A story has been making "news" for the past week or so in South Africa. An ex-policeman claims he can find the bodies of missing persons by using quantum mechanics and a lock of their hair or even stubble from a razor. The "inventor" isn't saying much, but apparently his invention involves pairs of particles, instantaneous action at a distance and GPS techology too. (I wouldn't be surprised if magical incantations or perhaps crystals were also somehow involved.)
The inventor is refusing to reveal how his device works, and refused to subject it to any form of scientific testing, citing commercial and patent concerns. Any regular readers of this web site should immediately find this kind of excuse familiar, of course.
The above is clearly yet another crackpot hoax, except it enjoyed prime-time exposure on the leading investigative journalism TV programme in South Africa called Carte Blanche, and was investigated by one of South Africa's best-known journalists, one Ruda Landman, a silly woman best known for her bizarre political views, such as that replacing a minority language with English at a university would encourage diversity in society (sic). Landman was clearly taken in by this hocus-pocus, and offered to hand over the "evidence" to the police.
To make matters much, much worse, in the course of the investigation, Landman also roped in a local psychic to assist in finding the missing persons. What is interesting is that although South Africa is notorious for crackpot theories about AIDS (the president believes that the HIV virus doesn't cause AIDS) and the sporadic mob execution of witches in rural areas (for example when lightning inexplicably strikes a hut) all the people involved, from the inventor to Landman, were all members of the white, Western minority.
One can almost excuse a person in the rural backwaters for being superstitious, but Landman is a university-educated and presumably sophisticated woman with enough journalistic experience to understand that most stories have to be approached with at least a degree of cynicism.
The weirdest thing of all is that the inventor isn't on the plane to the USA to claim his $1 million JREF prize for his paranormal invention. Given our weak currency, $1 million would be a fortune to an ex policeman. Go figure.
The inventor is refusing to reveal how his device works, and refused to subject it to any form of scientific testing, citing commercial and patent concerns. Any regular readers of this web site should immediately find this kind of excuse familiar, of course.
The above is clearly yet another crackpot hoax, except it enjoyed prime-time exposure on the leading investigative journalism TV programme in South Africa called Carte Blanche, and was investigated by one of South Africa's best-known journalists, one Ruda Landman, a silly woman best known for her bizarre political views, such as that replacing a minority language with English at a university would encourage diversity in society (sic). Landman was clearly taken in by this hocus-pocus, and offered to hand over the "evidence" to the police.
To make matters much, much worse, in the course of the investigation, Landman also roped in a local psychic to assist in finding the missing persons. What is interesting is that although South Africa is notorious for crackpot theories about AIDS (the president believes that the HIV virus doesn't cause AIDS) and the sporadic mob execution of witches in rural areas (for example when lightning inexplicably strikes a hut) all the people involved, from the inventor to Landman, were all members of the white, Western minority.
One can almost excuse a person in the rural backwaters for being superstitious, but Landman is a university-educated and presumably sophisticated woman with enough journalistic experience to understand that most stories have to be approached with at least a degree of cynicism.
The weirdest thing of all is that the inventor isn't on the plane to the USA to claim his $1 million JREF prize for his paranormal invention. Given our weak currency, $1 million would be a fortune to an ex policeman. Go figure.
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