<story><title>Italian seismologists to be tried for manslaughter</title><url>http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/05/italian_seismologists_to_be_tr.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>alexqgb</author><text>This isn&apos;t the first time Italy has reduced itself to the status of reactionary backwater by attacking scientists, Galileo being a case in point.&lt;p&gt;In the wake of that travesty, Louis XIV didn&apos;t have a hard time convincing Cassini to abandon his post in Bologna and emigrate to France, where he could continue his work safely. Given the extraordinary military advantage conveyed by Cassini&apos;s work in improving cartography through increasingly sophisticated astronomical observation, the Netherlands and England were quick to join the seventeenth-century&apos;s war for technical talent.&lt;p&gt;Not grasping the extent to which the world was passing it by, the Papacy kept Galileo&apos;s works on the list of banned books until the mid-nineteenth century. By the time they came off, Italy&apos;s once formidable lead had been squandered permanently.&lt;p&gt;File this current fiasco under &apos;lessons not learned&apos;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Italian seismologists to be tried for manslaughter</title><url>http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/05/italian_seismologists_to_be_tr.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gacba</author><text>As a former science major, this kind of stuff is scary...&lt;p&gt;1)  Scientists, with a crapton of data, interpret results to the best of their ability.&lt;p&gt;2)  Scientists report results, with caveats, to Country.&lt;p&gt;3)  Country reported results to Public, (possibly without caveats) in an effort to &quot;look good&quot;.&lt;p&gt;4)  Public ignored caveats (if given), took Scientists words as absolute proof.&lt;p&gt;5)  Public ignored Common Sense during what must have been a major seismic event, and instead of blaming themselves, blame the Scientists.&lt;p&gt;Oh, what a demon Science hath wrought.</text></comment>