Songs from the Little Bird

Monday's earthquake was wimpy, but useful.

An earthquake early warning system being tested in California gave seismologists in Pasadena up to 30 seconds to prepare for Monday morning’s temblor in the desert of Riverside County.
“It was right,” said Kate Hutton, a seismologist with Caltech. “I sat really still to see if I could feel it and it worked.”

-- LA Times

This system can't predict earthquakes, but it can transmit an "Earthquake... incoming!" signal out from the epicenter faster than the ground waves propagate, giving people more than 20 miles away enough seconds to drop and cover, hit the brakes on the train, move away from the window, etc. Japan has had a national system like this for several years, and California is looking into implementing one.

By the way... for those of you who don't live in earthquake country, this is Dr. Kate Hutton:


She is southern California's Earthquakes SpokesExpert. Whenever a quake triggers news coverage, whether it be national TV or a local radio broadcast, chances are we'll hear the reassuring tones of Captain Kate explaining it all to us.

Outside of entertainers, she's probably one of the most visible out lesbians in the world. Unsurprisingly, she is a dyke icon in California.

...just caused the fourth earthquake I've felt this month. (Three of the four were centered in Yorba Linda up the road, where Nixon is buried, so the Twitterverse has decided it's his fault.)

As usual, the moment things stopped shaking, I was searching Twitter for #earthquake to determine magnitude and location. It's the most realtime seismograph available.  

It's weird. I went for years without feeling an earthquake, and there have been four minor shakes this month. I guess I just got lucky, and the epicenter of one is quite near me so I'm feeling all the little stuff instead of just the 5+ stuff. 

ETA: Looking back at my "California" tag, I notice an odd thing: the last time I felt a lot of earthquakes was in '08.

Maybe it really IS Zombie Nixon, and he's commenting on the elections!

w000t! 10-second shake-and-bake. Far enough that the edges were smoothed off of it, but close enough to make the whole house creak and shift.

*pokey pokey pokey at recent earthquakes map*

C'mon!


EDIT: HA. 5.0. Am I good, or what?

Trekqueen, that epicenter looks like it's on your side of town. Anything fall off your shelves?


Sounds like a rather exciting showing of Star Trek in Redondo Beach. Ceiling tiles, projector, and movie screen came down!

Near Los Angeles some people reporting lots of stuff flying off shelves, out of cabinets, TVs falling, pictures falling and breaking, etc. They must've had more shake than here.

You Know You're Not in Kansas When

Mother Nature celebrates Guy Fawkes Day
White fluffy stuff drifts down.
Not snow.

Tickets on sale:
$20 to play in artificial snow
In dry water retention basin.

Disneyland Parade with Santa
In flying sleigh drawn by robot reindeer
Spewing flurries of tiny soap bubbles
At night, under streetlights
Looks rather snowlike.

Wonder and joy
On children's upturned faces
So real you weep.

Happy Holidays!

Sorry to be so spammy tonight, but this is WEIRD.

I logged in tonight to catch me some baseball, got the #$@#! blackout message that means my IP address has been reset and it doesn't know where I am, and when I called tech support they said they couldn't help me because I had an IP address that's in India, where apparently people are not allowed to watch American baseball. (which is weird, but I'm sure few of them care.)

SO... no Dodgers/Giants tonight, because California fell into the ocean and wound up in India.

Really surprisingly little damage, considering.