Braced for the Big One

Mere scientists have computed that there is a fifteen per cent chance of a major earthquake off the west coast of the USA within the next fifty years, and a little less than a thirty per cent chance by the end of the century. The region has long braced for such an event, whatever that may mean; in Standard English it usually denotes something along the lines of being intermittently conscious of a potential disaster in waiting while squealing with indignation at any taxes that might help to mitigate it. Anticipating such populist peer reviews, the researchers note that the anticipated earthquake's effects would be similar to those caused by the Heathen Chinee climate hoax, only considerably less subtle and insidious. How far the availability of abortion or the gratuitous non-transportation of undesirables to concentration camps in El Salvador may affect the Deity's decision to whip up a cleansing tsunami remains as yet unclear; but forward-thinking residents of Washington and California will doubtless be mindful that Canada is not far distant and is set to become increasingly temperate where not altogether submerged.