CREATIVITY

CHALLENGE

tip of the
iceberg
Use a physical trace
to reveal a hidden
pattern in your
everyday world

what
it’s all
The Tip of the Iceberg challenge builds
your ability for careful looking. Good

about
inquiry is the basis for good design!
We often think of ‘inquiry’ as a kind a ‘research’ – that is,
looking things up. The limit to this is that you’ll only find
what already exists and that someone else has made avail-
able. If design is about creating new things, how do we do that
if we can only start from what we already know?

A deeper kind of careful looking enables you to see not only what is in front
of you, but to discern what may be the root causes for it. Once you know why
something is happening, you’ll be in a much stronger position to act upon it.

The tip of the iceberg you found likely has some element of “You know what’s
weird?” to it. That’s a great rhetorical tool to point out something others may
not have noticed. It is also a great device to make you yourself notice things you
might not have seen otherwise. You’re trusting your intuition to get past the
expected and into the unexpected!

note: not all exemplars have all the parts; earlier versions of this challenge didn’t ask for an intervention, for example.

A&A 121 | Design, Design Thinking and Creativity

College of Arts and Architecture
Penn State University
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You know what’s weird? This sunglasses-

Postparty Depression
donning baby doll I recently spotted in a
bush outside the HUB. The baby doll was
life-size, wore some ostentatious sunglasses,
and lay next to a baby wrap.
While this wholly unexpected sight gave me
and my friends a good laugh, the reality of it
really isn’t funny. Despite having the perils
of littering drilled into our heads from our
earliest years, members of my generation
still don’t all seem to grasp the gravity of the
problem.
Here’s what I think happened here: someone
went to a themed party the night before I
took this photo, and he or she dressed up
as Alan from The Hangover carrying baby
“Carlos.” Knowing he or she had no use for
a baby doll and wrap, the individual threw
those costume elements in a bush on their
way home.
This is far from the first time I’ve seen
something like this. People tend to disman-
tle their party costumes before they make it
home, and they just throw whatever they’re
done with on the sidewalk, in a bush, or in
the street. I wish I knew how to solve this
chronic littering problem – the only solution
I can think of besides putting up signs all
around town reminding people of the harm-
ful effects of littering or the fines associated
with being caught is placing more trashcans
around town. Whenever I find myself with
trash while in town or on campus, I start
scouting for trashcans, and I usually don’t
find one for a good while. Maybe if Penn
State had trashcans every few yards, people
would litter less.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
So, this week I noticed something strange
outside my apartment in the parking lot. I
live at The Park at State College, which is
about two miles away from the Walmart in
North Atherton.
To my surprise, a hand basket from Walmart
appeared on the wooden foundation sup-
port beams next to the stairs leading to the
lower lot.
It seems that someone walked all the way to
Walmart to shop and then walked all the way
back with their small amount of groceries.
Another possibility is someone took the bus
to Walmart to go shopping instead of walk-
ing. The only definite thing I know is that
someone stole the hand basket after they
went shopping.
I think this happened because college stu-
dents don’t seem to care about consequenc-
es to things, just whatever is most conve-
nient for them. It’s a trend with the shopping
carts also scattered around the complex
from the Giant across the street.
With an increasing amount of students lack-
ing transportation of their own, walking and
public transit are their only options. Since
they have to rely on the aforementioned
transits, the use of that basket was to make
their walk home from the bus stop easier on
themselves. The biggest question left is why
they left it in a parking lot away from the
apartments. It’s strange they brought it all
the way home just to leave it by a walkway.

