All I have to add is just the suggestion that after this unpleasant incident, we on this board vow to use our own time more wisely and not allow ourselves to be drawn into meaningless semantic parsings that seem to fall under the aegis of graduate school b.s. sessions.

I won't be responding to him/her again, and I would hope that you and many others on Earthwaves wouldn't waste any more of time on him/her as well.

John, you have important work to do with your graduate students and colleagues without having to filter out niggling points of phrase, a propensity towards entering a discussion from a defensive stance, and a sense of hubris I find truly astonishing.

That on top of all your responsibilities, you still find time to share your research and opinions on this forum, I find admirable. You have your family as well. There are only so many hours in a day.

It was sad when Lowell left the board, but then shortly thereafter, you appeared to fill his shoes. We on this list want to thank you for just being here, and helping us to more better understand the properties of earthquake science while lending an open ear to some of our less convential theories re: earthquake precursors.

Finis for me. I say we all just ignore Ara unless a) s/he has an idea worthy of comment, b) has a non-agressive attitude in presenting those ideas, c) speaks respectfully to all members of this board, especially to John (whom s/he seems to have singled out as the enemy) and d) has apologized to the board at large for wasting a lot of our valuable time.

Respectfully,

Cathryn