I give up. I don't know why I bother commenting on reddit posts, anymore, and your response is why. This is not the same website as it was long ago, and it just keeps getting worse every year. Perhaps I'm finally done after many years of saying I would be. 🤷

>I mean I was with you until the condescending on.

I have no idea what you're referring to. What part of my response was condescending?

I have a PhD in seismology, and OP asserted false information. I am trying to teach why it is wrong in a way that makes sense to people unfamiliar with the field of seismology. What would you rather I say?

Conversely, I thought the OP's tone was very condescending. Specifically, this part.

> So they predict earthquakes.

Uh, no?

An earthquake happens at a specific place. Seismic waves then radiate out predictably from the epicenter.

Think of it like throwing a rock into a lake. The "earthquake" occurs when the rock impacts the water. The waves then radiate out on every direction. If you have sensors out on the lake, you can predict when the waves will teach the shoreline.

You're not predicting when the rock impacts the water (the earthquake). You're predicting when the waves, which have already been generated and you've already observed, will travel from point A to point B.

Does this make better sense?

It really depends on context.

• In a standard American wood-framed house? They're flexible and won't collapse. Get under a table.

• In an unreinforced brick building? Get out now, and don't stop to think about it.

• In a downtown area with lots of skyscrapers? They're probably engineered to survive an earthquake. Avoid being in the center of a large room (large spans of unsupported ceilings are liable to cave in), but don't go outside until the shaking stops or at least subsides. Panes of broken glass falling 20 stories onto your head when you're on the sidewalk will hurt worse than some falling ceiling tiles.

Government advice usually has to cater to the lowest common denominator, because the public will not and cannot understand nuance. There is also a need to avoid tragedy of the commons (this is why running from tornadoes is not advised, because if everyone tried to flee, it'd clog the roads and people would drive erratically while fleeing, creating even more victims).

By whom? Japan has had earthquake early warning since 2006. Mexico City has had it since 1991.

These systems do not predict earthquakes. They process seismic data in realtime, and when they detect an earthquake send out an alert faster than seismic waves travel through the earth (~3.5 km/s vs. the speed of light, minus processing times).

The data came from here

https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/average-wages.htm

But I'm not sure how they're counting that because there is absolutely no way I believe the average U.S. wage is $74,738.

Per the U.S. government, median household income is $65,712, and about half of all households are dual-income.

Edit: I learned to read.

> Average wages are obtained by dividing the national-accounts-based total wage bill by the average number of employees in the total economy, which is then multiplied by the ratio of the average usual weekly hours per full-time employee to the average usually weekly hours for all employees. This indicator is measured in USD constant prices using 2016 base year and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) for private consumption of the same year.

So it's mean, not median, which is misleading, first of all. And I don't know why they bother trying to normalize by working hours, because a lot of people work longer than whatever that number is.

Edit 2' In any case, median personal income in the U.S. is about $56,000. In Switzerland, it appears to be about $50,000, though that's disposable income, after subtracting taxes, health insurance, and social insurance.

Subtracting standard federal taxes and average health monthly health insurance premium drops the US wage to about $45,000. That doesn't include state taxes, which might be another few thousand dollars.