The Walmart
Handbasket
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You know what I find weird? Why are people
willing to climb up and down a sizeable 3 to
4 foot wall in order to get into the Multisport
facility on campus!?
The tip of the iceberg is of course the dis-
turbance in the snow in such a specific path
of footsteps. It is worth noting that even
though it is evident multiple people have
taken this shortcut, they all seem to follow
almost the exact same path.
I think that the reason people are taking this
shortcut is because the sidewalk happens to
be quite the extra length to walk since it goes
all the way down and around the restraining
wall probably an extra forty feet and then
back to get to the door.
The reason why everyone is taking the
almost identical shortcuts would have to
be that once you see a step in the snow you
know that part is packed down so after the
first brave trailblazer made his or her way
to the facility the rest of the people were
inspired to follow it.
Truthfully, if they just put a sidewalk and
a staircase straight to the building people
wouldn’t be looking for shortcuts because
the main path would be the best option.

the path more or less

traveled
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
At left you will see a picture of a recycling
can found at the local grocery store that I
work at. However, this recycling can is meant
to specifically hold bottles and cans. In an
effort to ensure that bottles and cans are the
only items put into the container, there are
circle cut-outs on the lid. However, an indi-
vidual decided to put a square plastic con-
tainer into a slot that will only accept round
items. I tried hard to push this square item
into the bin, but it would not go through no
matter how much I tried.
The human behavior that caused this trace is
simple. It is called “laziness,” something we
all face at some point in our day. This indi-
vidual knew that the container would not fit.
Rather than find another recycling can, the
individual seemed to have fled the scene. I
believe that this behavior occurred due to
the busy nature of our everyday lives. It can
just be easier to leave something somewhere
that it may (or may not) be recycled. As long
as we feel inside that we recycled (and did
the “right” thing), that is all that matters to
many individuals.
Two things could be done in order to prevent
this item from being stuck in the lid of the
recycling container. For one, the hole could
be widened, so that different types of plastic
containers would be able to fit through.
However, does this defeat the purpose of
only accepting bottles and cans? If so, this
leads us to the second option. In this case,
the circular holes in the lid could be made

square peg in the smaller so that only appropriately sized

bottles and cans are able to fit in the slots,
without any “wiggle room” to try other

wrong hole items. Overall, this trace says a lot about

basic human nature.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Lecture Hell
You know what’s weird? How in big lecture
halls seats nearest the back and closest to
the ends of the aisles are the most worn.
These seats have the most worn armrests,
seats, and floor tiles. It is difficult for me to
capture the subtle dulling or polish of wear
on plastic with a camera. Wooden seats
would show this the best.
The seats with the most wear are those that
are used the most. The seats on the aisle and
in the back are the seats chosen more often
than those in the middle. Therefore, these
seats are chosen first by students as they
enter the hall. This suggests that the seats
near the back and closest to the aisles are
preferred over the remaining seats. Why?
There are a few probable reasons for this
pattern of behavior. These seats are easier
to exit from, have one un-encroached side
allowing for an unshared armrest, an ability
to stretch out legs, place backpacks in the
aisle, and one less chance to sit near some-
one with imperfect personal hygiene. I think could be incentivized by making entranc- row where someone chose to occupy the
some will choose seats in the back for other es nearest the lecturer, or making the middle seat when both aisle and window
advantages. Namely, being closer to the exit seats closer to the front and middle more seats were empty. As with classroom seat-
and the benefit of blending in making it less desirable. Seats in the front and middle ing, this is likely caused by encroachment
likely to be called on. Additionally, there are could be designed to attract students on more than one side, sharing an armrest,
fewer people able to observe what you’re do- with their premium features. Possible having less legroom or something to lean
ing which may include texting, talking, doing features might include a wider seat, more against. Airlines put premium features
other homework, playing games, or sleeping. legroom, separate armrests, cup-holders, (wider seats, more legroom, individual
phone chargers, and cushions. armrests, alcohol) into their business
There have been studies showing that stu- and first class seating. At least one airline
dents sitting closer to the front do signifi- Could a value-based classroom seat-
charges more for a window seat even in
cantly better than students sitting near the ing redesign work? I think so. Similar
coach class seating.
back. This makes the seat choice of students value-based seat selection already exists
an issue that should be important to edu- in air travel. The most valued seats are on I think it’s time to redesign the classroom
cators and classroom designers in addition the aisle and the at window. I come that to improve the learning environment.
to lighting and acoustics. Seating choice conclusion because I have never seen a
TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Trails of
Laziness
In the photo, all the grass below the fence
line is dead. In all the other locations, the
grass is a brilliant and healthy looking green.
This photo was taken at a horse barn, which
has two men in charge of all of the horses’
needs and all of the property maintenance.
This trace is occurring because the area
below the fence has been sprayed by pes-
ticides. The men who work at the farm are
killing the grass in this location because it
cannot easily be reached by the lawnmower
and weed whacking all of the fence lines is
too time consuming.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

