THE text message came from Rudi Rubiandini. “I just participated in the conference in Cape Town. Through voting, the participants concluded that the Lapindo mudflow disaster is the result of the Lapindo drilling work,” wrote the petroleum geologist expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), last Wednesday.

Two hours later, came another text message on the same topic but this time it was from Lapindo. It read “Science needs no v