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" <joshuatreemus...@embarqmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list@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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