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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 10/23/2012 : 13:11:01
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Italian courts have apparently gone nuts: Earthquake experts around the world say they are appalled by an Italian court's decision to convict six scientists on manslaughter charges for failing to predict the deadly quake that devastated the city of L'Aquila. They warned the ruling could severely harm future scientific research.
The court in L'Aquila sentenced the scientists and a government official Monday to six years in prison, ruling that they didn't accurately communicate the risk of the earthquake in 2009 that killed more than 300 people.
The trial centered on a meeting a week before the 6.3-magnitude quake struck. At the meeting, the experts determined that it was "unlikely" but not impossible that a major quake would take place, despite concern among the city's residents over recent seismic activity.
Prosecutors said the defendants provided "inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory information about the dangers" facing L'Aquila.
The court agreed, convicting the six scientists from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and a member of the Civil Protection Agency. It also ordered the Italian authorities to pay 7.8 million euros ($10 million) in damages.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 19:14:31 [Permalink]
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From the same country that threatened Galileo and burned Giordano Bruno. I guess they want to return to the good old days.
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Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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Machi4velli
SFN Regular
USA
854 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 19:56:55 [Permalink]
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"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking
"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 20:44:03 [Permalink]
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According to this article, the scientists weren't being charged with failing to predict an earthquake, but of providing criminally negligent information to government officials about the risks of one. | The prosecution's primary complaint is not so much that the government appointed panel of seismologists failed to predict the earthquake, but that they gave a falsely reassuring statement about its potential effects. The L'Aquila region had experienced two tremors prior to the earthquake, and local officials consulted the seismologists about whether or not it was a harbinger of things to come. In his closing statement, prosecuting attorney Fabio Picuti said the defendants had provided "an incomplete, inept, unsuitable and criminally mistaken" analysis which gave the residents of L'Aquila a false sense of security and led many to stay indoors when the first tremors hit. Science, they're arguing, did not do what was required. |
But it seems what the scientists said was that there is no statistical correlation between tremors and earthquakes, and that tremors in the area did not necessarily mean an earthquake was immanent. This, of course, is still true even though an earthquake did hit. The trial is a clear case of scapegoating.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 23:03:23 [Permalink]
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Scapegoats, indeed. What's next? NASA and the ESA blamed for solar flares? Virologists convicted of manslaughter for the next big flu epidemic? I suspect these verdicts reflect both the ignorance and anti-science sentiment that lurks in modern society. It's a throw-back to darker ages. Crops fail? Find the witch!
I guess God gets credit for the survivors of the L'Aquila earthquake, and scientists get blame for the deaths. Any credible seismologist in the world will tell you that prediction of quakes is not yet practical. That's basically what these scientists had reported in the first place. Italian politicians and courts, however, have 100% perfect records for earthquake postdiction. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 23:33:27 [Permalink]
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| Wow! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 10/24/2012 : 05:40:23 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Scapegoats, indeed. What's next? NASA and the ESA blamed for solar flares? Virologists convicted of manslaughter for the next big flu epidemic? I suspect these verdicts reflect both the ignorance and anti-science sentiment that lurks in modern society. It's a throw-back to darker ages. Crops fail? Find the witch! |
I'm right here, but you'll never take me alive!!!!!
So, when are they gonna reanimate the corpse of Torquemada and have him "investigate" this because the government needs someone to blame?
I guess God gets credit for the survivors of the L'Aquila earthquake, and scientists get blame for the deaths. Any credible seismologist in the world will tell you that prediction of quakes is not yet practical. That's basically what these scientists had reported in the first place. Italian politicians and courts, however, have 100% perfect records for earthquake postdiction.
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I will predict that INGV will shut down and when the government asks them about something they will suggest the government do something with themselves that is anatomically impossible.
I will say this about the INGV, at least they didn't "stumble" into the lifeboat. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Scientists aghast over Italian quake verdicts