An appealing cabinet
You know what’s weird? I noticed several
of the most commonly used cabinets
in our kitchen have their plastic cover
coming off in the same spots. Notice the
brown areas in the photos below where
the plastic cover has broken away and the
plain wood is exposed. This is happening
to several other lower cabinets that aren’t
pictured as well, but I never thought
about why only some were affected.
Another interesting fact is that none of
the top drawers have the same issue
even though they get far more use. I just
thought it was terrible to ever use these
horrible, cheap door covers however I
never thought about the actual behavior
behind the wear pattern.
After only a few minutes of monitoring my
own behavior and watching my family,
I quickly noticed that although the door
handle is literally a few inches below the
top of the door everyone still grabbed the
top of the door where the cover and door
diverge. We seem to grab the door at the
corner where it is easiest to sing the door
open but avoid going the extra inch or
two down to use the handle.
As to why people do this, I noticed that
even though most of my family members
aren’t that tall, these doors are extreme-
ly low to the ground. It’s just easier to
grab the top of the door than to bend electricity, will often take the path of least door. What my takeaway is for this is that
even further to grab the handle. Also, resistance. The combination of the shape even a seemingly miniscule difference (a
the handle is a small, slick, odd shaped and distance from the ground are only few inches distance in this case) can lead
knob that isn’t the same shape or feel as moderately more work than just grabbing to completely different behavior than that
the top cabinets. I believe people, like the top of the door yet we still grab the which is desired.

These trays aren’t trash
You know what’s weird? Every day, I sit in
the same place for lunch in the Hub – second
floor, above Jamba Juice. Like hundreds
of others, I pick up my lunch from the first
floor food court and carry it upstairs on one
the grey trays (pictured) in search of more
seating. The result is this pile of abandoned
trays next to the trash sorting area, awk-
wardly balanced over the plastic recycling.
It’s a pretty obvious trace left behind by the
flow of people within the Hub.
It’s also kind of weird – when I noticed the
stack of trays, I first attributed it to laziness.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
People just weren’t putting their trays
in the “right place,” right? But when I
thought more about it, I realized the pile
of trays isn’t completely laziness. It also
reflects that there isn’t really a “right
place” designated for the trays.
In theory, they should go where they
came from, back to the food court – but
even if people were willing to walk back
downstairs, there’s no return place for
dirty trays. It’s also puzzling that there’s
no designated place for trays on the trash
collector.
I’ve seen people stack their trays slight-
ly better, in a small place (pictured, in
red) where they fit without covering the
recycling. But that spot doesn’t seem to
be intended for trays specifically, and it
definitely isn’t marked clearly.
I regularly see people take their trays over
to this area, carefully sort their trash, and
then stand there stumped: what to do with
the tray? In a way, this pile of trays is as
much a reflection of confusion as it is of
laziness.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

gator aid
You know what’s weird? The first thing you
see when entering a plant for a multi-bil-
lion-dollar valued company is a sign saying
“Do Not Feed The Alligators.” This physical
trace takes place in West Palm Beach plant. I
was recently hired for a summer internship,
and seeing this sign isn’t just a reality for me,
but for the other one and a half thousand
employees that work there.
There are multiple reasons for why this sign
is stationed near the entrance. The plant
was built in the middle of a nature preserve,
many miles away from the rest of civilization.
Many animals live in the areas of the plant,
moving closer to the buildings due to human
activity. People are quite curious and tend to
investigate things they haven’t seen before.
A lot of new hires at the company come from
outside the state, meaning it’s unlikely that
they have seen an alligator before. Those
that have lived in Florida likely feel
relatively comfortable around the animal,
as if it wasn’t twice their size and two to
three times their own weight with bone like they aren’t really doing any harm. They ing the plant from its environment. Some
crushing jaws. are just feeding some hungry animals, what chain fences do in fact exist, but they
can go wrong? Well, once they are fed, they aren’t enough to prevent alligator and hu-
This combination of curiosity and lack of a
will stay there longer. The alligators will ex- man interaction. The barriers need to be
sense of danger enables the alligators to be
pect to be given food by more people, and strengthened, and increased in number to
approached often. Once near the animal,
might actually start approaching employ- stop this feeding.
human compassion can take over. Like many
ees that work around the plant. The only
people in public parks feed birds, these em-
real way to prevent the feeding of alligators
ployees decide to feed the gators. They feel
is to have a proper physical barrier separat-
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
I am such a boring guy who is usually in a
trance, until once I find two spots on the
wall at back of door. The first is hard, bulging
out with two cracks at upper left and upper
right corner. The second is concave inside,
in which I can easily press in with my finger.
That should not be a case with a wall. It’s
not hard to guess that these spots are made
from door handle, by collision to the wall
strongly if one open’s door quick and hard.
However, by check with height of door
handle, it is shown that spot 2 correlates to
it. So where does #1 come from, and why it’s
concave outside?
The starting point is that it’s same caused by
door handle collision. But, as without same
height, the spot might be caused by ex-door.
During the repair timepoint, the worker filled
the spot with some material and covered
by paint, as the paint on spot 1 is same with
paint around, integrated. So, hypothesis is
the worker changed the door, filled spot, and
made new painting. To check out this issue, I
have an eye on the hinge.
The hinge on the wall is painted, but the
back side tells a different story: for 5 parts of
cylinder, the moving 3 is clean and stable 2 is
painted. So that makes sense: old door was
replaced, wall painted after spot filling with
saved hinge on wall and central cylinder,
fitted new door in with hinge on door and
knob to grab on cylinder “uncontaminated”.
It may not well explain why two cracks
exist as I lead it to human error, but every
data supports it. This maintenance may be
at long ago, because the new door left its
corresponding spot on the wall, until door
stopper spring came out and to be installed
to protect the wall. It’s hard to find out when

the case hinged on...

people begin to use stopper spring, but it
seems too perfect so far for me to propose
any intervention.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

You know whats weird? Garbage dumpsters

Double doors
have doors both on the side and on the top.
Why is that necessary; wouldn’t one door at
the top suffice? Wouldn’t having a door on
the side make the dumpster pretty underuti-
lized because you could only fill it as high as
the door on the side? Whenever I take out
the trash, I always close the side door, and
when I come to take out the trash the next
time, the door is open; so, I can conclude
that the side door is being used. But why?
Looking at the dumpster, I can see it is pretty
tall. For me, I can easily dump things through
the top, but for many others, they might not
be able to. This explains why there might be
some necessity for the side door.
But what about the issue of the dump-
ster not being able to be filled completely
because of the side door? It turns out,
the dumpster serves only our apartment
building, and our apartment building is very
small–only 10 apartments in total. Since the
trash is collected weekly, and there is such a
small pool of contributors to the dumpster,
we can deduce that it never actually gets
filled, so the issue of underutilization is a
non-issue. The necessity of the side door is
also highlighted by human nature. Humans
are lazy and careless. If there wasn’t a side
door, many who couldn’t easily reach the top
door would either probably make a big mess
trying to reach the top door, or simply just
dump the trash adjacent to the dumpster.
Whoever designed the dumpster took all of
these factors into consideration, and that is
why we have the side door.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You know what’s weird? Every time when
I pass by this Goodwill Store, there are
cardboard boxes always standing in front of
the store.
I always wondered why those boxes were
there. In this photo, as you can see, some-
one put a cardboard box on the parking lot
ground right in front of the store’s door.
Consequently, out of curiosity, I found out
that people left their boxes in front of the
door for some specific reasons.
But what is in the box?
So then I went inside the store and realized
that this store only sells second handed
items. I took a peek in the boxes and realized
that those are the items that people donated
to the store. The donors would drop off the
boxes outside of the store, then the workers
would carefully drag those boxes in when
they were available.
Before realizing this, I thought that the store
liked to keep useless boxes in front of their
doors. After figuring out the reason why that
happened, I thought it was a great idea to
open a store that sells second handed items,
because it will protect the environment since
the items are recyclable.

