The clock is ticking, and the DARC is looking for volunteers to help out at the 2019 Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot! Please don’t forget to sign up—and remember that beginners are welcome.

The Dallas Marathon needs your help, too! They’ve asked that people not link directly to their information site, but if you paste this address into your address bar, it will take you right there. sites.google.com/site/dallasmarathoncomms/

And you’re almost out of time on this one your ballot for our West Gulf Division director must be received not later than November 15th, 2019. If you’re an ARRL member, check a box, use a stamp.

The contest calendar features a number of small events this weekend, including the 10-10 International Fall Digital Contest, and, for fans of PSK31, the PODXS 070 club contest.

The ARRL brings us some news from the world of ham radio:

Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, the founder of HamSCI, has received a $1.3 million grant to further citizen studies of the ionosphere.

This December 11th will mark the 98th anniversary of the first trans-Atlantic amateur radio contact, and W1AW will be conducting special on-air activities.

This Monday is Veterans’ Day, or Armistice Day, and the American Legion Amateur Radio Club will be operating a special event station, N9V.

And HuskySat-1 is in now in space, bringing it one step closer to eventual use as an AMSAT satellite.

In news from the world of science:

Voyager 2 has now been in interstellar space for a year, leading to a flurry of scientific papers and news announcements.

Thorium is very slightly radioactive, and this has often led to scientists and metallurgists ignoring its many interesting properties…which now include high-temperature superconductivity.

It looks like more and more of the sudden vaping-related illnesses are related to vitamin E acetate, which you do have to eat, but which, much like steak and potatoes, you should not ever inhale.

A recent news story celebrates 50 years of science education on Sesame Street. Put down the duckie!

Sadly, the bird sanctuary on Midway island is becoming covered in plastic garbage, with 5 tons of plastic a year being mistakenly delivered by one species alone.

I usually think of the dinosaur era as being impossibly long ago, so long that I’ll never understand just how much time has passed. And our galaxy is bigger than I can understand; it’s not something I can cross on a bicycle, even if I ride for decades. One scientist has combined these two impossibly big numbers, and reminded us that dinosaurs lived on the other side of the galaxy.