[XarokLasa]

Ok, so I picked a rather vague title, but this is beyond ridiculous....

Italian scientists arrested over deadly quake
Frances D'Emilio
May 27, 2011

ROME: Seven scientists and other experts have been indicted on manslaughter charges for allegedly failing to warn residents sufficiently before an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy in 2009.

Defence lawyers condemned the charges yesterday, saying it was impossible to predict earthquakes. Seismologists have long concurred, saying no big earthquake has been foretold.

The judge, Giuseppe Romano Gargarella, ordered members of the national government's great risks commission, which evaluates potential for natural disasters, to go on trial in L'Aquila on September 20.

The judge reportedly said the defendants ''gave inexact, incomplete and contradictory information'' about whether smaller tremors felt in L'Aquila in the six months before the April quake should have constituted grounds for a warning.

Prosecutors focused on a memo issued after a meeting of the commission in March 2009 called because of mounting concerns about seismic activity. The memo - issued a week before the big quake - said experts had concluded a big quake was ''improbable'' but could not be excluded.

Commission members later stressed to the media that six months of low-magnitude quakes was not unusual in the highly seismic region and did not mean a big one was coming.

In one interview included in the prosecutors' case, a commission member, Bernardo De Bernardis, responded to a question about whether residents should just relax with a glass of wine. ''Absolutely, absolutely, a Montepulciano doc,'' he replied, referring to a red wine.

Such a reassuring opinion ''persuaded the victims to stay at home'', the indictment reportedly said.

The 6.3-magnitude quake killed 308 people in and around the mediaeval town, which was largely reduced to rubble. Thousands of survivors lived in tent camps or temporary housing for months.

Defence lawyers contend that since earthquakes cannot be predicted, accusations that the commission should have sounded an alarm make no sense.

Although earthquakes cannot be predicted, after Japan's recent devastating quake experts said an early warning system in place there to detect the Earth's rumblings before they could be felt helped save countless lives.

But as recently as this month Italy's national geophysics institute insisted earthquakes could not be predicted in a bid to dispel a widely reported prediction of a huge quake that was due to strike Rome on May 11. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/italian-...#ixzz1P4uz3MVf

[XiWm9O9S]

Somebody's been watching too many low-grade disaster movies.

You know, the one where the hero spends the first half of the movie warning the local townspeople of impending danger, and gets ridiculed by the scientific community. Along the way, he meets a hot, young, single mother of two precocious children.

In the second half, events unfold exactly how and when he predicted; and most of the locals are killed off in the mayhem. The hero manages to stay about 20 feet ahead of the destruction, saves his new girlfriend, the kids, and the family dog.

This would be just a little silly if the scientists were charged with dereliction of duty or the like.

But manslaughter?

Attention Rapture predictors: you're all invited to Italy for your next prophecy.

[bZEUWO4F]

I love it the way you guys read an article like this and question nothing.

[TornadoPD]

This should be good.

[milfovoxapl]

Fab, was that a rhetorical question?

Don't answer, mine was.

If you disagree with this particular story, could you give us the Snopes on it? If you have not found anything to question it on, why do you question it?

Again. Rhetorical.

[sbrpkkl]

Hypothetical:

April 1, 2009 (well, why not?): The Great Risks Committee issues a warning that there will probably be a devastating earthquake in L'Aquila within the following two weeks.

Panic in the town as citizens rush to move out. Three people are trampled to death.

May 1, 2009: No earthquake yet.

Committee members are charged with manslaughter.

[GOLAGLULT]

Zip, THAT I would actually agree with more than the actual situation.

The difference between not shouting that there MIGHT be a fire that night, or shouting "fire" in a crowded theater (in your case, when there isn't).

People should not be blamed for not being able to predict the unpredictable or protect from all natural disasters.

These are scientists, not oracles.

[Yarikoff]

Is another Court of Fools developing?

[shodulsilfeli]

Only if you think I am disagreeing with you.


Sometimes it is up to the player himself to determine what courts he ends up in.

[tevyrefficy]

I do think they're cracking up over there in Italy. Somebody sprayed the tomatoes with something? I dunno.

It's always been a meshugenah kind of place, but lately the developments out of there just keep getting more and more bizarre.

Arrested for an earthquake. Jesus. What will they think of next? If anyone should be arrested over an Earthquake, it should be Berlusconi for his failure to help the people of L'Aquila in a timely manner after they were left homeless. Instead he told them to pretend they were camping.

Nice country.

[blenIgnigeSef]

Or maybe it is just the classic internet saga of being more aware of EXISTING situations than we were in the past.

From what I have heard, people think that many things in the States are MUCH worse than they were in the "Good Olde Days", but the reality is, even with the recession, thinks like Health, SOL and Crime are MUCH better now than they were "back then".

Difference being, someone gets raped or abducted 1000 miles away, you are aware of it shortly after the victims family due to electronic communication.

The world may seem better when you are only told about 10 of the 100 bad things that have happened in a week than all 20 of the 20 you now have.....

[griddle]

I love it the way you guys read an article like this and question nothing.

Please explain what there is to question?

There is a scientific consensus that it is entirely impossible to predict earth quakes, and that there are no correlations between small shakes and large ones.

Now, scientists are being prosecuted for not being able to predict what is scientifically impossible to predict.

Dear Fab, I honestly cannot wait to hear what you got for this one.

[TaxSheemaSter]

He means whether this is true or not.

I am not bothering going to Snopes on this one.

[PaulCameron]

^
Of course it's true. Stories all over. The indicted people have been named.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/wo...e/15italy.html

See my post #6.
Another defense lawyer, Alfredo Biondi, cited the case of Giuseppe Zamberletti, the former chief of Italy’s civil protection agency. He was placed under investigation after he ordered the evacuation in 1985 of a series of towns in the Garfagnana, an area in the province of Lucca, because of unusual seismic activity there. Mr. Zamberletti, who is the current president of the Major Risks Commission but is not a defendant in this case, was accused of causing public alarm when the major earthquake never occurred. The case never made it to trial.

[xochex]

Damned if you do.......

[twinaircant]

"They do not stand accused of failing to predict the earthquake; everyone agrees that would have been impossible."

^ This of course is not what the article posted by Ken wanted you to know.

The NYTimes article is still not a complete picture though. A clue is here:

" for not adequately informing residents of the potential danger posed by the seismic activity that shook the Abruzzo region for months before the fatal earthquake that killed 309 people on April 6, 2009."

[Seeseeskeva]

Somethings been missing. I just figured it out.
Can we get a feature on certain threads to play the Italian national anthem upon page load?

[Sellorect]

^ This is the forum the moderator wants and encourages.

Poor Edward.

[KeettyGlots]

Oh please.

It's a freaking internet thread. Lighten up.

You like humor.

[vipbunter]

I only said it as a friggin' joke. OMG .....get a freaking life already if you can't handle it. Jesus.

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