Primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time
POPULARITY
Categories
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Liam Spencer, who shares the following recording and notes:Broadcaster: Voice of Mongolia (Mailbox Program)Date of recording: May 13, 2024Starting time: 14:43 UTCFrequency: 12.015 MHzReception location: KiwiSDR in Khabarovsk, RussiaReceiver and antenna: UnknownNotes: Here is a recording of Voice Of Mongolia Mailbox show which occurs every Monday and was hosted by Bilguun and Robert during this time.This was recorded during the 14:30 to 15:00 UTC slot on 12015, which is a challenging catch, even on WebSDRs, due to Voice of Korea interference on the same channel, along with Voice of Vietnam 12020 and CRI on 12010.The transmission was poor anyway. Voice of Mongolia broadcasts are off frequency by 20 or 30 Hz, there's a hum on broadcasts, and distorted modulation. Although the modulation has improved over the past 2 years.As for the mailbox hosts. Bilguun left in November or December 2024 and was replaced by Bumblebee. Robert announced in January 2025 that he needed to travel to New Zealand to visit family and renew his visa. Bilguun returned in April 2025 and co-hosted a mailbox show with Bumblebee and said he was on vacation in the USA. He took over the Wednesday and Thursday programs. Robert returned in May 2025 for 1 or 2 mailbag shows and hasn't been heard on Voice of Mongolia since then. Bilguun has also not been heard from recently. Bumblebee has continued to host the mailbox program since 2024. Voice of Mongolia (Mailbox Program): May 13, 2024 Liam Spencer Download
rWotD Episode 3389: Revolution of the Suns and Rays Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Friday, 14 August 2026, is Revolution of the Suns and Rays.The Revolution of the Suns and Rays (Spanish: Conspiración de los Soles y Rayos de Bolívar) was an attempt by the Suns and Rays of Bolívar to overthrow colonial rule in the Caribbean and the Antilles, seeking to establish a new government which would be called the Republic of Cubanacán. The Suns and Rays of Bolívar were South American military forces aligned with Simón Bolívar, primarily from Venezuela, where they had been fighting to overthrow Spanish rule on the continent. "Suns and Rays" was the name of their Masonic lodge, where they hatched the plans to organize this revolution. Other Masonic movements involved in this Revolution affiliated with Freemasonry in Cuba were; Knights Rationales, Cadena Eléctrica and Cadena Triangular de Bolívar.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:19 UTC on Friday, 14 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Revolution of the Suns and Rays on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Salli.
fWotD Episode 3388: European rabbit Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 14 August 2026, is European rabbit.The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern France. It has been introduced to hundreds of locations around the world. Wild and domesticated European rabbits around the world can vary widely in size, shape, and colour. The average adult European rabbit is smaller than the European hare, though size and weight vary with habitat and diet.European rabbits prefer grassland habitats and are herbivorous, mainly feeding on grasses and leaves, though they may supplement their diet with berries, tree bark, and field crops such as maize. They are prey to a variety of predators, including birds of prey, weasels, cats, and canids. The European rabbit's main defence against predators is to run and hide, using vegetation and its own burrows for cover. It is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. The European rabbit lives in social groups centred around territorial females. European rabbits in an established social group will rarely stray far from their warren, with female rabbits leaving the warren mainly to establish nests where they will raise their young. Unlike hares, rabbits are born blind and helpless, requiring maternal care until they leave the nest.The European rabbit has been hunted since the Paleolithic period, and raised as a food source since at least the first century BCE. It has also had major agricultural and biological impacts as an invasive species. It is the only domesticated species of rabbit, and all known breeds of domestic rabbit are its descendants. It has often been introduced to exotic locations as a food source or for sport hunting. It has been introduced to at least 800 islands and every continent except Antarctica, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity due to a lack of predators. However, the species is listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as it has faced population decline in its native range due to overhunting, habitat destruction, and diseases such as myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease. This decline has directly led to negative impacts on populations of the Iberian lynx and Spanish imperial eagle, predators that rely on the rabbit as food.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:09 UTC on Friday, 14 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see European rabbit on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Tiffany.
