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“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”
How Stupid Would It Be to Put Data Centers in Space?
Riding the orbital data center wave
SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centers in Orbit
Electricity
Natural Gas
Traffic
Water
Noise
Taxation
Security
Relata:
Dr. Gad Saad Named Global Ambassador for The Northwood Idea and Visiting Professor
Gad Saad (Northwood University Michigan) & Jordan Peterson (University of Toronto) discuss the intellectual intransigence in education settlements
International Zoning Code
2025 Group B Proposed Changes to IZC | Complete Monograph for Changes to I-Codes (2630 pages)
National Association of County Engineers
The purpose of the code is to establish minimum requirements to provide a reasonable level of health, safety, property protection and welfare by controlling the design, location, use or occupancy of all buildings and structures through the regulated and orderly development of land and land uses within this jurisdiction.
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Municipalities usually have specific land use or zoning considerations to accommodate the unique needs and characteristics of college towns:
- Mixed-Use Zoning: Cities with colleges and universities often employ mixed-use zoning strategies to encourage a vibrant and diverse urban environment. This zoning approach allows for a combination of residential, commercial, and institutional uses within the same area, fostering a sense of community and facilitating interactions between students, faculty, and residents.
- Height and Density Restrictions: Due to the presence of educational institutions, cities may have specific regulations on building height and density to ensure compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods and maintain the character of the area. These restrictions help balance the need for development with the preservation of the existing urban fabric.
- Student Housing: Cities with colleges and universities may have regulations or guidelines for student housing to ensure an adequate supply of affordable and safe accommodations for students. This can
include requirements for minimum bedroom sizes, occupancy limits, and proximity to campus. - Parking and Transportation: Given the concentration of students, faculty, and staff, parking and transportation considerations are crucial. Cities may require educational institutions to provide parking facilities or implement transportation demand management strategies, such as promoting public transit use, cycling infrastructure, and pedestrian-friendly designs.
- Community Engagement: Some cities encourage colleges and universities to engage with the local community through formalized agreements or community benefit plans. These may include commitments to support local businesses, contribute to neighborhood improvement projects, or provide educational and cultural resources to residents.
This is a relatively new title in the International Code Council catalog; revised every three years in the Group B tranche of titles. Search on character strings such as “zoning” in the link below reveals the ideas that ran through the current revision:
Complete Monograph: 2022 Proposed Changes to Group B I-Codes (1971 pages)
We maintain it on our periodic I-Codes colloquia, open to everyone. Proposals for the 2026 revision will be received until January 10, 2025.
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
We maintain it on our periodic I-Codes colloquia, open to everyone with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
The City Rises (La città che sale) | 1910 Umberto Boccioni
Related:
- Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015): This Supreme Court case involved a challenge to the town of Gilbert, Arizona’s sign code, which regulated the size, location, and duration of signs based on their content. The court held that the sign code was a content-based restriction on speech and therefore subject to strict scrutiny.
- City of Ladue v. Gilleo (1994): In this Supreme Court case, the court struck down a municipal ordinance that banned the display of signs on residential property, except for signs that fell within specific exemptions. The court held that the ban was an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech.
- Metromedia, Inc. v. San Diego (1981): This Supreme Court case involved a challenge to a San Diego ordinance that banned off-premises advertising signs while allowing on-premises signs. The court held that the ordinance was an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, as it discriminated against certain types of speech.
- City of Ladue v. Center for the Study of Responsive Law, Inc. (1980): In this Supreme Court case, the court upheld a municipal ordinance that prohibited the display of signs on public property, but only if the signs were posted for longer than 10 days. The court held that the ordinance was a valid time, place, and manner restriction on speech.
- City of Boerne v. Flores (1997): This Supreme Court case involved a challenge to a municipal sign code that regulated the size, location, and content of signs in the city. The court held that the sign code violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as it burdened the exercise of religion without a compelling government interest.
Land Measurement
In the United States, land surveying is regulated by various professional organizations and government agencies, and there are several technical standards that must be followed to ensure accuracy and consistency in land surveying.
The best practice for land surveying is set by the “Manual of Surveying Instructions” published by an administrative division of the United States Department of the Interior responsible for managing public lands in the United States. The manual provides detailed guidance on the procedures and techniques for conducting various types of land surveys, including public land surveys, mineral surveys, and cadastral surveys.
George Washington, Surveyor of Western Virginia
Manual of Surveying Instructions
Another important set of model standards for land surveying is the Minimum Standards for Property Boundary Surveys* published by the National Society of Professional Surveyors. These standards provide guidance on the procedures and techniques for conducting property boundary surveys, including the use of appropriate surveying equipment, the preparation of surveying maps and plats, and the documentation of surveying results. Land surveyors in the United States are also required to adhere to state and local laws and regulations governing land surveying, as well as ethical standards established by professional organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers.
