets and phones in a photo booth, after all. The technology works by comparing a current image of your mug to a reference model user profile made using "high information" portions of the human face, like eyes and mouths. Translation: it'll take a picture, compare it against the pictures associated with various user accounts on the device and decide if the two images are similar enough to grant you access. Because this is just an application, it's safe to say we won't be seeing this kind of facial recognition in iOS anytime soon, but let's hope it works better than the ICS version if it does.
Update: An important thing to note is that Apple applied for this patent long before Android's Face Unlock debuted a few months back. The paper work was first submitted on June 29th, 2010 -- it's just now being disclosed to the public.
Her body was found in Grand Union Canal in Southall
By Tom Kelly and Rebecca Camber
Last updated at 1:01 AM on 30th December 2011
The mother of a month-old baby was murdered and dumped in a canal on Christmas Day as her family waited for her to come home and open her presents.
Ruby Love?s body was spotted floating in the Grand Union Canal in Southall, West London, on Sunday morning.
Police believe the 23-year-old was thrown into the water just hours earlier, after being hit on the back of the head and strangled.
Ruby Love: The mother of three was described as 'the most lovely girl'
Miss Love, who also had a two-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter, was last seen at 6pm on Christmas Eve before going out for the evening.
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She had been expected to return home on Christmas Day to open presents with her children and her mother and sister, with whom she lived in Harrow, North London.
Last night police charged Miss Love?s boyfriend of five years with her murder. Manzar Juma, 27, is due to appear before Brent Magistrates Court later today.
Miss Love?s distraught mother Precious said: ?She was just the most lovely girl, the best daughter I could have asked for.
?We were having our Christmas dinner and opening our presents as we were waiting for her. I waited and waited and I texted her through the night.
Sealed off: Investigators were still at the scene where Miss Love was found
?I waited until it had got to 24 hours after [she left] and then I gave it one more hour, and then there was a knock on the door. It was the police.
?It?s such a loss ? I do not know how we are going to cope.?
The 45-year-old identified her daughter?s body on Boxing Day. She said she appeared to have been hit on the back of? her head, and that the body bore strang- ulation marks.
An initial post-mortem examination was unable to establish a formal cause of death.
Yesterday Miss Love?s sister Sarah, 22, fought back tears as she described her devotion to her children.
?She loved her kids but she was a mother to everyone,? she said. ?She always protected me and I could not protect her. She was an angel. We have just not stopped crying.?I still cannot believe this.?
Murder inquiry: The body of Ruby Love was found in the Grand Union Canal (pictured) in Southall, west London on Christmas Day
Grim discovery: Officers were called to the scene by a member of the public who had spotted the young woman's body
As a tribute, her mother has painted a white cross on Miss Love?s front door under the words: ?Ruby?s Angel House.? The Hindu-Sikh family had converted to Christianity and changed their surname from Malik. Miss Love worked in their property business.
Yesterday police divers were still searching the section of the canal where her body was found. The area forms part of the popular Hillingdon Trail walk.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ?Police have launched a murder investigation following the discovery of a body in the Grand Union Canal.
?Officers are appealing for anyone who witnessed anything suspicious on, or before Christmas Day.?
He added that officers ?are aware of? previous incidents which will form part of our investigation?.
? An Indian student ?executed? on Boxing Day may have been the victim of a racially-motivated attack, police said yesterday.
Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot in the side of the head as he walked with friends in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Five people ? including a boy of 16 and two aged 17 ? have been arrested by police on suspicion of murder.
Mr Bidve?s father Subhash, speaking from the family?s home in Pune, Maharashtra, said he learned of his son?s death via a message posted on Facebook.
? A mother was stabbed to death after an apparent domestic dispute. A man believed to be the 36-year-old?s partner was yesterday fighting for his life in hospital after he was discovered unconscious at their flat.
Neighbours said the victim?s schoolboy son raised the alarm after stumbling out of the family property in Wolverhampton ?covered in blood?.
Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
MADALLA. December 27. KAZINFORM?At a Nigerian Catholic church where a terror attack killed 35 people on Christmas, women tried to clean the sanctuary ahead of Mass on Monday while one man wept uncontrollably amid the debris; Kazinform refers to Arab News.
Outside the St. Theresa Catholic Church, crowds gathered among the burned-out cars in the dirt parking lot, angry over the attack claimed by a radical sect and fearful that the group will target more churches.
