Good morning, Whitewater.
Morning fog will give way this Sunday to afternoon sunshine, and a high of forty-four. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset 4:20, for 9h 09m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 21.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
Friday’s FW poll asked whether readers thought that a photograph from Mars showed a mouse-like animal on the surface of that planet. Most respondents were not convinced: 85.71% said ‘Oh, no, that’s crazy.’
On this day in 1884, construction finishes on the Washington Monument:
Construction resumed in 1879 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Casey redesigned the foundation, strengthening it so it could support a structure that ultimately weighed more than 40,000 tons. He then followed the society’s orders and figured out what to do with the memorial stones that had accumulated. Though many people ridiculed them, Casey managed to install most of the stones in the interior walls — one stone was found at the bottom of the elevator shaft in 1951.[39] The bottom third of the monument is a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the construction because the marble was obtained from different quarries.[41]
The building of the monument proceeded quickly after Congress had provided sufficient funding. In four years, it was completed, with the 100-ounce (2.83 kg) aluminum apex/lightning-rod being put in place on December 6, 1884.[37] The apex was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time, when aluminum commanded a price comparable to silver.[10] Two years later, the Hall–Héroult process made aluminum easier to produce and the price of aluminum plummeted, making the once-valuable apex more ordinary, though it still provided a lustrous, non-rusting apex that served as the original lightning rod.[42] The monument opened to the public on October 9, 1888.[43]
Not every home is the same. Bruce Campbell (not the actor, but the airplane enthusiast) lives in a 727: