| Clearing the Browser Tabs – The Quake that Ate My RSS Reader Wednesday Edition Posted: 24 Aug 2011 03:10 AM PDT I don’t know if you heard, but there was a bit of an earthquake that happened in Virginia, not all that far from Washington, DC and even closer to my house. Today’s Clearing the Browser Tabs post is going to be all quake all the time because, well, there were quite a few interesting and entertaining posts among the bazillions that dropped into my RSS reader about it yesterday. I also talked about the quake, and the shameful media coverage there of, on The Delivery last night. The show post will be up later on today and if you want to hear what it was like for a grown man to experience his very first earthquake, that story is right at the beginning of the show. I’m afraid it’s not terribly dramatic, but I did flash my knowledge of seismic waves. See? I knew that my geek love for random science facts would come in handy! And now, links! - Here are a couple solid reports of the (for now) 5.8 strength quake from Joy McCann (who links to a first-hand report by Sean Hackbarth), Hot Air (via memeorandum), and Joel Achenbach at the Washington Post. Between the two of them, plus this post by Michelle Malkin on the temblor that struck Colorado earlier in the day, you’ll have the big facts covered. Data hounds will enjoy the Intensity Map tracked by the USGS, which relies on data from those of us who felt the quake.
- None of the monuments in Washington, DC suffered any serious damage. The early, unconfirmed report that the Washington Monument was tilted off true was not, well, true. On the other hand, the National Cathedral did experience some damage, and it could be quite serious.
- The President got the call about the quake while he was on the golf course and he stayed there throughout. Any notion that he took a break to read “My Pet Goat” should be put far, far from your mind. Golf is serious Presidential business. On the other hand, Paul Krugman singlehandedly embarrassed himself, the New York Times, and the Nobel Committee who foolishly gave him a prize for Economics.
- If you’re interested in some reasons this quake was so severe and why its effects were felt so far away, this post from geologist Callan Bentley at the American Geophysical Union’s blog should pretty much explain it all. There is also some good information here about how much of the United States is seismically-active. It’s a lot more than most of us would think.
- Twitter was a great source of information early, especially for those of us who couldn’t easily get to a television or radio. It was also the place for quake jokes, some of which were flat-out funny (especially if you like political humor).
- Won’t you give generously to the emotionally-traumatized survivors of the Virginia Quake? Look at those poor, recovering kids!
         
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