Slashdot Mirror
Bill Gates Handwriting Analyzed
Kaal Alexander Rosser writes "The BBC is reporting that a doodle left behind at a Davos press conference given by Tony Blair, Bill Gates and Bono shows the writer to be: "an unstable man" amongst other things. The Gates Foundation has confirmed the doodle was left there by Bill Gates."
and before anybody jumps on this bandwagon, let's remember that handwriting analysis is only a little more authoritative than phrenology or astrology
Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
Here's a look at the actual doodle .
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
It's not, except for entertainment. We have a few shows here that have used polygraphs as entertainment as well ;-)
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Process is one thing, but the people interpretting are another.
I was taking a law / ethics class back in college (simple class, not the advanced stuff) and we went over a case that kind of freaked some of us out. It was about a man falsely imprisoned in Texas.
The guy was brought in on bad evidence and testimony. That was bad enough, particularly the "witness" who never actually saw anything.
While waiting for trial, the police sent in a psychologist. They didn't even inform the guy what was going on, they said they had to "check" something. So, they had him draw a picture, sign his name, try to draw a perfect circle and that was it.
The trial comes, and the psychologist said he examined the defendant and based on his handwriting and drawings he was one of the most vile killers he'd ever seen. The shrink went on and on, and went on to pat himself on the back for helping catch such a dangerous killer..
Remember, this was just from a circle, his name, and a picture of a house (or something similar) all done within like 5 minutes. This had nothing to do with the evidence, because there was no note or anything, it was supposedly a crime of opportunity.
Years later, the real killer came forward. After re-investigating, they found the witness was a screwball AND didn't see anything, and a lot of other stuff that had gone wrong. They eventually let him go with no pay or anything. Meanwhile, the guy had spent like a decade in jail.
You have to wonder about these supposed shrinks that analyze handwiriting and what-not. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but in this case I think a bunch of them were quacks that just wanted their name in teh paper.
It was a long time ago so I can't quote it. As I recall, he release form I saw said that they could use the information in any way they deemed apropriate. That they would not disclose information from the test to anyone unless they determined the other party should have the information (basically that they could give the info to anyone they wanted). That they were not laible for any harm to me or my reputation.
:)
It was a page and a half saying they could do anything they wanted and I couldn't hold them liable.
No way I'd sign that.
The emplayer was a retailer you'd find a majority of malls in the US.
To be fair, the man that was there to administer the polygraph was the president of his own company contracted by the retailer. He said the retailer's liability waiver was more extreme than most and showed me the standard one he uses for other clients. It still wasn't something I'd sign given how unreliable and subjective polygraphs are.
He then asked if he could do a security interview. He explained that to be asking all the same questions but without the polygraph machine. I agreed to whichever he wanted to do.