Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

snow poetry, school closing, paczki, Kindergarten, NAAPID

Since the storm is coming, I'd remind you of this page I'm collecting snow poetry on. ORD was showing 5 hour delays a few minutes ago and there are expectations of 6-10 inches.

UPDATE: Wednesday, March 5 2008. Ann Arbor Public Schools closed. Check the Arborwiki sledding page for your favorite place to slide.

UPDATE: Thursday, February 7 2008. WWJ Radio has a comprehensive schools closed list for SE Michigan. In the area already closed are several schools in Livingston Co (Brighton, Howell, Pinckney) but no news yet for Ann Arbor. Some snow day reading for kids to inspire you.

UPDATE: Friday, February 1, 2008 The Ann Arbor Public Schools are closed today.
UPDATE: Snow depth maps daily from Weather Underground

UPDATE: NOHRSC is "the ultimate source of snow information"

Ann Arbor snow day hotlines by telephone:

Ann Arbor City snow desk 734-994-2359
Ann Arbor Public Schools closing info 734-994-8684

For Ann Arbor school closings information, consult your second grader, who is planning a play date. If you don't know about that you can check the Ann Arbor school closing information page which says in part:

Inclement weather may require closing schools or changing school schedules and bus routes. The decision is made after an early inspection of road conditions and school facilities, as well as current or forecasted weather conditions. When schools are closed or schedules and/or bus routes are changed, information is sent immediately to the major radio and television stations-by 6:00 a.m. if at all possible.

February 5 is Paczki Day, and the authoritative source of information on this day is the Hamtramck Star's Keyword(s): paczki collection.

If you know of good Paczki in Ann Arbor, Arborwiki would like to know abou them. On my block downtown they are being sold at Amadeus.

If you have a kindergartener starting in the fall, it's time for the Ann Arbor Public Schools Kindergarten Roundup schedule. The Burns Park dates are 2/11/08 and 2/19/08, and if you have any questions as a new parent to the school I'd be happy to help find someone to answer. The 2/11 date is National African American Parent Involvement Day, which was founded by Joseph Dulin:

"Every parent wants their child to have a better quality of life than they themselves had. It is the American dream, and for many African Americans, this dream has not been realized as a result of their child's failure in school. Education is the key to success and parents are educators' greatest allies." Joseph Dulin

That's it for tonight.

links for 2008-01-31

• The Shifted Librarian » Browsing the Virtual New Bookshelf
  Allen County Public Library has a cool way to browse its “new books” section online. Superpatron Ed Vielmetti first coded a “wall of books” a couple of years ago, and Mike Cunningham wrote a book cover browser for the 2006 Talis Mashing up the Lib
  (tags: books cool library marketing mashup reference software inspiration bibliotek superpatron)

links for 2008-01-28

• NetworkX
  NetworkX (NX) is a Python package for the creation, manipulation, and study of the structure, dynamics, and functions of complex networks.
  (tags: network socnet framework python visualization graphviz)
• Bubble glazing - thermal insulation using bubble wrap
  How about taking a product destined for a rubbish tip (disposable packaging) and turning it into window insulation that thermally outperforms double glazing at $2 per window?
  (tags: brrr cold bubble-wrap insulation glazing)
• Digital Tools Help Users Save Energy, Study Finds - New York Times
  “I was astounded at times at the response we got from customers,” said Robert Pratt, a staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the program director for the demonstration project. “It shows that if you give people simple tool
  (tags: robert-pratt pnnl pnwnl ubicomp incentive-centered-design gaming-the-energy-system)
• Internet Marketing Swipe File
  A swipe file is simply a file or collection of marketing messages, headlines, techniques, etc. Essentially, whenever you see an example of great marketing you add it to your marketing collection.
  (tags: swipe-file marketing adveristing)

links for 2008-01-27

• City of Ashland, Oregon - Easement
  The above named Grantor grants to the City of Ashland, Oregon, "Grantee", a perpetual non-exclusive easement in gross to use, operate, inspect, repair, maintain and remove and replace a public pedestrian and bicycle easement
  (tags: easement bicycle oregon ashland)
• Digg / Criscenti
  Dan Criscenti on Digg
  (tags: digg annarbor party-like-its-4810x)
• Google opens shop on Main - Ann Arbor
  "I have the phone number of the gentleman at Google who's in charge of the new building, and I can call him anytime I want," Hieftje said.
  (tags: annarbor stick-around-ann-arbor the-mayor teh-googe michigan party-like-its-48104 party-like-its-2006)
• Streets as Places | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
  In most examples of 20th century community development, transportation planning has been separated from community planning, and communities have been forced to react to transportation decisions that focused solely on throughput for the automobile.
  (tags: transportation urban urbanplanning)
• Mark Maynard - let's have that drink february 21st at frenchie's
  OK, I talked with Linda French and she’s agreed to give us the front part of Frenchie’s from 7:00 to 9:00 on the evening of Thursday, February 21 for our little get together of bloggers, local elected officials, and blog readers.
  (tags: beer bloggers blogging ypsi ypsilanti did-i-mention-beer party-like-its-2008 party-like-its-4819x frenchies party-like-its-february party-like-its-thursday)
• Department of Statistics - University of Michigan
  UM has a good stat dept
  (tags: statistics stats math umich annarbor michigan)
• Garrett Scott, Bookseller: Home Page
  We have moved! Having found that a mere two hundred square feet had grown too confining for our bookselling operation, we have moved the business out of our home and into a commercial warehouse space. You may find us at 1924 Packard Street (Rear) in Ann A
  (tags: books local annarbor antiquarian bookseller)

links for 2008-01-26

• Trenary Outhouse Races
  say ya to da UP, eh? Trenary, home of Trenary Toast and the annual Outhouse Races. Photos from Da Yoopers Tourist Trap. wish there was a downstate port-a-potty race to go with it.
  (tags: trenary michigan yooper outhouse race pictures awesome party-like-its-49891)

links for 2008-01-25

• Own Page One - Internet Yellow Pages vs. Google AdWords: Getting the most from whole Sales Cycle
  Jon argues that Google has “no reason” to buy a Yellow Pages company. Actually there is a very good reason for Google to purchase a Yellow Page company: visitors coming through Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sources have different behavioral characterist
  (tags: yp iyp yellow-pages adwords personas analytics web-analytics-wednesday)
• New Year's Gourmet Dinner Trek - Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti
  trek route along the huron river from ann arbor to ypsilanti, 13 miles mostly flat, it would be a good ice bike route. beer at the ypsi terminus.
  (tags: annarbor ypsi icebike trek)
• Economics Blog : Economics According to Google
  Varian: During my time at Google we have built up a world-class group of quantitative analysts, and the economics team will complement these existing resources. Google has a great infrastructure for data analysis, and a management team that is very recept
  (tags: analytics economics economist hal-varian chief-economist google marketing)

note to self: are windmills prohibited by my city zoning?

Would it be OK to put a windmill on my chimney to replace the television antenna, and if so are there any restrictions on size, weight, or anything else in the Ann Arbor city code?

The Half Bakery has a lovely collection of great weird ideas about a windmill powered friction oven, which concludes roughly that chimneys don't have the sort of structural integrity to be whipped around in the wind.

If it was an antique weathervane it might fetch a pretty price on the auction market; this helped the Lexington Historical Society score nearly a cool million dollars for an old gas station weathervane. No cogeneration there though.

Looking at the patents we have this:

3691829 Weather Vane Anomometer

there's a cool water-flow powered LED lighting shower waterhead too - get some wattage from the water company. in-home microhydro!

Technorati Tags: windmill, microhydro

buy local, sell global

note to self: buy local, sell global is a good strategy.

buy local, sell local is also a good strategy.
buy global, sell local is also a good strategy.
buy global, sell global can also be a good strategy.

so at some point it's about how well you do any of these.

note to self: only brush the ones you want to keep

time to make a dental appointment.

Technorati Tags: dentist, note-to-self

links for 2008-01-23

• donuts and search marketing - Google Search
  two regional competitive advantages of the Ann Arbor, MI area are donuts and search marketing.
  (tags: donuts search marketing)
• Dentist honors MLK Day with free services - Latest from the Ann Arbor News - MLive.com
  (tags: mlk-day mlk dentist dental free service)
• Free Dental Day - ArborWiki
  Annual day of free dental services in Ann Arbor on MLK Day.
  (tags: mlk mlk-day dental dentist)