Disastrous Sinkholes From Around the World

In the last few years, news of unexpected sinkholes swallowing cars, houses and people have made headlines with disturbingly high frequency. These reports are mainly coming from Florida, the U.S., where almost the entire state is karst terrain (made of limestone), which means it has the potential for sinkholes. Mexico, Belize and parts of Italy and China are also karst area, but the phenomenon of sinkholes suddenly appearing in apparently stable grounds is mostly American. Experts estimate thousands of sinkholes form every year in Florida alone.

Sinkholes form when water flowing underground has dissolved rock, mostly limestone and sometimes clay, below the surface, leading to the formation of underground voids.When the surface layer can no longer take the weight of whatever that’s above, it collapses into the void forming sinkholes. These sinkholes can be dramatic, because the surface land usually stays intact until there is not enough support. Then, a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur.

Here are some incredible sinkholes that made news over the years.



A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City on May 31, 2010. More than 94,000 people were evacuated as the storm buried homes under mud, swept away a highway bridge near Guatemala City and opened up sinkholes in the capital. (Casa Presidencial / Handout / Reuters)



An aerial view of the damaged Gran Marical de Ayacucho highway in the state of Miranda outside Caracas December 1, 2010. Thousands of Venezuelans fled their homes after landslides and swollen rivers killed at least 21 people and threatened to cause more damage. (Photo by Miranda Government/Reuters)



People look at a tanker after it fell into a caved-in area on a road in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, July 27, 2013. No casualty was reported in the accident, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)



A construction vehicle lies where it was swallowed by a sinkhole on Saint-Catherine Street in downtown Montreal, August 5, 2013. (Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters)



Pamela Knox waits for rescue after a massive sinkhole opened up underneath her car in Toledo, Ohio in this July 3, 2013 handout photo provided by Toledo Fire and Rescue. Toledo firefighters later rescued Knox without major injuries. Fire officials told a local TV station that a water main break caused the large hole. Picture taken July 3, 2013. (Photo by Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld/Toledo Fire and Rescue/Handout via Reuters)



A rescue team works under a caved-in area on a road in Loudi, Hunan province, June 18, 2013. The road surface sank after a truck drove past. A motorcyclist riding behind the truck was injured, according to local reports. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



A stranded car is hoisted from a collapsed road surface in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, September 7, 2008. The road collapsed on Sunday afternoon and trapped the car in a hole, which measured 5 meters (16.4 feet) in depth and 15 meters (49.2 feet) in diameter, local media reported. Further investigation is underway. Picture taken September 7, 2008. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



Policemen check a collapsed section of a crossroad in Hefei, Anhui province August 8, 2009. A taxi and a few motorbikes fell into the hole, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



Workers repair a cave-in area on a road in Xi'an, Shaanxi province May 27, 2012. The cause of the cave-in, measuring about 6 meters (20 ft.) in depth, 15 meters (49 ft.) in length and 10 meters (33 ft.) in width, is still under investigation. No casualty has been reported, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



Indian local villagers walk on a bridge damaged by tsunami hit in Nagapattinam town, 350 km (219 miles) south of the southern Indian city of Madras, December 27, 2004. The death toll in a tidal wave triggered by an earthquake that slammed into coasts from India to Indonesia topped 22,000 on Monday as rescuers scoured the sea for missing tourists and soldiers raced to recover bodies amid growing fears of disease. (Photo by Punit Paranjpe/Reuters)



A sinkhole which damaged an on-ramp to Interstate 15 in San Diego on February 24 continues to grow February 25, 1998. The hole was caused by a drainage pipe which burst due to heavy rains attributed to El Nino weather patterns and is approximately eight hundred feet long, forty feet wide, and seventy feet deep. (Photo by Reuters)



An aerial view shows the debris of a residential building and a destroyed road in the village of Nachterstedt, July 18, 2009. Three residents were missing in the eastern German village of Nachterstedt after their lakeside home and another building suddenly collapsed early Saturday into the water. A 350-metre stretch of shoreline gave way next to an old open-cast coalmine converted to a lake, about 170 kilometres south-west of Berlin. (Photo by Reuters/Gemeindeverwaltung Nachterstedt)



People stand by a recent caved-in area on a paddy field in Fukou county, Hunan province, January 12, 2013. More than 20 pits formed from the sunken ground surface in Fukou county during the past four months. According to the local media, the government's initial investigation showed years of mining destroyed the local underground water systems and led to the numerous cave-ins. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



A home sits near a sinkhole, about 100-feet wide and 50-feet deep, Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Windermere, Fla. The family was forced to evacuate the home. (AP Photo/John Raoux)



