The Guatemala Sinkhole: It's not a Sinkhole according to experts

Don't call the Guatemala sinkhole a sinkhole because it's not! It's a "piping feature," said by geologist, Sam Bonis.

The the 100-foot deep, 66-foot wide circular chasm that happened in Guatemala was formed after the country was hit by the Tropical storm Agatha. Also, the city's bad drainage has contributed to its formation.

According to Bonis, “Our recommendation was that this could happen again. When you have water flowing from storm water runoff, a sewage pipe, or any kind of strong flow, it eats away at the loose material. We don’t know how long it has to go on before it collapses. But once it starts collapsing, God help us.”

According to Wikipedia:

A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by karst processes - the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks. Sinkholes may vary in size from less than 1 to 300 meters (3.3 to 980 ft) both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. They may be formed gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. These terms are often used interchangeably though many will distinguish between those features into which a surface stream flows and those which have no such input. Only the former would be described as sinks, swallow holes or swallets. A sinkhole on a glacier is termed a moulin or glacier mill.

As you can see in the video, the hole was larger than a street intersection, and as the reports say, the whole swallowed a three-story building and a house.

Back in 2007, a similar hole had opened in Guatemala, a 330-foot-deep sinkhole that had swallowed a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. Sam Bonis was part of a team of geologists who studied it.

What's worse?

This could happen again! "There is an excellent potential for this to happen again. It could happen almost anywhere in the city," added Bonis.

10 Things I Really Hate About You

Boy, as much as I miss to see the smile on your face, I miss mine even more . . .

1. You made me cry

2. You broke my heart

3. You intentionally hurt me

4. You suck up to my parents

5. You lied to me

6. You made me wait for nothing

7. You destroyed my dreams

8. You took everything you can from me

9. You intentionally made my life more difficult

10. You disrespected me

Ranting about how I hate you...

i hate you like a pimple on my nose,

i hate you like my eye bags...

i hate you like the ugly scar on my leg,

i hate you like the ugly curls on my hair...

i hate you like the stupid bubble gum that sticks on my gums,

i hate you like the sun ray that stings my eyes in the morning,

i hate you like the smell of lazy people who hadn't bathe in days...

i hate you,

for meeting you,

for crossing my path...

i wish i hadn't entertained you,

i wish i hadn't loved you,

i wish i hadn't even met you...

my life would have been easier to manage then, if hadn't been for you...

Movie Trailer: Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D)

Can't wait to watch this movie! Alice (Milla Jovovich) looks meaner and feisty in Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D), I hope this movie is as good as the previous ones.

So, on September 10 this year, be ready to watch Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D)!

Check out some of the cast:

Milla Jovovich

as

"Alice"

Ali Larter

as

"Claire Redfieled"

Wentworth Miller

as

"Chris Redfield"

Spencer Locke

as

"K-Mart"

Kacey Barnfield

as

"Crystal"

Shawn Roberts

as

"Albert Wesker"

Kim Coates

as

"Bennett"

Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D) is a must-see movie in September 2010!

Is Manila Ready for an Earthquake? -- from CNN

A big NO would be my answer. I did not need to be an architect, a scientist, or a politician to answer that question. I may not have scientific calculations and reports as proof, but I am definitely sure Manila is not yet prepared for an earthquake like what happened to Haiti (7.0), Chile (8.8) and China (6.9).

Earthquakes hit without warnings, they damage and kill without exceptions, so why isn't Philippines getting ready for it when we've already seen the destruction it brought to Haiti, Chile and China recently? I sure would love to be a part of that preparation.

According to CNN, after what happened to Haiti, Chile and China, Philippines could be next. The Marikina fault is more or less ready to give in, it goes straight into the heart of Manila where 11 million people reside.

According to Mahar Lagmay, a geologist, a magnitude 7 earthquake is like detonating a thousand Nagasaki atom bombs, underneath the earth's surface along the trace of the Marikina Valley fault.

Let's face it, it's not only the Marikina Valley fault that's in danger of giving in when an earthquake hit the Philippines. There are hundreds or even thousands of houses that has cracks on its walls and floors, not to mention, the poor housing standards our country has.

Felino Palafox, one of our country's top architects, has submitted recommendations to the government on what has to be done to make Manila safer, but got no response... Now that the election draws nearer, could it really be that politics is more important than the safety of the lives of many Filipinos?

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake could probably wipe out Manila, but what if a much bigger earthquake hits us instead? What would be left of Manila then?

Watch the video below to know more!

Though what the Philippine's defense chief Norberto Gonzales said is true, "there's no 100 percent preparation for a major earthquake... despite all the preparations, there will be casualties", a preparation is all that we can do to minimize damages and casualties that a major earthquake can do.

Source: CNN

Life of a Search Engine Optimizer

As what most people would expect, we, search engine optimizers or SEO specialists live the same life on the net. You see us searching through the web for hours reading articles, joining all sorts of forums, interacting with other SEOs and even spot us on some social networking sites, but what you don’t see is that these things are a part of our job. It‘s not even half of what we do inside the office!

