Moon Day is coming up in less than a week! Don’t forget to volunteer!

There’s only one big event on this weekend’s contest calendar: the IARU HF Championship. You get multipliers for working national club headquarters stations!

In ham news:

Some rule changes have been announced for the CQ WW contests. Most notably, the penalties for busted exchanges and missed log entries have been slightly reduced.

The ARRL reports that a ham technology—a low frequency radio phone—helped in the famous cave rescue that just took place in Thailand.

In the world of science:

NASA reports that the spiders from Mars are, sadly, not very musically inclined. Instead, they’re caused by frozen carbon dioxide sublimating from underneath other materials; it “melts” from the bottom up, apparently.

Giant hogweed is scary as all get-out, and it features a very science-y poison. It hasn’t been reported in Texas, yet. If you encounter it, there are some fairly boring tips for safe removal; but I think it’s best to follow Ripley’s advice when dealing with this plant.

Were you expecting one near-Earth asteroid? Whoops! Twins!

And of course, for the Year of the Bird, I always have to mention some bird news. First, do not steal birds from parks! Second, birds can appear on radar, and look pretty cool. Third, bird seed can attract mice, and many people don’t like to feed birds, especially at this time of year…but this is by far the most important time of year to set out water for birds. Please put some out if you can.