Rev. Father Christopher Jataudarde told The Associated Press that Sunday's blast happened as church officials gave parishioners white powder as part of a tradition celebrating the birth of Christ.
Some already had left the church at the time of the bombing, causing the massive casualties. In the chaos after the bombing, Jataudarde said one mortally wounded man, cradling his shredded stomach, begged him for religious atonement.
"Father, pray for me, I will not survive," the man said, according to the priest.
At least 52 people were wounded in the attack, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. Victims filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, some crying in pools of their own blood.
On Christmas, attacks by the radical sect Boko Haram left 39 dead across Africa's most populous nation. A bomb also exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation's northeast.
After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with public.
"There will never be peace until our demands are met," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying. "We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Shariah system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended"; Kazinform cites Arab News.
An early unofficial?kanged preview of CyanogenMod 9 for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has made its way to the Internet thanks to DaAwesome1?from XDA, who compiled the source from CyanogenMod?s GitHub and gives all credit to the CM team. We?re not exactly sure as to what is working and what is broken in this build, as there is no indication in the original post, but the installation process is pretty simple if you?ve been dying to get a look at whats in store for the world from the CyanogenMod team, who have worked around the clock to bring the first batch of nightly builds for as many devices as possible.
Here?s what you?ll need to do:
Make a Nandroid backup of your current ROM
Head over to the ROM thread on XDA
Carefully read the instructions
Stare in amazement at your early preview of CM9
We?ll be keeping tabs on this project, as well as many other currently active projects, and we?ll let you know once there are updates. Stay tuned!
Apple released iOS 4.3.5 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. After some time, MuscleNerd, the leading member of the iPhone Dev Team, has also confirmed that iOS 4.3.5 jailbreak is possible. However it would be a tethered jailbreak, meaning that every time you want to reboot your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, you have to plug it in to the computer and do the jailbreaking process again in order to use your device. If you do not do so, then it will just get stuck on the Apple logo and won?t boot up until and unless you boot tethered using a computer and the very same redsn0w software you used to jailbreak it. The files required for jailbreak are also important for boot tethered, so keep them safe, the following files you are required to download:
- iOS 4.3.5 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch- iOS 4.3.4 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch- Redsn0w 0.9.8b4 for Windows and Mac- iTunes 10.4 for Windows and Mac
Also keep in mind that iPad 2 is not supported for this jailbreak. For those who want to unlock their iPhone, should not update to iOS 4.3.5 as your baseband will also be upgraded and you will not be able to use the service of your choice. Just forget about it. Follow this step by step to Tethered Jailbreak iOS 4.3.5 on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad:
Step 1: First of all, Download iOS 4.3.5 as well as iOS 4.3.4. You will need the iOS 4.3.4 ipsw.
Step 2: Now Download RedSn0w 0.9.8b4 for Mac and Windows and iTunes 10.4.
Step 3: Extract the redsn0w folder. Launch redsn0w on your computer. If you are running Windows 7 or Vista, make sure to do the following procedure before you run redsn0w.
- Right click on redsn0w.exe and click on Properties- Go to the Compatibility tab- Check Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows XP Service Pack 3 from the drop down menu- Check Run this program as an administrator down in the Privilege Level.- Click Apply followed by Ok
Step 4: Once redsn0w loads up. Browse for the iOS 4.3.4 ipsw that you previously downloaded. Yes, to jailbreak iOS 4.3.5, you need to point redsn0w to iOS 4.3.4 ipsw.
Step 5: Redsn0w now begins to identify the ipsw. Once done, it takes you to a screen where you have several boxes to check. First and foremost, check Install Cydia. You may also choose to enable Battery Percentage and Multitasking Gestures.
Step 6: Upon clicking next, redsn0w now instructs you to power off your device and connect it to the computer. From here when you click next, it will show instructions on how to put your device in DFU mode. Follow these instructions carefully:Press and hold the Power button for around three secondsPress and hold both the Power and Home buttons for up to 10 secondsRelease Power button but keep on holding Home button until redsn0w starts injecting the Limera1n bootrom exploit.
Step 7: Once the device is in DFU mode, leave it up to redsn0w to work its magic. Sit back and watch redsn0w jailbreak iOS 4.3.5 on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Boot iOS 4.3.5 tethered after jailbreak:
Step 1: So once you have successfully done the jailbreak, you need to boot your freshly jailbroken device tethered. Connect it to your computer and power it off.
Step 2: Launch redsn0w once again and select the iOS 4.3.4 ipsw.
Step 3: Uncheck Install Cydia and any other options you may have previously checked. Now only check Just boot tethered right now.
Step 4: Follow the above mentioned instructions to put your device in DFU mode.
Step 5: If the instructions have been followed as they are meant to be, you?ll see redsn0w starts to work on its on again. At this moment, your device shall be displaying a pineapple in place of the Apple logo that appears at start up. Within 2 minutes, your device will be fully booted, tethered on jailbroken iOS 4.3.5.
Funeral services are planned for 11 a.m. Friday in the campus' C.F. Gayles Gymnasium. Holloway will then be buried at Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, according to a news release. Holloway will lie in repose in the gymnasium beginning at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Two memorial services are also planned. Alpha Phi Alpha expects to hold a service at 6 p.m. Thursday, and the Prince Hall Masons will host a service at 7 p.m. Thursday. Both will be at the I.W. Young Auditorium. Holloway will lie in repose in the auditorium beginning at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Holloway's 25-year tenure as president capped 40 years of service in several capacities at Langston University.
He graduated from the university in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in agriculture.
Frank Haith has the Missouri Tigers men?s basketball team on a roll and now it seems that everyone is taking notice. Not only have the Tigers moved into the top 10 nationally and placed yet another team alongside Baylor and Kansas in the spotlight from the Big 12, but they?ve now created another power this season in what is becoming a very crowded conference schedule. Andy Katz has taken notice and says the Tigers are among the most impressive teams in the nation right now.
?The Tigers outlasted Illinois in their annual game in St. Louis,? said Katz. ?The Tigers continue to look the part of a top 10 team and a potential top two seed in the NCAA tournament. Missouri got pushed as hard as it has this season by Illinois, but still prevailed late by making the right decisions.?
That?s high praise for Haith?s team, but with incredible scorers like Marcus Denmon and Kim English among others lighting up opposing defenses, it?s hard to believe it?s not true. If the Tigers earn a No. 2 seed at season?s end, it will mean that Frank Haith pulled off one of the best coaching jobs in the country and the awards will come rolling in.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry is closing out the year with a look into the forthcoming shift in mobile installed bases expected in 2012. Using data from the firm?s dataset of over 140,000 apps running worldwide, it was able to calculate smartphone penetration in established markets like U.S. and Europe. Then, using additional data from the IMF in combination with Flurry?s own data, the firm was able to then determine which countries represented the top market opportunities for mobile app developers. Not surprisingly, China and India made the list. But so did the U.S.
Damian Scarf at New Zealand's University of Otago reports in the current issue of the journal Science that experiments he conducted with colleagues show that pigeons can learn abstract rules about numbers.
Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Pigeons are not known for their algebra skills or intelligence generally. They don't talk like parrots. They don't make tools out of twigs like some crows.
But Damian Scarf at New Zealand's University of Otago reports in the current issue of the journal Science, that experiments he conducted with colleagues showed that pigeons can learn abstract rules about numbers. Pigeons don't just count. The birds in his experiment could peck images on a screen to rank numbers from lower to higher. So they can sort, say, nine ladies dancing to one 12 partridge in a pear tree. Not those milkmaids a milking or pipers piping though.
His findings are similar to ones in the 1990s which established that the primates have math skills, meaning that monkeys and pigeons might be able to play gin rummy - at least for low stakes.
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Welcome to the Apple?N'Apps Weekly podcast, which is our new segment on the site and in iTunes every Friday. Apple?N'Apps Weekly is our effort to bring you the latest and greatest of everything about apple and apps. We already provide breaking news, dozens of app reviews, and thought provoking editorials so now it?s time for a podcast to make it even easier to keep up with all the goes on in a given week.
