Congrats, Martin, on day 2 (!) of quitting smoking.

I was wondering why you seemed so testy today, and not until your post above did I remember. And here I'm the one who suggested it to you in the first place. A menopause moment. It happens.

I hate this petty bickering.

I think we, as a group, should vow to disagree respectfully lest we end up with the flame wars that seem to thrive on the Syzygy scrub. I find it a total waste of time and energy to immerse myself in all that acrimony every day. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. It's toxic, and because of that, I don't visit there often anymore.

Canie, you are this list's owner/moderator (and have always been a joy), so far be it for me to suggest the basic rules of decency here. But if you don't mind, I'd like to make a few suggestions that hopefully will get the tone of this board back to one of mutual respect and cooperation.

I learn more about earthquakes on this site than any other, and for that I thank you all.

Just a few suggestions:

1) Be nice.

2) Apologize if you've not been nice. It take a big spirit to admit one's mistakes.

3) If someone has sent you a kind, thoughtful post, please respond to them, even if it only takes fifteen seconds of your day. That person has spent their time sending you good wishes; it is only decent to reciprocate. You don't have to like a person to be cordial to them. A simple "Thank you" takes all of three seconds to type and send.

4) It's a man's world, and the world of geology is certainly no different. We women have brains and ideas, too. I wish I had Don's vast knowledge of earth history or understood Frank Condon's graphs, or could figure out what methods Dennis Gentry uses for his predictions, but that's why I'm on this board: to learn. And to contribute what little I do know, when appropriate.

(I made a prediction I made for the Sylmar EQ in 1971 that will knock your socks off if anyone wants to hear about it.)

I've noticed that many times, the womens' posts on this board go unresponded to. It hurts to be ignored. You guys don't have to respond to every single post a woman here makes, especially the ones that blather on and on and never seem to say much, but sometimes this list does take on the character of a frat party in which some troll has spiked the punchbowl with crystal meth and testosterone.

So please respond, occasionally, to us females. We're allegedly the more sensitive to earthquakes of the two genders. We do have something to contribute, be it scientific knowledge, extrapolation, or just feminine intuition. (Which is, by no means, limited to females.)

That's it. Just four suggestions, but I hope some of you on this board will take them to heart.

If I'm out of bounds, here, Canie, I will gracefully apologize.

In the meantime, let's cut some slack to Martin who is in the process of quitting smoking. More addictive than cocaine, they say. I believe it, though being the addictive personality that I am, I've never had the guts to try the latter. Thank God.

Respectfully submitted,

Cathryn

Ph.D. UCLA, 1979, but not in earth sciences.