Originally posted by Evil Genius
Now, consider this semi-correct hit and the May quake in China which they missed by 1 day and they seem to be on to something.
The problem is
that I cannot consider this semi-correct. What was correct about it, that two large earthquakes would happen during this time? That, as far as I know,
was the only correct thing. The location was a failure and the magnitude was a failure. What was left is something for which statistics are enough.
I remember seeing a TV show where a man said that statistics can help something but they can not tell everything. That man, using statistics,
predicted that on a certain month there would be an aeroplane crash, the number of passengers involved, the type of aeroplane and the colours of the
company's logo, and his predictions was right, but only because of the frequency of aeroplane crashes, the average number of passengers, the average
type of aeroplane involved in crashes and the average colours of the logos.
It really wasn't a prediction because he could not predict exactly where and to which aeroplane or company, so I do not see a great difference
between those statistics predictions and the web-bot forecasts.
And only with enough statistic data can we rule out lucky guesses.
Another thing, that apparently people keep on forgetting, is that if these forecasts are really accurate, who is the responsible. For what we know,
the man behind it may have a specific ability to predict some events, and considering that he programmed to web-bot and all the other software that
does the data manipulation and is the same person that interprets the resulting data, the web-bot may be a failure while the man is the real wonder.