Hi Don,

Thanks for the article. It rather triggered a thought process that might be a new concept in this situation. While current science is geared toward believing that earthquakes cannot be predicted, perhaps a change of focus to using the hypothesis that earthquakes can be predicted and gather all data to support this matter, may in fact open doors, which today remain closed.

All to often people in general will assume something cannot be accomplished. Purely, negative thinking. Therefore, in regard to earthquake prediction, if it were approached with a positive thought process, rather than a negative one, some forward motion might be at hand.

I'm not certain how many of our posters have read the Nature Debates in their entirety, but if one takes the points of view of all of the participants, it is quite easy to understand how so little progress has been made. Even those who were in support of continuing efforts were not very positive about the possibilities of success.

This issue brings to mind a little story I'll share with everyone, because it has such a broad use in regard to many issues in life.

This is the story of I Can't.

An elementary school teacher told her classroom of students that for the rest of the school year they were not to tell her, I can't do something. To bring a focus to this matter, she asked all of her students to write "I Can't" on a slip of paper. After the papers were ready, she took them to the far field of the school yard, dug a hole and asked the students to "bury" I can't in the shallow grave. She filled the grave and they said goodbye to I can't for the remainder of the year.

Perhaps those who have a serious interest in earthquake prediction should bar "I Can't" from participating in the Year 2002. Perhaps the Year 2002 could be the year of positive thinking, with diligent efforts toward success, and make this new year the cornerstone of the future. Move beyond the darkness of the impossible, into the light of "it can be done."

Ah, to dare to dream, that in a world with so much, we should allow ourselves to think we are limited only by negative thinking.

Petra