Technician - October 30, 2012

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TECHNICIAN          

tuesday october

30 2012

Raleigh, North Carolina

technicianonline.com

Campus blood drive continues, despite Sandy Alex Petercuskie Staff Writer

laxing the restrictions, Hallam said. “[There has been] a lot of debate and pushback from the restaurant industry over competition, [but] I think encouraging business competition is good,” Hallam said. Erik Mattox, who manages a Hibachi Xpress food truck, agrees that a relaxation of the food truck restrictions would be a positive change for the city. “[Food trucks offer] a different variety of food for everybody,” Mattox said. “I’m sure people don’t want to have to drive to McDonald’s every day.” Mattox said he does not believe that the proposed changes would hurt restaurants because food

Blood donors on campus today may have immediate impact on lives as Hurricane Sandy ravages the northeastern United States, home to more than 50 million people. In a new Homecoming event, the American Red Cross is encouraging N.C. State students, staff and faculty to donate blood in Talley Student Center from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The first 250 people to donate blood will receive a free pint of Howling Cow ice cream in the drive that has been dubbed “Give a Pint, Get a Pint” – but the hurricane is giving students added incentive to give. According to the Red Cross, Hurricane Sandy has caused the cancellation of roughly 100 Red Cross blood drives in 11 states along the East Coast, resulting in a loss of more than 3,200 units of blood and platelets. People in locations unaffected by the hurricane, such as those like N.C. State’s campus, could help people already in need of blood, as well as help ease the potential demand increases caused by the storm. Every day in the United States approximately 44,000 blood donations are needed to aid accident victims, cancer patients and children affected by blood disorders, according to the Red Cross. Platelets have a shelf-life of five days, and the Red Cross is encouraging people in safe regions to donate blood in order to offset the shortage caused by the hurricane. Every year N.C. State hosts various events in honor of

TRUCK continued page 3

BLOOD continued page 2

VANESSA MOVASSEGHI/TECHNICIAN

Tad Castellow, an Only Burger employee, takes orders from hungry customers lined up outside the Venture buildings on Main Campus Drive on Wednesday, Jan 11 (Left). Only Burger food truck turns out juicy burgers and hot fries to Centennial Campus customers. The three employees in the truck hustle to get the large orders of food out in a short amount of time. (Top Right). An Only Burger food truck worker puts the toppings and condiments on burgers before wrapping them up to give to customers. (Bottom Right).

Food truck zone expansions undecided Sara Awad Staff Writer

Proposed changes in food truck regulations were discussed at a joint Raleigh City Council and City Planning Commission hearing earlier this month. These changes would change the zoning laws affecting food truck placement to allow more of them to operate around campus. The Planning Commission will review the comments in a Nov. 20 hearing. The proposed ordinance would allow food trucks to enter the Downtown Overlay District as well as increase the number of food trucks allowed on any one lot. If the ordinance passes, at most two food trucks would be permitted on lots of half an acre or less, three on

lots with areas between half an acre and one acre of land, and four on lots between one and two acres. No maximum would be placed on food trucks for lots that exceed two acres. City of Raleigh Planning Manager Greg Hallam said the comments at the hearing were very positive, although the Downtown Raleigh Alliance was not present at the hearing to weigh in on the changes. According to a six-month study performed by the Raleigh Department of City Planning, permits have been granted to 18 food truck operators and 11 locations from October 2011 to April of this year. There had been only one documented violation in the six months of the study, in which a food truck operator had not received a license to operate, Hallam said.

Professor tracks opinions on twitter

insidetechnician

Elizabeth Moomey Staff Writer

Alum’s short film recognized internationally See page 3.

Stream a scream this Halloween See page 5.

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October 2011 was the first time that food trucks were permitted to operate on public property in Raleigh, according to Hallam. Before, food trucks only had access to street fairs and festivals. When allowing food trucks on public property, Hallam said, the Raleigh City Council remained conservative in regulations and used the first months of the introduction as a trial run. The study then allowed the council to discover any flaws in the original ordinance and see if any changes needed to be made, Hallam said. In the report, Raleigh Police Department’s Sgt. Joseph Perry said no complaints have been filed thus far by the public and local businesses. Information like this has allowed Raleigh City Council to consider re-

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An N.C. State research group used new software to track opinions in real time on Twitter during the presidential debates. Christopher Healey, an associate professor in computer science, developed the system with graduate students Adam Marrs and Siddarth Ramaswamy. They tracked the presidential debates using two graphs. One graph showed the number of tweets in a certain time frame, and the second displayed the tweets’ sentiments between two topics. Healey worked with WRAL to cover a total of six debates, including the gubernatorial debate, and will work with them during the election. “WRAL has the ability to easily support the system,” Healey said of how the collaboration came together. WR AL likes this method, Healey said, because Twitter has a diverse user population that in-

cludes different ethnic groups and users 65 years and older. It is also similar to a dial test, which asks participants to twist a dial based on positive or negative opinions about what a candidate is saying, but with more participants. Ramaswamy came up with the idea in his Master’s thesis. Marrs and he began making the idea a reality about a month and a half ago. Healey took on the idea as a means of showcasing his field. “We want to show people what we do in computer science for the general public in a way that is of interest,” Healey said. Marrs received access from Twitter for a live stream of tweets that allowed them to stream 300,000 tweets on the nights of the debates. In the latest presidential debate, Healey and his team measured what stuck with viewers and what they thought about different topics. For instance, President Barack Obama achieved internet fame during a debate when he responded to

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“Castle in the Sky” TV Screeening 25,088 #tweets per second

WKNC 88.1 FM @wknc881

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Super Bowl XLVI Last Minutes 10,245 #tweets per second

Nubian Message @NUBIANMESSAGE

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Madonna at the Super Bowl 10,245 #tweets per second

Agromeck @Agromeck

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#Top3 moments in twitter history

TWITTER continued page 3

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