Mr Rabbitt,

I have this problem when someone wants to attempt to make something worthwhile useless by making the paramenters so tight that no one can meet them and then they can cheerfully go on your way saying NO one can do it.

The most important predictions are useful predictions. So let's suppose one predicts a quake up to a 7.0 and it arrives at a 7.1, is the prediction still useful? You bet cha. It's still useful at a 7.5 or a 6.5 as well. These events don't occur in California that often, so any combination in my book is a winner.

Predicting earthquakes is a issue that is in a learning process, just like predicting the weather was years ago. It needs a bit of latitude so you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. If you're looking for perfection, you'd need to go to heaven for that. It doesn't exist on earth.

Petra