Abu Dhabi To Build First Full Eco-City

When we talk about the Middle East Asia, we imagine harsh terrain, blazing sun and sand dunes. Abu Dhabi is a part of the United Arab Emirates. Its currently hostile area is being developed as the world’s first carbon neutral city in the coming 5 to 10 years. This city will be a green example that will not be constructed using polluting technologies and fossil fuels. The greatest irony is this city would be located in a country that is a leading producer of fossil fuels. Its architects and designers claim that the city will be powered up by various forms of renewable energy, including solar and wind power
The scorching heat during daytime in the desert will not be easy. This time architects decided to take the intense heat from the blazing sun into their stride. They want to make sun their ally not an adversary. They will incorporate many new solar technologies into the city, including centralization devices. These devices would concentrate sunlight gathered by mirrors into a central tower. This tower would then send a 1-meter-thick stream of light into various generators, for generation of power. The whole city will be dominated by a large LED, which will be affixed onto the rooftop of a wind turbine. The city is christened as Masdar City.

If Masdar city’s LED tower is showing blue light then it means that all the power levels in the city are running accordingly.If the LED is showing red light that means renewable sources of power are unable to generate sufficient power for the time being. Cars will not be allowed in the Masdar city. Therefore inhabitants of Masdar will not suffer from pollutions caused by carbon dioxide. Masdar city will be free of large structures such as skyscrapers. The architects want to reduce the amount of baking needed to make the cement. If you want to go from one place to another walk or use underground transport system. It can be Personal Rapid Transit, featuring podcars. These vehicles will not be driven by man. They will ply using magnetic lanes to a destination of the passenger’s choosing.

Masdar is not a distant dream. Some of the work regarding this city has already progressed. The construction cost of this city would be between $15 and $30 billion dollars. This project is funded by the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Designers of this city will also use some of the technologies inspired directly from lunar base concepts. This technology will help in heat dissipation, shade, breezes and clean air for all Masdar inhabitants

Buffett Has ‘Great Confidence’ in Goldman Sachs

By Betty Liu and Andrew Frye BUsinessweek

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, who injected $5 billion into Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2008, remains comfortable with his investment after regulators sued the bank for fraud, said Berkshire Director Thomas Murphy.

“He’s not concerned with the investment at all,” Murphy, 84, said in a Bloomberg Television interview, citing a telephone conversation with Buffett, Berkshire’s chief executive officer. “He has to see what’s going to happen on it, but I think he has great confidence in Goldman,” Murphy said. The two men spoke after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its lawsuit on April 16, Murphy said.

Buffett, a longstanding Wall Street critic, has supported a firm that’s become a lightning rod for politicians and people who feel cheated by the recession. Public regard for Goldman Sachs, the most profitable firm in Wall Street history, has plummeted in the year and a half since Buffett, 79, provided the company with capital in the depths of the financial crisis.

“I think he’s awfully secure” in Berkshire’s Goldman Sachs holdings, said Glenn Tongue, a partner at T2 Partners LLC, which invests in Buffett’s firm. “He assessed the culture of Goldman Sachs when he made the investment. He had known the company for decades.”

The SEC accused Goldman Sachs and an employee of misleading clients on the sale of mortgage-related investments. The case focuses on a collateralized debt obligation that yielded a $1 billion payout for hedge fund Paulson & Co. when the CDO lost value. Investor IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG lost money.

Very Sophisticated’

A Goldman Sachs director tipped off Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam about Buffett’s investment before it became public knowledge, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person it didn’t identify. Connie Ling, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, declined to comment.

Goldman Sachs, led by Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, has called the claims in the lawsuit unfounded. Investors who took the opposite position to Paulson were aware of the risk, Goldman Sachs has said.

The people on the other side, I am told, and I am not a pro on this at all, are very sophisticated buyers or sellers,” Murphy said. “They knew exactly what they were doing.” Murphy’s son, also named Thomas, is a former partner at Goldman Sachs.

“I also have great respect for Goldman,” Murphy said.

