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Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'

zooterkin said:
The BBC reports refer to 'thousands' of the devices being sold to Iraq.
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i'm jest saying, you'd a thought he'd be happy to claim that too...perhaps his website just wasn't updating.
whenever the press mention 1000's I take it with a little salt.

It is mind-boggling that so much money can be spent on something clearly so worthless; I'm not sure what that says about the people making the decisions.
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whatever it says it's probably not enough.....lol
Luckily for Jim McCormick, the regimes he's sold this thing to are all peace-loving and unlikely to send a hit-squad after him for making them look stupid. Oh, wait...
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oops........haha, I just hope they don't rely on the detector to find him...lol
 
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Jaggy Bunnet said:
Not wishing to be picky, but isn't this a fairly important drawback in a device that claims to be a bomb detector? I would imagine that users looking for bombs probably have a level of stress and a heart rate above average.
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Yeah, a bit of a drawback, you could say that.......:bigclap
 
McCormick has been arrested

From a Times Online article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6997859.ece

Colin Port, the Somerset and Avon Police Chief Constable, personally ordered the investigation. A force spokesman said in a statement: “We are conducting a criminal investigation, and as part of that, a 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation. That man has been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Tell you what... if I had publicly embarrassed and pissed off the Iraqi military, I'd want to *stay* locked up. Some of the right wing nutjobs here may have fatwa envy, but they have actual fatwa! Just sayin'...
 
metzomagic said:
From a Times Online article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6997859.ece
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This is priceless:

Mr McCormick told The Times that his device was being criticised because of its crude appearance.

He added: “We have been dealing with doubters for ten years. One of the problems we have is that the machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.”

If I ordered a bomb detector I wouldn't give a flying fig what it looked like so long as it worked. If it were a paperweight, which is about all these things are good for, I'd give more consideration to its appearance.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Mr McCormick told The Times that his device was being criticised because of its crude appearance.

He added: “We have been dealing with doubters for ten years. One of the problems we have is that the machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.”
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Why don't we have McCormick test it? Put him and his bomb detctor in a large room filled with junk and a bomb timed to go off in 10 minutes. All he has to do is find it.

Should be no problem, right?
 
McCormick has a cast-iron defence. Just claim it's a homeopathic bomb detector then sue anyone who claims he's a fraud.
 
r0ast_p0tat0es said:
You guys assume innocent stupidity, but you forget that you can sell a crony government anything with a few bribes and kickbacks in the right places.

Not many government officials are that stupid, but plenty are that corrupt.
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Well, I don't think I was assuming stupidity, at least not solely. I did say it makes the governments which bought the device look stupid, which is not quite the same thing. Perhaps corrupt regimes are more prone to poor decision making.
 
HarryHenderson said:
Is that a little 'highlight' heard in a lecture somewhere?
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No. It's a statement of fact.

HarryHenderson said:
Okay I'll bite (and go OT), what exactly (are you talking about that) "is only possible because free markets exist"? Evil?

Regardless, it's all Obama's fault. :)
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Nothing to do with Obama. This history goes back long before his birth.

It's simply the result of allowing markets to control themselves rather than be controlled. Take China as an example - the crooks who used melamine to bulk up baby formula have been executed; this bloke talks blandly about suing people who question him!

It was a cryptic remark and not worth a derail.
 
In the BBC website news report on Friday 22 Jan.2010, they credit James Randi with first raising concerns over the use of dowsing rods in the US to detect bombs.

They further report that : in 1995 Sandia national labs and the FBI after testing the Quadro Tracker (a precurser of the ADE-651) was described by them as a "fraud", and the FBI warned "All agencies should immediately cease using the device." A similar warning was given again by the FBI in 1999.
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If it was officially known that this type of device had no credible function as a detector of explosives, one has to question which "agencies" were using them and who and how their purchase was approved?
 
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The Atheist said:
It's simply the result of allowing markets to control themselves rather than be controlled. Take China as an example - the crooks who used melamine to bulk up baby formula have been executed.
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So the milk was contaminated, and the fraud also took place in the more restricted marketplace.

In summary: you've successfully provided evidence that fraud also takes place in more restricted markets.

Which wasn't your original claim.

And I guess you completely missed the bit where the guy has now been arrested for fraud. Just like what happened in China, how about that. Admittedly, he won't be executed in the UK, but up to that point I can't really see a distinction.

I'd love to know where your train of thought is going here, but I don't think there's a map...
 
zooterkin said:
Not by the authorities, anyway...
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:)

I was thinking it would be amusing to extradite him to Iraq, so he could stand trial there instead, although (of course!) we would still seek assurances he would not be executed (to comply with ECHR).

There might be people in Iraq who want to lynch him, but tell him not to worry, we'll use one of his detectors to check them for weapons before allowing them to meet and greet him.
 
Jaggy Bunnet said:
Not wishing to be picky, but isn't this a fairly important drawback in a device that claims to be a bomb detector? I would imagine that users looking for bombs probably have a level of stress and a heart rate above average.

Of course it must be a manufacturers dream when your customers give you the credit when it "works" but not the blame when it doesn't. At least if you are a crook who doesn't care that you are supplying non functioning equipment that leads to innocent people being killed.
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You are aware there are NO WORKING PARTS in this thing, right?
 
r0ast_p0tat0es said:
You guys assume innocent stupidity, but you forget that you can sell a crony government anything with a few bribes and kickbacks in the right places.

Not many government officials are that stupid, but plenty are that corrupt.
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Actually, I think there is a fair amount of both stupid and greed within most governments.
 
The Atheist said:
No. It's a statement of fact.
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Logic: just because it is possible in free markets to cheat people does not means free markets are required. Read any history book on the corruption within communist/socialist economies and I have no doubt you will find an equal number of examples of greed and fraud.


The Atheist said:
...It's simply the result of allowing markets to control themselves rather than be controlled. Take China as an example - the crooks who used melamine to bulk up baby formula have been executed; this bloke talks blandly about suing people who question him! ...
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You are talking about different levels of punishment, that has nothing to do with the economic system in play.
 
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skeptigirl said:
Then what was the thing about heart rate and stress level? I must not have understood it.
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I suggest reading his post again. He's saying that even if the device did work, it's a fatal flaw that it depends on the operator being calm, given what it's supposed to be used for. Of course, in reality this is exactly the sort of thing psychics and other scammers do, blaming the victim when things don't 'work', and taking the credit when they do.
 
skeptigirl said:
Then what was the thing about heart rate and stress level? I must not have understood it.
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You didn't think including the word "works" in quotes and referring to it as "non functioning equipment" supplied by a "crook" may have indicated I had some doubts about its technical merits?
 
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