Good morning, Whitewater.

We have a lovely day ahead: sunny, with a high of sixty-seven, and southwest winds of ten to fifteen mph.

On this day in 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano explodes, killing dozens.

1863 – (Civil War) Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Begins

After nearly three weeks spent encircling Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union forces had bottled up their enemy inside the city and prepared to attack it. Seventeen different Wisconsin regiments were involved in the assault that began the next day (8th, 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 29th and 33rd Wisconsin Infantry regiments and the 1st, 6th and 12th Wisconsin Light Artillery batteries as well as the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry).

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a mostly sunny day with a high of sixty-nine for Saturday’s citywide rummage sale. Sunrise is 5:30 AM and sunset 8:13 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with eighty-nine percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its unanimous opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954).

Someone in San Francisco hacked a traffic sign:

On this day in 1673, a great expedition begins:

1673 – Jolliet and Marquette Expedition Gets Underway

On this date Louis Jolliet, Father Jacques Marquette, and five French voyageurs departed from the mission of St. Ignace, at the head of Lake Michigan, to reconnoitre the Mississippi River. The party traveled in two canoes throughout the summer of 1673, traveling across Wisconsin, down the Mississippi to the Arkansas River, and back again.  [Source: Historic Diaries: Marquette & Joliet, 1673]

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a one-third chance of afternoon showers, but otherwise a partially cloudy day, with a high of fifty-two.

Could a creature like Godzilla (that is, a giant reptile) really exist?

Jason of Vsauce makes the case against Godzilla’s existence in a YouTube video:

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures make the case for Godzilla’s existence in their major-motion picture:

I embed – you decide.

On this day in 1933, Wisconsin mobilizes against dairy workers:

1933 – Military Mobilized Against Milk Strike

On this date, seventy-five members of the Janesville-based 32nd Tank Company and 121st Field Artillery were mobilized to quell potential violence in the Wisconsin farmers’ statewide milk strike. The strike was called to protest low milk prices and protesters employed “milk dumping” as their main tactic. The following day, Private Harry Wolfe, a tank company member, was assaulted during strike-related violence that erupted in Waukesha County. [Source: Janesville Gazette].

Puzzability‘s Just Drop It! series concludes with Friday’s game:

This Week’s Game — May 12-16

Just Drop It!

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.

Example:

Einstein from England

Answer:

Britain brain

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the IT word first (as “Britain brain” in the example), for your answer.

Friday, May 16

The amazing power of a lime and mint cocktail

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:

This Week’s Game — May 12-16

Just Drop It!

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.

Example:

Einstein from England

Answer:

Britain brain

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the IT word first (as “Britain brain” in the example), for your answer.

Thursday, May 15

Sauce for meat formed by letting the heavy bits sink to the bottom