Special Speech

Mass tort status is being considered in the lawsuits that have been filed against the makers of the birth control tablets Yasmin or Yaz and its generic form Ocella. This is largely due to the increasing number of cases being filed across the country where victims claim stroke and other serious health problems caused by taking Yasmin or Ocella. Yaz side effects run the gamut from ischemic stroke or heart attack, to pulmonary embolism and other blood clot related injuries.

Among the previous disputes impending on Yasmin, Yaz and Ocella birth control, the contraceptives also contain drospirenone, an element not in other oral contraceptives. The British Medical Journal issued studies in August 2009 exhibiting a higher risk of venous blood clots in women taking drospirenone as opposed to those who used other oral contraceptives. In that same month, the Food & Drug Administration issued an unrelated advisory to Bayer Pharmaceuticals, makers of Yaz, for using low-quality batches of drospirenone from a plant in Germany. For the benefit of public interest and well-being, these articles have been made available free online.

Any women that have been hurt as a result of taking Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella may be entitled to an award. Many lawyers and legal counsel agencies such as thelegaladvocate.com now extend assistance to anyone having side effects and health issues as a direct result of using Yasmin contraception. Now that more women across the United States are coming forward and filing lawsuits, the legal system is moving closer to providing justice for those who were misled by the birth control manufacturers and possibly their doctors.

The 1964 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake and the resulting tsunami struck without warning on Good Friday, March 27.

It was a quiet spring day in Anchorage, a holiday. Temperatures were seasonably mild with a moderate amount of snow on the ground. Children had the day off from school, and customer traffic in the stores downtown was light. Many residents were preparing or enjoying dinner at home. At 5:36 p.m. a major earthquake began to shake the ground, and the earth beneath Southcentral Alaska moved in waves for the next four long minutes.

Parents and children slipped, stumbled and fell on shifting floors in a panicked effort to get outdoors to escape breaking windows. Two inch cracks appeared in the ground in many places. Roads wrinkled and split and Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage broke apart and collapsed 10 feet or more. The Government Hill Elementary School twisted, shifted and became unusable in a moment. The outside wall of the J.C. Penney building crashed to the street. In the Turnagain residential district the ground liquefied like quicksand, slid away, and swallowed up 75 or more homes.

The four minute earthquake released the energy roughly equivalent to 10 million times the force of an atomic bomb. The mass of the earth and ocean absorbed most of the force, but manmade structures in the area could not absorb the rest of the force without suffering massive damage. Total property damage was estimated at $500 million.

Anchorage was crippled as gas lines and water lines were severed abruptly. Residents resorted to melting snow for water while awaiting repairs. Four days later students returned to available schools as life in Anchorage began to recover.

The Earthquake

The center of the Alaska earthquake was located about 75 miles east of Anchorage and about 55 miles west of Valdez. It began 14 to 16 miles deep in the earth’s crust, a comparatively shallow depth, where the Pacific plate dives beneath the North American plate. The huge subduction zone is located at the north end of the Ring of Fire, a semicircle of volcanic and earthquake activity that defines the rim of the Pacific Ocean.

The earthquake fault, more precisely the thrust fault, which was the cause of the Good Friday earthquake stretched 750 miles from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to Valdez. The Pacific plate that day moved an estimated 25 to 30 feet northward, diving beneath the North American plate. The grinding of the two massive tectonic plates caused the Alaska earthquake and measured 8.4 on the Richter scale. In later years the measurement of the Alaska earthquake was upgraded to 9.2 on the Mw, or moment magnitude, scale as the Richter scale was determined to be inaccurate at measuring very large earthquakes above 8.0. Within a day of the initial major earthquake 11 more tremors of 6.0 or greater shook an already nervous population. In fact, aftershocks continued for nearly a year.

The earthquake caused the ground to displace upward by as much as 25 feet on several Alaskan islands and by nearly 3 feet upward at the city of Valdez. In other areas the ground displaced downward as much as 9 feet, for example in the town of Portage.

The Alaska earthquake on Good Friday was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America. It was the second strongest ever recorded worldwide, surpassed in strength by the 9.5 Mw earthquake in Chile on May 22, 1960. The recent December 26, 2004, earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 Mw. The deadliest earthquake occurred in Shensi Province, China, in 1556 where over 830,000 residents perished.

The Tsunami

Tsunami is an adapted Japanese word meaning “port wave,” a reference to the fact that the wave’s danger and destructive power only become evident as it approaches the shore.

