If your laptop has an accelerometer (like most recent Macs), you can turn it into a seismometer and join the Quake-Catcher Network, a “collaborative initiative for developing the worlds largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers.” This article links to a seismology tool that works on Macs.

Because wireless networks send signals faster than vibrations can spread through the Earth, data from laptops in theory can speed ahead of the shaking and provide advance warning before harmful seismic waves strike regions that are more distant from a quake’s epicenter.

In other news, the earthquakes in Reno have slowed quite a bit in recent weeks, down to 5-8 per day between 1 and 2 on the Richter scale. (thx, marisa)