rWotD Episode 3388: Edward Chang (neurosurgeon) Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Thursday, 13 August 2026, is Edward Chang (neurosurgeon).Edward Chang is an American neurosurgeon and scientist. He is the Joan and Sandy Weill Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco and Jeanne Robertson Distinguished Professor.Chang specializes in operative brain mapping to ensure the safety and effectiveness of surgery for treating seizures and brain tumors, as well as micro-neurosurgery for treating cranial nerve disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm. In 2020, Chang was elected into the National Academy of Medicine for "deciphering the functional blueprint of speech in the human cerebral cortex, pioneering advanced clinical methods for human brain mapping and spearheading novel translational neuroprosthetic technology for paralyzed patients."This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:37 UTC on Thursday, 13 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Edward Chang (neurosurgeon) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Matthew.
fWotD Episode 3387: Ellis Wackett Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Thursday, 13 August 2026, is Ellis Wackett.Air Vice-Marshal Ellis Charles Wackett, CB, CBE (13 August 1901 – 3 August 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Its chief engineer from 1935 to 1959, he served on the RAAF's controlling body, the Air Board, for a record seventeen years, and has been credited with infusing operations with new standards of airworthiness. Commencing his service career as a Royal Australian Navy cadet during World War I, Wackett transferred to the Air Force in 1923 while on an engineering course in Britain. He qualified as a pilot before completing his studies and returning to Australia, where he inaugurated parachute instruction within the RAAF and made the country's first freefall descent from a military aircraft in 1926. The following year, he led a three-month survey flight to Papua New Guinea.Wackett became the RAAF's senior engineer with his appointment as Director of Technical Services in 1935. A wing commander at the outbreak of World War II, he rose to air commodore by 1942 and assumed the role of Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance. He established the Technical Branch as a separate department of the RAAF in 1948, and was promoted to air vice-marshal the same year. Wackett served as Air Member for Technical Services until leaving the military in 1959, having been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of the Bath. From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of the Australian National Airlines Commission, parent of Trans Australia Airlines. Generally known as "Wack", or "EC" (to distinguish him from his elder brother, aircraft designer Lawrence James Wackett or "LJ"), his prominent chin and nose also earned him the nickname "Punch". He died in 1984, aged 83.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:19 UTC on Thursday, 13 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Ellis Wackett on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Gregory.
pWotD Episode 3389: Count Binface Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 47,831 views on Wednesday, 12 August 2026 our article of the day is Count Binface.Jonathan David Harvey (born May 1980) is a British writer who contests elections as the novelty candidate Count Binface, an "independent space warrior" who wears a bin-shaped helmet. Harvey previously stood as a similar character, Lord Buckethead, but was forced to create a new one due to a dispute with the filmmaker Todd Durham, who owns the Buckethead character.Binface stood against the prime minister, Boris Johnson, in Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2019 general election, and the 2023 by-election which followed Johnson’s resignation as a member of Parliament. He contested the 2021 and 2024 London mayoral elections, and stood against the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in Richmond and Northallerton at the 2024 general election. Binface stood at the 2026 Makerfield by-election, which was won by Andy Burnham, the current prime minister. Binface is the primary contender against the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at the 2026 Clacton by-election amidst a boycott by the other major parties.Harvey has used Binface to promote electoral participation, with the slogan "Make Your Vote Count". He originally stood as an independent, but his affiliation since 2023 has been to the Count Binface Party.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 03:40 UTC on Thursday, 13 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Count Binface on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Arthur.
