It is remarkable how widespread of CCTV has helped in that field. Imagine being a scientist and never actually experience or see the earthquake you are into researching. That be like going to place where they are common and then sit a year or so and anticipating. Is it coming? Should be any time soon? Then when it happens you are in the toilet and have seen nothing apart from painting falling off the wall.

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latexr 5 days ago | parent [-]

How about waiting over a decade and be getting a drink when it happens? Then waiting another decade and a technical problem preventing it from having been recorded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment#Universi...

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qntmfred 5 days ago | parent [-]

also reminds me of:

in 1663 Scottish mathematician James Gregory figured out that you could calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun by making measurements during the transit of Mercury or Venus across the Sun. You get much more accurate results with Venus, but the next transit of Venus wasn't predicted to be until 1761 and 1769.

In 1760 French mathematician Guillaume Le Gentil sailed from France to India to make observations of the transit, but due to weather and delays, he was still on the ship when summer 1761 arrived and he missed his chance to make his measurements. So he stayed in India for another 8 years. And then on the day of the 1769 transit, it was cloudy and he missed it again. So he went back to France where he found out he had long ago been declared dead, his possessions had been seized and his wife had married somebody else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDSM-CtYzxY&t=5m29s

	▲	macintux 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Fascinating story, thanks. How many astronomers have had a play and an opera written about them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Le_Gentil