This coming Sunday, November 1, at 2:00 a.m. the time will become 1:00 a.m. and Daylight Saving Time will end. Everyone gets an extra hour of Halloween fun this year thanks to DST.

Under the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Daylight Saving Time, since 2007, begins on the second Sunday of March and ends the first Sunday in November. Before 2007, Daylight Saving Time had started on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday of October.

You can no longer call 665-1212 to hear “At the tone, the time will be…” but you can go to the Official U. S. Time to make sure you set your clocks correctly.

This website, plus a WebExhibits article on Daylight Saving Time, are among the websites listed in the Time, Calendar, and Holidays section of the AADL Select Sites (a guide to useful and interesting websites).

For more on Daylight Saving Time consult Seize the Daylight: the Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time by David Prerau, published in 2005.

senior center

The Ann Arbor Senior Center Task Force will hold a second public meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 6:30 ~ 8:30 p.m. at the Senior Center, 1320 Baldwin Avenue, adjacent to Burns Park, to discuss options for the future of the Ann Arbor Senior Center. As outlined in the Ann Arbor Chronicle article, City budget constraints will require a re-evaluation of the services offered at the Senior Center. Public input and comments will be greatly appreciated at the meeting. If you have further questions, please call Facility Manager Pam Simmons at 734.794.6250.

Signal of Liberty issue

Take a step back to the 1840s when a cord of hickory wood or "produce of every description" assured Ann Arborites a year's subscription to The Signal of Liberty--the voice of the Liberty Party in Michigan and the state's most prominent antislavery newspaper. Published in Ann Arbor above a shop on Broadway by Theodore Foster and Reverend Guy Beckley, whose home on Pontiac Trail was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, The Signal of Liberty brought Ann Arborites seven years of emotionally charged news from the many stories of slavery's outrages to the speeches of great statesmen and important national issues of the day, to more sobering local news, notices, and advertisements for dubious health cures. You can now browse The Signal of Liberty or search the full text online.

familytree

The experts from the Genealogical Society of Washtenaw County will be on hand Sunday, Sept. 20, 2:00 ~ 3:30 p.m., at the Traverwood Branch to help you with your family history research. Following a short presentation on the resources available to you at the GSWC Library and the Ann Arbor District Library including Ancestry Library Edition and HeritageQuest, society members will work one-on-one with you whatever stage you're at in your quest to fill in the family tree.

argo

City staff prepared a 32-page Report briefing City Council on the options to consider in responding to the order by the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality regarding Argo Dam. City Council reviewed the report at a Sept. 8 public work session. The session will be replayed tonight Friday, Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. on CTN Channel 16.

a2logo

The City of Ann Arbor has released the Income Tax Feasibility Study and FAQ prepared July, 2009 by Plante, Moran. Print copies for citizen review are available in the Downtown Branch reference collection as well as two previous studies, the Income Tax Feasibility Summary prepared in 2004 by Plante, Moran and the Revenue Impacts of a City Income Tax for Ann Arbor prepared by the University of Michigan School of Public Policy in 1997.

ladies_canoeing

While testing the recipes in Ann Arbor Cooks you can savor an extra slice of Ann Arbor history: Several recipes, particularly within the 1899 Ann Arbor Cookbook, bear the names of prominent Ann Arbor citizens. On your next visit to Allmendinger Park you can take along Miss E. C. Allmendinger's Quince Tents; or you can enjoy Mrs. W. B. Hinsdale's Cream Puffs at the Broadway Park near the former intersection of 19th century Indian trails mentioned in her husband's book, The Indians of Washtenaw County. Mrs. Junius Beal probably whipped up her Marguerites at her home on the corner of 5th Avenue and William St., now the site of the Downtown library. Mrs. Samuel W. Beakes, whose husband wrote The Past and Present of Washtenaw County, baked Excellent Cocoanut Cookies, and Mrs. Frank Kelsey actually makes Prune Pudding sound...ok.

The names Allmendinger, Hinsdale, Beal, Beakes and Kelsey are frequently cited within the text and image collections of The Ann Arbor Observer: Then & Now, Ann Arbor Founders, The Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit and The Making of Ann Arbor.

dollar sign

Mint.com automatically aggregates all your online financial data and then keeps track of credit cards, home loans and bank and brokerage accounts all in one place. It also keeps track of how your investments are performing, and what you are spending and saving. It helps you to budget better by automatically displaying how much you spend in any given category.

wolfram alpha

A new search engine designed by British Mathematician, physics and computer science genius Stephen Wolfram, plus a team of 250 other brainiacs is set to launch sometime in May.

Harvard Law School had a sneak preview last week and was AWED.

Wolfram Alpha is an extremely powerful calculator stuffed with facts about the world. Instead of trying to find a site where you might find the answer to a question such as “How do Iraqi oil exports compare to that of Kuwait?” or “What was the weather in Rancho Mirage when Gerald Ford died?” you just type in the question and Wolfram instantly computes the answer. Many of these questions can be answered using Google, but only by visiting several different Web sites, assessing the validity of sources, and making your own calculations. Wolfram Alpha simply gives you the answer. WOW.

Robert Frost

The AADL now subscribes to The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry with the full text of 250,000 poems.

Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky is one. 149 Robert Frost poems are available.

Get a daily dose of poetry by visiting The Columbia Granger’s and reading the featured poem of the day.

Poems can be searched by author, title, first line, words in the poem, and subject.

You can browse by eras (for example, Augustan Era or Romantic Era), schools of poetry (for example, the Beats or the Harlem Renaissance), or language (15 languages).

Browse also offers the Top 500 Poems (the 500 most frequently anthologized poems).

The Listening Room offers audio versions of 101 poems.

Brief biographies and commentaries are provided for some poets and poems.

The Columbia Granger's may be found among the databases on the AADL Research page.