fWotD Episode 3386: Yongle Emperor Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 12 August 2026, is Yongle Emperor.The Yongle Emperor (2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1402 to 1424. He was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the dynasty.In 1370, Zhu Di was granted the title of Prince of Yan. By 1380, he had relocated to Beiping (present-day Beijing) and was responsible for protecting the northeastern borderlands. In the 1380s and 1390s, he proved himself to be a skilled military leader, gaining popularity among soldiers and achieving success as a statesman. In 1399, he rebelled against his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor, and launched a civil war known as the Jingnan campaign. After three years of intense fighting, he emerged victorious and declared himself emperor in 1402.After ascending the throne, the Yongle Emperor elevated Beiping to the status of a second capital, diminishing the importance of Nanjing. Construction of the new capital between 1407 and 1420 employed hundreds of thousands of workers. He also supervised the reconstruction of the Grand Canal, essential for supplying Beijing and the northern armies. The Emperor strongly supported both Confucianism and Buddhism and sponsored the compilation of the vast Yongle Encyclopedia, employing around two thousand scholars. He also ordered Neo-Confucian texts to be systematized and used as textbooks for training officials. The civil service examinations, held every three years, produced qualified candidates for government service. Unlike his father, he avoided frequent purges, resulting in longer ministerial tenures and a more professional, stable administration.The Emperor made considerable efforts to reinforce the empire's hegemonic position in East Asia through an active foreign policy. Diplomatic missions and military expeditions were dispatched to regions both near and distant, including Manchuria, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the Timurid Empire in Central Asia. Maritime expeditions led by the eunuch admiral Zheng He extended even further, reaching the shores of Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and East Africa. The Mongols—including southeastern Uriankhai, eastern Mongols and western Oirats—remained the empire's greatest security threat, prompting the Ming court to alternately support and confront the various groups. The Emperor personally led five campaigns into Mongolia, and his decision to transfer the government from Nanjing to Beijing was driven largely by the need to closely monitor the unstable northern frontier. Although a skilled military leader, his wars were ultimately unsuccessful, as the campaign in Đại Việt lasted until the end of his reign and his Mongolian campaigns failed to secure China's northern border.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:01 UTC on Wednesday, 12 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Yongle Emperor on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Ruth.
rWotD Episode 3387: SW 6th & Pine and SW 5th & Oak stations Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Wednesday, 12 August 2026, is SW 6th & Pine and SW 5th & Oak stations.SW 6th & Pine and SW 5th & Oak are a pair of light rail stations on the MAX Green, Orange and Yellow Lines in Portland, Oregon. It is the 3rd stop southbound on the Portland Transit Mall extension.The stations are built into the sidewalks of 5th and 6th Avenues, with the 5th Avenue platform served by southbound trains and the 6th Avenue platform by northbound trains. The SW 6th & Pine station is served only by the Green and Yellow Lines, and the SW 5th & Oak station is served only by the Green and Orange Lines. Originally, from the opening of these stations in 2009 until 2015, the Yellow Line served both, but in September 2015 the then-new Orange Line replaced the Yellow Line at all southbound stations on the transit mall. The stations are located at the base of the US Bancorp Tower and connect to bus routes on the Transit Mall.At the time of their opening in August 2009, the stations were located in Fareless Square, which in January 2010 was renamed the Free Rail Zone. In 2012, the fare-free zone was discontinued, along with all fare zones on the TriMet system.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:09 UTC on Wednesday, 12 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see SW 6th & Pine and SW 5th & Oak stations on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Danielle.
pWotD Episode 3388: Lucy Davis Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 236,321 views on Tuesday, 11 August 2026 our article of the day is Lucy Davis.Lucy Clare Davis (born 17 February 1973) is an English actress and comedian known for playing Dawn Tinsley in the BBC mockumentary television sitcom The Office (2001–2003), Hilda Spellman in the Netflix supernatural horror television series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020), Dianne in the zombie comedy film Shaun of the Dead (2004), and Etta Candy in the superhero film Wonder Woman (2017). She played Eva in Disney Channel's comedy television series The Villains of Valley View (2022–2023).This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:23 UTC on Wednesday, 12 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Lucy Davis on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Salli.
