Good morning.

As September ends, we’ll have a bit of fog in the morning, and then a sunny day with a high of seventy-three. The moon is a waning crescent with 19% of the its visible disk illuminated.

Private spaceflight took a step forward this weekend, as SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9 rocket saw a successful test:

On this day in 1954, America commissions the world’s first nuclear submarine:

Much larger than the diesel-electric submarines that preceded it, the Nautilus stretched 319 feet and displaced 3,180 tons. It could remain submerged for almost unlimited periods because its atomic engine needed no air and only a very small quantity of nuclear fuel. The uranium-powered nuclear reactor produced steam that drove propulsion turbines, allowing the Nautilus to travel underwater at speeds in excess of 20 knots.

In its early years of service, the USS Nautilus broke numerous submarine travel records and in August 1958 accomplished the first voyage under the geographic North Pole. After a career spanning 25 years and almost 500,000 miles steamed, the Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s first nuclear submarine went on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

On this day in 1859, Abraham Lincoln speaks at a Wisconsin agricultural fair:

1859 – Abraham Lincoln Speaks at State Fair
On this date Abraham Lincoln delivered an address at the Wisconsin State Fair. In his speech, he connected agriculture to education: “Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.” The rising political star (who was elected the following year), also stressed the importance of free labor. This was Lincoln’s last visit to Wisconsin. In 1861, after winning the presidential election, Lincoln signed the bill establishing the U.S. Department of Agriculture. [Source: AbrahamLincoln.org]

The text of Lincoln’s speech is available online.

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about early space exploration. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

Who was the first person to orbit the earth?

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater looks to be a lovely fall day: sunny, a high of seventy, and light northwest winds around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon.

The results of my latest poll are in, and they’re decisive: 87.1% of respondents felt that convicted animal-abuser Patricia Ritz met her deserved fate when her mistreated wolf-dogs consumed her after she died. They (apparently) didn’t kill her, but they cadged a meal after she expired. I was with a majority on this one.

On this day in 1758, Horatio Nelson, an unsurpassed naval hero, is born:

Horatio Nelson, Britain’s most celebrated naval hero, is born in Burnham Thorpe, England. In the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, he won a series of crucial victories and saved England from possible invasion by France….

In October [1805], Napoleon ordered Villeneuve to run the blockade and sail to Italy to assist a French campaign. On October 19, Villeneuve slipped out of Cadiz with a Franco-Spanish force of 33 ships, but Nelson caught him off Cape Trafalgar on October 21. Nelson divided his 27 ships into two divisions and signaled a famous message from the flagship Victory: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” In five hours of fighting, the British devastated the enemy fleet, destroying 19 enemy ships and capturing Villeneuve. No British ships were lost, but 1,500 British seamen were killed or wounded in the heavy fighting. The battle raged at its fiercest around the Victory, and a French sniper shot Nelson in the shoulder and chest. The admiral was taken below and died about 30 minutes before the end of the battle. Nelson’s last words, after being informed that victory was imminent, were “Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty.”

Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar ensured that Napoleon would never invade Britain. Nelson, hailed as the savior of his nation, was given a magnificent funeral in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. A column was erected to his memory in the newly named Trafalgar Square, and numerous streets were renamed in his honor. The HMS Victory, where Nelson won his most spectacular victory and drew his last breath, sits preserved in dry-dock at Portsmouth.

Good morning.

Today will be warm and mostly sunny, with a one-third chance of afternoon showers, and a high of eighty.

On this day in 1941, Ted Williams becomes the last player to hit .400 in a season:

…the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams plays a double-header against the Philadelphia Athletics on the last day of the regular season and gets six hits in eight trips to the plate, to boost his batting average to .406 and become the first player since Bill Terry in 1930 to hit .400. Williams, who spent his entire career with the Sox, played his final game exactly 19 years later, on September 28, 1960, at Boston’s Fenway Park and hit a home run in his last time at bat, for a career total of 521 homeruns….

Impressive, wholly impressive.

Good morning.

The work week ends with sunny skies and a high of seventy-eight. The moon’s a waning crescent with 45% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, the Warren Commission concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy:

Washington, Sept. 27–The assassination of President Kennedy was the work of one man, Lee Harvey Oswald. There was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic.

That was the central finding in the Warren Commission report, made public this evening. Chief Justice Earl Warren and the six other members of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy were unanimous on this and all questions.

The commission found that Jack Ruby was on his own in killing Oswald. It rejected all theories that the two men were in some way connected. It said that neither rightists nor Communists bore responsibility for the murder of the President in Dallas last Nov. 22.

Why did Oswald to it? To this most important and most mysterious question the commission had no certain answer. It suggested that Oswald had no rational purpose, no motive adequate if “judged by the standards of reasonable men”….

Rather, the commission saw Oswald’s terrible act as the product of his entire life–a life “characterized by isolation, frustration and failure.” He was just 24 years old at the time of the assassination.

“Oswald was profoundly alienated from the world in which he lived,” the report said. “He had very few, if any, close relationships with other people and he appeared to have had great difficulty in finding a meaningful place in the world.

“He was never satisfied with anything.

“When he was in the United States, he resented the capitalist system. When he was in the Soviet Union, he apparently resented the Communist party members, who were accorded special privileges and who he thought were betraying Communism, and he spoke well of the United States.”

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about cells. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

How old are the first fossils of cells?

Good morning.

Morning fog will lift, giving way to sunny skies and a high of seventy-five.

You may recall the February premiere of local filmmaker Sean Williamson’s Heavy Hands. (See, The Whitewater Premiere of Heavy Hands: Sunday, 2.10.13 @ 7 PM.) The film will soon reach a British audience, as it will be part of the Raindance film festival in London this Sunday, September 30th. Raindance, by the way, has premiered such films as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Cannibal the Musical as well as the UK premiers of Pulp Fiction, Memento, and The Pusher Trilogy. Best wishes for a successful showing.

On this day in 1960, America saw her first televised presidential debate.

On September 26, 1833, a tribal treaty gives land to the government:

1833 – Indian Treaty Cedes to Government
On this date Indian tribes including the Ojibwe, Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ottawa, and Sauk ceded land to the government, including areas around Milwaukee, especially to the south and east of the city. The ceded land included much of what is today John Michael Kohler and Terry Andrae State Parks. The Potawatomi continued to live along the Black River until the 1870’s, despite the treaty. [Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources]

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question needs a number. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

You are born with about 300 bones, but this number decreases as you grow older and bones fuse. How many bones does the typical adult have?