'Babysitters are going to get, hopefully, a lot of money out of this film,' Craig says, predicting the mature set will flock to theaters. By Amy Wilkinson
Daniel Craig Photo: MTV News
Rape, murder, intrigue ... the feel-bad movie of Christmas may not leave audiences feeling bright and merry but "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" star Daniel Craig suspects the dark drama will inspire smiles among at least one group.
"Look, I'm a David Fincher fan, so it was an easy choice to make when accepting this film," Craig told MTV News at the film's New York City premiere. "It's a great story. It's an adult movie. The babysitters are going to get, hopefully, a lot of money out of this film. That's why I wanted to get involved."
The film, based on the novel by late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) as he tries to solve the thirty-year-old murder of teen Harriet Vanger, with the help of asocial hacker punk Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Mara has been earning raves for her performance as the damaged heroine and even netted a Golden Globe nomination on Thursday. Craig said he had no doubts as to the newcomer's abilities.
"We all knew she was good. She's just committed as an actress, and she made all of the right choices with David's help and everyone else's help," he said. "She's just blossomed as somebody. As I said, we knew from the beginning that she was good enough — it was everyone else who had the problem."
Best known for her work in Fincher's "The Social Network," Mara returned the compliment, expressing gratitude for Craig's help and guidance on set. "Daniel is an incredible actor, and I don't think we've seen him in a role like this before, and he's brilliant," she said. "I couldn't have asked for a better person to sort of have my coming out. He was very patient and generous with me."
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" opens December 20, a day earlier than its initial release date.
After the Verizon LTE Galaxy Nexus finally appeared and was (almost) immediately updated yesterday, it enjoyed the briefest of possible periods as the highest official Android version available. Now, owners of GSM-equipped Galaxy Nexus phones are getting the same bundle of tweaks shoved their way in a quick 8.7MB download. Of course, even these pure(r) Nexus phones are still slightly behind the bleeding edge represented by v4.0.3, which was unveiled earlier today and almost simultaneously made available on the Nexus S -- isn't Android great?
Fear no supernovaPublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Given the incredible amounts of energy in a supernova explosion as much as the sun creates during its entire lifetime another erroneous doomsday theory is that such an explosion could happen in 2012 and harm life on Earth. However, given the vastness of space and the long times between supernovae, astronomers can say with certainty that there is no threatening star close enough to hurt Earth.
Astronomers estimate that, on average, about one or two supernovae explode each century in our galaxy. But for Earth's ozone layer to experience damage from a supernova, the blast must occur less than 50 light-years away. All of the nearby stars capable of going supernova are much farther than this.
Any planet with life on it near a star that goes supernova would indeed experience problems. X- and gamma-ray radiation from the supernova could damage the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful ultraviolet light in the sun's rays. The less ozone there is, the more UV light reaches the surface. At some wavelengths, just a 10 percent increase in ground-level UV can be lethal to some organisms, including phytoplankton near the ocean surface. Because these organisms form the basis of oxygen production on Earth and the marine food chain, any significant disruption to them could cascade into a planet-wide problem.
Another explosive event, called a gamma-ray burst (GRB), is often associated with supernovae. When a massive star collapses on itself -- or, less frequently, when two compact neutron stars collide -- the result is the birth of a black hole. As matter falls toward a nascent black hole, some of it becomes accelerated into a particle jet so powerful that it can drill its way completely through the star before the star's outermost layers even have begun to collapse. If one of the jets happens to be directed toward Earth, orbiting satellites detect a burst of highly energetic gamma rays somewhere in the sky. These bursts occur almost daily and are so powerful that they can be seen across billions of light-years.
A gamma-ray burst could affect Earth in much the same way as a supernova -- and at much greater distance -- but only if its jet is directly pointed our way. Astronomers estimate that a gamma-ray burst could affect Earth from up to 10,000 light-years away with each separated by about 15 million years, on average. So far, the closest burst on record, known as GRB 031203, was 1.3 billion light-years away.
As with impacts, our planet likely has already experienced such events over its long history, but there's no reason to expect a gamma-ray burst in our galaxy to occur in the near future, much less in December 2012.
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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.
Fear no supernovaPublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Given the incredible amounts of energy in a supernova explosion as much as the sun creates during its entire lifetime another erroneous doomsday theory is that such an explosion could happen in 2012 and harm life on Earth. However, given the vastness of space and the long times between supernovae, astronomers can say with certainty that there is no threatening star close enough to hurt Earth.
Astronomers estimate that, on average, about one or two supernovae explode each century in our galaxy. But for Earth's ozone layer to experience damage from a supernova, the blast must occur less than 50 light-years away. All of the nearby stars capable of going supernova are much farther than this.
Any planet with life on it near a star that goes supernova would indeed experience problems. X- and gamma-ray radiation from the supernova could damage the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful ultraviolet light in the sun's rays. The less ozone there is, the more UV light reaches the surface. At some wavelengths, just a 10 percent increase in ground-level UV can be lethal to some organisms, including phytoplankton near the ocean surface. Because these organisms form the basis of oxygen production on Earth and the marine food chain, any significant disruption to them could cascade into a planet-wide problem.