Buffett may be called on to address criticism of Goldman Sachs on May 1 when tens of thousands of investors gather in Omaha, Nebraska, for Berkshire’s annual meeting. At last year’s meeting, he countered public anger over the taxpayer-funded bank bailouts by touting Wells Fargo & Co., one of Berkshire’s top holdings and the recipient of $25 billion in aid.

Goldman Sachs Integrity

Buffett’s prestige as the world’s preeminent stock picker and his reputation for ethics boosted Berkshire to first place this month in Harris Interactive’s annual survey of corporate reputations. The financial crisis dragged the nation’s biggest banks toward the bottom of the list with Goldman Sachs coming in 56th out of 60. Berkshire gets 10 percent annual interest on the Goldman Sachs preferred shares that Buffett bought in 2008.

Buffett’s investment was partly a bet on the “integrity” of Goldman Sachs, Berkshire director Ronald Olson said last week before the lawsuit.

“When Warren and Berkshire stepped up to make this investment, it was a very strong statement of its belief, his belief, in not just the strength of Goldman but its integrity,” Olson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Murphy, a Berkshire director since 2003, is a former chairman and CEO ofCapital Cities/ABC, one of Buffett’s most successful investments in the 1990s.

NASA’s Puffin: The Personal Electric Air Vehicle

allternative energy news

Mark Moore, an aerospace engineer, is the person who dreamed about the Puffin. Puffin is a single seated electric powered airplane. Moore conceptualized the idea of electric aircraft for his doctoral degree. Operating it from your house is as simple as taking out your car from the garage. You can launch this aircraft from your own home because of vertical take-off and landing. Mark Moore is trying to combine the best feature of a plane and a helicopter into a hybrid known as the Puffin. The Puffin is not some abstract reality that is not going to take a concrete shape.

Moore is an expert in small aircraft flying system. He is working with NASA, MIT and the National Institute of Aerospace to turn Puffin into a reality. This electric aircraft would be 12-foot (3.7 m) long, and have a 14.5-foot (4.4 m) of wingspan. Puffin is already a hit in the Internet community. Moore himself tells the whole story, “The animation of the Puffin on YouTube has gotten more 648,000 hits in a week. Until the concept was mentioned in the media Jan. 19, the video had only been clicked on a couple of thousand times since it was uploaded to the NASAPAV channel last November.” The animation was created by Analytical Mechanics Associates graphic designers.

Another characteristic of the Puffin is it can take pilot up to 50 miles at a cruising speed of 150 mph. It’s also lightweight, totaling up to just 181kg when fully loaded with the batteries. But its greatest advantage without doubt is the zero carbon emission. The design would be powered by a total of 60 horsepower through electric motors, which are designed to be able to fail any two powertrain components on either side and still produce the required power to hover. It has a cruising speed of 150 mph (241 kph), but cruises more efficiently at lower speeds The range with current battery technology would be about 50 miles (80 km).

Moore draws the analogy between actual puffin bird and his own puffin. Puffin’s wings also look quite small for flying. Moore’s creation aircraft would also have small wings. He states another similarity between his bird and nature’s bird, “But it’s also apparently called the most environmentally friendly bird, because it hides its poop. So the vehicle is environmentally friendly because it essentially has no emissions. Also, puffins tend to live in solitude, only ever coming together on land to mate, and ours is a one-person vehicle.”

Puffin would be a hybrid of helicopter and small aircraft. Like a helicopter it would stand upright on the ground. Its tail consists of 4 legs that act as landing gear. It lifts off like a helicopter. When it hovers and leans forward to fly horizontally it gives the appearance of a hang-glider. Next step of the NIA will be to fly a remote control one-third size model. This experiment will enable them to validate theorems made in academic studies, with the particular emphasis on exploring the transition from hover to forward flight.

Starbucks profit soars as customers come back

By Hibah Yousuf,CNN money

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- There may not be a Starbucks on every corner any more, but Americans are finding their way back into the upscale coffee retailer's stores.

