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How to teach standards to students

Standards impact industrial growth

CEN and CENELEC Strategy 2030

The Pilgrims and Modern England: A Repeating Cycle

The Pilgrims—English Separatists who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620—left not solely for religious freedom, though persecution under James I was real. Fined, imprisoned, or driven from homes for rejecting the Church of England’s enforced conformity, they first fled to tolerant Holland. Yet by 1620 economic realities dominated: low-wage factory toil in Leiden aged their children prematurely, Dutch culture eroded their English identity and faith, and they craved land, self-sufficiency, and a stable society free of Old World constraints. England’s 17th-century pressures—population growth, land scarcity, rigid class structures, and state religious control—made daily life untenable. They sought a “new” England across the Atlantic.

Those same pressures have re-emerged in 21st-century England, imported through decades of high-volume immigration, much of it from Third World countries (non-EU Asia, Africa, Middle East). Net migration peaked at 944,000 in 2023 before falling to 204,000 by mid-2025, still historically elevated and overwhelmingly non-European. Unlike earlier skilled or culturally proximate inflows, recent waves include large asylum, family, and low-skilled cohorts whose origins feature high fertility, clan-based social norms, weak institutions, and often Islamist or tribal worldviews incompatible with Britain’s secular, liberal order.

Socially, the parallel is stark. Just as state religion once policed belief, today multiculturalism policies have fostered parallel societies. Enclaves exhibit grooming scandals, honor-based violence, FGM, Sharia patrols, and Islamist extremism—phenomena alien to historic English norms yet tolerated under “diversity” doctrines. Native Britons in cities like London, Birmingham, or Oldham report feeling culturally displaced, their children minorities in schools, Christmas sidelined, and free speech chilled by blasphemy sensitivities. Social trust has eroded; riots in 2024 exposed fractures. The Pilgrims feared Dutch assimilation erasing their identity; modern natives fear imported identities erasing theirs. Integration failures are empirical: certain groups show persistently lower employment, higher welfare dependency, and segregated outcomes decades later.

Economically, rapid population growth—driven almost entirely by immigration—mirrors 17th-century land and resource strains. Housing shortages have worsened; a 1% population rise from migration correlates with 1% higher house prices, pricing out young natives. NHS waiting lists balloon, schools overflow, and welfare costs mount for low-skilled arrivals and their larger families. Fiscal analyses show negative lifetime net contributions from asylum/refugee routes due to low employment and high inactivity. Low-wage competition depresses pay in care, retail, and construction. The welfare state, absent in Pilgrim times, now subsidizes dependency that 17th-century England’s poor laws could not sustain at scale. Britain’s per-capita GDP growth lags while aggregate GDP is artificially inflated—echoing the Pilgrims’ frustration with toil yielding no security.

Uncontrolled Third World inflows re-assert these conditions because the source societies export their unsolved problems—poverty traps, religious authoritarianism, demographic momentum—into a high-trust, high-welfare host society lacking assimilation enforcement. Post-war policy abandoned selective, small-scale migration for volume and “compassion,” ignoring cultural distance and labor-market fit. The result: natives face the very intolerance, economic precarity, and cultural erosion the Pilgrims fled. England has, in effect, recreated the Old World it once escaped—only this time the pressures arrive by jet and dinghy rather than royal decree. Without course correction toward skills, numbers, and integration, the cycle repeats.

King’s College Chapel

English for Technical Professionals

IEEE English for Technical Professionals is a 14-hour online learning program designed to provide non-native English speakers with a working knowledge of English techniques and vocabulary that are essential for working in today’s technical workplace.

 

IEEE English for Technical Professionals

“It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts: and if this be just in what is odious and blameable, it is more strongly so in what is amiable and praiseworthy. Here emulation most effectually operates upon us, and inspires our imitation in an irresistible manner. A good man therefore is a standing lesson to all his acquaintance, and of far greater use in that narrow circle than a good book.

But as it often happens that the best men are but little known, and consequently cannot extend the usefulness of their examples a great way; the writer may be called in aid to spread their history farther, and to present the amiable pictures to those who have not the happiness of knowing the originals; and so, by communicating such valuable patterns to the world, he may perhaps do a more extensive service to mankind than the person whose life originally afforded the pattern…”

— Henry Fielding “The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham” (1742)

 

Electropedia: The World’s Online Electrotechnical Vocabulary

Standards January: Language

History of the English Speaking Peoples

Michigan Central

Since so much of what we do in standards setting is built upon a foundation of a shared understanding and agreement of the meaning of words (no less so than in technical standard setting) that time is well spent reflecting upon the origin of the nouns and verbs of that we use every day.   Best practice cannot be discovered, much less promulgated, without its understanding secured with common language.

Word Counts

2024 Alumni Awards

Cambridge: English language education in the era of generative AI

Endowment Standards

Marquee US universities like Stanford, Vanderbilt, Duke, Carnegie Mellon and others were built upon industrial fortunes. The pattern continues to this day because of the scale of recent personal private sector wealth and reduced government support.
Today at the usual hour we update our past coverage with a question about how long the build-out of higher education settlements that depend F-1 income can continue.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Schenkingen

The Case Against Income Tax Exemption for Nonprofits

Tax-Free Bonds

Carnegie Classifications

Capitalization Guidelines

 

Relata:

Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act

Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Guidelines: Topic 958

NACUBO Commonfund Study of Endowments

World Soil Museum

Nederland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The World Soil Museum hosts a range of educational programs and workshops for students, researchers, and other visitors who are interested in learning more about soil science. These programs cover topics such as soil classification, soil management, and soil conservation, and they are designed to help people understand the vital role that soils play in supporting agriculture, ecosystems, and human societies around the world.

 

Getting to Know Your Soil

Earth Energy Systems

Geothermal systems cool buildings by leveraging the stable temperatures found beneath the Earth’s surface. A geothermal heat pump system consists of a ground loop, heat exchanger, and distribution system.

In cooling mode, the system extracts heat from the building and transfers it to the ground. The ground loop, typically composed of pipes buried horizontally or vertically, circulates a fluid that absorbs heat from the building’s interior. The fluid, warmed by this process, is then pumped through the ground loop where the Earth’s cooler temperatures absorb the heat, effectively dissipating it into the ground.

The cooled fluid returns to the heat pump, which distributes the now-cooler air throughout the building via the distribution system, such as ductwork. This process is highly efficient because the ground maintains a relatively constant temperature year-round, allowing the geothermal system to operate with less energy compared to traditional air-source cooling methods.

At the moment, though the technology has been made practical since Prince Piero Ginori Conti’s discovery in 1904, and has since tracked well in local building codes and environmental regulations, the bibliography for earth energy systems is nascent and relatively thin.  One trade association is emerging from the gathering pace of applications and case studies: Closed-Loop/Geothermal Heat Pump Systems Design and Installation Standards

We maintain the IGSHPA catalog on the standing agenda of our Energy, Mechanical and Air Conditioning colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Partial Bibliography:

Handbook of Best Practices for Geothermal Drilling

Best Practices for Designing Geothermal Systems

Geothermal Direct Use Engineering and Design Guidebook

International Standards

ISO 13612-1:2014 – Heating and cooling systems in buildings — Method for calculation of the system performance and system design for heat pump systems — Part 1: Design and dimensioning.

    • This standard covers the design and performance calculation of geothermal heat pump systems.

ISO 14823:2017 – Intelligent transport systems — Graphic data dictionary.

    • While not specific to geothermal, this standard includes data relevant to various systems, including geothermal energy systems.

ISO 52000-1:2017 – Energy performance of buildings — Overarching EPB assessment — Part 1: General framework and procedures.

    • This standard provides a general framework for assessing the energy performance of buildings, which includes geothermal systems.

IEC 61753-111-7:2014 – Fibre optic interconnecting devices and passive components – Performance standard – Part 111-7: Sealed closures for category S – Subterranean environments.

    • Relevant for the installation of geothermal systems that include fiber optic components in subterranean environments.

North American  Standards

CSA C448: Design and installation of earth energy systems.

ANSI/CSA C448 Series-16 – Design and Installation of Earth Energy Systems.

