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Just after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the company “missed the mark“, changes regarding Facebook’s privacy policy was instantly made.

Here are 6 Privacy Changes that Facebook must make:

1. Simplified Privacy Button Located on the Home Page. The first demand was for a clear privacy button located on the home page. When an account is updated under the new standard, a message box shows up at the top of the homepage pointing you to the new privacy options.

2. “Just Friends” should be set on Default. The Just Friends Setting had a failing mark on the users as new, simpler privacy settings would be more of use. In the company’s favor, it is easier to switch the settings to “Just Friends”, but it is not using the default setting.

3. Tighten Up The Facebook Chat. Another fail as this one may be a wishful thinking. Facebook could have offered incentives for the opting into sharing our personal data.

5. Deletion of Account. This one’s a pass for Facebook as one might expect to remove one’s self from Facebook’s data centers. Zuckerberg addressed to the problem directly, saying that the process of quitting and deleting an account would be much more easier.

6. There should be more space Improvement. Generally, one thing is asked for Facebook, that the users want more privacy “by default“.

The company made the first steps in changing the privacy changes. As for the current changes for Facebook, are they enough?

Related posts:

1. Facebook: Privacy Setting, 2010
2. Facebook Privacy Issues Made Their Users to Delete Account
3. Facebook Is Growing By Leaps And Bounds

The gang of Jersey Shore are fist-pumpin’ it with Spanish crooner Enrique Iglesias and Latin hip-hopster Pitbull. Snooki, The Sitch, and the rest of the crew will make their music video debut in the vid for Enrique’s new single, “I Like It,” featuring Pitbull. The uptempo song is the lead track off of the forthcoming Jersey Shore soundtrack, which also features club bangers by Lil Jon, LMFAO, Taio Cruz and Akon. According to TMZ.com, the GTL guys and girls are filming the video today in Miami, before heading back to their old stomping ground in Seaside Heights.

The Jersey Shore Soundtrack is due in stores July 20.

One topic consistently comes up when people ask me how we do things at 37signals: working remotely. Talking with a friend about how his team manages a widely distributed team it occurred to me that the key to really making working outside the office effective for your team is equality.

What I mean is that at 37signals there isn’t any distinction between our remote team members and those who work in the office. Of our team, 9 live in Chicago near our physical office and 11 live outside Chicago — a few even outside the US. All of us have the same freedom to work where we feel most comfortable. Even those of us that live in Chicago work outside the office much of the time.

What that does is create parity and a culture of work where location doesn’t matter. There are no advantages for people who come into the office, no disadvantages to staying home to get your work done. I’ve worked with companies where remote team members were an afterthought. They had to sit through meetings on the other end of a speaker phone while the rest of the team met in-person. The team members who weren’t permitted to work remotely resented those who were, despite the remote team’s obvious second-class status. These days, I live over 500 miles from my nearest coworker but I don’t feel like I’m missing a thing.

My friend’s team learned a similar lesson. They found that making even their team members in the main office work from home leveled the playing field. The local team benefitted from the productivity of working in isolation and learned to embrace the same constraints as the remote team. That taught everyone how to communicate in a location independent way, making the entire team more effective.

Lack of parity for remote employees is certainly a big factor when a company tries and fails to integrate remote team members. Most any team can benefit from some time to work outside the office. Let your local team reap the benefits and open your company to a vast pool of talent by hiring the best no matter where they live.

After nearly forty days of wandering in the wilderness of failure and frustration, is this the time that BP finally closes off its oil leak?

There’s a glimmer of optimism in the Gulf of Mexico right now, as the “top kill” appears to have stopped the flow of oil. But with everything that’s happened so far, people are watching nervously and holding off on any celebration until we know the leak is sealed at last.

“They’ve been able to stabilize the wellhead, they’re pumping mud down it. They’ve stopped the hydrocarbons from coming up,” said Coast Guard chief Thad Allen, who is coordinating the US government’s battle against the oil spill. He told local radio WWL First News that BP “had some success overnight” but cautioned the British energy giant was “in a period of kind of wait and see right now where they see how the well stabilizes” [Discovery News].

