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Are you oblivious to L.A. earthquakes? Here's why you might be a 'never-feeler'

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Are you oblivious to L.A. earthquakes? Here's why you might be a 'never-feeler'

Joy Lee has lived in the L.A. area for her entire life, but the 48-year-old says she hasn’t felt an earthquake in almost two decades. “Sometimes I will be on social media and suddenly my friends will start commenting on the earthquake, and I will realize I felt nothing,” she said.

One time she thought an earthquake may have happened after seeing a strange ripple in the tank of her 5-gallon water dispenser. It was “like the scene where the glass of water vibrates in ‘Jurassic Park.’”

As usual, she went to social media to confirm her suspicions. Indeed, there’d been a quake that, once again, she didn’t feel.

Lee is what we’ve dubbed a “never-feeler,” someone who never — or very, very rarely — registers the rumblings of the earth beneath their feet.

After two early January SoCal quakes (a 4.1 magnitude on New Year’s Day and a 4.2 four days later), The Times conducted an informal survey to find out more about the chronically earthquake-oblivious. Lee was among the readers to share their feelings — or lack thereof.

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On Tuesday, a 2.8 magnitude quake was reported in View Park-Windsor Hills at 8:19 a.m. While this one would be considered a “light” earthquake — too low to trigger the shake alert app — more than 170 people shared did-you-feel-it reports within 30 minutes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Of 116 Times questionnaire respondents, about a quarter described themselves as avowed never-feelers; people who, despite living in the L.A. area for between two and 42 years, had never felt even the slightest quiver no matter the magnitude. Meanwhile, 61% reported that, while they had indeed felt the earth tremble at some point — especially if the quake was on the bigger side — they haven’t felt one in a very long time.

Julian Lozos, an associate professor of geophysics at Cal State Northridge, said there is solid earthquake science behind why some folks feel quakes while others don’t in any given situation.

“In general, you’re more likely to feel earthquakes if you’re sitting still [instead of] moving around, you’re more likely to feel them if you’re awake [instead of] asleep — obviously — but it also depends on where you are. There have been earthquakes in the San Fernando Valley, for example, that I’ve felt while people just on the other side of the Santa Monica [Mountains] haven’t.

“And it would definitely depend on where you live in terms of there being a constant source of noise or movement, like living in an apartment building where there’s constantly other stuff going on versus a single-family home. In that case you’re more likely to either think that’s what it is or, more likely, to just have developed the ability to tune it out.”

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Indeed, Lee thinks her location may play a role in her earthquake ignorance. “[I] only have been quake-oblivious since moving into our home in Mt. Washington 17 years ago,” she said. “I think it has to do with the geology that our house sits on.” Linnea Stanley, a four-year Angeleno who lives in Bel-Air but used to live in Beachwood Canyon by the Hollywood sign, wondered if she never feels earthquakes because “maybe I live far enough [away] from them?” Isabel Corazon, a 37-year-resident born and raised in L.A. and currently residing in downtown’s Historic Core, believes she may have grown immune.

“I do find it strange since I’m hypersensitive to how others are feeling at any given moment in addition to how I’m feeling at any given moment,” Corazon said. “I’m highly intuitive and perceptive. So I’m honestly confused as to why I never feel earthquakes. … Maybe when you have generational time spent in L.A., you become like one with the earthquake?”

Lozos, whose area of expertise is computer simulations (“I make fake earthquakes on my computer”) has a keen interest in the never-feeler phenomenon, having observed it firsthand in the classroom.

“I always ask my students if they’ve felt an earthquake, and most of them say they have — but some of them say they haven’t,” Lozos said. “And I think some of that has to do with how much are they even thinking about it? I’m thinking about earthquakes most of the time, because it’s my job, right? So I’m more likely to feel something and go, ‘OK, was that an earthquake? Or was that my neighbors, or was that the fire station across the street?’ Whereas people who aren’t necessarily thinking about it all the time … chances are they probably have felt earthquakes and just never thought to look into it. It’s like how much does it come to your mind to begin with?”

The never-feelers’ theories

Generally, the survey respondents who don’t feel earthquakes had three main reasons. A third of them, including Lee, cited their physical location.

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Lozos explained that differing locations — even within the same building — can make a huge difference in how a quake is felt. He used his personal experience at a 2014 earthquake conference in Japan as an example. “It was lunchtime and they had half of us at a fourth-floor restaurant and half of us at an 18th-floor restaurant in the same hotel when a magnitude 4.9 earthquake hit,” he said. “The people on the fourth floor felt a very sort of abrupt shaking — a jolty shaking — and the people on the 18th floor felt a lot more swaying. … [which] one might perceive as the wind versus an earthquake.”

