“De re aedificatoria” | Leon Battista Alberti
Christianity is surging in America.
We will not become Europe.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 25, 2025
Compute the stress curves for the half-circular arch beam
“De re aedificatoria” | Leon Battista Alberti
Christianity is surging in America.
We will not become Europe.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 25, 2025
Compute the stress curves for the half-circular arch beam
FIREWORKS: PYROTECHNIC ARTS AND SCIENCES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Simon Werrett | University College London
Fireworks are synonymous with celebration in the twenty-first century. But pyrotechnics—in the form of rockets, crackers, wheels, and bombs—have exploded in sparks and noise to delight audiences in Europe ever since the Renaissance. Here, Simon Werrett shows that, far from being only a means of entertainment, fireworks helped foster advances in natural philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, and many other branches of the sciences.
Fireworks brings to vibrant life the many artful practices of pyrotechnicians, as well as the elegant compositions of the architects, poets, painters, and musicians they inspired. At the same time, it uncovers the dynamic relationships that developed between the many artists and scientists who produced pyrotechnics. In so doing, the book demonstrates the critical role that pyrotechnics played in the development of physics, astronomy, chemistry and physiology, meteorology, and electrical science. Richly illustrated and drawing on a wide range of new sources, Fireworks takes readers back to a world where pyrotechnics were both divine and magical and reveals for the first time their vital contribution to the modernization of European ideas.
Municipalization refers to a local governmental unit purchasing a merchant utility; a practice gathering pace in university towns in recent years. It is a very large transaction. Best practice discovery and promulgation begins with an accumulation of case studies before any concepts stabilize into a “standard”. Today at the usual hour we examine a few representative case studies. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
This topic is a standing item on the agenda of the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee
Relata:
Today at the usual hour we review a selection of global building codes and standards that guide best practice for safety, accessibility, and functionality for day care facilities; with special interest in the possibilities for co-locating square footage into the (typically) lavish unused space in higher education facilities.
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
“A Group of Children Playing the Game ‘Oranges and Lemons’ in a Domestic Interior”
Harry Brooker (1848-1940)https://t.co/YpxsSUf8nV pic.twitter.com/kjhgJvYxPs— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) February 24, 2025
National Center for Health Statistics: Birth Data Files
From Cheerleader & Footballer To Pregnant at 15
Jordan Peterson: Accidental Childlessness, The Epidemic That Dare Not Speak Its Name
REDDIT: An estimated 1/3 of all GenZ were aborted
Today we break down the stack of regulations, codes, standards and open-source literature governing the safety and sustainability of university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery facilities. Because of the complexity of the topic we break down our coverage:
Health 200. Survey of all relevant codes, standards, guidelines and recommended practices for healthcare settings.
Health 400. All of the above with special consideration needed for obstetrics, gynecological and neonatal clinical practice and research.
We limit our interest to systems — water, power, telecommunication and security; for example — that are unique to campus-configured, city-within-city risk aggregations. Electrotechnologies (voltage stability, static electricity control, radio-interference, etc.) in these enterprises are subtle, complex and high risk. Sample titles from legacy best practice literature in this domain are listed below:
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Levels of Maternal Care
Provision of Care, Treatment, and Services standards for maternal safety
Since our interest lies in the habitable spaces for these enterprises we usually start with a scan of the following titles:
International Building Code Section 407 (Institutional Group I-2) identifies requirements specific to healthcare settings, covering aspects such as fire safety, means of egress, and smoke compartments. Maternity and obstetric facilities within hospitals fall under this classification.
K-TAG Matrix for Healthcare Facilities
NFPA 70 National Electrical Code Article 517
NFPA 99 Healthcare Facilities Code
NFPA 101 Life Safety Code Chapters 18 & 19
ASHRAE 170 Ventilation of Healthcare Facilities
Relevant Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers research
Towards Deeper Neural Networks for Neonatal Seizure Detection
A System to Provide Primary Maternity Healthcare Services in Developing Countries
Deep Learning for Continuous Electronic Fetal Monitoring in Labor
Reorganizing of University Hospital of Oran’s operating theatre: Simulation approach
Finally, we collaborate with the IEEE E&H Committee on the following IEC committee projects from IEC/TC 62 Electrical equipment in medical practice:
– Common aspects of electrical equipment used in diagnostic imaging equipment
– Equipment for radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and radiation dosimetry
– Electromedical equipment for neonatal care
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A relatively new publisher of related standards is the Facility Guidelines Institute. We are monitoring its catalog and its processes. The healthcare facility industry is likely large enough for another non-profit but we have yet to see meaningful leading practice discovery and promulgation that is unrelated to the literature that is already out there.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Health care cost as percentage of Gross Domestic Product for six representative nations.
Association of Academic Health Centers
International Conference on Harmonization: The ICH guidelines provide guidance on the development of pharmaceuticals and related substances, including clinical trials, drug safety, and efficacy.
Animal Welfare Act and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Good Laboratory Practice: GLP is a set of principles that ensure the quality and integrity of non-clinical laboratory studies. It ensures that data generated from non-clinical laboratory studies are reliable, valid, and accurate.
International Code Council Representation of Interests
In the early to mid-1900s, some US colleges used orphaned babies in home economics programs to teach child-rearing skills
These children were referred to as "practice babies" pic.twitter.com/FZCkeu0p2m
— UberFacts (@UberFacts) August 17, 2023
👩⚕️👩🎓 Warmest congratulations to UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems’ Higher Diploma in Midwifery group (2022-2024), who have officially completed their 18-month programme to become registered midwives 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/hixD1gT1no
— University College Dublin (@ucddublin) March 7, 2024
Cooking on a Budget: Learn how to make a flavourful dish for less than £1.70
Food Standards Agency UK: Meat and slaughter
Welcome back to a new academic year! 🤗
We’re thrilled to see staff and students back on campus and ready for another exciting term. Who’s ready to get started? ✨ pic.twitter.com/cvf9TQhYU8
— University of Southampton (@unisouthampton) September 30, 2024
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Net Position: $1.479 billion | Impact of Philanthropy
Nearly 200 St. Thomas students, faculty, staff and community members participated in the Center for Well-Being’s Wellness 5K Run/Walk on Oct. 12. See more here: https://t.co/Uni3U0VxrX pic.twitter.com/zwNH1j68a1
— University of St. Thomas (@UofStThomasMN) October 17, 2024

“Pythagoras — The school of Athens” Raphael’s Fresco (1511)
American philanthropists who amassed fortunes through innovation, risk-taking, and market competition frequently channel hundreds of millions into university capital campaigns. They seek the immortality of a named building—a library, business school, or engineering center—yet confront an academy overwhelmingly skeptical of the capitalist system that enabled their success.
This creates a persistent tension: why continue subsidizing institutions whose faculty often view profit, markets, and even individual achievement as morally suspect?
Many donors reconcile the contradiction through pragmatic optimism. They believe education transcends transient ideology. A new engineering building trains skilled graduates who will later build companies, regardless of postmodern seminars occurring across campus. Others adopt a long-game strategy: by endowing centers for free enterprise, constitutional studies, or empirical social science, they hope to introduce intellectual diversity and counter ideological monocultures.
Some simply prioritize legacy and prestige. Yet the reconciliation remains imperfect. Surveys show humanities and social science faculties lean heavily left. Donors thus risk becoming unwitting patrons of ideas that undermine the very system that created their wealth.
Relata:

“Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise” | Fyodor Bronnikov (1869)
Real estate titan Stephen Ross has donated $321 million to school that bears his name: http://t.co/Hd0iyfWhKL pic.twitter.com/WTl0VZl9Ba
— Forbes (@Forbes) September 15, 2015
The Patrick and Shirley Ryan Family makes largest gift in @NorthwesternU history, which will advance research, educational initiatives, and redevelop Ryan Field.
📈 https://t.co/nulrSi9DmZ#GoCats | @NUFBFamily pic.twitter.com/gOE7gAUTER
— Northwestern Athletics (@NU_Sports) September 22, 2021
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
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