[meteorite-list] OT: Dowsing is real, but exoplanets are dubious?!

From: Michael Fowler <mqfowler_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 20:03:42 -0500
Message-ID: <8C47E692-F59D-47AB-BF24-824DF7B5B3FE_at_mac.com>

Phil,

Am I missing something here? You say the devices work at detecting bombs in Iraq. I suppose that means that no more bombs are getting by Iraqi checkpoints.....

I wonder do we live in the same world?

Mike Fowler

PS It's not so much a matter of doubting the dowsers, as being amazed at the arguments they put forth


> Hi Mike,
> I think the point of the article is relevant to what's being discussed
> here. People that know for scientific reasons that dowsing doesn't work,
> can't dowse because it won't work for them. Dowsing only works for the
> ignorant like myself and dumb construction workers and plumbers. The Iraqis
> believe in these devices and they work for them. And we're talking about
> life or death here, surely the devices work, they're staking their life on
> them. The experts make the exact same arguments in the article that I've
> heard hear. Scientific test show the devices give no better than random
> results, etc. etc. Everybody keeps telling them they don't work, when
> obviously the Iraqis know that they do work, otherwise they'd be getting
> blown up. Unless the Iraqis are so dumb, they're getting blown up, yet still
> insist on using the dowsers. If that was the case, surely the article would
> have reported it. This is the NY Times after all. I like at the end of the
> article where the naysayer can't get the dowser to work, but it works
> perfectly for the believer. It's like that Monty Python episode where
> everybody has to believe in the apartment building or it falls down. A
> non-believer moves in and the building starts collapse, until the believers
> convert him and the building goes back up. Every time he has doubts, the
> building starts to fall down, then he recants and the building goes back up.
> That's some funny stuff!
>
> And even though these guys are putting their lives on the line every day
> with their dowsers, they of course can't pass the fraudulent Randi's
> impossible requirements and cash in on his stupid million dollar con.
>
> Click on the link for pictures of the overpriced, phony dowsing devices
> that can't possibly work, yet still do
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html
Received on Sun 17 Oct 2010 09:03:42 PM PDT