35 Replies to “The World Is Being Run By Crazy People”

  1. This is communist Italy you’re talking about here. Marx meets the mob. The soiled masses grumble and you throw them a scape goat – accuse someone of the problem, hang them and the crowd is happy. No one better at finding and hanging scape goats than a commie. The old Caesars really knew their state craft when it came to placating the mob by redirecting mob anger at a scapegoat – the new Marxist rulers learned from their imperial Roman archetypes.

  3. Nothing like a good scapegoat and show trial.
    The Italian government clearly hasn’t thought their clever plan all the way through. Just imagine, a few years down the road:
    Government Official: We need a study done on the potential danger of .
    Scientist A: You’ve got to be kidding.
    Scientist B: Yeah, that’s going to happen.
    Scientist C: (clutches sides, laughing)

  5. Doesn’t surprise me. L’Aquila is the region east of Rome where my Italian ancestors emigrated from and they are all neurotics and control freaks. If you can’t predict the future and have absolute control over circumstances at all times — even in the event of an “act of God” — then someone must be doing something nefarious or criminal. Don’t ask me to explain it, but I think it is a holdover from the pervasive “ye are gods!” narcissism that ultimately led to collapse of the ancient Roman Empire.
    Too bad our own arrogant “climate scientists” haven’t learned from it.

  7. The rioting in Italy when the bread and circuses run out will be intense. My advice, if you want to see Rome you better hurry up before they burn it down.

  8. It doesn’t matter whether these scientists are found innocent or guilty, the damage has been done.
    The next time the Italian government asks for seismologists’ opinions, seismologists will:
    1. Tell them to sod off, or
    2. Demand massive salaries for their opinions, or
    3. Always say that there’s extreme danger no matter what, making the opinions useless.
    Or perhaps all three.

  9. Uh, did any of you read the linked article? They aren’t being prosecuted for failure to predict the earthquake; they’re being prosecuted for telling people, just one week before the quake hit, that a major quake was “improbable”, and, quoting the article:
    Commission members also gave largely reassuring interviews to local media after the meeting which “persuaded the victims to stay at home,” the indictment said.
    So this isn’t a case of failure to predict a quake; it’s a case of telling people that a major quake was improbable, and telling people it was fine to stay in their homes.
    Let’s bring it a little closer to home. You live in Northern Ontario. There’s a small forest fire burning 20 miles from your home. Someone from the Ministry of Natural Resources gets on the local TV and tells you, based on wind and weather patterns, that there’s no danger, and no need to evacuate. During the night, the wind whips up, and at 4 am, you wake up to find your house in flames. Not everyone in your family gets out alive. Are you telling me that you wouldn’t be suing the government?
    It’s one thing NOT to predict the earthquake; I don’t think anyone expects seismologists to do that, and the article even states that the victims understand that as well. But it’s another thing to tell everyone there’s no cause for alarm, and to tell them that everything’s going to be fine.
    If you don’t know what’s going to happen, STFU. If you’re going to issue blanket statements that turn out not to be true, you’re going to pay the price.

  10. Posted by: KevinB at October 20, 2011 10:54 PM-
    that a major quake was “improbable”
    *************************************
    I must admit that was a stupid thing to say..
    Kinda reminds me of Joe Biden telling us to pass Bambie’s job bill or Americans will be raped and/or murdered..
    day in court-
    “I killed him,
    your honor,
    because of the job bill.”

  11. KevinB: “If you’re going to issue blanket statements that turn out not to be true, you’re going to pay the price.”
    Really?
    Who, other than taxpayers, “paid the price” for the floods that didn’t happen in BC a few years ago?
    Who, other than taxpayers and a few people who got dead on the highways leaving their homes, “paid the price” for the loss of life by hurricane that didn’t happen in Texas in 2006?
    Anyone that doesn’t understand that predicting earthquakes isn’t an exact science is a moron.
    Fear-mongering is good – rational thinking is bad.
    Run KevinB, run … don’t believe that it is improbable that you will be hit with a chunk of space junk.

  13. If you don’t know what’s going to happen, STFU. If you’re going to issue blanket statements that turn out not to be true, you’re going to pay the price.
    ~KevinB
    Totally agree.
    It’s time that scientists stopped pretending they know things they don’t know, pretending they are authorities who hold more certain knowledge than what they truely hold.

  14. Any politician who says the people won’t suffer a financial crisis should reconsider their support for the prosecution.

