I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears this week when Carte Blanche aired a Gert van Rooyen story that was about as believable as Girvan Lubbe’s malaria watch.
I was dismayed that Ruda Landman put her name to this nonsense. This is not investigative journalism – there were no cold hard facts whatsoever! Clairvoyancy form Marietta Theunissen and quantum physics from Danie Krugel – wtf?? Absolutely shocking from one of the more respected institutions in South Africa. Danie Krugel is a fake – you can spot him a mile away. Quantum Physics doesn’t work in the way he suggested. It is the old story: Bullshit baffles brains! Hoekom dit altyd Afrikaners is wat so simpel is weet ek ook nie!!
You’ll always have the Danie Krugel and Girvan Lubbes of this world exploiting people for a quick buck. But organisations like Carte Blanche are supposed to expose these frauds and NOT endorse them. This is not the 1st time this has happened to Carte Blanche (Lubbe being another example). No respected news/journalistic organisation like the BBC, CNN, NBC or any of these would come within a mile of this story. Carte Blanche has very seriously dented its own reputation.
I’ve been told Derek wasn’t on holiday, but he refused to be associated with this story. Good on you Derek. To Ruda this is a disappointing end to a glittering career. Rumour also has it that this story may have something to do with her departure from Carte Blanche.
Sadly, with South-Africans being as gullible as they are I’m sure many of the “volk” are sold on this. Thankfully people like Moonflake agrees with me.
Attie Heunis's Journey 
“I’ve been told Derek wasn’t on holiday, but he refused to be associated with this story. Good on you Derek. To Ruda this is a disappointing end to a glittering career.”
At least some people at Carte Blanche have some sense, hey?
What completely gets my goat is the fact that reasonable people like ourselves keep on being pushed by the gullible posters all over the Internet who actually believe this drivel. Now suddenly we have to defend why quantum mechanics actually DOES work the way it does, why GPS isn’t some magical tracking umbrella that can be used to locate any random object, and why patent law works the way it does. It’s like everybody is happy to live in modern society until a quack comes along that touts a device that everybody *wants* to work, against all reason. Then suddenly the same science that allows modern society to work as smoothly as it does is put to the Inquisition.
To right VOR.
Dink wat julle wil. In die 1600’s het Galileo Galilei gekom met ‘n radikale idee om te se die aarde is rond en dat dit om die Son draai… vandag weet almal die aarde is rond en dit draai om die son… Daar is ‘n gesegde wat se in rooi taal – “Hind sight is crystal clear”. Hetsy dit werk of nie werk nie. Bewys die teendeel of bevestig dit. Met tyd sal dit wel uitkom.
damn straight. I just might use this as a quote it my article.
En nou? Wat het toe geword van die swaap Danie Krugel. Ek glo nie hy het al 1 ding gekry nie.
Does not matter what VOR says, if you criticises something touching on science, you have to give a scientific valid reason why not! If you don’t even know what it is about, how can you open your mouth! So tell me Attie Heunis, if you say Quantum Physics doesn’t work this way, how does it work then? I don’t think you know an inkling of an idea about Quantum Science! It is a wide subject and there are lots of formal publications on it which would make it seem like magic. It is evolving as well so you can’t box it in as well! So where do you fit in man!
“Quantum Physics” could mean a million things! Why does Danie Krugel not have his contraption subjected to independent tests? If what he says is true then he could solve soooo many unsolved mysteries – he would be instantly rich.
But Danie will not do this because, like Girvan Lubbe’s dodgy Malaria Wristwatch, his “scientific” machine is one big scam. That is why Danie Krugel is so vague about his “machine” – he knows if he divulges how it works his theory will be torn to shreds.
I agree that Galileo was a man before his time and that sceptics didn’t believe him then, but his vision was based on logic and he didn’t hide “how it works”.
Anyway this post is not about Danie and his scam – it is about how Carte Blanche – a supposedly reputable institution – has AGAIN been conned. Hook, line & sinker!!
I am disgusted with Carte Blanche and their endorsement of Krugel’s fraud.
Here’s some food for thought:
1) Ruda Landman lamented the fact that there’s not enough money to continue excavating the site where Krugel says the bodies are buried. Would R7,000,000 be enough to complete the excavation? It’s available. All they have to dois prove that the device works.
2) There’s a bounty of US$50,000,000 on Osama Bin Ladin’s head. GO FIND BIN LADIN INSTEAD OF GIVING FALSE HOPES TO GRIEVING FAMILIES WHOLOST A CHILD.
3) A device like Krugel’s will DEFINITELY win a Nobel Prize for Science if it works. That’s worth several millions of dollars.
4) Why has Krugel not made any reference to Madeline McCann who disapeared recently in Portugal? There’s a R35,000,000 reward for finding her.
SO KRUGEL COULD EASILY MAKE R392,000,000 (that’s 392 MILLION Rand) in a few weeks if his device works. With a device like his, he could be a multi-billionaire within a few months driving a Ferarri and hob-nobbing with the rich and famous after solving virtually every crime committed, and having discovered the Kruger Millions, hidden gold, diamond, and oil reserves. Yet he drives around in a fancy BMW, and works with local police departments in South Africa.
If Krugel is a fraud (which I strongly suspect he is), then his fancy car should be confiscated by the state because he is clearly living on the proceeds of crime (in his case, fraud).
Attie, you lament “Hoekom dit altyd Afrikaners is wat so simpel is weet ek ook nie!!” and you’re not wrong. However it’s not only Afrikaners who are being duped by this fraudster. Black, white, and brown South Africans are all falling for his bull.
