Legacy | Toledo Ohio
“Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.”
“America wasn’t founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased.”
MLive | Ann Arbor Michigan
“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
“It’s better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money.”
“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
“If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.”
“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”
“Not much was really invented during the Renaissance, if you don’t count modern civilization.”
“No humorist is under any obligation to provide answers and probably if you were to delve into the literary history of humour it’s probably all about not providing answers because the humorist essentially says: this is the way things are.”
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.
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. Too much drama.
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.
Federal Aviation Administration
Aviation Maintenance Technician Schools | Consultation closes April 14, 2023
Science & Technology Policy Office
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:
2. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
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
NIST Report Outlines Strategic Opportunities for U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing
3. ANSI ISO Business (Many of these projects are normally covered during our Hello World! colloquia
ANSI January Report 2023 on ISO, IEC & ITU Work Items
November 2022 Government Relations and Public Policy Update
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.
August 2022 Government Relations and Public Policy Update
July 2022 ISO, IEC nd ITU Listings of Work Items Published
Standards Coordination Office | USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point
Consultations (Some posted with IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee) | Direct access to primary workspace
4. Fast Forward
5. Rewind
6. Corrigenda
Because electrotechnology changes continually, definitions (vocabulary) in its best practice catalog change continually; not unlike any language on earth that adapts to the moment and place.
The changes reflect changes in technology or changes in how the technology works in practice; even how the manufacturers create adaptations to field conditions by combining functions. Any smart electrical component has a digital language embedded in it, for example. We need not overlook “body language” either.
Consider the 2023 National Electrical Code. Apart from many others the NEC will contain a major change to Article 100 (Definitions); the subject of elevated debate over the past three years.
When we refer “language” we must distinguish between formal language, informal language, colloquial language and dialect which may differ the language spoken, language written at the office and language used on the job site. “Terms of art”
FREE ACCESS: 2020 National Electrical Code (NFPA 70)
2023 NEC Public Input Report CMP-1 (868 pages)
2023 NEC Second Draft Public Comment Report (914 pages)
Are these terms (or, “terms of art”) best understood in context (upstream articles in Chapters 4 through 8) — or should they be adjudicated by the 14 Principals of Code Making Panel 1?
Code Making Panel 1 has always been the heaviest of all NEC panels. As explained n our ABOUT, the University of Michigan held a vote in CMP-1 for 20+ years (11 revision cycles) before moving to the healthcare facilities committee for the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee. Standards Michigan continues its involvement on behalf of the US education facility industry
To serve the purpose of making NFPA 70 more “useable” we respect the Standards Council decision to make this change if it contributes to the viability of the NFPA business model. We get to say this because no other trade association comes close to having as enduring and as strong a voice: NFPA stands above all other US-based SDO’s in fairness and consideration of its constituency. The electrical safety community in the United States is a mighty tough crowd.
If the change does not work, or work well enough, nothing should prohibit reversing the trend toward “re-centralizing” — or “de-centralizing” the definitions.
Public input on the 2026 Edition will be received until September 7, 2023.