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Man Accused of Selling Golf Ball Finders As Bomb Detectors
CNET reports that a British businessman named Jim McCormick is facing charges now for fraud; McCormick "charged 27,000 pounds (around $41,000) for devices that weren't quite what he said they were." That's putting it mildly; what he was selling as bomb detecting devices were actually souped-up (or souped-down, with non-functional circuitboards and other flim-flammery) golf-ball detectors. The Daily Mail has some enlightening pictures.
I guess you could say this con man is gonna get... ...clubbed.
People are dying in wars because of reliance on these devices. He needs to go to jail...or the gas chamber.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Travelling Golfers should be aware that the TSA (or UK equivalent) may not take kindly to the presence of Golf Balls in your luggage.
Well, has happened before.. I guess his mistake was that the units didn't produce enough positive hits - regardless of their accuracy.
The man was selling dousing rods which were labeled as golfball finders as bombdetectors.
They were equally successful at either task. They weren't golfball detectors any more than they were bomb detectors. The con was the dousing rod aspect of it, not the 'golf ball finder' stuff. The problem is people believing in magic, not a mislabeled golfbal detector.
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity
wtf is the Daily Mail doing here? It is a tabloid.
The "article" had more information about his stupid home than anything about his shady business practices or how no one noticed anything wrong with these devices.
They are dowsing rod using the idea motor effect to fool you into thinking it detects anything. Dowsing rode do not work. When properly tested for say, finding metal and water, in double blind, the dowser never find stuff above chance. it is pure flim flam. So even as a 13$ gold ball finder , it is a scam.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
James Randi has been really after this guy and others
it's just a dowsing rod and there are several people making the same device
Here is a video of James Randi warning others about the bullshit scam of this and others exactly like it in the UK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruTmqfGJhTI
They finally started listening to him it seems
The wars of recent years have been a major money-spinner for shady businesses and shady politics - viz the sale of near-unserviceable ex-soviet weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq by brokers, the tying of government contracts in Iraq to western suppliers of telecomms equipment (Iraq had a fairly functional GSM network and this was nearly ripped out in favour of CDMA), the Westernisation of the oil industry in Iraq..
the broader fraud in my eyes is the concept that western systems of bid & contract and multi-party democracy can work anywhere. Maybe its true on a long-enough timeline, but we're seeing short-term consequences in terms of bidding that isnt fair, contracts not based on good principles of business and knowledge (above all things capitalism requires good knowledge and assessment of the options), 'multi-party systems' that just formalise existing factions on tribal, cultural and religious lines.
What this guy did if accurately reported is shameful, criminal and wrong. I hope he'll be made an example of. I don't imagine it will make much difference on a larger scale. All thats unusual is he got caught.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
On the one hand, he's scum. On the other hand, anyone who believed
He produced glossy brochures to trick potential investors into believing the devices could detect tiny amounts of explosive from three miles away , the Old Bailey heard.
shouldn't be in charge of the fry/chip station, let alone be in charge of ordering military equipment.
Vice has a report from Iraq titled In Saddam's shadow, where these devices are shown (and it is pointed out that they are a hoax). This kind of fraud is really one of the worst kinds...
Dvorak on Doomtech
...that a military unit purchased bomb detectors never having tested their validity?
It seems stunning that the British military would go ahead with a purchase like this without any field trials, especially for something as critical as a 'bomb sniffer' -- lives depend on this piece of equipment to work properly.
Madness.
Alot of those people are in charge of important stuff like your tax money.
It's worse. They're in charge of military decisions.
I believe dowsing works, I believe that family might have explosives, i believe we should call in an air strike.
Ask yourself this, do you feel safer with the guns in the hands of people who believe in magic?
There's a special place in hell for these people.
Yeah, on the board.
Ayn Rand would be proud of this chap. Caveat emptor is a totally valid business model when dissatisfied customers are likely to be scattered over a 50 meter radius.
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