Ryan Westafer

Here’s something I’ve been curious about since the day it was constructed: the use of copper panels as a facade for a new building on Georgia Tech campus.  While I understand its symbolic value as an engineering material, particularly in microelectronics, I do question its aesthetic use in new construction on a campus championing compliance with LEED standards.  In my (apparently) opinionated mind, this is a highly visible waste of a precious resource.

Recently the Marcus Nanotechnology Building (known as the NRC) on the Georgia Tech campus won an award for its use of giant perforated copper panels around its exterior walls.  The article is here:

http://www.copper.org/applications/architecture/awards/homepage.html

A quote:

Copper was selected for its sustainable, naturally weathering, low-maintenance and aesthetically pleasing qualities.

I’m at least a little annoyed about the use of the term “sustainable” in reference to the extracting, purifying, rolling, perforating, and mounting of architectural copper as a building facade.

Today my car was stolen. I waited on *automatic* hold for about 10 minutes before anyone even knew my problem. A 10 minute wait is fine for a car theft, but only AFTER the 911 center knows my call is not urgent.
Emergency room doctors use a “triage” priority system to line up patients according to urgency. It’s standard procedure, but it is totally worthless if 911 can’t get victims to the E.R. alive. All calls should be very quickly screened and routed/queued according to urgency.
The Atlanta 911 center recently changed management (11 Alive story), but this is no excuse for a lapse in operations. Get it together, Atlanta!

Recommendation

If one has an automated call center, as Atlanta 911 clearly does, then let the system ask the caller to press 1 if the call is “life & death” – or “rank the urgency, where 2 is most urgent and 9 is least”).  Many rational callers (i.e. me, today) will self-sort before even requiring a live person.  Being short-staffed is not an excuse, it is an opportunity to improve!

Another Recommendation

Provide an alternative number which is easily publicized and for less urgent calls, maybe 011 instead of 911.  I don’t know what other number to call to reach A.P.D. other than 911.  Providing an alternative lower-priority communication channel is another common-sense option, and it’s just not difficult implement.

<UPDATE>

My “clunker” was recovered about 2 hours after the police report and “lookout bulletin.”  I was really lucky – got the window replaced this afternoon, there was only minor damage.

So after the phone call from the police, I rode my bike over into Bankhead (ghetto) and drove my car back.  The APD really slam dunked this case – an undercover cop cruising around the Bankhead area spotted the car and roadblocked the guy.  Cops swarmed in and cornered the criminal and he ditched my car on a sidewalk.  There were many unemployed people in the street in front of their boarded up houses watching everything unfold in the middle of the day.  It looked like a TV show.

It’s great that they caught the guy in the car with stolen property from all the other break-ins he did on our street (that makes it a felony auto theft rather than “theft by receiving.”  It also links him to the other felonies on the street.)  He had crack in his pocket, cruising around in my car with loser lottery tickets, blaring music from stolen CD’s, etc.  He really made himself at home in the car in a short time!  I have a new ashtray, Zippo lighter, etc.

This amounts to multiple felonies, the jail can’t keep him (not a crime against persons), and he’ll be back on the streets, unable to get a job even if he somehow cleaned up one day.  It’s a vicious cycle.  I applaud the police and really ponder what can be done about our system which forces police to collect these repeat offenders time after time, never seeming to put a dent in this sort of crime.

Cup of Coffee

Dark Chocolate

I like coffee for the times when the mind presses on but the body is closing the eyelids.  What I didn’t know is that we can turn this drink into an antioxidant powerhouse – without significantly affecting the caloric content.

The two ingredients?  Coffee and cocoa.  Not chocolate per se, but the bitter stuff.  The cocoa butter in chocolate carries all the fat and is unnecessary (although delicious!).  The higher quality the cocoa, the better… but don’t get the “Special Dark” or “dutched” cocoas.  The “dutching” process removes antioxidants along with the bitterness.

So, yes, the bitterness of coffee is in no way reduced.  This drink is serious… hmm, maybe espresso is the next step.  There is a plus, however, and that is the smooth texture imparted by the unfiltered cocoa (add it directly to the cup before pouring the coffee).  The cocoa is also a different sort of bitter which I find really complements the coffee.  If the flavor is too intense, try using a mild roast coffee.

Double the caffeine, double the fun!  Well, maybe not double - but a little extra doesn’t hurt, right?

Why guzzle soft drinks when you can abuse the natural stuff?

Kristin and I have been eating fresh local/regional organic fruits and veggies delivered to our door on Saturdays. It’s so convenient: set your preferences online and exchange seasonal items you don’t want.  This is especially great because the Dekalb Farmer’s Market is about 40 minutes away… it takes a lot of time to get there from Midtown and then shop around.

We’ve had really good Georgia peaches, apples, Bibb lettuce, grapefruit, potatos, chard, you-name-it… (Had to learn to cook the chard: like mediterranean collards. Interesting.)  This even encouraged me to eat more fruits & vegetables, which really fits in with Shawn’s sentiments: Six Tricks to Healthy Eating.

So, check out http://www.naturesgardendelivered.com.

A side note about wilting- When celery, fresh carrots, chard, or lettuce wilt (you know, without turning bad), just chop off the bottom of the stalk about 1 cm from the end, and put in a glass of water overnight.  We learned this trick way-back-when with food coloring in science class.  Because crispy veggies = delicious, I’ll be using this trick more often.

One day in Prof. Verriest’s 6500 class, “Fourier Techniques and Signal Analysis,” he, without so much as a smile, proceeded to draw animals as contours in the complex plane. This professor had no clue how fitting his drawings were.

I already felt math is like a zoo: full of so many unusual creatures, each indigenous to some unique environment, and you wouldn’t normally see all of these creatures in daily life; unless it is your job. Then you are a mathematician- a zookeeper.  Okay, that analogy may have gone too far, but at least the contours are funny looking.