BBC link

WTF?

Its Italy, note:

Lawyers have said that they will appeal against the sentence. As convictions are not definitive until after at least one level of appeal in Italy, it is unlikely any of the defendants will immediately face prison.

With geology comes great responsibility 😉 glad I’m not going into plate tectonic predictions!

Absolutely crazy. No Italian seismic or geological expert will give any sort of prediction going forward.

If Vesuvius gets lively and there is no warning, Pompeii will look like nothing compared to the destruction that would land on the 2 million people living in the area now.

Oh my word. That is grim stuff. Being sent to prison for not predicting something where the prediction time is at most minutes? I am astounded.

With geology comes great responsibility

That is surprisingly true.

I heard this on the radio, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

They’ll be burning them at the stake yet 🙄

On the other hand, I’d have thought that appealing against it should be easy, but then again they did get the judgement in the first place.

I could understand a little if they deliberately gave reassuring messages, whilst faced with contradictory evidence, leading to people not evacuating when they should be. However, failing to predict something in nature is not, and never should be, a criminal offence.

I heard it was all Lance Armstrongs fault.

Mental!

Where’s the European court of human rights now then?

I heard it was the plate’s fault.

On the radio it said that they said that a quake was improbable but couldn’t be ruled out.

Apparently people interpreted this to mean that they didn’t have to take precautions.

So it’s apparently the scientists’ fault that people are thick as shit 🙁

michael fish wont sleep easy tonight 😀

Well, as an ex-seismologist I’m waiting for a knock on the door 🙁

I couldn’t believe it either when I heard it on the radio.
I assumed they had ignored some obvious evidence but instead it’s as strange a decision as the Italian public letting Berlusconi getting away with it for so long.

michael fish wont sleep easy tonight

He was correct. There was no hurricane. They can only occur on the eastern side of a continent due to the rotation of the earth. That was just a big storm.

They can only occur on the eastern side of a continent due to the rotation of the earth.

Well the Eastern side of one continent faces the Western side of another…

EDIT looking on Wiki, as I thought hurricanes form a particular way, that was a wind storm.

Bonkers. I’d be surprised if they actually end up in jail, but still some damage done- what sort of precedent will this set?

Sue the earth.

This will result in all italian seismologists predicting earthquakes every time someone farts just to be on the safe side. Each warning will be met with costly disruptions which is probably not something the Italian economy needs right now.

I assume that Italian economists will be sh*tting themselves right now.

It wasn’t that they didn’t predict the earthquake, it was that they predicted there wouldn’t be one. Or rather, that there wouldn’t be a serious one following the minor ones that had already happened. On the basis of their reassurance people stayed in their houses and were killed or injured. They still shouldn’t have been convicted.

They said it was ‘improbable’, not the same as saying ‘there will not be one’.

I assume that Italian economists will be sh*tting themselves right now.

No, they’ve predicted a complete financial meltdown. Anything less is a bonus. 😉

Everybody be warned. There will be an earthquake somewhere someday. IT’S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE ALL DUE PRECAUTIONS !!

Right, that’s me ok to jet off to Lake Garda.

i read it that it was because they didn’t predict the aftershocks, not the actual original quake???

Does this mean we can sue the met office when they don’t predict a storm and someone drowns?

Looking forward to news and advice that is always the worst possible scenario so that the advisers arses are covered. The sky will be falling down everyday.

They said it was ‘improbable’, not the same as saying ‘there will not be one’.

Did they say it was improbable, or no more probable than at any other time?

They’ve also been banned from holding public office, which means they lose their jobs. I bet the seismologists are queuing up for the job vacancies as we speak.

Here’s some sense…

http://britgeopeople.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/comment-on-laquila-verdict-by-dr-roger.html

… from the BGS. It was a Gov spokesman who dropped everyone it it.

Trying to communicate risk to the general public is a hiding to nothing. Most people can’t understand what it means.

Guess this boils down to Italian law not believing in accidents, quite harsh really.