A new study from Columbia University's Earth Institute says there is a "substantially greater" risk for an earthquake in the NYC area than previously thought. Per LiveScience, "A pattern of subtle but active faults is known to exist in the region, and now new faults have been found. The scientists say that among other things, the Indian Point nuclear power plants, 24 miles north of the city, sit astride the previously unidentified intersection of two......

At 11:42 a.m. PST, a "moderate" earthquake, measuring 5.4, struck Southern California in the Chino Hills area. Chino Hills is 29 miles southeast of downtown LA. There have been a number of aftershocks, and so far, some damage to homes near the epicenter, but no immediate damage within LA. The NYC Office of Emergency Management says earthquakes are "uncommon in NYC, [but] tremors occasionally occur." Here's a list of the biggest earthquakes in the NYC......

Some cute news: A panda who survived the May earthquake in Sichuan has now given birth to twins. Panda Guo Guo was relocated from the Wolong panda research center to another nearby city and was the first panda to give birth this year. While staffers could weigh the elder of the twins (6 ounces), the other was left unweighed because Guo Guo was cuddling it--aww!......

Photograph of a Chinese couple and child in a stadium-turned-shelter after the earthquake by Andy Wong/AP With the death toll over 13,000 and still tens of thousands missing or buried under debris, plus aftershocks near the epicenter today, the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Sichuan province of China has prompted New York City's Chinese community to react. Many groups have received donations and City Councilman John Liu said:"As always in the past, anytime......

Brooklyn Bridge and cloud, by The life of Boyne at flickr At 125 years old, it's time for the Brooklyn Bridge to undergo a little fix-up work. The Dept. of Transportation is about to begin a multi-year series of projects to shore up Roebling's bridge structurally, as well as give it a cosmetic touch-up. Popular Mechanics recently named the Brooklyn Bridge one of the top ten pieces of national infrastructure most in need of......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Desperate Housewives (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WABC 7) A homosexual male couple moves into Wisteria Lane and wackiness ensues. Masterpiece Theatre: The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) In this 6 part series, Jane Horrocks plays a British supermarket manager who is dissatisfied with the political hacks who are gunning to be Prime Minister and decides to mount her own campaign. BBC 1 aired it......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person under a train at Prospect Park and Windsor Pl. in Brooklyn, an attempted bank robbery on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, and a successful bank robbery on East 23rd St. in Manhattan. The Fire Dept. is responding to a scaffolding fire that broke out at the Deutsche Bank building, which is being deconstructed on Liberty St. downtown. One firefighter has already been evacuated from the building and......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Category 7 for ABC 7’s Bill Evans WABC’s Bill Evans is the latest local news talent to author a disaster novel about the city with his book “Category 7”, which he co-authored with Marianna Jameson. The book is the story about a man made hurricane heading towards New York. The book shouldn’t be confused with the 2005 made for TV movie Category 7: The End of the World, which was also about a deadly storm.......

February 25: Oscar Night at Bottlerocket Since the real nominees are unavailable, Bottlerocket has chosen wines to represent the actors in their absence. A sampling of stand-ins: - Peter O'Toole - Bordeaux - Tour Simard 1999 - A classic Claret with a little bit of bottle age. But holding up very well thank you very much. - Forest Whitaker - Earthquake Petite Sirah - An actor so powerful, so compelling, so strong. Oh yeah. You......

Even though it came out in 1984, Ghostbusters remains one of those movies that people revisit again and again, especially New Yorkers. From The NY Times: Q. I’m a huge “Ghostbusters” fan, and I know that a lot of scenes were shot on location, like the Ladder No. 8 firehouse in TriBeCa and 55 Central Park West, which stood in as the Art Deco monster headquarters. But every time I watch, there’s one scene......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

-- Oy. A 6.3 earthquake hit Hawaii this morning. -- The lower roadway and north walkway of the Manhattan bridge are shutting down today for the next year. -- The Times explores how detectives have unraveled the tragic story of Michael Sandy's death. -- Two neighbors of Dr. Boom-Boom Bartha are suing his estate for property damages. -- 11 Spring Street. Graf mecca, explored. -- A stray bullet hit a dancer at the Roxy......

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest Bathroom Videos" and PBS trains cams on cows at, uhg, Mootube. Also,......

Happy Seward's Day! According to Gothamist's Alaska weather calendar the purchase of Alaska in 1867 by Secretary of State William H. Seward is celebrated on the last day of March. Coincidentally, today is also the anniversary of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful modern North American earthquake. The earthquake and resulting tsunami destroyed much of Seward, Alaska and many other coastal Alaskan towns. What's that got to do with New York? Seward was......

With Thanksgiving just moments away, literary events in New York have gone into standby mode. Nonetheless, there are few things happening this week and a few things to keep your eyes on for next week. And, as a little gift to you from the city, it's all free! Happy Thanksgiving. Over Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday, if shopping isn't exactly your thing, tune into KCRW online to hear "Mean Streets USA: A Collection of Short......

New York magazine has the best alarmist scenarios with the best alarmist scenario illustrations in journalism with its When Bad Things Happen (in New York City) to accompany a NYC's disaster plan feature. Smallpox? Check ("Worst-case scenario: Health workers flee—a recent study suggested that half would stay away during an outbreak"). Chlorine realease? Check ("What you can do: Get inside as fast as possible, close windows, turn off ventilation systems, and seal windows and doors......

Before looking to the weather ahead Gothamist would like to take a quick look back. Most immediately, the Earth reached perihelion yesterday. From then until early July we'll be moving further away from the Sun in our orbit. The seasons are due to the Earth's tilt with respect to the Sun, not our distance from it. It has been estimated that the Indonesian earthquake shifted the Earth's axis by about an inch. Did anybody else......

As the recovery efforts in Asia continue in the wake of Sunday's earthquake and tsunami, the death toll has climbed above 40,000, a number that is sure to rise as the rescue workers continue their work, more bodies are found, and government officials increase the death toll. The situation could get worse as millions of people are displaced, access to food and water is limited, and the spread of disease is immanent. The New York......

On Saturday, the biggest earthquake in 40 years hit southeast Asia, which then led to huge tsunamis all over the region, causing over thousands of deaths and displacing millions more. The earthquake measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and was centered on the Indonesian island of Sumatra; the tsunamis measuring over 40 feet then hit and flooded parts of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Right now, the death toll is over 24,000, but......

Okay, where were we? First off Brenda goes with Nate to Idaho to visit with Lisa's family. She's hidden away at the hotel, but after a run-in at the local diner with Lisa's sister Barb and her husband Hoyt...we get the feeling something not so good is going to happen. Flash forward to this weeks episode...Barb and Hoyt show up at Nate's where he admits to having buried Lisa in the desert and giving the......

Sure we don't get them very much in our fair city, but if anyone else has seen the TLC's disastrous earthquake forecast, we could be screwed. Those nice quaint townhouses on your block ain't gonna shimmy with the quake and will likely just crumble away. But let's not be too alarmist here. The last quake we had in the city was on January 17, 2001 when a 2.5 "rocked" the city. The quake's epicenter......

Another pretty freakin' nice day. Mostly sunny, high of 80, with 49% "maximum" humidity. Ah. So the NYTimes says the U.N. now wants to focus on helping developing countries improve their weather forecasting technology in order to prevent future disasters--Typhoon Winnie in China in 1997, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1998, the 1999 Venezuelan mudslides. Sounds good, right? They've even established a relatively unknown department called the World Meteorological Association to head up this charge.......