UPDATE: This was written before the 22 February earthquake, and I realise that recent events show my arguments may be a little too simplistic.  My heart goes out to all thouse affected.

In hindsight, comparing Christchurch and L'Aquila to other earthquakes like Haiti and Sichuan would have better illustrated my point about building codes saving lives.

I am spending a few pleasant days in Split for the conference "LHC Days". I will be representing the D0 and CDF collaborations here in a talk on top physics at the Tevatron; in the meantime, I am pleased to witness that talks are of high quality. This morning the most interesting to listen to (at least to me) was the one by Guido Altarelli, a distinguished theorist from the University of Roma III. Altarelli has given crucial contributions to the advancement of our understanding of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics in the seventies, and it is always a pleasure to listen to him (a previous report of a talk he gave in Perugia two years ago is here).