A US woman by the name of Charlotte King recently e-mailed this newspaper from her home in Oregon claiming that a new earthquake in Taiwan is "likely." Claiming that she is "a biological sensitive," King said she uses her own "body symptoms" to predict earthquakes around the world. In an "urgent alert," King says Taiwan will be hit by a large earthquake ... very soon.
King also charges US$20 for a subscription to her earthquake alert service via a Web site. She, and other "seers" in the US, often use the Internet to spook people in earthquake-prone countries like Turkey, Mexico and Japan. Now it's Taiwan's turn.
Notice the kinds of key words King uses in her "alert." Saying that her e-mail message is "urgent," King goes on to say that she has sent a warning to the US Geological Survey in Colorado and posted it on the Internet, adding: "I would be remiss if I did not attempt to get the word out to the media in Taiwan. I do not want to frighten anyone, and I pray that I am wrong, but I am experiencing the same symptoms I had before the 921 earthquake last September."
King adds: "About five minutes ago, my left ear began crackling; this is the same thing it did before the massive 921 quake. This ear crackling is not stopping and is getting stronger, so this is a `watch/warning' for a possible event in Taiwan ... or close to Taiwan. Based on the intensity of the crackling, I would guess this quake will be between a 5.2-6.4 magnitude shock, or possibly higher. The last time this happened to me, it was 12-72 hours before the 921 earthquake. I hope that we have as much lead time this time ... other potential sensitives in the US are also reporting in with similar feelings."
Message in a bottle
A word to the wise to be on the lookout for con artists preying on the truly ignorant: reports earlier this week claimed hun-dreds of elderly people in Taoyuan were bilked out of cash by a scam claiming to sell a solution to the Y2K bug -- in a bottle. The cheats reportedly convinced some senior citizens -- believing, quite rightly, that they wouldn't know the difference -- to buy a "millennium bug killer" at around NT$550 (US$17) per bottle.
"When the old people took the medicine home, they became the laughing stock of their grandchildren," a Taoyuan police spokesman said Thursday. Taoyuan police had already placed notices in public places warning senior citizens not to buy the millennium bug killer because "the millennium bug is not a real bug, it is a computer problem."
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