Some celestial beings sure are kicking the shit out of earth. First the Samoan rumbles, then the quakes in Indonesia and Italy. Now the South Pacific and Bali Ha'i have been hit. Whatever you're doing, silly humans, stop. [CNN]

At least 200 450 are dead after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia.

[A fire truck in Kuala Lumpur rushes to action following an earthquake there today. Image via Getty]

A 6.0 now revised to 5.6 magnitude earthquake has hit swine-flu ravaged Mexico City.

The LA earthquake interrupted a taping of Judge Judy! [B&C]

High School Musical trilogy star Ashley Tisdale appeared to be cool as cucumber after a 5.8 earthquake rocked the Los Angeles area. Tisdale admitted that she was a bit startled by the shaking in her home, but her caffeine related headache was far more painful. Tisdale said, "It was kind of like a ride at the fair, but my headache just made it unbearable to stare at lights or do anything. Earthquake or not, I need my Hazelnut. My headaches are worse than earthquake, trust me."

The LA earthquake did not disrupt the local screenings of Batman, thankfully. [LAT]

When the waters finally rise and sluice their way into New York City streets, it will be the bloggers-crazy, beautiful, typo-ridden-who become the first responders. I mean look at the reportage from the front of California's ELE earthquake today. Perez scooped CNN! Because he was there, feeling the rumble and hum of his assets shaking in his chair. So what are these intrepid shut-ins saying of the event? Take a look at a little earthquake reaction digest after the jump.

Reporters are scrambling all over the place in LA right now to find out just what "went down" in the Great Shake Of '08! Newspapers are pulling first-hand accounts off Twitter! Websites are quoting other websites! But the LA Times is already taking ownership of the official reaction-angle to the disaster, by tracking down Southern California's most scaredy-cat government officers to describe exactly how they cowered in fear when the quake struck an hour ago:

At 2:42 E.T. there was an earthquake in LA. A blogger confirms it. The LA Times homepage was down briefly. The AP says "Preliminary information from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the quake at magnitude 5.8, centered 29 miles east-southeast of downtown Los Angeles near Chino Hills." The quake was felt as far away as Las Vegas. [UPDATE: Click to watch a clip of CNN coverage of the quake and its damage]. Some online comments from people who were there, after the jump:

Yesterday we noted that even though the American media is the grand imperial bloodsucker of our nation's soul, that's okay; at least we don't immediately do bikini shoots on the scene of our latest national disasters. Like the media in China does. In a counterpoint, Animal's Bucky Turco argues that the Chinese government's censorship of the media in the wake of said photos was actually worse than the photos themselves—a couple of which he has posted on his site. Since we have posted only a heartrending photo of homeless young victims, we're better than him. So whatever. [Animal, Previously, Donate to Earthquake Relief]

A moderate earthquake shook the Valley at 8:04:54 p.m. The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 9 miles northeast of downtown San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "The strongest quake I've personally been in," wrote one blogger. As my editor says, "honey, it's not a real earthquake until you see your city burning down on national TV. That's an earthquake." Either way, this is the largest quake to hit the Bay Area since Loma Prieta in October '89. No reports of serious damage have been received, and minor damage has been reported in San Jose. Jump to see where things went down.

One hundred years after a quake rocked San Francisco, everyone wants to know: if another big one hit, who would get crushed?

We all know the big one's coming — one day, there'll be another quake in the Valley, and the rest of the country will fall into the ocean.