Inspired by the gold detector post on here, did anyone see the case of James McCormick going down for flogging pretend bomb detectors which were a
radio aerial on a hinge on a handle...?
Despite the seriousness of the consequences at the sharp end, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. They are based on a golf ball detector (which
is also plastic tat) and sold for £27k each!!
They can be modified to detect anything with a kilner jar and a sticker!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22266051
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a86hX5cwoVg
I compared this to the PPI insurance thing. I think the problem wasn't the seller, it was the gullible buyers. If I had been looking at a bomb detector, I'd have been trialling it for at least six months prior to deployment, and I'd want to be absolutely sure it did what it said on the tine.
OK, so I'm a little more 'savvy' than most, having a considerable amount of NMR experience. However, absolutely stunning that something
like this could be purchased and utilised in the field, without someone asking some very simple questions.
I'm cynical, that goes with the territory it seems, as does a certain amount of madness, but even so, I can harly believe this story.
The CAM detector, basically an ion-trap, is pretty much the field instrument for chemical detection. Good, solid, dependable. Old technology, but
easily identifiable as such.
Some salesman turns up (supported no doubt by his political allies) pedalling an hinging aerial with such universal capabilities, hey, who's
asking questions.... no one.
So yep, I'm an unwanted redundant (scrapped) NMR Spectroscopist (there is no chemical/pharmaceutical industry left in the UK), now wiping old
wrinkly bottoms in the care industry for the minimum wage - but there was a time when people like me were 'out there' able to get at this
sort of scam before it took hold. Our PhD's and postdoctoral experiences now stack shelves in Supermarkets for the army of public sector
employees to empty, RIP Astra Charnwood.
If you've not seen the film "Idiocracy" I really do reccomend it, it's a light hearted look at a future run by (and for) complete
idiots. Thing is, it's all so real....
You don't need to be a great salesman or have a product that works, when you divert funds in to the buyers bank account- you just need to find a
bent buyer.
[Edited on 24/4/13 by big-vee-twin]
Anybody who bought these would not be in a job long in the real world.
The first thing I thought was a way of money laudering / corrupt officials.... Your gov buys 10k of these and I will puk 1k's worth into your
your bank account.
Second thought was they were only ever sold as decoys / deterant as per a lot of the fake CCTV domes arround the place.
Just my 2ps worth
ATB agriv8
It could detect an object a kilometre underground, and didn't need a battery, it used the bodies electrical field to run it. Apparently 
quote:
Originally posted by motorcycle_mayhem
If you've not seen the film "Idiocracy" I really do reccomend it, it's a light hearted look at a future run by (and for) complete idiots. Thing is, it's all so real....
Maybe it's a take on water divining? The military bloke in Iraq was walking up and down with one in each hand!!
Broquet fuel catalyst springs to mind amazingly the more people point on on the web it is tosh the more the seller hikes the price and more testimonies appear on the web saying how it changes water into wine, allows you to drive across water and raises the dead.
quote:
Originally posted by designer
Maybe it's a take on water divining? The military bloke in Iraq was walking up and down with one in each hand!!
Its the no battery thing that gets me. The fact that NOBODY has ever experienced a detector actually dectect anything. Its just incredible.
Apparently when the BBC were investigating it they found a car that had been through 23 check points that were using these detectors. Some check
points had several people with these things. In the end the bomb was found by a general stop and search!
The front and lack of moral ground this guy must of had is amazing. He should become a banker.
I can just imagine the conversation with my business unit leader "We want to try a bit of divining to locate the leak.........." 
Seriously though I'd love to try a few blind trials on this sort of thing.
[Edited on 24/4/13 by liam.mccaffrey]
quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
I can just imagine the conversation with my business unit leader "We want to try a bit of divining to locate the leak.........."
Seriously though I'd love to try a few blind trials on this sort of thing.
[Edited on 24/4/13 by liam.mccaffrey]
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
I can just imagine the conversation with my business unit leader "We want to try a bit of divining to locate the leak.........."
Seriously though I'd love to try a few blind trials on this sort of thing.
[Edited on 24/4/13 by liam.mccaffrey]
The guy apparently made a living out of farmers selecting sites for bore holes.
Broquet fuel catalysts... hmmm...
I enjoyed hearing all about a magnetic device that when placed in the fuel line did some quite amazing things, at Stoneleigh one year. Wonderful
"alignment of fuel molecules", resulting in better fuel economy and instant enhancement of your Pinto's power output, saving the need
to fit a VVT lump.
OK, so the air-head salesman didn't know he was pitching at an NMR guy, where 14 Tesla of magnetic field and several hundred watts of RF are
involved in aligning things. Very amusing.
But hey, we're in a world where one man's dinitrophenol is a handy aryl conjugation building block in a synthesis pathway, another's
wood preservative or another's nightclub drug and slimming aid.
Idiocracy.
quote:
Originally posted by jps
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
I can just imagine the conversation with my business unit leader "We want to try a bit of divining to locate the leak.........."
Seriously though I'd love to try a few blind trials on this sort of thing.
[Edited on 24/4/13 by liam.mccaffrey]
The guy apparently made a living out of farmers selecting sites for bore holes.
A quick wiki suggests that scientific trials have shown no evidence for it. Which I find surprising, for some reason I had the impression that, in terms of finding water, there was some basis to it. I was always skeptical of divining for lost people, etc using a pendulumn and a map though....
quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
I can just imagine the conversation with my business unit leader "We want to try a bit of divining to locate the leak.........."
Seriously though I'd love to try a few blind trials on this sort of thing.
[Edited on 24/4/13 by liam.mccaffrey]
quote:
Originally posted by motorcycle_mayhem
.
So yep, I'm now wiping old wrinkly bottoms in the care industry for the minimum wage
quote:
Originally posted by Confused but excited.
quote:
Originally posted by motorcycle_mayhem
.
So yep, I'm now wiping old wrinkly bottoms in the care industry for the minimum wage
U2U sent.
re water divining, I don't know how it works but it does, I've done it myself many times to find water mains pipes in fields where there is no indication of the pipe route. have a go yourself, just get two pieces of wire coathanger about 18 inches long, bend them to 90" about 4 inches along. then hold them loosely pointing forward and walk over ground where you know there is a water pipe, they will move and cross over when your over/near the pipe. there's a guy down here who gets hired by everyone ,he can pinpoint the location and depth of a pipe to within a foot or so.
re divining
I work in the drainage industry & have used divining rods to locate sewers & then had the location checked with a electronic locater never
being more than .5 of a meter out
quote:
Originally posted by scrappy_7
re divining
I work in the drainage industry & have used divining rods to locate sewers & then had the location checked with a electronic locater never being more than .5 of a meter out