I was about 6 miles from the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and about 7 miles from the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Living as I do midway between the San Andreas and Hayward faults, I tend to cherish my ability to live in denial. I get grumpy when I hear about methods that might help predict major earthquakes, like measuring the change in electrical properties of compressed rock. If you can’t guarantee it will work, please let me live in my happy pretend world.