We may seem so similar with each other, but what really makes a search engine optimizer different from another is through the methods and strategies we use, our years of experience, and our aggressiveness when it comes to pushing our limits. Some find it easy to learn and understand what Search Engine Optimization is, everyone can be a SEO, but not everyone can be a good SEO.

Personally, I learned SEO by force and in a hard way. It was year 2007, I was a fresh grad looking for a job as a programmer. Due to many failed 3-hour programming exams (and one failed web design exam) on several companies, I ended up applying for a SEO specialist position in a small company in Pasig, where they offered me training. I was depressed and really frustrated at that time, so I took the job.

My SEO trainer made me do a lot of stuff on the internet that I never knew, like for example, blogging. Yeah I know, creating blogs is very simple; I was a shy introvert who spent most of her time locked up at home watching TV and playing Ragnarok Online, how am I supposed to know?! I was even embarrassed when my trainer instructed me to create a Gmail account and I didn’t even know where to start.

It was a very rocky road for me becoming a SEO specialist, but the moment I came to realize that this field kinda suits me, I held tight on it and instead of remaining a simple backup link builder for the big shots, I worked my way on top and became a real SEO specialist.

Let me give you an idea of what kind of life a search engine optimizer lives:

The Noob

The newbie search engine optimizer always, with a bit of fear, follows search engine guidelines, read lots of articles and join webmaster forums. It is a must for a newbie to always have his beginner’s manual whether it’s a hard or soft copy, and you may sometimes caught a newbie peeking at his fellow noob’s techniques. A newbie never spam, unless told so or forced to, and always mistakenly use his own personal info instead of using a dummy account.

The Experienced SEO Lad

By this time, this search engine optimizer has already realized that it’s much safer for him to use a dummy account. An experienced SEO has his own set of techniques and strategies, still read lots of articles, experiments on his new found skill, and definitely have his own blog. On-page optimization may still be at a learning curve, but improving, or rather, must improve.

The Somewhat Arrogant SEO

Now, this type of search engine optimizer is easy to spot. What matters is that if the arrogant SEO can prove his skills or not. The arrogant yet not so great SEO is more of a chatterbox than showing his skills, mostly caught by unprofessional writing of proposals and website analysis; or worse, can’t even write a decent proposal; and often caught by his superiors copy-pasting previous reports. On the other hand, the arrogant but skillful SEO may boast a few times but can actually deliver the goods.

The Half-Empty and Half-Full SEO

By now you are wondering, what I am taking about half-empty and half-full, I’ll explain it to you.

• There are search engine optimizers that do very well in link building, but slowly lacking on-page optimization skills;
• There are some who specializes in gathering fresh info on how to get more links, rather than how to do them;
• There are those who are more technical than others who handles on-page optimization the best, but slow on filling his quota of building links;
• and don’t forget, there are those that can part great knowledge, give excellent advice, suggest the best ideas or recommend the perfect plan, but still a junior or newbie optimizer working their way on top.

Beyond the learned skills and developed strategies, a search engine optimizer still continues to learn new ways on how to improve a website’s rank. It’s a continues learning process that gets heavy with responsibilities depending on how gradual or drastic are the changes on the web. So don’t be upset when we sometimes can’t make it to your birthday party or wedding, because the continuance of our search for knowledge is already a part of our lives the moment we became real SEOs.

House Staging Sells Faster

Here's another good tip for home sellers out there. Getting your house fixed, repainted and trimmed does help prep up the interior of your house, but house staging makes it sell even faster. House staging is the part where you, as the seller, make your house appeal more to home buyers. You may even call it 'staging an illusion', but it's what sells a house faster!

The house staging process focuses on adding the “welcome” mood inside the house, making potential buyers feel they can live in it for a long haul.

Simple House Staging for Vacant Houses

Vacant homes attracts less visitors, so professional house stagers add in a few furniture to each room just enough to showcase the room's purpose, so that potential buyers can see and feel themselves living in it.

Simple House Staging for Previously Occupied Houses

After clearing the clutter, depersonalizing, and taking care of the curb appeal: Patching up holes on the wall and repainting it isn't enough, you need to get the right color combination for each room to make it look more irresistible. Not to mention, adding flowers, fruits, scented candles, and even a little bit of music. Paying attention to color, patterns, lighting and air gives a room that homey feeling.

Here's a few tips:

• You may fancy dark a colored theme, but a house with bright rooms sell faster! So brighten up those gloomy walls and floors.
• Make things shiny by thorough cleaning! Make the windows clear and shiny, make the bathroom tiles sparkle, dust and vacuum every corner of the house, polish the bricks of your fireplace and add some stone color enhancer to make it more attractive.
• Always use fresh flowers and leave a few windows open to let the air in when a potential buyer visits the house.
• If you want to add a background music, make sure it's soft and the volume is low so it soothes your visitors.
• They say, the kitchen is the heart of the home, so make it look like one by adding a couple of bowls with polished fruits and some colored cookbooks on the shelves.
• For the bathroom, you may add some scented soaps, lotions, moisturizers and towels.
• For the backyard, potted flowers and plants would look lovely. You may also want to set up a picnic table for added attraction.

Professional house stagers uses different methods to get your house sold faster. Hiring one means spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars, depending on your location and size of the house, but with a professional, you can even increase your house's value and sell it quickly.