For those of you that haven't been able to pluck yourself out of that sinking feeling, Xinhua has a scientific explanation for it — our city has been sinking! In fact, geologists say it's sunk 7.5 millimetres this year, with "severe subsidence" of 8.3 millimetres detected in downtown areas. The sinking's been caused by heavy construction as well as water being pumped out of underground aquifers for "industrial and agricutural purposes" which has now been... more ›

This Shanghai resident might be wondering where the winds were this week. Xinhua reports that train services in Xinjiang have been disrupted due to dangerous, hurricane-force winds of up to 170 kilometers per hour. The weather conditions stranded trains and passengers Tuesday and Wednesday this week. more ›

GigShanghai: Falling over, GigLive and noodles more ›

Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing) is keeping things cool this summer, nudity and blood optional. Less cool are the comments in this post about a hipster auctioning off crap so she can buy a house. And no summer would be complete without the twin guilty pleasures of crap dining and crap TV: get them both with Torontoist's interview with "Rockstar: Supernova" star Lucas Rossi and a look at the safety ratings of some of Toronto's favorite greasy spoons. more ›

DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now. more ›

There now seems to be something Beijing has that Shanghai doesn't -- hospital clowns. The clowns work in several hospitals, including the large Women and Children's Hospital, as well as orphanages and schools for the children of migrant workers. Magic Hospital, the Beijing-based charity that organizes this, was the brainchild of German Claudia Vogg. The article notes that the hospital clown is a more familiar figure in the West than in China. Certainly China does not yet have anyone like Shobhana Schwebke (try saying that five times fast!), aka Shobi Dobi the Clown, who publishes the Hospital Clown Newsletter , which is probably one of the most informative sites you can find on anything relating to hospital clowns and the therapeutic effects of clowns and laughter. You can find out where clown conferences and festivals are being held or buy Japanese books on hospital clowns. more ›

• The BBC, long blocked by Chinese web censors, appears to be following in Google's footsteps regarding the internet in China. Shanghaiist finds foreign news organizations self censoring more disturbing than search engines. Who is next?
• Wu Xianghu, the deputy editor of the Taizhou Evening News, "died of liver and kidney failure after he was severely beaten by police enraged by reports in his newspaper about their work." He was 41. ESWN has photos of the attack. Taizhou is in Zhejiang province.
• Another way of looking at coal mine accident stats in China.