The show will cover the hottest news, latest and greatest app reviews, and cutting edge editorials on Apple and the app industry. The hosts are Trevor Sheridan, Editor-in-Chief, and podcast expert & Apple enthusiast Rafael Chavez. The podcast will be broken down into five main sections as we cover the most intriguing topics of the week. The show will be available every friday, and we apologize about missing the past couple of weeks, but our local windstorm got in the way. Without further ado, here?s Apple?N'Apps Weekly, Episode Four which you can listen to right here, or download for later.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:28 ? 22.2MB)
iTunes Link
For this week, Episode Four, we cover the following,
News of The Week: - Southern California Wind storm - Apple Grand Central Store - Twitter rolls out major redesign - iBooks 1.5 with Beatles Yellow Submarine book - iTunes Rewind Instagram & Tiny Tower Hot Topics: - iTether app approved and then removed - iPad 3 and iPad 2S keep iPad 2 Newest Apps - Evernote Hello & Evernote Food - Flipboard & Zite now universal - Instacast HD - Sting 25 - Beatles Album Guide Latest Games: - Infinity Blade II - New Tetris - Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies Looking back at the week as a whole
We hope you enjoy the AppleNApps Weekly podcast, and are excited to see it each and every week. You can find the podcast here on?our site and iTunes every Friday, and we?ll keep you updated on Twitter, or?Facebook. Also, our intro song was created with GarageBand for iPad.
Source: androidcommunity.com --- Thursday, December 22, 2011 Watch Arizona State vs Boise State live http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 Welcome to watch Arizona State vs Boise State live match on December 22, 2011 .You can easily watch NCAA match between Arizona State vs Boise State live stream online on pc here, just follow our streaming link .Enjoy Arizona State vs Boise State live stream Free Game Online HD on Pc.Ensure that you must be 100% satisfied in out service .So don?t be hesitated just click the link bellow and start watching and enjoy more.best of luck. Click Here to Watch Arizona State vs Boise State Live MATCH DETAILS Date: Thursday ,December,22th ,2011 Time:08.00pm ET Live / Repeat:Live http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 http://worldliveallsportszone.com/?p=4362 Watch Arizona State vs Boise State Live stream Free Game Online HD on Pc .Don?t miss to watch Arizona State vs Boise State live The great match.Live Arizona State vs Boise State now on Sky Sports 4,bet air tv,CBS, HD4 ,Fox Network .This Match Arizona State vs Boise State live .Both team are ready to face each other. So this match will be very enjoyable Watch Live FOX,CBS,NBC,ESPN TV Get the best online sports coverage on the net directly on your PC. Don?t worry,it is too easy to watch.just try it.So don?t waste your time. From any locatio ...
WASHINGTON ? In in the latest sign that the economy is surging at year's end, unemployment claims have dropped to the lowest level since April 2008, long before anyone realized that the nation was in a recession.
Claims fell by 4,000 last week to 364,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the third straight weekly drop. The four-week average of claims, a less volatile gauge, fell for the 11th time in 13 weeks and stands at the lowest since June 2008.
While the economy remains vulnerable to threats, particularly a recession in Europe, the steady improvement in the job market is unquestionable.
"The underlying trend is undeniably positive," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets. "I think everyone is starting to come around to the view that, yes, there is a recovery going on."
Unemployment claims are a sort of week-to-week EKG for the job market. Except for a spike this spring, after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan hurt U.S. manufacturing, they have fallen steadily for a year and a half.
Claims peaked at 659,000 in March 2009. In the four years before the Great Recession, they mostly stayed between 300,000 and 350,000. That claims are edging closer to that range is a sign that the layoffs of the past three years have all but stopped.
"We haven't yet really seen substantial numbers of new jobs, but this is definitely an encouraging sign of what lies down the road," said Sam Bullard, an economist at Wells Fargo.
The steady decline may also herald a further decline in the unemployment rate, which fell in November to 8.6 percent from 9 percent the month before. The December rate will be announced Jan. 6.
If unemployment claims keep declining, the unemployment rate might fall as low as 8 percent before the November elections, said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC, a boutique brokerage.
The presidential election will turn on the economy. Ronald Reagan holds the post-World War II record for winning a second term with the highest unemployment rate. He won in 1984 with unemployment at 7.2 percent.
Economists will also watch closely on Jan. 6 to find out how many jobs were added this month. It added at least 100,000 each month from July through November, the best five-month streak since 2006.
"When you fire fewer people, hiring unquestionably follows," Greenhaus said. He expects employers to create as many as 200,000 jobs per month if the trend continues.
In another encouraging report Thursday, the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators rose strongly in November for the second straight month, suggesting that the risks of another recession are receding.
The index puts the economy on track to grow at a 4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, which ends this month, said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics.