    • This standard covers the design and installation of geothermal heat pump systems in the United States, providing guidelines on installation practices, materials, and system performance.

ASHRAE Standard 90.1 – Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

    • This standard sets the minimum energy efficiency requirements for the design and construction of buildings, including the installation of geothermal systems.

IGSHPA Standards – International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) Standards.

    • The IGSHPA develops standards for the design and installation of geothermal heat pump systems, with a focus on closed-loop systems.

NFPA 54 – National Fuel Gas Code.

    • Although primarily focused on fuel gas systems, this standard may intersect with geothermal systems when they involve hybrid solutions that include gas heating.

EPA Standards for Geothermal Energy (40 CFR Part 144) – Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program.

    • This standard regulates the injection of fluids into underground wells, relevant for geothermal systems that involve deep wells for heat exchange.

UL 1995 – Heating and Cooling Equipment.

    • This standard applies to the safety of heating and cooling equipment, including geothermal heat pumps.

“Neptune’s Horses” 1919 | Walter Crane

Jack Kilby

Who Invented the Integrated Circuit?

Jack Kilby is credited with inventing the integrated circuit.

In 1958, while at Texas Instruments, Kilby created the first working integrated circuit — a germanium device that combined a transistor, resistor, and capacitor on a single semiconductor chip. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for this achievement.

Robert Noyce (at Fairchild Semiconductor) independently developed a more practical silicon-based version in 1959 using the planar process. His design became the foundation for modern microchips.

Both are recognized as co-inventors of the integrated circuit:

  • Kilby — concept and first demonstration
  • Noyce — practical, manufacturable version

Their invention revolutionized electronics and enabled the entire digital age.

Jack Kilby is primarily credited with inventing the integrated circuit (IC).Key Details:In 1958, while working at Texas Instruments, Kilby developed the first working integrated circuit. It was a germanium-based device that combined multiple electronic components (transistor, resistor, capacitor) on a single piece of semiconductor material.
He demonstrated it in 1959 and received a U.S. patent for it.
For this achievement, Jack Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000.

Important Note on Co-Inventor:Robert Noyce (at Fairchild Semiconductor) independently developed a more practical silicon-based integrated circuit in 1959 using the planar process. His version became the foundation for modern IC manufacturing. Noyce co-founded Intel Corporation.Both men are widely recognized as co-inventors of the integrated circuit:Kilby for the concept and first demonstration.
Noyce for the practical, manufacturable version.

Summary of Credit:Inventor
Year
Company
Contribution
Recognition
Jack Kilby
1958
Texas Instruments
First working IC (germanium)
Nobel Prize 2000
Robert Noyce
1959
Fairchild
Silicon planar IC (industry standard)
Co-credited, National Medal

The invention of the IC revolutionized electronics, enabling microchips, computers, smartphones, and virtually all modern technology. Kilby is the one most directly associated with the “invention” in historical accounts and the Nobel citation.

Student-run coffee shop

Standards Ohio | Ohio 937

Artist: Bob Dylan (featuring Leonard Cohen)

John Marshall students to run coffee shop

“There’s a new coffee shop in Cleveland, and it’s in John Marshall High School. The “Lawyers Café” serves lattes, healthy fruit smoothies, and Rising Star coffee, and it’s completely student-run. While they brew up the drinks as baristas and handle the budgets on the finance team, all of the scholars are getting hands-on job skills and learning what it takes to run their own small business.”

American Enterprise Institute: One Nation, Under Lawyers

“In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out, and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.”

— John Milton, Tractate of Education

President George H. Bush’s prescient warning to graduates about the destabilizing dangers of “political correctness” to the American experiment in a constitutional republic.  Escalated by the presidencies of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden; accelerated by multinational social media conglomerates, free speech — globally — remains challenged and threatens the return to the tribalism that doomed ancient civilizations.  Higher education in America will have the heaviest hand in this transformation.

“Ironically, on the 200th anniversary of our Bill of Rights, we find free speech under assault throughout the United States, including on some college campuses. The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones. It declares certain topics off-limits, certain expression off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits.”

Engineering Research: Coffee Science

Coffee

Readings

Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith

Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman

Schumpter’s Theory of Creative Destruction

 

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