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This reads like an April's fool joke: > The ADE 651 consists of a swivelling antenna mounted via hinge to a plastic handgrip. It requires no battery or other p

by lqet 5y ago

This reads like an April's fool joke: > The ADE 651 consists of a swivelling antenna mounted via hinge to a plastic handgrip. It requires no battery or other power source; its manufacturer claimed that it is powered solely by the user's static electricity. > After a substance-specific "programmed substance detection card" is inserted, the device is supposed to swivel in the user's hand to point its antenna in the direction of the target substance. The cards are claimed to be designed to "tune into" the "frequency" of a particular explosive or other substance named on the card > The cards were supposedly "programmed" or "activated" by being placed in a jar for a week along with a sample of the target substance to absorb the substance's "vapours". Initially, McCormick reportedly used his own blood to "program" the cards for detecting human tissue > [McCormick] told The Times that ATSC had been dealing with doubters for ten years and that the device was merely being criticized because of its "primitive" appearance. He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights."

thaumasiotes 5y ago
It reads just like a dowsing rod.
sitzkrieg 5y ago
how do you spend 10s of thousands of dollars on something without checking such comical red flags like that?
- AdrianB1 5y ago
  You do government acquisitions.
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  You don't know how, your boss wants action, and it will cause you problems now to put up a fuss but not if you just go with it. You really don’t need corruption, just people under pressure who don’t want to push back.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  The answer is usually corruption and kickbacks.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  > the device was merely being criticized because of its "primitive" appearance. He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights." I know. But the Mark 3 addresses the silence issue. It makes amazing noises.
- shawnz 5y ago
  I wonder if it wasn't just being used as an excuse for illegal searches. The high price just prevents third-parties from testing its efficacy.
- hackflip 5y ago
  By spending tax payers dollars, not your own dollars.
- genewitch 5y ago
  $60k buys you a lot of probable cause, I guess.
- antisthenes 5y ago
  Kickbacks to purchasing agencies.
Aeolun 5y ago
I love their sense of understatement. > the technology used in the ADE 651 and similar devices is not suitable for bomb detection It’s a friggin empty box! It’s just as suitable for bomb detection as my nose, if not less.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  You can smell many of the chemicals used in explosives manufacturing. Your nose is definitely better.
frankfrankfrank 5y ago
It's kind of hard to tell what was really going on, but considering the following: > The Iraqi government paid up to £37,000 for the devices despite the purchase price being put at around £11,500 and > The training included instructions to Iraqi users to "shuffle their feet to generate static electricity to make the things work The bigger story here is probably the utter corruption and incompetence of military related acquisitions. Military spending is already politically untouchable >>> utterly corrupt even in the best cases >>> wildly wasteful … and then on top of that you add that it was American tax payer, i.e., someone else's money >>> in a collapsed country, Iraq >>> where there was even less oversight by the occupation forces >>> in a country that was utterly corrupt before it fell apart … and someone is surprised about any of this? Literal pallets of billions of dollars of USD cash just disappeared in Iraq and things were built only on paper. This wasn't an April fools' joke, it was a a tiny little side job in the biggest heist in human history. Let me put it this way… the USA was roughly $5 Trillion in debt in 2001, 20 years later we are $30 trillion in debt, just ignoring all the other squandered spending, these wars have essentially been a heist of $25 trillion dollars from American public coffers alone, not even to count all the other debt and spending and costs in human lives. THAT's why the likes of Gates went from being a $10 billionaire, to a ~$150 billionaire and Bezos went from nothing to who north of $300 billion now???? Not even to mention all the other billionaires who were the ultimate recipients of all the money that was pillaged. This guy was clearly just a tiny little easy bug the impotent government could manage to squash in an impotent show to the peasants not to step out of line.
jareklupinski 5y ago
> He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights." I have a hard time going back to my rank-and-file job after reading stuff like that :P

by lqet 5y ago

thaumasiotes 5y ago

It reads just like a dowsing rod.

sitzkrieg 5y ago

how do you spend 10s of thousands of dollars on something without checking such comical red flags like that?

AdrianB1 5y ago
You do government acquisitions.
MattGaiser 5y ago
You don't know how, your boss wants action, and it will cause you problems now to put up a fuss but not if you just go with it. You really don’t need corruption, just people under pressure who don’t want to push back.
smnrchrds 5y ago
The answer is usually corruption and kickbacks.
lostlogin 5y ago
> the device was merely being criticized because of its "primitive" appearance. He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights." I know. But the Mark 3 addresses the silence issue. It makes amazing noises.
shawnz 5y ago
I wonder if it wasn't just being used as an excuse for illegal searches. The high price just prevents third-parties from testing its efficacy.
hackflip 5y ago
By spending tax payers dollars, not your own dollars.
genewitch 5y ago
$60k buys you a lot of probable cause, I guess.
antisthenes 5y ago
Kickbacks to purchasing agencies.

Aeolun 5y ago

I love their sense of understatement. > the technology used in the ADE 651 and similar devices is not suitable for bomb detection It’s a friggin empty box! It’s just as suitable for bomb detection as my nose, if not less.

dsr_ 5y ago
You can smell many of the chemicals used in explosives manufacturing. Your nose is definitely better.

frankfrankfrank 5y ago

It's kind of hard to tell what was really going on, but considering the following: > The Iraqi government paid up to £37,000 for the devices despite the purchase price being put at around £11,500 and > The training included instructions to Iraqi users to "shuffle their feet to generate static electricity to make the things work The bigger story here is probably the utter corruption and incompetence of military related acquisitions. Military spending is already politically untouchable >>> utterly corrupt even in the best cases >>> wildly wasteful … and then on top of that you add that it was American tax payer, i.e., someone else's money >>> in a collapsed country, Iraq >>> where there was even less oversight by the occupation forces >>> in a country that was utterly corrupt before it fell apart … and someone is surprised about any of this? Literal pallets of billions of dollars of USD cash just disappeared in Iraq and things were built only on paper. This wasn't an April fools' joke, it was a a tiny little side job in the biggest heist in human history. Let me put it this way… the USA was roughly $5 Trillion in debt in 2001, 20 years later we are $30 trillion in debt, just ignoring all the other squandered spending, these wars have essentially been a heist of $25 trillion dollars from American public coffers alone, not even to count all the other debt and spending and costs in human lives. THAT's why the likes of Gates went from being a $10 billionaire, to a ~$150 billionaire and Bezos went from nothing to who north of $300 billion now???? Not even to mention all the other billionaires who were the ultimate recipients of all the money that was pillaged. This guy was clearly just a tiny little easy bug the impotent government could manage to squash in an impotent show to the peasants not to step out of line.

jareklupinski 5y ago

> He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights." I have a hard time going back to my rank-and-file job after reading stuff like that :P