[Image: The USGS global earthquake map].

Five automated Twitter feeds to follow in the new year, if you're on the trail of earthquakes, especially in Los Angeles and San Francisco, are @EarthquakesLA and @EarthquakesSF; @BigQuakesLA and @BigQuakesSF, if you're only interested in earthquakes greater than 3.5 on the Richter scale; and @EarthquakeBot, for any earthquake, anywhere in the world, 5.0 or greater.

On the other hand, it would be interesting to see a feed that only notes so-called "slow earthquakes," or earthquakes "that last days, weeks, or even months." In fact, slow-earthquake Twitter feeds aside (@SlowEarthquakes? @SlowQuakesLA?), it could be interesting to write a novel set in a Los Angeles undergoing a months-long earthquake, with residents eventually so accustomed to the constant but subtle drone and shimmer of the planet's surface, with dishes rattling and pebbles rolling off hills, that, when it all comes to an end and the city goes silent, there is widespread panic, dogs and cats begin howling, and a wave of emotion rolls through the city. People pass out in grocery stores and at least one man, living alone in Calabasas, has a catastrophic heart attack.

Talk of a sequel is dismissed as too unlikely to believe...