The likelihood of long-term success grows with the passing hours, though, for the sake of caution, it may be tomorrow before BP declares victory on this. It took a lot of pumping heavy mud just to get to this point:

At first, most of the mud was carried away by the oil and gas streaming up through the well at high pressure, but with enough mud being pumped in at a fast enough rate, it started accumulating inside the well as intended. Unless something goes wrong, at some point, enough mud — and thus enough weight — would accumulate to overcome the upward pressure of the escaping oil and gas, and seal the well [The New York Times].

Even if BP does succeed, which we greatly hope that it does, the company then will have a furious public and U.S. government to face. As we noted earlier today, the new flow rate estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey mean that, even at best, the BP spill is already worse than the Exxon Valdez.

And then there are the shortcuts. During the Congressional investigation, witnesses have said BP chose a cheaper but riskier casing that provided just a single protective seal on the system rather than two.

BP’s decision was “without a doubt a riskier way to go,” said Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas at Austin [CNBC].

Today, the Wall Street Journal published a long investigation into what caused the explosion in the first place. Behind schedule and over budget, they say, BP skipped quality control tests on Halliburton’s cement job, didn’t complete a test to remove gas from the well, and had a project manager who wasn’t experienced in deepwater drilling. That’s not all.

There were warning signs of a valve leak nearly five hours before the deadly gulf oil rig explosion, according to an internal BP investigation, which also found that a number of equipment and system failures may have caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster [Los Angeles Times].

Recent posts on the BP oil spill:
80beats: We Did the Math: BP Oil Spill Is Now Worse Than the Exxon Valdez
80beats: “Top Kill” Operation Is Under Way in Attempt to Stop Gulf Oil Leak
80beats: BP To Switch Dispersants; Will Kevin Costner Save Us All?
80beats: Scientists Say Gulf Spill Is Way Worse Than Estimated. How’d We Get It So Wrong?
80beats: 5 Offshore Oil Hotspots Beyond the Gulf That Could Boom—Or Go Boom

Image: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ann Marie Gorden.

It’s been a rough few weeks for United Airlines. First, they try to incinerate an Olsen Twin, then they left a blind passenger on board after they’d let everyone else off the plane. Now, Continental’s betrothed is having to explain how they managed to not notice a sleeping passenger who remained on board her plane for four hours after it touched down.

That four hours is about four times as long as the passenger spent in the air on her United Express flight from Washington’s Dulles airport to Philadelphia.

The flight landed shortly after midnight, but no one noticed Rip Van Winkle until a cleaning crew woke her up around 4 a.m.

We’re reminded of the Air Canada passenger earlier this year, who fell asleep on a flight to Vancouver and woke up several hours after arrival in the hangar at the airport.

Sleeping passenger left on plane for 4 hours after it lands in Philadelphia [Chicago Tribune]

T-Mobile launched the Samsung Behold II with Android 1.5, but led customers to believe the phone would eventually be upgraded to Android 2.0 in 2010. This claim came from a promotional YouTube video which has since been pulled.

Now it looks like Samsung might have reversed course as customers are reporting they were told the Behold II “will never qualify for the Android 2X update”. This information supposedly came from Samsung technical support, but T-Mobile has the final say about firmware upgrades for their phones.

We reached out to T-Mobile to see if they had any new information regarding Android upgrades and they responded the new myTouch 3G Slide includes Android 2.1 and they would let us know when they have more details to share about existing phones.

Behold II owners are understandably upset and some are considering legal action if something is not done. Customers are also demanding an upgrade on the official T-Mobile forums and have started an online petition.

If you are a Behold II owner, I would suggest patiently waiting a little longer and see what action T-Mobile takes. There is no need taking your anger out on Samsung Mobile because they will only develop and release an upgrade when T-Mobile makes the request. For all we know, this could have been done months ago and T-Mobile could be waiting till after the Slide launches (June 2nd) before upgrading older Android phones.

At the same time, this doesn’t bode well for Samsung’s reputation. It might be the carriers responsibility to upgrade their phones, but other Samsung Android phones (like the original Galaxy) are also stuck on Android 1.5.

We can’t say for sure who produced the promotion video, but it clearly features the Samsung Mobile logo at the beginning and fits the wacky style of other campaigns for the Behold II. Just the fact that the video got pulled gives the appearance that someone was trying to scrub this evidence offline. A copy of the original video is included below for your viewing pleasure.