Others theorized they had become desensitized to the jolts, jiggles and sways of the earth, due to medical conditions (from ADHD-induced wiggling legs to frequent seizures), previous earthquakes or even where they grew up. “As a native Seattleite, I have spent A LOT of my life on boats (rowboats, ferry boats, speed boats, crew shells, kayaks, canoes, etc.),” wrote Colleen Davis. “Therefore, I am very used to the feeling of having sea legs and having water rolling under me. Who knows if there is a connection? But it makes as much sense as any other theory, I guess.”

Lozos said most earthquakes are small and last for a very short period of time — a second or less. “And there are so many other things that can cause movement like that, that it might not even be something you think to check. So, later on, when the earthquake is on the news, or is exploding on [X] or BlueSky or Mastodon or wherever you are, you have to step back and think, ‘Did I feel something earlier? What time was that?’ There’s probably a lot of that.”

A surprising number of respondents (to me at least) simply copped to being too distracted to notice. “I honestly feel like I just don’t pay attention,” explained Tess Steplyk of her six-year streak of quake obliviousness. “But most the time I am quietly working from home. So I think it’s a skill!”

Not paying attention is what Lozos thinks is probably at work for people who haven’t experienced a single shaker. “I’d be willing to bet that if they’re adults who have lived in California their whole lives,” he said, “they probably have [felt an earthquake] and just didn’t realize what it was. Also, if you haven’t felt one before, you probably have this mental image, like it’s going to be this big obvious thing. And, most of the time, they’re not.”

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Didn’t feel it? Don’t be surprised.

Since 1999, the USGS has been running a postquake questionnaire called “Did You Feel It?” It asks people to detail the intensity of shaking and report damage. According to Vince Quitoriano, the program’s developer, of the more than 450,000 Los Angeles County responses since launch, about 96% reported having felt a quake. Using its questionnaire data, the USGS has found that fewer than 10% of people are likely to feel a quake with moderate shaking if they are outside and in motion (say, walking or driving) while roughly 85% of people at rest and located on the higher floor of a building will feel the same intensity quake.

However, the survey wasn’t designed to gather granular data from those who didn’t feel anything, says survey geophysicist David Wald, the scientist behind and manager of the Did You Feel It? system (who created it in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge quake). “What’s really unfortunate is that to answer the questionnaire to say you didn’t feel it just takes one answer,” Wald said. “And then you’re done. … We get their location, we get the actual intensity [of the quake] where they are based on other people’s reports and we typically know what story [of a building] they were in. But we haven’t put a lot of effort into [exploring] the boundaries of the have-not-felt because that’s such a small fraction.”

Even so, Wald isn’t surprised that some people who have lived in the L.A. area for decades would say they have never felt a single earthquake.

“On the scientific level, I would say that there are definitely so many circumstances that it would absolutely make sense that they didn’t,” he said. “It could have been that [during] one they should have felt they were in a car or in a small building and far enough away where only half the people would have felt it and they were watching TV loudly or whatever. … So even if you lived in L.A., in the early ’90s, you might be in the situation where you wouldn’t have felt an earthquake.”

Hacks for the never-feeler

Given how much where you are, what you’re doing and what you’ve previously experienced can affect your ability to feel any given earthquake, what’s an on-edge Angeleno to do? And can the never-feelers somehow train themselves to become more quake-conscious? When I put that question to Lozos, his (half-joking) response was: “I think the easy answer is to become an earthquake scientist!”

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Since that’s not exactly a workable option for most (and even if it were, it certainly couldn’t happen overnight), here are some of the life hacks sent along in the responses to The Times survey. While I can’t personally vouch for them (well, except for the chandelier one — a delicate oyster-shell chandelier in the bedroom serves as the earthquake early-warning system in my home) and nothing should take the place of actual earthquake preparedness, below are some of the clever cues folks rely on to clue them in when they aren’t personally noticing the earth move.

  • “We have a chandelier that sways when we have an earthquake. I’ll look up at that if I think we are having one.” — Maribel Diaz
  • “I have wind chimes.” — Bonnie Howard
  • “[I rely on an] under-the-cabinet wine glass rack. And the best life hack of all — my three cats! All three will perk up, usually meerkat-style, and all look the same direction.” — Lyndsi Gutierrez
  • “I use a bobblehead from a sports team, because why not?!” — Lakshmivallabh Pandalapalli
  • “I have hanging plants in many rooms of my house, and if the plants are moving that’s my sign that something went down.” — Amanda Rodriguez
  • “Mini-blinds and the pool water are clues for the larger ones further away. Twitter and Facebook are helpful for the smaller ones nearby.” — Angel Zobel-Rodriguez
  • “In San Francisco, I had a dresser in our bedroom with handles that lay against the drawer face. If I heard them start to rattle, I knew there was an earthquake happening.” — R.W. Ziegler
  • “[My] USGS auto alerts [are] set to a low threshold, like a 3.0 on the scale, in a large radius around L.A. They’re sent instantly! Never fails.” — Jackson Finnerman
  • “Dogs. My dogs know when one is coming. So they let me know.” — Eileen O’Farrell
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'Demure' is Dictionary.com's word of the year. If that's news to you, here's the backstory

