Earthquake

We had a proper earthquake. It was centered in Chino Hills, which is about 30 miles West of here, and had a magnitude 5.8. For comparison, 5.8 is the strength of the aftershocks in the recent Chinese earthquake, and we don't need to worry about buildings falling down until it's above 7. (And the Richter scale is a log scale, so 7 is about 20 times stronger than 5.8). It's described as moderately strong.

At first I thought that someone was moving very heavy furniture around, and then I realised that furniture doesn't come that heavy. Then I realized it was an earthquake, and forgot what I was supposed to do (climb under your desk is the usual answer, but under my desk is such a collection of wires, computer, and general crap, that might be more dangerous).

The internet response was impressively fast, the map on the USGS website was updated within about 1 minute of it ending. Google Blog Search had found blogs that mentioned it within 20 minutes, the LA Times had a story within an hour, with photos.

Cellphones stopped working, I guess because everyone in the universe tried to use it, but I called S on the landline, and that worked fine.

I haven't heard of any injuries, except that the sister of someone who works here, who lives in Chino Hills, had a cabinet of china fall over.

[Update #1: It was only 5.4, not 5.8].

[Update #2: The boys were bowling at the time, and they didn't notice. I asked them if it made their bowling balls go the wrong way. They said that their balls went the wrong way without an earthquake]