“The SGH-T939 will never qualify for the Android 2X update. Your continued interest in Samsung products is appreciated.”Samsung Technical Support

Related Posts

• T-Mobile Behold II will ship with Android 1.5 but eventually support 2.0
• Meet the Samsung Behold II Man (VIDEO)
• Samsung decides to advertise Behold II months after release
• Samsung Galaxy S spied with T-Mobile apps
• T-Mobile Samsung Behold II review roundup

States are facing record budget shortfalls, which almost always result in huge cuts to education. So the jobs bills moving through Congress propose a $23 billion infusion to public schools to save between 100,00 and 300,000 teacher jobs. Neil McCluskey at the New York Post shrugs at the “teacher bailout,” noting that 300,000 jobs lost would be “only” a 4.8 percent cut to the teacher labor force.

On the other hand, he’s pretty concerned about the deficit.

So there is indeed a looming education catastrophe — but it’s not
funding or job cuts. It is the bailout now moving through Congress that
ignores the reality of inefficient public schooling, and adds to the
already crushing burden of our federal debt.

Well, if we’re playing the put-it-in-context game, $23 billion is “only” 0.6% of the 2010 budget. An unfortunate bailout, perhaps, but hardly catastrophic, especially when you consider that 200,000 lost jobs has a tangible cost on its own: to local demand, to student achievement, and to federal coffers when more people become eligible for benefits like unemployment insurance.

McCluskey’s point about soaring education costs is fair. The rise in tuition and school fees have outpaced even medical inflation in the last 30 years. Education is one of our greatest job engines, but it’s also something of a black hole where money enters, disappears and makes an ambiguous impact on student test scores. Smart education reform includes clear incentives for administrators to control costs and teachers to demonstrate achievement against a reasonable baseline. But we don’t want schools firing teachers willy nilly in the fog of deep budget cuts that could wipe out programs based on their cost rather than their effectiveness.

At the risk of invoking a cliche, our education system is a bit like a painkiller junkie who just had his wisdom teeth pulled. In the long term, we probably want to wean the patient off drugs. In the short term, the patient happens to be in dire need of some drugs. Sec. Arne Duncan seems to acknowledge this conflict, and when the fog lifts, I hope he continues to pressure the teachers’ union to loosen its grip on the bottle and allow administrators to better assess which teachers are actually teaching, and which are mostly collecting checks.

Education – Arne Duncan – New York Post – Education reform – Congress

The year 2020 on Earth: American Idol has replaced the Executive Branch of the U.S. government and everyone’s arguing about whether to say “twenty-twenty” or “two thousand and twenty.” The year 2020 on the Moon: BIG F-IN’ ROBOT PARTY. More »










Earth – Solar System – Space – Technology – Planets

In the last few weeks nearly dozens of people were killed in the fighting between gunmen drug lords and policemen in Kingston, Jamaica. In the operation of anti-drug offensive, the city witnessed running battles between the gunmen and security forces. The gunmen belong to a suspected drug lord who is also sought by the US. But the whereabouts of the alleged drug lord Christoper ‘Dudus’ Coke is unknown.

An Organization for American States body expressed “deep concern” over the ongoing violence and expressed that such power acquired by the drug lords in Caribbean nation is a matter of concern for the United States. The street gun battle has left at least 67 dead including few policemen.

However the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has urged the Jamaican State to conduct an impartial investigation of the events that led to the deaths of some innocent people too. The effort of the desperate police to arrest Dudus Coke, has resulted in the arrests of nearly 500 people and widespread confiscation of arms and ammunition. Live combat could be seen on Television between Policemen and supporters of Coke in neighborhoods of Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens.

Deputy Police Commissioner Glenmore Hinds said that the effort is still on to arrest Coke, but they are still clueless about his whereabouts. Authorities are making provisions for press and reporters to enter the conflict zone with caution. The government also urged businessmen to stop backing the drug lords that will threat peace of the nation.

Related posts:

1. Bloodshed In The Streets As Six Police One Civilian Dead In Mexico
2. Kabul’s defense shaken by suicide bomber
3. Gang Rape on Child: 27 arrested

After the Vanuatu has been struck by a stunning 7.2 Quake, authorities at first sent out a tsunami warning but it was later on canceled. The Quake was felt near the coast of the South Pacific island republic of Vanuatu. The United States earlier had issued a tsunami warning for islands New Caledonia, Solomon and Vanuatu.

