step backward for uncertainty

Reuters reports that six Italian earthquake scientists have been jailed for manslaughter for "failing to give adequate warning of the 2009 earthquake in the city of L'Aquila."

Prediction of events with some component of randomness is necessarily uncertain—to think otherwise is to misunderstand the whole endeavor. The fault here is not with the scientists, for predicting incorrectly, but with the public for believing this prediction came with certainty. To suppress predictors of random events for predicting incorrectly is to court ignorance and block progress, as it discourages the very research which will one day improve our ability to predict such events.

farrakhan on libya

j. f. a. k. van benthem (forthcoming)

"A border line is crossed when we allow lying and cheating beyond the expected. But even this seems a crucial skill in our lives: just imagine the violence and bloodshed that would result in academic life if we told our colleagues honestly what we think of the quality of their work. In this connection, parents think that their children are innocent little angels because they speak the truth all the time. But really, that is just a sign of lack of processing power and immaturity: rational agents at full capacity can handle mixtures of lies and truths with elegance and ease."