Author Archives: mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Breads of Christmas: Panettone

The word “panettone” has its origins in Italian and can be traced back to the Latin language. The root of “panettone” comes from the Italian word “pane,” which means bread. The diminutive suffix “-etto” is added to “pane” to indicate a smaller or sweetened version of the bread. The word “panettone” can be loosely translated as “small bread” or “sweet bread.”

“Still Life with Panettone, Sweets and Lemons” | Eugenio De Giacomi (1852-1917)

Department of Italian Studies

UCL: Bread predates agriculture by 4,000 years

Noteworthy: 

  • Traditional Ingredients: Panettone is made from a rich, sweet dough that typically includes ingredients such as flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and candied fruits. It may also contain raisins or other dried fruits.
  • Signature Dome Shape: Panettone is known for its distinctive dome shape. The dough is left to rise several times, and the final proofing is done in a cylindrical paper mold, giving it its characteristic tall and round appearance.
  • Regional Variations: While panettone is closely associated with Milan, various regions in Italy have their own versions of Christmas bread. For example, in Southern Italy, there’s a similar sweet bread called “Pandoro,” which is often shaped like an eight-pointed star.
  • Artisanal and Commercial Production: Panettone can be found in both artisanal bakeries, where traditional methods are often employed, and in commercial production where large-scale quantities are produced for widespread consumption. Artisanal panettone is often prized for its attention to quality and flavor.

Click image for video recipe

Italia

“Standard” History

Time has no beginnings and history has no bounds.  The way we understand the past is always changing:

“The Historian Animating The Mind of A Young Painter” 1784 Thomas Rowlandson British

 

History never says “Goodbye”.

History always says “See you later”

 

“When Herodotus composed his great work,” Richard Cohen writes at the start of Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past, “people named it The Histories, but scholars have pointed out that the word means more accurately ‘inquiries’ or ‘researches.’ Calling it The Histories dilutes its originality.

I want to make a larger claim about those who have shaped the way we view our past—actually, who have given us our past. I believe that the wandering Greek’s investigations brought into play, 2,500 years ago, a special kind of inquiry—one that encompasses geography, ethnography, philology, genealogy, sociology, biography, anthropology, psychology, imaginative re-creation (as in the arts), and many other kinds of knowledge, too. The person who exhibits this wide-ranging curiosity should rejoice in the title: historian.”

Soundcloud Podcast: The World in Time

 

1984: Complete Text

Apples

“Life will break you.  Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning.  You have to love.  You have to feel.  It is the reason you are here on earth.

 You are here to risk your heart.  You are here to be swallowed up.  And when it happens when you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness.

Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

— Louise Erdich, “The Painted Drum” (Center for Great Plains Studies)

 

Nourriture été

United States Department of Agriculture: Apple Grades and Standards

Standards Minnesota

University of Minnesota Facilities Management

 

“Fanfare for the Common Man”

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Motors

One of the largest articles in the National Electrical Code deals with wiring safety for motors, motor circuits and controllers — Article 430 — which makes sense because rotating machinery present the largest watt load in building premise power chains.

Over our 30 year tenure on NEC technical committees we have had some modest success getting safety and sustainability concepts relevant to education facilities driven into this part of the NEC.  Ahead of the January 4th deadline for submitting new ideas for the 2026 revision we will review what we did and what more – if anything — can be done to improve safety and sustainability.  We usually begin with an examination of the transcripts of committee decisions in the previous revision cycle; linked below.

National Electrical Code CMP-11

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

(C)onnected & (A)utomated (V)ehicle Code

Satire on Steam Coaches (1831) / H. T. Alken

The CSA America Standards organization has launched a new best practice title — CSA T150 Connected & Automated Vehicle Code — that may, at the very least, guide the safety and sustainability agenda of many large research universities that have transportation service units.   Many governments direct research funding toward transportation so this product may inform the practicality of academic research.

The CSA Group announcement, made through ANSI’s Project Initiation Notification platform, is paraphrased below:

Project Need: To support innovation and deployment in the field of connected and autonomous vehicles by providing infrastructure requirements for the installation and safe operations of CAVs and corresponding infrastructure in the North American context.  

Stakeholders: This proposed Code is being developed at the request of industry and manufacturers. It will provide the industry with the technical requirements and standards of safe operation of CAVs. This will meet the strategic needs of the following key interests:

(a) Ensuring that the latest innovative/technology/safety features are available for users,

(b) Addressing needs of regulators by providing suitable requirements;

(c) Supporting certification bodies.

The connected and automated vehicle (CAV) code specifies infrastructure requirements for CAVs operating or intended to operate in both on-road and off-road environments in order to address public safety, security, and privacy challenges. The code includes, but is not limited to, physical and digital infrastructure. Consideration is given to cybersecurity, interoperability, data management, data privacy, data integrity, human aspects, and accessibility. The CAV code is intended to primarily address issues related to public safety, security, and privacy in conjunction with detailed knowledge of the legal, regulatory, and technological landscape, and ensuring compliance with all relevant and applicable law. The CAV code is not intended as a design specification nor as an instruction manual for untrained persons.

According to the public comment page this title was open for consultation for less than 30 days.

This is an ambitious undertaking and certain to inspire competition among competitor conformance and certification organizations.   Accordingly, we will follow the developmental path of the proposed “Code”.   We encourage direct participation in the CSA Group’s standards development program by students, faculty and staff in the education industry.

CSA Group Standards Home Page

Public Review

Standards Michigan will continue to be a resource for education facility managers, academic researchers and any other final fiduciary (user-interest) in the public or private sector who need cross-cutting perspective.  This title appears on the standing agenda of our periodic Mobility colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Photo Credit: Center for Digital Education

Issue: [19-146]

Category: Transportation & Parking

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Paul Green, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

Source: ANSI Standards Action


More

CAN/CSA D250-2016

Ontario Reg. 129/10 School Buses

Connected and Automated Vehicle Technologies – Insights for Codes and Standards in Canada

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