Friday, April 30, 2004

Idiots, all of them...

Okay, unless you don't watch NBC, you've probably heard of the new NBC miniseries "10.5", in which a series of massive earthquakes sink the west coast of the US into the ocean.

Now, I realize I'm arguing logic with a Sci-fi TV movie, but at least most of them have a premise SOMEWHERE within the bounds of science!

News flash, NBC, THIS CAN'T HAPPEN! EVER!

The nature of fault lines is that they are the borders between tetonic plates. The pacific ocean is effectively one really freaking huge tetonic plate. This is why there is this ring of volcanos and multitude of fault lines: The so-called "Ring of Fire".

Now, as I recall from Geography, western California is on that Pacific plate. So, yes, I am on a different Tetonic plate than Texas. Oh no.

You see, the Pacific Tetonic Plate is rotating counter-clockwise with respect to the rest of the US. So, eventually, Los Angeles will be pretty darn close to Anchorage, Alaska, especially when compared to where it is now.

Emphasis on EVENTUALLY.

That will take millions of years. It probably won't happen in Humanities lifetime. Certaintly not in ours.

And it WON'T sink!

The annoys me more than cartoon shows that go to Hollywood, not Los Angeles, like its called, but this mystical city called Hollywood, which exists entirely on TV and Movie studio backlots. Or in front of the Mann's Chineese Theater. It just creates this false impression of a city that is mostly, well, a city! Not lots of high-rises like New York, but still just a city.

This creates a false impression of three states! One of the big images in the commercials is of the Seattle Space Needle collapsing. SEATTLE ISN'T ANYWHERE NEAR A FAULT LINE!!!!!!1!ONE!

Hell, I can already imagine people from the East Coast asking me if I'm worried about an earthquake wiping me out...

Yeah. We DO get daily earthquakes here.

We call them "1 pointers". We can't feel them. We get a feelable one about once every few months in California as a whole, and by feelable I mean being able to feel it right on top of the epicenter.

Besides, CA is built for Earthquakes. Every multi-story building costs extra because of that. I'll put it to you this way:

In December, there was a 6.7 earthquake in Pasa Robles. Not a huge population area, true, but I think the death toll was something like 2, and only one building collapsed.

Later in December, there was a 6.7 earthquake in Bam, Iran. The town was destroyed. A castle that had been up for thousands of years crumbled. Death toll was in the tens of thousands.

That's what preparation does. That's what California is. We're ready for earthquakes, and we aren't afraid of them.

And I feel very comfortable knowing that the movie 10.5 won't happen.

Oh, and also, you can't get higher than 9.99 on the richter scale! Just can't!

Urge to kill NBC execs... rising...

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home