Stories from around the globe

The newsy bits that can't stop, won't stop

Hi - I don’t have a true lead item today, but I have plenty of shorter ones, so let’s get right to it.

Earthquake codes: More to do

I thought this was a hell of a sentence.

It comes from Dr. Lucy Jones, the Caltech-based guru of earthquake information, in a plea for stronger earthquake codes. Here’s part of her solution (emphasis mine):

How many times do we need to see devastated cities and towns in other countries before we realize that this could be our future in California, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Missouri or any of the other seismically active parts of the United States?

Our engineers and scientists have developed standards for a “functional recovery” code — that is, a building code that aims to give us structures that can be repaired after a major temblor, whose function can be recovered. Needless to say, functional recovery is a safer standard for human survival as well as building survival.

Most estimates of the increased cost to build to the functional recovery standard add only about 1% to the cost of construction. An affordable housing complex, Casa Adelante, was just built in San Francisco, and its owners chose to design to a functional recovery standard. It was virtually cost-neutral compared with the original design for a life-safety building.

Dodgers were cleared in sign-stealing scrutiny

In Evan Drellich’s just-released book on the MLB sign-stealing scandal, an anonymous Boston Red Sox player accuses the Dodgers of illegally stealing signs in the 2018 World Series (which the Red Sox won in five games).

Here’s what Drellich had to say in an interview with Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic: