[meteorite-list] OT: Dowsing is real, but exoplanets are dubious?!

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:12:32 -0500
Message-ID: <49BDBEA98E5B4D19BC4521DE65B04403_at_ATARIENGINE2>

If the devices seem to work for the Iraqi's, I can propose
a simpler explanation for why the worthless wands do
anything at all.

What they do is make those with good reason to not
want to be stopped and especially not to be searched
nervous, because even the best-educated terrorist
probably believes in these impressing-looking but
worthless Gizmo's.

And there is no cop in the world that can't "smell" a
nervous perp. Even the worst cop can do that. Even
if you're only nervous because you're in the hands of
a bad cop. So the device has a "high rate" of detections
which will include among the many false positives,
most if not all of the true positives.

So, yeah... it actually works. Dum cops and dummer
terrorists make twitchier suspects and better detection.

What a racket!

I wish I'd thought of it...

Lesee, 1500 ADE-651's at $16,500 each (in bulk) is
$25,000,000. $50,000 to have the Gizmo made in
China and shipped. Pay off the Ministry of Internal
Security in Bagdad for the contract... How much
does that come to?

Ain't Free Enterprise great!


Sterling K. Webb (with thanks to William of Occam)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 7:18 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] OT: Dowsing is real, but exoplanets are
dubious?!


> Hi Mike,
> I think the point of the article is relevant to what's being discussed
> here. People that know for scientific reasons that dowsing doesn't
> work, can't dowse because it won't work for them. Dowsing only works
> for the ignorant like myself and dumb construction workers and
> plumbers. The Iraqis believe in these devices and they work for them.
> And we're talking about life or death here, surely the devices work,
> they're staking their life on them. The experts make the exact same
> arguments in the article that I've heard hear. Scientific test show
> the devices give no better than random results, etc. etc. Everybody
> keeps telling them they don't work, when obviously the Iraqis know
> that they do work, otherwise they'd be getting blown up. Unless the
> Iraqis are so dumb, they're getting blown up, yet still insist on
> using the dowsers. If that was the case, surely the article would have
> reported it. This is the NY Times after all. I like at the end of the
> article where the naysayer can't get the dowser to work, but it works
> perfectly for the believer. It's like that Monty Python episode where
> everybody has to believe in the apartment building or it falls down. A
> non-believer moves in and the building starts collapse, until the
> believers convert him and the building goes back up. Every time he has
> doubts, the building starts to fall down, then he recants and the
> building goes back up. That's some funny stuff!
>
> And even though these guys are putting their lives on the line every
> day with their dowsers, they of course can't pass the fraudulent
> Randi's impossible requirements and cash in on his stupid million
> dollar con.
>
> Click on the link for pictures of the overpriced, phony dowsing
> devices that can't possibly work, yet still do
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html
>
> BAGHDAD - Despite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and
> fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq's security
> forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that
> the United States military and technical experts say is useless.
> Skip to next paragraph
> Related
> Times Topics: Iraq
> Enlarge This Image
>
> Johan Spanner for The New York Times
> The sensor device, known as the ADE 651, from $16,500 to $60,000 each.
> Iraq has bought more than 1,500 of the devices.
> The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is
> being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works
> "on the same principle as a Ouija board" - the power of suggestion -
> said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack,
> who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining
> rod.
> Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the
> devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each.
> Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints,
> have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of
> physical inspections of vehicles.
> With violence dropping in the past two years, Prime Minister Nuri
> Kamal al-Maliki has taken down blast walls along dozens of streets,
> and he contends that Iraqis will safeguard the nation as American
> troops leave.
> But the recent bombings of government buildings here have underscored
> how precarious Iraq remains, especially with the coming parliamentary
> elections and the violence expected to accompany them.
> The suicide bombers who managed to get two tons of explosives into
> downtown Baghdad on Oct. 25, killing 155 people and destroying three
> ministries, had to pass at least one checkpoint where the ADE 651 is
> typically deployed, judging from surveillance videos released by
> Baghdad's provincial governor. The American military does not use the
> devices. "I don't believe there's a magic wand that can detect
> explosives," said Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr., who oversees Iraqi
> police training for the American military. "If there was, we would all
> be using it. I have no confidence that these work."
> The Iraqis, however, believe passionately in them. "Whether it's magic
> or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs," said Maj. Gen.
> Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior's General
> Directorate for Combating Explosives.
> Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences
> Security Center at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department
> of Defense, said the center had "tested several devices in this
> category, and none have ever performed better than random chance."
> The Justice Department has warned against buying a variety of products
> that claim to detect explosives at a distance with a portable device.
> Normal remote explosives detection machinery, often employed in
> airports, weighs tons and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. The
> ADE 651's clients are mostly in developing countries; no major
> country's military or police force is a customer, according to the
> manufacturer.
> "I don't care about Sandia or the Department of Justice or any of
> them," General Jabiri said. "I know more about this issue than the
> Americans do. In fact, I know more about bombs than anyone in the
> world."
> He attributed the decrease in bombings in Baghdad since 2007 to the
> use of the wands at checkpoints. American military officials credit
> the surge in American forces, as well as the Awakening movement, in
> which Iraqi insurgents turned against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, for the
> decrease.
> Aqeel al-Turaihi, the inspector general for the Ministry of the
> Interior, reported that the ministry bought 800 of the devices from a
> company called ATSC (UK) Ltd. for $32 million in 2008, and an
> unspecified larger quantity for $53 million. Mr. Turaihi said Iraqi
> officials paid up to $60,000 apiece, when the wands could be purchased
> for as little as $18,500. He said he had begun an investigation into
> the no-bid contracts with ATSC.
> Jim McCormick, the head of ATSC, based in London, did not return calls
> for comment.
> The Baghdad Operations Command announced Tuesday that it had purchased
> an additional 100 detection devices, but General Rowe said five to
> eight bomb-sniffing dogs could be purchased for $60,000, with provable
> results.
> Checking cars with dogs, however, is a slow process, whereas the wands
> take only a few seconds per vehicle. "Can you imagine dogs at all 400
> checkpoints in Baghdad?" General Jabiri said. "The city would be a
> zoo."
> Speed is not the only issue. Colonel Bidlack said, "When they say they
> are selling you something that will save your son or daughter on a
> patrol, they've crossed an insupportable line into moral depravity."
> Last year, the James Randi Educational Foundation, an organization
> seeking to debunk claims of the paranormal, publicly offered ATSC $1
> million if it could pass a scientific test proving that the device
> could detect explosives. Mr. Randi said no one from the company had
> taken up the offer.
> ATSC's promotional material claims that its device can find guns,
> ammunition, drugs, truffles, human bodies and even contraband ivory at
> distances up to a kilometer, underground, through walls, underwater or
> even from airplanes three miles high. The device works on
> "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction," ATSC says.
> To detect materials, the operator puts an array of plastic-coated
> cardboard cards with bar codes into a holder connected to the wand by
> a cable. "It would be laughable," Colonel Bidlack said, "except
> someone down the street from you is counting on this to keep bombs off
> the streets."
> Proponents of the wand often argue that errors stem from the human
> operator, who they say must be rested, with a steady pulse and body
> temperature, before using the device.
> Then the operator must walk in place a few moments to "charge" the
> device, since it has no battery or other power source, and walk with
> the wand at right angles to the body. If there are explosives or drugs
> to the operator's left, the wand is supposed to swivel to the
> operator's left and point at them.
> If, as often happens, no explosives or weapons are found, the police
> may blame a false positive on other things found in the car, like
> perfume, air fresheners or gold fillings in the driver's teeth.
> On Tuesday, a guard and a driver for The New York Times, both licensed
> to carry firearms, drove through nine police checkpoints that were
> using the device. None of the checkpoint guards detected the two AK-47
> rifles and ammunition inside the vehicle.
> During an interview on Tuesday, General Jabiri challenged a Times
> reporter to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol
> in plain view in his office. Despite two attempts, the wand did not
> detect the weapons when used by the reporter but did so each time it
> was used by a policeman.
> "You need more training," the general said.
> Riyadh Mohammed contributed reporting.
> This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
> Correction: November 5, 2009
> An article on Wednesday about a bomb detection device used by the
> Iraqi security forces that is considered useless and costly by the
> American military misstated the surname of the leader of ATSC (UK)
> Ltd., the London-based company that has sold hundreds of the devices
> to Iraq's Interior Ministry. He is Jim McCormick, not Mitchell.
>
>
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Received on Mon 18 Oct 2010 02:12:32 AM PDT