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The California’s Building Code is meant to protect you from the three horsemen of the apocalypse – fire, flood and earthquakes. Rioting – the fourth, unofficial rider and a much less frequent destroyer of lives – is not provided for in the code. Fire and flood-preventative designs have been around for years, and but for a few structural improvements and new cites in the code for things like fireproof shake-style rooves, I’m guessing the greatest leap in technology has been in the realm of earthquakes. Two architect friends of mine are now learning all about it by slogging through the arduous year-long state licensing process, which has something like nine exams. But you don’t need to know any of that to buy earthquake-proofing hardware such as foundation bolts and galvanized steel truss straps for strengthening your rafters. Like other Venice homeowners, mad for jury-rigging new structures in their back yards just under the radar of the generally tolerant, or perhaps ignorant code enforcement department, I did a little DIY earthquake-proofing in our last house. That’s when I discovered my favorite screws. Stout, sharp, versatile and cheap. They’re self-drilling and magnetic. You can stick one on the Philips bit of your screwgun, reach overhead or below where you’d care to crouch, and poke it onehanded into anything that needs fastening. Zzzzzzip. The thinking man’s duct tape.