Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,800 in Asia

The following news has been recently published by Yahoo News:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,800 people in six countries.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 2,150 people were killed, the prime minister's office said. Indian officials said as many as 1,130 died along the southern coast. At least 408 died on Sumatra from floods and collapsing buildings. Another 168 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 28 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.

But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.

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Golly! It seems that Mother Nature has gotten increasingly assertive during the last few days and, sad to say, doing her own way of "limpieza de sangre". She's beginning to be more reactionary as to what or how people are utilizing her natural resources. Two days ago, a strong, massive earthquake with 8.2 on the richster scale occured in the southern region between Australia and Antartica. Oh my God, I just hope and pray that The-Day-after-Tomorrow thing won't come so early, and perhaps people can be more ecologically conscious and doing something to save the environment. It will surely depress me if I hear someone say "save as many as you can"...

Gmail invitations

It seems amusing to find so many people vying to have at least one gmail account. One only has to visit forums or blogs and see what people can offer in order to get a free invitation (some are even getting desperate, uhh..). Perhaps for the sheer size of it or that others are dissatisfied with their current email provider. I for one just registered a few days ago after winning an invite at the www.freegmailinvites.com. It took me a couple of rounds before I did win one, and was so happy to find the link code posted on the webpage the day after.

Out of curiosity and with a little bit of excitement, I registered and lo...! I realized it's worth it - not only for the whooping gigantic storage capacity but specifically I'm fascinated at the features (and more are being added continually)... really it's a new way of looking at email and the way we can communicate with others. The Help area is extensively well made and the explanations clear, though I should say, the POP access feature is not working for me.... I cannot download my emails to my Outlook Express (latest version); the error message "cannot connect to the server" always appear whenever I click the send/receive button...

Nonetheless, I think Google is really, really making the other email competitors a run for their money.

This gmail thing is really a spark of genius...! congratulations to Google!

Welcome Me!

Hello folks! I'm new around here... this is the first time I'm doing this... blogging. I don't even know what a webblog is, hehehe.... just experimenting perhaps. Well, what's the difference between a webblog and a forum or discussion board? Everyone can see what's posted. In a discussion board, you can even use avatars. I've seen one where users can even load a streaming video as an avatar. Of course, it will probably take a little more time to refresh the page and could annoy the other viewers of the same page I guess.... Anyway, welcome me to the blogworld... enjoy yourself and have fun...