How to Survive Earthquakes
\nIf a hurricane is coming, you generally know it. You have time to pack things, escape, whatever. But with earthquakes, there's usually no warning.\n\nTo that end, Michelle proposed the fancy device seen here. How does it work? Well, the schematic here is incomplete (Michelle whipped up this prototype in a few minutes; she wanted me to add wheels at the time this went to press), but it works something like this: You position your body under the cart, grab the handles, and then walk around your house as usual. Except you always have a hardened shell above you in the event of a collapse. Additional features include a 5-gallon water storage tank, some food, and a phone, which are housed in the shell.\n\nAfter Michelle told me about this, I proposed that we get rid of the handles and replace them with a sort of waist harness. That way people could do things with their hands as they moved around, like vacuuming.\n\nOf course, then there's the issue of sitting down, and only there does the feasability of this device begin to break down (well, that and we probably shouldn't store all the survival materials in the impact shell). With the handles, you can roll up to the couch and sit down (you likely won't be covered by the shell though). With the harness, you have the hassle of unbuckling yourself every time you need to sit.\n\nHmm, I've just been informed by Michelle that there is seating available in the unit. Her example was this: say you're waiting for the bus. Others are crowding the bench, but you, as an owner of one of these things, simply reach behind yourself and pull down a small chair. I suspect Michelle's inability to succeed as a child at the game where you push squares into the square holes and circles into the circular holes is manifesting itself yet again. I worry about people being able to actually get on the bus with this thing.\n\nAnother downside to this thing is that in the event of a quake, people may push you out of it in order to save themselves. A lock-in mechanism may be in order.\n\nUpdate. Michelle was a little offended at the reference to the game. She insists that the squares will fit in the circular holes. Her method seems to be brute force. That's how she played. Nobody told her not to.\n\n\n\n
