Earth shaking news
Feb. 10th, 2010 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoOr not. Today was all a-dither here in northern Illinois about the horrible, scary earthquake that hit just before 4 am this morning. I listened silently to several accounts of how frightening it was, and read several more online. All I can think is that this reaction must have been occasioned by bad dreams about the Haiti quake of last month, which was thousands of times more powerful.
The expert assessments I found put the thing at 3.8 on the Richter scale, which is barely enough to rattle the dishes. One stated that it wasn't enough to make ripples in the lake. I'm inclined to agree. I sleep on a water bed, am a light sleeper, and was in fact awake at that time and didn't feel it. Our two dogs did not wake up or act in any way bothered, and one of them normally barks instantly if you so much as step near him when he's asleep. Late this afternoon I realized another piece of evidence exists. I have several weight driven pendulum clocks in the house. These are hung on walls facing every direction. Most of them stop if you leave a window open and the breeze blows on them, or if you slam a door. Brushing against the chains or weights, even very slightly, is enough to stop them. None of them stopped. Either that earthquake was a lot weaker than what people are making it out to be, or our house is standing on some sort of shock absorber. This doesn't even take into account the precarious piles of books and papers in my study, none of which was disturbed in the least by the tremor, even though just sitting down too heavily in the desk chair can cause them to tip and collapse. ;p
I think I probably mistook it for a passing snowplow, something we have been getting regularly the last couple of nights.
More chatter about Google's newest gadget, called "Buzz," which appears to be sort of a cross between Twitter and Facebook. It was dropped on Gmail users gradually throughout the day, and finally appeared in my inbox around 4 pm. Not so much as a "Do you want this?" or a message telling me how to get rid of it, much less how to make use of it. As far as I can see, it looks like a Facebook "wall" and is rather slow and cumbersome to act on commands. Of course, "ponderous" is a good description of many of Google's products. None of them are zippy, most of them eat lots of memory and bandwidth.
In spite of being W-day, got some things done. That includes stretching some more paper, so a painting should be forthcoming in the next day or two...
The expert assessments I found put the thing at 3.8 on the Richter scale, which is barely enough to rattle the dishes. One stated that it wasn't enough to make ripples in the lake. I'm inclined to agree. I sleep on a water bed, am a light sleeper, and was in fact awake at that time and didn't feel it. Our two dogs did not wake up or act in any way bothered, and one of them normally barks instantly if you so much as step near him when he's asleep. Late this afternoon I realized another piece of evidence exists. I have several weight driven pendulum clocks in the house. These are hung on walls facing every direction. Most of them stop if you leave a window open and the breeze blows on them, or if you slam a door. Brushing against the chains or weights, even very slightly, is enough to stop them. None of them stopped. Either that earthquake was a lot weaker than what people are making it out to be, or our house is standing on some sort of shock absorber. This doesn't even take into account the precarious piles of books and papers in my study, none of which was disturbed in the least by the tremor, even though just sitting down too heavily in the desk chair can cause them to tip and collapse. ;p
I think I probably mistook it for a passing snowplow, something we have been getting regularly the last couple of nights.
More chatter about Google's newest gadget, called "Buzz," which appears to be sort of a cross between Twitter and Facebook. It was dropped on Gmail users gradually throughout the day, and finally appeared in my inbox around 4 pm. Not so much as a "Do you want this?" or a message telling me how to get rid of it, much less how to make use of it. As far as I can see, it looks like a Facebook "wall" and is rather slow and cumbersome to act on commands. Of course, "ponderous" is a good description of many of Google's products. None of them are zippy, most of them eat lots of memory and bandwidth.
In spite of being W-day, got some things done. That includes stretching some more paper, so a painting should be forthcoming in the next day or two...
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 06:50 pm (UTC)(Nice work, BTW.)
Google found a huge lode of pure money. Some of what they do with it is pretty nice. Other things, not so much. If Denise / Synecdochic is right, though, the money's going to run out sooner or later. And I'm not sure Google has a business model other than selling ads. Although I have to give them credit for being smart.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 04:19 pm (UTC)