can't trust the government. can't trust scientists. can't remember your meds. life is filled with problems.

It's Mississippi scientificalness...

My money is on the guy with the juju wands.

dahmers love zombie: So can anyone pretend to be a grave dowser, or do you have to have a particular skillset?

I'll send you a very official looking certificate of qualification in grave dowsing and wart removal for only $49.99, if you can pass this rigorous exam:



Which picture is yo mama's ass and which is a hole in the ground?

Here I went looking thinking the joke was about a graveyard of a bunch of back room abortions.

TheOther: dahmers love zombie: So can anyone pretend to be a grave dowser, or do you have to have a particular skillset?

I'll send you a very official looking certificate of qualification in grave dowsing and wart removal for only $49.99, if you can pass this rigorous exam:

[t2.gstatic.com image 144x180][sonarbangladesh.com image 276x182]

Which picture is yo mama's ass and which is a hole in the ground?

FFS man, I'm eating!

You know what happens when you only move the headstones...

Say what you want, but I have used pieces of bent copper wire to witch for water lines for years. It does work (had to let coworkers actually try it before they believed it).

/kind of CSB
/not trolling

How does a story like this get greenlit while there is no mention on any page about that state legislator who died last night in the bathroom of the NJ statehouse?

TheOther: dahmers love zombie: So can anyone pretend to be a grave dowser, or do you have to have a particular skillset?

I'll send you a very official looking certificate of qualification in grave dowsing and wart removal for only $49.99, if you can pass this rigorous exam:

[t2.gstatic.com image 144x180][sonarbangladesh.com image 276x182]

Which picture is yo mama's ass and which is a hole in the ground?

(C)!!! IT's (C)!

ShawnDoc: dahmers love zombie: So can anyone pretend to be a grave dowser, or do you have to have a particular skillset?

Ability to lie through your teeth and have people believe you. Also, not having a conscience would probably help.

You are doing stupid people a favor when you talk them into handing over their money. Otherwise, they would just spend it on drugs or women or something and end up getting hurt.

They see me rollin'

cautionflag: Say what you want, but I have used pieces of bent copper wire to witch for water lines for years. It does work (had to let coworkers actually try it before they believed it).

/kind of CSB
/not trolling

It's not uncommon at all for dowsers to be deluded into thinking they actually can do something. James Randi designed an interesting test for just what you're talking about years ago, which he describes in "Flim Flam!" They buried three different runs of pipe leading from a common source to a common drain, with the route the water was taking controlled by valves, then let the dowsers do their thing. None of the dowsers tested got anywhere close to where the water was actually running, after all agreeing that it was a fair test of their abilities. I would suggest that you try for his million dollar prize, but I think they got tired of testing dowsers and stopped.

I wouldn't just write off anyone calling themselves a dowser. Not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty good at dowsing my liver.

cautionflag: Say what you want, but I have used pieces of bent copper wire to witch for water lines for years. It does work (had to let coworkers actually try it before they believed it).

/kind of CSB
/not trolling

My parents are convinced that homeopathy works. Whatever floats your boat, man.

Why does the DOT employ archaeologists? I mean, I could see why they would employ geologists, but archaeologists? Do they often need to uncover lost cities while not fixing the farking potholes?

cautionflag: Say what you want, but I have used pieces of bent copper wire to witch for water lines for years. It does work (had to let coworkers actually try it before they believed it).

/kind of CSB
/not trolling

My brothers can do this. I find they do it a lot better if they've seen where the water lines were at some point. Even if it was just in passing, years previously. Which probably means that memory and involuntary muscle response is a mysterious, wonderful thing.

/can't do it even if I'm walking over the slit trench where we just laid it

untaken_name: Why does the DOT employ archaeologists? I mean, I could see why they would employ geologists, but archaeologists? Do they often need to uncover lost cities while not fixing the farking potholes?

They have to make sure they aren't going to dig up an indian burial mound. You'd end up with a haunted highway. Trust me, it's better this way.

dahmers love zombie: So can anyone pretend to be a grave dowser, or do you have to have a particular skillset?

I think all you need is a web page (new window)

buckler: untaken_name: Why does the DOT employ archaeologists? I mean, I could see why they would employ geologists, but archaeologists? Do they often need to uncover lost cities while not fixing the farking potholes?

Most states have legal requirements to perform an archaeological survey before embarking on some projects, to make sure they won't be destroying historical sites. That's how NYC discovered the historic Negro Burial Ground, which is now an important research source.

I May Be Crazy But...: untaken_name: Why does the DOT employ archaeologists? I mean, I could see why they would employ geologists, but archaeologists? Do they often need to uncover lost cities while not fixing the farking potholes?

They have to make sure they aren't going to dig up an indian burial mound. You'd end up with a haunted highway. Trust me, it's better this way.

Ok...I think that's kinda silly, but I admittedly think most research into the past is silly, so feel free to discount my opinion if you like that sort of thing. I don't really want to read TFA, but does it explain what dowsers have to do with not building roads on historical sites? If so, I guess I'll bite the bullet and click the linky. Otherwise, can anyone provide the insight?

rwfan: dahmers love zombie: So can anyone pretend to be a grave dowser, or do you have to have a particular skillset?

I think all you need is a web page (new window)

"Don's dowsing is so accurate, he can tell us whether or not the person is a male or a female."

I have to admit that I use the bent copper rod method of finding lines..it works about 80% of the time...but in all honesty, most utility location hardware only work about 90% of the time.

