Sadly, this story is no relation to the fine Monty Python sketch, “How Not to Be Seen”. Since that’s funny, and this story isn’t, I’ll start with that.
There. And now you are in a good mood, right? Prepare for that mood to be destroyed!
According to a recent article in the New York Times, some idiots in Iraq have spent a great deal of time, money and effort on a new bomb-detecting technique: dowsing.
For those who don’t know, dowsing is what you see with people wandering about with y-shaped sticks looking for water. Dowsing’s ability to detect water is well-known to be non-existent. Turns out it’s ability to detect bombs is just as non-existent.
Also, here’s another fun thing: when dowsing doesn’t work, it’s the fault of the person who is doing it. Yep, blame the victim. From the Times article:
Proponents of the wand often argue that errors stem from the human operator, who they say must be rested, with a steady pulse and body temperature, before using the device.
I am really saddened that people would use this bullshit as a method to detect bombs. Frankly, you’re better off just flipping a coin to see if a car might or might not have a bomb inside. At least that gives you a 50% level of accuracy.
The last thing Iraq needs right now is to have bullshit like this dumped onto it. I hope that they quickly realize how stupid this is and go back to using real bomb-detecting methods that might actually, you know, work and stuff.