I’m afraid that the average person in South Africa is ignorant, gullible, and completely uninformed. That’s why we have Lubbe’s, Krugels, Kubus Kwekereie, Siener van Rensburg, Modjadji the Rain Queen etc.
Carte Blanche should be ASHAMED of their recent rubbish.
Well said #7.
Yeah, watch this space. I read an article by Janet Smith in the Sunday Independant yesterday (5th August), and I’ve contacted her. She is keen to investigate this further, and I’m keen to assist her. I see Krugel as nothing more than a fraud and con-artist who is ripping off gullible people, and is therefore just a common criminal in my eyes.
I would like to see this guy (and his “science”) publicly exposed for the fraud that it is, and he should be charged for it. I have very little fear of saying what I think about the charlatain, because he dare not lay a charge of defamation against me, because THEN he’ll be forced to prove that he’s not a con-man by showing how his “device” works.
Ek dink dis Arthur Clarke wat gese het dat enige genoegsame gevorderde tegnologie onontskeibaar van towerkuns is… Die feit bly staan dat towerkuns ook maar net od verblindery is. Dus ek se steeds. Bewys die teendeel of bewys dit werk. Maar tyd sal defnitief dit vir ons uitlig. (PS #7/9 wat is die vandetta? Iemand jou ‘n rat voor die od gedraai?)
I just watched the Carte Blanche episode on Kuduclub, and Attie, you nailed it with your blog posting. Anyone who knows, even a little bit about Physics will see the level of pseudo science being paraded, by the likes of Carte Blanche, in front of the general public.
According to what I remember from school and Wikipedia, science is defined as follows:
…”It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning,the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”…
In the Carte Blanche story, Danie said his device is based on Science repeatedly, and just a couple of seconds later he said that he “might”, with the emphasis on “Might” find the missing children. a Further definition include: …“Among other facets shared by the various fields of inquiry is the conviction that the process must be objective to reduce a biased interpretation of the results. Another basic expectation is to document, archive and share all data and methodology so it is available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, thereby allowing other researchers the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice, called “full disclosure”, also allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established.”
Clearly, Danie have not thus far not proven his device in the court of the unbiast scientific community, but rather chose the court of public opinion swayed by false hope and need for closure to tragic events.
I know, ‘n Boer maak ‘n plan, but Boer Danie’s invention is either on par with the discovery of nuclear fission or the discovery of the four laws of thermodynamics or the three laws of motion …. or snake oil alchemy and wizardry (should I throw in religion… :-))
My twee sent!
Ek gee nie ‘n duiwel om of Danie KAN of NIE. Ek het reeds ‘n lok van my kinders se hare gebOre vir ingeval. As hulle ooit moet wegraak, bel ek hom onmiddelik. As hy nie kan help nie sal ek ons patetiese polisie in kennis stel.
O ja, het iemand vir my sy nommer asb? Ek wil Madeleine McCann se ouers laat weet waar om hom te kry.
Glo my, jy sal anders dink as dit JOU kind is, al is dit net ‘n strooihalmpie.
Louise
Louise, as dit jou kind is sal jy desperaat wees, maar is dit nie juis wanneer jy moet rasionedl wees nie?
I think Renosterbroer is on the money…time will definitely tell.
Just one question, though. Do you guys honestly think that Danie finding the camera man, and the can of crude oil were fabricated? Regardless of whether or not Ruda is leaving, Carte Blanche’s name is on the line here. So the question is would they consider airing something of this nature if there’s even a shadow of a doubt that it could tarnish their reputation? Let’s face it, Carte Blanche have a reputable name in SA, if not elsewhere in the world by now for journalism. Sounds too improbable to me that they’s put their established name on the line.
As for people who say why doesn’t Danie Krugel present facts on how his “machine” works, from his standpoint, think of the implications of this. Let’s humour the possibility that it DOES work; Imagine what people would do to get to him, be it for virtuous or malicious purposes? It’s completely understandable why he wouldn’t divulge anything about this “invention”. I know that if I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t exactly jump at the opportunity to let the whole world know how it works. There would be a lot of considerations to be made before even contemplating disclosing something as possibly huge as this.
So, indeed, time will tell.
Responding to Goose:
It’s quite simple really. Krugel simply has to take out a worldwide patent on his project. It’ll cost him a few 100k, but that’s chicken feed compared to what he’ll make from the device IF it’s genuine.
THE MAN IS A DISGUSTING COMMON CON-MAN AND CHARLATAN. NOTHING MORE, AND NOTHING LESS. HE SHOULD BE TREATED WITH THE SAME CONTEMPT AS A HOUSEBREAKER, RAPIST, OR DRUG DEALER.
Goose
I watched the repeat of the show last night. The ‘location’ of the guy on the hill looks very like the info you would get if you could use the positioning information used by mobile phone networks. By triangulating the distance of the phone to the nearest base stations its possible to get a rough idea of location – to within a few hundred meters. Its not that hard to get access to the information from the companies. It looks to me that he had a phone on him after all.
Also, if someone had discovered some revolutionary technology, what would they do? I think that the last thing would be to go on TV before they have taken out patents and protected the invention. By doing so you tell everyone that the invention exists and that it works. If they take you seriously then lots of very big companies are going to put a lot of resources into discovering what you are up to. Just imagine what would happen if someone invented a search engine that would render Gogle obsolete. Would they really brag on TV bfore they patented every little bit of it.
If he was genuine he would have done what most inventors who are onto a winner do. First, keep it quiet. Second, get a backer to invest enough money to develop the technology and protect it with patents. Only launch it when the tech is finished and protected.
Have a look at http://www.daniekrugelfacts.com