Starbucks' profit surged in the quarter ended March 28, topping Wall Street forecasts and prompting the coffee retailer to boost its forecast for 2010.
The world's largest coffee chain reported earnings of $217.3 million, or 28 cents per share. Stripping out restructuring charges, Starbucks posted an adjusted profit of 29 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items from their forecast, were looking for earnings of 25 cents per share.

Sales jumped 9% to $2.5 billion, beating analysts' expectations of $2.4 billion. Starbucks (SBUX,Fortune 500)shares rose nearly 2% on the news in aftermarket trading, after rising 0.5% during regular hours.

Over the past two years, Starbucks cut costs by closing hundreds of stores, trimming its workforce, overhauling its food menu and adjusting drink prices. The changes finally took hold last quarter, when the company reported a profit that quadrupled its earnings from a year earlier.
Since then, Starbucks has teamed up with Burger King to serve Seattle's Best Coffee and announced it will pay out dividends to shareholders for the first time ever beginning Friday.

Same-store sales, which measure sales at stores open at least a year and are a key gauge of customer traffic, climbed 7% in both the United States and international markets.

U.S. growth was driven by a 5% rise in spending and a 3% uptick in traffic, marking the first increase in more than three years. "An important milestone" for the company, said chief financial officer Troy Alstead.

"Clearly, customers are opening up their wallets and coming back to the brand," said Bart Glenn, analyst at D.A. Davidson.

With business reinvigorated in the United States, Alstead said Starbucks' "best days lie ahead of us." He expects the lion's share of growth for the company to be in opening more stores overseas, with China being the largest market.

Oil falls towards $83 after U.S. inventories soar

Reuters

Oil fell toward $83 after soaring U.S. inventories signaled demand in the world's top energy user is lagging the recovery in the global economy.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said the world's recovery from recession had been quicker than expected, raising forecasts for growth this year.

However the IMF report and robust data on Chinese imports, failed to overcome investors' unease over the Greek debt saga, sapping the euro while the yen benefited.

Crude inventories in the United States rose unexpectedly last week, government statistics showed on Wednesday, while fuel supplies climbed more than forecast.

"The unexpected increase in crude inventories speaks of a bearish outlook," said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst at ANZ. "Demand has not really kept up with the economic recovery."

West Texas Intermediate crude for June, the U.S. benchmark, slid 31 cents to $83.37 a barrel by 0341 GMT.

U.S. crude prices are under pressure from last week's 1.8-million-barrel stockpile gain at the Cushing, Oklahoma pricing point reported by the Energy Information Administration, which accounted for most of the 1.9-million-barrel increase logged at a national level.

For chart watchers, U.S. crude is bound to continue in a falling trend, targeting $82 a barrel.

At more than 34 million barrels, landlocked crude inventories at Cushing are nearing the level at which they trigger a disconnection of WTI from global oil markets.

Front-month ICE Brent fell just 17 cents to $85.53 a barrel on Thursday after rising a day earlier on data showing strong Chinese demand, diverging from falling U.S. crude. June Brent was trading more than $2 higher than June WTI.

China's apparent oil demand in March rose 12.3 percent from a year earlier, the 7th double-digit increase in a row, Reuters calculations showed from official data released on Wednesday.

"There could be some support from Chinese demand, looking at how strong the economic growth is," Lim said. "There is high demand because of the spring seasonal peak from agriculture."

Rising consumption in China, the world's second-largest oil user, has helped support crude prices as demand from developed economies struggles to rebound from the recession.

U.S. demand for distillates including heating oil and diesel fell 0.1 percent in the past four weeks from a year earlier, the EIA said. Inventories climbed 2.1 million barrels to 148.9 million barrels, eclipsing a forecast rise of 800,000 barrel.

And gasoline stocks rose 3.6 million barrels to 224.9 million barrels, by far topping projections by analysts polled by Reuters who had forecast a build of 400,000 barrels. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Maryland Passes 'Benefit Corp.' Law for Social Entrepreneurs

By John Tozzi businsseweek

Maryland today became the first state to legally create a new corporate form known as a “benefit corporation” that will let social entrepreneurs codify their missions in their corporate charters.

The law is modeled on proposals by B-Lab a Berwyn, Pa.-nonprofit that certifies socially responsible companies. The law lets entrepreneurs commit their for-profit ventures to a specific public good, and requires them to report on contributions to that goal and submit to auditing of their impact. Having official “benefit corporation” status allows entrepreneurs to consider stakeholders like employees, communities, or the environment in business decisions. Under existing corporate law, company directors can face lawsuits if considering outside stakeholders is seen to damage the financial interest of shareholders.
We wrote nearly a year ago on the difficulty social entrepreneurs have fitting their hybrid missions of making money and doing good into existing corporate forms. The tangled arrangements they get into (nonprofits controlling for-profits, etc.) can be costly to set up and limit their ability to raise money from outside investors. Adopting the “benefit corporation” form signals that our economic institutions — in this case the laws that govern corporations — are catching up with the growing interest in the social enterprise sector.(This was one of two big ideas on my radar this year.)If you care about accelerating the development of this emerging marketplace, the first step is providing the legal infrastructure,” Jay Coen Gilbert, one of the co-founders of B-Lab, told me last week.

He says the new legal designation could unlock new capital for social ventures from investors who want to park their money in mission-driven companies. “I think it’s becoming increasingly not only acceptable but sought after by mainstream investors,” Gilbert says.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, signed the bill today, along with other bills at the end of Maryland’s legislative session. The bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Jamie Raskin, passed Maryland’s Senate unanimously and passed the House by a vote of 135-5.

A similar proposal is pending in Vermont. California lawmakers are considering related legislation to allow “flexible purpose corporations” that would let companies protect their social missions, without the affirmative requirements that the “benefit corporation” law puts in place.

Glass Fibers to Store Hydrogen Fuel for Cars

I find this story interesting for both the technological perspective and the political perspective. Let’s get the political perspective out of the way first. This is an article that has been circulated by the Associated Press.

It was picked up and published by Iran’s Teheran Times online newspaper. The article itself is about how a group of Israeli scientists have developed a method for storing hydrogen fuel using small glass filaments. I may be naïve, but in my mind this shows that scientific knowledge is not constrained by political boundaries.

Now, let’s move on to the technological perspective. A group of Israeli scientists working for C.En ltd in Geneva, Switzerland have developed a method to use glass filaments the size of a human hair to store H2.

According to the article, “These 370 glass capillaries are bundled into a glass tube called a capillary array, about the width of a drinking straw. The scientists say 11,000 such arrays will fuel a car for 400 kilometers (240 miles), take less than half the space and weight of tanks currently installed in the few hydrogen cars now available.”

One of the problems of using metal hydride tanks for storing hydrogen fuel has always been the weight. Adding weight to the vehicle not only wears down the vehicle more quickly but takes away from its power and range. Lighter tanks mean more power, range and less wear and tear on hydrogen cars
Yesterday I talked about researchers using magnesium nanoparticles to store hydrogen and today its glass filaments. Just by the shear numbers of scientists and researchers attacking the hydrogen storage problem from different angles, we cannot help but to have a breakthrough in hydrogen tank technology sooner rather than later

Petrom joins wind power race

By Roxana Petrescu www.zf.ro

Petrom, the biggest local company and the only producer of petroleum and gas in Romania, has joined the European energy giants with billions of euros in budgets, buying a wind farm project in which it will invest 100 million euros until 2011. Compared with the projects announced thus far, the size of the wind farm that Petrom will develop in Dobrogea, 45 MW, is not very impressive, but there is a hint in the step taken by the company.

"This is a signal that investments must continue. Investments are the factor that helps the economy rebound.
In addition, there are opportunities on the market and prices are better compared with 2008," says Mariana Gheorghe, Petrom's chief executive, who runs a 3 billion-euro business.

A total of 13 billion euros were invested in wind power projects in Europe last year, with Romania missing yet another opportunity to create jobs and bring new money into the economy while the crisis was going on, with only 3 MW installed locally, that is a turbine and a half.

