Dowsing For Disease

[Dubious Dick]

Doubtful News has covered a story that has been causing a stink here in the U.K.

Worth a look to see how the same old scams migrate from one application to another.

http://doubtfulnews.com/2013/02/dowsing-for-hepatitis/

 

[dlorde]

Pretty disgraceful that the Guardian should report it as anything but a transparent fraud - instead, their Idiot in Egypt described it thus, "For a start, it was adapted from a bomb detector used by the Egyptian army. Second, it looked like the antenna for a car radio".

Shame he couldn't be bothered to search his own newspaper for 'bomb detector', because he would have found a bunch of articles (including one by Ben Goldacre) exposing the fraud and describing the same device!

 

[Dubious Dick]

The antidote

Good news folks. Seems the Guardian has got the message about the original report and published a somewhat better analysis. Suzi Gage has written an excellent blog piece to counteract the original nonsense story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/sifting-the-evidence/2013/feb/27/scientists-device-remotely-detects-hepatitis-c

Skeptic power rules!!! At least occasionally.

 

[Dubious Dick]

Just in from Pepijn Van Erp at klopdatwel.nl, the patent for the FAST (Field Advanced Screening Tool).

Different handle design. Same old swivelling aerial bs!

Interesting to note that the applicant is the Egyptian Government!

http://www.sumobrain.com/patents/wipo/Fast-series-field-advanced-screening/WO2011116782A1.pdf

 

[Dubious Dick]

Sincere apologies to Pepijn.

That should read

http://kloptdatwel.nl/

 

[Dubious Dick]

And if you feel the need you can read what Techowiz and I have written on our blogs regarding this new wonder device.

How Many Egyptians Does It Take To Make A Scam


When Is Something Patently ********