War Profiteering at it's Dumbest

As our troops withdraw from Iraq, some of the Iraqi security forces have begun relying on mystical, new age devices to detect bombs and weapons, even though US military and technical experts insist these devices are useless.

I first noticed this story on Derren Brown's blog a week and a half ago. Assuming it was just a few wacky security guys in an isolated incident, I only skimmed the story and thought, "oh that's an odd one," and then I wrote it off as a silly thing to be forgotten unless it comes up in the most random conversation down the road. However, over the past few days I keep seeing variations of the story come up again and again. You see, when I first saw this piece, the part I didn't read was (1) the "magic bomb detecting wands" cost several thousands of US dollars a piece and (2) the Iraqis bought something in the neighborhood of $85,000,000 worth of them from a British company called ATSC.

That's right... They spent about 85 million on magic wands. Let that soak in for a minute. :(

How can any sane person not just find this confusing? I don't understand why using any unproven "magic" bomb detecting device was ever even open to discussion in Iraq, let alone regarded as a potentially good idea. I don't care how scientifically illiterate or otherwise f@#ked up your culture is... If any device is not conclusively and observably proven as repeatedly reliable, you just don't spend tens of millions of dollars on it or make it part of any procedure to protect people's lives... End of freaking story!

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/14/bad-science-iraq-ben-goldacre

* http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/graeme_wood/2009/11/superstition_at_the_checkpoints.php

* http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html?_r=3

.

French Divorce Fair

In France there are about 260,000 divorces annually. (Insert French surrender joke here.) With this in mind, Paris (AKA: The city of love) is hosting something that's being referred to as a divorce fair. It's a 2-day event that is actually called the New Start Trade Fair. The fair has 60 stands, some with lawyers, others profit on self improvement, while others still have fortune telling and tarot readings. The conferences cover topics such as plastic surgery, self image and separation law. Most in attendance are women, but that's fair, because the same is apparently true of Parisian marriage fairs. So, I guess that means they are at least committed to their sense of balance.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Europe/EU_France_Divorce_Fair.html

.