Things seem set to drastically change in 2010, given that CEZ (Czech Republic) alone will have 139 turbines running by autumn. Spain's Iberdrola, worldwide wind power leader, says that it will build the world's biggest wind farm in Dobrogea by 2017, whose capacity will stand at 1,500 MW, which is higher than that of two reactors of the Cernavoda nuclear plant. The two projects alone entail investments of over 3 billion euros, double the budget the Transport Ministry has for motorways and national roads in one year. Other wind power investors include Enel (Italy), Verbund (Austria) and Energias de Portugal.

Dollar rises on risk aversion

By Julianne Pepitone CNNMONEY.com

Dollar rises on risk aversion

The dollar gained strength against major rivals Monday, as stocks churned on continued concern about fraud charges brought against Goldman Sachs.
What prices are doing: The dollar gained ground against the euro, rising 0.1% to $1.3487. The greenback rose 0.2% against the British pound, trading at $1.5337.
The dollar was up 0.2% versus the yen at ¥92.37.

What's moving the market: U.S stocks churned monday after the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged Goldman Sachs(GS FORTUNE 500) with drefauting investors.On friday the blue-chip Dow lost 1.1% while the broader S&P 500 plunged 1.6%.

The stock indexes extended losses earlier in the session Monday, sparking a flight to safety. The dollar tends to get a boost when stocks fall, as the dollar is considered a safe haven. Stocks managed to recover later in the day, but the greenback held onto some strength.

What experts are saying: "Friday's movement down in stocks shows we could be in the correction phase of the recent risk rally," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com. "That's going to be supportive for the dollar overall."

Dolan noted that stocks fell in early trade Monday despite Citigroup's (C,Fortune 500) report of a better-than-expected 4.4 billion$ quartely profit
"We've had mostly positive data, so stocks had every opportunity to push higher," Dolan said. "But they didn't, and that's a hallmark that the market has run into exhaustion."

In the coming weeks, the euro will hold around $1.33-$1.37, Dolan predicted. If the European currency falls below $1.32, that could push it even lower. Versus the yen, the dollar will trade in a range to ¥91 to ¥93.50, he expects.

iPad 3G: 'End of April' slips to May 7; early pre-orders still on time

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

Yet another delay for Apple's "magical" device

According to Apple's (AAPL) Jan 27 press release the iPad 3G was supposed to be "available in April in the US and selected countries."
By March 5, when Apple announced that the iPad Wi-Fi's original March ship date had slipped to April 3, the 3G model's "available in April" had become "late April
Last Wednesday, when Apple let it be konw that international iPad sales had been pushed back to May, it mentioned in an aside that the company had "also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April" — wording that, in retrospect, left open the possibility that delivery might not actually happen by then.

[UPDATE: As several readers have pointed out, Apple cleared up that ambiguity Monday morning with a mailing to early pre-order customers to assure them that their 3G orders would be shipped in late April "as communicated at the time you placed your order."]
Steve Jobs — who can be a master of misdirection — was even vaguer. When a customer asked "will the iPad 3G models still ship on time as planned (end of April) in the US, if I order one today? Or will the 3G US orders be postponed as well?" Jobs' one-word answer, e-mailed from his iPhone, was a terse but ambiguous "Yes."

Early this morning, we found out both meanings were operative. According to Monday's letter, early pre-orders will ship on time. If you order an iPad 3G today, however, shipment will be postponed until as late as May 7th.

Apple attributes all this to "surprisingly strong" demand for the new device. But by definition it's also having trouble building them fast enough.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article, written before Apple's letter to customers came to light, had a snippier headline. It's now clear that it was out of line.

Philips outsources TV biz to Videocon Industries

Consumer electronics giant Philips today said it had outsourced its entire TV business, including manufacturing, distribution and selling, to Videocon industries.

“The brand licensing agreement under which Videocon assumes responsibility for the sourcing, distribution, marketing and sales of all Philips’ consumer television activities in India is aimed at bringing the TV business back into profitability from 2010 onwards,” Philips Electronics India Managing Director and CEO Murali Sivaraman said.
He said the agreement was only limited to the TV segment and is for five years.

