Why are they messing with all this technology for predicting earth

[Maraya1969]

quakes? All they have to do is put people in charge of watching the animals.

MSNBC is reporting that they are putting sensors in the water. If there were groups employed to watch when the animals head to the hills it would be far more precise and reliable.

They expect another big earthquake in that same fault within months or years.


BTW and FYI did you know that pulling weeds is very easy right after a full moon? I know most people are not in the pulling weed season but it is a good thing to know when you have to do it. The weeds just come right up. Nature is a genius!

[Liberal In Texas]

1. Seems a bit labor intensive. Hiring people to sit around and watch

animals on the off chance there will be an earthquake. Sensors seem more practical.

[BushOut06]

4. Heck, I'll sign up for that job

I like animals, and with all the downtime, I could spend more time surfing the internet...oh wait, that would mean taking an eye off the animals. Nevermind, forget it.

[Maraya1969]

6. People are with these animals all day long. It wouldn't be labor

intensive. I guess the sensors are a good idea also but keeping your eye on nature can tell you a lot.

When my bird died suddenly my dogs woke me up at 4:30am. I went out and the bird was in the bottom of the cage and the dogs kept running around barking. It was dark when they woke me so they didn't SEE the bird. He had not died yet but was dead within an hour.

How did they know the bird was dying?

[tridim]

2. Re: your weed pulling suggestion

If true, wow! I assume the moon's gravity pulls up on the dirt a little bit? That doesn't really seem possible, but I'll certainly give it a try. :)

Edit: Just looked it up.. It has to do with the way the weed grows. The weed has less rootlets grabbing ahold of the dirt during full moon periods. Makes sense.

[Maraya1969]

3. Oh thanks for the info. It was just something my mother told me years

ago and I tried it and it worked.

[bananas]

9. I wonder how that would affect re-potting a plant?

I've read that a plant can be traumatized if the dirt comes loose, because it pulls off the little hairs on the roots. So would it be better to transplant after a full moon, when they are not holding so tightly, or would that make it worse?

[Maraya1969]

11. I don't know but I would think that re-potting would work best after

the full moon when the soil is lose.

I wonder if it is easier to dig a hole after a full moon?

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Why does it make sense that it has less rootlets during the full moon?

What was your source?

If it's just the internet, we can probably find reasons to pull weeds at any period - for instance:

During the last phase of the moon, from the last quarter to the new moon, don't plant anything. Instead, pull weeds; those plucked at this time are considered less likely to regrow.

http://www.tellicotimes.com/signs.html

[Jamastiene]

22. There is a saying about when to plant potatoes that is similar.

If you plant potatoes by the light of the moon you will get all vines and no potatoes. Plant root crops on a new moon and plant above ground crops on a full moon. The darkness helps roots grow. The lightness causes growth to concentrate on top more. So the roots are vulnerable during those times.

[shance]

5. They are doing so, so that they may be able to control the weather.

This is concerning, more importantly because those who have much of the control over such projects will use it and have potentially used it to create destruction and havoc. There have been questions about Katrina and the tsunami that they were both 'manufactured' forces of nature. The timing and the response to those disasters could provide a defensible case that that was indeed true.

[Maraya1969]

13. All the more reason to watch the animals.

[beam me up scottie]

15. Monitoring for tsunamis will enable them to control the weather?

Thanks for proving my own theory about what kind of people "question" whether Katrina and the tsunami were both "manufactured".

[SidDithers]

7. Maybe they can place sensors to watch the animals....nt

Sid

[SkiGuy]

8. Aren't those sensors in the water to warn of tsunamis anyway?

[salvorhardin]

10. I don't think dogs and cats can survive under the ocean

Maybe quantum cats could. Maybe we can retrofit the sharks with the frickin' lasers mounted on their heads to include cameras. Then we could get the sharks to watch the other fish and occasionally zap an evil doer with their lasers. Of course, we'd have to get TIVOs to watch the sharks for us. Ooo! Maybe we can train monkeys to watch the TIVOs that are watching the sharks that are watching the other fish? That's much better than sensors to detect earthquakes along the ocean floor.

