CompuServe Messages

Hi, Martin– Your mention of $10 batteries suggests another ingredient for a quake preparation kit – they will need replacing in the kit every so often, but you cannot be sure of finding more batteries even at $10. Don't be too hard on the "scuzballs" – whether they have it in mind or not, the high price on those batteries tends to insure they are there for someone who needs them enough to pay so much. If they continued to sell at the normal price, the dealers and first customers after the quake would scarf up more batteries than they really need, and latecomers, no matter how great their need, would find none. The high price also makes people get a move on bringing in more batteries, so the price/supply situation will return to normal faster. Furthermore, the high price gets stories told that make encourage people to store batteries for a quake, so it will not be as bad next time. Save the bricks to build unreinforced masonry prisons atop faults, to house the builders who cheated on the specs to make buildings that fell… –Doug