What’s in the box?

 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Do you know what is weird? At work I
noticed that my 17th hole tee deck was
un-square as compared to the other tees

Unsquare tee deck

on the golf course.
The workers at my course mow the tees
with walk behind mowers every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday. I was unsure as to
why this would be the case, because the tees
on holes 1 to 16 looked fine.
After some investigating, I found insight into
why the discrepancy we evident. There were
three factors I noticed contributing to this
finished product. The first factor was the tee
deck was not level and had many humps and
low spots which when mowing pulled the
mowers left and right. Secondly, this tee was
the last to be mown before lunch and many
times the operators were tired and rushing
to finish.
With these three factors combined, there
was little desire to keep the mower straight
and the operators were allowing the mower
to proceed on the path of least resistance.
The product was one tee deck, which looked
out of place.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
In the picture you can see an item that does
not seem to belong in the location that it is
in. If you cannot seem to find it, it’s the bag
of chips inside the bin of Gatorade near the
center of the photograph.
The human behavior that seems to have
caused this trace is probably caused by the
human trait of indecisiveness and laziness.
Now, this bag of chips is far from where all of
the other chips are located.
The cause of this behavior occurring here
seems to be that a customer may have been
standing in line to waiting to check out and
happened to decide at the last moment that
they no longer wanted to purchase the bag
of chips. The location for the bag of chips
were far away and they were ready to check
out so they placed the chips down nearby
the registers because they were too lazy to
go back to where the chips were located.
Then, they checked out their items and left.

All that and

a bag of chips
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
As you can see in the photo, the boxing glove
on the left has dimples in it and the one on
the right does not. These dimples are caused
by constant wear and the padding inside the
glove breaks down and can be seen through
the other side.
Because it is a boxing glove (worn on the
right hand), most people might assume
that the wearer of this glove would be right
handed and hit harder with this right glove,
thus showing more wear.
If you know enough about boxing and how
boxers fight however, you would know that
the wearer of these gloves is actually a
southpaw (lefty) and that a boxer punches
a lot more frequently (jabbing) with the
non-dominant hand.
After seeing that the right glove is much
more worn out, and knowing that a boxer
throws about five jab punches before they
throw with their dominant hand, you would
be able to decipher that it must have been a
lefty boxer who trained in these gloves.

boxer hands
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Me: Hey Katie (gym partner) you know what

is so weird and doesn’t make sense?

gym sense Katie: The fact that you sweat so much more
than I do?
Me: Well, yes, but no. Its so weird that peo-
ple come to the gym and workout in their
running or training shoes but they don’t
even bother to tie them!
Katie: Yeah oh my gosh that’s so true! I see
that happening all the time! That’s so dumb,
why do people do that?
Me: I have no idea, I mean you buy workout
shoes specifically to wear to the gym but
don’t bother to tie them. Maybe people are
lazy and don’t want to tie their shoes?
Katie: Maybe people want to look cool at the
gym so they keep their sneaks loose.
Me: That could be the reason. Although a
lot of times I notice it is with bigger guys at
the gym wearing a cut off and are only doing
bodybuilding. Maybe they don’t need them
tied because they are not going to run on the
treadmill.
Katie: Yeah because all those people do is sit
on a bench and do arm workouts!
Me: Maybe that is the reason behind why
they skip leg day! They don’t tie their shoes
so how could they squat?!
Katie: Yes most likely! “Hey bro, can’t squat
today, my shoes aren’t tied.”
Me: Maybe we should squat with our shoes
untied and show them up!

