How Stupid Would It Be to Put Data Centers in Space?
Riding the orbital data center wave
SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centers in Orbit
Electricity
Natural Gas
Traffic
Water
Noise
Taxation
Security
Relata:
Dr. Gad Saad Named Global Ambassador for The Northwood Idea and Visiting Professor
Gad Saad (Northwood University Michigan) & Jordan Peterson (University of Toronto) discuss the intellectual intransigence in education settlements
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MSU’s Extension’s Beef Production program supports Michigan’s beef industry through research, education, and outreach to enhance producer profitability, sustainability, and quality of life. It focuses on key areas like nutrition, genetics, grazing management, health, reproduction, and economics. Notable efforts include advancing grass-fed beef systems, feedlot management, and beef x dairy crossbreeding.
Conducted at facilities such as the Lake City and Upper Peninsula Research Farms, the program offers workshops, resources (e.g., pricing tools, disease prevention guides), and youth education via 4-H market beef projects and family recipes.
Our Master Gardeners are wrapping up a great educational tour of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. They participated in learning opportunities at Canadian National Parks, agricultural sites, and gardens, and gained a better understanding of Indigenous and Asian cultures. pic.twitter.com/47jcrlYJfv
— MSU Extension (@MSUExtension) July 30, 2024
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers:
The value of diversity in the renewable energy industry and research community
Life cycle assessment of transparent organic photovoltaic for window applications
The Great Lakes contain enough fresh water to cover the land area of the entire United States under 3 meters of water.
We collect 15 video presentations about Great Lake water safety and sustainability prepared by the 8 Great Lake border state colleges and universities and their national and international partners in Canada.
In a state whose land mass was formed by glaciers, has there been climate change in its 10,000 – 15,000 year past? Did the glaciers melt because of sport utility vehicles made in Detroit? We refer you to the Academy of Projectors described in Book Three of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satire on academia in “Gulliver’s Travels”
Open water swimming: No sharks or jellyfish
Great Ladies 👏 pic.twitter.com/dQeKH3rFeV
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) February 8, 2025
When the wicked problems of peace and economic inequality cannot be solved, political leaders, and the battalions of servile administrative muckety-mucks who report to them, resort to fear-mongering about an imagined problem to be solved centuries hence assuming every other nation agrees on remedies of its anthropogenic origin. We would not draw attention to it were it not that large tranches of the global academic community are in on the grift costing hundreds of billions in square-footage for research and teaching hopelessness to our children and hatred of climate change deniers.
Before the internet is scrubbed of information contrary to climate change mania, we recommend a few titles:
“Gulliver’s Travels” Jonathan Swift | Start at Chapter 5, PDF page 235
The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania
Climate Change Craziness Exposed: Twenty-One Climate Change Denials of Environmentalists
Scholar Works: Clifford O. Davidson
The 1943 American bombing of the hydrogen plant at Rjukan Norway — so that the Germans could not make a heavy water hydrogen bomb — resembles the 2026 American bombing of Operation Epic Fury. Inspired by Norwegian family immigration to the shores of Lake Michigan we collect stories of those families fleeing the economic hardship of their homeland before the discovery of North Sea oil.
Relata:
Norsk Hydro: 1943: The Heroes of Telemark
Check Your Privilege
In the late 1960s, the discovery of massive North Sea oil reserves transformed Norway from a modest fishing, shipping, and hydroelectric economy into one of the world’s richest nations. Oil revenues funded an expansive welfare state and created the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. This “outsized good fortune” should temper any sense of moral or cultural superiority some Norwegians express toward America. Striking oil is no guarantee of success — see Venezuela or Nigeria. Norway also benefited from American technology, open markets, and capital.
The United States further provided critical security: liberating Norway in WWII and leading NATO during the Cold War, allowing Norway to focus on welfare rather than heavy defense. No student debt! Arrogance ignores contingency. Norway’s success rests on oil rents, a small homogeneous population, high trust, and luck — not inherent superiority. America’s innovations and security role helped create the global order that enabled such fortunes in Norway specifically and Western Europe generally. Recall the American role in the destruction of the German heavy water refinement plants in November 1943 (The Heroes of Telemark) which bears an uncanny resemblance to the present USA Operation Epic Fury in Iran.
Gratitude and humility suit these discussions better than condescension.
Overdoor, France, ca. 1825; | Smithsonian Design Museum
Education communities have significant food safety responsibilities. Risk gets pushed around global food service counterparties; a drama in itself and one that requires coverage in a separate blog post.*
Since 2013 we have been following the development of food safety standards; among them ANSI/NSF 2: Food Equipment one of a constellation of NSF food safety titles whose provisions cover bakery, cafeteria, kitchen, and pantry units and other food handling and processing equipment such as tables and components, counters, hoods, shelves, and sinks. The purpose of this Standard is to establish minimum food protection and sanitation requirements for the materials, design, fabrication, construction, and performance of food handling and processing equipment.
