{"id":2564,"date":"2016-11-22T02:23:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T07:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2016-12-15T20:06:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T01:06:48","slug":"fantastic-beasts-and-seismic-shaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2016\/11\/22\/fantastic-beasts-and-seismic-shaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Beasts and seismic shaking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"nov22earthquakes\"

some of the november 22nd earthquakes, from http:\/\/www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz\/<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

As I write this I’m on the schedule to fly south to McMurdo\u00a0tomorrow morning, \u00a0weather permitting. \u00a0After taking care of my business at the CDC earlier today (see my last post) I had a quick lunch (caesar salad with venison) and spent a couple of hours writing reference letters for students. \u00a0After that I really needed a little bit of an escape, \u00a0so I went to the movies; \u00a0specifically a late afternoon matinee of \u00a0the latest “Potterverse” film, \u00a0“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. \u00a0And before\u00a0any of you with children utter “how dare you\u00a0go to a kids movie without your kids” you should know I got explicit permission from my wife, \u00a0so I could tell her if it was suitable for our 8-year-old daughter Scout \u00a0(unfortunately there’s several\u00a0scenes that are probably too scary for her).<\/p>\n

I\u00a0was surprised how much I\u00a0enjoyed Fantastic Beasts. I wasn’t a huge fan of the later Harry Potter movies because they were overly dark and poorly-paced, but this one I liked a lot. There’s no comparing\u00a0the Fantastic Beasts moving\u00a0to the book; \u00a0the movie is a completely different story. The acting was superb, \u00a0particularly the two male leads, the sound track is fantastic, and the special effects definitely add to\u00a0the story. \u00a0It helped that I watched the movie in great comfort in an almost empty theatre.<\/p>\n

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that a running magical battle makes up a lot of the climax of the movie (it’s the Potterverse, after all). \u00a0But in the middle of the battle I realized there was more going on – \u00a0the theatre was shaking and it wasn’t from\u00a0the barrage of sound. It was an earthquake, one that\u00a0continued to shake for a long time. \u00a0There were\u00a0five people\u00a0in the theatre, and after about two minutes of continuous shaking, \u00a0 two left quickly, I went and stood in the doorway, and an older couple just stayed in their seats and watched the movie.<\/p>\n

The shaking is still going on. \u00a0I’ve felt a few earthquakes before, but they all took the form of a jolt that peaked\u00a0in a few short seconds and then decayed away equally\u00a0quickly. \u00a0These just kept shaking and rolling, \u00a0with a period of about 1\/3 of a second, and I now appreciate\u00a0how continuously shaking ground gives you a feeling of helplessness.<\/p>\n

You can see this sequence of quakes at the amazing Christchurch earthquake website: \u00a0http:\/\/www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz\/<\/a>; \u00a0the earthquakes I felt in the theatre began about 18:10 (on November 22) and the shaking was almost continuous for an hour. \u00a0The largest individual quake was 5.7 magnitude, but there were a lot of 4+ magnitude quakes in there too. \u00a0They occur only 50 km or so from Christchurch, in \u00a0a tight area distant from the recent quakes near Hamner Springs and Kaikoura.There’s a good story at\u00a0the Christchurch press:\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/national\/86758316\/christchurch-shaken-by-severe-earthquake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feeling a little bit shaken, no pun intended.<\/p>\n

-Posted by Ralph from Christchurch.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I write this I’m on the schedule to fly south to McMurdo\u00a0tomorrow morning, \u00a0weather permitting. \u00a0After taking care of my business at the CDC earlier today (see my last post) I had a quick lunch (caesar salad with venison) and spent a couple of hours writing reference letters for students. \u00a0After that I really needed a little bit of an escape, \u00a0so I went to the movies; \u00a0specifically a late afternoon matinee of \u00a0the latest “Potterverse” film, \u00a0“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. \u00a0And before\u00a0any of you with children utter “how dare you\u00a0go to a kids movie without your kids”<\/p>\n

Continue reading… Fantastic Beasts and seismic shaking<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2566,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions\/2566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}