Okinawa Gets an Earthquake as Predicted (sort of)

On Monday, tropical paradise Miyako Island was rattled by a level-4 earthquake. (4 is in the middle of the Japanese earthquake intensity scale--enough to topple things from shelves, but not enough for real damage)

This is newsworthy, not because there was an earthquake, but because an earthquake was predicted and then it happened.

Unfortunately, the warning came ten seconds after the preliminary shockwave, and the earthquake itself happened a few seconds before that. While the timing may have been off, the other parts of the system worked. That's encouraging.

The first computers were pretty unimpressive, too, but look at them now. Let's hope the science of earthquake prediction improves by the same leaps and bounds.