Woo science kills: dowsing for bombs 26 Jan 2010 The UK government has banned the purchase of a dowsing device that is supposed to “detect” bombs in Afghanistan. Even the Afghans know this doesn’t work. [H/T Russell McPhee] Science
Biology Evopsychopathy 5: Conclusion 2 Jan 20133 Jan 2013 The criticisms of evolutionary psychology and its predecessors sociobiologies 1 through 3 focus on three major points: 1. It is adaptively-biased; 2. It is gene-centric (or biological determinist, which amounts to the same thing); 3. It is culturally biased in favour of the privileged classes of the people making the… Read More
Evolution Notre Dame conference – the washup 3 Nov 2009 It’s been a great conference. Simon Conway Morris was fun (but wrong! It’s OK, he says I am too). Peter Bowler’s talk on “what-if history” – what if Darwin had drowned on the Beagle? was actually interesting and raised some nice points about both the nature of the theory of… Read More
Epistemology Species, phenomena and data 2 Jun 20112 Jun 2011 Just lately I have been trying to support my belief that species are not units of biological theory, but phenomena that call for explanation. Several things have followed from this: Species turn out on this view not to be causal entities, but rather epiphenomena of causal processes at the individual… Read More
You’ll notice how I refrained from pissing on the floor… If you would have done he would have detected it with his dowsing rod.
I don’t know about pissing on the floor but the guy who is making them is certainly taking the piss and laughing all the way to the bank while he does it. On the other hand we could view it scientifically as yet another confirmation of the the Hannum Hypothesis.
The training manual for the device says it can even, with the right card, detect elephants, humans and 100 dollar bills. …ah, the mythical “right card” (I have one – elephants/humans are about 50:50)
Sadly, a “real” bomb detector made by a contractor in England and sold to security services in Baghdad doesn’t work either…
I understand the electronics used in microwave image detection devices has become far cheaper to manufacture of late. It at least would appear to work better in some situations than the tinfoil hat approach used in this case.
“This paper is written by John Living, who was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham. He was commissioned as an officer in the Corps of Royal Engineers, and was taught dowsing at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham – reported to have the world’s largest collection of material on dowsing. “John Living has been a Member of the Institute of Royal Engineers, Member of the Institute of Engineers, Jamaica, Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (and Chartered Civil Engineer) in the United Kingdom, and a Professional Engineer registered in the Provinces of Ontario and Alberta, in Canada. He has more than 40 years experience of dowsing, and is a member of the Canadian Society of Dowsers, the Canadian Society of Questers and the American Society of Dowsers” http://mypage.direct.ca/j/jliving/landmine.htm “Police officer Husam Muhammad says using the device properly is more of an art than a science, and he demonstrates how to walk with a steady rocking march, holding the sniffer out ahead of him. “If we are tense, the device doesn’t work correctly. I start slow, and relax my body, and I try to clear my mind (edit.of any rational thought),” he says.” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111750111
A professional engineer spiritual healer Pic of the great man himself. D.V.D’s books also available He travels Canada giving workshops on Intuition Technology. How nice. http://www.in2it.ca/Books.htm