The economy hasn't posted 4 percent growth or stronger since the first quarter of 2006, when it grew at a 5.1 percent rate. The best it has done since the recession was 3.9 percent, in the spring of 2010.
The Great Recession lasted from December 2007 through June 2009. Economists didn't declare that it was under way until December 2008.
The economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter of this year. The government revised that figure downward from 2 percent Thursday because Americans spent less than the government had estimated.
Besides a brightening job market, the positive factors include strong holiday shopping and cheaper gas, which leaves people more money to spend on other things and helps consumer confidence.
"The economy is carrying some clear momentum into 2012," said economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.
The flip side, said Bullard, the Wells Fargo economist, is political uncertainty at home and a near-inevitable recession across the Atlantic. Those factors will weigh on growth next year and might reverse the momentum that the job market appears to be enjoying.
In Europe, the 17 nations that use the euro currency are struggling to deal with debt problems and keep the currency union together. A recession there would be bad news for American companies that export to Europe.
Another source of uncertainty for 2012 is what Congress will do about the Social Security payroll tax cut, set to expire Jan. 1. Extended unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed also expire on that date.
The tax cut applies to 160 million Americans. For a worker earning $50,000, it saves $1,000 over a year. For a high-earning couple, it would save $4,404 over next year, or about $85 a week.
Economists say that failing to renew the tax cut and emergency unemployment aid could cut a full percentage point from economic growth next year.
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Here is the video of Whoopi Goldberg farting on The View. The incident occurred on Friday December 16th and as you can imagine is super duper gross. Claire Danes was the delightful guest who apparently bored Whoopi enough that she let out a loud ripper. She readily admits it too, saying “Oh excuse me, I think I just blew a little frog out of there.” Ms. Danes is shocked. As anyone would be shocked. She was graceful not to reach over and back slap Whoopi. She just laughed a little and continued. My view is that Whoopi Goldberg does not have any self-respect. She is overweight which is often a sign of depression. She slinks in her chair which is usually a sign of insecurity. Yes she is funny to a point. But hilarious? No. In fact I really do not know what she has done worthwhile since that singing nun movie that was made 20 years ago. Today she was just gross which is the sign of a lazy comedian. The best comedians are the ones who do not have to shock you to get a reaction. What are your thoughts about Whoopi Goldberg farting? See the video from [...]
NEW YORK ?? The biggest trend in finales this year is ? ulp! ? child endangerment.
Shows from "Dexter" to "The Walking Dead" have made kids in danger the dramatic thrust of their finale storylines. "The Walking Dead" even killed a child ? not once but twice ? and had another suffer a ghastly, near-fatal shotgun wound to the gut.
FX's new "American Horror Story" didn't even wait for its finale to start dispatching kids, violently offing a pair of young twins in its first minutes.
Viewers will find out on Sunday's "Dexter" season finale whether Dexter's son, Harrison, will also perish at the altar of TV drama. Previews of the episode show bad guy Colin Hanks threatening to stab the toddler in the neck with a wooden sword.
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No harm, of course, came to any actual children in the making of the shows. But whether harm could come to kids who watch them is an open question. (Assuming any parents are clueless enough to let their kids watch surefire nightmare-inducers.)
Many studies have linked violence on TV to actual aggression in children. But violence against children ? or at least so much of it at once ? is new territory.
Thou Shalt Not Kill a Child has long been one of the unspoken commandments of horror movies, to say nothing of TV shows. (Teenagers, especially sexually active ones, are fair game, as Wes Craven spelled out in 1996's "Scream.") Putting young people in danger is one of the cheapest ways to shock an audience ? but can also be a legitimate way to explore serious ethical questions.
Child deaths also play heavily into the plot of Showtime's "Homeland," which concludes its first season after the "Dexter" finale Sunday.
More from TheWrap: Where's the terror in 'American Horror Story'?
Freshman ethics classes love to pose questions about children in danger to explore the concept of utilitarianism ? the idea that the the right course of action is the one that brings about the most overall happiness and the least overall pain. Students are asked to ponder (and sometimes do, for the rest of their lives) whether they would let one child die to save a train full of people, or kill the infant Hitler if it would prevent the Holocaust.
Walt's "Breaking Bad" dilemma fits in cozily alongside those questions: Would you risk a child's life to save yourself and your family?