During the 1964 Alaska earthquake the North American plate released upward, displacing a huge volume of ocean water and causing a seismic wave, a tsunami, to travel outward. The wave traveled at an estimated 450 miles per hour in the deeper ocean in a long wave of almost imperceptible height.

As the tsunami wave passed over the continental shelf and approached shore its length shortened, its speed decreased and its height increased as the massive volume and weight of water prepared to release its incredible energy on anything in its path.

At the shallow Valdez Inlet the wave reached a maximum height of nearly 200 feet. Further on, at the old town of Valdez, a 30 foot wall of water struck and demolished all structures. Twenty eight Valdez residents died when the tsunami crashed ashore. Valdez was later rebuilt at a higher elevation and further from the waterfront.

In Seward, Alaska, the earthquake caused a portion of the bay to slide. The slide caused a local tsunami which devastated Seward’s port and downtown district, both of which were eventually rebuilt. Twelve residents perished in Seward.

The small town of Portage was leveled by its own local tsunami and never relocated or rebuilt. Another local tsunami struck the small port of Whittier killing 12 residents.

The Destruction

The original tsunami traveled about 8400 miles. It caused damage in the Hawaiian Islands and along the Oregon and California coasts. A 20 foot wave struck Crescent City, California, and killed 10 residents. The tsunami was responsible for the deaths of 16 people in Oregon and California.

The tsunami killed a total of 122 people in three states. By comparison, the earthquake resulted in 9 deaths.

It has been more than 40 years since the Alaska earthquake and tsunami. In the meantime construction materials and building practices have been enforced to produce structures more capable of surviving strong earthquakes. Also in the meantime, the population in Alaska’s vulnerable areas has increased tremendously.

Smaller earthquakes along Alaska’s subduction zone and other fault zones occur on a daily basis, presumably relieving the internal pressures that would otherwise produce another massive earthquake.

However, nobody knows with certainty when, where, or whether another huge and destructive earthquake will strike Alaska.

About the author:

Garry Gamber is a public school teacher and entrepreneur. He writes articles about real estate, health and nutrition, and internet dating services. He is the owner of http://www.Anchorage-Homes.comand http://www.TheDatingAdvisor.com

Every single day I surf through about a dozen sites, looking for
interesting articles and message board posts. I do this for many
reasons: for my job, which requires that I stay up-to-date on
current technologies, and for my hobby, which allows me to write
articles about the internet and the web.

A big portion of my daily routine involves visiting forums
related to all facets of the internet. These forums often have
some incredible information not readily available anywhere else;
the best of these (WebMasterWorld, JavaScript City, Spider Foods,
WebDev Forums, Lisa Says it all and the Web Site Abstraction
Forum) are tightly monitored and are heavily trafficked by
knowledgeable people.

I find them very useful not just for ideas, but to occasionally
post something of interest to others. You know, that’s something
that I truly enjoy. Stumbling across a post which asks a question,
responding and finding out that I really did help someone solve
an issue. There are few better feelings than that.

Anyway, today I was looking through some posts on these boards
and I noticed a very common concern and theme. Virtually every
webmaster on the boards is concerned above all else with one
thing: getting traffic to their site. And to get traffic
virtually all of those same webmasters was convinced they have
to get high rankings in the search engines.

I’d seen this before, of course, but today I noticed something
that actually made me angry. I realized that the search engines,
especially the larger ones, are causing people to self-censor
their own sites.

One lady stated she had a painfully built set of links for
quilt sites. She believed it was the most complete set of quilt
links on the internet, and seemed quite proud. However, she was
disturbed and even was considering removing the links because it
might hurt her rankings in Google.

I continued looking over the posts on that and other forums and
found similar posts scattered throughout. One person was afraid
because he included pages of content not related to the theme of
his site. Would Google drop his ranking and thus cut his income?
Yet he really wanted to include those pages … but felt he had
to remove them because of this search engine.

You see, what’s happening is Google and other search engines have
to work very hard to create very intelligent robots to scan the
web for sites. Until recently, these robots considered each and
every page as a separate entity. Now, however, a change is
occurring. Google is attempting to group pages together into
sites, and then judge all of the pages as a group. The
implication of this is apparently sites which are “tightly
themed” will be positioned higher in the results pages than
those that are not.

I guess the theory is that a tightly themed site is somehow
better than a site which has lots of information about many
different subject.