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'Demure' is Dictionary.com's word of the year. If that's news to you, here's the backstory

Dictionary.com lexicographers analyze headlines, social media trends, search engine results and other data to come up with the word of the year. This year, it’s “demure.”

Dictionary.com/Screenshot by NPR


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“Demure” is Dictionary.com’s word of the year, with all the credit for its popularity going to lifestyle and beauty influencer Jools Lebron and her catchphrase, “very demure, very mindful.”

“Demure” means “reserved, quiet, or modest,” but the reaction to Lebron’s use of the word was anything but.

Dictionary.com calls demure’s rise in usage “meteoric” in 2024, after Lebron started using it in early August.

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“Between August 2023 and July 2024, there was no significant trend in the usage of the word demure,” according to Dictionary.com. “By the week of Aug. 18, 2024, however, there was almost 14 times more interest in the term, highlighting the term’s almost overnight explosion in popularity. At the peak of the trend, demure had 200 times more searches on Dictionary.com than it did on dates preceding August.”

Dictionary.com’s lexicographers analyze headlines, social media trends, search engine results and other data to come up with its word of the year, calling it a “linguistic time capsule” that captures “pivotal moments in language and culture.”

The moment was certainly pivotal for Lebron. Her TikTok audience skyrocketed. Celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez and Khloé Kardashian, made their own “demure” videos. Lebron was interviewed on CBS Mornings and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with guest host RuPaul.

“Very demure, very mindful” was so popular, there was a surge in trademark applications by people trying to capitalize on Lebron’s motto.

Lebron reacted demurely to the news.

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Other words that stood out for Dictionary.com’s lexicographers this year were “brainrot,” “brat” and “extreme weather.”

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Discovery Channel Star Chad Ollinger Arrested for Allegedly Evading Police

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Beer before liquor? Busting 6 popular myths about hangovers

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Beer before liquor? Busting 6 popular myths about hangovers

Is there a way to prevent the unpleasant symptoms that come with a heavy night of drinking? Experts weigh in on common hangover myths.

Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR


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Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR

Hangover cures are a dime a dozen. Guzzle a few raw eggs. Take an aspirin before bed. Chug a beer in the morning.

These remedies promise to banish some of the nasty symptoms that can come with drinking way too much alcohol: headache, nausea, vertigo, anxiety — or all of the above.

But is there truth to any of these claims? Unfortunately, no, says Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and an emergency physician at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. “I wish there was some magic drink everyone could have, but there isn’t.”

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The only surefire way to prevent a hangover is to abstain from drinking, he says. And once you have a hangover, the only thing that will get you over it is time.

If you plan to drink alcohol and want to reduce potential symptoms, practice moderation, he says. That means limiting your alcohol intake to one drink a day or less for women, and two drinks a day or less for men, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Experts break down the science behind six common hangover myths — and explain how alcohol affects your body.

Myth: All hangovers are the same.

The symptoms and severity of your hangover — like your alcohol tolerance — depends on many factors, says Marino. That includes age, weight, gender, ethnicity, family history, nutritional status, smoker status, mood, health conditions or whether you’re taking any medications.

“Your hangover is going to be different from everyone else you know,” he says. For example, while one person might experience headaches and vomiting after just one drink, another might throw back whiskey gingers all night and wake up feeling tired but otherwise unscathed.

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In fact, some people may not experience any symptoms. According to one study, about 25% of people who drink to intoxication don’t have hangovers at all.

The length of hangovers can also vary. They can last 24 hours or longer depending on how much you drank, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Myth: You can prevent a hangover by drinking water or using hydration supplements.

Alcohol increases urine production, so it’s true that dehydration can often contribute to the hurt of a hangover.

But that’s only one symptom of over-imbibing, says Marino. Drinking can cause inflammation, gastrointestinal irritation, disrupted sleep and low blood sugar. It also exposes you to acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct produced when your body metabolizes alcohol, that can damage your cells and tissues.

Don’t expect products like sports drinks, vitamin-infused patches or hydration packets to work any miracles before or after a night on the town, says Marino. While they may keep you hydrated, they likely won’t address any other hangover symptoms.

