Testing earthquake prediction methods: «The West Pacific short-term forecast of earthquakes with magnitude MwHRV ≥ 5.8»

Analyzing the tables and probability maps posted by Yan Y. Kagan and David D. Jackson in April 2002–September 2004 at http://scec.ess.ucla.edu/~ykagan/predictions_index.html and the catalog of earthquakes for the same period, the conclusion is drawn that the underlying method could be used for prediction of aftershocks, while it does not outscore random guessing when main shocks are considered.     

“An oasis for us”: ‘in-between’ spaces of training for people with mental health problems in the Scottish Highlands

Training and Guidance (TAG) units in the Scottish Highlands are sites that people with mental health problems can access for training and learning activities designed to prepare them for (re-)entry into the labour market. These units also perform other, perhaps more intangible, roles in assisting trainees to cope with their mental health problems, thereby offering a supportive setting with therapeutic dimensions (albeit one not explicitly configured as delivering therapy). In this paper we explore the ‘in-between’ quality of the TAG units as spaces that might be said to possess dual economic and social roles. Using primarily qualitative evidence, we investigate both sets of roles, debating the extent to which the economic and social imperatives complement or contradict one another. The paper contributes to critical commentary on how ‘workfare’ initiatives articulate with the experiences and concerns of disabled trainees, the novelty arising in part from centralising the material spaces at the heart of such initiatives.     

Comment on “Estimates of heat flow from Cenozoic seafloor using global depth and age data” by M. Wei and D. Sandwell

To obtain the desired answer in support of a popular, previous cooling model for the sea floor, Wei and Sandwell provide a construct that is contrary to the simple physics governing subsidence of cooling oceanic crust and is also fraught with mathematical errors. Seven of their eight equations are either misused or incorrect or both. Errors made by Wei and Sandwell include not conserving rock-mass, incorrect differentiation, dividing by zero, moving variable parameters freely in and out of integrals, and neglecting variations in density that embody the essence of the phenomenon being modeled. We demonstrate all the above, show that their construct is closely related to the half-space cooling model, and that the linear, not volumetric thermal expansivity should have been used.     

A reply to “On the age of the Hoxnian Interglacial” by N. R. Page

The recent paper by Dr. N. R. Page (1972) proposes a time scale for Pleistocene events in East Anglia and southwest Britain which most workers on this subject find incredible and which results in a suggested correlation with other regions, particularly the English Midlands, which completely negates the many years of patient work of stratigraphers and palaeontologists. This paper is intended to show that the claims to the absolute ages of the East Anglian deposits cannot be sustained and that the resulting correlations with the Pleistocene of other parts of Britain and abroad are quite unacceptable.