God in the Quake

I'm way out here in Maryland this week, far from my native land of California and my home in New Mexico, and what's everyone talking about? Yesterday's quake in California, of course. By a native's measure, anything under a 6.0 magnitude shaker is considered minor. It's really more of a kindly reminder from

God (or Chance or whichever universal force you prefer) that we are not really in control and need to check our hubris at the door (as well as check the straps holding the water heater to the wall). So why all the media hoopla? Simple: We're in the middle of the annual summer news drought. I was joking about this last night with a colleague and even suggested that this is the time of year when something totally inconsequential like a three-headed calf has no trouble making headlines. About 10 minutes later, I was talking with Discovery News producer Sarah Goforth and she mentioned an AP story now making the rounds about a six-legged deer. Bingo! When there is little other news people care about, it's time for the freak show to begin. No matter how far we get from Nature in our daily lives, the six-legged deer or less than six-magnitude quake will always have it's place in our hearts. God bless'em.

Comments

[Nick]

Yes, it always will have "it is" place in our hearts.

[Devin Serpa]

Is it too much to ask to include tectonic subduction as one of your 'universal forces' you so ineptly describe as what took place here in Cali?

[JazzBass]

For Pete's sake 'Nick' and Devin Serpa, lighten up. Read the story, note it for what it is and comment accordingly otherwise don't you dare go out there in the world and make a mistake today. It's pretty damned rude of you to complain about someone in a public forum as if your opinions and your actions are eternally without error.

[Holly]

Cute deer :)

[From the Editor]

Devin -- For more on tectonic subduction from Larry than you ever wanted to know, try here: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/01/11/plate-tectonics-earth.html

and here: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/03/06/earthquake-fault-risk.html

[Larry O'Hanlon]

Ha! Some folks just can't see the forest for the trees. They get all hung up on a tiny typo. These people deserve our pity, not our scorn.

For what it's worth, I wrote that post on the miniscule screen of my Motorola Q cellphone. The type was teeny - I'm talking 5-pt, at best (which is hard to make out even with my reading glasses on). There was no spell checker or other techno editor. So mistakes creep in. That's the ambiance of blogging on the fly with little gadgets. Perhaps someday computers will do all the writing and these grammar freaks will rejoice at never having to encounter an error again. But the stories a computer writes -- I promise -- will be BORING!