A few years ago, Philips had entered a similar arrangement with Japanese firm Funai for their TV business in the US, which proved to be very successful, and the company had decided to replicate the idea in India, Sivaraman said.

“Videocon will ensure that consumers of Philips-branded TVs can continue to count on the same premium quality, design and innovation associated with the Philips brand,” he said.

The Netherlands-based company, operating in India for over 80 years, had earlier announced a strategic shift in focus to healthcare and life-style segment to promote its products in the country.

“Voluntarily, we have taken a position that Philips as company would be working towards projecting itself as a health and wellness company,” Sivaraman had said last year.

The company is now focused more in the lighting and healthcare segment. In lighting, it has 35 per cent market share and it is trying to increase its presence in the healthcare segment.

Over the last few years Philips has been losing its share in the colour TV market in India, which according to an estimate is over 20 million units per annum, to Korean companies such as LG and Samsung.

Videocon officials couldn’t be contacted for comment.

Asked about the boost in sales through this agreement Sivaraman said, “Because of the large sales and distribution network which Videocon has, we expect a significant increase in sale of Philips TVs in India.”

Samsung retakes lead from Intel and Micron in flash memory

BY Dan Nysted ITNEWS

Samsung unveiled flash memory chips made with 20-nanometer production technology

A battle over chip manufacturing prowess in the flash memory chip industry appears to be brewing between Samsung Electronics and IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture operated by Intel and Micron.

Samsung, the world's largest memory chip maker, unveiled NAND flash memory chips produced using advanced 20-nanometer production technology on Monday, just months after IM Flash Technologies said it had started producing the first commercial NAND flash chips made using 25nm technology.

A competition between the companies for chip manufacturing supremacy would be good for users. In general, smaller production processes lead to lower-cost, speedier and more power-efficient chips, which are exactly what's needed for today's mobile devices.

Intel is the world's largest chip maker, while Samsung ranks second. Prior to a few years ago, the two companies had not been direct competitors. Intel specializes in microprocessors, while Samsung is the biggest maker of both DRAM and flash memory in the world. Early in 2006, Intel teamed up with Micron to form IM Flash, a direct competitor to Samsung in flash memory.

IM Flash announced its 25nm technology in January, about a year and a half after it started using 34nm technology. Samsung, by comparison, first announced 30nm flash memory chips in October of 2007, making its trip to 20nm a two-and-a-half year journey.

Advances in chip manufacturing are vital in the memory chip industry because the smaller technology not only reduces costs, but also improves the chips themselves. Samsung said SD cards with flash chips made using the 20nm process have write-speeds 30 percent faster than those made with its previous generation 30nm technology. Flash memory chips store songs, photos, documents and other data in a range of devices, from iPods and smartphones to some laptops.

The nanometer measurement describes the microscopic size of transistors and other parts on a chip. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, about the size of a few atoms combined.

Samsung's new 34 gigabit (4 gigabyte) MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash memory chip is aimed at memory cards and embedded memory for devices such as smartphones. The South Korean company is already shipping sample SD cards with 20nm chips inside to customers and expects to expand production later this year. The company will make memory cards ranging from 4GB to 64GB available with 20nm flash.

Intel's chip revenue last year reached US$33.3 billion for a 14.6 percent share of the global chip market, according to market researcher Gartner. Samsung took a 7.7 percent share of the market on chip revenue of $17.7 billion.

Morocco’s new Solar Project to Generate 2000MWs

Morocco is a North African country with no oil reserves. But nature has endowed this country with another bounty i.e. over 3000 hours of sunshine per year. Now they are aiming to undertake an ambitious plan of producing 40% of their energy needs via solar energy They will spend $9 billion to generate 2000MWs of energy by 2020. It will require 5 solar power stations to produce 2000MWs of energy. These power stations will be situated in the regions of Ouarzazate, Ain Bni Mathar, Foum Al Oued, Boujdour and Sebkhat Tah. The first station is expected to become operational by 2015.
Morocco’s Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar wants the world to perceive Morocco as an environmentally friendly country. He said, “The project sends a very clear message in the current situation, which is dominated by the need to face up to the challenges of climate change.” The minister added that “Morocco is determined to protect the environment in all its future projects.”

Morocco’s authorities are assured of the success of this project. Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra makes a promise, “This is a bold but realistic project. We will guarantee all the technical and financial resources to make it succeed.”

This country’s politicians are eager to cut its dependence of foreign oil and gas imports and save money and to leave green footprints in the sands of time. For the project, Morocco is mobilizing multiple financing sources and partners. Morocco can get help for this project form the WORLD BANK,the EUROPEAN UNION,Germany and DESERTEC Desertec is a coalition of 13 energy and technology companies aiming for a renewable energy grid in Africa and afterward shipping the energy to Europe. Desertec was founded in 2009. Their organization’s focus is on alternative power generation using wind and sunlight. They want to construct a series of concentrated solar power (CSP), photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Said Mouline is the director of Morocco’s Centre for Renewable Energy Development. He says, “This project will help Morocco reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 million tonnes of CO2. This will help us play our role in mitigation of climate change.” He said again, “Clean energy projects such as this will create many new jobs in the areas selected for the solar plants as well as boost the country’s scientific expertise in the field of solar energy.”

Now the Arab countries are waking up to the reality of oil reserves. They too want to trap the power of alternative sources of energy. Algeria, Qatar, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia are all making fruitful efforts to utilize the power of sunlight. Israel is already using solar power successfully in many areas such as water heating systems. Israel is also earning reputation as a world leader in innovating solar energy solutions. Morocco might seek help of Israel on this ambitious project too.

The Energy Minister stressed that they will use the state-of-the-art technology available in the market. She says, “We look for the most sophisticated technology available in the world to use for this project.”

Ali Fassi Fihri is the Chairman of ONE, Morocco’s power utility. He shares his opinion, “The project would add in terms of power generation the equivalent of the current electricity consumption of the country’s commercial capital Casablanca.”

Huawei 'Open' to Opportunities in North America, Executive Says

By Olga Kharif

The Chinese telecom equipment maker is looking to broaden U.S. operations as Palm looks for a buyer
Huawei Technologies, China's biggest maker of phone equipment, is "open to all the possible opportunities" for North American expansion, said Charlie Chen, a senior vice-president at the company.

Chen, who works in marketing and product management for the company's North American division, was responding to a question about whether Huawei may be interested in purchasing Palm the maker of the Pre smartphone. He declined to comment specifically on Palm in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek.com.

Based in Shenzhen, China, Huawei has struggled to make inroads in the U.S. handset market. A purchase of Palm would help a foreign buyer compete with smartphone makers including Apple (AAPL) and Research In Motion (RIMN)"The attraction of Palm to the various Asian companies is that Palm would provide them with some entry into the U.S. market," said Lawrence Harris, an analyst at CL KING &ASOCIATES who has a neutral rating on Palm.
Palm is working with Goldman Sachs Group (GS)and Frank Quattrone's QATALIST PARTNER to find a buyer for the company, three people familiar with the situation said earlier this week.

Palm's stock rose 3.1% on Apr. 14 after Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners reported buying 9.5 of the company common shares . It gained 16¢ to 5.32 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

North American Ambitions

Huawei is eager to expand North American phone sales, Chen said. "We see it's more and more important to have smartphones in this market," he said.
Huawei sells smartphones based on Google's(GOOG)Android software in countries such as the U.K. The Chinese company expects to increase its North American employee base by 50% to about 1,500 this year, Chen said. Closely held Huawei has nine North American offices, including in Toronto, Chicago, and San Diego.

Palm approached Huawei in February through an investment bank for "preliminary discussions" about a possible acquisition, Reuters reported on Apr. 13, citing a person familiar with the matter. Palm spokeswoman Lynn Fox didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last year, Huawei's North American sales rose 63% to $408 million as the company began supplying equipment for Clearwire (CLWR)a provider of high-speed wireless Internet access. Other customers in the region include MetroPCS Communications(PCS)which sells one touchscreen Huawei phone. "In the handset business, we see tremendous potential and growth," Chen said.

