Blog at www.andrew-drummond.com
THOUSANDS OF IDIOTS DETECTED
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Knock! Knock! Anybody there?
They don’t get it do they. The total combined intellect of the Bangkok Post has not yet cottoned on to the fact that the GT-200 is a total hoax, as are the Sniffex, ADE651, and Alpha 6 bomb/drugs/ insurgent detectors which Thailand has bought by the cart-load.
I mean who would buy a machine, powered by a human and nothing else which can detect anything from drugs to explosives, or even a choc-ice if you programme the nonexistent chip! The only things these machines can detect are idiots.
And who would pay US$18,000 for each machine? Well, China, Thailand, Iraq, and Mexico for starters. Did I hear someone say ‘kickback mountain!’ Well,you could be forgiven. The recently arrested Jimbo, manufacturer of the ADE651, complained: ‘But I only got 11 million dollars!’ – of a US$80 million deal with Iraq – the rest, he said, went on commissions and training. Some commissions! Some training! But lets not apportion blame yet, says Prime Minister Abhisit.
So anyway out comes the Bangkok Post today and with a report by writers Anucha Charoenpo and King-oua Laohong. Yes it takes two of them to come out with this grey drivel. This after endless days of the paper quoting different experts as to how the machines really work.
“The cabinet is concerned about the detector’s reliability and consistency and invited soldiers, security experts and drugs officers to provide information on its use at its meeting yesterday.
The invited guests expressed satisfaction with the detectors, but the cabinet wanted more academic research to support their claims”.
It’s going to take them a week to find out what BBC Newsnight established with both the GT200 and ADE651 in about 3 minutes. While we are not going to take the matter forward with this sort of reporting, full marks to the Bangkok Post for its opinion poll, possibly one of the most nonsensical polls I have ever seen.
It posed the question: ‘Do you think the devices should be tested?’
A staggering 33% said No. (the figure representing this group has lost only half his legs)
14 per cent said ‘Don’t know’ (the figure representing this group looks like he has been ripped in half by a claymore)
And only 53% said yes. (And this guy is fine)
So I guess we need diagrams to spell it out :-).
But look how mellow people are taking this while fellow citizens, soldiers and police, are being killed in south Thailand. It’s almost as if they do not care. But isn’t it sweet that according to the Bangkok Post 47 per cent of people questioned did not want an ‘end to their doubts’.
That’s easily solved. Just take out a subscription to the Bangkok Post!
Update Feb 15: Well since I wrote this. The Bangkok Post has been trundling along still not totally convinced. Well one writer in tjhe Post Database section called it an outright fraud, and a scientist rambled on about nothing, but clearly the editor does not read his own paper.
In Sunday’s Bangkok Post - well the splash actually - Pansak Siriruchatapong, the man who is supposed to take these machines apart and test them for the government is quoted as saying he cannot take them apart because the purchasers signed a confidentiality agreement!
GT-200 courtesy of Pantip Plaz dot com
The government therefore cannot disclose anything about how these machines (don’t) work.
You can’t make this up. However I suspect on this occasion the ‘foreign’ editor of the Sunday Bangkok Post is having a private joke.
And there’s more: “Jehrming Tohtayong a member of the ‘National Security Panel’ said members had discussed the prospects of holding laboratory tests, but said they were concerned this would violate the seller’s intellectual rights”
Some National Security Panel!
(Reminds me of the Danish prospective PM who was asked what he would do if his country was invaded. “Pick up the phone and surrender! No on second thoughts the Danish politician is a lot smarter)
Some intellectual rights!
Oh and here’s the link to the original BBC Newsnight report. The second report where the GT200 is taken apart has already been shown on Thai TV Channel 3. And a Thai military man has already admitted on Thai TV that there is nothing on the GT200.
So what’s happening in Britain, where Health and Safety issues mean that you cannot get an aspirin in some hotels, to Gary Bolton the boss of Global Technical which produces the GT200? Nothing at all it seems. So far he is laughing all the way to the bank…of the West Indies.
FOOTNOTE: In fairness to the Bangkok Post on March 7th 2010 Spectrum published a much fuller report concluding I guess that the GT200 does not work. Though of course in its ‘even handed way’ quoted several military who though it did. Buried in its report however was a quote from general Genera Pathompong who had taken a GT 200 apart and basically found nothing.
We are obviously in the wrong business. Looks like you can sell anything over here with a little creative accounting and they will back you right to the top. The kickback for this one must have gone stratospheric . Of course no one will be to blame as they will point out that Thailand is just one of many governments to succumb to this scam, they do however seem to have paid more than anyone else.
Wonder if there is a market for Bullshit detectors ?
“The Newspaper you can trust” now there’s a statement !!!!!!
The reason so many people voted ‘No’ is because there is no point in wasting time testing them again. Everyone (apart from those getting kickbacks) already accepts that they don’t work.
I agree totally with GordonT. I have said it before and will say it again, there will be a nauseously nothing statement from our glorious non-leader, Mark saying all is well and all was managed well and all be be well for the future… haha
When I first came to Thailand someone warned me what a stupid country it was and that everything is reversed whatever you choose and wherever you look. Taking brains, that certainly rings true. Notwithstanding the fact that the IQ here is the lowest measured in the world and dropping, it still amazes me that those that should be just a tad smarter, like politicians, lawmakers, senior police and government officials are actually really dim whereas the poor old bar girls are actually quite smart in their ability to play otherwise smart older foreign men into their hands!
Only in BRT (Banana Republic of Thailand)…! A laugh a minute…
kconsciousness, you may be right OR maybe it is simply that apathy levels here are as high as stupidity levels? The two go nicely hand in hand here…
If you don’t believe me, ask the next 10 people you meet about any issue that you feel strongly about and the chances are not one of them will even have an opinion or know the news even occurred!
Ahh, ignorance is bliss which is why Thais smile so much… haha
Yes, average IQ is not that high, but not the lowest in the world.
We know why Mark has to say what he says, for the same reason we have to listen to Gordon Brown in his death throes. Neither truly believes but the system requires it. Different reasons here and uk of course but the hypocracy is the same.
I do not think the mentioned professions are dim. They are rather astute in maintaining their positions in my view.
newbie, actually it is the lowset when adjusted for GDP. I should have added that qualification as it makes more sense. Sorry…
It is not really easy to compare Mark to Gordon. At least the UK operates in a democratic way where the army does not have the ultimate say. In the UK, the PM has control whether or not he or she is good at the job.
Regarding the professions and senior government officials etc, I have to disagree too. They are very, very dim which is why they have to resort to scams, nepotism and graft to make any money. Anyone with any ability can make money fairly if they apply themselves. Those that resort to cheating to do so expose their failings and that is why Thailand has so much corruption, exactly because it has so many incapable people. Anyone can maintain a position of corruption if they are both amoral and conniving - neither are linked to IQ.
I rather think Hans Christian Andersen said it all before in The Emperor’s New Clothes.
Problem is, nobody in the Bangkok Post has either the wit or knowledge to draw the obvious parallel.
The more one pays for a piece of crap the more the gullible will value it. A simple con but works every time.
Is that an MBE on your desktop photo? If so, what brought it on?
1. No, Colonel, you have your feet too fast on the ground.
2. obsequious service and nodding at the right moments
Adjusting IQ by gdp??? some indices can with relevance be adjusted to make them significant. Not convinced you can do that with IQ and still make a valid point though EB
My comparison with Brown related to one factor only. Both need to “keep on message” to maintain ( or improve) credibilty and keep face. The UK election will test whether the public support him when that election comes. Both have agendas and are influenced in different ways. Both got to high office in different ways
Depends on how you are defining dim, but senior elite figures are certainly astute - which was the word I used. I don’t like it but there are links between corruption, astuteness, deviousness and in some senses intelligence. No names or references to any public or private offices of course. Not sure making money fairly here by using abilty only is always true.
Missing option “Do you want to know why the hell millions of dollars were splurged on these things without them having been tested first?”
Yes - 50 %
No - 30 %
NFI - 20 %