My own Profile:
My name is Jose Andres Godoy and Im from Guatemala city. Im 13 years old and Im in year of 1rst course at Centro Escolar Solalto. Ive got a lots of hobbies and interests. I love playing fifa 2012 and to play soccer with my friends. I also do other sports like: Tennis, Basketball and pin pong.
Im not a quite person, I like to have fun everytime. I like the candies a lot. but my favorite food is the carpacho.
I have 6 brothers, and I love dancing its of my favorites hoobies. My favorite team sport is the Fc Barcelona.


Profile of my friend:
My name is Rodrigo Molina Palmieri and Im from Guatemala City. Im 13 years old and Im in 1rst course at Centro Escolar Solalto. Ive got a lot of hobbies and Interest. I love playing Raquet Ball, and to spend time with my friends. I also like soccer and Pin Pong.
Im a very quite person, I ussually spend quite almost in the class concentrated. My favorite food is the "Shucko" Its very delicius.
I have 2 Brothers, and I like to spend time with they. My favorite team sport is the Fc Barcelona.

Counting the carbon cost of bringing water to the desert

Abu Dhabi, UAE (CNN) -- During the summer months, in the arid, subtropical coastal plains of the United Arab Emirates, temperatures rise to 40 Celsius plus -- while average rainfall is a desolate four inches a year.

And yet, in the years since the discovery of vast oil reserves in the late 1950s, a forest of skyscrapers, luxury apartments, verdant green gardens and golf courses has risen from the sand.

It's been made possible only with recourse to unimaginably large amounts of water. Indeed, at 550 liters a day, Emiratis consume more per head of population than anyone else on earth.

"It just evaporates very, very quickly," explains Ivano Iannelli, CEO of the Dubai Carbon Center of Excellence. "Then when you add the lifestyle requirements -- the giant swimming pools; the cooling systems; the big gardens that need irrigating four times a day ... it goes some way to explain why the water consumption is so high."

With scarce native freshwater supplies, Iannelli says the oil-rich nation spends hundreds of million of dollars a year purifying coastal seawater. For a country that, according to OPEC, boasted over $74 billion crude-oil export revenue in 2010, the financial burden may seem relatively light. But the cost to the climate, says Iannelli, is certainly not.

"Desalination requires a lot of power ... we estimate that about four tonnes of carbon are emitted per million gallons of freshwater produced here," he says, with reference to the energy-intensive process of removing salt from seawater (see factbox).

To put that figure in context, Iannelli says that the energy required to pump freshwater from underground (which, he says, is the most common source of drinking water in the West) typically produces just over 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per million gallons.

Read related: From polluter to protector: The UAE's 'Green Sheikh'

 The Fujairah desalination plant in Abu Dhabi has a freshwater generation capacity of 492 million liters a day, making it the biggest single producer on the planet, according to Iannelli, who notes that it "totally dwarfs anything found in the West."

Facebook to Google: 'Don't be evil'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have a message for Google: "Don't be evil."

A group of developers from those companies banded together to call Google's bluff on claims about its controversial new Search Plus Your World tool. The recently launched tool prominently spotlights Google's fledgling Google+ social network in Google.com's search results -- while leaving rival social networks in the dark.

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Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) says there are technical limitations that curb its ability to include competitors' content. A company spokesman says Facebook and Twitter, for instance, "don't allow us to crawl them deeply and store things."

But the opposition group -- which calls itself "Focus on the User" -- says Google already has the technology in place to offer a better "social search" service. It's called Google.com.

In a "proof of concept" bit of software code, Focus on the User released a "bookmarklet" that replaces Google.com's Search Plus Your World results with results from Google's regular, run-of-the-mill search algorithm.
Those changes accomplish much of what Google implied it couldn't do.

A search for "AT&T" through the altered code links the company's profile to its Twitter feed, which has far more followers than its Google+ page. That mirrors what happens in Google's organic search results, where AT&T's (T, Fortune 500) popular Twitter feed ranks much higher than its less frequently updated Google+ page.

In other words, Focus on the User's widget ranks information according to Google's search algorithm, instead of by prioritizing Google+.

The bookmarklet's name is "don't be evil" -- a snarky jab at Google's official code-of-conduct motto.

"We wanted to see how much better would social search be if Google surfaced results from all across the Web," says Blake Ross, Facebook's product director and an engineer on Focus on the User. "I think the results speak for themselves."
Google did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman from Facebook said Ross "said it best in the video" posted to the Focus on the User website and declined to comment further. Twitter also declined to comment.

The Focus on the User tool is far from perfect. It doesn't pull anything from rivals' social networks other than basic profile information like photos, names, and some bios. Want real-time tweets? You're out of luck.
The bookmarklet isn't actually intended to be a social search engine model. Its real goal is to highlight the flaws in Google's approach.
The quick-and-dirty prototype makes a pretty effective point: Google.com was already good at measuring social relevance, and surfacing content accordingly, long before Search Plus Your World.

That's an issue that could draw attention from the antitrust regulators who are keeping a closely eye on Google's expanding empire.

Comment:

I think facebook, twitter and those socialnetworks are better than the google's socialnetwork. Google is just a website for browse not for chating. Google wont be better that Facebook.

Sabotage, bombing, sanctions: A growing web of pressure over Iran

Iran is facing an extensive and growing international campaign aimed at destabilizing its rigime. The web has openly aknowledged all of the moves iran has planned such as assesinations, explosions, etc.

While the news are spread all over the globe, the one who is planning this remains a mystery.

U.S. and Western officials have threated Iran, targeting its central bank, oil exports, deals and more--- the goal is to stop the nuclear pogram of Iran and sit them down. The mysterious incidents that have struck Iran over the past few years involve the country's nuclear and military programs.

European Unions are making pressure in Iran, they said on Monday they will cut off oil imports and freeze assets. The pressure is to calm down Iran and bring it back to negotiation.

European have sanction all imports and exports from, or to Iran. But Iran deputy foreign minister said this acions will only harm the European Union.

The U.S. goverment has sanction all of Iran's largest banks.

Iran says its nuclear program is not military, but the United States and many of its allies suspect Iran intends to produce a bomb. If Iran doesn't shut strait they will starve in the country's nuclear program of funding.

Civilization' creator: Games are taking over the world

(CNN) -- Sid Meier's "Civilization" is now 20 years old.

But for someone who has been involved in video games since the mid-'80s, one of Meier's early prophesies is just now coming true because of mobile and social gaming technologies, he told CNN.

"I've always said that games will someday take over the world and that seems to be happening," he said.

Meier is considered to be one of the great game designers. He serves as director of creative development for Firaxis Games. He sat down with CNN to reflect on the short history of video games and what he hopes will be their long future.

comment: Meier is considered to be one of the great game designers. I think that the prediction of Sid Meiers, is correct because everyone is using call of duty and other games. And in the future everyone is going to play games.

Counting the carbon cost of bringing water to the desert

From Nick Glass and George Webster, CNN

January 20, 2012 -- Updated 1236 GMT (2036 HKT)

The carbon footprint of water

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• UAE consumes 550 liters of water per head each day -- more than any other country
• With no fresh water supplies, it depends on carbon-intensive desalination process
• Resource experts talk to CNN about their concerns for UAE's future water security

Abu Dhabi, UAE (CNN) -- During the summer months, in the arid, subtropical coastal plains of the United Arab Emirates, temperatures rise to 40 Celsius plus -- while average rainfall is a desolate four inches a year.
And yet, in the years since the discovery of vast oil reserves in the late 1950s, a forest of skyscrapers, luxury apartments, verdant green gardens and golf courses has risen from the sand.
It's been made possible only with recourse to unimaginably large amounts of water. Indeed, at 550 liters a day, Emiratis consume more per head of population than anyone else on earth.
"It just evaporates very, very quickly," explains Ivano Iannelli, CEO of the Dubai Carbon Center of Excellence. "Then when you add the lifestyle requirements -- the giant swimming pools; the cooling systems; the big gardens that need irrigating four times a day ... it goes some way to explain why the water consumption is so high."

What is desalination?

Desalination is the process of removing salt and other minerals from saline water (such as seawater). On an industrial level, there are a number of different methods in operation, all of which require some input of energy.

In the UAE, the most common desalination process is known as "multi-stage flash distillation." This applies the principles of evaporation and condensation, whereby vaporized seawater is passed through a series of increasingly cool condensing chambers and freshwater is accumulated as a distillate.

With scarce native freshwater supplies, Iannelli says the oil-rich nation spends hundreds of million of dollars a year purifying coastal seawater. For a country that, according to OPEC, boasted over $74 billion crude-oil export revenue in 2010, the financial burden may seem relatively light. But the cost to the climate, says Iannelli, is certainly not.
"Desalination requires a lot of power ... we estimate that about four tonnes of carbon are emitted per million gallons of freshwater produced here," he says, with reference to the energy-intensive process of removing salt from seawater (see factbox).
To put that figure in context, Iannelli says that the energy required to pump freshwater from underground (which, he says, is the most common source of drinking water in the West) typically produces just over 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per million gallons.
Read related: From polluter to protector: The UAE's 'Green Sheikh'
While large-scale desalination is not uncommon in those parts of the world where natural water resources are scarce -- such as Texas and Australia -- the UAE is by some margin, according to Iannelli, the industry's most active player. In fact, 50% of all the world's desalination takes place in the Gulf.
The Fujairah desalination plant in Abu Dhabi has a freshwater generation capacity of 492 million liters a day, making it the biggest single producer on the planet, according to Iannelli, who notes that it "totally dwarfs anything found in the West."
For Dr Mohammad Dawoud, of the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, this spells trouble for the future. "If we don't conserve our water ... I fear about our resources in the future for the next generation," he says.
However, standing in one of the country's 30 solar plants -- overlooked by sand dunes on all sides, Dawoud tells CNN that he hopes that solar technology may eventually offer a viable alternative energy source to power the UAE's huge desalination needs.
"There are no carbon emissions while using photovoltaic cells to produce electricity -- then (we can) use electricity to operate desalination plants to produce freshwater," he predicts.
But on this point Iannelli is not convinced: "At the moment, solar panels are not fit for purpose in the UAE ... the dust and the sand in the atmosphere prevent (sun) rays from hitting the panels efficiently ... and the high temperatures also reduce performance," he says. "For me, solar is not the answer."
Instead, Iannelli believes that the most practical solution is for the desalination process to become more energy efficient, in conjunction with an effort by the Emiratis themselves to curb their "lavish" water consumption habits.
"There is almost no regulation concerning water or power use, no minimum standards for water-consuming appliances ... and very few energy requirements for buildings," he laments. "Whatever we do, from now on it has to be cost-effective, lean and clean."

Comentary: These country needs a lot of water dairy because of the heat in that place. The amount of water that they dasalinate is like 492 million liters a day, that is a huge amount. They also need to conserve very well the water to have enough water to the future.

2 more bodies recovered from Costa Concordia

Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- Two more bodies have been recovered from the wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, Italian officials announced Monday, bringing the number of confirmed victims of the accident to 15.
The two women were found on Bridge 4, near the ship's Internet cafe, said Franco Gabrielli, the official in charge of the operation.
About 17 people remain missing after the ship collided with rocks January 13 off the coast of Tuscany, according to a CNN count.
Salvage workers are to begin pumping fuel out of the liner Monday, Gabrielli said.
"Salvage will start any minute," Adm. Ilarione Dell'Anna said Monday afternoon. It will take 28 working days to remove all the fuel from the ship, the admiral said.
The search for survivors and victims will continue alongside the salvage, said Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency.
The man in charge of the rescue operation said the divers faced a grim task.
"Imagine that you left for holidays and that the power went off in your house. What would you find in your fridge? The divers are in there," Ennio Aquilino said.
Two more bodies were found over the weekend -- one woman on Saturday and one on Sunday, both wearing life jackets.
Divers used explosives Monday morning to blow more holes in the side of the ship to allow easier access.
The parties involved in the rescue told reporters and residents on the island Sunday that search and rescue efforts will continue -- but that the environmental risk is also becoming urgent.
Officials said they cannot predict how long it will take to clear the wreckage, since that depends on maritime conditions and technical difficulties, but all legal, environmental and human factors will be taken into account.
"It's time for Italy to show it can do something right and do it well," said Gabrielli.
Gabrielli warned that the task ahead was complicated and daunting, not least because it takes about 45 minutes to search each cabin, using special cameras and divers.
The giant Costa Concordia had 1,500 cabins on board.
A class-action lawsuit will be filed in Miami against Costa and its parent company, Carnival Corp., the Italian consumer group Codacons said on Saturday. The suit, in collaboration with two U.S. law firms, is "aimed specifically at getting compensation for all damages to the boat passengers," Codacons said in a statement. The class-action suit is open to passengers of any nationality, it said.
"We've been contacted by hundreds of victims and the numbers are growing moment by moment," said Mitchell Proner, senior partner at Proner & Proner, one of two firms involved. He said crew members have also contacted the firm, "and their stories that are coming in are horrific -- from lifeboats that were stuck halfway, passengers debating whether to jump or not, this was not an orderly evacuation."
The suit, he said, will request at least 125,000 euros (about $160,000) per passenger.
The suit has not yet been filed, said Marc Bern, senior partner at the other firm, Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik, but "it will probably be in the billions of euros and dollars."
"The sheer terror of being on a ship of that magnitude going down, you can imagine the psychological damage," Bern said.
Gabrielli said no fuel oil had yet leaked from the ship -- only kitchen and engine oil -- and that he did not see an immediate risk of the 2,400 tons on board escaping.
Booms have been put in place around the ship to stop the spread of oil and other pollutants such as detergents and sewage chemicals. With more than 4,000 people aboard, the ship was the size of a small town, Gabrielli said.
Fuel will be replaced with water as it is removed from the ship's tanks, keeping the ship balanced, said Dell'Anna, head of coastal authorities for the port city of Livorno.
Gabrielli said Costa Cruises, the company that owns the cruise ship, is cooperative and was proving responsible, despite past errors.
Both Costa Cruises and authorities have criticized Capt. Francesco Schettino, who is under house arrest and faces possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.
Prosecutors said they planned to appeal the judge's decision to grant Schettino house arrest, arguing that Schettino should remain in jail because he is a flight risk and because of the gravity of his alleged crimes.
Alessandro Antichi, partner of Schettino defense attorney Bruno Leporatti, said the defense plans to file its appeal Wednesday on the judge's ruling. The defense maintains Schettino should not be in custody.
An audio recording obtained by Italy's Repubblica newspaper and published Saturday shows that the captain, at least at the outset of the incident, assured authorities he would do the right thing.
Prosecutors have accused the captain of piloting the ship too fast to allow him to react to dangers, causing the shipwreck, according to legal papers.
There were roughly 4,200 people on the Costa Concordia when it ran aground -- about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members. The vast majority fled the ship safely.

Commentary:
I think that is good that two more bodies are found, but they have to make an effort to find the other bodies.