Good morning.

A new month begins with mostly sunny skies, a high of 81, and southwest winds at 5 to 10 mph. We’ll have 14h 6m of sunlight, 15h 8m of daylight, and a waning gibbous moon. There will be two minutes more light tomorrow.

Tonight at 5:30 and again at 6:30, in Hyland Hall Room 3101, there will be training sessions for business people on a Digital Mapping Project: the sessions will present tips on marketing a business in an environment of digital communication. For more information, see Wednesday, May 1st: The Digital Whitewater Mapping Project.

It’s the anniversary of the Empire State Building’s dedication ceremony:

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.

The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.

At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod), was the world’s tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era construction employed as many as 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received an excellent pay rate, especially given the economic conditions of the time. The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride, desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression, when many city residents were unemployed and prospects looked bleak. The grip of the Depression on New York’s economy was still evident a year later, however, when only 25 percent of the Empire State’s offices had been rented….

Google has a question about a mountain in Europe: “What mountain in Switzerland includes three types of glacial erosion, and resembles an ancient Egyptian structure with four specific sides?”

Good morning.

Our month ends with a high of eighty-three and an even chance of thunderstorms.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM, for closed session deliberations, to reconvene in open session thereafter, about a fiber installation proposal.

On this day in 1789, the first presidential inauguration takes place in New York:

In New York City, George Washington, the great military leader of the American Revolution, is inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

In February 1789, all 69 presidential electors unanimously chose Washington to be the first U.S. president. In March, the new U.S. constitution officially took effect, and in April Congress formally sent word to Washington that he had won the presidency. He borrowed money to pay off his debts in Virginia and traveled to New York. On April 30, he came across the Hudson River in a specially built and decorated barge. The inaugural ceremony was performed on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street, and a large crowd cheered after he took the oath of office. The president then retired indoors to read Congress his inaugural address, a quiet speech in which he spoke of “the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” The evening celebration was opened and closed by 13 skyrockets and 13 cannons.

On 4.30.1845, Wisconsin approves public education:

1845 – Wisconsin Approves Free Schools
On this date, under the leadership of Michael Frank, Wisconsin adopted “free” education for its residents. Frank’s plan narrowly passed the legislature by a vote of 90 to 79. Frank’s motivation for free education in Wisconsin was partially inspired by a similar campaign, promoted by Horace Mann in Massachusetts. On June 16, 1845 the first free school opened in Wisconsin. It was one of only three free schools in the country, outside the New England states. By August 1845, Wisconsin had five free schools in operation. [Source:Badger Saints and Sinners, Fred L. Holmes, pg 78-92]

A public program, surely, but there never was, and never will be, one that’s truly without cost.

Google-a-Day asks a history question: “From what kind of facility was the founder and leader of the Mormons escaping when he was shot and killed?”

Good morning.

Monday brings a chance of afternoon thunderstorms with a high of seventy.

Whitewater’s Fire & Rescue Task Force meets today at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1974, a release of audio recordings:

…President Richard Nixon announces to the public that he will release transcripts of 46 taped White House conversations in response to a Watergate trial subpoena issued in July 1973. The House Judiciary committee accepted 1,200 pages of transcripts the next day, but insisted that the tapes themselves be turned over as well.

Nixontapes.org has transcripts and audio files of the recordings.

Google poses a geography question: “What area of the country is the main benefactor of the electricity generated by the Hoover Dam?”

Good morning.

Sunday will be warm and partly sunny, with a high near 68, and east winds around 5 mph.

On this day in 1947, “Thor Heyerdahl’s six-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.” (The linked story is Heyerdahl’s subsequent New York Times account of the successful expedition.) The 2012 film Kon-Tiki is an historical drama of the 1947 expedition.

Kon-Tiki – Trailer #2 from Storm Studios on Vimeo.

Google has a daily question about ants: “There are approximately 1 million ants for every how many people on the planet?”

Ants from ElishaJohn on Vimeo.

Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies that may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals.

Shot on iPhone 4 with the Olloclip. I created the filter in Photoshop. Created on 04/23/13

Good morning.

Spring’s here now: sunny, a high of sixty-seven, south winds at 5 to 10 mph, 13h 55m of sunlight, 14h 57m of daylight, with three minutes’ more tomorrow.

On this day in 1667, John Milton sells:

Blind poet John Milton sells the copyright to his masterpiece Paradise Lost (1667) for a mere 10 pounds.

Milton was born and raised the indulged son of a prosperous London businessman. He excelled at languages in grammar school and at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he took a bachelor’s and a master’s, which he completed in 1632. He then decided to continue his own education, spending six years reading every major work of literature in several languages. He published an elegy for a college classmate, Lycidas, in 1637 and went abroad in 1638 to continue his studies.

In 1642, Milton married 17-year-old Mary Powell, who left him just weeks later. Milton wrote a series of pamphlets arguing for the institution of divorce based on incompatibility. The idea, however mild it seems today, was scandalous at the time, and Milton experienced a vehement backlash for his writing.

Milton’s wife returned to him in 1645, and the pair had three daughters. However, he continued espousing controversial views. He supported the execution of Charles I, he railed against the control of the church by bishops, and he upheld the institution of Cromwell’s commonwealth, for which he became secretary of foreign languages.

In 1651, he lost his sight but fulfilled his government duties with the help of assistants, including poet Andrew Marvell. His wife died the following year. He remarried in 1656, but his second wife died in childbirth. Four years later, the commonwealth was overturned, and Milton was thrown in jail, saved only by the intervention of friends. The blind man lost his position and property.

He remarried in 1663. Blind, impoverished, and jobless, he began to dictate his poem Paradise Lost to his family. When the poem was ready for publication, he sold it for 10 pounds. Once printed, the poem was immediately hailed as a masterpiece of the English language. In 1671, he wrote Paradise Regained, followed by Samson Agonistes. He died in 1674.

On 4.27.13, Dave Brubeck plays at Beloit:

1963 – Dave Brubeck Performs at Beloit College
On this date jazz legend Dave Brubeck brought his quartet to Beloit College for a concert in the field house. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Here’s Take Five, and although not from the Beloit appearance, just as enjoyable:

Dave Brubeck – Take Five from EZ on Vimeo.

Google asks a question of politics and science: “What cabinet position had been held by the head of the commission that investigated the STS-51L disaster?”