I thought the US was the anti science country?

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

"Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will face trial on charges of manslaughter with six other scientists and technicians for failing to alert the residents of L'Aquila ahead of the devastating earthquake that struck the central Italian town on 6 April 2009, killing 308 people.
"


http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/05/italian-scientists-to-stand-trial.html?ref=hp


Ok now I know we do some wacky stuff with science here in the states (like the push to treat Intelligent Design as an actual scientific theory, and the general denial of AGW) but really? Even in the most whack job fundamentalist hick town no one here would be stupid enough to actually file charges for failing to predict something, hell we'd be more likely to burn them at the stake as witches if they had. I am however baffled how a modern industrialized nation could come up with something so far out in the fields of lunacy that the judge didn't treat the charges as an elaborate prank.

Is Italy really so backward of a country that they have any chance of being convicted?

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

You're referring to the heartland of the Catholic Church that changes governments more than France as not a backward country? Citation needed.

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

Why would Catholics be anti-science?

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I disagree. We're referring to the culture inculcated with the Mafia. This must have something to do with that, considering the omnipresent influence and collusion with organized crime within the Italian legal and justice systems.

LOGIC!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

To clear up something-this is not blaming the Catholic Church directly for Italy's backwardness. Its central position to Roman Catholicism was, however, instrumental in the existence of the Papal states, and for much of the history of early Italy the Church had more political influence than Italian politicians did. Italy's been a poor country without a history of stable governments and with precious little legitimacy attached to said government. Catholic clergy were instrumental in said lack of legitimacy, which is all that was noted in that comment. It was both educational and political influence.

America is full of smart Italians

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Not too long ago, an Italian scientist was put under house arrest for advocating the Copernican paradigm. Tradition causes the wheels of injustice to continue to turn.

Also, there is the fact that smart Italians migrated to America where the grass is greener. One of the side effects of a brain drain is what is left behind un-drained.

Re: America is full of smart Italians

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

"Not too long ago, an Italian scientist was put under house arrest for advocating the Copernican paradigm. Tradition causes the wheels of injustice to continue to turn."

Well in that case it was the tradition of science that caused the wheels of injustice to turn, so it's not a particularly ideal example.

Re: America is full of smart Italians

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

the dirt-poor italians migrated to america.

Re: America is full of smart Italians

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually he was put under house-arrest for insulting his patron, Pope Urban VII, in a patron-client society. Balls of brass, but the social graces of a dead dog.

Re: America is full of smart Italians

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Not too long ago, but well before the USA became a nation.

Re: America is full of smart Italians

[telemann.livejournal.com]

lol god your posts or comments never fail to crack me up! ;)

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

They convicted that American college student with a case so flimsy it was like Venice lace and so full of holes it looked like Mussolini at Giulino di Mezzegra.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Bahahaha! Also, true. Make me wonder what the hell is up with la giurisprudenza.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Dude, we're talking about Italy, dude. :-)

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

This.

also, ask trog.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Countries full of religious wackos tend to have laws like this, so Italy is much like the U.S. in that regard.

Italy is home to the Vatican after all, which just blamed the 60's for their priest-pedo problems.

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

Laws like what? Criminal negligence laws in general? Manslaughter laws in particular?

Not really a science problem

[tridus.livejournal.com]

Everybody wants to call this a science story and talk about the wacky science stuff involved... but there's no particular science here at all. This is nothing more then your standard run of the mill "prosectors are idiots" story.

Predicting earthquakes is impossible with our current technology. The so-called warning signs were things that happen frequently without incident (ie: not good predictors). This is the equivalent of prosecuting someone for doing a rain dance right before a heat wave.

That it's getting to court at all just shows the flaws in the justice system.

Re: Not really a science problem

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

The section quoted by the OP is misleading (weird how that happens). The basis of the charge is not that they (allegedly) failed to predict an earthquake but rather that they (allegedly) unjustifiably thwarted reasonable efforts for public safety.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

If vulcanology and seismology were an exact science, it might make sense just as medical malpractice makes sense. But they're not, so it doesn't. The article is a little vague on detail, though.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I must of have missed it, but why are people talking about Catholics again?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

underlankers brought them up in the first comment.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

They make some awesome music.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

It's like how WilliamsF1 spent a decade fighting the manslaughter charges over Ayrton Senna's death. There HAS to be someone to blame.

Been to Italy once. It was quite a shock, it was the first time I'd gone from the first world (Switzerland) to the third world so quickly.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with intelligent design.

The real question is, why are some people prejudiced against it? =D

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

+1! It makes for some great softcore conspiracy bedtime sci-fi.