lowintermediatealics

Endangered environment

The advance of the technology is affecting natural resources because many inventions, products, services and different modern things are polluting the water, air, plants, animals and land. For this reason, it is necessary that we begin to take care environmental.

One the major problem is air pollution. Some of their causes are, for example in the city millions of cars and factories toxic fumes. In our cities there are few green zones and quite (enough) garbage. Moreover, in the field the farmers use fertilizers, tools, insecticides to cultivate the land and also polluted the air. It is important that we should to become aware of the damage that we are doing to the planet with our ambitious acts.

Another big problem is water pollution. The major cause of contamination of water is garbage; this is evidence by the irresponsibility of the people living near rivers. People throw away waste, garbage in the river, then that is contaminating the water supply source for millions of inhabitants in cities. children are being affetected because they suffer diseases such as flu, diarrhea and respiratory illnesses.

the land pollution is another importan issue, in the filed the farmesrs use fertilizers, tools, insecticides to cultivate the land and also polluted the land.

finally, it is urgent that we all being to care the environemnt. in the city we should begin in our homes. it is important that we recycling the garbage and saving water and energy.

Internet Boom in China Is Built on Virtual Fun
By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: February 5, 2007
SHENZHEN, China — When Pony Ma, the 35-year-old co-founder of China’s hottest Internet company, sends a message to friends and colleagues, the image that pops up on their screens shows a spiky-haired youth wearing flashy jeans and dark sunglasses.

Skip to next paragraph That is not how Mr. Ma actually looks or acts, but it is an image that fits well with the youthful, faintly rebellious nature of a company led by somebody who may be China’s closest approximation to Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the young founders of Google. In the two years since Mr. Ma’s company, Tencent, went public in Hong Kong, it has grown into a powerhouse that has crushed everyone else in the field.

No other Internet company in the world — not even Google — has achieved the kind of dominance in its home market that Tencent commands in China, where its all-in-one packaging of entertainment offerings and a mobile instant-messaging service, “QQ,” has reached more than 100 million users, or nearly 80 percent of the market.

“Everyone talks about eyeballs,” said William Bao Bean, an Internet analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities. “Well, they’ve got all the eyeballs in China. And now they’re beginning to cash in on that.”
But the rise of fast-growing companies like Tencent is also worrying the Chinese government, which strictly regulates the Internet and is wary of the Web’s ability to mobilize huge online political communities or perhaps to nurture underground economies.

A few weeks ago, China’s Central Bank — which oversees the country’s $2.6 trillion economy — even went so far as to issue a warning about Tencent’s virtual currency, Q-coins, which allow customers to shop online for games, music and even virtual furniture.

A Central Bank official said the agency was studying whether Tencent’s online tokens were a threat to China’s currency, the yuan or renminbi. He also said the authorities would crack down on the coins if they were used to engage in money laundering.

That is far from Tencent’s intention. Already one of China’s wealthiest entrepreneurs — worth an estimated $850 million — the soft-spoken Mr. Ma says he simply wants to let people in China use the Web the way they want.
“I think every Internet user likes personalization,” Mr. Ma said during an interview here. “In 2005 and 2006, we came up with a new strategy: ‘Online Lifestyle.’ ”

While America’s Internet users send e-mail messages and surf for information on their personal computers, young people in China are playing online games, downloading video and music into their cellphones and MP3 players and entering imaginary worlds where they can swap virtual goods and assume online personas. Tencent earns the bulk of its revenue from the entertainment services it sells through the Internet and mobile phones.

Another distinguishing feature is the youthful face of China’s online community. In the United States, roughly 70 percent of Internet users are over the age of 30; in China, it is the other way around — 70 percent of users here are under 30, according to the investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Because few people in China have credit cards or trust the Internet for financial transactions, e-commerce is emerging slowly. But instant messaging and game-playing are major obsessions, now central to Chinese culture. So is social networking, a natural fit in a country full of young people without siblings. Tencent combines aspects of the social networking site MySpace, the video sharing site YouTube and the online virtual world of Second Life.

“They have what I call the largest virtual park in China,” said Richard Ji, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. “And in China, the No. 1 priority for Internet users is entertainment; in the U.S., it’s information. That’s why Google is dominant in the U.S., but Tencent rules China.”

Tencent’s rapid rise is one reason America’s biggest Internet companies, like Yahoo, Google and eBay, have largely flopped in China. Analysts say the American companies struggle here partly because of regulatory restrictions that favor homegrown companies, but also because foreign companies often do not understand China’s Internet market, which is geared primarily to entertainment and mobile phones.
Google has lost market share to the search engine Baidu. Yahoo recently transferred its operations to a Chinese company, Alibaba.com. And eBay, even after buying one of its biggest competitors in China, has continued to lose ground; last December it handed its Chinese operations over to Tom.com, which is based in Hong Kong, in a joint venture.

Chinese youth prefer instant messages to e-mail messages; they play games, form communities and even adopt virtual personas, or avatars, which requires selecting an online image or personality and then buying that character virtual clothes, hairstyles, furniture and perhaps even a virtual pet that must be fed with virtual pet food.

It is a world that now dominates the life of Li Meixuan, a 21-year-old college student in Beijing who became hooked on Tencent’s QQ offerings in high school.

“I play with QQ about three to five hours a day,” said Ms. Li. “I usually play QQ games, buy game stuff from the QQ Game and buy decorations for my QQ show.”
Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/

Watch out - cell phones taking over as timepieces
By Helen Chernikoff

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ask graphic designer Parker Weintz the time and he doesn't look to his wrist, he pulls a cell phone out of his pocket -- and he's not alone.

The proliferation of cell phones, with their list of extra features, has had the knock-on effect of eliminating the need to wear a wristwatch unless it is to make a fashion statement. Weintz, 37, said he recently abandoned his trusty Swiss Army watch and now relies on his phone to tell time.
"The time is right there," said Connecticut-based Weintz as he drew a palm-sized cell phone from his shorts pocket. "And it's all around us in this digital age. Plus, if I see a chick I like on the street, I can ask her the time (with no watch on his wrist)."

U.S. watch sales, which have been on the decline since 2001, fell 4.9 percent in 2005, according to a new market research study. Men especially have taken to abandoning watches as cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) become increasingly commonplace, said Tim Dowd, an analyst at market research firm Packaged Facts and author of a report titled "Watches and Clocks in the U.S."

Women have emerged as the more loyal wearers as watches have become more decorative. Of the 69.9 million U.S. adults who bought watches last year, 40.3 million were women, according to Dowd. "Women are expected to accessorize more," he said.

Dowd said watchmakers were starting to exploit the accessory angle by seeking the endorsements of popular figures such as rock stars or snowboarders. Swatch Group (UHR.VX)(UHRN.VX), the world's biggest watchmaker that has Omega and Tissot among its brands, posted a higher first-half profit on Thursday, boosted by demand for expensive watches.

The Swiss-based watchmaker has shifted its product mix toward luxury watches. Weintz's business partner, Chris Kelly, with whom he runs graphic design company ignition13, said he continues to wear a watch, a chunky $3,500 Omega, but only as a fashion statement. Kelly, 36, said he also owns a $7,000 watch and is eyeing another that would set him back about $2,000. Dowd's report found that men purchase more luxury watches than women, who buy only 30 percent of the top-priced watches.

"The personal statement a watch makes is just as relevant as ever," said Josh Rubin, editor-in-chief of coolhunting.com, a blog that tracks trends in design and technology. "Whether it's a GPS-enabled watch that helps you find your way and tells people you're techy, or a vintage '70s LED that says you're digital old school, a watch can make a specific statement."
Article from: http://news.yahoo.com/news

Machines Behaving Badly

Everyone, it seems, has a mobile these days, even children in kindergarten. Billions of text messages fly round the world every day, and computers and call centres run every aspect of our lives. But is all this really making life better? Here are seven good reasons to hate modern technology.

1. It doesn’t save you time.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that technology is there to save you time. Wrong. It is there to give people new ways of filling their time. Take personal computers. Learning how to use all the features of a new PC uses up all the time that having a computer saves. And what about all the hours you spend staring at incomprehensible instruction manuals for your new phone / TV / digital doorbell?

2. It does things you don’t need.

Of course it’s wonderful to have a CD player, a mobile, a home computer, or an electric toaster, for that matter. But do you really want to play computer games on the 4 cm screen of your mobile phone? Do you need your computer to answer the phone or your TV to make toast?

3. More choices does not mean better.

Digital TV is a perfect example. When it arrived, we were promised a better quality picture and more choice. But at eleven o’clock at night as you flick through the 97 channels you can now get, it is not the quality of the picture that you worry about. More the fact that not one single programme is worth watching.

4. It was out of date before you bought it.

After several frustruating weeks of finding all the right software for your new PC, then phoning “help” desks when it doesn’t work, you will proudly show off your new machine to friends only to hear “Oh, are you still using that one? I’m thinking of buying the new PYX 5000, myself.” A few months later, when you try to buy some minor spare part, you find it is no longer manufactured, and that it would be much cheaper to replace the whole computer with the new PYX 7500.

5. No one takes responsibility when things go wrong.

This is easy, because very few people really understand how the machines they have bought work. So you phone the software company and they will tell you it’s a hardware problem. You then phone the hardware company and they tell you it’s a software problem. Call centres are the worst. Phone the so-called “customer care” number, and after waiting on hold for fifteen minutes you will be told you need the sales dapartment. The sales department assure you that it’s the technical department you need, but surprise, surprise, the technical department put you back through to customer care. People can spend weeks of their lives like this.

6. It’s destroying the English language.

Apparently, teenagers now do so much texting and e-mailing that their thumbs are getting bigger. Unfortunately, they are also forgetting how to spell. One American schoolgirl recently wrote her entire essay on “My summer holidays” in text speak. It began, “B4 we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 kids. ILNY it’s a GR8 plc.” Or for you and me: “Before we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three kids. I love New York. It’s a great place.”

7. It’s anti-social.

A recent survey showed that more than eight out of ten young people would rather text their friends or family than actually speak to them in person. And according to the same survey, twenty-five percent of people would answer their mobile phone even during a moment of passion. I ask you is this really a better world?

Taken from: Cunningham, Sarah and Peter Moor. New Cutting Edge Intermediate, Pearson Education Limited, 2005. Page 81.