Re: New! From the makers of the tin-foil hat!

[rackow () mcs anl gov]

Personal opinion only, not related at all to $work.

Another story crossed my desk the same time as this on
the tin foil hat.  Don't we all feel safer after finding
out what goes into the high tech devices to detect bombs
and drugs? 

> From: whatsnew () BOBPARK ORG
> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:06:10 -0500
> Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New    6 November 2009
>
>
> WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park    Friday, 6 Nov 09   Washington, DC
>
> 1.  DIVINING:  THIS TIME, IT'S A BOMB DETECTOR.
> There it was, on the front page of the New York Times; the Iraqi government
> has purchased more than 1500 devices known as the ADE 651 to use at
> checkpoints.   That stands for Advanced Detection of Explosives. The 651 is
> the latest detection device marketed by ATSC (UK) Ltd.  It consists of a
> thin rod mounted on a swivel held by pistol grip, and is said to point to
> explosives. That's all it is, there are no sensors.  According to Rod
> Nordland who wrote the article, a retired USAF officer said the device is
> nothing more than an explosives divining rod,.  The stupid Iraqis don't
> know this and paid $16,500-$60,000 each for them, even though American
> officers told them the devices are worthless.  Boy, are they dumb!  Wait,
> the NYT failed mention that the US Department of Defense was sold on these
> devices back in the 90s Although it was classified, they tipped off their
> favorite novelist, Tom Clancy, that the incredible device could detect
> people through thick walls by sensing their heartbeats.  It was the basis
> of "Rainbow Six," http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN98/wn092598.html .   It
> was a scam.  Thousands of similar devices are still in use by local police
> around the country to satisfy "probable cause" requirements for a property
> search. ATSC also sells a narcotic detector, but it's exactly the same
> device with a different number.
>
> 2.  MEMORY:  WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO KEEP DEBUNKING THIS STUFF?
> Is there no memory?  Where I grew up in Texas no one would think of digging
> a well until the local dowser using a willow fork approved the spot.  Since
> then, dowsing for water has been debunked over and over, most thoroughly by
> James Randi. But dowsing is now used for everything.  Last year, the power
> company needed to find a buried power cable on our road.  I watched the
> lineman reach under the seat of his truck, pull out a stiff wire bent in
> the shape of a fork, and start dousing for the cable.  If it works for
> everything, there is no physical cause and it's not science.
>
> 3.  MAGNETS: NEVER PAY ANOTHER ELECTRIC BILL.
> The first time I heard that promise it was made by Joseph W. Newman on the
> CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1987.  A Mississippi backwoods-mechanic
> with a grade-school education, Newman took a course in electricity.  When
> he heard that doubling the number of turns in a coil would double the
> magnetic field, he left to wind a mighty coil that would generate more
> energy than it took.  Newman never got to Lenz's law, and CBS did not
> bother to check with a scientist.  About every five years since, that
> machine is reinvented. You can now build your own "energy machine" with a
> kit from Magnets4Energy, but it still won't work.
---clip
> THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
> Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
> University of Maryland, but they should be.
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