Earthquake resistance.

In the various Polychrome Heroics threads, They've had a number of stories dealing with the aftereffects of "The Big One" (a megaquake hitting the west coast of the Us in the alternate world of Terramagne)

Recent posts by dialecticdreamer triggered an odder than usual train of thought. I thought it be of interest to many folks, not just the ones writing in that universe.

First thought was having a building on some sort of ball bearings or something on top of a sturdy foundation. That the ground shimmy all it wants and the building mostly sits there as the ground moves under it.

Fun idea and *wonderful* image but has just a *few* practical problems. :-)

So ok, we need to damp the movement a bit. Magnets in the foundation and the bottom of the building? Likely have problems.

But that got me thinking about the anti-sway dampers they put in tall buildings. Those involve massive springs and weights. Also they way they mount stuff inside Cheyenne Mountain. Ok, that may be workable.

Probably need to have a "basement" and flexible pipes and cables for water, sewer, gas, electric and other connections to the building. You need a space to goive the flexible pipes/cable *room* to flex so they don't kink up.

Probably put the springs and weights down there in in areas where they don't interfer with the connections.

Not a *detailed* solution, but something that may be doable with a little testing and research.

Added bonus, worst case after the quake, you can disconnect the building from the base and rig some sort of cradle and *move* it to a new location, because it'd have to be built to be "self supporting" in ways current buildings aren't

The Weather is crazy

I was kinda cold so I went into the bedroom and turned off the fan. At which point I noted that something looked wrong. Upon closer examination, not only was it *snowing*, but the grass was almost completely covered as were the (flowering!) branches of the trees!

It was in the mid 70s just the other day. Yeesh!