Good morning, Whitewater.
We’ll have rain today, in the =morning, and then a cloudy day with a high in the low fifties. Sunrise is 5;32 AM and sunset 8:11 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with ninety-nine percent of the its visible disk illuminated.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center created a brief animated film about the formation of galaxies. Video and description below:
Galaxies are collections of stars, gas, dust and dark matter held together by gravity. Their appearance and composition are shaped over billions of years by interactions with groups of stars and other galaxies. Using supercomputers, scientists can look back in time and simulate how a galaxy may have formed in the early universe and grown into what we see today. Galaxies are thought to begin as small clouds of stars and dust swirling through space. As other clouds get close, gravity sends these objects careening into one another and knits them into larger spinning packs. Subsequent collisions can sling material toward a galaxy’s outskirts, creating extensive spiral arms filled with colonies of stars. Watch the video to see this process unfold.
On this day in 1756, a world war officially begins after England declares war on France, in a conflict later to claim around a million lives:
The Seven Years’ War was a war that took place between 1754 and 1763 with the main conflict being in the seven-year period 1756–1763. It involved most of the great powers of the time and affected Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. In the historiography of some countries, the war is alternatively named after combatants in the respective theatres: the French and Indian War as it is known in the United States or the War of the Conquest as it is known in French-speaking Canada, while it is called the Seven Years’ War in English-speaking Canada (North America, 1754–63);Pomeranian War (with Sweden and Prussia, 1757–62); Third Carnatic War (on the Indian subcontinent, 1757–63); and Third Silesian War (with Prussia and Austria, 1756–63).
The war was driven by the antagonism between the great powers of Europe. Great Britain competed with both France and Spain over trade and colonies. Meanwhile rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside the Holy Roman Empire. In the wake of the War of the Austrian Succession, the major powers “switched partners;” Prussia established an alliance with Britain while traditional enemies France and Austria formed an alliance of their own. The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by smaller German states (especially Hanover) and later Portugal. The Austro-French alliance included Sweden, Saxonyand later Spain. The Russian Empire was originally aligned with Austria, but switched sides upon the succession of Tsar Peter III in 1762 and, like Sweden, concluded a separate peace with Prussia.
The war ended with the Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain and the Treaty of Hubertusburg between Saxony, Austria and Prussia, both in 1763. The war was characterized in Europe by sieges and arson of towns as well as open battles involving extremely heavy losses; overall, some 900,000 to 1,400,000 people died.
Puzzability‘s Just Drop It! series continues with Thursday’s game:
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This Week’s Game — May 12-16
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Just Drop It!
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Sometimes, it goes without saying. For each day this week, we started with a word that contains the two-letter chunk IT and deleted it to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the longer IT word followed by the shorter word.
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Example:
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Einstein from England
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Answer:
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Britain brain
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What to Submit:
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Submit the two-word phrase, with the IT word first (as “Britain brain” in the example), for your answer.
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Thursday, May 15
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