China promises no earthquakes

The Chinese have thrown down the gauntlet for next month's Olympics: no earthquakes, they promise. Uhhh ok China, thanks for your unerringly specific absolute statement about something you cannot possibly know or control. That is unless you have a earthquake machine like all smart people like me suspect you do. Or you paid off the CIA not to use their earthquake machine (it's in a satellite) during the games. Bold moves China, bold moves.

China says they are able to know this because they have been measuring and they haven't seen any signs. Of note is the fact that they didn't see any signs before the 8.0 quake in Sichuan in May. Also of note is that they say their system can identify something as little as a 1.0...........five to ten minutes after it happened. A 1.5 can be detected and reported within 10 to 15 minutes. I'm no geologist, but that doesn't sound like a good system. I can tell when a earthquake happened 10 minutes after too. It usually involves me being trapped under a fallen roof and remarking about how much shaking the ground was doing.

So travel safe Olympians. China sez no earthquakes, promise, no crossed fingers, no take-backsies. Now concentrate on the not being able to breathe thing.