If no one's visiting the cemetery (especially when it no longer exists or never existed), I don't see why it matters whether you pave over the site. Maybe they just don't want any surprise human bones showing up in a load of dirt.

CSB: The Brits train (or at least used to, recently) people to dowse for mines. Believe it, or don't.

Several years ago one of my clients insisted on hiring one of these guys to locate some drain tiles on their property. They didn't find shiat.

I'm going to have to go on record and say that dowsing is stupid. I'd love to see it scientifically tested but I think we all know how that would turn out.

Isn't there a requirement to complete a Phase I archeological dig previous to the start of any real work?

We have to in Canuckistan - supervised by the local historical society sometimes. That was how Drexler found street car tracks in Guelph, buried under a road if I do recall correctly. They were from back before Guelph was burned to the ground.

/CSB

untaken_name: Ok...I think that's kinda silly, but I admittedly think most research into the past is silly, so feel free to discount my opinion if you like that sort of thing.

If it weren't for research into the past, the theory of evolution wouldn't have even made it as far as it has (i.e., nearly universal acceptance outside of several primitive tribes located deep in the Amazon that have never heard of it and parts of the United States that have).

buckler: untaken_name: Ok...I think that's kinda silly, but I admittedly think most research into the past is silly, so feel free to discount my opinion if you like that sort of thing. I don't really want to read TFA, but does it explain what dowsers have to do with not building roads on historical sites? If so, I guess I'll bite the bullet and click the linky. Otherwise, can anyone provide the insight?

Museum worker here, so yeah, it's kinda important to me. OTOH, relying on dowswers to do anything at all useful is about the most moronic basis for such a study I can imagine.

[welcometofark.jpg]

[welcometomississippi.jpg]

FTFM

buckler: nytmare: If no one's visiting the cemetery (especially when it no longer exists or never existed), I don't see why it matters whether you pave over the site. Maybe they just don't want any surprise human bones showing up in a load of dirt.

It provides ethnographic, demographic and population data, as well as (usually) a large number of significant historical data and artifacts.

Plus I'm pretty sure it is illegal to disturb human remains.

i believe that this is after the Phase I survey. This is just the newest NIMBY tactic-Indian mounds are the most common thing to bring up-even after the archaeological survey is complete and found nothing (shovel tests at 30m intervals). The archs have to resurvey it, it ends up in court, and they get more money for their property and then they're happy.

dahmers love zombie: rebelyell2006: cautionflag: Say what you want, but I have used pieces of bent copper wire to witch for water lines for years. It does work (had to let coworkers actually try it before they believed it).

/kind of CSB
/not trolling

My parents are convinced that homeopathy works. Whatever floats your boat, man.

It does work. It effectively separates the ignorant from their money.

Which is fine except when that money could turn into my inheritance money.

I blame Craig T. Nelson.

Why does it matter if a bunch of dead people no one knows or remembers end up under a highway? Cemeteries are for the living, the dead don't give a fark.

cautionflag: Say what you want, but I have used pieces of bent copper wire to witch for water lines for years. It does work (had to let coworkers actually try it before they believed it).

/kind of CSB
/not trolling

Once as a kid I went to work with my dad. He was working temporarly with a crew laying teleplone line between buildings at CIU or CBC in SC. As the crew cut a slit trench with the Ditchwitch the boss walked ahead checking and marking water and other communication lines. He showed me dowsing. I didn't believe him either, however it did make me jump when he handed them to me and they moved on their own. We didn't go by them though he was using equipment to make sure. Still he was completely accurate with them.

untaken_name: Why does the DOT employ archaeologists? I mean, I could see why they would employ geologists, but archaeologists? Do they often need to uncover lost cities while not fixing the farking potholes?

Section 106 (new window)

/imagine trying to get NHPA passed today

UNC_Samurai: untaken_name: Why does the DOT employ archaeologists? I mean, I could see why they would employ geologists, but archaeologists? Do they often need to uncover lost cities while not fixing the farking potholes?

Section 106 (new window)

/imagine trying to get NHPA passed today

AND it was under Nixon. Go figure. Jeb Bush tried to get it waived for stimulus money projects in Florida, but it didn't fly.

I've got a better dowsing scam. I live in gold rush country in California (Siskyou County) and gold mining never really stopped and has recently resurged based on the increasing price of gold. Anyway, there is one guy who does the following -- he takes maps of the area and dowses the map (not the actual area since that would be a lot of work ...) and decides where he feels the gold is. Then he goes down to L.A. and finds some rich lady that believes in psychic stuff and gets her to invest in his gold mining operation. He takes stakes the claim, takes the money, and then lives off it for a couple years making a bit of a show to be actually mining. Then the money dries up, he doesn't find any gold, and he just finds another kook to believe in his dowsing ability. It's pretty clever really, in a predatory sort of way -- the kooky old ladies are too embarrassed to admit they have been scammed, and are rich enough that they probably hardly notice anyway.

calbert: [www.rowsdower.com image 600x458]

Rowsdow(s)er

Rowsdower can divine the distance to the nearest liquor and/or beer store with only a can of Canadian Moose Wax.

I've found graves with something like a coathanger before for an eagle scout project, but not by dousing. It's pretty simple: you take a long rod and stick it down through the dirt. If resistance lets up after a few feet, congratulations, you've found a grave. There's also usually a coffin-sized indention in the dirt, which is a... ::puts on shades:: ...dead give away.

/And IIRC the old ones aren't 6 feet down, so a straightened coathanger might work...