A firefighter stands next to a cave-in at a crossroad in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, December 26, 2012. The cause of the cave-in, measuring about 6 meters (20 ft.) in depth, 10 meters (32.8 ft.) in diameter, is still under investigation. Three coal gas tubes and one water tube were broken during the collapse and firefighters are trying to dilute the coal gas at the site, reported local media. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)



Rescue workers remove a bus with a crane from a Lisbon street hole November 25, 2003. The bus was parked on a Lisbon street when the ground began to open up and gobble it. No casualties were registed. (Photo by Jose Manuel/Reuters)



Onlookers examine the damage after a section of a road collapsed in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, southern Poland December 19, 2012. A hole, measuring 10 metres (33 ft) deep and at least 50 metres (164 ft) wide, appeared on a road in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski over Tuesday night, reported by local media. (Photo by Pawel Malecki/Reuters/Agencja Gazeta)



A truck is seen in a hole after part of the structure of a bridge collapsed into a river in Changchun, Jilin province May 29, 2011. Two truck passengers were injured, while the cause of the accident is still under investigation, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



A crater, which the Libyan government said was caused by coalition air strikes, is seen at an area in Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli May 12, 2011. Libyan officials, who showed reporters around the scene of the air strike, at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound, said three people were killed and 25 wounded. (Photo by Louafi Larbi/Reuters)



Local residents look at a sinkhole near Qingquan primary school in Dachegnqiao town of Ningxiang, Hunan province June 15, 2010. The hole, 150 meters (492 feet) wide and 50 meters (164 feet) deep, has been growing since it first appeared in January and has destroyed 20 houses so far. No causalities has been reported and the reason for the appearance of the hole remains unclear, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)



People look at a collapsed section of Shunwai Road in Nanchang, China's Jiangxi province, April 25, 2007. No one was injured in the accident and further investigations are underway, according to local media. Picture taken April 25, 2007. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



Members of a television crew stand near a hole in the Paseo Nuevo in San Sebastian March 12, 2008. The hole was caused by a storm on Thursday that sunk numerous boats and caused extensive damage in the Biscay area. (Photo by Vincent West/Reuters)



Cars lie in a sinkhole, caused when a road collapsed into an underground cave system, in the southern Italian town of Gallipoli March 30, 2007. There were no injuries in the overnight incident, according to local police. (Photo by Fabio Serino/Reuters)



A giant sinkhole that swallowed several homes is seen in Guatemala City February 23, 2007. At least three people have been confirmed missing, officials said. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)



A helicopter hovers over a sinkhole that’s 120-feet wide and 180-feet deep in a gypsum stack at IMC-Agrico’s New Wales plant, southwest of Mulberry, Fla., on June 29, 1994. (Scott Wheeler/Reuters)



A car sits in a giant sinkhole in Duluth, Minn. Wednesday, June 20, 2011. Residents evacuated their homes and animals escaped from pens at a zoo as floods fed by a steady torrential downpour struck northeastern Minnesota, inundating the city of Duluth, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Brian Peterson)



A Lochearn woman peers into an approximately 10 foot by 10 foot sinkhole that appeared in her driveway in March 2003. In the photo, a pump is removing water from the hole. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun Photo)



A car with two passengers fell into a sinkhole at Owings Mills mall on April 28, 2004. The two victims were flown to Shock Trauma. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun Photo)



Buildings collapse into a sinkhole at the Summer Bay Resort on U.S. Highway 192 in Clermont, Florida, Monday, August 12, 2013. Guests had only 10 to 15 minutes to escape the collapsing buildings at the Summer Bay Resort on U.S. Highway 192 in the Four Corners area, located about 7 miles east of Walt Disney World resort, where a large sinkhole- about 60 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep- opened in the earth late Sunday. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/MCT)



A large sinkhole opened on East Monument Street in Baltimore in summer 2012. The sinkhole appeared above a 120-year-old drainage culvert after heavy rains, causing evacuations and closing the road. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun Photo)



Workers block off the site of a huge sinkhole which occurred overnight in Shiliuzhuang road, in Beijing on April 26, 2011. A section of the road collapsed beneath a truck, slightly injuring the driver and a passenger, who both jumped out the vehicle before it sank into the hole. (STR/AFP)



Workers use machinery to fill in a sinkhole that buildings collapsed into near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province on January 28, 2013. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and was around 30 feet deep, but no one was killed, according to a state media report. (STR/AFP)



Rescue workers carry out the body of a victim in a road cave-in accident in this picture taken through a security window in Shenzhen, Guangdong province May 21, 2013. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)



