For all you out there who are not fans of the Vatican, fear not, as the papal city and the rest of Rome for that matter, is to be reduced to rubble tomorrow according to seismologist Raffaele Bendandi. Already, many Romans are leaving the city and it is predicted that one fifth of the workforce is not turning up to work tomorrow.
But how accurate are Bendandi’s readings? Pretty spooky to be honest – the man has been dead for 30 years! That’s right. The whole of Rome is getting itself in a tiss about this urban rumor that is circulating on the internet. Anyway, many Romans are putting their faith in the papa. One inhabitant, Franceso Verselli, said that Rome would be spared because it was home to the Pope: “Wherever the Pope is, nothing will happen.” Maybe he’ll say a prayer so that the earthquake doesn’t happen.
brucemhood.wordpress.com 
These prayers don’t always work, and God moves in mysterious ways. A man in America was so badly injured by an electrical fault while painting his church that he needed a complete face transplant. While recovering from this miraculously successful surgical operation, he said that he felt he was in God’s hands.
*shrugs* I’d say he was in the hands of a good doctor.
This quake thing is sooooo stupid. Now, if I had to bet money (and if this bet were somehow resolvable, which it’s not), I would put it on accurate quake prediction being impossible. We might be able to someday give a window of six months to a few years of when a major quake will happen, and have some idea of its magnitude… but I think there are just so many complicated variables involved, you’ll never be able to predict it accurately.
Even if I am wrong, though, and someday we will be able to predict earthquakes to the day, the idea that you could do so thirty years in advance is simply absurd. Did the great Bendandi also take into account every significant man-made seismic event that would happen in the 30 years following his death? Because that’s going to influence it, at least somewhat. It’s just ludicrous. I can’t believe people are actually structuring their lives around this dumb-ass prediction.
Then again, I suppose it’s no stupider than restructuring your life according to some yahoo’s claimed revelation…
All that said, I reckon one aspect of all this is spookily prescient – “…it is predicted that one fifth of the workforce is not turning up to work tomorrow.” That’ll be like any other day in Italy then…
I stand by Alan Coren’s description of the average Italian as: “…someone who spends most of their time driving around in a car slightly smaller than themselves looking for a divorce.”
Bend it backwards like Bendandi!
Then we shouldn’t be doing everything the Romans do !
Latest news flash: Rome is still standing.
Spain got screwed though. Knowing people’s stupidity, I am fairly certain that many people will still say that this therefore shows how accurate the dead guy’s prophecy actually is. He is, after all, only one day and a few hundred miles off. In fact, some will probably forge the original prophecy to match the actual events.
Yep, I was thinking the same exact thing.
Me too.
Its a bad-ass prediction. And not turning up for work is bad-ass too.
You must be American. What does “bad-ass” actually mean ?
No Rox, I’m not from the US.
Originally from Singapore, now in Australia. Bad-Ass implies something is in poor shape, not up to scratch or mean.
Thank you. Whether the “ass” means “donkey” here or “arse”, I can’ quite see where it comes into it, but a lot of American speech seems to centre around the word. Sorry to hear this has spread to Australia.
That should read “can’t” quite see.
I wonder if you would have said this before you “got your ass over from Singapore to Australia”, as they say.
Oh, no Rox,
You’d be surprised that even in a “prim and proper” country like Singapore, the “arse” adjectives do creep in somewhow!!