May 2006 skumora tblog blog posts
Non-profit foundations in bed with drug comapnies 05.29.06 (10:38 am) [edit] Thomas Ginsberg of the Philadelphia Inquirer has done an analysis and has found some very disturbing information. When we look at non-profit organizations that supposedly fight for consumers, we simply do not bother with finding out more about them. It seems that many of these organizations are simply fronts for drug companies . Ginsberg has found that donations from Merck and Pfizer to the Arthritis Foundations more than doubled when the two companies were outdoing each other in marketing painkillers like Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra , but when the drugs were recalled and they were slammed with lawsuits , they stopped donating.
So next time be careful when you write a check to a non-profit foundation. And I wonder if the families of 60,000 Americans who are dead after taking Vioxx should also sue the Arthritis Foundation for being an accomplice in the crimes committed by Merck. 1 Comments Vacation report 05.22.06 (10:24 am) [edit
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I had a hell of a time in Utila and San Pedro Sula. On the way to Utila, we actually stopped at another beach called Tela. The Utila Bay island is really tiny - we rented a golf cart to get around - and the beaches are pristine with so few people that you literally own the beach. In fact we also took a boat to visit a unihabited island and spent the morning there - for a few hours we were the only one on the beach. What can be better than that?
I am not sure I liked the food - it was unhealthy American/Italian food so I stuck to fresh fruits like papaya, mangoes, and watermelons. Beer is as cheap as water but I still drank mostly freshly squeezed fruit juices.
Back in San Pedro Sula, I indulged myself with a facial, manicure pedicure, and hair color at a day spa - all for less than $50.
Overall, it was a great trip. Next time I plan to explore another small island Roatan.
And when I returned I found that the Google dance is over - nothing has changed for our portfolio of websites but it was still annoying to see all that flux in search results. Maybe we lowered the ranking for dieta south beach.
0 Comments On vacation now 05.09.06 (11:45 am) [edit] I will be taking a trip to Utila and will be back on May 17th - will come back and even post a few pictures. See you then.
0 Comments Download free music 05.07.06 (3:02 pm) [edit] 
I am an old fan of Miki Ariyama and I heard from her that one of her singles has been included on a compilation CD . You can also download the whole album for free. Pretty cool music.
0 Comments Google update or dance in progress 05.07.06 (11:13 am) [edit]
I thought Google stopped dancing but if you follow multiple threads in forums for webmasters, everyone is bitching about Google SERPS. A dozen or so high-quality websites that I manage are seeing massive flux in traffic. In other words, for those of us who have been around to remember the Google dances, I see all the attributes of a Google Dance - results varying from one moment (data center) to another, massive traffic fluctuations, and sometimes results that simply make no sense. I remember that something similar happened during Jagger update too.
With the massive changes in search results, it appears that there is general agreement that this is indeed an update (or dance or “glitch” or whatever name you fancy) - to me it seems that there is a minor algo tweak with more importance to page title rather than anchor text.
But my research shows that as of now we are nowhere close to being done. The results are still all over the place, some blogs/websites cannot be found, and traffic is up/down for almost everybody.
Anyone who is seeing any turbulence in their traffic and rankings, please just stay tight. This is the worst time to make any changes. Google has done this before many times. Once it is all over, yeah, you might see some (or even none) changes, but if you were ranking well before and there has not been a major change in what your competitors are doing, you will come out to be OK. Even an algorithm tweak (there is no such thing as algorithm change) does not affect good websites in any way. I have one website that has been going up since last 7 years consistenly and we do not optimization at all - just put good content and link to related articles. In fact my colleague who runs it almost independently is one of the most non-technical person in the office. And since ain’t broken, webmasters like me have chosen to stay away from tinkering with it.
1 Comments Tips to find the right woman who will make you happy 05.02.06 (7:49 pm) [edit] So first it was said that if you lost weight you could have better sex. Now there is more research that says that women who have cosmetic surgery enjoy having more and exciting sex. So I must find women who have lost weight and had plastic surgery. Anyone available? 3 Comments