Shane's decision to kill the hunter in "The Walking Dead" is another utilitarian calculation brought on by child endangerment: He decides the hunter's life is worth less than his own, and that of the boy the hunter shot. The entire search for Sophia also comes down to a cold calculation: Should all the survivors risk their lives to look for one little girl?
Her discovery as a zombie in a barn leads to another ethical debate about who deserves our empathy. The survivors take a fairly strict us vs. them approach to zombies ? until the most vulnerable of "us" becomes one of "them."
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Horror aficionado Eli Roth cleverly riffed on the no-killing-kids rule in his 2005 "Hostel," the extreme 2005 film that helped inspire the phrase "torture porn." The climax of the film includes a moment when a villain seems prepared to run over a pack of children. It seems like the most grueling possible coup de grace to a film filled with grotesqueries.
But ultimately Roth lets the kids win, by swarming their would-be killer. That's right: This is the year basic cable dramas crossed a line that "Hostel" wouldn't.
FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which also toys with audiences' boundaries, played with the no-harm to children rule this season in an episode in which a character pretended, for tax purposes, that her baby had died.
More from TheWrap: FX's 'Always Sunny' model: Low costs, total freedom
"I will say this," show creator Rob McElhenney told TheWrap in a recent interview. "That there has never been, nor will there ever be, a sitcom on television where they have a baby funeral. We're the only one."
The only sitcom, sure. But not the only show, the way things are going.
Do you feel the deaths of kids on TV shows this season has been more for shock value or to engage people in ethical discussions? Which death(s) didn't help the storyline? Share your thoughts on the Facebook page for our TV blog, The Clicker.
Scientists who spotted a giant gas blob orbiting the black hole at the center of the Milky Way say they'll get a first-ever close-up view of matter falling into a supermassive black hole.
For the first time, astronomers are poised to get a close look at a supermassive black hole making a meal of in-falling gas.
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The black hole in question lurks in the center of the Milky Way. A vast blob of gas is orbiting the black hole, known astronomically as Sagittarius A*. And it appears to be a swan-song orbit.
At its closest approach in 2013, the gradually stretching blob will have been shredded into fragments by the black hole's gravity. The fragments are expected to swing to within 1.5 light-days of the black hole's event horizon ? the point of no return for in-falling matter.
That's about 260 times the distance between Earth and the sun. The team discovering the blob calculates that some of the gas fragments will be flung into new orbits around Sagittarius A*. But the team says some of that gas may be drawn in ever-tightening circles around the black hole until it crosses the event horizon and vanishes in a burst of radiation.
"What a unique opportunity!" says an enthused Stefan Gillessen, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. Dr. Gillessen led the team reporting the results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Researchers observing other galaxies millions of light-years away claim to have seen stars being disrupted by black holes, Gillessen writes in an email exchange. But the level of detail in the data hasn't been high enough to be thoroughly convincing.
"Here, we can predict that an accretion event will?happen, [and] at a very close distance of 25,000 light years," he says. "The mass being fed towards the black hole is small, but we can watch it in exquisite detail."
In some ways this sounds a bit like hungry waifs staring through a restaurant window as a diner is about to take in a fork tipped with filet mignon.
But Gillessen and others say the observations will help draw a more complete picture of how black holes operate.
Such an event would help show how galactic black holes gain mass over time. And the fragments' interactions with gas already in the region could serve as a probe of environmental conditions in the black hole's immediate backyard.
Black holes are cosmic objects with so much mass squeezed into such a small volume that the strength of their gravity prevents even light, traveling at 186,000 miles a second, from escaping.
Stars far more massive than the sun typically end their lives as so-called stellar-mass black holes. These tend have the mass of about 10 suns with an event horizon only about 18 miles across.
But black holes also come supersized ? behemoths stuffed with the mass of millions or billions of suns and whose event horizons can reach out to several times the distance between the sun and Pluto. These supermassive black holes are said to reside at the center of nearly all galaxies and play important roles in their evolution.
Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxiesPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California - Berkeley
Astronomers discover 2 10-billion-solar-mass black holes in giant elliptical galaxies
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.
These black holes are at the centers of two galaxies more than 300 million light years from Earth, and may be the dark remnants of some of the very bright galaxies, called quasars, that populated the early universe.
"In the early universe, there were lots of quasars or active galactic nuclei, and some were expected to be powered by black holes as big as 10 billion solar masses or more," said Chung-Pei Ma, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy. "These two new supermassive black holes are similar in mass to young quasars, and may be the missing link between quasars and the supermassive black holes we see today."