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But drinking water or other hydrating beverages during a night out is still a good idea, he says. It can help you practice moderation and remind you to space out your drinks.

Myth: A “hair of the dog” can stop a hangover in its tracks.

Photograph shows a bottle of wine and a plastic party cup filled with wine on a blue and purple backdrop with motion blur that puts the cup of wine and the bottle of wine to the right of the objects.

Some people say that that consuming another drink will cure your hangover. In reality, you’re just delaying any negative symptoms that may arise when the alcohol leaves your system, says Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and an emergency physician.

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Some people think that a “hair of the dog,” an alcoholic beverage consumed the morning after a night of heavy drinking, can help cure a hangover.

It may offer some temporary relief by raising your alcohol levels and masking symptoms like jitteriness or anxiety, says Marino. “But your hangover is just going to be pushed down the road.”

A hangover can be a mild form of alcohol withdrawal, according to the NIAAA. Hangover symptoms peak — and likely, feel their worst — when the body’s blood alcohol concentration returns to zero.

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Eventually, that bloody mary you had at brunch will leave your system, and you’ll have to deal with the aftermath. You’re not doing yourself any favors by piling on, says Marino.

Myth: Beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, in the clear.

Studio photograph showing various kinds of alcohol bottles, cans and cups lined up in front of a blue background, including liquor, wine and beer.

The severity of your hangover does not depend on the order of drinks you consume, says Marino.

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Some people swear by this adage. But in general, it’s not the order of alcohol that determines the severity of your hangover, says Marino. It’s how much you consume.

You’re likely to drink more alcohol in a shorter amount of time if you kick off your night with hard liquor, he says. It makes you inebriated faster — and you may feel inclined to drink more than you would slowly sipping a beer.

Some kinds of liquors may make hangovers more unpleasant. According to research, dark liquors like bourbon and brandy contain higher levels of congeners, or the chemicals produced during the fermentation process that give an alcohol its distinctive taste, smell and color. Generally speaking, the more congeners an alcohol has, the worse the hangover is likely to be.

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Myth: Taking painkillers before bed can help you get ahead of hangover symptoms.

While it’s a common practice to reach for over-the-counter pain relievers to try and minimize your headache in the morning, Marino says you could potentially do a lot more harm than good.

Consuming just one alcoholic drink a day with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, Aleve or aspirin can increase your risk of gastrointestinal bleeding by 37%, according to the NIAAA.

When you combine alcohol with drugs containing acetaminophen, like Tylenol, you run the risk of liver damage, according to the NIAAA. Ingesting too much of one or both substances can be toxic to the liver. For that reason, the Food and Drug Administration advises against drinking when taking any medicine that includes acetaminophen.

If you’re taking any type of medication, proceed with caution, says Marino. Even if your medication doesn’t have a label that says ‘Do not take with alcohol’, that doesn’t mean you can’t be affected.”

Myth: Hangover symptoms are physical.

Photograph shows a stemless wine glass photographed on a light blue background. The wine glass is filled to overflowing with thin plastic film that spews out chaotically symbolizing anxious feelings post drinking. There is a purple light cast on the glass.

While alcohol can initially have a calming effect, for many people it has the opposite effect once it starts to leave your system, says Dr. Nzinga Harrison, a physician specializing in psychiatry and addiction medicine.

Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR

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It can also affect your mental health. Drinking too much can make you feel overwhelmed, irritated or on edge. And there’s a term for it that’s been trending on social media: “hangxiety.”

While alcohol can initially have a calming effect, your body can rebound as it leaves your system, causing a surge in adrenaline, a racing heartbeat or feelings of worry or stress, says Dr. Nzinga Harrison, a physician specializing in psychiatry and addiction medicine.

It’s a tricky symptom to identify. You can experience hangxiety after even just one drink, says Harrison. And “it can come before physical symptoms or without physical symptoms at all.”

To combat hangxiety, Harrison suggests doing activities to bring down your adrenaline levels, like mindfulness and meditation, and bring up your dopamine — like spending time with friends and getting lots of sunshine.

And while the only way to fully prevent hangxiety and hangovers is to abstain from alcohol, she says it helps to go into social situations in the best possible headspace. Before you go to that party, drink water, eat well and make sure you’re surrounded by people who make you feel positive and connected.

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“All of that biologically and psychologically may not prevent the hangxiety entirely, but will decrease the severity of the hangxiety,” says Harrison.

A quick note: If alcohol is causing you stress or harm, seek medical advice. There are a variety of treatments, including counseling, medications and support groups, to help people who want to end that dependency. This includes Alcoholics Anonymous, which has helped countless people. This NIAAA guide can help you find a program that’s right for you.

The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual producer is Beck Harlan.

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