Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Italian earthquake conviction a travesty

It has been widely reported that Italian scientists convicted for not warning about deadly 2009 quake.

This Italian court ruling that scientists are guilty of manslaughter is the height of Kafka-esque absurdity. If this is the way the zeitgeist in Europe is going then things are worse there than generally thought.  The lack of understanding or disregard of how science works is deeply disturbing.

If scientists are prosecuted to distract the public from economic and political problems, then technological progress will disappear. 

An analogous case would be if meteorologists were to be prosecuted for uncertainty in forecasts regarding a hurricane or a blizzard.  It just does not make any sense.

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