* Local variants
California: Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys
Michigan: Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys
The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 granted each state 30,000 acres of federal land for each member of Congress from that state to establish colleges that would teach agriculture, engineering, and military tactics. This legislation led to the establishment of many public universities, including the Texas A&M University, the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University.
Cheesy Hamburger Skillet
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MSU’s Extension’s Beef Production program supports Michigan’s beef industry through research, education, and outreach to enhance producer profitability, sustainability, and quality of life. It focuses on key areas like nutrition, genetics, grazing management, health, reproduction, and economics. Notable efforts include advancing grass-fed beef systems, feedlot management, and beef x dairy crossbreeding.
Conducted at facilities such as the Lake City and Upper Peninsula Research Farms, the program offers workshops, resources (e.g., pricing tools, disease prevention guides), and youth education via 4-H market beef projects and family recipes.
Our Master Gardeners are wrapping up a great educational tour of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. They participated in learning opportunities at Canadian National Parks, agricultural sites, and gardens, and gained a better understanding of Indigenous and Asian cultures. pic.twitter.com/47jcrlYJfv
— MSU Extension (@MSUExtension) July 30, 2024
Infotech 400
Lorem ipsum
File: July 22, 2024
“Though I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet,
yet I venture to predict that before the end of the century
many a person who now reads this page will receive a flash of intelligence
from some other mortal thousands of miles distant,”
“The Telegraph and the Press”
— Charles F. Briggs (New York Herald, 1844)
(c) The New Yorker
Today we break down the literature for building, maintaining and supporting the computing infrastructure of education settlements. We use the term “infotech” gingerly to explain action for a broad span of technologies that encompass enterprise servers and software, wireless and wired networks, campus phone networks, and desktop computers that provide administrative services and career tech video production. The private sector has moved at light speed to respond to the circumstances of the pandemic; so have vertical incumbents evolving their business models to seek conformance revenue. Starting 2023 we break down the topic accordingly:
Infotech 200: Wired and wireless infrastructure for education and administration related to teaching sciences and supporting fine and lively arts
Infotech 400: Physical system middleware for research facilities; data center location, power supply, cooling systems, fire suppression, security, monitoring and management.
The literature radiates continually by consortia, open-source, or ad hoc standards-setting domains rather than the private standards system administered by global and standards setting bodies; to wit:
International:
IEC (EN 50600), IET, ISO, ITU
IEEE
United States:
Data Center Operations and Maintenance Best Practices
Everywhere else:
3GPP & 3GPP2, Apache Software Foundation, ISTE, OneM2M, Uptime Institute
The ICT domain is huge, replacing physical libraries. The foregoing is a highly curated sample.
We continue to include teaching and learning media standards on our colloquia however it is likely that will break up this topic into at least two related colloquia as 2022 proceeds; with primary focus on the design, construction and maintenance of the physical ICT infrastructure. Much depends upon the interest of our clients, colleagues and other stakeholders. We collaborate closely with the IEEE Education and Healthcare Electrotechnology Committee.
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Readings:
“The Proposed Union of the Telegraph and Postal Systems” 1869 | Western Union Telegraph Company
“Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals” 1938 | Alan Turing, Princeton University
Innovation and Competitiveness in Artificial Intelligence
The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is requesting public comments to gain insights on the current global artificial intelligence (AI) market. Responses will provide clarity about stakeholder concerns regarding international AI policies, regulations, and other measures which may impact U.S. exports of AI technologies. Additionally, the request for information (RFI) includes inquiries related to AI standards development. ANSI encourages relevant stakeholders to respond by ITA’s deadline of October 17, 2022.
Commerce Department Launches the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee
Save the date! NIST is set to release our AI Risk Management Framework this week.
📅 Thursday, January 26 at 10am ET
📍 Livestream (no registration needed)Learn more: https://t.co/2YmN2R6bTV pic.twitter.com/muICEyRYcP
— National Institute of Standards and Technology (@NIST) January 23, 2023
Artificial Intelligence
INCITS 594-202x: Information technology — Framework for Managing Unique Risks from Frontier AI
In development (20 percent completed): This standard will describe a framework for managing the unique risks to public safety and security from frontier AI models and systems. In particular, the standard will focus on managing risks that can materialize with such scale, severity, velocity and irreversibility that they necessitate more specialized or extensive risk management approaches than those specified in existing AI risk management standards, such as ISO/IEC 23894, 42001, and 42005. In light of those standards, this standard will primarily address elements of risk management across the risk management lifecycle that warrant additional treatment given the unique risk profile of frontier AI models and systems.
File: May 14, 2019
{Click on image for more information)
The International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) — an ANSI accredited standards developing organization — is the forum of choice for information technology (IT) developers, producers and users for the creation and maintenance of formal de jure IT standards. The INCITS’ mission is to promote the effective use of Information and Communication Technology through standardization in a way that balances the interests of all stakeholders and increases the global competitiveness of the member organizations. INCITS seeks to broaden its membership base in the following categories:
• Service Providers
• Users
• Standards Development Organizations and Consortia
• Academic Institutions*
In this week’s ANSI Standards Action (Page 28) and has renewed its invitation to the foregoing stakeholders.
The INCITS Executive Board serves as the consensus body with oversight of its 40+ Technical Committees. Additionally, the INCITS Executive Board has the international leadership role as the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information Technology. Membership in the INCITS Executive Board is open to all directly and materially affected parties in accordance with INCITS membership rules. To find out more about participating on the INCITS Executive Board, contact Jennifer Garner at jgarner@itic.org or visit http://www.incits.org/participation/membership-info for more information.
— Originally posted January 15, 2018
Meeting Notice and Call for Members for the New INCITS Technical Committee on Artificial Intelligence (US TAG to JTC 1/SC 42) Organizational Meeting – January 30-31, 2018. The 1.5 day organizational meeting of INCITS/Artificial Intelligence will be held January 30 (10:00 AM to 5:00 PM) and January 31, 2018 (9:00 AM to 1:00 PM). The meeting will be hosted by Google in Mountain View or Sunnyvale, California. While face-to-face participation is strongly encouraged, WebEx participation will be available for those not able to attend in person. The agenda, details on the meeting venue, related documents and instructions for joining the WebEx meeting will be distributed to organizational representatives requesting membership on the new committee.
Scope of JTC 1/SC 42:
Serve as the focus and proponent for JTC 1’s standardization program on Artificial Intelligence
Provide guidance to JTC 1, IEC, and ISO committees developing Artificial Intelligence applications
The INCITS committee will operate under the ANSIaccredited procedures for the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS); (see INCITS Organization, Policies and Procedures). Additional information can also be found at http://www.incits.org/participation/membership-info.
Many standards developing organizations, open source consortia and ad hoc workgroups are competing in this space. Here are a few links to organizations with whom we collaborate routinely; a list that will likely need to expand quickly:
ANSI Standards Action Notice (Page 31)
IEEE Education & Healthcare Committee
* Comment from Standards Michigan: Keep in mind that when the global standards federation claims that “academia is involved” the presence of a subject matter expert directly employed by an educational institution does not necessarily add balance to materially affected stakeholders generally required in global standards setting systems. Very often, academic faculty are proxies for manufacturers, insurance, and conformance bodies that retain their expertise on a per-project basis. As we explain in ABOUT the true user/owner/final fiduciary (in all nations and among all standards developing organizations) is the weakest voice in the standards setting process. This weakness is not the fault of individual standards setting organizations but a weakness seen in all participatory democracy. The influence of the user/owner/final fiduciary may be affected through consumer market price signals at the farthest end of the supply chain.
Bias and Fairness in Large Language Models
The Buttery
Net Position 2025: £282 million
Grounds and Facilities | Virtual Tour
As with many Tudor-era buildings the result of Lady Margaret Beaufort patronage, there is no named architect. The Great Gate, the First Court, the Chapel and the surrounding ranges were designed “on the fly” by stonemasons at the job site.
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For the 2021/22 cohort alone international students generated ~£41.9bn in benefits (tuition, living expenses, visitor spending) against £4.4bn in public service costs — a £37.4bn net benefit (benefit-cost ratio ~9.4:1). This equates to ~£560 per UK resident or £466 extra per working adult annually. They cross-subsidise UK students and research (domestic fees are frozen in real terms), support jobs in university towns, and boost exports. At places like Christ’s College, ~1/3 of undergraduates are international, helping sustain operations.
Economic: The money helps universities and local economies short-term, but doesn’t fix low UK productivity, skills gaps, or stagnant wages in non-university sectors. Many internationals return home after studies (or via the Graduate route), so long-term innovation/entrepreneurship spillovers are limited. Over-reliance risks vulnerability if numbers drop (as seen with recent policy changes).
Social/Housing/NHS: Rapid growth (post-2019 surge) adds pressure on housing stock, especially in student cities — contributing to shortages and higher rents in some areas. They pay the Immigration Health Surcharge and use fewer services than averages, but the scale strains local infrastructure.
Cultural: They enrich campuses with diversity and global perspectives, but rapid inflows can challenge social cohesion, integration, or a sense of shared national identity in some communities. Public opinion is mostly positive on a person-by-person basis but, taken en-mass, England-born English are wary — on now openly hostile — toward overall migration volumes.
Universities excel at education and soft power (future global leaders with UK ties), but they are not designed as primary tools for fixing domestic policy failures like planning laws, welfare design, or skills training. These require broader government action beyond attracting “aspirational” fee-payers.
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New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
Standards Michigan Group, LLC
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