Weather Machine is a lumino-kinetic bronze sculpture in the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, that serves as a weather beacon, displaying a daily weather prediction at noon. The approximately 30-foot-tall (9 m) sculpture was installed in 1988 in the northwest corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. Two thousand people attended its dedication, broadcast live nationally from the square by Today weatherman Willard Scott. During its daily two-minute sequence, which includes a trumpet fanfare, mist, and flashing lights, the machine displays one of three metal symbols as a prediction for the following 24-hour period: a sun for clear weather, a blue heron for drizzle and transitional weather, or a dragon and mist for rainy weather. The sculpture includes two bronze wind scoops and displays the temperature via vertical colored lights along its stem. The air quality index is also displayed by a light system below the stainless steel globe.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Machine
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1540:
King Henry VIII of England married Anne of Cleves, but the marriage was annulled six months later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Cleves
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day-care centre for working-class children in Rome, employing the philosophy of education that now bears her name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori
1960:
National Airlines Flight 2511, traveling from New York City to Miami, exploded in midair due to a bomb placed by an unknown party, resulting in the deaths of all 34 people on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Airlines_Flight_2511
1977:
The record label EMI ended its contract with the English punk rock band Sex Pistols in response to its members' disruptive behaviour at Heathrow Airport two days earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
Slavi: The Russian Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated from January 6 through 13 in outstate Alaska, USA, wherever there is a sizable Russian Orthodox population. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Slavi
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Through the myth it creates, propaganda imposes a complete range of intuitive knowledge, susceptible of only one interpretation, unique and one-sided, and precluding any divergence. This myth becomes so powerful that it invades every arena of consciousness, leaving no faculty or motivation intact. It stimulates in the individual a feeling of exclusiveness, and produces a biased attitude. --Jacques Ellul https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul