A huge sinkhole on a city street nearly swallowed a pickup truck this morning, now what?

Now, the Water Department says that a resident of the 900-block of Randolph Street in Northern Liberties has to pay for the repair of the gaping hole that almost swallowed a gray Dodge pickup.

"$2600," says Larisa Dersko.

It is the last thing the residents of Chongqing would have expected to see.

But the Yangtze river, which runs through the city in south-western China, turned a bright shade of orange-red yesterday.

The waterway where the Yangtze met the Jialin river provided a fascinating contrast as the red started to filter into the other river.

Science journalist Axel Bojanowski of Spiegel comments on winter storm "Xaver" that pounded the north German coast yesterday, and on North Sea storms in general.

So are North Sea storms getting worse? Bojanowski (my emphasis):

Measurements of air pressure and wind since the middle of the 19th century show no increase in storms in the North Sea. The region over the last years has even been low with respect to wind. Although the year-to-year fluctuations are high, a trend in storm frequency is not detectable by scientists."

Arcadia - Oklahoma, that US state where, according to the song, "The wind comes sweeping down the plain," had more to worry about Saturday than breezy weather as it experienced a 4.5 magnitude earthquake.

Early reports of little, if any damage, did not take into account the rattled nerves of locals. Weeks ago it was the two-year anniversary of the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Oklahoma and obviously Saturday's temblor caused some anxiety among local people.

According to CS Monitor though "after the initial surprise, customers at a central Oklahoma restaurant returned their attention to an in-state college football rivalry game." For some the frequency of quakes in the area is leading to complacency. To make matters worse Saturday, for those less blas'e, two further quake's occurred.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the tremor was followed by a "magnitude-2.8 earthquake at 1:26 p.m. about 10 miles northeast of Oklahoma City and a magnitude-3.1 tremor at 5:58 p.m. about 6 miles northeast of the city." The main quake was centered near Arcadia, about 14 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, and was about 5 miles deep.

On Nov. 17, Cash Lambert filled this column with an alarming call to act now on global warming.

But Mr. Lambert fails to make his case. Why? Simply regurgitating "conventional wisdom" just doesn't suffice when that conventional wisdom is just plain wrong.

For example, did you know that ... 1) the earth hasn't warmed for 17 years? 2) the Pacific Ocean is cooling and Antarctic ice is at 30-year highs? 3) there's no conclusive evidence that man-made greenhouse gases cause warming? 4) higher CO2 levels and modest warming would be good for the planet? And 5) sea levels are extremely unlikely to rise materially in the intermediate term, if ever?

Why haven't you likely heard all this before? It's because of the conventional-wisdom sources - a powerfully vocal admixture of several interest groups: research scientists, thousands of whom would lose their livelihood if man-made global warming is invalidated; environmentalists trying to "save the planet"; and the mainstream media, which knows that crises, real or supposed, engage subscribers.

The alarmists' case rests on a three-legged stool: a strong, and accelerating, upward trend in temperatures; a rise in CO2 and other man-made greenhouse gases; and the harmful net effects justifying international policies to limit greenhouse gases.

Clearly, the failure of any leg invalidates proposed action calls.

Turns out, the hard facts - from a bevy of credentialed scientists - undermine all three legs.

Rising-temperature trends have been exaggerated

The earth has not warmed over the past 17 years (period). A prior 20-plus-year warming interval incubated the man-made global warming hysteria. But it was preceded by a 30-year global-cooling period - so substantial that many of the same alarmists (including The New York Times, Time magazine and Science Digest) were calling for global actions to stem the "coming ice age."

Hard data show that any Arctic melting has been dwarfed by the 2013 30-year record-high Antarctic ice cover.

A powerful icy storm system is sweeping across the US, resulting in temperatures dropping to -29C and lower as well as deaths, power cuts and massive travel disruption.

A severe winter storm warning has been issued by the Government's National Weather Service, and forecasters say the storm is heading for Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic next.

Yesterday, the mercury dropped to -29C in Montana and South Dakota during the day, while officials have warned residents in northwest Minnesota to brace for temperatures as low as -45C with the impact of wind chill.

UPDATE: A day after we posted images of fresh summer snow falling across the Australian Alps, we've updated our original story with new images that show the ground getting whiter... and whiter... and whiter.

Thredbo resort in new South Wales is now in the very unusual position of desperately needing its snow to melt. Thredbo has a huge mountain bike event this weekend but the course is currently snow-covered. Hopefully, forecast warmer tempreatures will take care of things.

Meanwhile, here are one or two pics to get you going. And as mentioned, scroll through yesterday's story (below) for another updated image or two.

See link in article title for more.

Storm Xaver has barreled down on northern Germany with high winds and flooding as a result of raised sea levels. The storm had already battered northern Britain killing three people.


Xaver brought a fierce and stormy night to many parts of Germany. The North Sea continued to batter against dikes in the early hours of Friday, with storm winds snapping trees and damaging buildings in the country's north.

In the port city of Hamburg, the flood reached a level of 6.09 meters above sea level by 6:30 a.m., however, despite danger warnings being issued ahead of the surge, the water level has already begun to recede. The storm has caused only a few accidents involving injuries in Germany.

The German transport ministry said until Sunday people should limit travel by road and rail to journeys which are "absolutely necessary" as train services were also restricted.