No Walls, But Lotsa Tumblin' Down! In India, every earthquake is the mother of all earthquakes. The Maharashtara rumbler in 1993 weighed in at 6.4 on the Richter scale. That's a good-sized quake, but even at that size, it seems hard to believe that it could kill 30,000 people. That is, it seems hard to believe until you remember that it happened in India...

Is it India-specific? One way to think about it: The 1995 quake in Kobe Japan registered 7.2 on the Richter scale - almost a full order of magnitude more powerful - but it killed only 5,500 people - less than a fifth of the number who died in Maharashtara. And at the time, Americans criticized Kobe for not quake-proofing its buildings and infrastructure to our standards!

Report all disasters to simpleton. BACK to the Beginning Previously in simpleton: Friday: Farts and Mumbles: simpleton gets a seat at the Algonquin. Thursday: Streamlined Comedy: Taylorism for quipsters Wednesday: Reader Mail: Volume 1 Tuesday: All New Crown of Thorns: Are Christians being persecuted enough? Monday: Hooray For Hollywood, Part 1: Who says movies are getting worse? Friday: Sesame Street Tabloid: Muppets go noir. A century of simpletons in the simpleton archive. Tomorrow: Don't blame the taxman!