Water 300

"He who does not speak foreign languages
knows nothing about his own.“

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Here's a rough breakdown of the top languages on the web:

English: 55.4% - Russian: 6.6% - Japanese: 5.4% - Spanish: 5.2% - Chinese: 4.6%

One of the most contentious aspects of best practice discovery and promulgation in any domain, and no less so in educational settlements, is an agreed-upon vocabulary and shared understanding.  As we explain elsewhere in this history, when a counter-party disagrees with you, he simply switches out the vocabulary -- i.e. changes definitions or adds or subtracts from the traditional meanings of things.  So we approach this topic several times a year to confirm our bearing on the meaning of things.

We begin 2025 by breaking down this topic into four sections

Language 100: Survey of vocabulary in the standards catalogs relevant to building and managing education settlement real assets; including legal terms.

Language 200: Electrotechnology standard catalogs; including computer programming languages.

Language 300: The English as the language of science and innovation; the birthplace of computing and programming, the internet's native tongue, standardization & open source development; etc.

Language 400: Reserved

We observe National Poetry Month in the United States and Canada every year with an inquiry into changes in the (meaning of) definitions at the foundation of best practice literature; frequently the subject of sporty debate among experts writing codes and standards for the built environment of education communities.

In the United Kingdom, National Poetry Month is celebrated in October, and it is known as "National Poetry Day" which has been observed since 1994. It is an initiative of the Forward Arts Foundation, which aims to encourage people to read, write and perform poetry.

Other countries also have their own poetry celebrations, such as World Poetry Day, which is observed annually on March 21 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to promote the reading, writing, and teaching of poetry worldwide.

In past years we used a Tamil mnemonic because Tamil is the oldest surviving language and remains the spoken language of 80-odd million people of South Asia.  Alas, use of Tamil confounds our Wordpress content management system so in 2024 we began coding this topic in American English

https://standardsmichigan.com/%e0%ae%ae%e0%af%8a%e0%ae%b4%e0%ae%bf-2/

Latin Phrases You Should Know. pic.twitter.com/Erq61gVW29

— Learn Latin (@latinedisce) May 5, 2024

Once median household income is adjusted for cost of living, Utah emerges as the wealthiest state in the nation and Mississippi yet again ranks last. Source: https://t.co/AN3JZqtNnF pic.twitter.com/kv8U3LZlvh

— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) January 3, 2025

Innovation - Standardization - Commoditization run along a continuum.  Today we unpack some of the ideas that hasten (and prohibit) leading practice discovery; how quickly goods and services become a "human right"; why all of this is relevant to education communities and why some believe that commoditization is a myth.

From the Wikipedia

In business literature, commoditization is defined as the process by which goods that have economic value and are distinguishable in terms of attributes (uniqueness or brand) end up becoming simple commodities in the eyes of the market or consumers. It is the movement of a market from differentiated to undifferentiated price competition and from monopolistic competition to perfect competition. Hence, the key effect of commoditization is that the pricing power of the manufacturer or brand owner is weakened: when products become more similar from a buyer's point of view, they will tend to buy the cheapest.

https://twitter.com/StandardsMich/status/1318508254658502657?s=20

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people.

Let your memory be your travel bag.”

-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (From "The Gulag Archipelago")

Today we explain our collaboration with other education settlements in the US and other nations.  We conform to participation requirements set by ANSI US Technical Advisory Groups to the International Organization for Standardization but we also have liaison with other universities in the European Union who conform to the participation requirements of their own national standards bodies.

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.  Because a great deal of content is copyright protected by the International Electrotechnical Commission, International Organization for Standardization and International Telecommunications Union, please contact [email protected] for an advance agenda.

https://standardsmichigan.com/international-standards-teleconference-today-11-am-eastern/

17 equations that changed the world pic.twitter.com/69jV97p8mM

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 21, 2024

https://standardsmichigan.com/iso-tc-309/

https://standardsmichigan.com/iec-2021/

https://standardsmichigan.com/itu-academia/

d

https://standardsmichigan.com/time-frequency-services/

d

https://standardsmichigan.com/readability-of-design-standards/

v

https://standardsmichigan.com/masonry/

"The City" 1952 | Edward Bawden https://t.co/An3zzyTSvdhttps://t.co/V0nw80umD4 pic.twitter.com/zm0yvDAdnl

— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) November 29, 2023

Review of all consensus, consortia and open source codes, standards and regulations regarding energy production and conservation relevant to the education facility industry.

Faculty and staff in the education industry in all nations provide basic research, application research in energy technologies.  The "cities-within-cities" we call the #SmartCampus" also provide crucibles for new testing new technologies as well as provide energy load for utilities operating under all ownership regimes.

Send [email protected] an email for an advance agenda.

https://standardsmichigan.com/agenda-energy-standards-monthly/

Release Calendar 2025

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (MCSI) is released twice a month:

1. Preliminary Report – Released mid-month (usually the second Friday of the month).
2. Final Report – Released at the end of the month (usually the fourth Friday of the month).

Both reports are published at 10:00 AM Eastern Time (ET).

Consumer sentiment down amid disagreements on new government policies

Consumer sentiment fell for the first time in six months, edging down 4% from December.

While assessments of personal finances inched up for the fifth consecutive month, both the short- and long-run business… pic.twitter.com/r2mPTc5XiO

— Michigan News (@UMichiganNews) January 24, 2025

https://youtu.be/D0xSuqKoByQ?si=-pawPMfA1bnY3-FM

https://youtu.be/GxbKuek88NQ?si=v249UC4EAG2qJXlh

https://youtu.be/JkQauI15hlE?si=uAm42E0eGtSCtJPH

Review of development in safety and sustainability best practice catalogs for education community outdoor environment.

https://twitter.com/gmkov/status/1691080398200053762?s=20

https://twitter.com/gmkov/status/1691080398200053762?s=20

Sixteen Dogs Cozying Up Next to the Fireplace

Status check on the catalog of best practice titles covering the management of education community snow and ice management during the coldest months in the Northern Hemisphere.

https://standardsmichigan.com/snow-ice/