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Why Evolution Is True: Pseudoscience in the news
Bad Astronomy: When antiscience kills: dowsing edition
Greg Laden's Blog: Iraq Army uses magic wands to detect bombs ... instead of physical inspections
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RT @Glinner Randi Foundation offers million $ prize if ADE651 ( bomb-detecting magic wand) is tested succesfully. http://tinyurl.com/kro7n5 17 days ago |
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Randi Foundation offers million $ prize if the ADE651 (another bomb-detecting magic wand) is tested succesfully. http://tinyurl.com/kro7n5 17 days ago |
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Sobre el ADE651, vendido como detector de explosivos: http://tinyurl.com/kro7n5 Y la nota en el NYT: http://tinyurl.com/yhcjf6e 17 days ago |
Pseudoscience in the news
Why Evolution Is True —
... , so it was going the extra mile for the Sandia Lab to test more such devices, yet, the Iraqis still swear by them. James “The Amazing” Randi offered a million dollars to the English manufacturer of the device if it passed a fair experimental test, but with the money they are making off the Iraqis, they have no monetary incentive to have the device tested. The Times reporter even ran a couple of small tests on the device (bringing licensed weapons past a checkpoint; trying the device himself), and of course it didn’t work, but this did not shake the ...
When antiscience kills: dowsing edition
Bad Astronomy —
... Instead, the Iraqi have purchased hundreds of these so-called bomb-detection wands from a company called ATSC in the UK. The cost? Millions of dollars. Millions. On technology that James Randi has come right out and called "a totally fraudulent product". Bob Carroll of the Skeptic’s Dictionary ...
Iraq Army uses magic wands to detect bombs ... instead of physical inspections
Greg Laden's Blog —
... 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. These devices are made by ATSC, located in the UK. Their total take on this deal is going to be over 80 million dollars. Some of the Iraqis are kinda pissed off because some of the magic wands have been purchaced for $60,000 while equally effective magic wands were available for cloer to $18,000. The James Randi foundation has issued a specific challenge regarding these devices: Prove they work, you get a million bucks. The ...
wtf?
Bad Science —
... them,” he says. “Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs.” How would you know? There are no independent tests of the ADE651 that I could find. The simplest explanation is that nobody could really be bothered. Magician James Randi can. He has carried a cheque for $1m in his jacket pocket for many years, in an admirably expensive act of passive aggression, and he will give this cheque to anyone who can provide proof of supernatural phenomena. Last year he invited the manufacturers of the ADE 651 to come forward, and see if their device works ...
