About
The Institute
An independent research institute studying the only orientation that matters. Independent in the sense that no one has offered.
B. Chase
Director of Angle
Founded the institute after an argument at a schema review that he now concedes he did not win. Owns the protractor. Sole member of the Standards Committee, which he notes is not the same as being unopposed.
Internal Platform
Team of one, occasionally two
Runs the single production node. Performed the 04:00 rotation. Filed the shim purchase order. Has asked twice whether the institute needs a second node and has been told twice that a second node would introduce an unverified orientation.
Developer Relations
Conference liaison
Has been rejected by four conferences and one art track. Carries the protractor to events. Recorded the hallway conversation that remains the institute’s highest-value external engagement.
Standards Committee
Ratification
Consists of B. Chase. Has ratified 45°, deprecated bandwidth, and formally recorded a dissent against itself in RFC-D45 §7.1, which it considers due process.
The Protractor
Instrument of record
Acquired 2026. Does not round. Detected the 0.0003° drift that the dashboard could not represent. Has never been wrong. There are now two, which took us embarrassingly long to understand as a requirement.
The Northeast Corner
Adversary
Load-bearing masonry, 1911. Settled over the winter by an amount characterized in writing by our landlord as “well within tolerance.” Currently held at 45.0000° by four aluminum shims. Under observation.
Facilities
Third floor of a converted brick warehouse, 1911. One rack, bolted to the floor in the northeast corner. One laser inclinometer ($340). Two protractors. Four aluminum shims.
The rack is where the rack is. Relocating it would introduce an unverified orientation, which is the precise condition our incident report exists to warn against.
Funding
None. The institute is funded by the same mechanism that funds most independent research, which is that one person paid for a domain name and did not stop.
Publications
Nine research notes, one position paper, one specification at draft 4, one benchmark suite whose methodology we disclose in the first paragraph because burying it would make us the thing we are satirizing.
Zero peer-reviewed publications. Four conference rejections, one of which is framed.
Contact
We do not publish an address, because the address is a building that moves.
Objections should be submitted in writing. Written objections are the only kind that can be recorded in RFC-D45 §7.1, and §7.1 is, at present, the most collaborative section of the specification.