<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1264" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"> <DIV> <DIV>Hi, All:</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well, now I've received a few -- only four, actually -- responses to my tongue-in-cheek posting of a hypothetical, insanely long, clearly meaningless code for logging an eruption of Grand Geyser. Two laugh and support my poking fun at the "institutionalized... gibberish" of "people who take themselves just a little too seriously."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Two, however, thought that I was being frivilous and that my post should not have been promulgated as it (in the words of one) "needlessly made fun of a legitimate quest for understanding." Oh, crud.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I honestly believe that there are some gazers who hate (not too strong) such posts by me. OK. Do let me say that I think the basic notation (for example: D3/T2Q) is fine. I routinely log such things and so on. But I personally doubt if there is any validity to noting the different between what are perceived as long vs short second bursts (* or no-*), third bursts, etc. C'mon folks. Who decided that an apparently arbitrary difference of 1 second -- 44 versus 45 -- is significant? Do even the most dedicated of gazers _always_ watch their watch consistently enough to even say that it honestly was 44 versus 45 seconds, that such would be judged as "statistically significant" (which seems to be vital to some)?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Indeed, after many years and _thousands_ of logged eruptions (and it truly is into the thousands by now), I have yet to hear of any significant meaning to T versus G, C versus Q and etc. Sometimes, if an eruption is closely watched, a series of afterbursts can be anticipated, BUT is there any meaning to afterbursts?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>The only reasonably solid things I can recall as being at least minimally discussed recently, are: </DIV> <DIV>-- a bit of a relationship between total duration (regardless of the number of bursts) and following the following interval;</DIV> <DIV>-- a relationship between total Vent-Turban action after Grand and refill time.</DIV> <DIV>Will I follow up on these? Probably not, as I certainly do not now possess either the data or the will to spend the necessary time at Grand. But some people around -- quite a few -- wouldn't miss Grand for anything. So......</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Here, really, is the point to this whole thing......</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If anybody out there is able to show meaning in any of this stuff, then why have they not -- not once so far -- promulgated the information. Why? The venues have been available -- The Sput was started in 1987, and the first Transactions came out in 1989.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If anybody _does_ have info on the significance of any of the above, then I'm sure that many other people would be happy to learn of it. Gee -- maybe a note to the Sput, or a Transactions article. Or even a list post.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for listening.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Scott Bryan</DIV></BODY></HTML>