John,

To clarify, is GPS everywhere around the world? I'm thinking maybe it's restricted in some countries, such as Iraq and Iran for instance? As you know there is always the possibility of computer program errors so it seems appropriate that there should be a way of testing everything that goes into a program for accuracy. It's easy these days to just accept it and say "well, it's a computer program" and that's supposed to be the definitive answer, when in fact it never should be.

Some years ago at an oral at the AGU a woman was giving a presentation on the Landers-Big Bear quakes and she said she had relocated about ten of the earthquakes in her catalog and once that was done the butterfly pattern fit into the earthquake scenario. Inasmuch as they are reviewed before being placed in the catalogs I was a little leary about her moving them. I suppose she could be correct that they weren't in the right place, but I would have preferred that she used the data without adding her own spin on it. As I don't have the technical skills to check what she had done, I'm not sure it was correct. So when she presented her paper would someone have checked her method to confirm the findings were factual? I'm sure at a meeting it's not the appropriate time to ask such questions; but I feel someone should have asked.

Overall I'm a little unsure as to the state of the state. Many scientists have differing points of view and they create models which are accepted but there seems to be this room for testing whether the supposed conclusion is the right one. It may have taken 50 years for Wegener's theory to take hold, but the rest of it seems to have a much lower threshold for acceptance. Is that due to using to many other scientists findings when this is done? So if you're number ten in the process and you add your two cents, does one's two cents automatically pass through the rigors of testing?

I'm still trying to get past the labeling thing. I mean all of you went to college and learned pretty much the same basics, so why is it that some seem to be on the "fringe list?" Is there anything that is so far afield from the basics that it is way outside of the box?

Petra