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Grandma’s Chicken Soup

Nebraska

WRITTEN BY Kalani Simpson PUBLISHED May 25, 2021

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 5- to 6-pound stewing hen or baking chicken
  • 1 package of chicken wings
  • 3 large onions
  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 3 parsnips
  • 2 turnips
  • 11 to 12 large carrots
  • 5 to 6 celery stems
  • 1 bunch of parsley
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Clean the chicken, put it in a large pot and cover it with cold water. Bring the water to boil.
  2. Add the chicken wings, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips and carrots. Boil about 1 and a half hours. Remove fat from the surface as it accumulates.
  3. Add the parsley and celery. Cook the mixture about 45 min. longer.
  4. Remove the chicken. The chicken is not used further for the soup. (The meat makes excellent chicken parmesan.)
  5. Put the vegetables in a food processor until they are chopped fine or pass through a strainer. Both were performed in the present study.
  6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

(Note: This soup freezes well.)  Matzo balls were prepared according to the recipe on the back of the box of matzo meal (Manischewitz).

PRINT Recipe

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Fenestration

The oldest door still in use in Pantheon (115 A.D.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“No work of art can be great,

if it is not composed of the smallest things.”

— Vitruvius  (Book VII, Chapter 9)

 

Today we sweep through standards action in building glazing, entrances and means of egress.  The word fenestration (Latin: fenestra) has become a term of art for the design, construction, and placement of openings in a building, including windows, doors, skylights, and other glazed elements.  While the word has sparse use in the International Code Council and National Fire Protection Association catalog it is widely used by the Construction Specifications Institute in its MasterFormat system for organizing construction standards, guidelines and building contracts.

The percentage of a building envelope “skin” that is comprised of doors and windows varies depending on the specific building design, function, and location. However, a commonly cited range is between 15% to 25% of the total building envelope.  The actual percentage will depend on several factors such as the building’s purpose, orientation, local climate, and energy performance goals. Buildings that require more natural light or ventilation, such as schools, hospitals, and offices, may have a higher percentage of windows and doors in their envelope. In contrast, buildings with lower lighting and ventilation requirements, such as warehouses, may have a smaller percentage of windows and doors.

Fenestration presents elevated risk to facility managers.  The education facility industry is a large target and a pattern of settling out of court.   For example:

  • In 2013, a former student at Yale University sued the school over a broken window in her dorm room. The student alleged that the university was negligent in failing to repair the window, which allowed a burglar to enter her room and sexually assault her. The case was settled out of court in 2015 for an undisclosed amount.
  • In 2019, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles sued the school over a broken window in her apartment. The student alleged that the university was negligent in failing to repair the window, which allowed a swarm of bees to enter her apartment and sting her. The case was settled out of court for $4.5 million.
  • In 2020, a group of students at Harvard University sued the school over its decision to require them to move out of their dorms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The students alleged that the university breached its contract with them by failing to provide suitable alternative housing, including functioning windows and doors.  (The case is ongoing; best we can tell as of the date of this post).

These cases illustrate that colleges and universities can face legal action related to doors and windows, either due to alleged negligence in maintaining or repairing them, or due to issues related to student housing and accommodations.

Our inquiry breaks down into two modules at the moment:

Exterior facing fenestration

Interior window walls and doors

Join us online at the usual time.

door (n.)

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Related:

Means of Egress

Life Safety Code

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Kitemark testing services for windows and doors

Eurocodes

Quadrivium: Spring

United States Patent and Trademark Office: News and Updates

Lake Superior State University | Sault Saint Marie Michigan

American National Standards Institute: Standards Action

International Electrotechnical Commission

International Organization for Standardization

International Telecommunication Union

More LIVE Campus Cameras

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

Spring Week 16 | April 15- April 21

Standards April: Libraries

We sweep through the world’s three major time zones; updating our understanding of the literature at the technical foundation of education community safety and sustainability in those time zones 24 times per day. We generally eschew “over-coding” web pages to sustain speed, revision cadence and richness of content as peak priority.  We do not provide a search facility because of copyrights of publishers and time sensitivity of almost everything we do.

Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Study of Mind

Our daily colloquia are typically doing sessions; with non-USA titles receiving priority until 16:00 UTC and all other titles thereafter.  We assume policy objectives are established (Safer-Simpler-Lower-Cost, Longer-Lasting).   Because we necessarily get into the weeds, and because much of the content is time-sensitive and copyright protected, we usually schedule a separate time slot to hammer on technical specifics so that our response to consultations are meaningful and contribute to the goals of the standards developing organization and to the goals of stewards of education community real assets.

1. Leviathan.  We track noteworthy legislative proposals in the United States 118th Congress.  Not many deal specifically with education community real assets since the relevant legislation is already under administrative control of various Executive Branch Departments such as the Department of Education.

We do not advocate in legislative activity at any level.   We respond to public consultations but there it ends.

We track federal legislative action because it provides a stroboscopic view of the moment — the “national conversation”– in communities that are simultaneously a business and a culture.  Even though more than 90 percent of such proposals are at the mercy of the party leadership the process does enlighten the strengths and weakness of a governance system run entirely through the counties on the periphery of Washington D.C.  It is impossible to solve technical problems in facilities without sensitivity to the zietgeist that has accelerated in education communities everywhere.

Department of Energy

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Federal Aviation Administration

Aviation Maintenance Technician Schools | Consultation closes April 14, 2023

Science & Technology Policy Office

Request for Information; NSPM 33 Research Security Programs Standard Requirement | Consultation closes June 5, 2023

 

North Dakota

We typically post one federal and one state level consultation or action every day for at least one of the 50-states — in the lower right corner of our home page when most education communities in the United States have begun a new work day.  Examples, irregularly linked:

U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security: Public consultation on US standards system rule (November 8)

2.  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Post-Quantum Cryptography Practice Guide (June 8)

Public Consultation on Semiconductor Manufacturing (November 28)

NIST Awards Funding to 5 Universities to Advance Standards Education

NIST Center for Neutron Research: 2022 Outstanding Student Poster Presentation

Commerce Levels Playing Field to Support U.S. Stakeholder Participation in International Standards Setting Activities

NIST Report Outlines Strategic Opportunities for U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing

Occupational exposure and indoor environmental quality evaluation from operating multiple desktop 3D printers in an office environment within a library.

3.  ANSI ISO Business  (Many of these projects are normally covered during our Hello World! colloquia

ANSI April 2023 Public Policy Update

ANSI January Report 2023 on ISO, IEC & ITU Work Items

ISO Standardization Foresight Framework | Trend Report 2022

New ISO Subcommittee ISO/TC 197/SC 1 – Hydrogen at Scale and Horizontal Energy Systems

New ISO Subcommittee ISO/TC 67/SC 10 – Enhanced oil recovery

Update: Certification+Degree (C+D) pathways in information technology (IT) and health sciences.

2023 Student Paper Competition Theme: Standards Supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  Submissions due 2 June 2023

Standards Coordination Office | USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point 

USNC/IEC

Consultations (Some posted with IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee) | Direct access to primary workspace

4. Fast Forward  

Looking Ahead: 2024

5. Rewind

Retrodiction

Lights Out

6. Corrigenda

International Standardization Organization Week Date

 

Readings

Glossary: Education

The College Idea: Andrew Delbanco

Guide to Premises Security

Library of Alexandria

NFPA 730 Guide to Premise Security guide describes construction, protection, occupancy features, and practices intended to reduce security vulnerabilities to life and property.  Related document — NFPA 731 Standard for the Installation of Electronic Premises Security Systems covers the application, location, installation, performance, testing, and maintenance of electronic premises security systems and their components.

The original University of Michigan standards advocacy enterprise (see ABOUT) began following the evolution of NFPA 730 and NFPA 731 since the 2008 Edition.   That enterprise began a collaboration  with trade associations and subject matter experts from other universities (notably Georgetown University and Evergreen State University) to advocate user-interest concepts in the 2011 edition.    A summary of advocacy action is summarized in the links below:

in the appeared in a trade association journal Facilities Manager:

APPA Code Talkers Anthony Davis Facility Manager May June 2011

An online presentation by Michael C. Peele (Georgetown University) — one of the voting members of NFPA 730 and NFPA 731 technical committees– was recorded and is linked below.

FREE ACCESS: 2023 Guide for Premises Security

FREE ACCESS: 2018 NFPA 730 Guide to Premise Security

Public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 Edition will be received until January 3, 2025.  You may key in your own ideas by clicking in to our user-interest Public Consultation Meeting Point or by communicating directly with the NFPA.

This title remains on the standing agenda of our Security colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Energy Standard for *Sites* and Buildings

ANSI Standards Action Weekly Edition

 

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is an ANSI-accredited continuous-maintenance standards developer (a major contributor to what we call a regulatory product development “stream”).   Continuous maintenance means that changes to its consensus products can change in as little as 30 days so it is wise to keep pace.

Among the leading titles in its catalog is ASHRAE 90.1 Energy Standard for Sites and Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.  Standard 90.1 has been a benchmark for commercial building energy codes in the United States and a key basis for codes and standards around the world for more than 35 years.  Free access to ASHRAE 90.1 version is available at the link below:

READ ONLY Version of 2022 ASHRAE 90.1

Redlines are released at a fairly brisk pace — with 30 to 45 day consultation periods.  A related title — ASHRAE 189.1 Standard for the Design of High Performance Green Buildings — first published in 2009 and far more prescriptive in its scope heavily  references parent title 90.1 so we usually them as a pair because 189.1 makes a market for green building conformance enterprises. Note the “extreme prescriptiveness” (our term of art) in 189.1 which has the practical effect of legislating engineering judgement, in our view.

25 January 2023: Newly Released ASHRAE 90.1-2022 Includes Expanded Scope For Building Sites

ASHRAE committees post their redlines at the link below:

Online Standards Actions & Public Review Drafts

At least two energy/building enclosure related redlines are open for consultation through May 27th.  

Education industry facility managers, energy conservation workgroups, sustainability officers, electric shop foreman, electricians and front-line maintenance professionals who change lighting fixtures, maintain environmental air systems are encouraged to participate directly in the ASHRAE consensus standard development process.

We also maintain ASHRAE best practice titles as standing items on our Mechanical, Water, Energy and Illumination colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Mechanical, Electrical, Energy Conservation, Facility Asset Management, US Department of Energy, #SmartCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Larry Spielvogel, Richard Robben

Under Construction:  ASHRAE WORKSPACE

More

The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics. - Bertrand Russell

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2019: Energy Standard For Buildings

ARCHIVE 2002-2016 / ASHRAE 90.1 ENERGY STANDARD FOR BUILDINGS

US Department of Energy Building Energy Codes Program

ASHRAE Guideline 0 The Commissioning Process

Why Software is Eating the World

Recently in Washington D.C.

“Bureaucracy” 1842| Honoré de Balzac

“Self Reliance” 1841 | Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ædificare

S. 3952 Fast Track To and Through College

Open Commission Meeting

Electrical Resource Adequacy

 

Design Standard Readability

Fry readability formula

How Consistent Are the Best-Known Readability Equations in Estimating the Readability of Design Standards?

Shixiang Zhou & Heejin Jeong
Industrial and Operations Engineering Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Transportation Research Institute Driver Interface Group
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

 

Abstract.  Research problem: Readability equations are widely used to compute how well readers will be able to understand written materials. Those equations were usually developed for nontechnical materials, namely, textbooks for elementary, middle, and high schools. This study examines to what extent computerized readability predictions are consistent for highly technical material – selected Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and International Standards Organization (ISO) Recommended Practices and Standards relating to driver interfaces. Literature review: A review of original sources of readability equations revealed a lack of specific criteria in counting various punctuation and text elements, leading to inconsistent readability scores. Few studies on the reliability of readability equations have identified this problem, and even fewer have systematically investigated the extent of the problem and the reasons why it occurs.  Research questions:

(1) Do the most commonly used equations give identical readability scores?
(2) How do the scores for each readability equation vary with readability tools?
(3) If there are differences between readability tools, why do they occur?
(4) How does the score vary with the length of passage examined?

