Rumblings...

There I was at work, minding my own business, when I felt a wobbling in my desk chair.  I immediately dropped all of the important things I was doing to assess.  Seconds later, I felt the same, barely-perceptible shaking in... what?  My chair?  The floor?  My ass?

Shortly thereafter, coworkers, with the help of Twitter, confirmed that, yes, after apparently sleeping through seismic activity in two different hemispheres in my youth, I had experienced my first earthquake.

Frightening?  Not particularly.  I could easily have missed the whole thing; that would have been a shame!  I'm surprised that so many New Yorkers reacted by running for the streets like chickens with their heads cut off.  Really?  I'd like to know in what thought process that made sense.  And if there was no rational thought, just a first instinct to run...  Have some dignity!


The biggest winner in my estimation was actually the US Geological Survey.  Just hours ago, I would have assumed they were a hopeless combination of world-class nerds and government bureaucrats.  Instead, their website features... an almost cool? fun? tool for reporting that you've felt an earthquake and visualizing the impact.  And as a CI analyst, I took note of basic sharing tools.  Tip of the hat to USGS!

How dare they cover my contribution with a key?!