Will Rome be destroyed tomorrow?

[catsmate]

Well apparently quite a lot of people think so.

Thousands of people are reported to be staying out of Rome for the next few days, over fears the city will be hit by a huge earthquake. The panic was sparked by rumours that seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979, predicted the city would be devastated by a quake on 11 May.
Officials have insisted quakes cannot be predicted and special programmes have run on state TV calling for calm.

You may be wondering who the hell Raffaele Bendandi was. The answer is, unsurprisingly, a pseudo-scientist and wooster; he developed his theory ('seismogenesis') which is basically the Moon's gravitational pull on the Earth's crust causes quakes. This may sound familiar if you were following the wooburst that followed the recent Japanese quakes. He believed the gravitational forces of other planets had similar effects, distorting the crust of the Earth; he claimed to have discovered at least five new planets in our solar system.

He also believed in that favourite soggy and dubious piece of woo real estate, Atlantis. Which was of course sunk by an earthquake.
Bendandi was a fascist supporter, being made a Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy by Mussolini, until his earthquake predictions caused annoyance.

Despite his reputation and a claims made by him and his supporters, there is no evidence he ever successfully predicted any earthquake.

Personally I predict no major quake in Italy tomorrow.

 

[coalesce]

Would you like your $1M now or wait 'til you get home?

Michael

 

[CyberCecil]

Every time I think that people can't get any dumber, I am proven wrong.

 

[KingMerv00]

Looking into this Raffaele Bendandi guy, I see that he supposedly predicted earthquakes in the past and was supposedly right. Unfortunately, a lot of the articles (wiki for example) on him are in Italian.

Can anyone help me debunk his previous claims?

One link is here. Not very detailed but it is a good starting point i guess.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Yes, Rome will be destroyed tomorrow, for a sufficiently large value of tomorrow.

 

[Giraffe107]

Well it's Wednesday in Australia, haven't heard anything yet.

 

[MatildaGage]

Looking into this Raffaele Bendandi guy, I see that he supposedly predicted earthquakes in the past and was supposedly right. Unfortunately, a lot of the articles (wiki for example) on him are in Italian.

Can anyone help me debunk his previous claims?

Google did a pretty good job of translating this page, though of course I'm not familiar with this site so I can't speak to its credibility.

The documents relating to 2011 is not however no reference to specific dates or places, such as those that have been reported on the Internet. The news about a supposed earthquake scheduled for May 11, 2011 in Rome are so devoid of any foundation.

 

[nathan]

Personally I predict no major quake in Italy tomorrow.

Tomorrow
and tomorrow
and tomorrow,

It is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing

 

[Darat]

This made the radio this morning here in the UK, the Italian "earthquake department" has issued a statement that earthquakes can't be predicted but apparently lots of Romans have asked for the day off.

I wouldn't take that as evidence that lots of Romans believe the prediction, I'd take it as the Romans aren't daft and are using it as an excuse to take the day off!

ETA: BBC news article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13354988

 

[lionking]

Reading the op just leads me to despair. For all the advances of science and rationalism, we have this sort of reaction. Two steps forward, one step back I suppose.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

I don't really see anything irrational in the thought process
"Does pretending I believe this get me a day off of work"
"If yes, whoo! I'm off to the beach... because of... errr. scary earthquackes.. yes.."

 

[philkensebben]

I don't really see anything irrational in the thought process
"Does pretending I believe this get me a day off of work"
"If yes, whoo! I'm off to the beach... because of... errr. scary earthquackes.. yes.."

I'd honestly be too embarrassed to tell colleagues this

 

[Agatha]

Hey, it's a day off! Better excuse than the royal wedding. I was a bit peeved that the BBC called Bendandi a scientist on the radio news bulletin this morning, though.

 

[catsmate]

Reading the op just leads me to despair. For all the advances of science and rationalism, we have this sort of reaction. Two steps forward, one step back I suppose.

Well look on the bright side, Darat may be right and the Romans are just taking a day off.
Anyway it's after noon there and no sign of a quake yet. Though the Loyalty Islands seem to be a bit bumpy.

 

[tuoni]

Meh, who cares? What have the Romans ever done for us?

 

[KingofMadCows]

The pope will protect them with his god field.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

No problem. I downloaded Rome on Google Earth. We have a restore point.

 

[Frying Dutchmen]

According to my sources Raffaele Bendandi didn't even make this prediction people(probably the media and the usual suspects) being crazy for no reason.

 

[23_Tauri]

Meh, who cares? What have the Romans ever done for us?

Aqueducts.

 

[Darat]

Now don't be a very naughty boy!