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PaperclipPerfector  12hr ago (text post)   422 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 5, 2026

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Very interesting document from ICC (International Code Council): The EFSP (Essential Fire Safety Provisions)

Apparently, the goal is to provide an entry-level, stand-alone document that can be adopted in undeveloped countries without all the complexity of the full-fledged IBC (International Building Code) and IFC (International Fire Code). Editor's note:

During my career as a fire-safety consultant, I have had the opportunity to promote the adoption of modern fire codes outside the United States. On many occasions, when I engaged with authorities, I received comments indicating that these codes were too overwhelming. I remember a meeting with the mayor of the city of Asunción, in Paraguay, after a devastating fire in a supermarket in which 428 lost their lives. After I suggested to the mayor that his city should adopt NFPA 1 [an IFC competitor], he told me in no uncertain terms that, if he were to propose adopting such a voluminous code, his days as a democratically elected politician would be numbered.

Years later, I came to understand that the mayor was right, and I began exploring different approaches to making modern building codes more accessible in emerging nations with limited implementation capacity.

The EFSP appears to consist of abridged versions of the following items.

EFSPOriginal
Chapters 1–6IBC chapters 1–6
Chapters 7–10IBC/IFC chapters 7–10 (they are not identical, but do have a lot of overlap)
Appendix AIBC chapter 33
Appendices B–DIFC appendices B–D
Appendix EIFC chapter 32

In print, it amounts to 363 pages—a whopping 75-percent reduction from the combined 1444 pages of the IBC and the IFC. The price of a watermarked PDF is just 56 dollars, versus 322 dollars for IBC+IFC—an 86-percent reduction.

All three of these documents have official Spanish translations. ICC also has worked with governments that are neither Anglophone nor Hispanophone, such as Oman and Pakistan.

Fun fact: Incest between consenting adults is legal in New Jersey. In recent years, bills that would ban it have been submitted by politicians of both major parties (Democratic 2024–2027, Republican 2014–2021, Democratic 2014–2017), but have died in committee.

According to Wikipedia (1 2), incest between consenting adults is illegal in almost all the other states of the US, including Pennsylvania (example conviction) and New York (example conviction).

Interesting report from the United Nations Secretary-General on the UN's drive for multilingualism

Websites under the purview of the Department of Global Communications continued to demonstrate a high level of parity across official languages. As at 30 September 2025, 90 per cent of the 318 web properties on the un.org domain were available in the six official languages. User engagement data for 2024–2025 show that page views remained highest in English, followed by Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Arabic.

UN official languageProportion of page views on un.org (%)
English61.5
Spanish17.7
Russian7.6
French5.4
Chinese4.7
Arabic3.2

For several entities, multilingual web and social media activities were increasingly constrained by resource limitations. Funding cuts and staffing gaps led to the suspension or significant scaling-back of updates to non-English web pages, the accumulation of translation backlogs and greater reliance on prioritization of essential content. As a result, in those cases, if content was made available in more than one language, it was often the more stagnant content, and short-lived content was not being translated. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that the ad hoc and limited updating of its multilingual web content may have contributed to the decline recorded in readership and website traffic.

The 60 United Nations information centres played an instrumental role in conveying the Organization’s messages in multiple languages, including non-official languages to address the needs of local audiences. Information centres translated and disseminated over 4,500 informational materials in 45 languages, produced press releases and press statements in 27 languages, disseminated over 300 local op-eds in 15 languages and produced 150 podcasts in Arabic, English and Spanish. They also produced videos in 24 languages, which were widely shared on social media platforms, and organized 130 Model United Nations simulations in 17 languages, reaching approximately 40,000 students worldwide. Information centres maintained websites in 36 languages and social media accounts in 31 languages. [lengthy footnotes listing the languages omitted]

See also the Strategic Framework on Multilingualism.

Languages spoken confidentlyProportion of Secretariat staff (%)
19
239
3 or more52

Seems like a very positive move to separate the “job creation” component of a lot of this regulation from the actually necessary part. Maybe eventually this will make its way back to us.

Not really. Most of what was eliminated has less to do with "job creation" and more to do with specific circumstances that only apply to certain industrial processes. For a made-up example, suppose lithium ion battery manufacturing has special considerations that mean that certain equipment needs an independent fire suppression system, some processes must be separated from others, and some materials need to be stored in special areas. Since most developing nations aren't going to have these kinds of facilities, there's no need to put them in a condensed version. But if you're going to have a comprehensive reference volume for municipalities with varying needs, then it makes sense to include these standards.

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