It is a relatively stable standard; developed to support conformance revenue for products. A new landing page seems to have emerged in recent months:
https://www.nsf.org/testing/food
Manufacturers are required to meet the NEC and CEC electrical codes to have their food equipment sold and used in the United States and Canada. Watch our video for more details. pic.twitter.com/d0vUf4zUl2
— NSF (@NSF_Intl) June 30, 2023
You may be enlightened by the concepts running through this standard as can be seen on a past, pre-pandemic agenda:
NSF 2 Food Safety 2019 Meeting Packet – Final Draft
NSF 2 Food Safety 2019 Meeting Summary – August 21-22 Ann Arbor NSF Headquarters
NSF 2 Food Equipment Fabrication Agenda – FEF – TG – 2021-01-12
Not trivial agendas with concepts that cut across several disciplines involving product manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance. We find a very strong influence of organizations such as Aramark and Sodexo. More on that in a separate post.
From https://t.co/CW9veo96yh: Food Equipment Standards https://t.co/ZwBF9Yr5s0
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) September 19, 2025
Ranchview High School Cafeteria / Irving, Texas
This committee – along with several other joint committees –meets frequently online. If you wish to participate, and receive access to documents that explain the scope and scale of NSF food safety standards, please contact Allan Rose, (734) 827-3817, arose@nsf.org. NSF International welcomes guests/observers to nearly all of its standards-setting technical committees. We expect another online meeting hosted by this committee any day now.
Keep in mind that all NSF International titles are on the standing agenda of our Nourriture (Food) colloquia; open to everyone. See our CALENDAR for the next meeting.
University of Indiana
Issue: [13-113] [15-126]
Category: Facility Asset Management, Healthcare, Residence Hall, Athletics
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Tracey Artley, Keith Koster, Richard Robben
LEARN MORE:
ANSI Blog | Changes to NSF 2 Food Safety Equipment Standard
NSF International Food Safety 2018 Meeting Summary – 2018-08-22 – Final Draft
2017 Food Code | US Food & Drug Administration
Hygiene Requirements For The Design Of Meat And Poultry Processing Equipment
University of Michigan Net Position 2024: $22.335 billion
Michigan Central | Michigan West | Michigan Upper Peninsula | Michigan South East
Bert Askwith worked his way through college shuttling students to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport until his graduation in 1931; when two semester tuition cost $300. With no student debt he founded and grew Campus Coach Lines that still provides the same services at many other US campuses. He donated part of his fortune to establish a cafe in the Undergraduate Library; which now serves an expanding and bewildering catalog of caffeine-based drinks found in educational settlements worldwide.
The caffeine spectrum pic.twitter.com/QYhq6Rppsc
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 3, 2024
When new foreign national students arrive at U.S. colleges and universities, they often enter environments where a left-leaning worldview is prominent and pervasive. Many campuses today emphasize themes of social justice, equity, and systemic critique that align with a preference for larger, more interventionist government. Faculty and administrative messaging can reinforce these ideas, portraying government as the primary instrument for addressing inequality, redistributing resources, and regulating social behavior.
For many international students, this can be both eye-opening and disorienting. They may come from countries with different political traditions, including skepticism of state power due to experiences with corruption or authoritarianism. Yet, in the university setting, they encounter curricula and campus cultures that valorize activist government solutions while often criticizing markets, traditional institutions, or individual responsibility. Programs in the humanities and social sciences in particular tend to frame policy questions through a progressive lens that sees expansive government action as not just beneficial but morally necessary.
This immersion—some might call it a “marination”—shapes perspectives over time. Students adopt the language of social justice, climate policy, and identity politics, often without exposure to robust counterarguments. While this experience can broaden horizons and foster empathy for marginalized groups, it also risks narrowing intellectual diversity and suppressing debate about the limits and costs of government power. For international students, it can mean graduating with a worldview significantly more aligned with the American academic left than with the diverse political traditions of their home countries.
My D-i-l never wanted to be a farmer’s wife. I think she is killin’ it. pic.twitter.com/uBpRRqhG44
— Leslie (@Hopeleslie1234) August 10, 2024
Meet Raley Kirk from San Saba, TX. Raising hair sheep and Spanish goats in the Texas Hill Country, Raley is proud to play a part in providing the food and fiber our country depends on every day.
For her, National Ag Week is about highlighting that meaningful work and ensuring… pic.twitter.com/9KKC4pzRgC
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) March 19, 2026
DLB Associates | Chicago, Illinois
Abstract. The key feature of this article is the application of quantitative method for evaluating risk and conveying the results into a power system design that is scaled according to hazards present in any given emergency management district. These methods employ classical lumped parameter modeling of power chain architectures and can be applied to any type of critical facility, whether it is a stand-alone structure, or a portion of stand-alone structure, such as a police station or government center. This article will provide a risk assessment roadmap for one of the most common critical facilities that should be designated as COPS per NEC 708-a 911 call center. The existing methods of reliability engineering will be used in the risk assessment.
* Robert Schuerger is the lead author on this paper
CLICK HERE to order complete article: IEEE Industry Applications Magazine | Volume 19 Issue 5 • Sept.-Oct.-2013
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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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