making roof rack feet out of diy sugru/oogoo tips or not so pure silicone

So long back I discovered oogoo, a way to make a moldable  putty that cures into a silicone rubber substance. There's an instructable here. It's fun. The simple version is you mix "100%" silicone caulk with corn starch and mold away. I recently decided to make roof rack feet for my car. Here's what I learned:

The correct type of silicone calk has a warning label indicating acetic acid is evolved when curing. If in doubt about which tube of caulk to purchase, look at the warning label. The home depot in NE DC does not carry this product. 

A ratio of 100g silicone to 10g corn starch worked best for me. I filled the cup high and lots of corn starch spilled, but everything is fine. Mix well. Less corn starch gives a longer working time, which is very helpful. 

I used an 8"x3" plate for my foot. This is way over sized and wasteful. However I feel confident it will work. 

The method for making roof rack feet is also simple. Place a thick layer of caulk corn starch mixture on aluminum plates. Place a layer of saran wrap on your car where you want each foot. Press caulk mixture onto the saran wrap using each plate. Let cure. I went nuts and put screws at the corner of each plate to get consistent thicknesses on both sides and such. You'll have to do something to make sure the feet line up with each other and such. I also drilled a few holes in the plate to improve adhesion between the silicone and the aluminum. 

Another harrasment story

So I was riding my bike from my day job to my night job and the fellow pictured below pulls up behind me and lays on his horn. He sat behind me for over 3 long minutes blasting away continuously. He has WV professional firefighter plates on his truck, tag number 1595pf. If you ever encounter this fellow, let him know you've heard about him.

Professional/Race/Euro style bicycle repair stand on the cheap/DIY

​

​So this weekend I constructed a repair stand for my bike on the cheap.  The pictures are going to tell most of the story, but here's a brief description. I am especially fond of the Feedback Sports Sprint repair stand, but Park also makes a nice looking stand in the PRS-20.  I didn't feel like spending ~$200 for one of these so I made my own. I probably spent less than $50 on this, but I had some parts laying about already.

As for the construction, I purchased a speaker stand/tripod to use as the base of my stand.  I purchased the corresponding piece intended to be bolted to the speaker and bolted it to an 8020 aluminium extrusion, and I fabricated a bottom bracket support out of a 2x4.  I repurposed parts from other projects for the axles.  I had quite a few T nuts and bolts​​ sitting around already.  When I got it all together, I felt the stand was a bit high, and that the base could be wider, so I modified it by replacing the three flat bars that connect the bottom of the center column with the midpoint of the legs with longer flat bars.  I simply purchased a 0.75"x.125"x48" bar from the local home improvement store, then cut and drilled.  If you make similar pieces you'll want to be sure the hole spacing is as close as possible to the same on all three pieces or the stand might not be square when you get done.  The finished product is below:

​

Here is a picture of the bottom bracket support:

​
Here you can see the front axle:

​
​

So my stand might not be as finished as one of the commercial products, but it works quite well.  It folds up compactly, but in two pieces.  I could use more knob heads on my screws to make adjustments quicker, but I can do with using a wrench for a while.    At some point I'll make further modifications after I use it for a while and determine what I need to do to better suit myself.

Hopefully this helps any of you thinking of making such a stand on your own.

Riding in the rain thoughts (all practical)

Riding a bike in the rain is kind of tough.  At least it's tough if it's cold and you're trying to arrive at your destination looking presentable.  If the temperature is decent and you're not trying to look dry and clean after your ride the first few minutes feel a little jarring, but after acclimation it feels great.  If you need to be dry though, there are 3 methods I know of.  They all have drawbacks, none is perfect, and you'll surely want a combination if you do this much.  

The first method is to fit your bicycle with fenders.  These keep most of the water on the road from being picked up by the wheel and sprayed onto you and your bike.  I've heard that folks who use a sufficiently long fender all the time experience significantly longer chain lives as a result of less road grime contaminating the chain.  The draw back for fenders is that they don't block all the road spray, and they don't block water coming from above or even from another vehicles tires.  My fenders don't even keep my feet dry when it's not raining but there are a few puddles out.  I still run them when rain is call for 3 of the next 5 days.  I've placed some studs and wing nuts on my bike to make installation a snap.  Still, you'll want something in addition.  

The second method is to wear a waterproof outer layer.  In principle this should be all you need.  However the waterproof outer layer has many drawbacks.  The first is that you can easily get over warm and begin to sweat.  Then you show up at your destination smelling like a locker room and looking like you took a shower with your clothes on.  If it's a cold rain and you have breathable water proof items, this problem can be mitigated.  However it's really difficult to find good waterproof gear.  Most of it leaks somewhere.  Even if it works well when new, after a few uses leaks pop up.  Then you end up showing up to work and enjoying the feel of wet socks all day.  Today I got to work to find the knee area on my pants was quite wet.   The rain pants I wore are specialized aqua veto pants.  They worked well up until this point. Shoe covers are a huge problem.  Many of the shoe covers that claim to be waterproof are not.  They also wear out quickly.  

The last method is simply to bring a change of clothes in a ziplock bag.  I favor this method, but it can be awkward finding a place to change at every location you might want to go to.  You still need to dress such that you don't freeze on the ride to your destination.  Also it's never nice putting on wet clothes, so bring a few ziplocs if your trip has multiple legs.  If I'm going to do this, I'm typically going to wear sandals, as bringing along multiple pairs of shoes is too burdensome.  Sometimes I just bring fresh socks or some such arrangement. 

 All this is far more complicated than simply getting in your car and going where you want to go. Most every choice is a compromise.  However I still find it worthwhile to ride all over weather raining or not.

Marine Corps Marathon race report

So Sunday I did the Marine Corps Marathon.  It was a good race overall, but not a super favorite like SavageMan.  I'll address the pros and cons of the race itself, some details of my pacing strategy, and give some updates to my nutrition strategy.  I really wrote this to help me plan my next race better, but perhaps it will help someone else.  I did come into this race with an ankle injury, but I don't think it was an issue. 

The biggest problem is that it's a big race with many participants and therefore has the problems that all such races have, sometimes more so however. Our first race issue came at the expo.  We read on the race website that free parking was available, but it was a bit tricky to find.  My family came into town for the race, and they love going to expo's for some reason.  As such I waited until Saturday to pick up my number.  It seems a huge number of other folks had a similar plan and we had to wait for over an hour to get into a tent to pick up the number where we learned they were out of printed programs.  My parents like the program so they can read it all and plan where they're going to spectate and such.  We then had to wait for another hour to get into the DC Armory to pick up the T-Shirt.  This was way worse than my experience at Boston, Chicago, or any other race I've run.  The volume of runners also caused problems on race day.  Again parking took a while, as there was quite a line of cars.  The shuttle was totally reasonable.  However there was a bit of a line to get into the runner's village due to security screening, but it wasn't so bad.  Bathroom lines were quite long and obnoxious.  If one purchased $200 worth of brooks gear at the expo one could get vip bathroom access, however it seems that one would have needed to wait in a ~2 hour line to purchase said gear.  Then there were start seeding issues.  I couldn't really see the signs, but I know I was in front of the 3:40 estimated finish sign.  Sadly I couldn't make it any further up.  I had to waste quite a bit of energy zig zagging around seriously slow people walking the course who really had no business starting as far forward as they did.  An earlier start or better choice of bathroom line could have mitigated this problem, as would a starting corral system.  Once I got clear at about 5 miles in, my complaints end, and I'd say the race experience is as good as any.  The bottom line is for me, I prefer smaller races. 

The cool thing about the Marine Corps Marathon, is the Marine presence.  Marines are cool, and they're everywhere at the race.  Many are working, but quite a few are just there to cheer.  Most of the cheering Marines acted like typically spectators, however one group adopted a bit more of a drill sargent tone.  Nothing too extreme, but a little fun.  There's something sort of motivating about someone who one day may need to run faster to save his life telling you to run faster without regard to the fact that you've just ran 23 miles or that your ankle hurts or whatever.  Bullets and bombs don't care about that stuff and I guess neither did he.  The coolest part was probably the finish however.  

There is a nice short but steep hill there at the finish and plenty of spectators.  All the cheering really drove me up the hill and to the finish, and it hurt in a really good way.  They gave out finisher's jackets at the finish, which was a nice perk, and the medal was hefty with moving parts. I normally don't care about medals, and this one will suffer the same fate as the rest, but it was interesting for a little while.  The massage group they had there was really good too.  They had a mini expo there at the finish, and we got lots of food and trinkets like flashlights and such.  

As for my pacing, I was immediately thrown off by the crowds.  I couldn't really start running race pace until I got to the 3rd or 4th mile. It still wasn't easy to go race pace at that point but it was practical.  I tried to remain calm, and I did for the most part.  From mile 5 to the half, I thought I was staying close enough to my goal pace, maybe just a few seconds faster to make up what I lost at the start.  At the half way point I figured I should try and make up time as I was feeling good.  My Garmin suggested I was turning in mile splits right around 6:35.  Around say mile 23, things got harder.  I was able to hold on without too much time hemorrhaging however.  I surely should have waited longer.  Looking at my results it's clear there was an error somewhere as I was never going that fast.  One might chalk that up to the crowds again as they prevent you from taking the shortest route, but I'm just not certain. 

As for nutrition, I replaced the honey packets with fruit snacks from Aldi.  I got ones that are fortified with vitamin C as that adds sodium.  The calories come from corn syrup, and each snack has about 10 calories. The plan was to eat 2 per mile, but I forgot in the first few miles to eat.  I did eventually eat 36 snacks.  I followed the mantra that if you feel good eat, so when I saw my pace was better than intended I took an extra fruit snack.  I never really had any GI distress, and I don't suppose I bonked.  I took 3 salt tablets, and I think that either that wasn't enough, or I should have taken the last one earlier.  Part of what caused me to slow down was mild muscle cramping in the legs, I think.  I took a tablet and felt a little better.  One explanation is that I was feeling fatigued and the tablet was an effective placebo.  I do intend to get a more convenient dispenser for next time (I was using a plastic bag with a hole torn in it).  

My muscles are sore, but I've gotten over the fact that I didn't break 3 hours, again.  I might have been able to if I had lined up better, but who knows.  I enjoyed the atmosphere of the race, but not the lines and crowds.  Next time I train for months just to decimate myself like this, I'm going to choose a smaller race where my result will be less dependent upon my crowd navigation ability and more on my effort and preparation. 

Boston post race report, very abbreviated

So I ran the race, had a great time, and wasn't too affected by the tradegy that unfolded.  I don't really want to talk about that since it's well covered by other sources.  All I can say is I heard 2 booms, and later a 3rd, which a police officer said was a controlled explosion of another device they found.  We should pray for all those involved. 

As for pacing, I ended up running just over 3:01, so a bit slower than my goal time.  Everyone who said don't go out too fast was right, but I didn't listen.  I of course don't really know what would have happened had I run 10s/mile slower for the first 4 miles, I may have just finished 40s slower. My best guess is that I would have been a bit faster on the last few miles, but it's hard to say.  Anyway, at the end the little muscle above the knee on the quad was pretty tired, and the experts claim running downhill too fast at the start will trash your quads.  I felt pretty good the whole time, and I really didn't fall apart until the last mile or so when I turned in a 7:30 mile in contrast to the sub or low 7's I'd been seeing the rest of the day.  I tried to use the HRM to control pace, but it quit on me well before the day was done.  Thanks Garmin!

