Scientists On Trial For.... Earthquakes?

[Housebroken Lunatic]

Yeah, the Romans sucked, with all their stupid aqueducts, and paved roads, architecture, sewage systems, Monty Python sketches etc. Fuck those guys!

Ah but you forget something, who BUILT all those aqueducts and paved roads? No, no im not talking about the "designers" but the manual labour. That's right: slaves!

And where did romans get their slaves from? Why their many imperialistic wars of conquest of course!

So if I lived in olden times, then yeah: I'd totally say: fuck the romans!.. But being scandinavian, I probably wouldn't be much better myself considering that the vikings didn't have the best of reputation abroad. There's a reason why some old maps say not to go north: Beware, here be cold winters where you freeze your balls off, and fucking vikings who'll kill you and take your stuff!

 

[bootz]

This reminds me of how much people on the East Coast freaked when that tiny 5.9 earthquake happened in Virginia. People just like drama.

On my news there was a lady saying she thought is was the end of the world. Her couch moved an inch from the wall, no other dmg. It was hilarious.

 

[UltraXan]

At least the scientists have one, *very* strong argument for them: There currently is NO way of predicting earthquakes! You have no case!

I shall now join the masses of everyone else: *facepalm*

 

[Link Kadeshi]

This reminds me of how much people on the East Coast freaked when that tiny 5.9 earthquake happened in Virginia. People just like drama.

People on the East Coast of the US are not used to quake of any real magnitude, nor are their buildings meant to withstand a 5.9 quake. Kinda like when a Texan gets a blizzard.

Though back to the topic, I'm really hoping this is a national joke, or something. Reminds me of the (British I think) woman who sued NASA (US' space administration) for ramming a prob into an asteroid, thus screwing her astrological readings, or some such.

EDIT: Wow, that last sentence was a bit Freudian...

 

[James Crook]

Just so you know folks, Europeans that come out ≠ science-knowledgeable...
and you thought American lawyers and prosecutors were silly.

 

[angry_flashlight]

First thought:

Seriously? How these people live their lives without forgetting how to breathe just amazes me.

 

[theultimateend]

The stupid. It hurts so much.
I totally expected this to be coming from some religious nuts in the US.

See! It's not just us!

Other people got crazies too!

Which country is this?

At least its not Italy, that way I don't feel like half my family tree is involved.

...

AW GODDAMNIT!

 

[DarkRyter]

To be honest, I don't even think the prosecutors believe what they're saying.

They're just being dickbags.

 

[Random berk]

Yeah, the Romans sucked, with all their stupid aqueducts, and paved roads, architecture, sewage systems, Monty Python sketches etc. Fuck those guys!

Ah but you forget something, who BUILT all those aqueducts and paved roads? No, no im not talking about the "designers" but the manual labour. That's right: slaves!

And where did romans get their slaves from? Why their many imperialistic wars of conquest of course!

So if I lived in olden times, then yeah: I'd totally say: fuck the romans!.. But being scandinavian, I probably wouldn't be much better myself considering that the vikings didn't have the best of reputation abroad. There's a reason why some old maps say not to go north: Beware, here be cold winters where you freeze your balls off, and fucking vikings who'll kill you and take your stuff!

You've kind of already used my response to that just now. The Romans might seem bad by our modern standards, but in the old days almost everyone was conquering land and taking slaves, if they had the strength and tech for the job. Difference between the Romans and, say, the Huns, or the Mongols under Genghis Khan, or indeed the Vikings, was that the Romans used their power to make great advances in civilised pursuits such as science and art. (Yes, I know those four cultures all arrived on the scene at very different times.)


In an conversation like this, I feel I really should post this:

Spoiler

http://youtu.be/ExWfh6sGyso[/youtube]

 

[Zetatrain]

If you'd like to read this story from a less *ahem* "impassioned" source, you can read it here:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/311759

It makes the important distinction that the scientists had told the government that a major earthquake was "improbable", so I can see why they'd be a bit miffed that the entire city was reduced to rubble and three hundred people lost their lives.

