Is it Possible to Pick Fly Shit out of Black Pepper?

The essense of the problem is one of detection.  There is a whole area of signal processing called SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY.  Its an interesting course.  I took it from Doug Cochran as ASU.

So how do you pick fly shit out of black pepper? You can not do it.  The joke infers that the 2 things are identical.  Being indentical they can not be discerned. So stop worrying.  You won't taste the difference.

Presidents Faces on Money – Before Natural Dieties – Now it is Caesars Face

Before the currency of the USA had natural and animistic beings and deities on it.  Now they only have Caesar and his mausoleums.

The photos in the left column show coins before 1925-ish.  The photos in the right column show currency after 1925-ish.

 indian-head-penny.jpg  lincoln-penny.jpg
 buffalo-nickel-indian-head.jpg  jefferson-nickel.jpg
 mercury-dime.jpg  roosevelt-dime.jpg
 standing-liberty-quarter.jpg  washington-quarter-25-cents.jpg
 franklin-50-cent-half-dollar.jpg  kennedy-50-cent-half-dollar.jpg

What does this say about our Democracy? About us?  I think it says the people at the top of the power structure are more given to command / control society and they constantly push us in a direction that favors them having more power.

Only consolation is Benjamin Franklin the scientist is on the highest denomination.

I propose to change this back to animistic dieties.  No human with mainly political accomplishments should be on currency.  These political guys are about as useful as tits on boar hogs.  Yeah Obama that even includes you.  When will these guys figure out that their ambition is not our well being. Never going to happen.


Well 13 years later I found this passage in an article by a coin collector:

In the era of this nation’s birth, currency was often recognized as a character issue—specifically, the contemptible character of politicians. Shortly before the 1787 Constitutional Convention, George Washington warned that unsecured paper money would “ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”

But as time passed, Americans forgot the peril of letting politicians ravage their currency. In 1933, the US had the largest gold reserves of any nation in the world. But fear of devaluation spurred a panic, which President Franklin Roosevelt invoked to justify seizing people’s gold to give himself “freedom of action” to lower the dollar’s value. FDR denounced anyone who refused to turn in their gold as a “hoarder” who faced ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

FDR’s prohibition effectively banished from circulation the most glorious coin design in American history—the twenty-dollar Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle gold piece. I was captivated by early American coin designs, especially those featuring idealized female images emblazoned with the word liberty. I was unaware that George Washington refused to allow his own image on the nation’s coins because it would be too “monarchical.” Until 1909, there was an unwritten law that no portrait appear on any American coin in circulation. That changed with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, whom the Republican Party found profitable to canonize on pennies.

By the mid-twentieth century, American coinage had degenerated into paeans to dead politicians. Portraits of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Dwight Eisenhower were slapped onto coins almost as soon as their pulses stopped. This reflected a sea change in values as Americans were encouraged to expect more from their leaders than from their own freedom.

Donde Esta El Banos – Where is the Bathroom?

The following events occurred between  1:20 and 1:35 pm, February 15,2001

After class today I felt a large movement coming on.  I wanted a chocolate muffin too so as I was near the MU I decided muffin first. I got the muffin and then decided I really needed to go….but it just does not look right to take a poo while eating a chocolate muffin.  I then calculated that I would get about to the bookstore by the time I finished the muffin and then duck in to use the banos ( bathroom).  My calculations were inpecable as always. I tossed the muffin wrapper just in front of the bookstore and then ducked in.  To my dismay the restroom was blocked off and said closed for painting. It was getting critical by this time so I walked down a short way to the athletic building and ducked in.  I had a hard time finding a restroom at all there….I did finally find it.  I walked to it and saw a sign for men/women/handicrapped/ stall with no visual blocking wall and thought…well I am desparate…..So I turn around and see a lock as you would expect…I shut the door and try to lock it….the lock wont bolt.  At this point I imagine a lady walking in on me and saying…." What is that?  some sort of anti -bacterial crow-tch?"  As I try to hover my ass above the toilet in public restrooms. I know some guys love wizzing all over the seat and laugh.  I quickly leave…its red alert time now. I hit the ASU law library next. Now if you ever have been in this building you immediately notice its not square. Its domed.  When you go inside its a highly non-euclidean universe twisting back upon itself that forms a maze.   I made 3 laps in this building ending up where I began each time before I found the bathroom.  I was beginning to think I would have to consult stephan hawkings and warp time to find the banos.  I finally did find it not a moment too soon and survived to write this story.