Profiling - Part II Rocks, Shrimp, or Terrorist | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The absurdity of the following post is intentional to point up the ludicrous approach that out current government is using to address what to many of us seems like a "dumb as rock" solution. The analogy is belabored to satisfy those among us who must define how many 'on the other hand diversions' they can invent to prevent a path forward. I realize that there may be some instances of stereotyping that would occur by the improper use of profiling. That is unfortunate and can be remedied on an individual basis. Realizing that I fall into the PROFILE of "INFIDEL", I can sympathize with the overreach of an overly broad characterization of who the enemy might be. Read below if you dare. - Bobby Tony

    My first pass at trying to separate Profiling from Stereotyping met with some concern focused on the particular snakes I used as the example. It was a play on the my unschooled attitude that "ALL SNAKES ARE DANGEROUS", which I still subscribe to by the way ( Profiling vs Stereotyping - There is a difference) . Because I am a slow learner, I am trying a second pass at this in light of the most recent terrorist acts. I expect my landscape service and grocer to properly use profiling to select the right rocks for my landscape and the right shrimp for my cookouts.

    As usual, I will relate it to my personal experience and it will be somewhat convoluted but will I hope eventually make my point. One of the product lines in my sales arsenal was the Mechanical Power Transmission products used to power conveyors and transport crushed stone from the quarry to stacking piles for distribution to various industries.



    A rock quarry is nothing more than a large deposit of Granite or some other stone that must be blasted and reduced to smaller sizes for use. As you might suspect, there is a definite method behind the madness. The large deposits are first blasted with dynamite or some other explosive and then sent to a large crusher by huge trucks. The primary crusher is used to reduce the size of the boulders to more manageable sizes. There are belt conveyors to transport each transition from the crusher to screen separators that allow smaller and smaller stone to pass through. The final screening process feeds stacker conveyors that build large piles of properly sized Granite.



    The whole process depends properly sizing the crushed stone. This is done with a series of vibrating screens, which have sized holes that only allow certain size stone to pass through. Larger stones vibrate to a different section for sizing into individual piles.



    Think of this a several large colanders used to separate shrimp into various sizes. Starting with larger hole and working down to smaller holes the separation process is quote efficient.



    At the end, there will be piles of properly sized (profiled) stones for the consumer to select depending on his need.

  • RipRap or Shot Rock -Sizes from 4" up 9". It is generally used for to prevent erosion from water, most commonly used on shorelines and fill foundations for.
  • Crushed stone #1 - Sizes are from 2″ to 4″. The largest of the crushed stone grades. For larger jobs such a culvert ballast.
  • Crushed stone #3 -Sizes from 1/2″ to 2″. For drainage and railroad projects.
  • Crushed stone #5 - Sizes are from 1″ down to fine particles. For road and paver base.
  • Crushed stone #57 - Sizes of about 3/4″. For concrete and asphalt mix, driveways, landscaping and French drains.
  • Crushed stone #411 - A mixture of stone dust and #57 stone. For driveways, roads and as a base for retaining walls. It can also be used to patch holes in paved areas. The dust mixes with the larger stone and settles well.
  • Crushed stone #67 - Sizes from 3/4″ down to fine particles. For fill, road and slab base.
  • Crushed stone #8 - Sizes from 3/8″ to 1/2″. For concrete and asphalt mix.
  • Crushed stone #10 (also called stone dust) - Screenings or dust. For fabrication of concrete blocks and pavers and for riding arenas.

    The whole purpose of the process is to end up with a well-defined and measurable product that can be categorized into specific similarities on a repeated basis. To that extent, the goal is the same whether it is rocks, shrimp or possible terrorist.

    The first step in the process it go follow the "Willie Sutton" principle. I.E. 'GO WHERE THE MONEY IS". No company that intends to survive will build a quarry where there is not a large deposit of granite or stone as a base. Likewise, no company would build a shrimp processing plant in the desert where there are no shrimp. My leap of faith here is that we should first find the most common denominator to most of the terrorist attacks and start there. That would rule out solely guns because a significant number of attacks used bombs and IED. It would also rule out soley knives, clubs, rocks, ropes, and airplanes since they were used as well. All of the attacks have one component in common: HUMANS. I suggest we start there.

    Wow, it took a while but I finally got down to the first screening process in our terrorist search. By applying the next layers of screens, we may be able to filter out a large portion if not all of the potential terrorist among us.

    I will stop beating the drum now since I have reached the point where one of the screens must be the inclusions of "Radical Islamic Terrorist" in the potential screening process. I would propose that we label that screen as the "XENOPHOBIC, RACIST SCREEN" since it is obviously an attempt to categorize a certain segment of our populace that the POTUS has not seen fit to admit their existence. In addition, we all know that any disagreement with the POTUS is a racist and hate filled outburst by some of us ignorant crackers holding onto our religion and bigoted prejudices and guns.

    Think about this the next time you try to buy shrimp at the seafood market. Someone had to profile those damn shrimp so you could enjoy a Shrimp on the Barbie.

G'day, mate



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