L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
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Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#2This is unbelievable.
Is there anywhere to find all of the facts? This article doesn't give background info.
It took some digging to find that indeed the scientists had given a reassuring statement, though it had an expected but-we-cant-be-sure admonition, beforehand.
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#3presumably the result of the quake would have been the same if the scientists didn't give a reassuring message?
And now they are in jail, if another quake strikes, the same will happen again.
Surely it is better that scientists are at least trying to predict the quakes, even if they get it wrong sometimes?
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#4I can wholeheartedly recommend a documentary called Draquila – L'Italia che trema [1] about the L'Aquila earthquake.
As many of my Italian friends tell me, Italy is an absolutely corrupt shit hole. I remember a scene where they showed recordings of civil protection officials gloating about the disaster on the phone, right after it happened. They talked about the opportunity to make money [2].
The head of the national civil protection service is / was notorious in his blatant abuse of emergency powers to give government contracts (construction) without oversight to his crooked friends.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draquila_%E2%80%93_LItalia_che_...
[2] At the end of the trailer: http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/lTyjwBhD9HOI/en/...
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#5"It was not immediately known if they planned to appeal." of course they do, it's on many Italian media.
And in Italy there is a 3-tier system, this was only the first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_Italy
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#6That will teach those smug seismologists.
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#7Unbelievable.
At first I assumed that the scientists must have been out drinking, or must have made up the data ... but, no, they simply gave the best prediction they could, as they should.
I guess that forecasters of quakes and weather in Italy now have two alternatives: always claim a disaster is upon them, or move to a country where judges understand statistics.
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#8This is unbelievable. Is there anywhere to find all of the facts? This article doesn't give background info. It took some digging to find that indeed the scientists had given a reassuring statement, though it had an expected but-we-cant-be-sure admonition, beforehand.
Here is a story with a good background on the events. It's more complex than you would guess:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100622/full/465992a.html
In particular, at least one member of the civil defense bureaucracy went out of his way to say there was a consensus that there was no danger (even though there was not such a strong consensus):
"Immediately after that meeting, De Bernardinis and Barberi, acting president of the committee, held a press conference in L'Aquila, where De Bernardinis told reporters that "the scientific community tells us there is no danger, because there is an ongoing discharge of energy. The situation looks favorable". No other members of the committee were at the press conference."
There should be consequences for such grave misrepresentations. I was surprised to see that the whole committee is being punished, though, and not just the official who misrepresented the state of knowledge.
Maybe, as some other commenters have noted, this is part of a ritual of condemnation at the first judicial level and absolution upon appeal to the second or third level.
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#9That will teach those smug seismologists.
let's burn down the observatory so this never happens again!
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#10presumably the result of the quake would have been the same if the scientists didn't give a reassuring message? And now they are in jail, if another quake strikes, the same will happen again. Surely it is better that scientists are at least trying to predict the quakes, even if they get it wrong sometimes?
They are not in jail, and I bet they will never go to jail. I say this because, as Italian, I've seen way too many processes ended in first degree with a condemnation, and later on, in the second and third grade, ended with an absolution.