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

[Michael Fowler]

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