Hi Don,

There was no insult intended there on my part. And if you read one into my comments then I would have to say that it might have simply been due to the wording of the comments.

As far as posting forecasts to this board is concerned,

It is my philosophy regarding that that each earthquake forecaster has to decide what the most appropriate procedure is for circulating his or her own forecasts. If you wish to circulate your forecasts through EarthWaves board postings then that would represent you personal choice. My own choice would be to store the data at my Web site and then let other people draw their own conclusions regarding how they should be interpreted.

After an earthquake occurred I might then post a note to the this board stating that I felt that this or that precursor had pointed to the earthquake and why that was the case. In my opinion those numbers usually look pretty clear.

Consider the following:

After that devastating earthquake last year in India some astrologer over there reportedly circulated a warning for a powerful aftershock to occur on February 3, 2001 if I remember correctly. His was circulated in public. I myself circulated an aftershock warning for the same day. But I sent it to India government officials and did not circulate it in public.

From reports that I have seen, the astrologer got arrested and put in prison for some time. And he was eventually released. But someone told me that he died shortly after that for reasons that I would prefer not to discuss here, especially since I cannot confirm them. The government of India had nothing to do with it.

My conclusion after hearing those stories is that if he had never made that prediction or if he had not circulated it in public then he might still be alive. That was a pretty high price to pay for making a public prediction, assuming that what I heard was correct.

The moral of the story is that some care probably needs to be exercised regarding how predictions like that are made and circulated.

Consider also the following:

I believe that Canie can be held a least partly responsible for any material which is posted to her bulletin board. Your forecasts do not appear to be causing any trouble as far as I can see. I myself am choosing not to post detailed forecasts to her board except perhaps for an occasional research related one. Perhaps that is being overly careful. But again, that is part of my own preference for circulating forecasts.

Finally, if you checked with Canie I believe that she would state that I never on any occasion requested or recommended to her that anyone who has ever posted a note here be asked to stop posting notes to the EarthWaves board. However, I was concerned that some posts were getting too personal.

These are my own opinions.