Good morning, Whitewater.

The twelfth month of the year begins in our town on a partly cloudy day with a high of sixteen degrees. Sunrise today is 7:06 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 15m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1990, workers connected both sides of Europe’s Channel Tunnel:

The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche; also referred to as the Chunnel)[2][3] is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent, in the United Kingdom, with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais, near Calais in northern France, beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is 75 m (250 ft) deep.[4][5][6] At 37.9 kilometres (23.5 mi), the tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world, although the Seikan Tunnel in Japan is both longer overall at 53.85 kilometres (33.46 mi) and deeper at 240 metres (790 ft) below sea level. The speed limit in the tunnel is 160 kilometres per hour (99 mph).[7]

The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for automobiles and other road vehicles—the largest[8] such transport in the world—and international rail freight trains.[9] The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines….

Construction

Working from both the English side and the French side of the Channel, eleven tunnel boring machines or TBMs cut through chalk marl to construct two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. The vehicle shuttle terminals are at Cheriton (part of Folkestone) and Coquelles, and are connected to the English M20 and French A16 motorways respectively.

Tunnelling commenced in 1988, and the tunnel began operating in 1994.[32] In 1985 prices, the total construction cost was £4.650 billion (equivalent to £12 billion today), an 80% cost overrun. At the peak of construction 15,000 people were employed with daily expenditure over £3 million.[8] Ten workers, eight of them British, were killed during construction between 1987 and 1993, most in the first few months of boring.[33][34][35]

Completion

Class 319 EMUs ran excursions trips into the tunnel from Sandling railway station on 7 May 1994, the first passenger trains to do so
A two-inch (50-mm) diameter pilot hole allowed the service tunnel to break through without ceremony on 30 October 1990.[36] On 1 December 1990, Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette broke through the service tunnel with the media watching.[37] Eurotunnel completed the tunnel on time,[30] and it was officially opened, one year later than originally planned, by Queen Elizabeth II and the French president, François Mitterrand, in a ceremony held in Calais on 6 May 1994. The Queen travelled through the tunnel to Calais on a Eurostar train, which stopped nose to nose with the train that carried President Mitterrand from Paris.[38] Following the ceremony President Mitterrand and the Queen travelled on Le Shuttle to a similar ceremony in Folkestone.[38] A full public service did not start for several months….

On this day in 1906, a Wisconsinite briefly holds the world boxing title:

1906 – Fred Beell Crowned Heavyweight Champ
On this date Fred Beell, of Marshfield, Wisconsin, won the American heavyweight wrestling championship in New Orleans, taking two of three falls from Frank Gotch. Beell’s reign was brief. Sixteen days later, he lost a rematch to Gotch. Beell’s victory was the only match that Gotch lost from 1904 until his death in 1918. [Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

Google-a-Day asks a question about literature:

What is the last line of the poem in which the famous line about “Mistah Kurtz” is used as an epigraph?

Good morning, Whitewater.

November ends, and Advent begins, with a partly cloudy day and a high of thirty-five degrees. Sunrise is 7:05 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 16m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 63% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked whether respondents thought a deer should (apart from Wisconsin regulations) belong to the boy who first shot it, or the adult hunter who later killed it. Just over sixty-one percent of respondents felt it should have gone to the boy (that is, that at the adult hunter should have let the boy have the deer.)

The Chernobyl area, decades after the nuclear accident that befell a nuclear plant near Pripyat, remains an empty, eerie place. Danny Cooke recently returned from a visit, during which he recorded the scene, twenty-eight years on:

Postcards from Pripyat, Chernobyl from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to visit Chernobyl whilst working for CBS News on a '60 Minutes' episode which aired on Nov. 23, 2014. Bob Simon is the correspondent. Michael Gavshon and David Levine, producers.

For the full story http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chernobyl-the-catastrophe-that-never-ended/

—-> ***Soundtrack 'Promise land' by Hannah Miller – licensed on themusicbed.com

Chernobyl is one of the most interesting and dangerous places I've been. The nuclear disaster, which happened in 1986 (the year after I was born), had an effect on so many people, including my family when we lived in Italy. The nuclear dust clouds swept westward towards us. The Italian police went round and threw away all the local produce and my mother rushed out to purchase as much tinned milk as possible to feed me, her infant son.

It caused so much distress hundreds of miles away, so I can't imagine how terrifying it would have been for the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens who were forced to evacuate.

During my stay, I met so many amazing people, one of whom was my guide Yevgen, also known as a 'Stalker'. We spent the week together exploring Chernobyl and the nearby abandoned city of Pripyat. There was something serene, yet highly disturbing about this place. Time has stood still and there are memories of past happenings floating around us.

Armed with a camera and a dosimeter geiger counter I explored…

www.dannycooke.co.uk Follow me on twitter @dannycooke

Shot using DJI Phantom 2 (GoPro3+) and Canon 7D

It’s Mark Twain’s birthday:

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885),[2] the latter often called “the Great American Novel”.

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. After an apprenticeship with a printer, he worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to the newspaper of his older brother, Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his singular lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.[3] In 1865, his humorous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, was published, based on a story he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention, and was even translated into classic Greek.[4] His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Though Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he invested in ventures that lost a great deal of money, notably the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter, which failed because of its complexity and imprecision. In the wake of these financial setbacks, he filed for protection from his creditors via bankruptcy, and with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, though he had no legal responsibility to do so.

Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet, and he predicted that he would “go out with it”, too. He died the day following the comet’s subsequent return. He was lauded as the “greatest American humorist of his age”,[5] and William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature”.[6]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of forty-three. Sunrise is 7:04 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 17m 58s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 51.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1952, President-Elect Eisenhower visits Korea:

In late 1952 Eisenhower went to Korea and discovered a military and political stalemate. Once in office, when the Chinese began a buildup in the Kaesong sanctuary, he threatened to use nuclear force if an armistice was not concluded. His earlier military reputation in Europe was effective with the Chinese.[150] The National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Strategic Air Command (SAC) devised detailed plans for nuclear war against China.[151] With the death of Stalin in early March 1953, Russian support for a Chinese hard-line weakened and China decided to compromise on the prisoner issue.[152]

In July 1953, an armistice took effect with Korea divided along approximately the same boundary as in 1950. The armistice and boundary remain in effect today, with American soldiers stationed there to guarantee it. The armistice, concluded despite opposition from Secretary Dulles, South Korean President Syngman Rhee, and also within Eisenhower’s party, has been described by biographer Ambrose as the greatest achievement of the administration. Eisenhower had the insight to realize that unlimited war in the nuclear age was unthinkable, and limited war unwinnable.[152]

A point of emphasis in Ike’s campaign had been his endorsement of a policy of liberation from communism as opposed to a policy of containment. This continued to be his preference despite the armistice with Korea.[153] Throughout his terms Eisenhower took a hard-line attitude toward China, as demanded by conservative Republicans, with the goal of driving a wedge between China and the Soviet Union.[154]

Here’s something good ahead, in just about a year from now:

It’s just one trailer, but it looks promising.

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have light snow giving way to a wintry mix, with a high of twenty-eight. Sunrise is 7:03 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 19m 27s of daytime. The moon is a axing crescent with 40.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1520, Magellan reaches the Pacific:

….Magellan’s expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean (then named “peaceful sea” by Magellan; the passage being made via the Strait of Magellan), and the first to cross the Pacific. His expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines.

At 52°S latitude on 21 October, the fleet reached Cape Virgenes and concluded they had found the passage, because the waters were brine and deep inland. Four ships began an arduous trip through the 373-mile (600 km) long passage that Magellan called the Ostrich (Canal) de Todos los Santos, (“All Saints’ Channel”), because the fleet travelled through it on 1 November or All Saints’ Day. The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan. He first assigned Concepcion and San Antonio to explore the strait, but the latter, commanded by Gómez, deserted and returned to Spain on 20 November. On 28 November, the three remaining ships entered the South Pacific. Magellan named the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness.[21] Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait….

Google-a-Day has a question about astrology:

What star in the Milky Way passes all five tests scientists require for it to be a candidate for extraterrestrial life?

Good morning.

Thanksgiving in Whitewater will be cloudy in the morning, then sunny in the afternoon, with a high of twenty-one. Sunrise is 7:02 AM, sunset 4:23 PM, for 9h 21m of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 29.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Millions of Americans will have turkey today, and some of us will puzzle over how to carve that delicious meal. Here’s Ray Venezia, master butcher showing how to carve a turkey easily:

On this day in 1903, a famous Green Bay Packer is born:

1903 – Green Bay Packer Johnny Blood Born
On this date Johnny Blood (aka John McNally) was born in New Richmond. Blood was an early NFL halfback playing for Green Bay from 1929 to 1933 and 1935 to 1936. He also played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Duluth Eskimos, Pottsville Maroons, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. An elusive runner and gifted pass receiver, he played a major role in the Packers’ drive to the first three championships in 1929, 1930 and 1931. Johnny Blood died on November 28, 1985, at the age of 82. Titletown Brewing Co. in Green Bay named their brew Johnny “Blood” Red Ale after the famed halfback. [Source: Packers.com]

Google-a-Day has a question about popular music:

The Curatorial Director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum authored a book describing 50 years of what rock band?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in the Whippet City will be mostly cloudy, with a high of thirty-one. Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 4:23 PM, for 9h 22m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

So what’s it like inside our planet? Talk Nerdy to Me has the answer:

On this day in 1931, America’s first cloverleaf hits a magazine cover:

The first cloverleaf interchange to be built in the United States, at the junction of NJ Rt. 25 (now U.S. Rt. 1) and NJ Rt. 4 (now NJ Rt. 35) in Woodbridge, New Jersey, is featured on the cover of this week’s issue of the Engineering News-Record. (By contrast, a piece on the under-construction Hoover Dam was relegated to the journal’s back pages.)

With their four circular ramps, cloverleaf interchanges were designed to let motorists merge from one road to another without braking. They worked well enough—and became so ubiquitous as a result—that writer Lewis Mumford once declared that “our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.” But many of the older cloverleaves were not built to handle the volume and speed of traffic they now receive, and many have been demolished and rebuilt.

For more on the history of the Woodbridge Cloverleaf, see A Cloverleaf That Made History Will Soon Be History Itself (after modifications in the interchange’s shape). There’s also a thirty-minute video entitled – really – The Woodbridge Cloverleaf: Onramps to Innovation that describes the interchange.

On this day in 1838, Wisconsin’s territorial legislature first meets in Madison:

On this date, after moving from the temporary capital in Burlington, Iowa, the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature assembled in Madison for the first time. Two years earlier, when the territorial legislature had met for the first time in Belmont, many cities were mentioned as possibilities for the permanent capital — Cassville, Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, Platteville, Mineral Point, Racine, Belmont, Koshkonong, Wisconsinapolis, Peru, and Wisconsin City. Madison won the vote, and funds were authorized to erect a suitable building in which lawmakers would conduct the people’s business. Progress went so slowly, however, that some lawmakers wanted to relocate the seat of government to Milwaukee, where they also thought they would find better accommodations than in the wilds of Dane Co. When the legislature finally met in Madison in November 1838 there was only an outside shell to the new Capitol. The interior was not completed until 1845, more than six years after it was supposed to be finished. On November 26, 1838, Governor Henry Dodge delivered his first speech in the new seat of government. [Source: Wiskonsan Enquirer, Nov. 24 and Dec. 8, 1838]

Google-a-Day asks a question of science and politics:

What cabinet position had been held by the head of the commission that investigated the STS-51L disaster?