As for nutrition, I had a bagel, banana  and yogurt for breakfast.  I followed the above pre race hydration plan.  However 5 minutes before the gun was to go off, I had a gel and a few oz of water.  Critical to a comfortable start was a pre race bathroom visit, only minutes before the gun.  I skipped the first aid station, and drank at nearly every other however.  I skipped a few when my belly felt bad, and instead of drinking dumped the water on my head.  I also only ate 9 honey packets, instead of the 18 my time would have predicted.  Maybe more honey would have helped but I was trying to listen to my stomach.  I also had 3 endurolytes.  The package said 100mg/tab in contrast to the 40 mg listed on the website.  For the most part I avoided any GI issues, so that was good.  Who knows what would've happened with a different plan, perhaps the final mile would have been 50s faster.  

I would like to learn more about the effects of dumping the water on your head.  On the one hand, it could be a way to achieve evaporative cooling without having to pass the liquid through your stomach, although it clearly won't help you metabolize your fuel or increase your blood volume.  On the other hand, it could send a wrong signal to your body causing it to cease it's natural heat management techniques, leading to a worse outcome overall.  This is completely speculative, and I'd love to know if there exist a set of conditions under which such an idea would describe reality.  

Hope this helps someone thinking about marathon nutrition and pacing.

marathon fueling strategy

I'm going to be doing a marathon soon, and I thought I'd record my fueling strategy here in case it goes well I'll have a record, and anyone who cares to can reference it.  

1 day before race: run a hard two miles (race pace), eat a good breakfast with plenty of protein and carbs, but not much for fiber and fat.  Avoid high fat high fiber foods all day.  Drink .6 oz/lbs of body weight of water.

Morning of race: Drink ~12 oz water/hr, but stop 30 minutes before race. Complete a breakfast of 200-400 calories with minimal simple sugar, fiber, and fat 3 hours before start.  A plain bagel with plain yogurt has been a winner in the past.  Consume one GU type package 6 minutes before start. 

During race: Drink water as much as possible at aid stations, and consume one honey packet every 10 minutes or as stomach allows.  Consume 1-2 Hammer Endurolyte/hour based on perceived sweat/drink rate. 

This is based off different sources such as the hammer nutrition fueling guide, an article on active.com, and my own experiences of course.

Here's some ramblings: It might make sense to make the endurolyte number based on the drink rate.  Cups are ~4oz, and 18 oz/hr is a likely maximum water intake.  Normal Saline has a concentration of 9g of sodium/ Liter, or 2.11 g/ 8oz serving.  A saltier sports drink like Skratch Labs Exercise Drink has 130 mg of sodium per 8 oz.  An endurolyte tablet has 40 mg.  So one could take more than one tablet per drink (from a marathon aid station cup), in principle.  I'm not convinced this is a great idea. 

I find this sort of thing very hard.  Running marathon pace for a marathon time causes all sorts of GI problems, and it's hard to replicate such an effort in training.  You can go that hard or you can go that long, but if you do both you're going to be wiped out for a good while.  I keep some notes, but one doesn't really know if problems were caused by too much of one thing or too much of another.  This combo has worked okay for me in the past however. 

Free Faxing

So I need to send and receive faxes from time to time.  However a dedicated fax line is out of the question.  Naturally I turned to the world wide web to solve the problem.  I found that faxzero.com is an easy way to send a fax, and faxbetter.com is an easy way to receive faxes.  However  faxbetter.com will deactivate your number if you don't use it for 7 days, so you'll need to keep that in mind.  And of course these are free, though they have premium services available. 

Another Hymn

Here's another hymn that it would be well to know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb_ajo-uZ4c

1. Let all mortal flesh keep silence, 
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded, 
for with blessing in his hand, 
Christ our God to earth descendeth, 
our full homage to demand. 

2. King of kings, yet born of Mary, 
as of old on earth he stood, 
Lord of lords, in human vesture, 
in the body and the blood; 
he will give to all the faithful 
his own self for heavenly food. 

3. Rank on rank the host of heaven 
spreads its vanguard on the way, 
as the Light of light descendeth 
from the realms of endless day, 
that the powers of hell may vanish 
as the darkness clears away. 

4. At his feet the six-winged seraph, 
cherubim, with sleepless eye, 
veil their faces to the presence, 
as with ceaseless voice they cry: 
Alleluia, Alleluia, 
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Considering the season, you may like to omit the last verse until Easter time.

Some Hymns

During lent I like to learn new prayers.  Here's a hymn I really like and would like to learn.  I'm not saying I'll learn it for lent, but I might.  I think I'll post the words to a few good hymns to this site that I'd like to memorize.

Hail Queen of Heaven the Ocean Star

Hail Queen of heaven, the ocean star
Guide of the wander here below;
Thrown on life's surge we claim thy care
Save us from peril and from woe.
Mother of Christ, Star of the sea,
Pray for the wander, pray for me

O gentle chaste and spotless maid
We sinners make our prayers through thee;
Remind thy Son that He has paid
The price of our iniquity.
Virgin most pure, Star of the sea,
Pray for the sinner, pray for me.

Sojourners in this vale of tears
To thee, blest advocate, we cry;
Pity our sorrows, calm our fears,
And soothe with hope our misery.
Refuge in grief, Star of the sea,
Pray for the mourner, pray for me.

And while to Him who reigns above
In Godhead One, in Persons Three,
The source of life, of grace, of love,
Homage we pay on bended knee:
Do thou, bright Queen, Star of the Sea,
Pray for thy children, pray for me.

reflective tape effectiveness

So I've been commuting by bike much of my life, and lately that has entailed traveling on the roads after dark.  While I have bright lights, I really like reflectors.  A bright light can run out of battery and/or be over powered by a car headlight.  On the other hand, at reasonable distances, retro reflective materials require no power and work quite well when light from the left headlight is incident upon a sample.  (Effective means make the bike more visible to car drivers.  A light source simply needs to be near the driver's eye and incident upon the reflector for this to work.)  For this reason, I like to have both lights and reflectors. However I don't like to have too many things hanging off my bike.  As such I've put together a partial solution with reflective tape.  

I've posted a pic comparing a daytime view to a nighttime view of my bike in which a flash was used.  I think the pic speaks for itself.  I have silver reflective tape (ANSI level 2, as I recall) in between the spokes on the wheels, and red reflective tape on the seat stays.  The red reflective tape can't be as bright as the silver, but I didn't want to mess up the aesthetics of the bike.   Let me know in the comments if there are any questions about what I did.  

More food stuff: pork recipie

I recently baked some pork chops.  It's tricky to get them out of the oven at the correct time.  The flavor was excellent.  I served them with sauerkraut  and that went quite well.  

The link to the recipie is here:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/honey-dijon-pork-chops/

Here is the relevant part:

0.25 cup Dijon mustard
0.25 cup honey
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 pork chops

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking dish.

-Mix Dijon mustard, honey, black pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Arrange pork chops in prepared baking dish and pour mustard mixture over pork.

-Bake in preheated oven until pork is slightly pink in the center, about 45 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

Enjoy.

A seared salmon recipe

Now that I have a little more free time and my own kitchen, I'm endeavoring to cook a little more.  I'm generally only willing to cook things that require a minimum number of ingredients, most of which should be used in other dishes I like.  Recipes calling for exotic oils, things that can't be purchased at Aldi and such are automatically out.

Here's one modified from here that fit the bill and turned out well:

• 4 6-ounce salmon filets, boneless, skin on
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 10 12 turns freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 4 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
• In a small saucepan add soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.
• Take a non-stick pan and set over high heat. Rub filets all over lightly with vegetable oil. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Once pan is very hot place the filets skin-side down and press down gently with a spatula so the skin remains flat to the pan. Cook for about 6 minutes then liberally glaze the top side of the filets - you want to have some glaze swirling in the bottom of the pan too as this will caramelize with the crispy skin. Turn off heat and flip salmon so skin side is now on top. Allow to rest in pan for 3 more minutes until cooked through.
• 
  
• I had skinless salmon filets, and substituted 1 teaspoon of garlic powder for 1 clove of garlic.  In addition, I scaled the recipe down for my purpose. The critical thing is placing the fish on a super hot pan to sear the skin/bottom side to make it crispy.  
• 
  

Fwd: URGENT - move car for snow removal

One of the joys of living at the University of Notre Dame is that from time to time you can be asked to do some little chore within the next 3 hours.  Hope you're not doing anything besides compulsively checking your emails.  At least now I have the emails of all my neighbors.  Now I can facebook stalk the cute ones once I move my car.  I wasn't doing anything anyway.  

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mimi Beck <Mary.A.Beck.15@nd.edu>
Date: Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 9:02 PM
Subject: URGENT - move car for snow removal

BEFORE MIDNIGHT, Monday Night, January 17

Move cars out of parking spaces in front of:

 

O'Hara-Grace Townhouses 1 through 24

 

The parking lot in front of your building is scheduled to be cleared of all ice and snow early tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.  Please move your car TONIGHT to any other space in the FOG lot or D2 lot until after the plow has completely cleared the lot (should be done by noon).  If you do not move your car, you will be fined and possibly towed.  If you have any questions, please contact the Office.  Thanks!

 

 

 

Grace & Peace,

 

Mimi Beck, Rector

Fischer O'Hara-Grace Graduate Residences

University of Notre Dame

574-631-2733

 

"Glory be to God whose power can give infinitely more than we can ask or imagine."

Ephesians 3:20

 

Freemake Video Downloader fix

I really like Freemake Video Downloader.  It can download video on various popular websites and store the video on your hard disc.  You simply paste the URL into a bar in the Freemake program window and check the various settings and go.  I typically copy these videos onto a portable player that works like a usb drive, and watch them while working out.  It can grab videos from many popular sites like facebook and hulu and youtube.  It works rather reliably and is fast.  In addition it can convert videos after you download them.  This saves me a step as my portable player cannot play most video types used on the internet, but it can play whatever format the iphone uses.  Using this product on certian websites may violate the TOS, but I'm not at all sure about that.  

Anyway, recently I've found that if you start this program up while Chrome is running, you can get an error message asking you to check your internet connection.  Others have reported such a problem here.  While the solution posted recommends using another program, I've found the other programs I've used to be less reliable.  Some of them only download part of the video or save an unplayable video.  The solution is simple though.  Close all Chrome windows.  I don't use other browsers, so I don't know if they also cause problems.  When I first got hooked on Freemake, I never had this problem.  I'm not sure what changed, but both Chrome and Freemake are frequently updated.  I hope this little tip helps you too.  

Fwd: ALL: Christmas break office safety

The safety police are relatively inactive at Notre Dame, however the recent death of a student due to apparent gross negligence has meant their activities are ratcheting up.  Still pretty harmless though.  