Black holes are dense concentrations of matter that produce such strong gravitational fields that even light cannot escape. While exploding stars, called supernovas, can leave behind black holes the mass of a single star like the sun, supermassive black holes have presumably grown from the merger of other black holes or by capturing huge numbers of stars and massive amounts of gas.
"These black holes may shed light on how black holes and their surrounding galaxies have nurtured each other since the early universe," said UC Berkeley graduate student Nicholas McConnell, first author of a paper on the discovery being published in the Dec. 8 issue of the British journal Nature by McConnell, Ma and their colleagues at the university of Toronto, Texas and Michigan, as well as by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona.
To date, approximately 63 supermassive black holes have been found sitting in the cores of nearby galaxies. The largest for more than three decades was a 6.3 billion solar mass black hole in the center of the nearby galaxy M87.
One of the newly discovered black holes is 9.7 billion solar masses and located in the elliptical galaxy NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in the Leo cluster of galaxies, 320 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. The second is as large or larger and sits in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster about 336 million light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices.
According to McConnell, these black holes have an event horizon the "abandon all hope" edge from which not even light can escape that is 200 times the orbit of Earth, or five times the orbit of Pluto. Beyond the event horizon, each black hole has a gravitational influence that would extend over a sphere 4,000 light years across.
"For comparison, these black holes are 2,500 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, whose event horizon is one fifth the orbit of Mercury," McConnell said.
The brightest galaxy in a cluster
These 10 billion solar mass black holes have remained hidden until now, presumably because they are living in quiet retirement, Ma said. During their active quasar days some 10 billion years ago, they cleared out the neighborhood by swallowing vast quantities of gas and dust. The surviving gas became stars that have since orbited peacefully. According to Ma, these monster black holes, and their equally monster galaxies that likely contain a trillion stars, settled into obscurity at the center of galaxy clusters.
Ma, a theoretical astrophysicist, decided to look for these huge black holes in relatively nearby clusters of elliptical galaxies as a result of her computer simulations of galaxy mergers.
Astronomers believe that many, if not all, galaxies have a massive black hole at the center, with the larger galaxies harboring larger black holes. The largest black holes are found in elliptical galaxies, which are thought to result from the merger of two spiral galaxies. Ma found, however, that mergers of elliptical galaxies themselves could produce the largest elliptical galaxies as well as supermassive black holes approaching 10 billion solar masses. These black holes can grow even larger by consuming gas left over from a merger.
"Multiple mergers are one way to build up these behemoths," Ma said.
To look for these monster black holes, Ma teamed up with observational astronomers, including James Graham, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto, and Karl Gebhardt, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. Gebhardt had obtained the mass of the previous record holder in galaxy M87.
Using telescopes at the Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii and at McDonald Observatory in Texas, McConnell and Ma obtained detailed spectra of the diffuse starlight at the centers of several massive elliptical galaxies, each the brightest galaxy in its cluster. So far, they've analyzed the orbital velocities of stars in two galaxies and calculated the central masses to be in the quasar range. Having such huge masses contained within a volume only a few hundred light years across led the astronomers to conclude that the masses were massive black holes.
"If all that mass were in stars, then we would see their light", Ma said.
Modeling these massive galaxies required use of state-of-the-art supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
"For an astronomer, finding these insatiable black holes is like finally encountering people nine feet tall, whose great height had only been inferred from fossilized bones. How did they grow so large?" Ma said. "This rare find will help us understand whether these black holes had very tall parents or ate a lot of spinach."
###
Other coauthors of the Nature paper are Hubble postdoctoral fellow Shelley A. Wright at UC Berkeley and graduate student Jeremy D. Murphy of the University of Texas; Tod R. Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory; and Douglas O. Richstone of the University of Michigan.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and UC Berkeley's Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxiesPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California - Berkeley
Astronomers discover 2 10-billion-solar-mass black holes in giant elliptical galaxies
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.
These black holes are at the centers of two galaxies more than 300 million light years from Earth, and may be the dark remnants of some of the very bright galaxies, called quasars, that populated the early universe.
"In the early universe, there were lots of quasars or active galactic nuclei, and some were expected to be powered by black holes as big as 10 billion solar masses or more," said Chung-Pei Ma, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy. "These two new supermassive black holes are similar in mass to young quasars, and may be the missing link between quasars and the supermassive black holes we see today."
