Bomb detectors

What amazes me is people were prepared to pay for these but never once thought about testing them.

Yeah, but as Goldacre pointed out... after you've trousered $85M selling your product, proving it doesn't work for the chance at $1M isn't such an attractive offer.

What amazes me is people were prepared to believe in these gods but never once thought about testing them.

.

Fair enough. Try again:

ATSC UK LIMITED
DAIRY HOUSE YARD
SPARKFORD
YEOVIL
SOMERSET
BA22 7LH

For completeness: +442071930282

Yeovil address with a London dialling code.

The plot thickens.........

For completeness: +442071930282

We are the original manufacturers of the renowned ADE series of substance detector products. The picture shows a Army EOD expert, detecting a landmine discovered in th NIGER desert using the ADE - Advanced Detection Equipment. Click to find out more or visit us: http://www.atscltd.com

Website under repair..

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Domain name: atscltd.com

Administrative Contact:
ATSC LTD
JIM MCCORMICK (info@atscltd.co.uk)
+44.2071930282
Fax:
Dairy House Yard, Cary Road SPARKFORD, YEOVIL
SPARKFORD, BA22 7LH
GB

Technical Contact:
ATSC LTD
JIM MCCORMICK (info@atscltd.co.uk)
+44.2071930282
Fax:
Dairy House Yard, Cary Road SPARKFORD, YEOVIL
SPARKFORD, BA22 7LH
GB

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ATSC LTD
JIM MCCORMICK ()

Fax:
Dairy House Yard, Cary Road SPARKFORD, YEOVIL
SPARKFORD, BA22 7LH
GB

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Creation date: 22 Mar 2005 10:56:00
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http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/4726084.html

**
Jim McCormick, the managing director of ATSC Ltd, a former Merseyside police officer, developed the device ten years ago despite having no scientific or technical background.**

He insists that ATSC “only” received $12 million, and the price paid was inflated by commissions and training courses for the operators. He said: “We have been dealing with doubters for ten years. One of the problems we have is that the machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.”** Another reason for the doubts is that apart from the aerial the device contains no working parts at all.**

bloody hell. Why isn't somebody rounding up homeopaths and arresting them for fraud then?

bloody hell. Why isn't somebody rounding up homeopaths and arresting them for fraud then?

Not homeopathy but relevant.

You have to be careful if you question no evidence based medicine as Simon Singh found out.
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/index.php/site/project/340

http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/

However if you're a newspaper you can get away with things like this
http://www.badscience.net/2009/10/jabs-as-bad-as-the-cancer/
and the Science Minister will tell you it's a good source of scientific information...

Which goes show that making rational decisions is not a trait required by politicians.

And policemen manning checkpoints in Baghdad have told the BBC that you need to be relaxed to use the ADE-651 and that it does not work properly if the user is stressed or has a high heart rate.

i don't think anyone who is going to be particularly relaxed when looking for bombs with a device that is as effective (but not as tasty) as a banana.

bloody hell. Why isn't somebody rounding up homeopaths and arresting them for fraud then?

generally, homeopaths aren't selling a product that results in death and/or serious injury.

generally, homeopaths aren't selling a product that results in death and/or serious injury.

They claim to have cures for extreme depression, and other mental problems, encoriging people to leave off the pills...

They claim to have cures for extreme depression, and other mental problems, encoriging people to leave off the pills...

fair nuff, but i still think that people choosing to follow a homeopathic treatment will know that it is questionably effective and not proved by mainstream science. people who believe that it is genuinely effective will probably seek it regardless of whether proved wrong or not, and it may have something of a placebo effect on them.

but selling an unproven device to governments, with that government telling its citizens that it is effective, is causing people to be involuntarily subjected to unnecessary danger.

generally, homeopaths aren't selling a product that results in death and/or serious injury.
Yeah, they are. Homeopathic malaria remedies. WTF do you think happens when people get malaria? Lots of them die.

But that's not the point, homeopaths are selling sugar pills that are so unlikely to contain any trace of the original alleged ingredient that you are substantially more likely to win the lottery 5 times on the trot. That, in my book, is fraud, leaving aside the utter bollocks about succussion, etc. etc.

I dunno - On 30 January, there is going to be a mass homeopathic suicide, with some people taking tens of times the maximum stated dose.
Myself included. At 10:23, in reference to Avogadro and his number.

Not homeopathy but relevant.

You have to be careful if you question no evidence based medicine as Simon Singh found out.
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/...te/project/340

http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/

However if you're a newspaper you can get away with things like this
http://www.badscience.net/2009/10/ja...as-the-cancer/
and the Science Minister will tell you it's a good source of scientific information...

Which goes show that making rational decisions is not a trait required by politicians.
Yeh, I know about Singh, and Sense About Science, and the campaign to reform libel laws, I just happen to be beyond the jurisdiction and entirely unconcerned about being sued – I'm just not worth it!

As for newspapers, I entirely agree. Flat Earth News by Nick Davies, and Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland are eye-openers both.

fair nuff, but i still think that people choosing to follow a homeopathic treatment will know that it is questionably effective and not proved by mainstream science. people who believe that it is genuinely effective will probably seek it regardless of whether proved wrong or not, and it may have something of a placebo effect on them.

but selling an unproven device to governments, with that government telling its citizens that it is effective, is causing people to be involuntarily subjected to unnecessary danger.

What we've seen over the last 40 years of modern medicine is that people are woefully under-equipped to choose treatment, conventional or alternative (as in "an alternative to getting better").

Doctors themselves are notoriously poor at examining data and assessing treatments, failing the most basic of probability or statistical teasers (as do most professionals). Sutherland's book on irrationality recommended above has a lot about medicine and medical data in it, simply because there is a LOT of data, and the consequences are serious. Read this for a fuller explanation of why homeopathy is dangerous.

And yes, as MF says, read bad science if you haven't already.

just read 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre,
do it tonight. honestly you will benefit from reading this more than a years worth of telly.

Good book.

Big fan of homeopathy, isn't he...

yes, big......fan.
he dismantles it expertly.
his arguments are as succinct as Tynans

i got it for my dad for xmas. he's a doctor*. he says its good.

i'm done.

A friend of mine did the electrolysis foot bath about a week after I read it and was singing its praises as a "detoxification" method.

I didnt have the heart to tell her.

homeopathy cured my migraines as a child so scew the lot of ya

Apparently if you dip your knob in a concoction of lemon juice and garlic, you wont get aids... according to the health minister of South Africa.

generally, homeopaths aren't selling a product that results in death and/or serious injury.

Some homeopaths have been shown to advise against other therapies in favour of homeopathy. They also hold back data, and have tried to censor reports which contain evidence which refutes the claims of homeopathy.

Quackery in medicine is detrimental. It encourages a "science doesn't know everything" mentality, which is true, but it knows a hell of a lot more than anything else

Apparently if you dip your knob in a concoction of lemon juice and garlic, you wont get aids... according to the health minister of South Africa.

Yeah cos who's gonna shag a fella with a garlic lemon on his bell?

That's true, provided you're not dipping your cock in anthing else. Like a vagina, bottom or AIDS-blown Fleshlight™.

haha