Not that Gizmodo, the pinnacle of unbiased reporting, would ever overlook something so important for the opportunity for lavish dramatics.

Damn, i was just about to point this out. The article in the original post said absolutely nothing about the fact that the Scientists involved actually reassured people that it was nothing to worry about. There's a huge difference between not warning someone about something that 'may' happen, and coming out as an 'expert' and saying everythings going to be fine. A lot of people take the words of Scientists very seriously (almost as absolute) and to say that, when apparantly there is no reliable way to predict earthquakes, is very dangerous.

Well I guess I can see why some people would be pissed, but this piece of information does not change much if anything at all. Improbable means unlikely and unless that area of Italy was near a major fault line or had a history of major earthquakes I think that improbable is a reasonable term to use. I would really like to see this "inexact, incomplete and contradictory information the prosecution speaks of.

 

[Lug100]

Ugh, really?

That's just...

I can't...

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the angry dome.

Is there room in there for two?

Government on trial should be a new reality series, right? Wouldn't that be one of the highest rated programs ever? I'd think so.

Better make it three.

Were gunna need a bigger dome, count me in also =_=

 

[Terminate421]

I'm surprised this is happening in Italy. usually its some dumbass town out here in America.

 

[Avalanche91]

oh those wacky italians. will they ever learn?


captcha; etonsc one's self? how does one even....

 

[ssgt splatter]

Love how they are blaming the scientists instead of blaming the office in charge of warning the public.

Ugh, really?

That's just...

I can't...

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the angry dome.

Is there room in there for two?

Government on trial should be a new reality series, right? Wouldn't that be one of the highest rated programs ever? I'd think so.

Better make it three.

Lets make it a whole damn party. I'll bring the spiked purple soda.

Good idea, I'll bring a bag of chips and my XBOX so we can play Gears 3 after we're done cursing their stupidity.

 

[tthor]

Ugh, really?

That's just...

I can't...

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the angry dome.

Is there room in there for two?

Government on trial should be a new reality series, right? Wouldn't that be one of the highest rated programs ever? I'd think so.

Better make it three.

Were gunna need a bigger dome, count me in also =_=

we should just build a city in our dome. then we could keep out the stupid

 

[Scout Tactical]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Galileo placed under house arrest until his death which was due to natural causes?

That's correct. Apologies if my post implied he was executed by the Church. To be honest, I was in a hurry when I was typing that out, so I would not be surprised if it sounded that way. EDIT: I checked, and you're right! I can't believe I said "the real reason he was executed". I meant to say "the real reason he was tried". I think I must have been getting ahead of myself, wanting to talk about Bruno.

He was tried for heresy, but he had his sentence commuted to house arrest, likely because he had such a long-running good relationship with the church, and because it is difficult to claim someone is a heretic when they claim that their "heresy" doesn't conflict with scripture (Galileo shared Copernicus's viewpoint that heliocentricism does not defy the Bible).

Ironically, Galileo's greatest work may have been the work he completed in the comfort of his home while under house arrest. This was the time period that he wrote "Two New Sciences" -- about kinetics and durability. It would seem that Pope Urban VIII inadvertently caused Galileo to become the father of modern physics by commuting his sentence (while he himself would come to be known for nothing more than accumulating a huge debt for the Papacy -- another sign of his moral failings).

 

[devotedsniper]

All i really have to say about this is what idiot comes up with this crap? I dread the day when some idiot starts claiming all us programmers are evil and didn't try to prevent the terminator robots...

 

[LostTimeLady]

50,000 geologists, geophyscists and basically Earth Scientists in general all cry out a resounding:
[HEADING=1]"WHAT, THE, HECK!"[/HEADING]

As a geologist I find this not only infruriating but shows that there is a complete lack of understanding about these sorts of things amoungst the people who should be on the scientist's side. My goodness.

It should be governments backing up the scientists and telling people, 'hay guys, you can't predict these things, they've been working on it for years and you can.' Not saying 'oh, yeah, it's totally the scientists fault, y'know, the people what try save lives through science.'

Oh dear...

 

[Nathan Allison]

I always knew the Italian scientists teamed with the Japanese!