WELL, YES: For Californians, 2 Quakes Put Preparedness Back on the Map.

Here’s a post on earthquake preparedness, and here’s an earthquake preparedness list. But, really, preparedness should always be on the map, for everyone.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 3 Ways To Escape Zip Ties. Better with practice, I suspect.

PUNCHING BACK twice as hard.

SOME FUN APPLIED MUSIC THEORY HERE: Donald Fagen on the writing of Peg. Part 2 is here.

JIM TREACHER: TV show that mocks the Tea Party demands millions in tax breaks.

I say, repeal the Hollywood tax cuts!

WHEN “DISASTER PREP” MEANS “A CONDO IN NEW SOUTH WALES:” Growing Geologic Activity In Yellowstone Caldera?

But this report says there’s no cause for concern.

ANDREW STUTTAFORD: “We’ve seen some indications here in the U.S. of some degree of sympathy among some on the right for Vladimir Putin. That sympathy (misplaced in my view), I suspect, stems from taking several seemingly logical steps too far, and ending up in a very strange place indeed.” I suppose there’s a certain bracing quality to Putin’s disinterest in bien pensant opinion, but that doesn’t actually make him an admirable guy. But read the whole thing.

Related: “How many divisions has the hashtag?” “Indeed, no one at any senior level in the U.S. government or NATO is contemplating a military response to an invasion of the Ukrainian mainland and the dismemberment of a European country. And Putin knows it. There’s not even a bluff he has to call.”

Plus: “This is not a soft power contest.” If I were President, I’d have sent troops to Kiev, and to the Baltics. But if I were President, I’d have invested a billion dollars into being able to put a horse’s head in Putin’s bed at a key moment, which would be now.

CHANGE: Tea-party libertarianism sweeps … France?

WHAT THE WORLD LOOKS LIKE from the cockpit.

FLASHBACK: Behind the scenes at the shooting of Dazed and Confused.

VIDEO: John Hinderaker on Fox & Friends on The Washington Post / Keystone Scandal.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Strategic Shopping. Related: Lessons from Extreme Cheapskates.

“MYSTERY AIRCRAFT” spotted over Texas.

AT AMAZON, deals on 2014 Baseball Gear & Accessories.

Plus, leave winter in the dust with deals in Spring Cleaning.

And de-clutter for spring by trading in your old stuff.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gun Rights Victories Spur Action from Knife Rights Advocates.

JACK DUNPHY: Of Mission Creep And Paramilitary Policing. “The cities of Baltimore and Dallas, Fasman writes, have used SWAT teams to break up illegal poker games. The thinking within some departments seems to be, ‘We paid for the stuff, we might as well use it.'”

I was warning about this years ago. Now even Jack Dunphy is on board.

THREE POLITICALLY INCORRECT FANTASY WRITERS you don’t want to miss.

COUPLE THAT WITH ABOLITION OF OFFICIAL IMMUNITY FOR COPS AND PROSECUTORS, AND WE CAN TALK: Kansas Legislative Committee Pushes Bill That Would Make It A Felony To File False Complaints Against A Police Officer. But it’s a lousy bill, whose authorship is unclear, but likely related to police unions. Hey, let’s make membership in those a felony, along with all other public-employee unions. That would be real legal reform.

SCIENCE: Peeing In A Pool Won’t Kill You.

AT AMAZON, new deals on Top-Rated products, updated every hour.

Plus, last-minute deals on Tax Software.

WHY IT’S HUMAN NATURE to own things.

CHANGE: Cleaner than electric? Mazda talks up gasoline engine fuel economy ambitions for SkyActiv 2.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: A Crash Course In Electronic Dance Music.

BILL QUICK, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Newt Gingrich’s Plan To Harden The Electrical Grid.

MARK LEMLEY: Intellectual Property In A World Without Scarcity.