John,

The science community by its own actions is suppressing information. Every time there is a glimmer of hope it makes sure there's a way to dismiss it and get rid of it as fast as possible. But the end result is that it is still happening, but not where you can see it. For an instant when I first read your message I thought I stepped back into 1999 again. This has overtones of life under a dictatorship. So much for freedom of information. There's no freedom if a body of people can dictate that millions of people are not allowed to receive earthquake warnings by people who are more than qualified.

So they'll dig a hole and spend millions of dollars and when they can't come up with anything they'll say, "we tried, but we have no results" and in the meantime what happens to the guy that goes to work in a brick building and has the walls collapse on him during an earthquake? We know for a fact that if people receive a warning some of them are going to live because they have now been provided with a choice of what to do. They can make a decision not to go into those unsafe structures, not to take their kids to unsafe schools, not to drive on old overpasses and not to park in underground parking structures. They can have their final warning to prepare as best possible, put things of value into a safer place, and for businesses they can do whatever is necessary to protect the products they produce so they won't suffer so great a loss.

Somehow a benefit to the Citizens of California has been snatched away from them under the guise of looking like its for their own good. That's a pretty nifty trick and it only happens because the average citizen doesn't know about it. If these people knew the truth about what happened to them, they would be outraged.

What it boils down to is a control issue. They want to hand pick and control what information gets out to the public and make sure no one else has the chance. This has worked for them for some time, but it won't work forever. Sooner or later someone is going to catch on and its going to get interesting about then. Is there any chance KB's prediction was never released for San Simeon because the downtown section was primarily unreinforced masonry buildings and then another given for the desert out in the public eye where there was a lesser chance of severe damage? Or was it ever for real? How good is a prediction for 900 square miles and 9 months anyway? It is totally useless. He said something at the AGU to me and now I know what he meant. Don't ask him, he won't remember. He'll never remember.

Life takes some strange turns sometimes and the strangest may be about to arrive. You know Jordan's funding of 1.2 million dollars is not very much money for serious research. Salaries alone could eat that up in no time at all. They ate up $500,000 to $1,000,00 a year in Parkfield and that didn't even cover any new equipment. He may only have a year or less and then that will be done. That's not long in earthquake prediction research, actually way to short to accomplish anything of substance. Two other scientists pointed that out to me recently.

There is no doubt earthquakes can be predicted. You just can't give them out in public in California unless there are special circumstances.

Petra

Petra