Google also ranks pages (and now perhaps entire sites) based
upon the number and quality of sites that link back. The thought
behind this is that if a site is linked to by other quality
sites (sites related to the theme), then that site is somehow
better than other sites and deserves to rank higher.

So what’s seems to be happening is many webmasters are very,
very concerned about every move they make. Every change to their
site is measured against the question, “what will Google or
Altavista or whatever think of this change?” Will making that
change drop their rankings? Will it get them removed from the
engine? Will the Earth come to an end simply because a link to a
site with different content is included?

Other questions I have seen include: will using Flash drop me
out of the engines? Should I use tables or will that hurt my
page ranking? If “low quality” sites link to mine, will Google
get annoyed and kick me to the second page?

This is, in my opinion, utterly and completely ridiculous. The
purpose of the web and the internet is communication. People
write articles, create graphics and multimedia and place them on
the internet because they have a story to tell or some
information to impart.

Of course it is important to promote your site, because part of
communication is finding someone to communicate with. However,
there are many, many ways to promote a web site. There are as
many ways and places to promote as their are stars in the sky or
electrons on a wire. Just use your creativity and your brain, and
you will figure out how to get people to visit your creation,
without selling your soul to a search engine.

One of my objections is the idea of “theming” a web site. That
is not the way that the web is intended to work and it is not in
the interest of surfers. When I search on a keyword, I want to
find the best pages that I can find. If someone wrote a page
about their cat but placed it on their site about quilts, then I
still might want to see it. In fact, it’s possible that this one
page has better information than a site devoted entirely to cats.

I have a great example of a site which is one of the best on the
internet by a good man named James Huggins. I’d bet that Google
wouldn’t appreciate this site very much because it would have a
very difficult time figuring out the theme. Yet it is by far one
of the most entertaining and informative sites on the entire web
(in my opinion, of course).

http://www.jamesshuggins.com/

A major problem with the idea of basing the ranking of a site
on it’s popularity is that new or smaller sites tend to drop way
down the list, even though they are often much better than sites
higher on the list. It simply is not true that a site which has
lots of incoming “quality” links is any better than those sites
which do not have as many of them.

Websites are very personal creations, and they should reflect
the unique viewpoints, opinions and background of the authors,
artists and creative talent. There is no need to make every site
on the web look or feel the same; There is certainly no need to
force every site to fit a set of rules in order to be found by
other people.

My advice is to create a web site in which you can be proud. Use
all of the tools and skills that you have, and use whatever
techniques you enjoy. At the same time, explore ALL of the
methods of site promotion, including search engines. But don’t
place too much weight on the engines - they change constantly
and they are very fickle. You might sell your soul to get a high
ranking one day only to find out the next morning that you are
gone entirely.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets
at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to
read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Bacardi Limited began operating as a wine merchant in February 1862, when Don Facundo Bacardi opened the first Bacardi in Santiago de Cuba. Today, Bacardi has evolved into the world’s leading family-owned spirits company. Now operating from its headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda, Bacardi has become synonymous with quality through its products like Bacardi Cuba Libre, Bacardi 151, Bacardi Superior, and Bacardi Black.

Aside from ensuring its products’ quality, Bacardi also aims to become a leader in management responsibility. As a means of achieving this goal, the company came up with the Bacardi Environment, Health and Safety plan. Bacardi EHS is a program that ensures that the company’s operations comply with global practices and standards. This initiative began in March 2008 and this year, 2009, Bacardi Environment will make sure that all of the company’s manufacturing facilities follow global standards.

Led by a Steering Group, the Bacardi Environment, Health and Safety plan shares the company’s environmental progress with the public through a website that takes note of significant improvements the company has done. Specific attention is given to improvements in water usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of its compliance with the Bacardi EHS campaign, the company has made sure that its distilleries in various parts of the world (Puerto Rico, Italy, Florida, Scotland among others) adopt renewable energy practices along with recycling and other environmentally-practices.

