Italian earthquake scientists charged with manslaughter

In the article to which the article to which you linked linked (uhh… yeah) is the “pertinent” charge:

During the meeting on 31 March 2009 … one of the seven to be tried said there were no grounds for thinking that a major quake was imminent, even though the area around the town had been experiencing a series of smaller tremors in the previous months.

A scientist can speak of “no grounds” for thinking there’s a quake, and be scientifically accurate, but the common idiot needs to hear it very clearly in simple lay terms: “Hey, rubes! Science has no clue one way or another! NO CLUE, GOT THAT? MIGHT! MIGHT NOT! DON’T KNOW! CAN’T TELL!” Then the social scientists :) can say, “PREPARE FOR THE WORST YOU IDIOTS! QUAKES HAPPEN, ESPECIALLY HERE!”

It would be more reasonable to try the news reporters, not the scientists. The way some science news is reported is practically a crime!

Hereabouts, the Big One would mean Madrid, which could trash the country from Wisconsin to Texas.

Remarkably, some respectful preparation has been going on. On the other hand, maybe Madrid won’t really go off in the next 50 years or so at all. It might be thousands of years.

Should preparations cease, then? Sure, why not? We hardly even build to withstand tornadoes which we have every year, like clockwork. (And aren’t there a lot of people who would like to hang the weatherman when their picnic gets rained out!)