André's profile

I'm André Henrique Matias Pires, I was born and I've always lived in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. I am nineteen years old and study in BC & T at UFRN. I studied all the high school in Colégio Salesiano São Jose, but I studied the first and second years in IFRN too.

I live with my family. My father’s name is Adonizedeque and my mother’s name is Ilana. I have two younger brothers. The name of the youngest is Miguel and he is 9 years old and the name of my middle brother is Pedro, and he is 14 years old. I also have a labrador dog, his name is Apollo and is very playful. I love animals, especially dogs, I've had a dog named Minie, and a turtle that never got a name. I’m catholic and I go to church weekly. I’m a little shy and a bit homely but I like going out for fun sometimes.

I like music and film, I'm very eclectic in movie and musical style, however I prefer electronic music, I also like playing musical instruments, especially bass guitar. I love things related to technology, especially with computer, so I intend to study computer engineering in the future.

 I like sports. I've played swimming, karate, judo, squash, and others. However I am not currently practicing any sport. I enjoy studying other languages. I’ve completed an English course in a school language Watford, and I will complete a Spanish course this year. I want to learn other languages ​​like French, German and Japanese. I also have interest in knowing other cultures and other countries.

Rodrigo's profile

   My name is Rodrigo Bessa and I’m 18 years old. I have a sister and she is about 5 years older than me. I was born in Natal – Rio Grande do Norte, my father was born in Aracaju – Sergipe and my sister and my mother, both was born in Belém – Pará. I’m a very shy, polite and serious person.
   I decided to study neuroscience when a neuroscientist of International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal visited one workshop that I did in my old school in 2008, he said a lot of things about this area and I got interested since then. So, two years later, in 2010, I discovered that the Science and Technology Bachelor at UFRN offered this course and I’m doing this now. Sometimes, I like to research about astronomy, aviation and, sure, learn more about neuroscience.
   Someday, I want to travel around the world, but my dream is to travel to Germany, visit many cities like Stuttgart, Hamburg, Frankfurt and principally Berlin. I love history and there are many historical places in Germany and others nearby countries that I want to visit.
   Finally, in my free time, I like to play videogames, more specifically first person shooters game, listen to music, preferably classical music, and running. I like running because while I’m doing this, I think about everything of my own life. I love meet my old school friends and go out with them.

About Earth Hour

"Hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments around the world unite each year to support the largest environmental event in history – Earth Hour.
More than 6,950 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2012, sending a powerful message for action to save the planet. This year marked the continuation of the movement going Beyond the Hour, with more than 200,000 individuals accepting I Will If You Will challenges on YouTube to turn their symbolic action for the planet into an ongoing commitment to a sustainable future."
For more details check out the Earth Hour official website.

Apple commits to renewable power for US data centres

   Apple plans to power its main data centre entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms.

   The maker of the iPhone and iPad said on Thursday it was buying equipment from SunPower Corp and startup Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in North Carolina, near its core data center.

  Once up, the solar farm will supply 84m kWh of energy annually. The sites will employ high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system.

   The two solar farms will cover 250 acres, among the largest in the industry, the Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, told Reuters. Apple plans on using coal-free electricity in all three of its data centres, with the Maiden facility coal-free by the end of 2012.

   "I'm not aware of any other company producing energy onsite at this scale," Oppenheimer said in a telephone interview.

   "The plan we are releasing today includes two solar farms and together they will be twice as big as we previously announced, thanks to the purchase of some land very near to the data centre in Maiden, which will help us meet this goal."

   Shares in SunPower leaped more than 10% to close at $5.59 on Thursday.

  Concerns about the ever-expanding power consumption of computer data centres have mounted in recent years, as technology giants build enormous facilities housing servers to cater to an explosion in internet traffic, multimedia use and enterprise services hosting, via cloud computing.

  "Our next facility will be in Prineville, Oregon. This is still in the planning stages and we have already identified plenty of renewable sources nearby," Oppenheimer said.

  "We haven't finalised our plans for on-site generation, but any power we need to run our centre in Prineville that we get from the grid will be 100% renewable and locally generated sources," he said.

   Several activist groups have expressed their concerns over the use of "dirty" power by Apple's data centres. Several members of Greenpeace staged a protest this week at Apple's Cupertino campus using a giant "iPod."

   Greenpeace, which has also targeted Amazon and Microsoft with clean energy campaigns, saluted Apple's decision.

  "Apple's announcement today is a great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal," Greenpeace International senior IT asnalyst Gary Cook said in a statement.

Reuters

guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 May 2012 09.44 BST

Available in http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/18/apple-renewable-power-data-centres

Gabriel´s Profile

 

   My name is Gabriel Fernandes de Souza, I am 18 years  old. I have one sister that is 7 years younger than me, I was born in Natal-RN while my parents are from Recife-PE.  
   I studied all my high school at Contemporâneo and I always liked to study, especially physics and mathematics, what end up guiding me to the technological area, I decided to do mechanical engineering at UFRN since the first year of high school, and the science and technology bachelor offered the opportunity for that. I intend to work with aeronautical engineering designing airplanes, helicopters and other air vehicles, which always fascinated me. 
   I also like to travel and I hope to meet someday a lot of different countries and cultures having as many experiences as possible. I have for principal hobbies reading, playing videogames and watching movies and TV series, I am a huge fan of cinema and my favorites movies are A Clockwork Orange and The Godfather, I am also a fan of fiction books, especially the books of J.R.R Tolkien and George Martin. I listen to music everyday, mostly heavy metal, blues and classical music, I like animals very much, especially dogs, I have 4 pets, all dogs.  
   Regarding my personality, I am very responsible with my commitments, I am kind of perfectionist in things I do, doing it many times and correcting things until it pleases me. I´m also very critical about things I read and listen. 

Save the Amazon - Greenpeace

"Greenpeace activists occupy the anchor chain of the ship Clipper Hope for more than 48 hours, near São Luis do Maranhão port, with a banner reading ‘Amazon Crime' and 'Dilma, Desliga a Motoserra (President Dilma, turn off the chainsaw)'. The activists are preventing the departure of the ship from the Amazon to the USA, where its cargo of pig iron will be used to make steel for the US car industry. Greenpeace is taking action to expose a trio of serious crimes in the production of Brazilian pig iron including slave labour, deforestation and the invasion of indigenous lands. The organization is calling for Dilma to protect the Amazon and the people who depend on it, as well as veto changes to the country's 'forest code' and support Greenpeace's call for zero deforestation." by Chris Eaton via Flickr May 16 at 2:47 PM

Click here and help us to save the amazon. 

"The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages."