Water

Now I am not really a scientist, and my efforts to pursue any career remotely based on science proved dismally futile. But I wonder...what if these earthquakes are either just bad luck, or else the fact that huge volumes of water are being shifted from the poles (as solids in the form of ice) to the equatorial latitudes in the form of liquid (melted ice), and this huge weight has some effect on the shifting of the tectonic plates. Now a teacher friend told me for some reason (which I cannot recall) that this was not the case.

But considering that there are seven pounds (roughly) in a gallon of water, the billions and billions of pounds of water sloshing around this planet would probably have some impact on the underlying plates. Just a cursory thought, as these poor people in the Caribbean and Sout America try to piece their lives back together.

I've only been in two really small ones, but fortunately I live about fifty feet above sea level and a quarter mile from the ocean (or bay, actually) and am protected by 160 or so islands. I guess when my number's up though, it won't be in my control. Why are human so fearful of death? And why are we as Americans so goal driven when the enjoyment in this fragile life should be in every step in every day of life's journey? I dunno. And I never will know.