Earns millions of euros by cultivating mushrooms-today business startup project

Mushrooms market is high!

more and more people want to eat healthy.More and more people keep post,or prefer vegetarian diet ,but mushrooms are delicious choise you can only realize to enter in mushrooms busines.

Pleurotus mushrooms
Can be cultivate all period of year in special places,the culture had execute after intensive technology,or in adapted spaces,semideposites ,case wich the culture has on based clasic techonology with only two cycles per year

Necessary conditions for growing space
-providing water to a rate of 60 -70 /kg of mushrooms
-posibility that would be desinfect after each production cycle
-don't have wood,straw,land in his structure if it's follows reuse for growing
-to can be ventilated free or mechanically
-to can be warmed to intesive cultivation
-to present technological areas and cultivation (incubation and harvesting)
-to allowed the linear activity withaout return and contact between mushrooms
-to provide access roads

The avantages of pleurotus mushrooms over others mushrooms

compare with Agaricus mushrooms ,Pleurotus Mushrooms required low investment because:
-cab cultivate in space with low termic isolation being resistant to thermal variations by 10 -12 deegrees Celsius daytime
-they are resistant to frost can suport up to -20 deegres celsius
-can be cultivated on termal regim up to 10-30 deegres Celsius
-are more resistant then others mushrooms to attach o various diseases and dosen't require special healt care so the costs are lower
Productivity volume is low at pleurotus mushrooms respectively 4-5 tons/man at clsic cultivation and 6-7 tons to intensive cultivation

Uncle Sam Wants You (To Fight Hackers)

By Rachael King Businessweak

The U.S. government is stepping up recruitment of engineers who can help wage cyberwar

Kyle Osborn does a good job impersonating a technical support rep. On a recent day in Southern California, the 19-year-old is working the phones, trying to persuade people on the other end to download malicious software.

In cybercrime circles, this is called "social engineering," and criminals use the tactics to circumvent companies' Internet security software by tricking employees to download harmful software or cough up passwords. Osborn doesn't look the part of a hacker, with his short blond hair, baby face, and glasses. Yet he's persuasive—after a few calls, he finds an employee who agrees to download malicious software that will open a door into the computer network and let Osborn break in.

In real life, Osborn isn't a cybercriminal; he's a student participating in a cyberdefense competition at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif., that drew about 65 students from Western colleges. The campus is situated on a former ranch east of Los Angeles. Horses and sheep still graze in the pastures.
Boeing(BA)and the Black Hat computer security conference sponsored the regional competition, held Mar 26 to 28. Cisco Sytems (CSCO) and INTEL (INTC)donated computer equipment. The goal is to help companies recruit students who can assist in bolstering their defenses against cyberattacks.

Last year Boeing hired seven students who competed in this event, and the company hopes to fill a few slots with talent discovered this year, too. "It's about [developing] the next generation of cyberwarriors to protect the nation," says Alan Greenberg, technical director of cyber and information solutions at Boeing.
Boeing employs about 2,000 cybersecurity workers, up from roughly 100 in 2004. This year, the company may hire 15 to 30 cybersecurity workers, Greenberg says

Not Enough Applicants

Demand for cybersecurity professionals is growing quickly. Government and industry executives say they need more cybersecurity employees but struggle to find qualified applicants. Just 40% of government hiring managers say they're satisfied with the quality of applicants for federal cybersecurity jobs, and only 30% are satisfied with the number, according to a July 2009 report by Booz Allen Hamilton
While the government's scholarship program can fill about 120 entry-level cybersecurity jobs, the feds need about 1,000 recent grads to fill those spots, according to the report.

Together, the U.S. public and private sectors will need about 60,000 cybersecurity workers in the next three years, says Greenberg. "There will be a shortage."

The number of cyberattacks from organized hackers against the computer networks of U.S. companies continues to escalate. "Two recent examples have highlighted why companies need to work together: the Conficker worm and the Google attack," says Melissa Hathaway, a former cybersecurity adviser in the Bush and Obama administrations.