Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be sunny and mild, with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:26, for 15h 06m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1859, the clock on Elizabeth Tower (the tower named as such in 2012) goes into operation:

The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but the name was first given to the Great Bell.

The Elizabeth Tower, which stands at the north end of the Houses of Parliament, was completed in 1859 and the Great Clock started on 31 May, with the Great Bell’s strikes heard for the first time on 11 July and the quarter bells first chimed on 7 September….

Until installation in 1859, the clock was kept at Dent’s factory. Denison made many refinements including inventing the ‘Double Three-legged Gravity Escapement’. This was a revolutionary mechanism, ensuring the clock’s accuracy by making sure its pendulum was unaffected by external factors, such as wind pressure on the clock’s hands.

Denison’s invention has since been used in clocks all over the world. It is also known as the ‘Grimthorpe Escapement’ as Denison was made Baron Grimthorpe in 1886.

The clock was installed in the Clock Tower in April 1859. At first, it wouldn’t work as the cast-iron minute hands were too heavy. Once they were replaced by lighter copper hands, it successfully began keeping time on 31 May 1859. It was not long before the chimes of the Great Bell, also known as Big Ben, joined in.

On this day in 1899, the Gideons are founded in Beaver Dam:

On this night two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, crossed paths a second time, in Beaver Dam. The pair had first met eight months before in the Central Hotel in Boscobel and discussed the need for some way to provide Christian support to traveling businessmen. During this second meeting in Beaver Dam the two decided to “get right at it. Start the ball rolling and follow it up.” They invited their professional contacts to an organizational meeting to be held in Janesville on July 1, 1899, at which the organization was formally named and chartered. By 1948, The Gideons had distributed over 15 million bibles world-wide. View more information about the Beginning of The Gideons International.

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a rainy day in town with a high of sixty-six.  Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:25, for 15h 05m 39s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

MIT has been designing robots, including a robot called the cheetah, for its running ability.  (See, from 2014 @ FW, The Rise of the Robo-Cheetahs.)  Those robots have been improved, and can now jump:

On this day in 1971, Mariner 9 leaves for Mars:

Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars ’71 / Mariner-I) was an unmanned NASA space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971^[1][2] from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year,^[1][2] becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet^[3] — only narrowly beating the Soviets’ Mars 2 and Mars 3, which both arrived within a month. After months of dust storms it managed to send back clear pictures of the surface.

Mariner 9 returned 7329 images over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday will be cloudy, with a probability of thunderstorms, and a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset 8:24, for 15h 04m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach the summit:

A series of advanced camps were created, slowly reaching higher up the mountain.^[15] Camp II at 19,400 feet was established by Hillary, Band and Lowe on 15 April, Camp III at the head of the Icefall at 20,200 feet on 22 April, and Camp IV by Hunt, Bourdillon and Evans on 1 May.^[14]These three made a preliminary reconnaissance of the Lhotse Face on 2 May, and Camp V at 22,000 feet was established on 3 May.^[14] On 4 May, Bourdillon and Evans, supported by Ward and Wylie, reached Camp VI at 23,000 feet on the Lhotse Face, and just under a fortnight later on 17 May, Wilfrid Noyce and Lowe established Camp VII at 24,000 feet.^[14] By 21 May, Noyce and the Sherpa Annullu (the younger brother of Da Tenzing) had reached the South Col, just under 26,000 feet. The first of two climbing pairs previously selected by Hunt, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, set out for the summit on 26 May using closed-circuit oxygen and successfully achieved the first ascent of the 8,750 m (28,700 ft) South Summit, coming within 100 m (300 ft) of the final summit. They were forced to turn back after becoming exhausted, defeated by oxygen equipment problems and lack of time.^[16] On 27 May, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with the second climbing pair, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal. Norgay had previously ascended to a record high point on Everest as a member of the Swiss expedition of 1952. They reached the summit at 11:30 am on 29 May 1953, climbing the South Col route. Before descending, they stopped at the summit long enough to take photographs and to bury some sweets and a small cross in the snow.^[15]

On this day in 1848, Wisconsin enters the Union:

On this date Wisconsin became the 30th state to enter the Union with an area of 56,154 square miles, comprising 1/56 of the United States at the time. Its nickname, the “Badger State,” was not in reference to the fierce animal but miners who spent their winters in the state, living in dugouts and burrowing much like a badger. [Source: “B” Book I, Beer Bottles, Brawls, Boards, Brothels, Bibles, Battles & Brownstone by Tony Woiak, pg. 37]

Here’s the final game in this week’s Cheese Filling series from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — May 25-29

Cheese Filling

We’ve got string cheese on the menu all week. For each day, we’ll give you three clues, each of which leads to a word. The answers to two of those clues, when placed together in the right order, have the name of a cheese spanning the gap between the answers. When the cheese’s name is removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell the answer to the day’s remaining clue. The clues are presented in random order.

Example:

Affleck’s Good Will Hunting costar; river of South America; astound

Answer:

AMAZEDAMON (Damon, Amazon, amaze; the cheese is Edam)

What to Submit:

Submit just the full string of letters, with the cheese in the middle (as “AMAZEDAMON” in the example), for your answer.

Friday, May 29

Discord; partner of sine and cosine; rigorous, as rules

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-three. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset 8:23, for 15h 02m 52s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 74.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Today, Thursday morning, Downtown Whitewater’s Board meets at 8 AM. I am often asked about Downtown Whitewater, and my thoughts on their present work.  Having watched closely, and heard much, I’ve no immediate answer to offer.  The market – that collection of voluntary transactions among countless people each day – will decide the shape and future of Whitewater’s downtown.  I’m not sure in which direction some of these forces will lead in our near-future.  It’s enough for now to wait and see.

On this day in 1754, George Washington experiences his first combat, in the French and Indian War. He’s victorious, but the engagement is undisciplined, and has been controversial ever since. One is reminded that even a great man, later able to defeat the greatest empire on earth, and later still lead his own new republic ably for eight years, had hesitant and awkward moments:

George Washington, a young lieutenant colonel in the British Army and future president of the United States, leads an attack on French forces at Jumonville Glen on this day in 1754. The battle is later credited with being the opening salvo in the French and Indian War (1754 to 1763).

In the biography His Excellency: George Washington, historian Joseph Ellis recounts Washington’s first combat experience. Washington and 40 colonial troops had been encamped near the French garrison at Fort Duquesne when he received an urgent message to rescue Indian allies in the area who were threatened by French forces. In his official report of the encounter, Washington described how his troops, aided by warriors under the Indian leader Tanacharison, surrounded a detachment of 32 French soldiers near the fort on May 28 and, within 15 minutes, killed 10 of them, including the garrison’s commander, wounded one and took another 21 prisoner.

Controversy surrounded the attack both at the time and after the war. Historical accounts indicate that the French commander, Joseph Coulon De Jumonville had actually tried to surrender but was slain by Tanacharison. Tanacharison’s rash act incited the other warriors to kill and scalp nine other French soldiers before Washington could intervene. Ellis describes Washington as shocked and hapless and writes that he later tried to downplay the incident to his commanding officer. The French vilified Washington as the epitome of dishonor. The Jumonville Glen massacre remains a highly debated subject among scholars. In the aftermath of the encounter, Washington resigned his British army commission and returned to his family’s plantation. In 1775, he returned to military service to lead the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.

Here’s the Thursday game in Puzzability‘s Cheese Filling series:

This Week’s Game — May 25-29

Cheese Filling

We’ve got string cheese on the menu all week. For each day, we’ll give you three clues, each of which leads to a word. The answers to two of those clues, when placed together in the right order, have the name of a cheese spanning the gap between the answers. When the cheese’s name is removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell the answer to the day’s remaining clue. The clues are presented in random order.

Example:

Affleck’s Good Will Hunting costar; river of South America; astound

Answer:

AMAZEDAMON (Damon, Amazon, amaze; the cheese is Edam)

What to Submit:

Submit just the full string of letters, with the cheese in the middle (as “AMAZEDAMON” in the example), for your answer.

Thursday, May 28

Bugler’s bedtime tune; fruit used to make brandy and Sacher torte; smartphone programs