do nut take the stairs
My trace is something which was not
obvious at first but after some careful
watching and investigating it became
more clear. The trace which I first
thought was odd was just the beginning
to something great. This trace is that the
majority of traffic that this stairwell gets
is due to the fact that there is a Dunkin
Donuts across the street from this
stairwell. After an hour or so of watching
the people use the steps throughout
the day I have found that these steps
are primarily used by people who go to
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Dunkin Donuts. Through my observa-
tions, I found that in the mornings an
average of 20 people come up the steps
and only 3 people go down the steps. Of
those 20 people that come up the steps
15 have a Dunkin Donuts cup or bag.
Though the evening observation I found
that this number of incoming people
goes from 20 to 10 people, however there
seems to be an influx of 8 people coming
down the steps. Of the 10 people in the
evening 8 had Dunkin Donuts cup or bag.
I talked with some students who were
going down the steps and asked them why
they use these steps and they said that it is
easier to go to Dunkin Donuts and that they
go their in-between classes. So, to conclude
my trace started out as the inconsistency
of people coming up verses going down.
However, this turned out that a majority of
the traffic that this stairwell gets is traffic
from students, instructors, and employees
getting Dunkin Donuts either before going
into campus or getting their fill of coffee in
between classes.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Do You know what’s weird? That different
people parking their cars outside my street
happen to park in the same spots often

leave your car behind

enough to block the falling leaves which
in-turn form lines that outline the cars. This
is shown by the pattern of leaves on the
pavement in the picture.
The leaves outline where cars have been
parked. And throughout the flow of cars that
have come and gone on the street outside
my house. It seems that whether or not there
are other cars, people park in the same posi-
tions where others have parked.
I know it isn’t caused by individual cars
being there for an extended period of time
since long term storage is not permitted on
my street. I don’t believe it is because people
consciously or subconsciously follow the
lines. I believe that it is because people are
generally more comfortable with parking
their car a certain distance away from the
houses as well as the trees and signs that
line the road. People are less likely to park
with their door right next to a tree or sign,
and it seems that they usually park directly
in front of the house that they are going to.
There are limited options that fit these cri-
teria on my street so people park in similar
spots often enough to block the leaves that
are falling and create “parking spaces” on
the road. It is an interesting phenomenon
that one would usually not notice if they ar-
en’t able to watch the progression of leaves
falling over time. It is facilitated by a unique
set of circumstances where it happens to be
fall, and the trees above have many small
leaves that stick to the ground instead of
being blown away by the wind.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You know what’s weird? Everyday walking to
class I happen to step over this manhole cov-
er. Every day for the first half of the semester
I would step over it without thinking twice,
until I looked down.
As you can see from the picture the white
line that marks the edge of the road goes
right across the cover, but when you look to
the right you see the remains of an old white
line… this was strange to me, through rea-
soning I came to the conclusion that at one
point they took the cover off and when they
placed it on they didn’t orient it properly to
line up the old line.
I asked myself “why?” I realized there are
two possibilities for this behavior. First, the
person in charge of placing the cover noticed
this and thought it would be comical to spin
it, and I am sure it was until they repainted
the white line you see on the left.
The other possibility is what I truly think it
is, and that is pure laziness. Humans are, for
the most part, naturally lazy. We have the
ability to control this laziness but everybody
at some point in their life chooses to do
(or not do) something because it requires
an effort they are not willing to give. What
I assume happened here was they placed
the cover back over top of the hole, and
afterwards noticed that the lines didn’t
match. Instead of lifting it up and placing
it the proper way they figured it was good
enough. This is an example of humans being

white line fever

lazy. In conclusion, when we look around I
am sure we can see many example of human
laziness, this is just one that stood out to me.
It is, truly weird.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
What’s weird is that in the women’s restroom

