A September 23, 2008 New Scientist report contains a good example of a glaring typographical error. We have put the key sentence in bold type:
Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security [DHS] is developing a system designed to detect “hostile thoughts” in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works…. At an equestrian centre in Maryland, 140 paid volunteers walked through a pair of trailers kitted out with a battery of FAST sensors, including cameras, infrared heat sensors and an eyesafe laser radar, called a Bio-Lidar, that measures pulse and breathing rate from a distance. Some subjects were told to act shifty, be evasive, deceptive and hostile. And many were detected. “We’re still very early on in this research, but it is looking very promising,” says DHS science spokesman John Verrico. “We are running at about 78% accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception.”
Because (1) the “technology” here is almost unthinkably beyond current capabilities and (2) it’s beyond unthinkable that DHS would hire a spokesman who speaks plain nonsense, there is obviously a typo somewhere.
Most likely, two letters (“in”) were omitted, and what DHS science spokesman John Verrico actually said was: “We are running at about 78% inaccuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception.”
(Thanks to investigator Rose Fox for bringing this to our attention.)