Scientists convicted of manslaughter for failing to predict earthquakes in Italy

[Jenna]

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.

Scientists aghast over Italian quake verdicts - CNN.com

[bayern]

Yeah, and another Italina declared that the earth is still flat..

[Bjohnson63]

so, should we start jailing the meterologists everytime they screw up a forecast?

[Xiphos]

The blame game. Somebody's fault and you can't sue God. A child country and its nanny government.

[lewisipso]

They asked the wrong person.

[Odd]

How's the Pope's record?

[Xiphos]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...tists-14022183

If people understood the science—even at a high school Earth Science level—they’d understand that scientific predictions about earthquakes are at best educated guesses. If people understood that life is inherently risky, they’d realize that their desire for complete security can never be fully realized. And if people understood that the trauma of losing friends and family can give rise to an irrational urge to find someone to blame, they might resist the temptation to engage in the scapegoating that took place in Italy.

In more primitive times, of course, people responded to tragedies like earthquakes, plagues, and famines by assuming that someone had angered the gods or was practicing witchcraft. The offender was identified often by the sort of procedures parodied by Monty Python, and then hanged, burned, or thrown into a volcano. This didn’t do much to address the problem, but it let the survivors feel better, and let the authorities look like they’d done something about a problem that was in fact beyond their reach.

[Xiphos]

How's the Pope's record?

From a recent trip I can assure you catholicism has little or no religious influence in Italy anymore. Most of the giant cathedrals in Rome sit empty. I think their predominant religion now is government.

[Odd]

A'yup, about the only time I hear about Italy anymore it's about white slavery. Doesn't have much to do with earthquakes. As you said, they're looking for someone to blame, and troubles they have in heaps.