Black holes are dense concentrations of matter that produce such strong gravitational fields that even light cannot escape. While exploding stars, called supernovas, can leave behind black holes the mass of a single star like the sun, supermassive black holes have presumably grown from the merger of other black holes or by capturing huge numbers of stars and massive amounts of gas.
"These black holes may shed light on how black holes and their surrounding galaxies have nurtured each other since the early universe," said UC Berkeley graduate student Nicholas McConnell, first author of a paper on the discovery being published in the Dec. 8 issue of the British journal Nature by McConnell, Ma and their colleagues at the university of Toronto, Texas and Michigan, as well as by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona.
To date, approximately 63 supermassive black holes have been found sitting in the cores of nearby galaxies. The largest for more than three decades was a 6.3 billion solar mass black hole in the center of the nearby galaxy M87.
One of the newly discovered black holes is 9.7 billion solar masses and located in the elliptical galaxy NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in the Leo cluster of galaxies, 320 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. The second is as large or larger and sits in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster about 336 million light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices.
According to McConnell, these black holes have an event horizon the "abandon all hope" edge from which not even light can escape that is 200 times the orbit of Earth, or five times the orbit of Pluto. Beyond the event horizon, each black hole has a gravitational influence that would extend over a sphere 4,000 light years across.
"For comparison, these black holes are 2,500 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, whose event horizon is one fifth the orbit of Mercury," McConnell said.
The brightest galaxy in a cluster
These 10 billion solar mass black holes have remained hidden until now, presumably because they are living in quiet retirement, Ma said. During their active quasar days some 10 billion years ago, they cleared out the neighborhood by swallowing vast quantities of gas and dust. The surviving gas became stars that have since orbited peacefully. According to Ma, these monster black holes, and their equally monster galaxies that likely contain a trillion stars, settled into obscurity at the center of galaxy clusters.
Ma, a theoretical astrophysicist, decided to look for these huge black holes in relatively nearby clusters of elliptical galaxies as a result of her computer simulations of galaxy mergers.
Astronomers believe that many, if not all, galaxies have a massive black hole at the center, with the larger galaxies harboring larger black holes. The largest black holes are found in elliptical galaxies, which are thought to result from the merger of two spiral galaxies. Ma found, however, that mergers of elliptical galaxies themselves could produce the largest elliptical galaxies as well as supermassive black holes approaching 10 billion solar masses. These black holes can grow even larger by consuming gas left over from a merger.
"Multiple mergers are one way to build up these behemoths," Ma said.
To look for these monster black holes, Ma teamed up with observational astronomers, including James Graham, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto, and Karl Gebhardt, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. Gebhardt had obtained the mass of the previous record holder in galaxy M87.
Using telescopes at the Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii and at McDonald Observatory in Texas, McConnell and Ma obtained detailed spectra of the diffuse starlight at the centers of several massive elliptical galaxies, each the brightest galaxy in its cluster. So far, they've analyzed the orbital velocities of stars in two galaxies and calculated the central masses to be in the quasar range. Having such huge masses contained within a volume only a few hundred light years across led the astronomers to conclude that the masses were massive black holes.
"If all that mass were in stars, then we would see their light", Ma said.
Modeling these massive galaxies required use of state-of-the-art supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
"For an astronomer, finding these insatiable black holes is like finally encountering people nine feet tall, whose great height had only been inferred from fossilized bones. How did they grow so large?" Ma said. "This rare find will help us understand whether these black holes had very tall parents or ate a lot of spinach."
###
Other coauthors of the Nature paper are Hubble postdoctoral fellow Shelley A. Wright at UC Berkeley and graduate student Jeremy D. Murphy of the University of Texas; Tod R. Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory; and Douglas O. Richstone of the University of Michigan.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and UC Berkeley's Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Mobile analytics firm Flurry is closing out the year with a look into the forthcoming shift in mobile installed bases expected in 2012. Using data from the firm?s dataset of over 140,000 apps running worldwide, it was able to calculate smartphone penetration in established markets like U.S. and Europe. Then, using additional data from the IMF in combination with Flurry?s own data, the firm was able to then determine which countries represented the top market opportunities for mobile app developers. Not surprisingly, China and India made the list. But so did the U.S. 
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Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
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