It seems impressive that the terrible earthquake in Italy was forecast by scientist Gioacchino Giuliani.
Or was it? He predicted one in the general area but not the exact place, and he thought it would come a few days earlier. He based his calculations on emissions of radon gas, a factor which has been studied for many decades and has not been found all that helpful.
The problem with earthquake prediction is this: it’s only over time that it could be proven that someone such as Giuliani was onto something rather than merely lucky. He would have to reliably predict more than one earthquake for his method to gain credibility. And even if a scientist was correct in general, he/she would have to be correct in particular: exact date and time and place. Otherwise, there would be constant evacuations and panic.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
April 7th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Ten thousand sooth sayers say their sooths and the three that came closest are called visionaries and much celebrated in the land.
April 7th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
But some of those soothsayers are named Bill Gray, and it turns out they’re onto something even if it initially appears to be voodoo meteorology.
Of course, the advantage of seasonal forecasts of hurricanes is that one expects at least a few every summer in the N. Atlantic. Earthquakes? not so much.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I don’t know if this guy is onto something, but it does seem the world is ripe for the picking right now when it comes to far fetched theories and ideas. Heck, we even get UFO programs on the History Channel at least twice a week now as if area 51 is all factual and undisputed history.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Why would white people complain about being killed BY white people in video games? For every negative representation of white …