All’s fair in love and war, and the United States insisted that everyone should be on the same page and work in concert to toward the same emission obligations, regardless of developing or under-developed country status. Not to be bullied, India as a whole stood firm in its opposition to the United States’ demands and apparently called their bluff, thereby making the American negotiators backpedal.

The United States’ bullish attitude seems to have caught off-guard inasmuch as President Obama, et al. have been regularly engaged in conversations with these developing countries which have, in turn, met with positive results; including some voluntary reduction plans. Apparently, developed countries produce more carbon emission gases than the developing countries and are better off financially as well as with their technology to create more aggressive emission reducing measures.

It has long been the consensus of the United Nations Climate Change convention that the majority reduction in emissions should be a role played by the already developed countries somewhere between 25% and 40%. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes that developing countries can easily keep strides with the developed countries in the effort to reduce global carbon emissions. One country, India, however, states that this call for mandatory reduction in emissions will have a negative impact on India’s ability to economically continue its struggle to end poverty. India’s assertive drive against mandatory measures would complicate any effort to streamline reduction in emissions, thereby actually causing an increase.

The debate behind the mandatory or non-mandatory reduction in carbon emissions measures is primarily due to the fact that not all countries have the same carbon footprint. Most developing countries have smaller footprints while the developed countries have larger footprints. Manipulating developing countries into complying with the aggressive actions of the larger developed countries would severely debilitate the endeavors currently in place with respect to standards of living.

Many smaller developing countries, e.g. South Africa and China, have made public their voluntary plan of action to reduce emissions in those areas causing the most pollution. This voluntary plan includes, among other things, protecting the forests. China has even gone so far as to announce working toward more renewable energy and “going green”, with a projected renewable energy source by 2020 to approximately 15%.

Following suite, India stated that it will work on creating laws in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from its highest pollution contributors and even voluntarily submitting an annual report of its findings to the United Nations.

Just because the United States is one of the big guns and is ahead of the developing countries in efforts to reduce carbon emissions, does not mean that it can expect everyone to get on the same page at the same time. Developing countries, such as India and China, need to continue to work toward the common goal but at a much slower pace so as to not cause harm to its people. The United States needs to step back and applaud the efforts of these lesser developed countries. They may be several years in the making but eventually they will get closer in proximity to the goals of carbon emission reduction. While not quite up to the United States’ standards, they are currently making voluntary cuts in emissions here and there and are trying to better their tracking and reporting efforts.

As seems to be the case these days with movies from Pixar and Disney, the “cartoon/animated” movie is continuing to slowly cater to the adult viewer with its quips and adult humor while still being suitable for the younger crowd. This, along with the appealing story line, may be the reason that Cloudy is still going strong. Movies such as “Cloudy”, “Wall-E” and “Up” were created to satisfy the younger child’s intelligence and keep them thoroughly entertained, while its actually story lines were created for adults to keep us entertained (although these movies tend to make us wish for younger days).

What adult watching this movie will not step back for a minute reminiscing of their days in elementary school where food fights were all the rage — until the Principal came by and ruined everything? We will get this humor from Cloudy, and hopefully it will be a bit over our children’s heads so that we do not have to explain later what childish antics we participated in when we were that age. Then, again, their laughter may make our visual just that much more pleasurable.

Even for the die-hard tough, action-driving, guts spilling movie lover this movie is sure to be entertaining to all, sans children, if you are so bold.

Google’s apparent posture is that the rural phone companies believe they are permitted to charge the larger phone companies for connection fees, even though these fees seem to be well over 100 times higher than would be the norm. This overcharge revenue of fees is then divided amongst several “partners” of the rural phone companies in a practice known as “traffic pumping”. AT&T and other phone carriers have to swallow the connection fee costs since their customers pay flat fee rates for unlimited local and long distance calling privileges, reveling in lost profit of as much as $200 million a year to some of the larger phone companies. In an effort to deter traffic pumping, Big Daddy FCC has stopped the rural companies from charging rates and is fine-tuning future rules to ban such practices.

