Good morning.

It’s a mild day ahead for Whitewater, with a high of sixty-two degrees, and a chance of afternoon showers.

Today will be the third in a series of either groundbreaking ceremonies or openings for the Innovation Center.  For posts about that project, see Innovation Center/Tech Park. After these many months, a building with tens of thousands of square feet now has about 780 square feet rented for a private concern (and even then, one that has some workers with publicly-paid work elsewhere).

That’s 97-98% public, but only 2-3% private, in a town with a dozen greater, more urgent needs.

The truth about how all this will turn out, though, isn’t to be found in the contemporary commentary on the project, but in a pithy remark from a long-dead Roman.  More on that later today.

Over at Science News, there’s a video map of the earth’s gravitaional field — it’s not all uniform, but irregular —

PLANETARY PULL from Science News on Vimeo.

Good morning.

It’s a sunny day in Whitewater’s forecast, with a high temperature of sixty degrees.

This afternoon, there will be a Landmarks Commission meeting in Whitewater. The agenda for the meeting is available online.

Later, at 7 p.m., there will be an informational meeting on possible consequences of Wisconsin’s state budget. Several local officials will speak on that topic, at the Cravath Lakefront Community Center. See, Informational Forum: Potential Local Impacts of the Proposed Wisconsin Budget, Wed., May 4th, 7-9 PM.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1873,

On this date John James Blaine was born in the town of Wingville in Grant County. A politician, governor, and U.S. Senator, Blaine attended public schools in Montfort, and received a law degree from Northern Indiana University. He was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1897 and practiced briefly in Montfort before settling in Boscobel.

A Progressive Republican, he served as Boscobel’s mayor for four terms and was elected to the State Senate in 1909. It was there that he gained prominence by leading investigations into the campaign expenditures of Wisconsin Senator Isaac Stephenson, attempting to block Stephenson’s re-election. A zealous advocate of progressivism and the ideals embraced by Robert M. La Follette Sr., Blaine was one of the organizers and vice-president of the Wilson National Progressive Republican League.  After running unsuccessfully for governor in 1914, Blaine was elected state attorney in 1918.

In 1921, he became governor and held this office for three consecutive terms. During his tenure Blaine promoted progressive labor legislation, fostered a campaign to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, and signed the nation’s first law giving equal rights to women. In 1926, he won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate where he served from 1927 to 1933, becoming one of the leaders in the effort to repeal prohibition. He died on April 16, 1934. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, SHSW 1960, pg. 39]

Good morning.

Whitewater’s forecast offers up a mostly cloudy day, with a high temperature of forty-nine degrees.

There’s a Common Council meeting tonight, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting agenda is available online.

Lakeview school has a PTA meeting tonight at 6:00 p.m., and at the middle school there will be a 7 p.m. Jazz Band and Show Choir concert.

If you’ve wondered how hummingbirds drink, then wonder no more — Wired has the answer for you.  In a post entitled, High-Speed Video Shows How Hummingbirds Really Drink, readers learn that

To discover how hummingbirds drink, [University of Connecticut ornithologist Alejandro] Rico-Guevara and colleague Margaret Rubega built see-through flowers that allowed them to take high-speed, high-magnification video of hummingbird tongues, which flick into nectar up to 20 times per second.

The video (above) shows that, instead of simply drawing in liquid, a hummingbird tongue’s tubes open down their sides when hitting nectar. When the tongue pulls back, the tubes zip closed, carrying nectar back into the beak.

Hummingbirds need lots of nectar, and here’s one of them in action:

Good morning.

It’s a partly cloudy day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of fifty-eight degrees.

In the City of Whitewater today, there will be a Parks & Recreation Board meeting at 4 p.m., and at 4:30 p.m. there will be a meeting of Whitewater’s Community Development Authority.  I’ve linked to the agendas of each meeting.

Like so many Americans, and many billions more throughout the world, I heard of Bin Laden’s death last night.  The president’s speech, announcing Bin Laden’s demise to the nation was, I think, the finest single speech Pres. Obama has delivered (and like Reagan before him, Obama is a gifted speaker).  It’s a speech I’ve heard twice now, and well worth hearing yet again, for its clear expression of America’s fortitude in the pursuit of justice.

Here at home, and over at the Gazette, there’s a good story about one of Whitewater’s hidden treasures, a series of tribal effigy mounds far older than any other human effort in our city:

“Whitewater is one of the best-preserved in that part of the state,” said archeologist Robert Birmingham, who has authored books about effigy mounds in Wisconsin. “(They) really are an archeological world wonder.”

Birmingham estimates Whitewater’s mounds were built between 700 and 1100 A.D. Among them are thunderbirds, “panther-like water sprits,” snakes and a mink.

He said almost all sites were built near natural springs, a representation of life.

Efforts to preserve this site, the hard work of a dedicated group, are particularly commendable.  See, Whitewater hopes to restore historical effigy mounds.