Good morning.
Whitewater’s Sunday brings a one-third chance of late afternoon showers and thundershowers, with a high of eighty-four. Sunrise was at 5:24 a.m., and sunset will be at 8:36 p.m. There will be a new moon overnight at 2:15 a.m.
On this day in 1930, America begins construction of the Hoover Dam:
Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest man-made structures in the world.
Although the dam would take only five years to build, its construction was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.
Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States and a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis’ vision a reality. As secretary of commerce in 1921, Hoover devoted himself to the erection of a high dam in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. The dam would provide essential flood control, which would prevent damage to downstream farming communities that suffered each year when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and joined the Colorado River. Further, the dam would allow the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert, and would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other southern California communities.
South African filmmaker Stephen van Vuuren recently released a trailer for his new IMAX film, In Saturn’s Rings. The film is a collection of over a million photographs – no CGI or other video effects – of the view from very close to Saturn. The finished film will be ready in early 2014, and looks promising: