Friday, June 11, 2010
According to a story in The Independent (UK) on Tuesday, the investigation
into the sale of fake bomb detectors has been expanded to a number of firms
in the UK. It seemed comical fourteen years ago when we learned that
golfers were buying fraudulent golf-ball finders (WN 12 Jan 96). The
Quadro Tracker was nothing but an antenna mounted on a pistol-grip with a
swivel that was free to rotate 360. An almost imperceptible deviation of
the swivel from horizontal would cause the antenna to rotate to its lowest
point under the force of gravity. To a credulous observer it might seem to
be controlled by some mysterious external force. Quadro soon began
marketing them to law enforcement agencies and the Department of Defense
for $995 each to search for drugs and weapons. After it failed a simple
test, Sandia National Labs dissected one and found it contained no internal
parts. The FBI shut Quadro down and arrested its officers (WN 26 Jan 96).
However, the device soon reappeared in the UK as the ADE 651, sold by ATSC
for prices as high as $48,000. As WN reported (WN 29 Jan 2010), at least
1,500 were sold to the government of Iraq as bomb detectors at a cost of
millions of dollars. Reliance on the fake bomb detectors reportedly
contributed to hundreds of bomb deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, including
British and American troops.
In spite of the heinous nature of the ATSC crime, it may be difficult to
obtain a conviction. The defense of those charged with selling fake bomb
detectors will be that they believe the devices work. The defense can point
to the hundreds or thousands of people who openly market their services to
dowse for water or other substances. Sometimes called water-witching,
dowsing is said to rely on supernatural influence over the muscles of the
person holding a willow fork or an ADE 651. Dowsing doesn't always work,
but what does? The prosecution will find itself hip deep in arguments over
how dowsing we teach our differs from prayer. Magical thinking will be
with us until we teach our children that observable effects result only
from physical causes. It must be taught when they are learning their first
language.
Although NASA spent about $10 billion on the Constellation program since
2005, the program is currently in a costly vegetative state from which it
wont revive. However, Congress wont agreed to cancel Constellation. At
issue is a clause in contracts of the prime contractors, including Lockheed
Martin and Alliant Techsystems, which says the contractors are responsible
for cancellation costs. That seems to be a standard clause in federal
contracts, but these contractors are major political contributors.
This week in a Tennessee court, the defendant sought to use new fMRI
results to demonstrate his veracity. Polygraph results are not admissible
in court for the simple reason that the polygraph doesn't work. However,
WN pointed out four years ago that fMRI can, to a limited extent, tell what
a person is thinking about (WN 23 Jun 2006). This might have some value
in interrogation, however we would oppose its use in court. The only
thing worse than a lie detector that doesn't work, would be one that does.
It would be the ultimate invasion of privacy.
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