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rplnt
> The Chinese earthquake that killed 80,000 people in May of 2008 most likely was not an act of God, a study released today has found.

I can understand that for some strange reason is the phrase "act of God" in the USA law system (it is, right?). But why is it in a scientific paper?

linohh
The paper itself does not contain the word 'god' at all.
rplnt
Ah, OK, I thought it was a citation. It certainly looked so with that styling.
samuel_wade
It's from the press release, not the paper itself.
snake_plissken
it's not meant to be taken literally, it's one of many phrases to describe long tail events
seanmcdirmid
Weird. I felt the quake in Beijing while we were interviewing someone. Crazy to think that it could be manmade and still felt that far.
jtl09
please believe this absurdity if you are a moron.
Someone
Man-made? More like man-triggered:

"The Zipingpu reservoir’s apparent triggering of the Wenchuan earthquake is an unprecedented case of reservoir-induced seismicity that presents huge challenges for scientific theory."

There is way too little potential energy in that reservoir to cause an earthquake on that scale.