Whether any of this really has implications for such things as earthquake prediction is, of course, highly speculative.

ECONOMIST: Extra sensory perception

One of the loudest cheers came for a 14-year-old Brazilian boy who had used Arduino to create an earthquake prediction system ahead of the government.

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The Geodesy Council's decision is expected to meet resistance from the other three government agencies with an interest in earthquake prediction and its associated budget the National Land Agency, the Meteorological Agency and the Ministry of Construction.

ECONOMIST: Nature rarely repeats itself | The

From a policy standpoint, the key to earthquake survival and resiliency, disasters experts will tell you, is better building codes, because prediction remains too unreliable to base evacuation decisions on.

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