Workers look into a sinkhole caused by a broken water main in Chicago, Illinois, April 18, 2013. Heavy rains and flooding brought havoc to the Chicago area on Thursday, shutting major expressways, delaying commuter trains for hours, cancelling flights, flooding basements and closing dozens of suburban schools. On the city's South Side, a sinkhole opened up on a residential street, swallowing three cars, according to Officer Mike Sullivan of the Chicago Police Department. One person was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. (Photo by Jim Young/Reuters)



Local residents inspect a road that collapsed when a flash flood swept through Toowoomba, 105km (65 miles) west of Brisbane January 10, 2011. Residents of low-lying parts of Australia's third largest city, Brisbane, sandbagged their homes against rising waters on Monday as torrential rain exacerbated record floods that have paralysed the coal industry in the northeast and now threaten tourism. (Photo by Alicia Morrison/Reuters)





A woman walks on the damaged TF326 road after a portion of it collapsed after storms, near the Palo Blanco village on Spain's Canary island of Tenerife November 23, 2009. Torrential rain hit several villages on November 16 in the north of Tenerife island, blocking some of the roads, damaging others as well as flooding homes and businesses. (Photo by Santiago Ferrero/Reuters)

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Sony Xperia Z1 Review

Introduction
Sony introduced its Xperia Z flagship in the beginning of the year, and while the smartphone had a lot going for it, it was still somewhat rough around the edges. It had fancy front and back panels made of glass, but boring, rubbery sides; the screen was large and had a high resolution, but its gamma and viewing angles were lacking; the camera was 13 MP and featured the promising Exmor RS sensor, but the quality of the pictures was so-so.


With so much to fix, Sony hasn't even waited until next year to introduce its new top model. Instead, the company is already gearing up to release its new flagship – the Xperia Z1. As we can all see right away, the Xperia Z1 is like a heavily upgraded version of its predecessor. It feels quite familiar, yet substantially improved in pretty much every area. By the looks of it, Sony has done more than enough in order to bring those elements where the Z was lacking to the necessary premium level. However, whether this has been enough to actually leapfrog the competition is what we'll seek to answer right here and now!





In the box:

USB cable
Wall-charger
Earphones with handsfree and a clip
Cleaning cloth
Screen protector


Design










The Sony Xperia Z1 has almost the same external design as its predecessor, except... it now features a nice metal frame around the sides, replacing the bland rubber material used by the Z. The phone's design looks much more complete now, and the feeling you get when you have the Xperia Z1 in your hands is that of working with a very high-quality piece of machinery. The front and rear panels are still made of flat, tempered glass, reminiscent of the iPhone 4/4s design language.

The Xperia Z1 is a beautiful phone and we commend Sony for coming up with this design. It beats Samsung's offerings (in the design department) and can go toe to toe with almost any other high-end smartphone in the industry.

As we said, in-hand feel is just the way it should be – awesome, but we do have a relatively big issue in this regard and it has to do with the size of the Z1. With substantial bezels around the display, the Xperia Z1 takes quite a bit of room (5.69 x 2.91 x 0.33 inches) in your palm. It's definitely bulkier than Samsung's Galaxy S4 (which measures 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches), or HTC's One (5.41 x 2.69 x 0.37 inches), or even LG's G2 (5.45 x 2.79 x 0.35 inches), which packs a bigger, 5.2” display in its smaller body. Still, we do like the classy, rectangular shape of the Z1.

Sony's new device is also heavier than most other competitors. It weighs 6.00 oz (170 g), compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4's 4.59 oz (130 g), as well as the HTC One's and LG G2's 5.04 oz (143 g). Wow, the Xperia Z1 is truly one weighty smartphone, but it's OK with us.

You can find a bunch of things around the sides of the Xperia Z1. Of course, we get the new circular power button on the right hand side, which doesn't feel particularly bad, but isn't great either. The volume rocker that's positioned slightly below is a similar affair, as it works fine, but is kind of small to be considered really comfortable to use. Finally, we get the tiny camera shutter key near the lower end of the right hand side, and almost surprisingly, this one is actually great. The button is very easy to press, and its two steps (for autofocus and actual picture taking) are very well defined.

The Micro SIM card slot and microSD card slot, as well as the microUSB port are all hidden under protective flaps, which don't cause any trouble. What's more, they are designed in such a way so as to kind of blend in with the rest of the surface of the sides.

You'll also be delighted to know that the Sony Xperia Z1's glass and metal shell is IP 58-certified, meaning that it's water- and dust-resistant. Something that no other Android flagship can offer at the moment.

official source 

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Apple iPhone 5s Review

Introduction
Apple’s lion share in the smartphone space has been slowly receding in the last couple of years, as competition from Android smartphones has been whittling away at the iPhone – to the point of not only matching its level of prestige and superiority, but even surpassing it. Frankly, the iPhone 4 was arguably the last smartphone in the company’s storied history to prove itself as a specs beast, seeing that the Retina display’s resolution was something that was thought of as being so ahead of its time. Despite the lessening gap between it and the rest of the competition in the field, its most recent flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5, has been able to retain its position in the industry as the most popular smartphone in the last year.





