Six-story building partially collapses in U.S., for residents a disaster foretold

The sequoia National Park is one of the true treasures of Sierra Nevada, California. However, this corner of paradise is threatened every year by fires, which increasingly ravage huge areas of land. It is estimated that 20 percent of the park has been destroyed in the past three years by fire. U.S. firefighters have therefore initiated an action aimed at decreasing the risk of fire in the area, paradoxically using fire.

Prescribed fire is a technique used since the mid-twentieth century, whereby certain particularly flammable areas, such as dry shrubs for example, are set on fire to prevent any fire from spreading uncontrollably.

This technique is now widely used, but it takes tremendous preparation and experience to safely put it into practice. Impressive photos of the redwood forest, where the grandeur of the trees makes everything very striking and fascinating.

A forlkift driver in China had a day to forget when he accidentally dropped an oven on the bonnet of a parked Ferrari F8 Tributo. 

Pictures and video footage have surfaced on the net, showing a professional oven resting on the bonnet of the Italian supercar. Although the extent of the damage is unknown, the bonnet and front bumper are likely to require extensive repair work. 

It is believed that the accident occurred when the forklift driver was attempting to drive around the front of the parked supercar and its load became unbalanced. Although forklift accidents are not uncommon, this accident is particularly embarrassing given the expensive vehicle involved.

A prestigious American university conducted an in-depth study that showed how New York, and specifically the island of Manhattan, is sinking into the ground at a rate of about 1-2 millimetres every year.

The entire area was completely mapped by comparing satellite data with subsurface geology models. In the long term, this geological trend could increase the risk of flooding caused by rising river levels.

The city's subsoil is in fact mostly made up of sand, silt, clay sediments and rock outcrops, and the enormous weight of the buildings is starting to become a problem.

A literally unbelievable discovery comes from South America, and specifically from the territories that once belonged to the Mayas, one of the three great pre-Columbian civilisations along with the Incas (Peru) and Aztecs (Mexico). In the territory between present-day Guatemala and Mexico, in fact, a huge network of highways has been discovered.

The complex of roads and bridges dates back as far as 3000 years, and the team of scientists who made the discovery compared it in importance to the discovery of the Egyptian pyramids. It is estimated that the 'highway' continues for hundreds of kilometres and intersects some 417 ancient Maya settlements.

For this discovery, a new technology called lidar was used, an advanced type of radar that reveals presences hidden by dense vegetation, resulting in 3D reconstructive images.

Truly incredible are the photos coming straight from Iceland, where the volcano called Litla-Hrú has suddenly started erupting. The huge mountain is located only 50 km from the nation's capital, the city of Reykjavik.

Local authorities reported that the eruption appears to have started around 4.40 p.m. on 10 July, from the north side of a small mountain called Litla Hrú,t and the crack is believed to be about 200 metres long. At the moment, no problems for air traffic have been reported.

Iceland has as many as 100 volcanoes on its territory between active and inactive. The entire island can be regarded as one enormous volcano. The photos coming straight from the spot are truly unbelievable.

Forestry officials in parts of Germany are observing an increase in bark beetle populations due to the recent unusually dry and warm weather in May and June.

Areas in Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg in particular are affected. Bark beetles are beetles that penetrate the bark of trees and block the necessary circulation of water and nutrients, thus devastating the forests.

For experts, this is a real calamity, which is getting worse every year since 2018.

Very ugly event occurred on the morning of July 12 in Naples, Italy. A fire, which broke out in the early hours of dawn, completely incinerated the "Venus of Rags," the work of contemporary art created by Michelangelo Pistoletto.

The work had been unveiled on June 28 and represented "the humanity of today, called to express its best side," to quote the words used by the artist himself.

The burning obviously melted the statue and destroyed the clothes and rags that adorned it. The origin of the fire is not yet known, but arson is speculated.

The rags symbolized waste or refuse, which Venus has the power to regenerate.

Incredible crash for a Ferrari 360 Challenge in Australia. The crash cost the driver behind the wheel of the rare car that was destroyed in Melbourne, where fortunately there were no injuries, but the $600,000 supercar was devastated. 

The crash of this Ferrari 360 Challenge was documented in a video showing the Italian supercar crashing into two cars stopped in the oncoming lane.

The video is making the rounds on the web and shows how the driver lost control of the rare car due to high speed.

A bear entered the backyard and frightened a man, David Oppenheimer, who was relaxing in his lawn chair: It happened in Asheville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina. The man posted the video on his Facebook channel.

The video begins with the man lying in his deckchair, unaware of what is about to happen.

The bear slowly approaches the man, but initially neither of them notices the other's presence. When the bear notices the man's presence it makes a short sound and then runs away, leaving the man with a loud thump in his chest. (Facebook: @David Oppenheimer)

It may have been caused by thawing permafrost that the heavy detachment of material (more than one million cubic metres of rock that created a landslide of 2 kilometres, about 35,000 square metres) that affected Austria's Fluchthorn mountain. half of its peak (3,398 metres above sea level) is now gone.

The event occurred precisely in the municipality of Galtur, which lies between the region of Tyrol and Vorarlberg (Swiss canton of Graubünden) on 11 June. In the first minutes it was feared that some people had been left under the debris deposit, and all the local authorities took part in the search, also coordinated by a dedicated team of geologists.

The damage is also extensive, probably around one million euros. Now the main objective will be to clear the roadway and rebuild the entire structure, securing the mountain.

A crazy accident in Stuttgart on Monday 27 March 2023 saw a Maserati driver crash his luxury MC20 into a pole of the German city's tram line. The supercar was completely destroyed. 

The 62-year-old driver was apparently under the influence of drugs. Despite his injuries, the man attempted to flee on foot before being tracked down by the police. 

Tension in the Schloßstraße: testimonies and details emerge about the mad rush that caused over 100,000 euros of damage.

Europe's average temperature in 2022 was 2.3 degrees higher than in the pre-industrial era (1850-1900). This is what emerges from a study and data collected jointly by the World Meteorological Organisation (Wmo) and the EU Earth observation service, Copernicus.

On the other hand, the average temperature, taking the world as a whole into account, has increased by 1.5° compared to the same pre-industrial period examined. 

According to the Emergency Situation Report (Em-Dat), meteorological, hydrological and climatic hazards in the Old Continent in 2022 directly affected as many as 156,000 people and caused 16,365 deaths, almost exclusively due to heat waves.