With the Google Voice app, customers get to keep one phone number and get their calls redirected over the Internet, but this luxury supposedly comes at a price to Google wherein they are also charged the high rates from the rural phone companies. They do not like this and thus their reasoning for hindering the calls. “Foul”, cries AT&T, because they, as do other regular phone companies, are forbidden to block calls and must adhere to common carrier rules and cannot stop anyone from using their network for access. This is outlined in the FCC’s 4^th principle in their Internet Policy Statement. Google speaks out of both sides of its forked tongue – fairness to all, but rights to do what it wants. In an attempt to plead its “innocence”, Google says that Google Voice should not have to adhere to the rules because it is software running on someone else’s infrastructure, it does not charge for this app and it was never created to replace regular telephone services.

Google certainly is finding itself in the position of “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and leaving the other comrade phone companies suspect of it’s true intentions. Good thing the FCC is looking into this and hopefully all this backstabbing, will end soon.

If you are an avid Google user or just have a keen eye, you probably notice that the word “Google” changes periodically from seasonal scenes, to scenes honoring historic moments, etc.  Did you notice that Google added an extra “L” (meant to stand for 11)?  Back when it was only 10 years in the making, Google quietly removed one “O” and snuck in a little cupcake.  How ingenious!  This tactic might be viewed by some as playful, but others may view it as a ploy to get one to think they are a “goody two-shoes” entity. 

Nevertheless, Google should be congratulated for surviving for these 11 years, which is longer than most marriages these days!  Happy Birthday, Google!

In actuality, Yahoo has a hearty following with over 500 million visitors monthly, and much to the disbelief of its cynics, is starting to revamp its platform with seemingly great success. With new CEO, Carol Bartz, at the helm, global branding, a new logo, and a budget of over $100 million dollars to be spent on its advertising campaign Yahoo is sure to continue being a competitor in its own right. Good things come to those who wait and Yahoo users will have to wait no more. With a totally overhauled look to the home page, new search engine avenues and email functions, Yahoo is hoping to create a happier “you” atmosphere and experience. Revamping and adding product enhancements and more direct personalization to easier connections for Facebook and Twitter to viewing email messages in order of your contact priority. This “you” will be the focus of Yahoo’s campaign set to air on TV, in magazines, radio, etc. This is just the beginning. Seems savvy Ms. Bartz has corralled Microsoft to come aboard and let Yahoo outsource some of its search operations as well. This new revitalization will be set to rock in the United States and nine countries with different user objectives marketed specifically to that region’s needs.

Many analysts are apparently going to be rethinking their previous closed-mindedness and embracing the new enthusiasm of Yahoo in its efforts to tighten the hold Google has on the searching world. While Google and Yahoo offer some of the same functions, Yahoo plans to offer its services in a more “one stop shop” thought process by incorporating the search section as well as kick in some display advertising ability. Yahoo and “You”; it’s a beautiful thing.

Bundle up the two for just under $150.00 or purchase them separately for around $100.00 each. If you’re a gigabyte junky, naturally, you can “up” the software for an additional $40.00 and get another 2GB, providing you with free membership to the “hub” website Photoshop.com. This additional $40.00 also gives you access to the usual templates and tutorials. And while we’re talking money, annual renewal fees will set you back another $50.00. While it is never a forced issue, purchasing a membership here for this wizardry of synchronization, would be worthwhile as you may find your 2GB of memory gone in a blink of an eye!

Both Mac and Windows users will enjoy many applications including face recognition, geotagging and maping. However, the Mac version of Photoshop Elements might leave you wanting for more. Seems Mac loses out on direct upload to Facebook. Both products provide an “organizer” feature, a “smarts” feature, “motion tracking” and many other features.

As with any new product on the market, there will surely be some adjustment and tweaking of interfacing bumps along the way which will be necessary on both the software creator’s and the end user’s part.