Good morning.

We’ll have an even chance of a wintry mix of freezing rain and snow in Whitewater today (with slight accumulation), and a high of twenty-two (before dropping into the teens).

Friday’s FW poll was about the likelihood of victory for each of the NFL’s four remaining teams, and respondents favored Seattle (31.43%) and Denver (28.57%) from among the four. That’s how it turned out, although not without close moments along the way (in the Seattle-San Francisco game, at least).

Google has a new doodle on its webpage for MLK Day:

On this day in 1942, officials of the Nazi state meet at the Wannsee Conference, “to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the final solution to the Jewish question, whereby most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe would be deported to Poland and exterminated.”

The conference followed an earlier, December 12, 1941 meeting at the Reich Chancellery where Hitler met with principal leaders of the regime to authorize extermination of Europe’s Jews (from Goebbels’s diary for December 12, 1941: “With respect of the Jewish Question, the Führer has decided to make a clean sweep. He prophesied to the Jews that if they again brought about a world war, they would live to see their annihilation in it. That wasn’t just a catch-word. The world war is here, and the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence.”)

Puzzability has a new weekly series, entitled Alternative Musicians:

This Week’s Game — January 20-24

Alternative Musicians

Some people can really sing their hearts out. For each day this week, we began with the name of a solo singer who has won a Record of the Year Grammy Award. Then we removed any spaces and punctuation and deleted every other letter, leaving just the odd letters. The day’s clue shows those remaining letters in order.

Example:

MCALAKO

Answer:

Michael Jackson

What to Submit:

Submit the singer’s name (as “Michael Jackson” in the example) for your answer.

Monday, January 20

FAKIAR

Good morning.

We’ll have a mostly sunny Sunday with a high of thirty.

Luca Iaconi-Stewart has finished a 1:60-scale model of an Air India Boeing 777 from manila folders. The level of detail on his years-long project is truly extraordinary.

It’s likely that one has never seen anyone command a greater attention to a paper project than this one. Iaconi-Stewart has a flickr album and YouTube Channel that show his admirable progress, a photo and video from which I’ve embedded below.

It’s Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday.

On January 19, 1939, a world record for a Wisconsinite:

1939 – Chicken Plucking World Record
On January 19, 1939 Ernest Hausen (1877 – 1955) of Ft. Atkinson set the world’s record for chicken plucking. [Source: Guinness Book of World’s Records, 1992]

Good morning.

We’ve a likelihood of snow today, of about an inch, with a high of nineteen. Sunrise this Saturday is 7:21 AM, sunset is 4:50 PM, and the moon is in a waning gibbous phase with 94% of its visible disk illuminated.

Every so often, while film makers are recording penguins, a bird of prey, such as striated caracara, will come along and steal a hidden egg-cam positioned to film the penguins. When that happens, here’s the view of the theft and afterward from the purloined egg-cam:

In the checkered history of public spending, at least this was a good expenditure:

On this day in 1803 [1.18.1803], Thomas Jefferson requests funding from Congress to finance the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Jefferson officially asked for $2,500 in funding from Congress, though some sources indicate the expedition ultimately cost closer to $50,000. Lewis was joined by his friend William Clark and 50 others on the journey, including an African-American slave and a female Indian guide named Sacagawea. The team, which Jefferson called the Corps of Discovery, first surveyed the territory that comprised the Louisiana Purchase, a vast expanse that reached as far north as present-day North Dakota, south to the Gulf of Mexico and stopped at the eastern border of Spanish territory in present-day Texas. The team then crossed the Rockies and navigated river routes to the Pacific coast of present-day Oregon. Upon their return, the duo’s reports of the exotic and awe-inspiring new lands they had encountered sparked a new wave of westward expansion….

Good morning.

Friday brings a likelihood of snow to Whitewater, with less than an inch of accumulation, and a high of seventeen.

On this day in 1893, Hawaii loses its native government:

On the Hawaiian Islands, a group of American sugar planters under Sanford Ballard Dole overthrow Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, and establish a new provincial government with Dole as president. The coup occurred with the foreknowledge of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii, and 300 U.S. Marines from the U.S. cruiser Boston were called to Hawaii, allegedly to protect American lives….

a revolutionary “Committee of Safety,” organized by Sanford B. Dole, staged a coup against Queen Liliuokalani with the tacit support of the United States. On February 1, Minister John Stevens recognized Dole’s new government on his own authority and proclaimed Hawaii a U.S. protectorate. Dole submitted a treaty of annexation to the U.S. Senate, but most Democrats opposed it, especially after it was revealed that most Hawaiians did want annexation.

President Grover Cleveland sent a new U.S. minister to Hawaii to restore Queen Liliuokalani to the throne under the 1887 constitution, but Dole refused to step aside and instead proclaimed the independent Republic of Hawaii. Cleveland was unwilling to overthrow the government by force, and his successor, President William McKinley, negotiated a treaty with the Republic of Hawaii in 1897. In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out, and the strategic use of the naval base at Pearl Harbor during the war convinced Congress to approve formal annexation. Two years later, Hawaii was organized into a formal U.S. territory and in 1959 entered the United States as the 50th state.

On 1.17.1900, women working in a Wisconsin cotton mill decide to strike:

1900 – Female Cotton Mill Workers Strike
On this date 100 female employees of the Monterey mill, affiliated with the Janesville Cotton Mills, went on strike for higher wages. According to local sources, a committee of four “good-looking young ladies” was appointed to negotiate with management. Doing piece work, the women earned only $40 a month.

The company said the women “don’t know how good they’ve got it…because they are paid more than at other local cotton mills and as well as some men with families.” The women argued their monthly pay only averaged $20. Within three days, all the women were hired to work by tobacco warehouses. The Monterey mill was one of three Janesville cotton mills in operation at the turn of the century. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Puzzability‘s String Theory series concludes today:

This Week’s Game — January 13-17

String Theory

Are you a master of science? For each day this week, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a science-related phrase that starts with a possessive name.

Example:

Sentry’s “stop!” / impose, as a tax / barge-like boat / turn from solid to liquid

Answer:

Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)

What to Submit:

Submit the phrase and the smaller words (as “Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)” in the example) for your answer.

Friday, January 17

Was acquainted with / throat part that might be removed / uncooked / quiet and gentle, as music / shed one’s feathers / anemic’s lack

Good morning.

Whitewater will have about an inch of snow this afternoon, with a high just around freeing.

In the city today, there’s a scheduled Public Information Meeting on the Reconstruction of the Downtown East Gateway area at 4:30 PM, and there is a meeting of the Fire & Rescue Task Force at 7:30 PM.

On this day in 1919, Prohibition takes effect:

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” is ratified on this day in 1919 and becomes the law of the land.

The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for total national abstinence. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Amendment, was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.

Prohibition took effect in January 1919. Nine months later, Congress passed the Volstead Act, or National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson‘s veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of prohibition, including the creation of a special unit of the Treasury Department. Despite a vigorous effort by law-enforcement agencies, the Volstead Act failed to prevent the large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages, and organized crime flourished in America. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.

Puzzability has a new entry in this week’s String Theory series:

This Week’s Game — January 13-17

String Theory

Are you a master of science? For each day this week, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a science-related phrase that starts with a possessive name.

Example:

Sentry’s “stop!” / impose, as a tax / barge-like boat / turn from solid to liquid

Answer:

Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)

What to Submit:

Submit the phrase and the smaller words (as “Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)” in the example) for your answer.

Thursday, January 16