Hi EQF,

I know John will hop along here soon and probably say pretty much the same that I will say. In any subject matter you must understand why something does or does not occur. You have to know why. If you don't know why something worked 30 times, but not the 31st, then you know you do not have the correct answer to the question.

That is why scientists in scientific circles, (not private) do not pubicly predict earthquakes. There is no known method available to them which works 100% of the time. That being the case, they cannot issue warnings which may in fact be false alarms because it undermines the publics trust and it is costly. If you predict say 10 5.0 quakes and 1 8.0 quake and the 8.0 is wrong, but the 5.0's are right, you have got some real heat on you to explain yourself.

That is why you don't predict earthquakes. You have a problem with being correct and thus you refuse to do so. You have clearly demonstrated this for years. You don't wish to take the heat if you are wrong, so you just say you can, but never provide proof that you can.

You are asking scientists to do something even you wouldn't do. I like John and I would like for him to keep his job, so I don't want him predicting earthquakes and getting fired. So I would not ask him to predict them.

Science requires demonstrated proof that something works and an explanation as to why it works. If you could demonstrate your program worked, you could issue your predictions and you wouldn't need anyone else's help in explaining your method.

I am well aware that you are not a happy camper when I post messages to you. Some men do not like aggressive women and especially successful women. I have a problem with people with large ego's who huff and puff and seem like they want to blow me over. When that happens, I dig in my heels and give them a thought or two to think about. If you post a message on a message board which is open to the public, then you set yourself up for answers you may not appreciate. I'm sorry, but we can't just sit out here all of the time and never say anything. Is that what you really want? Or do you want us to always agree with you? You can't have it that way. Its a forum. It is supposed to provoke a response.

Petra