Legend has it that once upon a time, some tired sub-editors sat around (there might have been beer involved) and competed to come up with the world's most boring headline.  (People may assume that journalists make up the headlines, but that is not usually the case, and was never the case in the days of hot metal, which is when this story was set.  Headlines had to convey the sense of the story, be in the correct font and fit the available space.  Then, if possible, a small joke might be slipped in, as in "SEVENTH ARMY PUSH BOTTLES UP GERMANS", but I digress.

The winner of the competition was said to be "SMALL EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE, NOT MANY KILLED" .  It had all of the boring elements: far away, in a place hardly heard of, and lacking in drama, because the people killed weren't anything to do with us.

The local angle component is always present in our press and media, and when there is trouble overseas, you will always see something said about the Australians who were involved, even if it was a peripheral involvement.  An earthquake in Chile?  YAWN! -- and we turn to the racing results or some footballer's strained muscles in a place that my mother's generation did not wish to know about.

Sometimes, though, we show more interest, and that is why Bali is always "the holiday island of Bali", which is downright insulting to the Balinese who see it as a place to live.  Still, journos and copywriters tend to favour the lowest common denominator in our society.  I am please to be able to tell you that it isn't only us, but I will give you the background first.

I spend a lot of my time writing about science, and I have fairly broad interests, so when I was offered a spot of work in Mississippi last year, I jumped at the opportunity, but wary of jetlag, I broke my journey in Hawaii, where I had 24 hours in the ghastly tinsel of Honolulu (made acceptable by the brilliant Bishop Museum), and then I headed for Hilo, where a scion of Arnotts biscuits has a little tourist operation with tours thrown in.  The result was that I got to walk 6 km out onto the fresh lava of Kilauea to the point where molten lava is oozing about, just on dusk.  Then, having seen the red glow up close and personal (ladies: do this trip, and all the hairs on your legs will shrivel!), we hiked back through the dark over needle-sharp rock, and rode a van back.

Hilo also has a brilliant tsunami museum, and I had fun there as well -- so you get the picture: I like active geology.  I also like passive geology, but active is heaps of fun.  Recently, for a project-in-progress, I have been looking closely at the records of a huge volcanic flow that went across the "Big Island" in 1859, so for me, Hawaii is no faraway boring place -- nor is it a "holiday island".  So when I heard that there was an earthquake there, I looked into it -- and found, as well as some useful seismological stuff,  that we are not alone in looking inwards, at and after our own kind.

While checking for news stories on the quake, I found http://globalnation.inq7.net/news/news/view_article.php?article_id=26914 where I read the exciting news that no Fil-Ams have been reported killed or hurt, so far. Fil-Ams are Filipino-Americans, who make up a significant part of the population, just about all with relatives in the Philippines. Under the skin, we are all a bit inclined to be insular.

 Some years ago, I dabbled briefly with Icelandic, but I stopped before getting to the point where I could write in that language "SMALL EARTHQUAKE IN AUSTRALIA, NOT MANY KILLED".  I guess I'll just have to wait until we get shaken up to see how it translates.  Now I will hand the soapbox over to Mr. Donne, who wishes to say something.

 . . . any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.    

 Well, you can see why he failed to cut the mustard as a journalist!