ALWAYS ON
Venison Borscht
Born in the kitchens of Eastern Europe, borscht traveled with Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish immigrants to America. By the early twentieth century, it had become a signature dish of New York's Catskill resorts—the celebrated Borscht Belt. Venison brings the old-world soup closer to the forests and hunting traditions of upstate New York.
Pathways 100
Today we break down the literature for exterior and interior pathways. We limit our study to the human pathways (as in egress and ingress paths); not wiring or piping pathways -- a complex topic on its own. The topic necessarily cuts across several disciplines and requires titles from many standards setting organizations; including regulations in the Americans with Disabilities Act and with sensitivity to the safety of pets and livestock.
Signs, Signs, Signs
....and Sign Pollution. Conformance culture runs deep through education communities; supported by personalities with an apparently unquenchable appetite for rules and regulations. Still, some measure of social control through signage is necessary. Today we try to reconcile the competing requirements of guiderails on community activity and individual freedom.
Human Factors Using Elevators in Emergency Evacuation
"...If elevators could be safely used in fire emergencies, the safety of building occupants with mobility limitations could be greatly enhanced and the time for all occupants to evacuate might be rduced. This report covers a study of human factors considerations related to the possible use of elevators for evacuations in fire emergencies..."
Quadrivium: Autumn
Educational settlements should be magical places. The stack informing the beauty of these "cities-within-cities" changes 100 to 1000 times per day globally. We monitor the action continuously to formulate response to public consultations. Topics appear on our CALENDAR and explored every day at 15:00 UTC.
Bulletin Board
Curated list of open consultations and calls for information from state, federal and global agencies.
Mortuary Arts
There are several ANSI accredited standards that apply to mortuary science, particularly in the areas of forensic science and medicolegal death investigation. These standards are developed to ensure the highest levels of professionalism, quality, and consistency in the field. We keep this topic as a standing item on our daily sessions during Halloween and All Saint's Week.
Current Issues & Recent Research
We are tooling up for the NFPA 2029 National Electrical Code Technical Committee Meetings in September and the IEEE Industrial Applications Society Meetings in October.
Halloween
“The farther we’ve gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we’ve come to need Halloween. It’s a festival of fantasy, a celebration of otherness, the one time each year when the mundane is overturned in favor of the bizarre, and everyone can become anyone or anything they wish. At its core, Halloween is a chance to confront our most primal fear – death – and attempt to control it or, at the very least, mock it.” — Paula Guran