Good morning, Whitewater.

We have a probability of thunderstorms this Monday, with a daytime high of eighty degrees. Sunrise today is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:28 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with twenty-two percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Kansas City Star reports this as the greatest paper airplane shot in sports history, recorded during an English soccer match:

Yes, very likely, I’d say.

On this day in 1924, America acknowledges citizenship of tribal populations:

President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizen Act, granting automatic American citizenship to Native Americans born in the United States. The law attempted to finalize Indian assimilation into white culture while permitting Indians to retain some of their tribal traditions.

In an effort to improve the federal government’s relationship with Indians, Coolidge tried to appear as a strong supporter of tribal cultural rights. On personal moral grounds, Coolidge sincerely regretted the state of poverty to which many Indian tribes had sunk after decades of legal persecution and forced assimilation. After signing the Indian Citizen Act at the White House, President Coolidge, in stiff white collar and dark suit, posed with four Osage tribal leaders, three of whom had donned traditional ceremonial dress. Earlier in 1923, he met with the Committee of 100 on Indian Affairs, and in 1925, he invited a group of Sioux from the Rosebud Reservation to the White House. Two years later, President Coolidge accepted honorary tribal membership from Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear.

Puzzability begins a new series, entitled Surround Sound:

This Week’s Game — June 2-6

Surround Sound

Hope you can tune in this week. For each day, we’ll give you three clues, each of which leads to a word. The answers to two of those clues, when placed together in the right order, have the name of a musical instrument spanning the gap between the answers. When the instrument’s name is removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell the answer to the day’s remaining clue. The clues are presented in random order.

Example:

Small women’s clothing size; play simply, as a guitar; location

Answer:

STRUMPETITE (from petite, strum, site; the instrument is a trumpet)

What to Submit:

Submit just the full string of letters, with the instrument in the middle (as “STRUMPETITE” in the example), for your answer.

Monday, June 2

Sikh’s headwear; essential Thanksgiving fare; full of one-liners

Good morning, Whitewater.

A new month begins with afternoon showers and thunderstorms, and a high of eighty-four. Sunrise today in 5:19 AM and sunset 8:27 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with fourteen percent of its visible disk illuminated.

NASA’s Goddard Flight Center published a video of solar observations that’s remarkable:

A coronal mass ejection burst off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014. The giant sheet of solar material erupting was the first CME seen by NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS. The field of view seen here is about five Earth’s wide and about seven and a half Earth’s tall.

IRIS must commit to pointing at certain areas of the sun at least a day in advance, so catching a CME in the act involves some educated guesses and a little bit of luck.

On June 1, 1980, television news in America begins a fundamental change:

…CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks–ABC, CBS and NBC–and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally….

Here’s a recording of CNN’s first hour of cable news, from that date:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Our month needs with a beautiful Saturday: sunny, a high of eighty-two, and winds of five to ten mph.

Best, really, to plan carefully before toppling a tower. Amateurs demolish 100-foot tower using power tool, almost get crushed is a case in point:

On this day in the last year of the nineteenth century, a Bible society is founded after a meeting in Beaver Dam:

1899 – The Gideons International Founded
On this night two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, crossed paths a second time, in Beaver Dam. The pair had first met eight months before in the Central Hotel in Boscobel and discussed the need for some way to provide Christian support to traveling businessmen. During this second meeting in Beaver Dam the two decided to “get right at it. Start the ball rolling and follow it up.” They invited their professional contacts to an organizational meeting to be held in Janesville on July 1, 1899, at which the organization was formally named and chartered. By 1948, The Gideons had distributed over 15 million bibles world-wide. View more information about the founding of the Gideons elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org [Source: Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday will be sunny with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise today is 5:20 AM and sunset is 8:25 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with four percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Last night, Elon Musk unveiled a new, and now crew-capable, version of his Dragon space capsule. The ship can hold up to seven people, and more remarkably, it’s reusable and capable of landing under its own power:

America’s best days of space travel are yet ahead.

On this day in 1911, the first Indianapolis 500 takes place.

Here’s the concluding game in this week’s Puzzability’s series, Out of State:

This Week’s Game — May 26-30

Out of State

We’re taking a road trip for the unofficial start to summer. For each day this week, we started with the single word that completes a state’s nickname in the phrase “The ___ State.” Then we hid it in a sentence, with spaces added as necessary. The answer spans at least two words in the sentence and starts and ends in the middle of words. The day’s clue gives the sentence with an interstate sign in place of the nickname.

Example:

We learned that younger members of the local Native American triaged just a few years living on the reservation once they became adults.

Answer:

Beaver (tribe averaged)

What to Submit:

Submit the nickname (as “Beaver” in the example) for your answer.

Friday, May 30

It was difficult not to be jealous of a group I saw with a tour guide talkintly about the local sites, while ours just droned on.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in Whitewater looks to be a beautiful day: sunny, a high of seventy-six, and east winds of five to ten mph.

The Tech Park Board meets this morning at 8 AM.

On this day in 1953, two explorers reach the top of the world:

At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. The two, part of a British expedition, made their final assault on the summit after spending a fitful night at 27,900 feet. News of their achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country’s future.

On this day in 1848, Wisconsin becomes America’s 30th state:

1848 – Wisconsin Enters the Union
On this date Wisconsin became the 30th state to enter the Union with an area of 56,154 square miles, comprising 1/56 of the United States at the time. Its nickname, the “Badger State,” was not in reference to the fierce animal but miners who spent their winters in the state, living in dugouts and burrowing much like a badger. [Source: “B” Book I, Beer Bottles, Brawls, Boards, Brothels, Bibles, Battles & Brownstone by Tony Woiak, pg. 37]

Puzzability’s Out of State series continues with Thursday’s game:

This Week’s Game — May 26-30

Out of State

We’re taking a road trip for the unofficial start to summer. For each day this week, we started with the single word that completes a state’s nickname in the phrase “The ___ State.” Then we hid it in a sentence, with spaces added as necessary. The answer spans at least two words in the sentence and starts and ends in the middle of words. The day’s clue gives the sentence with an interstate sign in place of the nickname.

Example:

We learned that younger members of the local Native American triaged just a few years living on the reservation once they became adults.

Answer:

Beaver (tribe averaged)

What to Submit:

Submit the nickname (as “Beaver” in the example) for your answer.

Thursday, May 29

Everyone rode dongotiate the steep paths of the canyon.