Good morning, Whitewater.
Our first work week of the year begins today, and I hope you’re looking forward to it as I am. Challenges await our city, but nothing that cannot be overcome, and much to which we can look forward. We have a day of partly cloudy skies and twenty-six degrees for a high. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset 4:34, for 9h 09m 06s daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 28.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
A quick note – I had promised posts on how UW-Whitewater (and now the UW System) have addressed sexual assault. I’ve delayed the posts only to consider to additional information. It’s a serious subject, and an ongoing one for this city (and state). I’ll publish posts when they’re ready, with the understanding that there will be more policy developments to address throughout the year. It seems there will, sadly, always be the risk and occurrence of some violence in society; there needn’t, by contrast, be any administrative self-protection and mendacity in a well-ordered society.
On this day in 2004, the American rover Spirit landed on Mars:
Artistic view of a Mars Exploration Rover on Mars
Spirit, also known as MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A) or MER-2, is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010.[1] It was one of two rovers of NASA‘s ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in higher power from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected. Spirit also logged 7.73 km (4.8 mi) of driving instead of the planned 600 m (0.4 mi),[5] allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal Science.[6]
Puzzability begins the year with a series entitled, Sweet Sixteen:
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This Week’s Game — January 4-8
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Sweet Sixteen
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Happy 2016! For each day this week, we’ll give an eight-letter word or phrase and a trivia question. The 16-letter answer to that question (a title, name, or place) uses only the eight letters given.
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Example:
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HISTOGEN: What Rod Stewart song was his first U.S. #1 after “Maggie May,” five years later?
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Answer:
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“Tonight’s the Night”
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What to Submit:
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Submit the 16-letter title, name, or place (as “Tonight’s the Night” in the example) for your answer.
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Monday, January 4
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