BISMARCK — Bismarck, Omit, Leafage, Buck, Bank. That was the telegraphic code found on this thin piece of paper, hidden in this silk dress from the 1800s.

Wayne Chan decoded the mysterious message which turned out to be a meteorological one, detailing the weather conditions on May 27, 1888. “I’ve never seen any code that wasn’t meant for secrecy be so complex.”

But in the 1800s the U.S. Army Signal Service used this complex code to send weather reports from across the country to the central Signal Service in Washington, DC through telegram, which charged by the word.

“Basically they’re trying to compress several variables down to one word to save money when they transmit the message,” Chan explains.

Here’s how it breaks down: the first word is the reporting weather station: Bismarck. The second word: OMIT represents temperature and air pressure: 56 degrees with a barometric pressure of 30.08”. The next word LEAFAGE is code for dew point and observation time: 32 degrees at 10pm eastern time. BUCK reveals the wind direction and precipitation, it was a dry day with a north wind. And the final word BANK translates the wind speed of 12mph and sunset conditions which were clear on May 27, 1888.

These condensed weather reports in the beginning of the telegraph era were sent to the D.C. weather office three times a day where meteorologists there would decode the messages and create a national weather map of current conditions… a collection of reports traveling faster than the weather for the first time in history.

Meteorologists would use these weather observations as a base for creating a national forecast within two and a half hours of receiving the reports. The forecast would then be sent through telegram to cities and newspapers across the Union, to help alert people of what type of weather was heading their way… all thanks to these condensed, coded messages.

“It’s kind of like texting, you are compressing and using abbreviations and emojis to compress the message,” Chan adds. Though 136 years later, a text of Bismarck, Unit, Lashing, Silvan, Noisy, Ice would be difficult for to decipher, especially without the correct codebook.

Many weather stations in the 1800s were located near the telegraph office so the reports could be quickly transmitted since they had high priority. Telegraph operators were supposed to send the weather reports before almost anything else.

BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR/NorthDakotaMonitor) — A person in North Dakota died after consuming recalled microdosing candies.

The death is under investigation by state agencies, the poison control center and FDA.

The FDA published a recall on June 28 of some Prophet Premium Blends Diamond Shruumz products.

They are marketed as containing a proprietary blend of mushrooms.

As of July 1, 48 illnesses, including 27 hospitalizations, have been reported in 24 states.

North Dakota is the only state where a death is being investigated.

North Dakota officials are warning the public because the recalled products could still be available for sale online, in stores that sell hemp-derived products, or in smoke and vape shops, said Michelle Dethloff, director of the infectious diseases and epidemiology unit.

The products are not illegal but they are not licensed or regulated by the state.

State officials would not provide specifics about when or where in North Dakota the death occurred or the person’s age, citing privacy reasons. The person who died is an adult, Dethloff said. The exact cause of death remains under investigation.

There’s really not much I don’t like about North Dakota.

Yeah, the weather can be annoying at times.  Mostly the wind, but other than that I personally love the 4 changes of seasons even though sometimes we miss out on one or two of them  Some years we don’t get much of a spring or in other years fall is very short and we go right into winter.

Besides the weather what’s not to like right?  Well, there are some things according to our listeners that should be “outlawed” in the state of North Dakota.

Wouldn’t be nice if you could make one law in the state of North Dakota?

I recently asked my listeners on our Facebook page, app, and on-air if they could outlaw one thing in North Dakota what would it be?  Some of the answers were of course comic genius.  Like, “STDs”, “Mothers in Laws”, “White Claw Drinkers”, “South Dakotans” and my favorite “Mondays”.  Yes, we should definitely go to a 4-day work week in this country.

Some more serious answers like “Texting and Driving”, “Vaping”, “Smoking”, and “The Enforcement of Littering Fines” were also given.

I had over 1,000 answers to my question to add up. 

Those are just some of the honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the top 15 answers to my very scientific poll that encompassed over 1,000 answers.  I’m actually starting to get pretty good at math thanks to this job.

So, without further ado, here are “The Top 15 Things We Would Like to Outlaw in North Dakota.”  Hopefully, some of these will become illegal in the future.

These Are The 15 Things North Dakotans Would Like To Outlaw