Method: Passages of varying lengths from 12 selected SAE and ISO Recommended Practices and Standards were examined using five readability equations (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, SMOG Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index) implemented five ways (four online readability tools and Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows). In addition, short test passages of text were used to understand how different readability tools counted text elements, such as words and sentences. Results and conclusions: The mean readability scores of the passages from those 12 SAE and ISO Recommended Practices and Standards ranged from the 10th grade reading level to about 15th. The mean grade reading levels computed across the websites were: Flesch-Kincaid 12.8, Gunning Fog 15.1 SMOG 12.6, Coleman-Liau 13.7, and Automated Readability Index 12.3. Readability score estimates became more consistent as the length of the passage examined increased, with no noteworthy improvements beyond 900 words. Among the five readability tools, scores typically differed by two grade levels, but the scores should have been the same. These differences were due to how compound and hyphenated words, slashes, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms, and URLs were counted, as well other punctuation and text elements. These differences occurred because the sources for these equations often did not specify how to score various punctuation and text elements. Of the tools examined, the authors recommend Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows if the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is required.

 

Asparagus Quiche

Facilities Services | The University of Tennessee Knoxville

Standards Tennessee

Tennessee

Related:

Asparagus Officinalis

 

Rain & Lightning

After the rain. Personal photograph taken by Mike Anthony biking with his niece in Wirdum, The Netherlands

Today at 15:00 UTC we examine the technical literature about rainwater management in schools, colleges and universities — underfoot and on the roof.  Lightning protection standards will also be reviewed; given the exposure of outdoor athletic activity and exterior luminaires.

We draw from previous standardization work in titles involving water, roofing systems and flood management — i.e. a cross-cutting view of the relevant standard developer catalogs.   Among them:

American Society of Civil Engineers

American Society of Plumbing Engineers

ASHRAE International

ASTM International

Construction Specifications Institute (Division 7 Thermal and Moisture Protection)

Federal Emergency Management Agency

FM Global

IAPMO Group (Mechanical and Plumbing codes)

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

Heat Tracing Standards

International Code Council

Chapter 15 Roof Assemblies and Rooftop Structures

Why, When, What and Where Lightning Protection is Required

National Fire Protection Association

National Electrical Code: Article 250.16 Lightning Protection Systems

Lightning Protection

Underwriters Laboratories: Lightning Protection

United States Department of Agriculture: Storm Rainfall Depth and Distribution

Risk Assessment of Rooftop-Mounted Solar PV Systems

Readings: The “30-30” Rule for Outdoor Athletic Events Lightning Hazard

As always, our daily colloquia are open to everyone.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

“Rainbow Connection”

The “lightning effect” seen in carnival tricks typically relies on a scientific principle known as the Lichtenberg figure or Lichtenberg figure. This phenomenon occurs when a high-voltage electrical discharge passes through an insulating material, such as wood or acrylic, leaving behind branching patterns resembling lightning bolts.

The process involves the creation of a temporary electric field within the material, which polarizes its molecules. As the discharge propagates through the material, it causes localized breakdowns, creating branching paths along the way. These branching patterns are the characteristic Lichtenberg figures.

In the carnival trick, a high-voltage generator is used to create an electrical discharge on a piece of insulating material, such as acrylic. When a person touches the material or a conductive object placed on it, the discharge follows the path of least resistance, leaving behind the branching patterns. This effect is often used for entertainment purposes due to its visually striking appearance, resembling miniature lightning bolts frozen in the material. However, it’s crucial to handle such demonstrations with caution due to the potential hazards associated with high-voltage electricity.

 

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