Authorized Service Personnel Only

Homer: Marge, I'm sorry, but your cooking's only got 2 moves: Shake & Bake.
Marge: But you like Shake & Bake! You used to put it in your coffee.

Foolishly I forgot to take the coffee grounds out of my coffee maker before the trip to Ithaca. This resulted in coffee grounds clogging the filter in the base of the coffee maker. Frustrated I left it to sit on the counter wondering what to do with it.

Well this noon I felt industrious and motivated by Pearl Jam's new song 'The Fixer' so I decided to open it up and investigate. After ignoring the warning on the base, "No user serviceable parts inside, repair should be done by authorized personnel only." I went for it and learned how a coffee maker works and eventually made a mean pot of coffee.

Observe...



Note the coffee grounds clogging the intake tube in the bottom right of the base.



The culprit!



Success! A job well done and a few dollars saved!

To the victor go the spoils... not this time.

Child Services Agent: If you leave milk out, it can go sour. Put it in a refrigerator, or, failing that, a cool, wet sack.

Fortunately I didn't have to smell the milk this morning to see if it had gone bad. This picture is taken one day after the 'sell by' date (9/22/2009). Further proof that Minnesotan's have it good with their superior dairy products.

I didn't even know skim milk could separate that rapidly and vigorously. It looks like filtered water at the surface.



shudders...

Roar!

Homer: Well, there's not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is sure doing its job.
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, sweetie.
Lisa: Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers.
Homer: Uh-huh, and how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work. It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: I see.
Lisa: But you don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock

I'm guessing Ithaca doesn't have a Bear Patrol judging by this picture I took yesterday.



Received our project on Friday, still hard to explain. I'll try in another post when we've figured it out.

Muse has been at the top of my list of priorities. Epic Album, completely satisfying.

Nature is Stronger Than You

Mr. Burns: Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese.

Found this on my walk from Hollister Hall and it got me to thinking...



A large part of civil engineering for the longest time has been about fighting nature. However nature is incredibly persistent, annoyingly persistent at times. For example, consider the 1973 flood of the Mississippi. Down in Louisiana near the river delta, a wing wall kept the Mississippi River from changing course, resulting in making New Orleans a port without a river.



The flood was so powerful that it eradicated the soil underneath the wing wall, allowing the river to divert some of its flow. Thankfully the foundation went deeper than the blowout and was able to support the wing wall without the soil. New Orleans was nearly extinct.

The tree wrapping around the railing image gives the perspective of truly understanding the stakeholders and risks the government undertakes with its infrastructure. Always taken for granted in the public eye and when a disaster strikes we balk at the government for allowing this to happen. Maybe this wouldn't happen if we diverted funding from...

I'll stop there. Just think about it.

Stressed out Tensors

Probably the most frustrating thing to me is the communication gap between different parties. Language barriers are a pain and so much can get lost in translation, for me it's the conflict between myself and Matlab.

I get it. I know the theory, I know whats happening at the infinitesimal level. I know how I want to program the problem. However I don't know how Matlab wants me to program it. It feels like a constant power struggle with Matlab usually winning each battle.

But the payoff is HUGE. Relief just calms your body.

Here are a couple of pictures that illustrate a plate of aluminium being pulled 10MPa (about 1450 pounds per square inch) with a 1mm crack in the middle of the plate. The introduction of a crack creates intense stress concentrations around it. The loops pictured are the regions that have turned plastic. Think of a taffy that won't return to its original state. Basically it means failure. Always good to know.



One of my first solutions. Don't judge a book by its cover, this one is incorrect.



Each line represents a failure plane. Note how the failure planes compliment each other by creating symmetry about the crack point. Nature is messed up sometimes. Weird.

Hollister after Dark

Nelson: I like to come up here and make fun of the sunset. Hey gasball! You suck!

Unfortunately, the picture I was going to show you was created under false pretenses... so I ended up working on it at Hollister Hall into the dark. As time went by and Matlab code further frustrated me I was alerted to the sunset. Our view has always been scenic but this sunset has definitely take precedent.

Taking inspiration from Russ Haywood, I took out my phone, ran over to the window and took some snap shots.

Check it out.



Oh yeah, we have a great view of Cayuga Lake.



This next one is for Libby. Cornell Law School may not be as good as Minnesota but... Cornell's building is much more imaginative than Mondale Hall. Note the tower in the first photo is the top of the entry way below.

Excessive? Yes. Awesome? Yes.

Homer: To start press any key. Well where's the "any" key? I see Esc, Ctarl (ctrl), and PigUp (pgup). There doesn't seem to be any any key! Phew. All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I'll order a Tab. (Presses tab) Oop! No time for that now, the computer's starting.

Unfortunately Windows 7 doesn't allow me to run my 'version' of Matlab, otherwise I'd have a sweet picture from my Solid Mechanics class. I looked online to find the current price, apparently I need to ask for a quote based on my needs. I don't even want to know how much it costs.

Anyways, I figured I'd post a picture of my Cornell Student ID card! Basically I want to showcase how awesome Libby is as an ID photographer. Definitely a skill she can fall back on if the Lawyer thing doesn't work out.

Without further ado...

Engineers aren't Advertisers

Us left brain thinkers are just not the creative types. Especially when it comes to advertising our products or services. Most of the time we rely on cheap ad campaigns, it makes sense most of the time. Companies would rather use their profits elsewhere but sometimes the ads used are blatantly bad.

Maybe its just me. Maybe I'm jealous that other 'more popular' magazines have prettier ads and these ones are actually ok. Hmmmm, I want to trust my original judgement here.



Its straightforward, but it just seems comical. I guess I was never worried about finding a large joist manufacturer until now. And the guy seems pretty confident that he found some big joists.

If someone can explain this next one to me, that'd be great. And don't say "because sex sells," because even that doesn't make sense.



So whats most important is a beautiful lady on the beach? How about that building stands or is constructed properly. I guess priorities are subjective.

Falling up Hill

Decided to gather some data from the walk up to the MEng office in Hollister Hall.

Distance: 0.97 mi
Time: 18:51
Elevation Start: 472 ft above sea level
Elevation End: 774 ft above sea level
Elevation Gain: 302 ft
Calories Burned: 139

Lets take an average building story height to be 12.5 ft. That means I climb roughly 24 stories to get to class.

At least I'll be warm when I get to class during the winter.

Ithaca is Gorges

Bart: Otto, I'm going to jump Springfield Gorge on my skateboard.
Otto: You know, Bart, as the only adult here, I feel I should say something?
Bart: What?
Otto: Cool!

They have a saying around here, "Ithaca is Gorges." Aside from the cute word play, it is quite nice here. Most days after class its been cloudy or raining, hardly the light for cell phone photography. However today was, for lack of a better word, gorgeous out. So I decided to stroll down the path next to Hollister Hall.

Have a look...



I walk over that bridge everyday.



"Hi!"



Bridges!!!



Fluid Dynamics... oof!