The 508-metre (1,667-foot) Taipei 101, which dominates the city's skyline and is a major tourist attraction, was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010, a crown currently held by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
#1
The climber in question is Alex Honnold, movie here, who has to be considered one of the world's great athletes. He's 40. Let's hope he makes it to 50.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/25/2026 7:42 Comments ||
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#3
Publicizing these people just inspires copycats. It's why the San Francisco news decided to stop publicizing Golden Gate bridge jumpers. After they did, people stopped jumping off the bridge. Notice how you never hear about that any more?
Used to be a standard story of American journalism, right long with "South American bus full of poor people plunges off a cliff."
[IsraelTimes] A monster winter storm has already cut power to more than 160,000 electricity customers across the US as far west as Texas, and threatens to paralyze the country’s eastern states with heavy snowfall.
The storm has forced thousands of flight cancellations nationwide.
Forecasters say snow, sleet and freezing rain, accompanied by dangerously frigid temperatures, will sweep the eastern two-thirds of the US today and into next week.
Calling the storms “historic,” US President Donald Trump yesterday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.
“We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security says.
“We do have tens of thousands of people in affected states in the South that have lost power. We have utility crews that are working to restore that as quick as possible,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said late yesterday afternoon.
The number of power outages continues to rise. As of 10:17 p.m. EST Saturday (5:17 a.m. Sunday Israel time), more than 160,000 US customers had no electricity, the bulk of them in Louisiana and Texas, according to PowerOutage.com.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/25/2026 10:37 Comments ||
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#5
Power has been and is on here behind the cheddar curtain. A couple of places in the surrounding areas did lose power due to downed tree branches, but were restored relatively quickly.
Up to a balmy 3℉ here today with a -11℉ wind chill.
Friday was -17℉ with a wind chill of -40℉, so much improved.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/25/2026 13:08 Comments ||
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#6
I got my driveway with a snow blower. Headed to do the same for my folks. I will get mine again later. I am south enough to avoid the lake effect.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2026 13:37 Comments ||
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#7
Yes, Friday was a bit unpleasant, but not dangerous for most of us (also behind cheddar curtain). The car started OK.
Better that than freezing rain. I hate freezing rain. Though granted, a bright sunny morning the next day can make the iced trees stunningly beautiful.
Posted by: James ||
01/25/2026 13:58 Comments ||
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#8
Up to +17 here today. With a north wind.
A couple of inches of snow and sleet last night then a brief warm bubble broke through with rain @11pm so there's a nice cap of ice.
Haven't tried the tractor. My truck diesel has a engine block heater that I keep plugged in. I start the truck every 4 hours and let it run for 30 mins between naps.
Water company has been out repairing line leaks since Friday's freeze so it comes and goes.
The Generac has battery and oil warmers. I'm almost disappointed power hasn't dropped.
#9
That’s a lot of service outage but less than expected and mostly within reasonable restoration time frame. Would not want to be a lineman out there in 10 degree weather plus wind…
FWIW, back in July 2012 in India 600+ million were without power
Top USA power outage was in August 2003 with about 40 million (Canada had abot 15 million w/o power in same outage.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/25/2026 15:33 Comments ||
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#12
They measured 9” of snow at Cincinnati International Airport (CVG) — which is in Northern Kentucky. It’s 22*F and we have power. It’s still snowing, so we’ll see if we beat the 24-hour records of 1996 (Jan. 6-7: 12.8”) and 1998 (Feb 4-5: 12.6”). We have about 12” north of the city, but of course that isn’t an official measurement, and anyway we get more on the north side than they do 5 miles south and across the Ohio River at the airport.
Mr. Wife shoveled the driveway twice, but while they salted the roads before the storm, but no plows have come through our little cul-de-sac at the back of the neighbourhood — but we’re always the last, so that’s no surprise. The bar is stocked, Denver is playing New England for the Super Bowl slot, so Mr. Wife is content with life. May all your teams win today!
#13
Maybe 12" on the ground here in CT and supposed to get another 3" by 8pm. There are minimal power outages being reported, although the news says the state has recommended staying off the highways because the plows can't keep up with how fast the snow is falling.
#14
The Big GA. Freeze Panic here, seems to be more Fizzle that drizzle so far.
TONIGHT INTO MONDAY
Ft. Gordon GA.
Rain or freezing rain possible before 9pm, then a chance of rain between 9pm and 3am. Low around 33. Northeast wind 7 to 11 mph becoming south in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 90%. With little or no ice accumulation expected.
Ft. Gillem, GA. / Atlanta
A 20 percent chance of showers before 8pm. Patchy fog before 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 22. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Little or no ice accumulation expected.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] A very large double explosion occurred on the far side of the Sun, and its cause is unknown. This was reported on January 24 by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"A very large double explosion on the far side of the Sun occurred last night. There are still no satellites on the far side, and one can only guess what happened," the scientists clarified in a message on the laboratory's Telegram channel.
The researchers noted that if the hypothetical centers of activity where the emissions occurred persist for about five more days, they will be visible from Earth. This will be possible due to the rotation of the Sun.
Earlier, on January 19, the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences published video footage capturing the first solar flare of the year with a magnitude X. This flare is noted to be the largest since November 14, 2025.
#1
The US is seizing gray fleet tankers with sanctioned oil. Properly flagged vessels traveling from Mexico to Cuba will not be interfered with unless they might be carrying fentanyl. Nobody in Mexico is exporting fentanyl so the concern is just hysteria and posturing.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2026 7:51 Comments ||
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[Just The News] Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the World Economic Forum that "globalization has failed the West."
During a panel discussion at WEF in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Lutnick said, "The Trump Administration and myself, we are here to make a very clear point — globalization has failed the West and the United States of America," the New York Post reported.
"It’s a failed policy. It is what the WEF has stood for, which is export, offshore, far-shore, find the cheapest labor in the world and the world is a better place for it," he added.
"The fact is it has left America behind. It has left the American workers behind. And what we are here to say is ’America First’ is a different model, one that we encourage other countries to consider, which is that our workers come first," Lutnick said.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The largest mobile drilling rig in the United States, the Doyon 26, crashed and caught fire in Alaska. The Alaska Landmine reported this on January 23.
The incident occurred near the Alpine mine, approximately 13 kilometers north of Nuiqsut. The Doyon 26, which weighs 4.5 tons, was being transported along a road on Alaska's North Slope when it fell on its side and broke into pieces.
No one was injured as a result of the drilling rig's fall.
The drilling rig belongs to ConocoPhillips. The company conducts drilling in low-temperature conditions. ConocoPhillips' work was approved by US authorities in 2023. Environmental activists actively protested these developments.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
