The Dallas Marathon is coming up one week from today, on Sunday, Dec. 15th. Most positions have probably been filled, but if you haven’t signed up, please head over to https://sites.google.com/site/dallasmarathoncomms/volunteering/sign-up and register.

I didn’t get a chance to try this, so for everyone’s benefit I’ll repeat this one: If you’d like to try something really different, you could get on the air using FT-8 on 2 meters! The North Texas Microwave Society is holding informal FT-8 nets on 144.174 USB each Monday at 19:30 local. Any antenna you have will be better than nothing, but a horizontal antenna is preferred.

Nothing really stands out on the contest calendar this weekend. The ARRL 160-meter contest is taking place today and tomorrow morning, and, surprisingly, the ARRL 10-meter contest will be taking place next weekend. Good luck!

In news from the world of ham radio:

The ARRL reports that the FCC has released new RF exposure rules. The limits for amateur radio haven’t changed…but unfortunately, the rules for which stations are exempt from preparing a written station evaluation are different and much more complex.

The ARRL also reports that the UN headquarters station 4U1UN is now occasionally back on the air, though its situation is said to be precarious.

In news from the world of science:

A biologist has carefully re-created a discredited study from way back in 1906, and verified its original finding: single-celled animals can sometimes do complicated things. Stentor roeseli can change its mind about whether to fight, hide, or flee based on how irritated it is. No word on whether it can start an angry rant on Twitter.

Astronauts do not currently travel from planet to planet in suspended animation…but science keeps making progress, much of it accidental. A woman in Spain has survived a six-hour cardiac arrest thanks to her low body temperature of 64 degrees.

And strangely, birds are getting smaller…but with longer wings. It appears that due to global climate shifts, small North American birds are slowly evolving to have smaller bodies and greater wingspans.