Good morning, Whitewater
The week ends with one scheduled public meeting: the Whitewater University Tech Park Committee meets at 1:00 p.m. at the UWW University Center- Room 241. The agenda for the meeting is available online.
(For a post expressing my doubts about a university-technology park in Whitewater, see “A City-University Technology Park in Whitewater.” Tone deaf to the cultural challenges to the technology park? Then you likely won’t get a technology park, all other plans notwithstanding.)
In world history on this date, in 1493, ultra-famous Christopher Columbus makes a mistake profound, unsettling, and easily possible after last call: “Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids”:
On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three “mermaids”–in reality manatees–and describes them as “not half as beautiful as they are painted.” Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to the Americas, or “New World.”
Not half as beautiful? — oh my. (I have yet, by the way, to see a painting of Mrs. Columbus.)
The full account is available at the History Channel website.