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Morning Dog Walk

Financial Statement 2024: C$1.411B

 

 

Walking the Dog
Billy Collins

Two universes mosey down the street
Connected by love and a leash and nothing else.
Mostly I look at lamplight through the leaves
While he mooches along with tail up and snout down,
Getting a secret knowledge through the nose
Almost entirely hidden from my sight.

We stand while he’s enraptured by a bush
Till I can’t stand our standing any longer
And haul on the leash to bring him away.
He lives in the moment, which is good for him,
But when I see a stone wall, I think of Greece,
The sort of place he’d have a lot to say about—
The sniffable pots and broken statues,
The seas, the Ionic evenings all in a row.
But he just gives a yelp and comes running over
To smell my palm, and what can I do but
Smile and bend down to give him a hello?

 


York University Facilities Services

Rewind: Animals 100

Animal Safety

“One of the Family” 1880 | Frederick George Cotman

NFPA 150 Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities Code has entered its s025 revision cycle.   Many education communities are responsible for animal safety in academic units, research enterprises. museums and even — as in the United Kingdom — large farm animals that wander freely on campus with students, faculty and staff.  The number of colleges and universities that permit students to live with their pets has expanded; and with it the responsibilities of university administration.

From the document scope:

This standard shall provide the minimum requirements for the design, construction, fire protection, and classification of animal housing facilities.  The requirements of NFPA 150 recognize the following fundamental principles:

(1) Animals are sentient beings with a value greater than that of simple property.

(2) Animals, both domesticated and feral, lack the ability of self-preservation when housed in buildings and other structures.

(3) Current building, fire, and life safety codes do not address the life safety of the animal occupants. The requirements found in NFPA 150 are written with the intention that animal housing facilities will continue to be designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with the applicable building, fire, and life safety codes.

The requirements herein are not intended to replace or rewrite the basic requirements for the human occupants. Instead, NFPA 150 provides additional minimum requirements for the protection of the animal occupants and the human occupants who interact with those animals in these facilities. 

 

A full description of the project is linked below:

Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities Code

Access to the 2025 Edition is linked below:

FREE ACCESS NFPA 150

We provide the transcript of the back-and-forth on the current 2022 edition to inform how education communities can contribute to the improvement of this title; a subject that stirs deep feelings about animal safety in research enterprises.

NFPA 150 First Draft Agenda

NFPA 150 Second Draft Report

Public comment on the Second Draft of the 2025 Edition will be received until March 27, 2024.   

We have been advocating risk-informed animal safety concepts in this document since the 2013 Edition and have found that it is nearly impossible to overestimate the sensitivity of educational communities to the life safety of animals — either for agriculture or medical research.

We maintain the entire NFPA catalog on the standing agenda of our Prometheus colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

 

Issue: [11-1] and [19-5]

Category: Fire Protection, Facility Asset Management, Academic, Risk Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier

More:

Protecting Animals When Disaster Strikes

Animals 300


 


Bibliography:

25 Most Pet-Friendly Colleges

National Institute of Health: Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

International Building Code: Section 304 (Business Group B): Animal hospitals, kennels and pounds

Terrestrial Animal Health Code

IEEE Guide for Animal Deterrents for Electric Power Supply Substations

ASHRAE Animal Facilities

IEEE Livestock Monitoring System

Ventilation Design Handbook on Animal Research Facilities

HVAC Design in Animal Facilities

USDA Animal Welfare Information Center

ISO Assistance Dogs

US Department of Agriculture: Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations

S. 4288: Reducing Animal Testing Act

Guaranteeing safety of animals under risk of fire: conceptual framework and technical issues analysis

Protecting Animals When Disaster Strikes

 

What California College Students are Wearing

“Everything which is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself….
That which is really beautiful has no need of anything”…
— Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)

No Logo Campus Apparel

Cheap Clothes and Costly Consequences

Textiles

Laundry

Evaluating devices to reduce microfiber emissions from washing machines

10 Tampa Bay

Electrical Resource Adequacy

 “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation,
the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
— P.J. O’Rourke

 

“Federal Power Act” | June 10, 1920, Chapter 285 of the 66th Congress] 

Comment on FERC Action

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an independent agency within the U.S. federal government that regulates interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. It oversees wholesale energy markets, pipeline infrastructure, and hydroelectric projects, ensuring fair rates and reliability. While independent, FERC operates under the Department of Energy’s umbrella but does not take direct orders from the executive branch.

FERC enforces energy laws, approves infrastructure projects, and regulates market competition. FERC plays a crucial role in balancing economic, environmental, and energy security concerns, aiming to maintain a stable and efficient energy system across the United States.  Since the U.S. shares interconnected electricity grids with Canada and Mexico, FERC’s decisions on transmission rules and pricing affect energy flows and grid reliability in both countries.

Our interest lies in closing a technical gap that exists upstream from the building service point and downstream from the utility supply point. Some, not all of it, can be accomplished with titles in the IEEE catalog.

Given the dominance of vertical incumbents in the electric power domain, we have submitted a tranche of reliability concepts into the ASHRAE, NFPA and ICC catalogs — not so much with the expectation that they will be gratefully received — but that our proposals will unleash competitive energies among developers of voluntary consensus standards.

One of our proposals was heard at the April-May meetings of the International Code Council.  We are happy to discuss the outcome of that proposal any day at the usual hour.



Commissioner-Led Reliability Technical Conference Agenda: October 16, 2024, 10:00 AM

 


Nothing happened in August

Technical Conference RE: Large Loads Co-Located at Generating Facilities: November 1, 10AM EDT

Echo Chamber Synonyms: mutual admiration society, self congratulatory club,

back patting session, congratulatory loop, closed loop of praise, reciprocal praise fest,

feedback bubble, endless validation cycle, compliment carousel.

Predictive Reliability Analysis of Power Distribution Systems Considering the Effects of Seasonal Factors on Outage Data Using Weibull Analysis Combined With Polynomial Regression


February 2024 Highlights 

Failure Rate Prediction Model of Substation Equipment Based on Weibull Distribution and Time Series Analysis

January 2024 Highlights



Transmission Planning Using a Reliability Criterion

Readings / The Administrative State

In power system engineering, availability and reliability are two important concepts, but they refer to different aspects of the system’s performance.

Reliability:

  • Reliability refers to the ability of a power system to perform its intended function without failure for a specified period under given operating conditions. It is essentially a measure of how dependable the system is.
  • Reliability metrics often include indices such as the frequency and duration of outages, failure rates, mean time between failures (MTBF), and similar measures.
  • Reliability analysis focuses on identifying potential failure modes, predicting failure probabilities, and implementing measures to mitigate risks and improve system resilience.Availability:
  • Availability, on the other hand, refers to the proportion of time that a power system is operational and able to deliver power when needed, considering both scheduled and unscheduled downtime.
  • Availability is influenced by factors such as maintenance schedules, repair times, and system design redundancies.
  • Availability is typically expressed as a percentage and can be calculated using the ratio of the uptime to the total time (uptime plus downtime).
  • Availability analysis aims to maximize the operational readiness of the system by minimizing downtime and optimizing maintenance strategies.

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.

 


August 14, 2003


 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 Act of 1938

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:

Homeland Power Security

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.

What Is A Standard Drink?

 

“It’s a fine line between Saturday night

and Sunday morning” – Jimmy Buffett

 

“Rather a bottle in front of me

than a frontal lobotomy” — Some guy

 

Many people are surprised to learn what counts as a “drink”. The amount of liquid in your glass, can, or bottle does not necessarily match up to how much alcohol is actually in your drink.  Even before the United States federal government withdrew from regulating alcohol, the conversation, and degree of agreement and  attitude, remains remarkably regionally specific:

Missouri University of Science & Technology: What is a Standard Drink?

University of South Alabama: What is a Standard Drink?

Stanford University Office of Alcohol Policy and Education

Other nations serve alcohol to students on campus in university owned facilities.

Maynooth University Student Union County Kildare


College students create the ultimate hangover cure


Wild Blueberry Pie

Standards Maine

World Census of Agriculture

Much like its role as a discoverer of new knowledge and as a large consumer in the energy sector, education communities have a significant role in food security research and as a consumer in its school lunch programs, dormitory, athletic facility and healthcare enterprises.  Accordingly — in much the same way we follow the US Census Bureau’s monthly construction activity report — we follow a data point provided by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as one of our stars to steer by.

The World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates  is a monthly report published by the USDA that provides comprehensive forecast of supply and demand for major crops (global and United States) and livestock (U.S. only). The report provides an analysis of the fundamental condition of the agricultural commodity markets for the use of farmers, governments and other market participants.

 

World Agricultural Supply & Demand Estimates | August 12, 2025

 

 

 

We maintain the WASDE report on our periodic Nourriture colloquia.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone


More

Morrill Land-Grant Act

Family of Mr. Schoenfeldt | Sheridan County, Kansas
Source: Farm Security Administration Russell Lee photographer

print(“Python”)

Python 3.14.0 beta 4 was released July 8th.

 

“Python is the programming equivalent

of a Swiss Army Knife.”

— Some guy

 

The Python Standard Library

Open source standards development is characterized by very open exchange, collaborative participation, rapid prototyping, transparency and meritocracy.   The Python programming language is a high-level, interpreted language that is widely used for general-purpose programming. Python is known for its readability, simplicity, and ease of use, making it a popular choice for beginners and experienced developers alike.  Python has a large and active community of developers, which has led to the creation of a vast ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools that can be used for a wide range of applications. These include web development, scientific computing, data analysis, machine learning, and more.

Another important aspect of Python is its versatility. It can be used on a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and even mobile devices. Python is also compatible with many other programming languages and can be integrated with other tools and technologies, making it a powerful tool for software development.  Overall, the simplicity, readability, versatility, and large community support of Python make it a valuable programming language to learn for anyone interested in software development including building automation.

As open source software, anyone may suggest an improvement to Python(3.X) starting at the link below:

Python Enhancement Program

Python Download for Windows

Python can be used to control building automation systems. Building automation systems are typically used to control various systems within a building, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security, and more. Python can be used to control these systems by interacting with the control systems through the building’s network or other interfaces.

There are several Python libraries available that can be used for building automation, including PyVISA, which is used to communicate with instrumentation and control systems, and PyModbus, which is used to communicate with Modbus devices commonly used in building automation systems. Python can also be used to develop custom applications and scripts to automate building systems, such as scheduling temperature setpoints, turning on and off lights, and adjusting ventilation systems based on occupancy or other variables. Overall, Python’s flexibility and versatility make it well-suited for use in building automation systems.

Subversion®

Building Automation & Control Networks

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