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. Designed and constructed at a cost of $60,000 by Omen Design Group Inc., the approximately 30-foot (9 m) tall sculpture was installed in 1988 in the northwest corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. Two thousand people attended its dedication, which was 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 of the weather for the following 24-hour period: a sun for clear and sunny weather, a blue heron for drizzle and transitional weather, or a dragon and mist for rainy or stormy 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. Considered a tourist attraction, Weather Machine has been called "bizarre", "playful", "unique" and "wacky".

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Machine

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1449:

The last Byzantine-Roman Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was crowned, four years before the Fall of Constantinople. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos

1839:

The most damaging storm in 300 years swept across Ireland, with 100-knot winds damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Big_Wind

1907:

Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day care center for working class children in Rome, employing the philosophy of education that now bears her name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori

1941:

During his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his Four Freedoms as fundamental freedoms humans everywhere in the world ought to enjoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms

1994:

Two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_Harding

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

at first blush: (idiomatic) Upon first impression or consideration; seemingly, apparently, ostensibly. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/at_first_blush

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied. You cannot talk yourself into it or rouse it by straining at the emotions or by dedicating yourself solemnly to the service of mankind. Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.    --Alan Watts https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Watts