“Send in the toads to test for quakes“. Note: This is apparently not an April Fools joke. Anthony Watts’ latest copy-and-paste shows that when it comes to scientific enlightenment, he turns to right-wing political pundits. In this case, Andrew Breitbart.
A surface station!
This post is about an apparently anecdotal report of animal behavior, toads in this case, acting as an indicator of impending seismic activity. Goofy.
Wott's Up With That? 
It’s as if he thinks by showing that there are implausible things in the world, we ought immediately to treat his implausible anti-science with new respect.
Sorry, Anthony. Some true propositions sound stupid, but not all stupid-sounding propositions are true
Hey! the toads have a better track record then the climate models!
[You’re serious, aren’t you? That’s funny. It’s completely beside the point, but the toads have no track record. – Ben]
It wasn’t an anecdotal report: the toads were under scientific study when the earthquake happened.
“However, biologist Dr Rachel Grant of the Open University, in Milton Keynes, UK, was routinely studying the behaviour of various colonies of common toads on a daily basis in Italy around the time a massive earthquake struck.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8593000/8593396.stm
[It’s “anecdotal” until it has been observed in different locations and during different events. – Ben]