Vacuum

Mark Frauenfelder, "Making Makers", April 5, 2013 at Chesebrough Auditorium, U of Michigan North Campus

As originally noted by Dale Grover to the GO-Tech mailing list:

Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make Magazine and co-editor of the blog Boing Boing, will be giving a lecture "Making Makers" this Friday, April 5, 6-7:30 pm at the Chesebrough Auditorium, 220 Chrysler Center, 2121 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor MI 48109

(Map: http://www.engin.umich.edu/facilities/maps/chrysler.html)

Free, open to public. Plan ahead for where you want to park; a number of lots are free parking after 5:00 pm.

"Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder of the collaborative weblog Boing Boing, will present a short and colorful history of making things, and then launch into the amazing new tools, technologies, and social changes that are driving an all-ages maker movement. He'll conclude with a gallery of fun and fascinating homemade inventions."

Event page: http://www.lib.umich.edu/giving-mlibrary/events/making-makers

Ann Arbor Spring CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Fair, Sunday, March 24, 2013 at Pittsfield Grange

Kim Bayer asked me to pass this event along, which sounds like a great time if you are considering getting a CSA farm share for 2013 in the Ann Arbor area.

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Greetings

Slow Food Huron Valley invites you to the first annual CSA Fair on Sunday, March 24, 2013 from 2-4pm at the Pittsfield Grange. It is free to attend, and more than 20 CSAs will be represented. Meet CSA farmers, find out which option works for you and sign up for the perfect CSA match - whether it's vegetables, humanely raised meat, whole grains, prepared meals, frozen fruits and vegetables, and more!  A CSA membership is the most affordable way to get local, sustainable food into your diet AND it gives a vote of confidence to our farmers.

In addition to the CSA farms, Packard Health Clinic will be on hand with information about their free health insurance programs. And the Great Lakes CSA Coalition will be there talking about establishing insurance wellness rebates for CSA members.  The Pittsfield Grange will also have information about Grange programs!

PS: sign up for a CSA on the 24th and enter our drawing...if your name is drawn you get reimbursed so your CSA share is FREE!

SPRING CSA FAIR
When: Sunday, March 24, 2013 from 2-4pm
Where: Pittsfield Grange, 3337 Ann Arbor-Saline Rd., Ann Arbor, MI
More info: slowfoodhuronvalley@gmail.com

a2b3 meeting non-summary for Thursday, January 24, 2013 at Eastern Accents

A bunch of folks met for lunch on Thursday. Here's some notes from that meeting.

I asked people how they stayed warm. They dress in layers, use solar thermal heating, wear sweaters, wear hats, huddle under electric blankets, and all manner of good adaptive Michigan behavior.

Some events coming up, each of which features some a2b3 group member. Some details elided in the interests of brevity, click to links for more details.

Already happened: Linda Diane Feldt spoke at Crazy Wisdom about the liver. "The liver is the largest and most critical organ for detoxifying the blood, moving lymph, and processing food and storing nutrients. I'm in awe of how well it functions, and how much it does." About 18 people were at the event.

Friday night 1/24/13 is David Bloom and Friends playing lounge-jazz standards at Chelsea's "Back to the Roots" cafe, details on Facebook.

Thursday 1/31/13 2-8p at Burton Manor in Livonia is ACE '13, the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurs. Details on their web site; volunteer opportunities are available which I'm happy to help you track down if you're interested.

Saturday 2/16/13 10a-noon at Eastern Accents is the 4th Death Cafe, led by Merilynne Rush. Notes on the 3d meeting are here with contact info and more details.

Wednesday 2/27/13 from 7pm to 8:30pm in the Multi-Purpose Room is Dan Romanchik about how to self-publish e-books, based on his experience with writing books on amateur radio. Event details.

Thanks to everyone for coming!

Jon Udell, "Why Johnny Can't Syndicate", Friday January 18 2013, noon to 1:00 p.m., University of Michigan School of Information

Copied from the event announcement:

Date and time: 

 01/18/2013 - 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Location: 

 Ehrlicher Room, 3100 North Quad

Speaker: 

 Jon Udell

Sponsor: 

 Yahoo, School of Information

In this lecture on "Why Johnny Can't Syndicate," speaker Jon Udell will review a case study — conducted in Ann Arbor and elsewhere — that uses the syndication of public calendars to explore what people do and don't understand about the Web's core principles, how we can enlarge that understanding, and why it matters that we do.

Udell is an author, information architect, software developer, and new media innovator. In 2007 Udell joined Microsoft Research as a writer, interviewer, speaker, and experimental software developer. Currently he is building and explaining a calendar network that's based on open standards and runs in the Windows Azure cloud.

His 1999 book, Practical Internet Groupware, helped lay the foundation for what we now call social software. Udell was formerly a software developer at Lotus, BYTE magazine's executive editor and Web maven, and an independent consultant.

A hands-on thinker, Udell's analysis of industry trends has always been informed by his own ongoing experiments with software, information architecture, and new media.

From 2002 to 2006 he was InfoWorld's lead analyst, author of the weekly Strategic Developer column, and blogger-in-chief. During his InfoWorld tenure he also pioneered the medium now known as screencasting and produced an audio show, Interviews with Innovators.

Udell provided the following abstract:

"In Why Johnny Can't Read (1955), Rudolf Flesch ranted that 'horrible, stupid, emasculated, pointless, tasteless little readers' were depriving kids of 'Andersen's Fairy Tales and The Arabian Nights and Mark Twain, and anything interesting and worthwhile.' He  argued: 'If you equip kids with the right conceptual tools they can read anything.'

"As we colonize the cloud we can read — and write — in important new ways. But we're failing to equip most people with the right conceptual tools for these emerging modes of literacy. A web of connected information systems entails such concepts as authority over data, indirection, standard ways to structure and exchange data, controlled vocabularies, publish-and-subscribe networks, and use and recombination of services.

"Students of the computer and information sciences learn and apply these principles. Others can too, but because they mostly don't they remain stuck at a 'Fun with Dick and Jane' level of Web literacy.

"In this talk we'll review a case study, conducted in Ann Arbor and elsewhere, that uses the syndication of public calendars to explore what people do and don't understand about the Web's core principles, how we can enlarge that understanding, and why it matters that we do."

 

 

Contact: 

 Allison Wachter

Contact email: 

 wachtera@umich.edu

Ann Arbor Death Cafe series starts Saturday, November 17, 2012, 10:00 a.m. at Eastern Accents

A Death Cafe is a safe place where people get together to talk about death and have tea and delicious cake. The idea originated in Switzerland as the "cafe mortel", is organized from the UK, and has spread to France, Australia and the US. Events are low key, held in public places, and are safe and informal. 

The Ann Arbor Death Cafe is the first of these events to be held in Michigan. It is hosted by Merilynne Rush, who is a retired nurse and home birth midwife and who has been active locally in at home death care and natural burials since 2008. I talked to her today about it and she said that people "don't have enough chance to talk about death in their life."

The first meeting of the group is at Eastern Accents on Saturday, November 17, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Subsequent meetings are on the third Saturday of each month, except for the December meetup which is on December 8. There is no fee for attending, but please RSVP to Merilynne at msh.rush@gmail.com so that she and the restaurant can make plans.

For more information, please see:

• Merilynne Rush's announcement, "Death Cafe comes to Ann Arbor"
• DeathCafe.com, the organizing body behind this series of events
• Twitter: @DeathCafe
• A Facebook page for the Death Cafe has information on events around the world
• A 2010 account of a Paris Death Cafe in The Independent

 

 

Ann Arbor District Library to circulate electronic music tools; Moog Foundation event August 1, 2012

Thanks to Eli Neiburger for the heads up for this event - 

The Ann Arbor District Library is launching a new circulating collection of electronic music tools, and they are brining "Dr. Bob's Sound School", a program of the Robert Moog Foundation, to AADL this Wednesday August 1, 2012. It's an introduction to the principles of electronic sound synthesis, a little history of Moog, and a chance to get your hands on some seriously cool and unusual music tools.

The instrument collection will feature musical gear that you can check out from the Library, from such noted manufacturers as Moog, Korg, Maywa Denki, Bleep Labs, Chamber of Sounds, Folktek, Critter & Guitari and more! Participants in the workshop will get a chance to get their hands on these instruments before they go into general circulation.

One event is intended for grades K-5 and their adults from 2-3:30 PM, and another for grades 6 - Adult from 7 - 8:30 PM.  Details here:

http://www.aadl.org/events/list?id=15787

and here:

http://www.aadl.org/events/list?id=16246

Transit of Venus: viewing opportunities near Ann Arbor on June 5, 2012

Some notes for this evening's transit of Venus across the Sun.

University Lowbrow Astronomers has a page full of Venus transit information for Ann Arbor area locals, including viewing parties at local observatories and at the Traverwood Library. The Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs has a similar list of Venus transit viewing sites statewide if you want to meet up with others while watching.

Depending on your location, the 2012 transit will take place either June 5 or June 6. If you live in Southeast Michigan, the transit will occur on the evening of June 5 from approximately 6PM until sunset. More information can about the Venus Transit be found at http://www.transitofvenus.org/

The weather does not portend favorable viewing conditions - there's a chance of rain, and forecast for 50-60% cloud cover. See the Weather Underground forecast for Ann Arbor for details.

If you decide to watch the transit of Venus online, there should be a lot of places streaming it. Here's a few to save some time when it comes to hurry indoors.

Slooh Space Camera will run about a dozen feeds from a variety of sources.

Keck Observatory in Hawaii is planning a Venus transit live feed.

NASA's Sun Earth Day has a series of Transit of Venus feeds.

Back in 1882, there was also a transit of Venus; the Public Domain Review has a roundup of images from those viewing expeditions. Science!

Ignite 6 Ann Arbor is Sunday, November 6, 2011!

Flier below. Details at the Ignite Ann Arbor site, RSVP at Eventbrite. Ignite Ann Arbor 6 will be held at Blau Auditorium, 701 Tappan Street, at 7pm on Sunday November 6th.

Emancipation Proclamation at The Henry Ford, June 20-22 2011, 36 hours only

The Henry Ford has a special 36 hour showing of the original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation on loan from the National Archives, starting June 20, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. and continuing until June 22, 2011 at 6:00 a.m. 

The original document will only be available to the public for a limited time beginning the evening of Monday, June 20.  Following a short opening ceremony, the document will be on display around-the-clock, straight through early Wednesday morning, June 22, when it will return to Washington DC.

This event and Museum admission is free to the public during this time; it's part of the Discovering The Civil War exhibit which runs through September 5.

West Park grand opening, June 19 2011

More Father's Day events! West Park had a major construction project over the last year, and it's now being unveiled complete with a grand ribbon cutting and the unveiling of the sculpture in the park.

If you were at West Park during the recent monsoon rains you'll appreciate that quite a bit of work went into stormwater handling, with very visible results.