[Book Lover]

12. Since the horses at the ranch didn't run anywhere

when the last earthquake here happened (just south of SF a few months ago - I was out for a walk when this little 2.something hit), but instead stumbled around a (very little) bit when the shaking happened, I don't see how your suggestion is workable. Or have you had different experiences when you've observed other animals during earthquakes?

[LWolf]

16. I think you have to be

a little more closely connected to the animal to notice. Not the most reliable warning system on a large scale, but pretty helpful to those with animals.

My horses lived in CA most of their lives, and in a little valley directly on top of the San Andreas for 4 years. What I noticed in the hours leading up to a quake big enough for people to "feel" was a heightened sence of "alert," skittishness, and muscle tension. They "watched" when there was nothing to look at. No running around, but definite behavior indicators that something was "up."

Where we live these days earthquakes are, while not unknown, a lot less likely. When they go on "alert" out in the pasture, its usually an indication of deer passing by.

[Book Lover]

17. Interesting

Do you mean close physically or close as in having a relationship with the horse? I've seen these same animals every day for several years now (I live around the corner from the ranch), and I recognize the old-timers, but I've never been closer than, oh, say about 10 feet to any of them.

It's just that it seems to me that if this behavior is observable at all, it ought to be observable to anyone. Then again, I've never "owned" (how I hate that term) an animal, so I can't speak to that kind of relationship.

[LWolf]

19. Yes.

When you have a relationship with an animal, you are "in tune" to nuances of behavior.

On the other hand, when all the dogs start barking hysterically and running around for no reason, you really don't need a relationship with them to notice it, lol. I don't think you can count on this loud a "warning system" in every case, though. Generally, you would notice a difference in behavior because you know that animal. With horses, it helps if you speak "horse." While horses have voices, and use them for several things, their primary mode of communication is with body language.

[rman]

23. so it is not a matter of animals running for the hills,

maybe it's not such a bad idea after all to use technology for earthquake prediction.

[LWolf]

24. I think technology is essential.

Technology addresses the massive population of humans.

Those of us with other more natural "warning systems" may be warned ahead of the rest; that's great for us, too. It's not likely that, noticing strange behavior on my animals' part, I can call local agencies and ask them to put out a general warning. It's more likely to be a subject of conversation among neighbors, comparing animal behaviors and using them to "predict" something being "up." Still, when my horses and dog are "on alert," I can't be sure what is setting them off. Something set the horses off the day before yesterday; it wasn't an earthquake.

It wasn't deer; when there are deer nearby, they stand still and look. This time they were staring in one direction, then whirling, bucking, kicking, calling, tearing around, then back to staring....

That wouldn't be dog, coyote, or bobcat. They don't react like that to those things. It could be mountain lion, person, or strange horses that they couldn't identify. Since the area is a large swath of forested public land, complete with canyons and ridges, I didn't go looking. It wasn't an earthquake, unless it was too small to register with me. It might have been some subterranean activity connected with the south sister (local volanic peak), who has been waking up now and then in the last several years. A "warning" from my animals tells me to pay attention, but not what to expect.

I think that in areas of higher density population, people are less connected to the natural world around them, and perhaps, as density increases, increasingly less likely to notice living warnings, anyway.

I like having both, myself.

[SmokingJacket]

14. Not very accurate.

I remember right before the big Northridge earthquake, animals were running all over the place, in front of my car when I was driving, to the point that I even said to a friend: Watch out, an earthquake's about to happen! But I was 3000 miles away!

Animals are NOT more precise than an actual measuring device, though. I believe they detect small movements of the earth, but they can hardly pinpoint where it's happening!

And it doesn't make any sense at all that a weed would suddenly draw in all its roots right after a full moon. Even if it did, who's going to wait two or three weeks to pull a weed, anyway?

[DavidDvorkin]

18. So instead of taking aspirin

we should be chewing bark.

Same reasoning applies to any case where science has examined nature and found an underlying principle behind some folk remedy or tradition. If the underlying principle is real, then that's a good reason to examine it, understand it, and then apply it more precisely.

[Jamastiene]

21. re: the weeds. Also it's better to pull them during a dry spell.

Combine the two, and you have less reseeding and other such recurring nightmares with weeds. You are right about the animals too. I gave up on the meteorologists a long time ago. They call for bad weather that never happens and three weeks later, boom, a tornado comes through and they say not a word. I watch the animals too for predictions. They are right most of the time too.