As history has shown us, we’re in one of those years where Apple decides to retain the styling and design of its previous iPhone, and simply spices things up in the specs department, as well as throwing in some other new goodies into the mix. In this particular case, the iPhone 5s brings forth a fancy schmancy new fingerprint scanner called Touch ID, a first of a kind 64-bit based Apple A7 mobile processor, and an updated iSight camera with larger sized pixels. Beyond the hardware goodness in tow with the iPhone 5s, it’s also sporting Apple’s biggest undertaking yet, iOS 7, which has been a long time coming.

With so much on the line, it’s still amazing to know that the iPhone 5s is going to be Apple’s flagship smartphone for the next one year. Knowing that, we bet you’re all curious to know how this latest endeavor will pan out – even more when there are a host of Android smartphones that push the boundary in the specs department. Is this going to be able to fend off the competition for the next year? Will it continue to stay at the head of the class? Does it even have the staying power anymore? Prepare yourself ladies and gentlemen! Let’s all find out, shall we?





The package contains:


Lightning cable
Wall charger
Apple sticker decals
SIM Removal Tool
Get Started Guide

Design
















No surprises here whatsoever, even more knowing that there’s that “s” letter attached to its name. Much like the other “s” attached iPhones, namely the 3GS and 4S, the iPhone 5s maintains its predecessor’s design to the teeth – with no noticeable nuances between the two. From its size, overall dimensions (4.87 x 2.31 x 0.30 inches), profile thickness (0.3”), and weight (112 gr), it’s identical to the iPhone 5 before it. Whereas big phones seem to be the trend in the smartphone space, the iPhone 5s remains to be quaint in size when it’s compared to some of the other big named Android smartphones. Obviously, some will appreciate the more compact in-the-hand feel of the iPhone 5s.

Heck, even the overall styling and design hasn’t changed too, which can be seen as both a good or bad thing, depending on who you talk to of course. Employing the same iconic design as before, everything that made the previous handset is here again – like its chamfered beveled edges, uniform flat front & rear surfaces, button placements, and premium brushed aluminum rear casing. There's a slight change in the color scheme, as the black version now has “Space Gray” metal body, which is slightly lighter than the dark gray on the iPhone 5. And now, a new, third color is added – Gold.

No doubt, there’s still that premium attachment with the phone, which few smartphones in the space can match. Needless to say, the iPhone 5s’ construction is expectedly solid, with no creaks or hollowness found with its build quality. It’s able to withstand the usual wear and tear that smartphones are accustomed to experiencing, however, we find it unlikely to endure something more serious – such as lengthy drops.

Visually speaking, we’re not enamored by the iPhone 5s, rightfully so, seeing that it’s a recycled design. Despite that, though, it remains to be one of the more premium looking and feeling smartphones on the market.

Checking out the same metal banding that's hugging the iPhone 5s, all the same ports and buttons from before are once again here. On the left side, we have the silent switch and separated volume controls, while on the right, the slot for the handset's nanoSIM slot. Up top, the same power button sticks out ever so much from the surrounding area, and right on cue, it’s springy as we've come to expect. And lastly, the iPhone 5s' proprietary Lightning docking port, microphone, and internal speaker are lined in unison on the bottom edge.

In a landscape dominated by behemoth sized cameras, like the 41-megaixel beast in the Nokia Lumia 1020, the iPhone 5s is still packing the same 8-megapixel snapper from before, but it’s simply stuffed with even juicier internals. Everyone seems to think they have the correct recipe with their respective fancy termed camera technology, like HTC’s “Ultrapixel” or Motorola’s “Clear Pixel” cameras, but who says that Apple has is correct with the iPhone 5s? Right? Maybe they do, but one thing’s certain – the 8-megapixel iSight camera here benefits from a larger pixel size and aperture.

Specifically, pixel size this time around jumps up to 1.5µm, up from the iPhone 5’s previous 1.4µm size, which is supposed to improve with low lighting situations. Combined with an f2.2 aperture lens, it is said to see an increase of 33% with light sensitivity. Other neat features include a backside illuminated sensor, digital image stabilization, dual-LED flash (white & amber colors), HDR, panoramic, 1080p video recording, and slow-motion recording. Oh yeah, there’s also a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, which also employs a backside illuminated sensor, larger 1.9µm pixels, and 720p video recording. We’ll talk more about quality a bit later, seeing all of this mumbo-jumbo won’t matter if it can’t snap GOOD looking photos.
official source

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