University of Illinois System: Annual Report 2023 ($10.4B)
Facilities & Services at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Delivering our rhubarb around the village#Sunday pic.twitter.com/vEmSF4k8Uo
— Megs (@meg_j_boyle) April 28, 2024
The University of Wyoming Extension service provides research and education to farmers and ranchers; funded by federal, state, and local sources:
The Extension service also offers consultations, workshops, field days, and other events to help farmers and ranchers stay up-to-date on the latest research and technologies in agriculture.
“Dear students, faculty, distinguished guests, parents,
I’m so proud to have been offered this honorary degree by the @New England Conservatory of music. When I learned that my friend Manny Axe was also being honored, I thought: some great company. But my mother would be proud. She studied here in the early 1940s.
I want to talk today about language, music and the human condition. I realize that to talk about music is an exercise in futility. Critics do it and, I have no doubt, your professors. But Music does an end run around language and goes straight to the heart. It defies our efforts at judgement and control: it either connects or it doesn’t. I suppose one might be persuaded to appreciate a particular piece of music but that sounds pretty cerebral to me. Music is spiritual food.
The human condition, it seems to me, is that we are split, bifurcated. We are a product of the natural world, of the co-evolved skin of life on the surface of this miraculously unlikely planet.
But we put ourselves slightly above and at some remove from that natural world. And we’re always looking for trouble. Our very successful survival strategy is to analyze, predict and control everything around us.
In the book of Genesis, God gives Adam the job of naming everything. And that’s what we do, we name and categorize everything.
This is a language of names for things but you can’t sit in the word “chair”, you can’t climb the word ”tree”, in fact the only word that is what it says… is the word, “word”.
Music is a language, we use it to communicate emotions, but it’s not representative, like this language of names: music feels real.
Analyze predict and control. It’s a defensive tactic and we are suspicious and distrustful, not only of the natural world but of our own animal selves. Of this meat-suit we live in, with its appetites and urges, which humiliates and embarrasses us and which, in the end, will betray us with its mortality.
Maybe this is a good point to tell you my favorite joke: what did the Zen Buddhist say to the hotdog vendor? Make me one with everything. It’s a very Dad joke.
I’m pretty sure our new puppy is “one with everything” and, when I was a kid, I think I was too. But over time I learned self-consciousness. I also assembled a worldview, a sort of consensus reality. These are wonderful tools. They allow us to cooperate with strangers. Actually, I think that’s a pretty decent definition of civilization: cooperation among strangers. But it comes at a cost. The price of our egocentric identity is separation and isolation and we very much want to escape. To give the rational humanist construct the slip and get back to the garden. Get back, JoJo… Music can make that happen for a while.
How does music make us “one with everything”? It’s a mystery. But it might be partially because music IS real. It obeys the laws of the physical universe: an octave is half the frequency of the one above it and twice that of the one below. A fifth, an octave, a third, a seventh, the whole overtone series, is a physical, mathematical reality.
And live music, performed in an actual, non-virtual space, with an audience of fellow humans can be truly transcendent, a communal emotional event. Covid and its hiatus of nearly two years has brought home to me just how much I need it.
That’s what I want to leave you with and encourage you to do: make live music for live people. Whatever it takes and however you can manage it, alone or with other players, get your music in front of people. Make us one with everything.”
“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation,
the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
— P.J. O’Rourke
Transmission Planning Using a Reliability Criterion
In power system engineering, availability and reliability are two important concepts, but they refer to different aspects of the system’s performance.
Reliability:
Reliability focuses on the likelihood of failure and the ability of the system to sustain operations over time, while availability concerns the actual uptime and downtime of the system, reflecting its readiness to deliver power when required. Both concepts are crucial for assessing and improving the performance of power systems, but they address different aspects of system behavior.
November 2023 Highlights | FERC insight | Volume 10
Determining System and Subsystem Availability Requirements: Resource Planning and Evaluation
Comment: These 1-hour sessions tend to be administrative in substance, meeting the minimum requirements of the Sunshine Act. This meeting was no exception. Access to the substance of the docket is linked here.
Noteworthy: Research into the natural gas supply following Winter Storm Elliot.
UPDATED POLICIES ON U.S. DECARBONIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSITIONS
June 15:FERC Finalizes Plans to Boost Grid Reliability in Extreme Weather Conditions
On Monday June 13th, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission commissioners informed the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that the “environmental justice” agenda prohibits reliable dispatchable electric power needed for national power security. One megawatt of natural gas generation does not equal one megawatt of renewable generation. The minority party on the committee — the oldest standing legislative committee in the House of Representatives (established 1795) — appears indifferent to the reliability consequences of its policy.
Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission
“Our nation’s continued energy transition requires the efficient development of new transmission infrastructure. Federal and state regulators must address numerous transmission-related issues, including how to plan and pay for new transmission infrastructure and how to navigate shared federal-state regulatory authority and processes. As a result, the time is ripe for greater federal-state coordination and cooperation.”
Bibliography:
Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978
Glossary of Terms Used in NERC Reliability Standards
The Major Questions Doctrine and Transmission Planning Reform
As utilities spend billions on transmission, support builds for independent monitoring
States press FERC for independent monitors on transmission planning, spending as Southern Co. balks
Related:
At the July 20th meeting of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tristan Kessler explained the technical basis for a Draft Final Rule for Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements, On August 16th the Commission posted a video reflecting changes in national energy policy since August 14, 2003; the largest blackout in American history.
If you find yourself eating a pecan pie tomorrow, odds are it was grown in Georgia! pic.twitter.com/0FiKTlCAQi
— UGA (@universityofga) November 24, 2021
University of Georgia: Cranberry Pecan Pie
The popularity of Georgia pecan pie can be attributed to several factors:
In partnership with @Yeatssocietyirl, we are hosting a special virtual event to mark the 100th anniversary of the #poem ‘The Second Coming’ by WB #Yeats. Join us on Friday, 13 Nov at 7pm for an evening of discussion and #poetry readings.
🎟️ Register now: https://t.co/gfU24AEFGz pic.twitter.com/zDbzLjslL5
— National Library of Ireland (@NLIreland) November 5, 2020
The history of scones is believed to have originated in Scotland. The name “scone” is said to come from the Dutch word “schoonbrot,” which means “beautiful bread.” Scones have a long and interesting history that dates back several centuries.
Originally, scones were not the sweet, buttery treats we know today. Instead, they were simple unleavened oatcakes or griddle cakes made from barley, oats, or wheat. These early scones were baked on griddles or stovetops rather than being oven-baked.
As time went on, the recipe for scones evolved, and they became more commonly associated with Scotland and England. The Scottish version of scones was typically round and made with oats. They were cooked on a griddle or in a pan and then cut into triangular sections, which were known as “bannocks.” These bannocks were the ancestors of the modern scone.
In the 19th century, with the advent of baking powder and modern ovens, scones began to be baked instead of griddle-cooked. The addition of baking powder allowed scones to rise and become lighter and fluffier. The ingredients were refined to include flour, butter, milk or cream, and a leavening agent like baking powder. This marked the shift from the traditional oat-based scone to the more recognizable wheat-based scone we know today.
Scones’ popularity spread beyond Scotland and England, and they became a common teatime treat across the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries. The addition of raisins, currants, or other dried fruits, as well as sugar, transformed scones into the sweet delicacies that are commonly enjoyed today, often served with clotted cream and jam in the classic English afternoon tea.
In the United States, scones have also become popular, with various regional and cultural variations. American scones may be larger, sweeter, and have a wider variety of flavor options, such as blueberry, cranberry-orange, or chocolate chip. Today, scones continue to be beloved treats enjoyed for breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea, or as a delightful snack with a cup of tea or coffee. Their history reflects centuries of evolution and cultural influence, making them a delightful and enduring part of baking traditions worldwide.
National Standards Authority of Ireland
Standard Scone Recipe
The standard scone is a simple and versatile preparation that can be customized with various additions, such as dried fruits, nuts, or chocolate chips, to suit different tastes.
Here is a basic recipe for making standard scones:
Ingredients:
Instructions:
This standard scone recipe provides a classic and delicious base that you can experiment with by adding various flavors and mix-ins to create your own unique variations.
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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