“The Life of Julia”
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Morning Shower (And All That)
Complete Monograph: 2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES
“The Bathing Pool” | Hubert Robert (1733–1808)
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Design Considerations for Hot Water Plumbing
Baseline Standards for Student Housing
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
Indoor plumbing has a long history, but it became widely available in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the United States, for example, the first indoor plumbing system was installed in the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia in the early 18th century. However, it was not until the mid-19th century that indoor plumbing became more common in middle-class homes.
One important milestone was the development of cast iron pipes in the 19th century, which made it easier to transport water and waste throughout a building. The introduction of the flush toilet in the mid-19th century also played a significant role in making indoor plumbing more practical and sanitary.
By the early 20th century, indoor plumbing had become a standard feature in most middle-class homes in the United States and other developed countries. However, it was still not widely available in rural areas and poorer urban neighborhoods until much later.
401 Chapel Drive, Durham, North Carolina
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Alvin Brooks Center for Faith-Justice
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Installation of Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Systems
Design, construction, operation and maintenance of environmental air, piping and drainage systems is one of the largest cost centers in education facilities. We find subtle tradeoffs between fire safety, energy conservation and indoor air quality goals. With solid data and enlightened debate which include the user-interest (the final fiduciary in the education facility industry, for example) those tradeoffs are reconciled by technical committees administered by three ANSI-accredited standards developers:
American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers (ASHRAE)
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors National Association
Today we focus on the leading safety practice of NFPA 90A Standard for the Installation of Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Systems. From the NFPA 90A prospectus:
[NFPA 90A] shall cover construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of systems for air conditioning and ventilating, including filters, ducts, and related equipment, to protect life and property from fire, smoke, and gases resulting from fire or from conditions having manifestations similar to fire.
[Explanation A.1.1] An air duct system has the potential to convey smoke, hot gases, and flame from area to area and to supply air to aid combustion in the fire area. For these reasons, fire protection of an air duct system is essential to safety to life and the protection of property. However, an air duct system’s fire integrity also enables it to be used as part of a building’s fire protection system. Guidance for the design of smoke-control systems is provided in NFPA 92, Standard for Smoke Control Systems. Pertinent information on maintenance is provided in Annex B. Maintenance of fire dampers, ceiling dampers, smoke dampers, and combination fire/smoke dampers requirements can be found in NFPA 80, Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, and NFPA 105, Standard for Smoke Door Assemblies and Other Opening Protectives.
The original University of Michigan codes and standards advocacy enterprise spoke loud and clear about duct smoke detector application, control signaling and maintenance requirements from the user point of view. Owing to the re-organization we missed the 2018 revision but we are now recovering from where we left off for the 2021 revision.
The First Draft Report for the 2021 edition is linked below:
First Draft Ballot / Final Results
90A_A2020_AIC_AAA_SD_PCResponses
NFPA 90A is heavily referenced in an interlocking matrix of related fire safety consensus products but it is not very lengthy document. We include it on the standing agenda of our periodic Mechanical and Prometheus Bound teleconference. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.
Issue: [13-118]
Category: Fire Protection, Mechanical
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel
:
Apple Picking Robot
AI Institute for Transforming Workforce & Decision Support
👀😍#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/4pVt0nSXsl
— Oregon State University (@OregonState) February 21, 2023
Charlie Kirk (August 12, 2025): “Has U.S. President Donald Trump gone too far?”
The Oxford Union Society is the world’s most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. Since 1823, the Union has been promoting debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.
My remarks at Oxford Union formal debate.
Has Trump gone too far?
The UK is lost, but it can find its way back if it follows America’s lead. pic.twitter.com/BjajLSRXOK
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 12, 2025
Vedika Rastogi | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 1/8 | Oxford Union
Alex Jackson | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 2/8 | Oxford Union
Toby Young | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 3/8 | Oxford Union
Yasmin Benoit | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 4/8 | Oxford Union
Tommy Nguyen | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 5/8 | Oxford Union
James Lindsay | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 6/8 | Oxford Union
Benjamin Butterworth | This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far – 8/8 | Oxford Union
Student Loans
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Dance Wyoming
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Technical Barriers to Trade
World According to Marco Polo
We track action in international administrative procedures that affect the safety and sustainability agenda of the education facility industry. From time to time we find product purchasing contracts that contain “boilerplate” requiring conformity to applicable regulations found in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). Common examples are found in contracts for the acquisition of information technology and specialty laboratory equipment.
The World Trade Organization TBT Agreement obliges all Parties to maintain an inquiry point that is able to answer questions from interested parties and other WTO Members regarding technical regulations, standards developed by government bodies, and conformity assessment procedures, as well as provide relevant documents. The TBT Agreement also requires that WTO Members notify the WTO of proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures so interested parties can become acquainted with them and have an opportunity to submit written comments.
Technical Barriers to Trade Information Management System
The inquiry point and notification authority for the United States is operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. We provide a link here for the convenience of faculty, specifiers and purchasing professionals.
Notify U.S. Standards Coordination Office USA WTO Enquiry Point
We include the TBT on the agenda of our Hello World! colloquium; open to everyone. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.
More
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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