Another explosive event, called a gamma-ray burst (GRB), is often associated with supernovae. When a massive star collapses on itself -- or, less frequently, when two compact neutron stars collide -- the result is the birth of a black hole. As matter falls toward a nascent black hole, some of it becomes accelerated into a particle jet so powerful that it can drill its way completely through the star before the star's outermost layers even have begun to collapse. If one of the jets happens to be directed toward Earth, orbiting satellites detect a burst of highly energetic gamma rays somewhere in the sky. These bursts occur almost daily and are so powerful that they can be seen across billions of light-years.
A gamma-ray burst could affect Earth in much the same way as a supernova -- and at much greater distance -- but only if its jet is directly pointed our way. Astronomers estimate that a gamma-ray burst could affect Earth from up to 10,000 light-years away with each separated by about 15 million years, on average. So far, the closest burst on record, known as GRB 031203, was 1.3 billion light-years away.
As with impacts, our planet likely has already experienced such events over its long history, but there's no reason to expect a gamma-ray burst in our galaxy to occur in the near future, much less in December 2012.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
LONDON (Reuters) ? The decline in the euro zone's private sector eased a little this month, but a recession still looks inevitable with the region's periphery struggling badly, a key business survey showed on Thursday.
Markit's Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which measures the activity of thousands of euro zone companies, rose for a second month in December to 47.9 from 47.0, confounding expectations for a fall to 46.5.
But the preliminary reading lingered well below the 50 mark that divides growth and contraction for a fourth month.
Survey compiler Markit said France and Germany were responsible for the improved headline figure, while debt-laden peripheral countries remained firmly in contraction territory.
"It's an encouraging sign that (the index) didn't fall any further. Quite what will happen henceforth remains highly uncertain," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
But overall the data point to a deep contraction.
"The euro zone suffered its worst quarter for two and a half years in the final three months of 2011, with the PMI data suggesting that the region's economy is likely to have contracted by 0.6 percent."
That forecast is worse than the median consensus of 0.3 percent in a Reuters poll of economists on Wednesday.
Williamson pointed to steep falls in incoming new orders and very low levels of confidence about the year ahead in the services industry as reasons to expect more decline.
"Whether the rates of decline continue to moderate or accelerate is largely in the hands of the political leaders, and financial markets in their reaction to any changes in the sovereign debt situation," said Williamson.
EU leaders last Friday took a historic step towards fiscal union at a summit last week, but economists have warned this will do little to repair a debt crisis that is choking off market funding for Spain and Italy.
Williamson warned that further weakness in these peripheral economies could yet knock the stronger core economies of France and Germany off track.
Taking a step back, he said the surveys could be viewed as a sign that the euro zone economy is beginning to restructure itself although improvements in output so far haven't been forthcoming.
Perhaps the notable bright spot in the composite PMI was the jobs index, which rose to 50.9 from 50.1 in November. Williamson said this was encouraging, but he noted that this also was largely due to Franco-German strength, with dole queues lengthening in the periphery.
The services PMI, which accounts for the bulk of the euro zone economy, rose to 48.3 in December from 47.5. But the survey's business expectations index stayed at 53.5, low by historical standards.
The manufacturing index also rose modestly, to 46.9 from 46.4, but still its fifth month below the breakeven 50 point.
Its output component, which feeds directly into the composite PMI, showed a bigger rise -- to 47.1 from 45.7.
Factory order books continued to shrink sharply, however, albeit at a slightly reduced pace, with that sub-index rising to 43.3 from 42.4 in November, which was its lowest since May 2009.
Overall, Williamson cautioned against reading the improvement in the headline figures as a meaningful step towards growth.
"It's really too early to say whether this represents a proper turning point and that the situation won't deteriorate in the coming months," he said.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right? Well, in an attempt to keep its tenuous grip on the browsing crown, it's borrowing some tricks from its plucky upstart competitors. Microsoft's announced that Internet Explorer will now tie into future Windows Update releases. The new system will start in the new year in both Australia and Brazil -- no, we don't get the connection either -- with a graduated roll-out from there throughout 2012. Microsoft says that this will help keep their browser secure and on the cutting edge of all those HTML5 developments. Fortunately, according to the Windows Team Blog, auto-update antagonists will still be able to opt out of the system. See how Ryan Galvin, Internet Explorer's General Manager, explains the reasoning over at the official blog; the link's just below.
Disclaimer: Delving into Apple's business requires a hefty pinch of salt, okay? Good. Is Apple about to open that $84 billion war chest to make another one of its traditional flash-memory supply-chain land-grabs? Rumors from Reuters suggest it's planning to snap up Israeli outfit Anobit for $400 or $500 million. The outfit specializes in signal processing for the memory chips, increasing volume and performance, which you'll already find bolted onto the Samsung and Hynix flash drives inside the iPhone 4S. Whilst we're having a hard time believing Cupertino would buy a hardware maker (even P.A. Semi and Intrinsity were fabless designers), it seems a logical move from a company who probably see traditional HDDs as an evil to be eradicated from its simplistic designs. We've reached out for comment from the companies and we'll let you know if we get anything more substantial than the regular "no comment."
Update: The initial reports suggested that Anobit had production facilities, but it's since been clarified that the company is a fabless designer in the same vein as P.A. Semi and Intrinsity.
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Public release date: 16-Dec-2011
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