Hi Canie,

In my opinion, you should not shut down the board. There are people including Roger and myself who find it a helpful resource for circulating information regarding earthquake research projects. Other people will as well. Just wait until the next major earthquake and more notes should be appearing.

Also in my opinion, one of the main problems over the years has been the fact that a certain percentage of the international scientific community feels threatened by anyone who insists in public that it might be possible to forecast some of our earthquakes. And as a group they have decided to fight in every way possible, any attempts to state in public that “Earthquakes Can Be Predicted.” The EarthWaves board has in the past been caught in the middle of that battle.

Now that the Italy earthquake trial resulted in a guilty verdict against 5 scientists and 1 government official, that international group of scientists is a little more hesitant to go on the attack against anyone proposing that at least some earthquakes can be predicted. And that should make it possible for other scientists who believe that to make more rapid progress.

Scientists need to respect the opinions of other scientists even when they consider them threatening to their own careers. It is not correct for them to launch potentially highly damaging attacks against the scientists who don’t go along with what is considered “politically correct.” And one medical worker who refused to go along with what is “politically correct” and I personally feel should have been given a Nobel Prize for his efforts was the former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. I wonder if anyone will ever be able to determine just how many lives he saved by taking on the tobacco industry and telling everyone that “Cigarettes are dangerous and even deadly.”

The people who approved his nomination were probably dropping dead from shock in the isles of the Senate when they heard him say that.

These are personal opinions.