Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Loading
loading..

History of the English Speaking Peoples

Michigan Central

Since so much of what we do in standards setting is built upon a foundation of a shared understanding and agreement of the meaning of words (no less so than in technical standard setting) that time is well spent reflecting upon the origin of the nouns and verbs of that we use every day.   Best practice cannot be discovered, much less promulgated, without its understanding secured with common language.

Word Counts

2024 Alumni Awards

Cambridge: English language education in the era of generative AI

Emergency sound systems at sports venues

University of Bolton Lancashire

A rare find in best practice literature is a title that slices horizontally through a number of “silos” owned by US-based domain incumbents such as NFPA, ICC, IEEE and others.  Several occupancy classifications run interstitially and present challenging risk aggregations–similarly recognized in the EU–when 100,000 people must be put out of harms way in less than 60 seconds.  One such title is Code of Practice: BS 7827 Designing, specifying, maintaining and operating emergency sound systems for sports grounds, large public buildings, and venues.  From the project prospectus:

Maintenance, Emergency measures, Safety devices, Reports, Crowd safety, Certification (approval), Inspection, Audio systems, Forms (paper), Speech transmission systems, Reliability, Instructions for use, Personnel, Sound intensity, Approval testing, Training, Audio equipment, Performance, Stadia, Warning devices, Electric power systems, Alarm systems, Signal distortion, Sports facilities, Safety measures, Public-address systems, Audibility, Acoustic measurement, Reception, Sound reproduction, Buildings, Control panels

The current 2019 Edition was released October 2019 and is assumed to be stable.  You can tell by the list of normative references from European Union standards developers that event safety is an established discipline and one that requires continual attention despite the circumstances of the pandemic.

Michigan Stadium is the largest university-owned sports venue in the world. with nominal seating capacity of 110,000 and auxiliary enterprises that add another 20,000.

More information about how our colleagues may contribute to the development of future revisions to this titles should communicate directly with BSI Group Technical Committee EPL/100.  We collaborate with European Union electrotechnical professionals through the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.

We maintain this title on the standing agenda of our Sport and Global colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue:[19-158]

Category: Sport, Global, Information & Communications Technology, Life Safety

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Mike Hiler

 

 

 

 

Eurocodes

CLICK ON IMAGE TO LAUNCH INTERACTIVE MAP

The Eurocodes are ten European standards (EN; harmonised technical rules) specifying how structural design should be conducted within the European Union. These were developed by the European Committee for Standardization upon the request of the European Commission.  The purpose of the Eurocodes is to provide:

  • A means to prove compliance with the requirements for mechanical strength and stability and safety in case of fire established by European Union law.[2]
  • A basis for construction and engineering contract specifications.
  • A framework for creating harmonized technical specifications for building products (CE mark).

Since March 2010 the Eurocodes are mandatory for the specification of European public works and are intended to become the de facto standard for the private sector. The Eurocodes therefore replace the existing national building codes published by national standard bodies, although many countries have had a period of co-existence. Additionally, each country is expected to issue a National Annex to the Eurocodes which will need referencing for a particular country (e.g. The UK National Annex). At present, take-up of Eurocodes is slow on private sector projects and existing national codes are still widely used by engineers.

Eurocodes appear routinely on the standing agendas of several of our daily colloquia, among them the AEDificare, Elevator & Lift and Hello World! colloquia.    See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.


More

REGULATION (EU) No 305/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

Building Environment Design

Cambridge Center for Smart Infrastructure & Construction

“No village or individual shall be compelled to make bridges at river banks,

except those who from of old are legally bound to do so.”

— Magna Cara Clause 23 (Limiting forced labor for infrastructure) 

“Clare Hall and King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, from the Banks of the River Cam” / Joseph Mallord William Turner (1793)

 

Smart Infrastructure: Getting More From Strategic Assets

Dr Jennifer Schooling, Director of CSIC

Dr Ajith Parlikad, CSIC Co-Investigator and Senior Lecturer

Mark Enzer, Global Water Sector Leader

Mott MacDonald; Keith Bowers, Principal Tunnel Engineer, London Underground

Ross Dentten, Asset Information and Configuration Manager, Crossrail

Matt Edwards, Asset Maintenance and Information Manager, Anglian Water Services

Jerry England, Group Digital Railway Director, Network Rail

Volker Buscher, Director, Arup Digital

 

Smart Infrastructure is a global opportunity worth £2trn-4.8trn. The world is experiencing a fourth industrial revolution due to the rapid development of technologies and digital abundance.

Smart Infrastructure involves applying this to economic infrastructure for the benefit of all stakeholders. It will allow owners and operators to get more out of what they already have, increasing capacity, efficiency and resilience and improving services.

It brings better performance at lower cost. Gaining more from existing assets is the key to enhancing service provision despite constrained finance and growing resource scarcity. It will often be more cost-effective to add to the overall value of mature infrastructure via digital enhancements than by physical enhancements – physical enhancements add `more of the same’, whereas digital enhancements can transform the existing as well.

Smart Infrastructure will shape a better future. Greater understanding of the performance of our infrastructure will allow new infrastructure to be designed and delivered more efficiently and to provide better whole-life value.

Data is the key – the ownership of it and the ability to understand and act on it. Industry, organisations and professionals need to be ready to adjust in order to take advantage of the emerging opportunities. Early adopters stand to gain the most benefit. Everyone in the infrastructure sector has a choice as to how fast they respond to the changes that Smart Infrastructure will bring. But everyone will be affected.

Change is inevitable. Progress is optional. Now is the time for the infrastructure industry to choose to be Smart.

 

LEARN MORE:

Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction


Perspective: Since this paper is general in its recommendations, we provide examples of specific campus infrastructure data points that are difficult, if not impossible, to identify and “make smart” — either willfully, for lack of funding, for lack of consensus, for lack of understanding or leadership:

    1. Maintenance of the digital location of fire dampers in legacy buildings or even new buildings mapped with BIM.  Doors and ceiling plenums are continually being modified and the As-Built information is usually not accurate.  This leads to fire hazard and complicates air flow and assuring occupant temperature preferences (i.e. uncontrollable hot and cold spots) 
    2. Ampere readings of feeder breakers downstream from the electric service main.  The power chain between the service substation and the end-use equipment is a “no-man’s land” in research facilities that everyone wants to meter but few ever recover the cost of the additional metering.
    3. Optimal air flow rates in hospitals and commercial kitchens that satisfies both environmental air hazards and compartmentalized air pressure zones for fire safety.
    4. Identification of students, staff and faculty directly affiliated with the campus versus visitors to the campus.
    5. Standpipe pressure variations in municipal water systems
    6. Pinch points in municipal sewer systems in order to avoid building flooding.
    7. How much of university data center cost should be a shared (gateway) cost, and how much should be charged to individual academic and business units?
    8. Should “net-zero” energy buildings be charged for power generated at the university central heating and electric generation plant?
    9. How much staff parking should be allocated to academic faculty versus staff that supports the healthcare delivery enterprises; which in many cases provides more revenue to the university than the academic units?
    10. Finally, a classical conundrum in facility management spreadsheets: Can we distinguish between maintenance cost (which should be covered under an O&M budget) and capital improvement cost (which can be financed by investors)

 

 

Fish and Chips and the British Working Class

“Fish and Chips” | Fred Laidler (1918–1988)

Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, 1870-1930

Fish and chips was in many ways the pioneer fast-food industry.  It became an essential component of working-class diet and popular culture in parts of London, and over wide areas of industrial midland and northern England and southern Scotland, in the early decades of the twentieth century…I propose to argue that the fish and chip trade was not only important enough in itself to justify sustained historical analysis, but also that it provides a useful vantage point for examining important changes in British society more generally.”

— John Walken, 1998, Journal of Social History


“Thine Be the Glory”

Sacred Spaces

“Thine Be the Glory” (originally “À toi la gloire” in French) is a Christian hymn written by Swiss pastor and hymnwriter Edmond Louis Budry in 1884. The hymn was composed to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, making it particularly associated with Easter. Budry, a minister in the Reformed Church of Vevey, Switzerland, wrote the text in French, inspired by the triumphant and victorious nature of Christ’s resurrection.

The tune commonly used for the hymn is adapted from a piece in George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus (1747), specifically the chorus “See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes.” This lively and majestic melody was arranged for the hymn by 1885, when the text and tune were first published together in the Swiss hymnal L’Organiste. The English translation, which begins “Thine be the glory, risen, conqu’ring Son,” was made by Richard Birch Hoyle in 1923, enabling the hymn to gain widespread popularity in English-speaking congregations.

The hymn’s text draws heavily on biblical themes, particularly from the New Testament accounts of the Resurrection (e.g., Matthew 28, 1 Corinthians 15). It emphasizes Christ’s victory over death, the hope of eternal life, and the call for believers to offer praise and glory to God.

 

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory, thou o’er death hast won;
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.

Refrain:
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, thou o’er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the Church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;
for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life;
life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love:
bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.

Places of Worship

Layout mode
Predefined Skins
Custom Colors
Choose your skin color
Patterns Background
Images Background
error: Content is protected !!
Skip to content