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L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
41–50 of 112 posts
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#42Why weren't any psychics sued?
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#43I 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…
Whether or not the seismologists gave some kind of reassurance or not, it seems ridiculous to try them for manslaughter. Perhaps professional incompetence or the like, but it's not as though the town would have done anything different had they said without any provable foundation "a major earthquake is imminent". Seismology is in such infancy that holding people responsible for acts of nature, which state of the art…
I agree. When I had first read the title I thought maybe they somehow CAUSED the quake. Definitely got me interested until I actually read the full article. Seems a little overboard the amount of "justice" taken upon them.
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#44Risk prediction is about minimizing expected risk, which does not exactly correspond to the eventual damage done. This means that there will be times when they are wrong. If we punish risk predictors this harshly for being wrong, no one will want to take this job up since it basically guarantees eventually being convicted of manslaughter. But without such people we have no hope of ever mitigating such disasters.
This ruling scares me.
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definition of DOCK : the place in a criminal court where a prisoner stands or sits during trial — in the dock : on trial http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dock Commonly used in British/Commonwealth English, and Nature is based in London. I don't think I've ever heard it used in American English.
"On the stand" would be the equivalent US idiom.
US and UK court idioms vary widely -
a US defendant would be "on trial"
while a UK accused would be "in the dock"
Any witness would "on the stand" including a defendant who is called as a witness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_stand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtroom
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#46I'm stunned. I hope other countries are not stupid enough to follow Italy down this ridiculous path. Can the EU intercede and do something here ?
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#47Why stop there - why not put "God" on trial and call in the church to do defense?
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#48This is an extremely important case, in that it underlies a central concern in scientific reporting, and it threatens to change the risks associated with scientific innovation and communication. For instance, if scientists at a pharmaceutical company issue unfounded assurances that a drug is safer than it is in truth, consumers might have a reasonable case. On the other hand, predicting earthquakes is so difficult, e…
What do you think is an appropriate punishment, if any, for a scientific/governmental body that exercises authority over people, particularly in instances of fear due to natural disasters, when it makes statements that have people stay in their homes even though the natural disaster happens anyway?
Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#49Why stop there - why not put "God" on trial and call in the church to do defense?
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Re: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter
#50Predicting an earthquake is predicting when a bent wooden ruler will snap. Sometimes it creaks before it snaps. Sometimes it creaks, and doesn't snap. Sometimes it just snaps. The way to prevent deaths from earthquakes is to ensure buildings can survive them. Modern buildings collapsed in the quake. I wonder if they were built to standard, or if a few corners were cut?
If the bender neglected to tell the observers to wear eye protection and the unthinkable happened, they should be held accountable. A ruler in the eye is no way to start a Monday.
That is ridiculous. Any reasonably intelligent person knows that the science of predicting earthquakes is terrible. If you are smart you would take reasonable precautions to something like that. You live in an non-reinforced brick house from the 1500's and you feel a tremor; maybe it's time to get out of town for a while. The scientists didn't do the bending.