A couple of weeks ago, I wrote -- here on Swift as well as at my own blog -- about the Iraqi military employing useless magic wands to search for explosives at checkpoints, and about the inevitable deadly results. This was based on an article in the New York Times, and the word has now spread far and wide.

Skeptic, physician, and journalist Ben Goldacre wrote about it in The Guardian, and Graeme Wood did so as well for The Atlantic. The story was huge on tech and skeptic sites too, like Slashdot, MetaFilter, Gizmodo, and Bruce Hood's Supersense blog. It made a brief appearance on TV in this segment on the Rachel Maddow Show.

And she mentioned Hal Bidlack, friend of the JREF and TAM MC, by name!

I have heard some rumors -- as yet unsubstantiated, but encouraging -- that members of the U.S. government have taken an interest in the story, too. What this all shows is that we need to stand up to nonsense and call it out, letting others know when they believe in garbage -- especially when that garbage is fatal. If enough of us do it, then maybe, just maybe, we can get something done about it.

Remember:

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