right on....
at the second floor of the West Pattee Li-
brary, the hand soap of the right side usually
runs out first. Why are the things on the right
runs out much more quickly than others?
I usually use the middle sink among the
three and feel really inconvenient every time
the hand soap runs out on the right side, and
have to change my hand. And after several
times of the same experience, I start thinking
about the reason. I got a hypothesis that the
phenomenon happens as people use the
right sink will use the right hand soap, and
people use the left sink will use the left sink,
however, people use the middle sink will
prefer the right sink as well as a right-hand-
ed person. And if we assume that the
possibility of students using the three sinks
is the same, then this can indirectly prove
that there are more right-handed students
then left handed students at the second floor
of West Pattee. The similar thing happens
on the menus of the McAllister’s at the hub
during the busy lunch time.
Taking the insight into the phenomenon
is that when the behavior is taken place
for other purpose (Using the hand soap
for washing hands, picking up menus for
deciding what to eat), people tended to do it
without think and using the way that follows
their habit and is the most comfortable
and convenient way of finishing the action.
That’s why people usually choose the hand
soap on the right, and pick the menus that
are closest to them and to their right hands.
Therefore, an idea of using a larger load of
stuffs on the right side has come to my mind.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You know what I always found weird? In this

thou shall (not?) pass

photo, a door handle can be seen with the
keypad lock above it that allows someone
to gain access into the house. This is the
house that I live in and the keypad presented
a unique chance to showcase something
I, along with others, haven’t noticed until
recently. In both photos you may notice
wearing of certain numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
on the physical button, as well as the outer
layer that has a slight grey peeling to it.
What this shows is the numbers that are
constantly being used and the one of many
potential access codes behind it. I recent-
ly realized why this is occurring on those
numbers alone. It is because one out of the
four doors with keypad locks has a different
keypad, one with only the numbers 1-5 on
it, while the rest go up to nine. This made
me realize that whenever the lock changes
(approximately every four to six months)
the same numbers are used, but in different
order.
Thus, continues the wearing of the numbers
one through five until eventually there will
only be grey around the buttons and not a
single one of those numbers in sight. What
can be done? Adding a new keypad to the
single door that houses the old keypad could
fix the issue and unlock a world of new com-
bination of numbers and patterns that could
help prolong the use of those five numbers
in exchange for adding more combinations
of other numbers on the keypad.
Or, taking the easy way out you may just
want to repaint the keypad and make it look
brand new!
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You know what’s weird? I seem to be the

a drastic measure
only person in my house that knows how to
put a new roll of toilet paper on the toilet
paper dispenser. It never fails that, when I
go into the restroom, I find an empty toilet
paper roll with a new roll either mounted on
top of the dispenser or on the sink, directly
next to the toilet & within an arm’s reach of
the toilet paper dispenser. I am afraid I am
a complete failure as a husband and parent
for not successfully teaching my wife and
children that the toilet paper dispenser is
not also disposable but, can in fact, be used
over and over again by simply placing the
roll on to the removable horizontal bar and
reattaching said bar to the dispenser.
I truly wish I could understand this behavior
so it can be corrected. The negative conse-
quences are quite considerable. The new
toilet paper roll, placed on the edge of the
sink, inevitably gets wet and the entire roll
goes to waste. Even more tragic is when
the new roll, sitting atop of the dispenser,
happens to fall off, is not noticed lying on the
floor, and thus, a new roll is required which
is (more than likely) placed on the edge of
the sink where it will get wet because the roll
on the floor was found and placed on top of
the dispenser.
This leads me to conclude that replacing the
used toilet paper roll on the toilet paper dis-
penser is an action that they are too busy for.
My solution to this problem is to make the
toilet paper dispenser disposable. Instead
of going to the store and buying rolls of toilet
paper to mount on the dispenser, we instead
purchase the entire dispenser with the roll of
toilet paper already mounted.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Hey, you know what’s weird? A paper towel