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shelly Goethals <Shelly.A.Goethals.3@nd.edu>
Date: Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 4:14 PM
Subject: ALL: Christmas break office safety
To: PHYSGRAD@listserv.nd.edu

Campus safety representatives ask all who are leaving offices to take the following steps while leaving for Christmas break:

 

- Unplug all electrical items, even those in use, to minimize the threat of fire

- Empty and unplug refrigerators if possible

- Turn off all lights, no matter how small they are

- Pick up all items off of the floors and store them

- Close and lock all windows to prevent fire alarm system problems and frozen pipes

- Contact the Maintenance Help Desk, 631-7701, for assistance if windows do not latch or lock properly

 

ND's sexual assault cover-up

So the Chicago Tribune posted a story detailing evidence that the University of Notre Dame is covering up a sexual assault by a football player.   Although the Trib got some things wrong, the university is being dishonest.  Notre Dame explained its silence by claiming it was prohibited from candor by FERPA regulations.  This explanation is simply false.  I pointed this out to the propagator of the false press release, and she responded that the university is not under an obligation to expose the student.  Of course there is no prohibition from making any comment on the case, despite the university's false claims.  One can review the email exchange below.  You'll want to start at the bottom.  

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jan Botz <botz.1@nd.edu>
Date: Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 10:53 AM
Subject: RE: Chicago Tribune Story
To: Neil Griggs <cornelius.griggs@gmail.com>

Dear Mr Griggs,

 

Thanks for your note and question.  I've consulted internally to get you an answer and this is what I found out:

 

FERPA prohibits the University from discussing disciplinary cases because the records which make up the disciplinary cases are considered a student's education record. This is why we are unable to comment, acknowledge or otherwise discuss any incident involving potential student discipline.

 

FERPA does not apply to college or university police department records. Notre Dame Security Police Department is governed by protocols applicable to all local agencies who do not release their records during investigation to the press. In addition, under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act (APRA), private college and university police departments in Indiana are not public agencies and therefore are not required to produce records.  This interplay between FERPA and Indiana's APRA has not been addressed in the media.  I hope this clarifies the situation.

 

 

Jan

 

Janet M. Botz

Vice President

Office of Public Affairs and Communications

University of Notre Dame

405 Main Building

Notre Dame, IN   46556-5602

Tel:  (574) 631-6798

Fax: (574) 631-3001

E-mail:  botz.1@nd.edu

_________________________________________

Sarah A. Gotsch
Officer Assistant

Office of Public Affairs and Communication

University of Notre Dame
405 Main Building
Notre Dame, Indiana  46556      
Tel:  574-631-6798
Fax: 574-631-3001

Email:  gotsch.3@nd.edu

 

From: Cornelius Griggs [mailto:cornelius.griggs@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 12:44 PM
To: Jan Botz
Cc: IRISHLINK-URGENT@listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: Chicago Tribune Story

 

I would think FERPA would not apply to this case.  Not being a lawyer, I could have it wrong.  Please see http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/leg-history.html

 

"Education records" was defined in the 1974 amendments as "those records, files, documents, and other materials which contain information directly related to a student; and are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a person acting for such agency or institution."

Four categories of records were excluded:

1) records in the sole possession of instructional, supervisory, and administrative personnel; 2) records of a law enforcement unit which are kept apart from "education records," are maintained solely for law enforcement purposes, and are not made available to persons other than law enforcement officials of the same jurisdiction, provided that personnel of a law enforcement unit do not have access to "education records"; 3) records of employees who are not also in attendance; and 4) physician, psychiatrist, or psychologist treatment records for eligible students.

The conferees stated their intention that the Department interpret the term "treatment" narrowly to limit the exemption for such records to those similar to those enumerated, and not remedial educational records made or maintained by education professionals. They also stated they did not intend to disrupt existing parental and student rights to confidentiality. Conference Report No. 93-1409, Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference, for P.L. 93-568.

At the request of the Secretary of Education, Congress amended the "law enforcement unit exception" in 1992 to eliminate the unworkable and unintended results of the prohibition on sharing education records with the law enforcement unit. The exclusion now applies to "records maintained by a law enforcement unit of the educational agency or institution that were created by that law enforcement unit for the purpose of law enforcement."

 

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Jan Botz <botz.1@nd.edu> wrote:

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students, 

As I'm sure you have read, the Chicago Tribune has published a story about the tragic death of a Saint Mary's College student, Lizzy Seeberg.  

 

There is a law in place known as Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which prohibits universities from publicly discussing specific disciplinary cases.  As a consequence, we cannot at this time publicly correct many of the false impressions created by the Tribune story, but suffice it to say as a general matter, any time that an allegation is made that a law or university policy may have been violated, we have a longstanding process in place to learn the facts and eliminate rumors, which leads to a determination of what action – if any – is appropriate to take.  At the same time, our police department works closely and collaboratively with local law enforcement agencies, including the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office, which includes officials from the special victims unit.  Both the Prosecutor's Office and the St. Joseph County Police have issued statements correcting some aspects of the Tribune story and affirming the valuable and professional work of our Notre Dame Security Police. You may wish to read today's South Bend Tribune story for additional information http://southbendtribune.com/article/20101123/News01/311239997/1130.

 

I also would like to take this opportunity to reiterate Notre Dame's commitment to address the issue of sexual violence in all of its forms.  We actively seek to prevent sexual assault, address unacceptable and/or unlawful behavior when it occurs, provide resources and support for those who have been victimized, and ensure the safety and well-being of every student.  For more information about campus resources, please visit www.csap.nd.edu.  

 

It is and always will be a central tenet of Notre Dame's mission to learn the truth and to act in accordance with it.  As you read stories about any matter that involves our careful and thorough process, I urge you not to arrive at any conclusions until all the facts are known.  Only through a serious, informed and fair process can justice be served.  Such a process will always be our focus.

