Judicial Stupidity, The foreign edition

Good day all. As you might have guessed, I didn’t watch the debate last night. Instead I was marveling at the utter stupidity of a judges decision in Italy. In this case, some blithering idiot decided that 7 scientists were guilty of manslaughter since they didn’t predict an earthquake.

To say that the scientific community is shocked at this is a massive understatement. I vaguely recall this case being brought and thinking that it was another case of a corrupt Italian Prosecutor out to railroad someone into prison. I thought that the judge would quickly laugh this case out of court. Apparently not.

Here are the details from Fox News:

L’AQUILA, Italy – Defying assertions that earthquakes cannot be predicted, an Italian court convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter Monday for failing to adequately warn residents before a temblor struck central Italy in 2009 and killed more than 300 people.

The court in L’Aquila Monday evening handed down six-year-prison sentences to the defendants, members of a national “Great Risks Commission.” In Italy, convictions aren’t definitive until after an appeals trial, so it is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately.

Now I’m not a geologist, but even I know that you can’t predict earthquakes with any certainty. There are way to many variables involved. Geologists might be able to say that an earthquake will occur at some point in the future and that it may be of a certain strength, they will not say that it will be a 7.5 quake that will happen at 8:42am on May 22. If they could, they would be doing it now.

The trial — described in 2011 by a USGS scientist as “a witch hunt” — sent shock waves of its own through the international science community.

“It’s a sad day for science,” said seismologist Susan Hough, of the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, Calif. `’It’s unsettling.”

More and more, all over the world, we are seeing judges who, frankly, don’t have the common sense to close their mouths, lower their heads and come in out of the rain. This case should never have been brought by the Italian prosecutors. It’s obvious that the Italian legal system is a complete and utter joke.

Tom Jordan, a seismologist with the University of Southern California (USC), chaired an international committee on earthquake forecasting convened in Italy following the 2009 quake. He agreed that scientists worldwide were rattled.

“It’s widely viewed within the scientific community that this is an unfair result,” Jordan told FoxNews.com. “We can’t predict earthquakes. We can only forecast them with low probability.”

Last week we had an earthquake in the Northeastern United States. I felt it and the Angry Systems Administrator wrote about it. I don’t recall any geologists being threatened with arrest.

The defendants were accused in the indictment of giving “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” about whether small tremors felt by L’Aquila residents in the weeks and months before the April 6, 2009, quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning.

Prosecutors had sought convictions and four-year sentences during the trial. They argued in court that the L’Aquila disaster was tantamount to `’monumental negligence,” and cited the devastation wrought in the southern United States in 2005 when levees failed to protect the city of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Now we have something to beat these morons over the head with. The levees in New Orleans were easy to see and people knew there was a problem. Many people blamed President G.W. Bush for the disaster, but the blame for this fell squarely on the shoulders of:

1. Mayor Ray Nagin for not following the actual disaster/evacuation plan.
2. Governor Kathleen Blanco for not ordering an evacuation or doing any actual preparation work when the hurricane started heading to that area. (You can add ignoring President Bush’s requests to get things ready for the aftermath)
3. The Louisiana state governments and New Orleans governments for the last 40 years for their corruption and incompetence in building and maintaining the levees.

Earthquake fault lines are not that easy to see. You may see some surface disruptions, as with the San Andreas fault line in California. However, the actual sections that are “Locked” are miles underground. The only way the geologists can see them is by using seismographs and computers. They can’t just walk up to them and take a look.

Earthquakes are, of course, nearly impossible to predict, seismologists say. In fact, according to the website for the USGS, no major quake has ever been predicted successfully.

“Neither the USGS nor Caltech nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake,” reads a statement posted on the USGS website. “They do not know how, and they do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future.”

Hopefully, these people will appeal this stupid decision and be acquitted. If not, you can say goodbye to any geologic research in Italy. Who will they blame if Vesuvius ((Mount Vesuvius)) blows and destroys Naples? From what I’ve read, when that puppy lets go again, Naples will go the way of Pompeii ((Ancient Pompeii)).

Relatives of some who perished in the 2009 quake said justice has been done. Ilaria Carosi, sister of one of the victims, told Italian state TV that public officials must be held responsible “for taking their job lightly.”

What a blithering idiot. Frankly, Italy hasn’t amounted to a hill of beans since the Roman Empire fell. Hey you idiots! You live in one of the more geologically active areas on earth. You are going to get earthquakes, and considering how poor the construction of those old building is, you are going to have collapses and people getting killed. Why don’t you try doing what Japan and California do? Put money into making the buildings earthquake resistant? And while you’re at it, how about NOT building homes on the slopes of an active volcano?

Oh wait, that would require intellect, common sense and not bankrupting your own country by demanding someone else take care of you. Your Roman ancestors would look at you in disgust.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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