It could have been ridiculously funny, if it hadn’t been so incredibly, mindboggingly stupid.
I think they’ve seen too many American disaster movies where the scientist not only predicts the catastrophe with unflinching accuracy, but also struggles to be taken seriously by the Powers that Be.
Stupidity in Italy and it doesn’t (directly) involve Berlusconi?
That’s silly, how could the seismologists have known when Amanda Knox was going to unleash an earthquake?
From the article: “thorough investigation of what happened, particularly with regard to information the committee may have had about which buildings were more likely to crumble”
Telling people which buildings don’t comply with current building codes is not the job of Civil Protection, it’s the job of the local building authorities (that is, someone from City Hall). Asking Civil Protection to do that makes as much sense as saying “why doesn’t someone from the Department of State come check who is encroaching on a neighbor’s property, uh?”
Shouldn’t they be trying Bennie? After all, an earthquake is an “Act of God” and as his representative on earth, Bennie bears the responsibility of warning everybody when The Big Guy is pissed.
Maybe that was the day he made it through all 11 ladies…
Imagine, 3 years ago the scientists had said there was an immediate danger and a couple of billion Euros need to be spent to make the population safe. What would have happened if the money was spent and no earthquake came?
He practices the ancient Roman art of whoreomancy. 11 equals no earthquake, 8 means it might rain. And 6 whores in a day? Well, that means that ol’ Silvio is losing his touch and needs to step it up, or the voters won’t respect his manliness.
So it’s not just Americans who don’t understand science:
Morons.
Shameful.
Yes.
Was this decision made solely by a judge or was there a panel or jury involved? However it arose, all concerned ought to be ashamed of their stupidity.
Hey, congratulations Italy. You just became the newest 3rd-World Country. Good job.
A more careful reading of the article seems to indicate that they were convicted of failing to warn of the dangers, not failing to predict. Their job was to evaluate the town and detail the weak spots and danger zones, and they minimized the potential disaster areas. This resulted is inadequate safety measures being put into place, and people dying as the result.
It seems like the scientists were responsible on describing the probabilities, but as it happens, many times politicians ignore the big picture and just mention to the public what they want to hear or to be reassuring, ignoring several parts of the report.
Maybe :dubious: the world scientific community would had agreed to get to the politicians, but this insane court in Italy was trying the scientists as well as the politicians.
So far as described and depending on more information, you bet I’m going to contact the local science groups to see how I can help with letters or contacting authorities in Italy to make the appeal and protect the scientists.
This is earth shattering news.
I think there’s a good chance there will be an appeal. I mean I’m not sure exactly when it’ll happen or anything or how many persons will be involved but, you know, at some point there’s a chance, a likelyhood than an appeal of some kind will occur.
For a country that can’t convict criminals that operate virtually out in the open, this is pretty fucking embarassing