As President and CEO of Intelius, Naveen Jain leads his flock with an exhibition of determination and strength yet with compassion for others. Looking into the business sense, Intelius seeks to provide the security and intelligent information consumers need, providing them with a wide range of products from people search to identity theft protection. On the other hand, Naveen Jain recognizes that keeping the company’s core values in sight is more important than being financially successful. Remaining true to this paradigm, Intellius gives back to its community in the hope of meeting their needs especially in this time of economic turmoil. Since its inception in March 1996, Intelius has made it his responsibility to meet the demands of the community through collaborating with various local, national, and international organizations with projects focused on fostering education, family and youth issues, and health. The firm has helped several organizations advocating children and youth causes including Treehouse, Cry-Child Relief, Peps, Bellevue Boys and Girls Club, and Kindering Care. The company also supports organizations for the improvement of community programs, medical facilities, and research institutions such as Children’s Hospital, United Way, IAFF Fighters, and Overlake Service League. The same support extends to organizations benefitting arts and education such as the University Prep, and the Seattle Art Museum; and organizations that help the Indian and South Asian communities like the National Bureau of Asian Research, the Indian American Education Foundation, and ASHA. Moreover, the firm has collaborated with Hopelink in its End Summer Hunger Campaign and Reaching Out Luncheon. Hopelink is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help low-income individuals become self-sufficient. The company has also created a scholarship endowment program at the University of Washington, giving financial aid to undergraduate students in Business and Computer Science & Engineering. Naveen Jain hopes that his company’s philanthropic activities will set an example for other companies.

Human rights groups work with programs and projects aimed at rectifying particular human rights violations issues or scenarios wherein such violations occur. These non-governmental and independent groups receive funding from various government institutions, foundations, and private donors.

Amnesty International is one of the most prominent human rights groups today. Established in 1961 through a campaign organized by British lawyer Peter Benenson, the group’s more than 2.2 million members and subscribers worldwide work together to prevent and rectify human rights violations. Likewise, the group encourages international solidarity in seeking for means to end human rights violations around the world.

Currently campaigning in more than 150 countries, Amnesty International also focuses on programs that aim to free prisoners of conscience; stop violence against women, torture, and combat terror. The first Amnesty candle was lit on December 10, 1961, Human Rights Day.

Another prominent human rights group is the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR), which was established in 1978 and seeks to press for justice and respect for the rule of law worldwide. The group works closely with various local non-governmental organizations in promoting and protecting the rights of workers. It has been working for workers’ rights for more than 10 years and serves as a link for local groups pursuing the singular goal of promoting basic freedoms and peaceful change.

One such group is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950. With the main goal of protecting the rights and well-being of the millions of refugees worldwide, the UNHCR has helped about 50 million people in its more than 5 decades of existence.

These human rights groups work to establish better human rights for all, regardless of age, gender, race, or ethnic origins.

Read up on the latest in Human Rights issues on Human Rights Supporters.

The Affinion Security Center can stop identity theft from destroying your credit rating.

Trilegiant is on the cutting edge of identity security.

If you have a nice car, you have probably thought about buying a car alarm. Even if your car isn’t a Ferrari, it’s still a good idea to at least invest in a basic car alarm system. In the United States, a car is stolen every 25 seconds. This costs drivers and car insurance companies about 8 billion dollars every year. To avoid becoming a part of these statistics you can purchase a car alarm for your car. To shop for the best car alarm, read some car alarm reviews.

There are a variety of places to find car alarm reviews. Car magazines are always first to hear about the latest technology and upgrades in alarms. Also, when you read a car magazine you can feel confident that the reviews are unbiased and you are getting a good opinion. The internet is another option for finding reviews on car alarm systems. There is a ton of information online about car alarms, but you have to use common sense when you read reviews. Many reviews are written for the express purpose of selling you a certain type of alarm. Look for a review that is actually written by a trustworthy source before you buy that type of alarm.

After reading the title of this article, you may be asking yourself, are they really attempting to profit off of something everyone on Earth has access to? If you take the term selling sunlight in its most literal interpretation, then no, there are no plans to charge people for solar rays. However, we do have the potential and the tools to teach people how to harness the energy provided by the sun to create usable heat energy that can be used instead of relying on electricity.

Solar products are becoming more and more popular these days with the ever growing fear we are reaching the end of our fossil fuel supplies. From solar air conditioning and solar swimming pool heating, to solar hot water heaters, solar power is being more utilized in both the commercial and residential realms.

This year’s Earth Day was the largest Earth Day gathering in United States history. It was held mostly in Washington D.C. on the National Mall, and one solar company, Solar Panels Plus, was in attendance and had a booth set up promoting their solar powered products. If solar technologies spark your interest, you should look around the Internet for some amazing solar power resources, such as Apricus and Yazaki products provided by Solar Panels Plus, that will save you money on electrical bills and reduce your carbon footprint.