Sincerely,

 

 

Janet M. Botz

Vice President

Office of Public Affairs and Communications

 

 

 

Fwd: Missing FOG Inventory and Room Condition Report Form

I got the following email today.  I've lived in this room for about 1.5 years now.  Glad to see they're on top of their duties. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Annette Beck <Annette.L.Beck.14@nd.edu>
Date: Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 6:07 PM
Subject: Missing FOG Inventory and Room Condition Report Form
To:

Dear Residents,

     If you are receiving this message it is because we are missing either one or both of your bedroom and common room inventory and condition report forms. It is very important that you fill these forms out, so that upon your departure you will not be held responsible for pre-existing damage. If you feel that you have received this message in error, please contact the office and we will update your file accordingly. Thank you for your cooperation!

             Sincerely,

                         Your FOG Staff

 

pumpkin muffin recipe

I found a recipe on the web and modified it to look like as follows, more or less.  Cook time was a bit longer at 325, and I didn't have a muffin tin persay, so I used a baking sheet.  They turned out well.

1 1/2 cups <strike>King Arthur White Whole Wheat</strike> Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

<strike>1/4 teaspoon ground allspice</strike>
2 large eggs
3/4 cup <strike>Splenda</strike> Sugar

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
1/4 cup orange juice
5 tablespoons <strike>I Can't Believe It's Not</strike> Butter (stick)

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

In a large bowl,, melt <strike>I Can't Believe It's Not</strike> Butter in the microwave. Remove from microwave and add orange juice, eggs, and <strike>spenda</strike> sugar. Beat well by hand. Add canned pumpkin and mix well. Add all other dry ingredients except chocolate chips and mix by hand. Fold in chocolate chips. Spray a muffin tin with vegetable cooking spray; spoon mixture into cups. Makes 12 muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 18 minutes. You will need to use a toothpick to check for doneness as they don't really brown if you use Spenda. Let cool in tin for 5-7 minutes after baking, then remove and place on rack. If you wanted to cut down on the sugars in this recipe, you might want to substitute 1/2 cup of raisins plus 1/2 cup of chopped pecans for the chocolate chips.

Number of Servings: 12 

quirk wire customer dis service for custom cables

I saw a paper in which quirk wire co was recommended for a special type of coaxial cable.  I needed some thing similar, so I called the contact number on the website.  I asked some questions about what sort of cable they could produce and was treated unbelievably rudely.  The woman on the phone constantly told me I was being too vague, but couldn't give me any specific information herself.  For instance, I want a cable with low capacitance per unit length.  To achieve that one might use a small center conductor.  However this woman couldn't tell me the smallest center conductor available, or even what materials besides copper were available.  I started asking questions like okay, can we have a .002 center conductor, no, okay how about .003? She ended up hanging up on me.  When I called back to speak to a manager he was more helpful but unapologetic.  He at least could use numbers and name materials.  I was unimpressed however. He reminded me rather rudely that he had to make money and that this was a business.  

I highly recommend anyone looking for custom cables go to New England Wire instead.  The service there was helpful, they seemed to have greater capabilities, and they were willing to talk about products they could produce and different options that might be helpful.  For instance they mentioned a UHV compatible nonmagnetic low noise coating which would really be helpful.  I have yet to buy anything from these guys, but they seem much more reasonable and professional to me.  

Don't waste your time with quirk wire co.  

palm pre review: it stinks

So the palm pre is a horrible phone.  It has many bugs and on it's best day it's quite slow.  Budget a full 30s to look up a telephone number.  Typically on this phone, as I understand it, the phone and messaging applications run in the background.  This lets the phone notify you when you receive a text or phone call.  Mine seemed to shut down these apps, and I therefore missed some important notifications today and rather messed up my schedule.  I don't need to look at my messages every 5 minutes, but once every 12 hours would be helpful.  I have many other complaints against the pre.  One of the most damning is that sometimes the slider causes the battery to lose contact with the rest of the phone in a way that the phone ends up turning off.  It then takes a good 3 minutes for the phone to reboot.  Hope you weren't using that slider to dial 911.  What a turd. 

phone hacking

I'm no expert, but I hit windows start menu, run, cmd and then typed novacom -t open tty://O and had a root prompt on my palm pre phone.  Granted I've already installed novacom on my computer, but still, that was cool.  

a love poem for Regina

The memory of your beauty torments me

I long to stare deep into those eyes 

as big as shooter marbles you see

and you smell as good as french fries.  

Your occasional affection was so sweet,

the emphatic hug delighted me,

because I could feel our heart beat 

synchronized together as we should be.

Your red cheeks are a stop sign to my heart

Your cheerful voice is the siren of my soul

Your style says beauty with modesty don't go apart

Your impeccable morals are also a good part.

I know you too must miss me,

our interactions were special and unique,

you trying not distracted to be

by my excellent physique.  

So give in to your passions today

and make some memories in a good way

by being my valentine on this day.  

Hidden message?

So I went to receive the Eucharist today at Mass in Notre Dame's Basilica and the EM (a lay fellow distributing the Eucharist) said "Body of Christ David."  My name is not David, so I was a bit thrown.  You're not supposed to say the communicant's name as far as I know in the Roman rite, and this could be a reason for that.  I'm sure I was told that as part of my server/EM training.  I initially thought perhaps he mistook me for someone else.  Then I thought of the first reading for today in which David sinned and was punished.  Perhaps the EM knows my name but wanted to send a message.  Either way, I'd prefer folks involved in the liturgy took it a bit more seriously.  

palm pre is the phone for outdoor extreme temperature use (I think)

I am thinking of getting a new cellphone, and palm pre is on my short list.  I was concerned about how well the phone would work if I were outside on a hot day say after a bike race or camping or whatever, and also on a cold day, say biking or camping or going to football games.  So I investigated by chatting with palm's tech support.  The absurdity is pasted unedited below for anyone who cares.   

10:23 PM Albert: Hi Cornelius.

10:24 PM Cornelius Griggs: Hi

10:24 PM Cornelius Griggs: I want to know about the operating temperature of the palm pre

10:24 PM Cornelius Griggs: and pixi

10:24 PM Cornelius Griggs: I know the iphone doesn't go that low

10:24 PM Cornelius Griggs: and it seems other phones don't as well

10:24 PM Albert: I can help you with the issue.

10:25 PM Albert: Yes it is normal temperature.

10:25 PM Cornelius Griggs: what do you mean by that?

10:25 PM Cornelius Griggs: could you quantify normal temperature?

10:26 PM Cornelius Griggs: I want to know how cold or hot the phone can get before it stops working

10:26 PM Cornelius Griggs: or the performance degrades

10:26 PM Albert: Sure I will help you with that.

10:26 PM Cornelius Griggs: will I be able to take it outside and use it on extremely hot or extremely cold days?

10:27 PM Albert:  Keep your battery away from direct sunlight and other sources of heat. Temperatures over 120 degrees Farenheit (50 degrees Celsius) can permanently reduce the capacity and life span of any lithium ion battery.

10:28 PM Albert: Please follow the link below which will help you know about the phone.

10:28 PM Albert: http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/43181_en.html

10:28 PM Albert has sent a link: http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/43181_en.html

10:29 PM Cornelius Griggs: so what is the lowest temperature it can handle

10:29 PM Cornelius Griggs: it gets very cold here in the winter

10:30 PM Albert: Normal room temperature.

10:31 PM Cornelius Griggs: so it won't work at temperatures below normal room temperature?

10:31 PM Cornelius Griggs: I like to keep my house kind of cold

10:31 PM Cornelius Griggs: does that mean it won't work in my house?

10:31 PM Albert: Yes it will work.

10:32 PM Cornelius Griggs: but it's below normal room temperature

10:32 PM Cornelius Griggs: olive oil tends to solidify in my house

10:32 PM Cornelius Griggs: I really don't like to pay for the heat

10:32 PM Cornelius Griggs: do you think you could use a number?

10:33 PM Albert: It does not have any exact temperature.

10:35 PM Cornelius Griggs: but if I go to a football game in december it probably won't work

10:35 PM Albert: It works as your normal work with any temperature.

10:35 PM Albert: No it will work.

10:36 PM Cornelius Griggs: how about after a bike ride in feburary?

10:37 PM Albert: Yes it will work.

10:37 PM Cornelius Griggs: okay, I'm going to hold you to that

10:37 PM Albert: Here's the reference number for our chat: Chat session ID number 44563981. Keep this number as a record of this chat, and if you need to call our Phone Support team or contact us again for this same issue, please refer to this number.

gloves

These days I do work requiring very clean parts to be used in ultra high vacuum environments.  In order to handle these parts without contaminating them with finger print oils or anything else, I use some form of rubber gloves.  I found latex gloves can be porus or dissolve in acetone, leaving residue all over everything I handle.  An old box of nitrile gloves from Allegiance I found in the lab served me well for some time.  When I finished that box I went down to the stockroom and picked up a box of microflex Midknight gloves (MK-296-L).  They looked cool because they're black and they felt good too.  However a large number of these gloves had some mysterious white poweder on them.  In the future I'll be sticking to Allegiance gloves if I can find them.  

the hand pump from kinetic systems is a ripoff

So I purchased a vibration isolation platform from Kinetic Systems.  It was the cheapest one they had, and one consequence is that a hand pump can be used to fill the air springs. They charge $60 for a pump which they told me was a very nice bicycle pump.  It's actually a $15 piece of junk.  It's a mini pump designed to be used in an emergency only.  For the money they charged one could get 3 very nice pumps-ones with gauges that are easy to pump.  I got ripped off, but it's my advisor's fault.  He felt it wasn't worth my time trying to save $40 or so.  Don't get the hand pump from Kinetic Systems.  The isolation platform works okay with compressed air however.  One does need to adjust the springs every few hours however.  The self leveling would have been nice.  

thou shall prosper

I received a book in the mail today.  It's titled "thou shall prosper, ten commandments for making money" by rabbi Daniel Lapin.  I don't know why I received it, but I'm looking forward to prospering.  It seems the book is based on the idea that Jews are good with money.  I'm rather amused by the way stereotypes are embraced.  

check engine light adventures

I've decided to start posting again.  I've recently had car troubles exacerbated by poor decision making.  I was driving home from a visit to my grandparents house recently and my check engine light came on.  Prior to embarking on the 4.5 hour trip from Akron to South Bend, I thought I noticed that my car was losing power and then surging back.  In addition, on the way up I thought I had poor fuel mileage, but that could have been a result of many things since the prior tank had very good mileage and it could have been a related error, or poor mileage could have resulted from the weather here being very cold and the fact that I only make short infrequent trips when not driving to and from Grandma's house.  When the check engine light came on I was on the turnpike and 14 miles from the next exit, also about 30 miles from my grandparents house.  I decided to exit and try and go to an autozone and have the DTC OBD II codes  read in order to determine if the problem was a serious one.  I asked for and received directions to an autoparts store from the toll booth operator.  However it turned out those directions were not so good and I spent a good deal of time driving around the country side.  I then thought my uncle has a code reader as well as tools and such so I ought to head back to Akron and diagnose the problems there as I could expect more help from my uncle than from the autozone clerks, assuming I ever found one. My uncle read the computer with his code reader and learned that I had a "fuel trim malfunction" and "system too lean" error.  However I did not record the actual codes.  He advised me that I should just put some fuel injector cleaner in and be on my way as he had a car that gave these errors when he didn't use the stuff.  I figured this explanation seemed reasonable because I drive so infrequently that my gas sits and can oxidize and vaporize and collect moisture and that my maintenance was so behind that I may have forgotten to swap fuel filters and plus my last tank was from sheetz, not necessarily the most reputable gasoline vendor perhaps.  Given these things, I took his advice.  However, the car ran rougher and rougher.  It wasn't so noticeable while going down the highway at speed, but when idling the car would nearly stall out as the engine rpm's dropped so low.  In addition I got atrocious mileage-27 rather than my customary 40+ mpg.  As such after the trip it was clear that I needed a little more than a gas treatment.  Thus the fun began.  I found a service manual online for a 1998 honda civic as I have.  It was 2000 pages and with poor indexing.  As such it wasn't that helpful as my computer's a bit slow anyway.  I called the honda dealer and they told me that they needed to know what the exact codes were in number form to help me out and that it couldn't be the fuel filter because my car has a lifetime filter built in to the gas tank.  I asked what that fuel filter like looking thing was on my firewall and they told me it was not a fuel filter.  Anyway, they suggested a whole list of problems which could cause such codes.  I then began googling and read all sorts of conflicting accounts.  After this great help I went back to autozone to have the codes read again.  They were P0170 and P0171.  The clerk at the store printed out tons of useful papers and discouraged me from buying any of the tools I'd eventually need to finish this job by telling me falsehoods.  I went home and did more googling.  I resolved to print the 2000 page document on the school's dime and go from there.  After a paper jamb and lots of reading I decided I wanted to test the Manifold Absolute Pressure gauge (MAP) and the oxygen sensor (HO2S) as both of these things could well be the culprit and both can be tested without loosening any bolts and such.  The easiest way to do this is with an OBD II scanner, so I called various autoparts stores to see if I could borrow or buy and return one.  All said no, so I called my machinist friend to see if I could borrow his.  He referred me to his out of work mechanic friend who talked to me for a long time, suggesting all sorts of things that could be wrong.  However he didn't have a scanner either and he didn't think one would be useful.  He did however offer to look at the car for me.  I disagreed and resolved to take advantage of Harbor Freight's easy return policy and purchased a "scanner" (sku 99722) there.  However after purchasing this scanner didn't have many of the features typically associated with a scanner, so it was actually a code reader with a higher price tag than their other code readers.  Nonetheless I used it to reset the codes in my car as the driving was becoming less and less smooth.  On the way home a new code became pending, P0133 (this code must appear in 2 consecutive trips to activate the check engine light and until then it is pending).  This code pertains directly to the HO2S and basically excluded other possible problems besides perhaps an exhaust manifold leak.  As such I undertook to make my own back probes, and connect them to an oscilloscope in order that I could monitor the signal from the HO2S directly.  This would have been cake with a proper scanner, but hey.  The sensor only read lean, so I tried to make it rich by blocking off the air intake.  This didn't seem to work, and that bothers me because it seems that the car should have stalled or something.  Perhaps the pressure in the intake just dropped a bit.  As such I had a good clue that the problem was was the HO2S, but I wanted to do a bench test in which one removes the sensor from the car and places a volt meter on the signal wires.  Then a propane torch is lit and directed at the business end of the sensor.  In a properly functioning sensor this produces a result on the voltmeter.  I did this test and my senor passed.  As such I was a bit miffed.  I did notice if one got the sensor too hot the response quit.  I believe this was the heart of the problem.  I put the sensor back in the car and tried to test again with the voltmeter.  Initially I read that a rich signal, but after a while I read a lean signal.  Perhaps this had to do with the car still warming up or some such, or perhaps the sensor finally got to the same point where it began failing the bench test.  Hard to say exactly what's wrong, but I just replaced it and now the whole car seems to work just fine.  I think I'm going to get a cheap scanner that one hooks up to a laptop and make some recordings of the various parameters available for diagnosing purposes so that I can perhaps more easily diagnose any problems next time.  I rather hope I learn from these mistakes, and you might too.  If you want to do auto repairs, get a scanner.  Lots of other lessons here too, hopefully I'll remember them. 

tantalum arc torch

so I was practicing some stainless steel welding using some scraps I found in the steel drawer.  Some of the triangle pieces I found wouldn't make good welds, no matter what I tried.  I started asking around, and someone recoginized the shape as tantalum.  Tantalum has a pretty high melting point, so I'm thinking of trying a tantalum arc torch.  It's not as high as carbon, but it might have better thermal conductivity.  I suspect it might react, but hopefully that won't reduce conductivity.  I'll let you know how it works out once I try.

carbon

so, carbon melts at over 6000 degrees F, and as you can see below my torch is melting it. Actually the pictures are all shortly after turning it off. Nonetheless, I estimate the temperature is more like 9000 degrees, based on the research I've done. This is actually hot enough to vaporize the carbon. Some further trivia, these rods are elementally the same as diamond, and this is one technique they use to create fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and such.

I started out sharpening the carbon in a pencil sharpener, though for the positive side, that just caused faster melting. My advice is only sharpen one side, especially with a dc powersupply.
I found an excellent source of carbon, hopefully it will show in the attached image. I just cut open a 1.5 volt heavy duty battery and found 4 cells inside, each with it's own carbon rod. I got this battery out of a recycle bin. I think anything that says Heavy Duty, or Extra Heavy Duty will work, and EverReady is a popular brand. Expensive batteries have different reactions going on and don't have any carbon.