Author Archives: mike@standardsmichigan.com

  1. Home
  2. Articles posted by mike@standardsmichigan.com
    3. (Page 15)
Loading
loading...

Homegating

This content is accessible to paid subscribers. To view it please enter your password below or send mike@standardsmichigan.com a request for subscription details.

Nitro Cold Brew

Consolidated Financial Statement 2024: $3.541B

Nitro cold brew is bubbling up in coffee shops almost everywhere. The nitrogen-infused beverage became one of the hottest new offerings for coffee lovers looking for something different.   The cold brew — made by steeping coffee grinds in cold water for multiple hours — is dispensed from a stout tap, similar to what you’d find at your local bar.

Image: Chemical & Engineering News

WBUR City Space | Campus Planning & Operations

Howard Zinn taught at Boston University from 1964 to 1988.  His intellectual legacy has not held up well among serious historians.  Zinn presented American history as a simplistic morality play of evil elites versus virtuous “the people.” Scholars across the political spectrum, including left-leaning historians like Michael Kazin and Sam Wineburg, have criticized it as a “polemic disguised as history” and a Manichean fable rather than rigorous scholarship. The book is filled with selective quoting, decontextualized facts, major omissions, and heavy reliance on secondary sources that support his Marxist-tinged narrative. Detailed critiques, such as Mary Grabar’s Debunking Howard Zinn, document numerous factual distortions regarding Columbus, the American Revolution, slavery, WWII, and more.  Zinn openly rejected “disinterested scholarship” in favor of activism, producing advocacy rather than balanced analysis. While influential in activist and popular circles, its methodological flaws and lack of nuance have kept it outside mainstream academic respect. 

 

City Journal (February 6): “The Downfall of Ibram X. Kendi”

Discusses the collapse of Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, alleging mismanagement of $55 million with minimal research output. Describes Kendi as a “symbol of the BLM era’s destructive passions” and notes his move to Howard University. 

— Christopher F. Rufo

Mixed Gender Sport by Design

Koninklijk Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut

Nederland

International Korfball Federation: The Rules of Korfball and Court Standards

Digital Agonistes

Today at the usual hour we explore how Best Practice Case Studies on the use of cell phones in K-12 schools “might” evolve into a de-facto standard for all school districts.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Case studies evolve into general consensus standards through a multi-stage, evidence-driven process:

  1. Discovery & Proof-of-Concept (individual success)
    A few organizations implement an innovative approach and achieve dramatically better results.
  2. Validation & Replication (early adopters)
    Other organizations study the cases, replicate the approach, and publish similar positive outcomes → credibility grows.
  3. Widespread Discussion & Refinement (community phase)
    Conferences, journals, consultants, and industry groups analyze, critique, and refine the practice. Variations emerge and the strongest elements survive.
  4. Pattern Recognition & Codification (framework stage)
    Thought leaders and associations identify common success factors, create frameworks, guidelines, and maturity models.
  5. Institutionalization (consensus stage)
    Major standards bodies (ISO, NIST, ITIL, COBIT, etc.), regulators, or dominant industry players formalize the practice into official standards, certifications, or audit requirements.
  6. Taken-for-Granted Status
    The former “innovative case study” becomes the default expectation — “this is how things are done.”

Timeframe: typically 5–15 years, depending on industry pace and evidence strength.

 

Readings:

IEEE: How to use effectively smartphone in the classroom

IEEE: Possibilities and Challenges in Mobile Learning for K-12 Teachers: A Pilot Retrospective Survey Study

IEEE: Acceptable Use of Technology in Schools: Risks, Policies, and Promises

IEEE: A Review of the Repercussions of Mobile Phones and the Internet on Education

Sports Equipment & Surfaces

Student Membership | @ASTMStudentFans

“The National Game” 1889 Arthur Streeton

 

 

 

Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Sport programs, facilities and equipment support one of the most visible and emotionally engaging enterprises in the education communities.   These programs are central to the brand identity of the community and last, but not least, physical activity keeps our young people healthy in body and mind.

ASTM International is one of the first names among the 300-odd ANSI accredited standards setting organizations whose due processes discover and promulgate the standard of care for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of the facilities that support these enterprises.   The parent committee is linked below:

ASTM Committee F08 on Sports Equipment, Playing Surfaces, and Facilities

While ASTM bibliography is largely product-oriented, there are many titles that set the standard of care for sport enterprises and the accessories to these enterprises.  To identify a few:

ASTM 1487-17 Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use

ASTM F1774  Standard Specification for Climbing and Mountaineering Carabiners

ASTM F2060-00(2011) Standard Guide for Maintaining Cool Season Turfgrasses on Athletic Fields

ASTM F1703-13 Standard Guide for Skating and Ice Hockey Playing Facilities

ASTM F1953-10 Standard Guide for Construction and Maintenance of Grass Tennis Courts

ASTM F1081-09(2015) Standard Specification for Competition Wrestling Mats

ASTM F2950-14 Standard Safety and Performance Specification for Soccer Goals

ASTM F2461-16e1 Standard Practice for Manufacture, Construction, Operation, and Maintenance of Aquatic Play Equipment

When the General Requirements of an athletic facility construction project indicates: “Conform to all applicable standards” then, in the case of an sport facility, the ASTM title is likely the document that defines the standard of care from a product standpoint.  Interoperability of the products in a sport setting are quite another matter.

At the international level, we track action in ISO/TC 83 Sports and other recreational facilities and equipment administered globally by the Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V.   ASTM International is ANSI’s Technical Advisory Group for  this committee.

University of Maine

The ASTM standards development process depends heavily on face-to-face meetings — typically two times per year – in different parts of the United States.   The benefit of this arrangement lies in the quality of discussion among subject matter experts that results produced from face-to-face discussion.  The price to pay for this quality, however, lies in the cost of attendance for the user-interest in the education industry.   Relatively few subject matter experts directly employed by a school district, college or university who are charged with lowering #TotalCostofOwnership can attend the meetings.   Many of the subject matter experts who are in attendance at the ASTM meetings from the education industry tend to be faculty who are retained by manufacturers, insurance, testing laboratories, conformity and compliance interests.  (See our discussion of Incumbent Interests)

That much said, ASTM welcomes subject matter experts on its technical committees (Click here)  We encourage participation by end users from the education industry — many of them in the middle of athletic facility management organization charts.   The parent committee meets twice a year; after which we usually find public review redlines developed during those meetings to hit our radar.  The link to the schedule of face-to-face meetings appears below:

F08 Meetings

Note that the August 2020 cancelled but the November 2020 meeting still appears on the schedule.  It is likely that much of the committee work will be done online.

We are required to review draft ASTM consensus products with some care — owing to copyright restrictions — so we do it interactively online during teleconferences devoted to Sport.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [7-7] [10-32] [13-165] [20-156] 

Category: Sport, Management, Risk Management

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, George Reiher, Richard Robben

Synthetic Turf Guidelines

 

Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Yale Hospitality Berkeley | Yale Facilities | 2024 Yale Endowment $41.4B 

@mildredsauce

grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch at yale: berkeley dining hall edition!! #yale #yaleuniversity #yaledining #yaledininghall #yalefood #yalelaw #student #college #collegefood #foodie #mukbang #collegelife #dininghall #dreamschool #ivyleague #collegehacks #mukbang #pizza #bestschool #grilledcheese #grilledcheesetomatosoup #tomatosoup #cooking #pickle #pickles #collegestudentlife #whatiate #whatieatinaday #everythingiate #whatieatinadayrealistic

♬ original sound – millie liao 🌟

Standard Soups

Related:

What is Happening to the Family, and Why?

Bach Brandenburg Concerto III

§
Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos (1719–1721) celebrate instrumental color, virtuosity, and joyful invention. Dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg, they showcase wildly diverse ensembles (from solo violin to trumpets, flutes, and horns) in a spirit of exuberant experimentation rarely heard before.  Unlike heavier Baroque works, their lightness, clarity, and forward energy gently lift the mind and spirit—ideal for shaking off sleep and greeting the day.
.

.

Home | Spokane County

No photo description available.

Water and Fire

Tradition is tending the flame, not worshiping the ashes.”
— Gustav Mahler

Well Water

Water and Sanitation

“Kettle’s On” & Morning Shower

International Plumbing Code

Fireplace Safety

Good Shepherd Sunday

Order of Worship

 

Psalm 23 of David 

On the Fourth Sunday of Easter The Church proclaims John 10:1-18, in which Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd.” This Gospel highlights Christ’s intimate knowledge of his flock, his sacrificial death for them, and his role as the gate of salvation. The sheep hear his voice and follow him to eternal life.  It is also observed as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, calling the faithful to pray for priests, deacons, and consecrated persons.

North Carolina

Sacred Spaces

 

Incorporation by Reference

“A Square with Imaginary Buildings” | Hendrik van Steenwijck (1614)

A partial list of the standards developers who produce consensus documents that are referenced in education facility design guidelines and construction contracts is shown below:

IBR STANDARDS HOSTED BY ANSI

In other words, apart from open-source and consortia-developed standards, the safety and sustainability of the education facility industry is almost entirely dependent upon intellectual property that must be available free of charge to the public if local and state governments incorporate them by reference to meet their pubic safety assurance obligation.

While ANSI has managed a reconciliation on the issue generically called “incorporation by reference” there a few fine points that are noteworthy.  These are usually discussed during World Standards Week and summarized periodically at the link below:

ANSI GOVERNMENT OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

We refresh our understanding of this topic several times a year; typically during our Incorporation by Reference colloquium during which time we also examine state-level activity

Issue: [Various]

Category: Administration & Management, Public Policy, US Department of Commerce

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

 

Welcome

Standards Michigan Group, LLC

2723 South State Street | Suite 150
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA

888-746-3670

DIRECTIONS

icon icon
icon icon
icon icon  
Layout mode
Predefined Skins
Custom Colors
Choose your skin color
Patterns Background
Images Background
Standards Michigan
error: Content is protected !!
Skip to content