Russell,

I'm sure you are aware that each person has physical abilities and for each one some are better at certain things than others. The sense of smell is a good one. Many people are very sensitive to perfumes and deodorants and such and others aren't bothered by it. Hearing too is that way. I have exceptional hearing and yet I can't hear everything perfectly. Most people who hear ear tones have areas where they are better than others and I do know and am glad to say that I don't hear Palm Springs very well. So I don't understand why that's a problem.

As for knowing where a sound came from we have a general idea because of the length of the tone, direction and the type of sound we hear. They are not all loud, all soft, or all medium. Each one is different and if you hear one place several times you remember the sound so at some point you memorize it. I memorized Parkfield and yet what I heard to me didn't sound loud enough to be a 6.0 quake. Did you read my web page about all of the information we use for each tone? Maybe I didn't make it clear enough yet. I know I have some work to do. Let me know about that, ok?

I'm afraid you didn't read the post about the Mexico prediction because I didn't hear the tone. It was reported by someone in my group. Maybe you'll want to read it again?

Russell, there is no doubt that the human being is not as good as an instrument which does only one thing. Every day of the week we are different depending on what we eat, how we sleep, the interactions with others and probably ten other things. I wish there were an instrument to do this one thing, but there isn't, so we document what we have and so far its so much better than it was as each year passes. If we weren't matching our sounds to future earthquakes the measurements would never ever work and if you'll look at the map on my site you'll see 13 matches in two weeks and we got every 3.0 in the state. We do that every two weeks and maybe miss one. I think that's pretty good, but taking that information and making a prediction out of it is difficult.

Compare our small radius to KB's 12000 square miles or to be off by .1 and not get any credit and yet a quake did show up in the right place at the right time. We aren't graded on levels of correctness, but either in or out. Which reminds me, I never saw a map of KB's prediction where he got San Simeon. I'd like to see that sometime. I wonder how many miles he included. I know the others have a formidable radius. My Willow Creek prediction only allowed 16 miles radius and Parkfield I think 37.5 or something like that. I can't remember anymore. But I did say Parkfield and the north end. It started in the south and ruptured to the north.

Oh, I forgot you have to know the geology of the areas. The Sierra backbone sounds very, very electric and loud, Parkfield sounds earthy, Cholame has some deep sounds, the Pinnacles like a finger around a wet wine glass edge, volcanic area's are scratchy and as many other choices as are in each area. Did you take geology? I think you said you did. That's why I do soils tests around here to know what each place is composed of, like Faught Road in Windsor is all ash embedded with obsidian and serpentine. I'm still amazed at that. Mostly around here we have clay soils so they create muted sounds around volcanic or igneous rock. The Internet has lots of information about local geology.

Petra