  16. This is not new. These seven Italian scientists are discovering the difference between engineering and science. Science plus responsibility equals engineering.
    The main point of the four years of mentoring and experience review required before APEGS issues a stamp is teaching them when to keep quiet. Which is always unless youbare sure. Speculating in public about matters which an engineer is not certain of is one of the definitions of negligence.
    Most scientists have no responsibility whatever for what they say. When an outside force adds that responsibility it can be a traumatic transformation from scientist to engineer.

  17. Chance of Earthquake today 100%
    Expected Devestation 110%.
    Anticipated proximetry to epicenter 120%.
    Possibility of being sued for under stating disaster 130%
    Bets after an earthquake hits, on Al Gore coming out and stating that he invented Earthquakes 200%
    East Anglia University’s opinion on Earthquakes……………….Priceless

  18. Chance of Earthquake today 100%
    Expected Devastation 110%.
    Anticipated proximity to epicenter 120%.
    Possibility of being sued for under stating disaster 130%
    Bets after an earthquake hits, on Al Gore coming out and stating that he invented Earthquakes 200%
    East Anglia University’s opinion on Earthquakes……………….Priceless

  20. The square root of -1 driveled:
    Who, other than taxpayers, “paid the price” for the floods that didn’t happen in BC a few years ago?
    Who, other than taxpayers and a few people who got dead on the highways leaving their homes, “paid the price” for the loss of life by hurricane that didn’t happen in Texas in 2006?
    Anyone that doesn’t understand that predicting earthquakes isn’t an exact science is a moron.
    Would you be so kind as to translate this idiocy into something that is remotely germane to my point? I stated explicitly that no one expects seismologists to be able to predict earthquakes; however, when so-called experts tell people that such an event is “improbable” – which to me means “not probable”, as in “not likely to happen” – they are doing exactly that, in the negative.
    I guess, in your book, that makes them morons.

  21. Kevin B: Agreed, telling people danger was highly improbable when in fact they couldn’t rule it out was possibly bad professional practice. Lucky for those of us who live in Common Law jurisdictions where bad practice is a matter for self-regulating professional bodies, and not the criminal justice system.
    William Hughes: Good point, but I’d also point out that there are some scientists in most Provincial engineering bodies — what does that “G” stand for anyway?

  22. I lived in an earthquake zone for a few years and lived through a quake that was 7.5 on the Richter Scale. (If you survive a natural disaster like this, the worst part is yet to come … corruption of emergency responses on a massive scale, etc.)
    The only predictor of the coming quake was the behaviour of my kids’ hamsters: They hunkered down two days before the quake hit, no action on their wheel. I thought they were sick.

  24. *facepal*
    Kevin, Jim, when you have nothing intelligent to say, it’s best to say nothing at all.
    As for this ridiculous trial … maybe they should try arresting the tens of thousands of “psychics” who failed to predict the earthquake. It would do a lot more good.

  25. Why are people surprised by this trial?
    The public is told over and over that scientists know best and that they can be trusted more than anybody else because of their supposed objectivity.
    Scientists cannot demand the public fully trust them and then cry foul when the public perceives that trust has been broken.
    And the trial isn’t about the impossibility of predicting when an earthquake will occur; it’s about probability and the duty of seismologists to release accurate, unambiguous fair warning.
    This trial is akin to a medical malpractice suit for seismologists.

  27. G is for geoscientist. Who is held accountable for saying things in public about mineral deposits. Doesn’t matter what you call them it is engineering.

  28. The trouble with scientists is that they tend to be honest. If you ask them what the likelihood of an earthquake is in a particular situation, they’ll tell you what they believe.

  29. Obviously there are serious shortcomings in the whole Italian legal system when it so frequently seems totally detached from reality. The Amanda Knox case and this one are prime examples. If I was an Italian I would be embarrassed that my country’s legal apparatus is an international joke. But, this is a country that has “Bunga-Bunga” Berlusconi as its Prime Minister.

  30. Does this mean we can put economists on trial for not warning us when the next big dip in the stock market is about to hit?

  31. If the fault releases once every 3oo years, then the odds of it going off in a given day are around 100,000 to one. That’s quite improbable, but I wonder how lottery players feel about odds like that?

  34. C Miner:
    If the fault releases once every 3oo years, then the odds of it going off in a given day are around 100,000 to one.
    Not really. From what I understand about plate tectonics, pressure has to build up over time before the fault lets go. So, after a major quake, there is the danger of aftershocks for a few weeks, but after that, you can expect things to be stable for many years (i.e. odds much higher than 100,000:1).

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation