Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday will be sunny and mild, with a high of fifty-nine. Sunrise today is 6:33 AM and sunset 7:08 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with 74% of its visible disk illuminated.

Pacific Rim was a big-budget film about building giant robots to fight giant monsters – kaiju – that were emerging from the ocean floor and terrorizing coastal communities. It was good fun, but then who’d imagine that kaiju might be (or once have been) real?

Over at the Washington Post, there’s an article about a now-extinct reptile, Spinosaurus, that might have been called a kaiju had anyone seen a living one in our time:

On this weekend in 1814, Francis Scott Key pens the words that later become America’s national anthem:

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort M’Henry”,[1] a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in the Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men’s social club in London. “The Anacreontic Song” (or “To Anacreon in Heaven”), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key’s poem and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”, it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one octave and one fifth (a semitone more than an octave and a half), it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday brings a probability of light rain with a high of fifty-one to the Whippet City.

On this day in 1940, French teenagers discover paleolithic drawings:

Lascaux (Lascaux Caves)…is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old.[3][4] They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.[5]

==History since rediscovery==. On 12 September 1940, the entrance to Lascaux Cave was discovered by 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat. Ravidat returned to the scene with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, and entered the cave via a long shaft. The teenagers discovered that the cave walls were covered with depictions of animals.[6][7] The cave complex was opened to the public in 1948.[8] By 1955, the carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, and other contaminants produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings and introduced lichen on the walls. The cave was closed to the public in 1963 to preserve the art. After the cave was closed, the paintings were restored to their original state and were monitored daily. Rooms in the cave include the Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines.

Lascaux II, a replica of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery located 200 meters away from the original, was opened in 1983 so that visitors may view the painted scenes without harming the originals.[7] Reproductions of other Lascaux artwork can be seen at the Centre of Prehistoric Art at Le Thot, France.

Since 1998 the cave has been beset with a fungus, variously blamed on a new air conditioning system that was installed in the caves, the use of high-powered lights, and the presence of too many visitors.[9] As of 2008, the cave contained black mold which scientists were and still are trying to keep away from the paintings. In January 2008, authorities closed the cave for three months even to scientists and preservationists. A single individual was allowed to enter the cave for 20 minutes once a week to monitor climatic conditions. Now only a few scientific experts are allowed to work inside the cave and just for a few days a month but the efforts to remove the mold have taken a toll, leaving dark patches and damaging the pigments on the walls.[10]

On 9.12.1892, UW-Madison adds some new schools:

1892 – UW-Madison Schools Open
On this date the School of Economics, Political Science and History at UW-Madison opened under the leadership of Professor Richard T. Ely. [Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison]

Google-a-Day asks about an author’s sustenance:

Who, along with his wife, gave Harper Lee the gift of a year’s wages so that she could quit her job “to write whatever you please”?

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a partly cloudy day with a high of just sixty-one today. Sunrise today is 6:30 AM and sunset 7:12 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with ninety-percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On the International Space Station, astronauts have been studying fire in a weightless environment:

It’s the thirteenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In 1903, auto racing begins at a Wisconsin location:

1903 – Auto racing debuts at The Milwaukee Mile
On this date William Jones of Chicago won a five-lap speed contest, setting the first track record with a 72 second, 50 mph lap in the process. The Milwaukee Mile was originally a private horse track, in existence since at least 1876, and is the oldest, continuously operating auto racing facility in the world. [Source: The Milwaukee Mile]

Google-a-Day asks about a word from a film:

In 2005 Ryan Gosling starred in a thriller in which an anagram of what word is referred to several times?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday presents a rainy morning and a cloudy afternoon with a high of seventy-four.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority’s Seed Capital Committee meets at 3:30 PM today, and her Board of Directors at 5 PM.

On this day in 1941, the late Stephen J Gould is born:

Stephen Jay Gould, author of The Panda’s Thumb and other popular essay collections, is born on this day.

Gould grew up in Queens, New York, the son of a court stenographer without a college degree. Although Gould grew up to be a prominent paleontologist and biologist, he kept the common touch, writing dozens of accessible essays about evolution that became popular with lay readers. He has taught paleontology and zoology at Harvard for more than three decades. His books include The Panda’s Thumb (1981), The Mismeasure of Man (1981), Eight Little Piggies (1993), Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (1998), and several others. He wrote monthly essays for Natural History magazine for more than 20 years, and his essays have also appeared in The New York Review of Books, Discover and Nature. His work has won many awards, including the National Book Award.

On this day in 1878, Pres. Hayes makes a visit to the Badger State:

1878 – President Hayes Visits Madison
On this date President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Madison. Hayes was in Madison at the invitation of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. He and his wife were accompanied by a parade and the president spoke to the crowd at present day Camp Randall. [Source: Wisconsin Mosaic]

Google-a-Day poses a questions about a star:

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