At the time of Columbus, most experts asserted that one could not reach India by sailing from Europe to the west and that funds should not be wasted on such a folly. Geller et al. make a similar mistake, but I doubt that human curiosity and ingenuity can be prevented in the long run from exploring fully the extent to which at least some earthquakes are predictable, although it is not easy. Such discoveries will be made in Japan, Europe, or China if the current lack of funding for earthquake prediction research continues in the United States.