Scientists Convicted of Manslaughter for Failing to Predict Italian Quake A court in L'Aquila found the scientists guilty of manslaughter, of providing "superficial and ineffective" assessments and of disclosing "inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory" information about earthquake danger. http://abcnews.go.com/International...iling-predict-italian-quake/story?id=17536977
The report I heard said they got six year prison terms. Apaprently scientists are uniform is saying that earthquakes cannot be predicted Now it's dangerous to be a scientist trying to monitor seismic activity.
I live in earthquake country -- California. We have some of the best earthquake scientists in the world here at Caltech and the California Integrated Seismic Network. They all say the same thing -- we can't predict earthquakes with any kind of useful accuracy. Italy has taken a massive step backward into the Dark Ages. Next they'll be burning scientists at the stake.
I guess their mistake was in reassuring the public that the initial tremor was nothing to worry about just before the big quake hit. It was a "damned if they do and damned if they don't" moment. If they had told everyone to get ready for a bigger quake and it didn't come they probably would have gotten thrown in prison for inciting hysteria instead. And, if they had said nothing, they probably would have been assured a prison sentence no matter what happened for not telling the public what to do.
"Scientists" can't do much towards predicting quakes but this guy does reasonably well: http://www.syzygyjob.com/ "Science" is largely shit nowadays. They play politics 24/7. They control the venue for the debate, therefore they are the "experts", they want the grant money in ever increasing amounts and they not only advance at a glacial pace but they greatly retard anyone that gets ahead of them. They invent endless things to try to explain their flawed theories and will stop at nothing with regard to how much simple truth they will step over to get to the complicated fantasy... They are sort of fun to watch though...