According to the Tsunami Warning Center, readings of the sea level didn’t show signs of an incoming tsunami.

“If a tsunami was generated, it does not pose a threat to any areas outside the epicentral region,” it said in a bulletin sent out this afternoon.

The eye of the Earthquake was around 300 miles northwest of Port Vila with a depth of 22 miles. The time the Quake struck was 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time. Local officials frequently updated themselves on the quake and tsunami warning.

Professionals said that Hawaii would be out of danger. Japan, which is the world’s most earthquake prone country in the whole world, according to their local police no serious inquries or damage were done by the 7.2 quake.

“I would think any damage from a quake this size is unlikely,” an official with the police, Shimpachi Higashizato, told the Associated Press.

Related posts:

1. Authorities rule out Tsunami fear after 7.2 Quake near Vanuatu
2. An earthquake shook Puerto Rico
3. Earthquake Hits Chile

Today’s bout of optimism notwithstanding, Morgan Stanley (MS) remains very bearish on the euro, forecasting big declines to come.

Here’s Stephen Hull

We have made some changes to our currency forecasts,
expecting the dollar to strengthen further in 2010. Having
reached our 1.24 target in EUR/USD, we now expect a
decline to 1.16 by year-end and for the euro to trade at a
discount to fair value (1.17) in early 2011, reaching a trough
around 1.12 before recovering later in the year.

Why?

The shift from the initial fiscal problem in the
periphery (Greece) has now become a fiscal problem for core
Europe; more importantly for the euro, it has also undermined
the credibility of the ECB. The ECB’s priority has not been to
focus on the euro as a store of value but has shifted to
helping stabilize the situation. Its role as lender of last resort
has been fully tested and arguably its independence
undermined now that it is buying government bonds to help
ease Europe’s debt problem. There is little doubt in our minds
now that through this crisis there is growing evidence that the
euro is no longer a hard currency like the deutschemark but
something softer. If this is true then those that hold euros
might be less willing to hold them and, as Exhibit 5 shows,
investors – especially central banks and equity investors –
have bought significant amounts of euros since its inception in
1999.

Separately, Morgan Stanley’s Joachim Fils writes:

To be clear, we neither advocate a EUR break-up nor is this
our main scenario. However, the risk that it happens is far
from negligible and the consequences for financial markets
would be severe.  Given recent developments, a break-up
scenario has clearly become more likely, for two reasons. 

First, the lesson for other euro area members from the Greek
bail-out package is that no matter how badly you violate the
SGP guidelines, financial help will be forthcoming, if push
comes to shove. This introduces a serious moral hazard
problem into the European equation. Fiscal slippage in other
countries has now become more rather than less likely in our
view.

Second, the ECB’s climb-down on its collateral rules
regarding lower-rated bonds, which ensures that Greek
government bonds will still be eligible as collateral in ECB
tenders beyond 2010, adds to this moral hazard problem and
confirms that the ECB is not immune to political
considerations and pressures.

Join the conversation about this story »

Mercury

After selling Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo, FoMoCo executives are now preparing to kill Mercury. According to sources familiar with the plans, the Dearborn automaker’s top executives are currently working on a proposal to kill Mercury that will be presented to directors in July.

Mercury sales have fallen 74 percent since 2000 and FoMoCo is not planning any new vehicles for the brand, which was created in 1939 by Edsel Ford, the son of founder Henry Ford.

“Mercury is a forgotten brand,” John Wolkonowicz, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts told Bloomberg. “Many Americans probably already think it has been discontinued. Mercury was too similar to Ford from the very beginning.”

The timing of Mercury’s death all depends on how fast executives can convince directors and dealers to shutdown the unprofitable brand.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Bloomberg

Research conducted for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores has revealed that in order to be healthy, you first have to look really hot: “The first stage of health and wellness is beauty,” said researcher Thom Blischok, during an event on “Redefining Health and Beauty Care for Untapped Profit Potential.”

Blischok, of SymphonyIRI Group, continued his exegesis:

“People want to look good to feel good. This is a major shift in thinking. Health and wellness is holistic and not about medicines only or beauty used in salons or the home. It is about a concept.”

Or, as translated by our exclsuive Meggelfish®: “What part of ‘Redefining Health and Beauty Care for Untapped Profit Potential’ don’t you get?”

Blischok told the drug retailers that they should “position their departments as health, beauty, wellness rather than health and beauty care to take advantage of the shopper’s focus on wellness going forward.” Or,as Meggelfish® translates it: “What are you, deaf? Redefining Health and Beauty Care, people. Untapped Profit Potential. Jesus, somebody get me a frickin’ drink, and put some pomegranate juice in it for the wellness and sh*t.”

Beauty Care Seen as First Step to Wellness [Supermarket News]

Filed under: Ford, Mercury, Earnings/Financials

According to a report from Bloomberg, which is citing two unnamed sources who are supposedly “familiar with the plan,” Ford is planning to close the doors on its Mercury division after 70 years of existence. If true, Mercury will join recently departed brands ranging from Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer.

We can’t say that this news comes as a shocker, as analysts far and wide have been predicting such an event for the last few years, but Ford has repeatedly denied any plans to cancel its interplanetary division when questioned.

For what it’s worth, the Mercury brand has seen its sales fall by nearly three-quarters since the year 2000, now representing less than two percent of Ford’s annual sales. What’s more, Mercury is scheduled to lose two of its four models next year. At this point, the only thing we’ll miss if Mercury leaves us is spokesmodel Jill Wagner.

Stay tuned for more as the story develops.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Report: Ford considering shutting down Mercury division originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since its inception in 2003, the South Asia Initiative (SAI) has raised the profile of South Asian studies at Harvard and internationally; generated interdisciplinary research; sent faculty and students to South Asia for study, research and service learning; and conducted high-profile seminars and conferences. The SAI has forged links and synergies across Harvard’s Schools and has enriched intellectual life on campus by organizing academic seminars and conferences that cut across various disciplines.

he South Asia Initiative offers grants each year to students pursuing interests in South Asia. This year, 10 graduate students were selected to participate in the SAI Graduate Associate Program for 2010-11. This summer, the SAI will support 49 undergraduate and graduate students traveling to South Asia to conduct research, perform fieldwork, participate in internships, and pursue South Asian language study.

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the South Asia Initiative Web site.

As I write this, the Illinois State Legislature is putting the final touches on next year’s budget and spending plan. Everything that is being passed is woefully inadequate to safeguard the needs of Illinois citizens. Continue a deficit of at least $7 billion? No problem. Continue to hold off paying bills for six or more months, putting schools and clients of social service agencies in jeopardy? No problem. Needing to fight to get one vote to make the pension payments now even though the decision would save the state $20 billion later?  Standard practice. It doesn’t look much like the state will do anything to save up to 20,000 educator jobs and do the right thing for our children and our most at-risk citizens.

But 20,000 is less than 7% of all the education jobs currently at risk around the U.S. Nationwide, state budget problems are expected to generate over 300,000 educator pink slips this spring.  That represents a major challenge building a quality education  program AND to the fragile economic recovery in this country. That is why the NEA has opened its “Speak Up For Education and Kids” campaign.

The campaign started on Wednesday, May 26 when over 12,000 calls were made to members of Congress. This national call-in urged our representatives to support adding education jobs to an emergency funding bill.  A press conference featuring NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Congressional Committee Chair Congressman Dave Obey (D-Wisconsin) and Congressman George Miller (D-California) highlighted these efforts.

NEA is also running television ads and radio spots in critical media markets. A campaign has also started on Facebook and other social network services. 

It is not too late to participate. You can help save 300,000 teaching jobs – maybe even your own. So while you are working hard lobbying your state legislators to do the right thing in Illinois, take a moment to e-mail or call your member of Congress at 866-608-6355 and the Representative to protect the future of our children by supporting funding to save education jobs in the emergency funding bill.

When you are done, don’t forget to tell your family and friends to also stand up for the future, and contact their representatives as well.

Park it, Kevin Bacon: GQ Magazine has put its trusty graphics team to work on a comprehensive chart of John “My Body Is A Wonderland Only For White Girls” Mayer’s alleged conquests for a feature in the magazine’s June issue. From Jennifer Aniston to Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Mayer has made his rounds with various Hollywood ladies. But until now, no one has ever charted exactly how many people the musician is connected to through his junk.

Only two celebrities separate Mayer from acting sweetheart Sandra Bullock. Who knew?

