As scheduled, everything across China stopped at 2:28 p.m. today to mark one week since the Sichuan earthquake. It couldn't be called a "moment of silence," because drivers were urged to all blow their horns at once, with air-raid sirens for backup. On Tian'anmen Square, where thousands of people had gathered around the flagpole, it then got a lot louder, as the crowd greeted the end of the pause by launching into an hour-long free-form patriotic rally.