dispenser right above a hand air dryer in
the bathroom. It looks like someone cannot
make up his or her mind. He or she just can-
not commit to one. What is even weirder is
that after people wash their hands, they take
a paper towel to dry their hands but also use
air dryer right after. It is overkill!
While we make a decent attempt to conserve
materials and do good for the environment,
we sometimes do things opposite to our
good intention. For example, there is a hand
air dryer in the bathroom near my office. But
right above the dryer, there is also a paper
towel dispenser. I know people use the air
dryer because I see water marks around the
air dryer and drips of water in a reservoir.
There is also a pile of paper towels in the
trash can that is about to overflow. I could
not help but wonder. I think we have two
different types of people, one who is envi-
ronmentally conscious, and the other prefers
convenience.
It did not seem too strange at first, but I
happened to see people who use both items
to dry her hands. This lady used the air dryer
and immediately reached for the paper
towel. It is almost like she initially tried to
be environmentally conscious by not using a
paper towel but soon realized the air did not
do the job completely. As a result, people are
harming the environment even more by us-
ing electricity unnecessarily before dispens-
ing a paper towel. How can I improve this? I

double trouble suggest emptying the paper towel dispenser.

 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

snowbound
You know what’s weird? Along the sides of
the road near my apartment there are large
piles of snow and ice. What’s particularly
weird about it is that they are at seeming-
ly random places throughout the entire
neighborhood AND in the centers of the
parking spaces. My question is why they are
not shoveled with the rest of the road and
why they appear in the center of the parking
spaces.
Whenever there is more than 2 inches of
snow people aren’t allowed to park on the
streets and will be towed to make room for
plows, so theoretically these streets should
be plowed exactly the same as other roads
– which don’t have snow piles in random
locations. Since these are township roads,
they should be plowed the same.
After some investigation, I think I found
out why this occurs. I drove around the
neighborhood and found a car still enclosed al push to get residents who park on the
I propose a combination of three mea-
in snow (and ticketed). It makes sense that street to move their vehicle to the parking
sures: more aggressive snow ticket regula-
the large piles of snow trace back to cars that lot, and that’s where more aggressive snow
tion, online guest passes, and salting any
don’t move. After the car finally moves and ticket fees come in.
snow piles. My apartment complex utilizes
the plow comes by during the next snow,
residence parking behind the buildings Finally, since this issue stems from people
the snow plow has two choices: plow the big
which is not affected by snow; any guests who are negligent of the parking regula-
mound of snow and ice and push it down
parked on the roads have to get a guest tions, I argue there should be measures
the road and onto the sidewalks, or compact
pass (available from 9-5). Allowing guest in place to remove snow piles that do end
it. I believe the rational is that compacting
passes to be registered online should up forming. The best way to remove these
the snow is just easier for everybody. While
make it much more available for people piles of snow and ice would be by salting
doing so removes a parking space, there is
who may come over in the evening. How- them. The salt can be purchased with the
almost always street parking available.
ever, there will still need to be an addition- increased fees.
 TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed the

different wear levels present on the carpet
that lines the floor of the office I work in. We
manufacture products with a fleet of CNC
routers that are programmed in house. After
examining the office, I saw that the most
worn and dirty part of our carpet is the trail
leading into our programmer’s office space.
As the quality of our products relies heavily
on our programmer’s accuracy within his
programs, and the often need to update
and change these, there is always a steady
stream of machine technicians flowing into
his office throughout the day. It is also worth
noting that due to the nature of their job,
the machine techs always have dirtier shoes
then other workers in the office, such as
salespeople and HR managers.
After watching over 90% of foot traffic in our
large office all go towards this singular office,
I have determined that our programmer
holds one of the most important positions
within our company. He holds the respon-
sibility for ensuring our quality control and
deadlines are met and works as an inter-
mediary between the machine techs and
management for issues that arise.
A fantastic deterrent for this would be to
relocate the programming office into the
same area of the building that contains the
CNC machines. The concrete floors and
closer proximity would allow for less
frequent visits and less impact on the floor
surface from the traffic.

who’s the boss?