Across the entire Atlantic Basin for the six-month season, which begins June 1, NOAA is projecting a 70 percent probability of the following ranges:

*  14 to 23 Named Storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including:
*  8 to 14 Hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which:
*  3 to 7 could be Major Hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph)

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center issued its seasonal outlook today.

It is a worrisome.  Administrator Lubchenco, says, “If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record.”

What is the biggest uncertainty in the forecast?

“The main uncertainty in this outlook is how much above normal the season will be. Whether or not we approach the high end of the predicted ranges depends partly on whether or not La Niña develops this summer,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “At present we are in a neutral state, but conditions are becoming increasingly favorable for La Niña to develop.”

The CPC report explains:

La Niña contributes to reduced vertical wind shear over the western tropical Atlantic which, when combined with conditions associated with the ongoing high activity era and warm Atlantic SSTs, increases the probability of an exceptionally active Atlantic hurricane season (Bell and Chelliah 2006). NOAA’s high-resolution CFS model indicates the development of La Niña-like circulation and precipitation anomalies during July.

One of the three key factors leading NOAA to this forecast is the high sea surface temperatures:

Warm Atlantic Ocean water. Sea surface temperatures are expected to remain above average where storms often develop and move across the Atlantic. Record warm temperatures – up to four degrees Fahrenheit above average – are now present in this region.

Here is more of the forecast:

An important measure of the total overall seasonal activity is the NOAA Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index, which accounts for the intensity and duration of named storms and hurricanes during the season. We estimate a 70% chance that the 2010 seasonal ACE range will be 155%-270% of the median. According to NOAA’s hurricane season classifications, an ACE value above 117% of the 1950-2000 median reflects an above-normal season. An ACE value above 175% of the median reflects an exceptionally active (or hyperactive) season.

And what about the Gulf where a massive oil spill resides:

Because of the ongoing oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, we are including some historical statistics of tropical cyclone activity for this region (excluding the Bay of Campeche) based on past above normal seasons. These statistics do not represent an explicit forecast for tropical cyclones in the Gulf of Mexico during 2010, as it is impossible to reliably predict such activity so far in advance. Historically, all above normal seasons have produced at least one named storm in the Gulf of Mexico, and 95% of those seasons have at least two named storms in the Gulf. Most of this activity (80%) occurs during August-October. However, 50% of above normal seasons have had at least one named storm in the region during June-July.

If you want a comprehensive discussion of what a Gulf hurricane might mean for the oil disaster, Dr. Jeff Masters has a good post, “What a hurricane would do the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.”

Related Post:

• Nature: Hurricanes ARE getting fiercer — and it’s going to get much worse
• Why future Katrinas and Gustavs will be MUCH worse at landfall, Part 2

How accurate are the NOAA seasonal hurricane forecasts?  Click here.  Summary at Wunderblog.

The sudden warning of Tsunami created tense moments at the many Coastal regions of Pacific Ocean when an earthquake of 7.2 Richter scale hit 244 km northwest of Santo on the Island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. Vanuatu lies in the circle of volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches which is called ‘Ring of Fire.’

Vanuatu lies on the so-called Ring Of Fire, a series of volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches which encircle the Pacific basin. After the earthquake Tsunami Center told Reuters that an earthquake of size that has the potential to create destructive Tsunami has been detected and they warned the coastal regions.

However later, authorities have ruled out the Tsunami warning. Even the US had issued a warning for New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that the sea level readings after the quake showed no signs of any impending danger. They further said that even if Tsunami was generated that was not strong enough to cause any destruction outside the epicenter of the earthquake.

The Vanuatu local authorities are still alert and are checking for any information they could gather for any impending danger. So far they have no vital information and suggestion for the people. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also ruled out any immediate risk to Hawaii. Japan too reported no immediate reports of injury or damage from the earthquake in the ocean.

Related posts:

1. False Tsunami Alarm For Vanuatu 7.2 Earthquake
2. Earthquake Hits Chile
3. Taipei, Taiwan Earthquake

After months of uncertainty amid FTC investigations, Google’s acquisition of AdMob is finally totally 100% complete. Now, Google’s shiny ads and Apple’s shiny ads will compete for your eyeballs and you will try your best not to let them bother you too much. [Google Blog] More »










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