photo by derek oven on unsplash A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2026 beginning at 21:30 UTC.The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula), King Edward Point, and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were interviews with Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of BAS; and Lousiane Ferlier, an archivist at the Royal Society in London who is digitizing the photographs of the first midwinter celebration during Robert Scott's discovery expedition of 1901-04. As sometimes happens, the first few words of the introduction were not transmitted: "This is the BBC World Service calling Antarctica ...".The recording is of the transmission on 12070 kHz from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station. The sender had a registered power of 300 kW with antenna beam 182 degrees. The transmission was received on a Belka-DX receiver with a Sangean ANT-60 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in pseudo-synchronous (AM2) mode with 50 Hz - 2.7 kHz bandwidth. Reception was quite good with excellent signal strength but with occasional lightning burst noise and digital utility station interference. The additional parallel frequencies of 9510 kHz from Woofferton and 9460 kHz from Ascension were heard but not as well as 12070 kHz. A studio quality, slightly longer, podcast version is available on the BBC World Service website. BBC World Service Annual Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast: June 21, 2026 Richard Langley Download
fWotD Episode 3385: Grey-cowled wood rail Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Tuesday, 11 August 2026, is Grey-cowled wood rail.The grey-cowled wood rail or grey-necked wood rail (Aramides cajaneus) is a species of bird in the family Rallidae, the rails. It lives primarily in the forests, mangroves, and swamps of Central and South America. Of the two subspecies, A. c. avicenniae is found in southeastern Brazil, while the nominate is found throughout the portion of the range not occupied by the other subspecies. The species as a whole is usually found at elevations from sea level to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), although some have been found above that. This bird's large extent of occurrence along with its population is why it is considered to be least-concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In some places, it is occasionally hunted and kept for food.This bird, large for a wood rail, has both a grey head and neck. In the nominate, the back of the head has a brown patch. The upperparts are olive-green to dark brown. The chest and flanks are a rufous colour, with the belly, rump, and tail being black. The legs are coral-red, the bill is a bright greenish-yellow, and the eyes are red. The sexes are similar. The juveniles can be differentiated by their duller look, and the chicks have a black, downy appearance, brown head, and black beak. The subspecies avicenniae can be differentiated by its smaller size, lack of a brown patch at the back of the neck, and its lower back being toned slightly olive. The underparts are also pale.A monogamous bird, pairs can be found together throughout the year. During the breeding season, which usually lasts from March to August, the grey-cowled wood rail builds nests that can be found on flat branches and in thickets, usually at heights between 1 and 3 metres (3 and 10 ft). In these nests, there is a clutch consisting of three to seven eggs, incubated by both sexes. The chicks that hatch are precocial, able to move soon after hatching. This rail feeds on a wide range of foods, from molluscs to seeds. It is also known to feed on the feces of giant otters.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:07 UTC on Tuesday, 11 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Grey-cowled wood rail on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Joey.
rWotD Episode 3386: Football at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Knockout stage Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Tuesday, 11 August 2026, is Football at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Knockout stage.The knockout stage of the 1964 Summer Olympics football tournament was the second and final stage of the competition, following the first round. Played from 18 to 23 October, the knockout stage ended with the final held at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. The top two team from each group advanced to the knockout stage to compete in a single-elimination tournament. There were eleven matches in the knockout stage, including play-offs played between the losing teams of the quarter-finals and semi-finals for extra allocated finishing positions.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:37 UTC on Tuesday, 11 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Football at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Knockout stage on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Ayanda.
pWotD Episode 3387: Roblox Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 4,781,328 views on Monday, 10 August 2026 our article of the day is Roblox.Roblox ( , ROH-bloks) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was developed by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004, and released to the public in 2006. As of February 2025, the platform has reported an average of 85.3 million daily active users. According to the company, its monthly player base includes half of all American children under the age of 16.The platform hosts millions of user-created games, created using Luau, a modified dialect of the programming language Lua and the platform's game engine, Roblox Studio. While Roblox is free-to-play, it features in-game purchases done through its virtual currency known as Robux, and game developers on the platform are able to create items that cost Robux. The platform hosts a large virtual economy centered around those items and Robux. Using the platform's Developer Exchange program, creators are able to exchange their earned Robux for real-world currency. The platform has been used to host virtual concerts and events, as well as advergames.While Roblox started off small—both in playerbase and as a company—it began to grow rapidly in the second half of the 2010s. This growth was further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2020, over 5,000 games on Roblox had been played over a million times, and over 20 had been played over one billion times. Although critic reviews for Roblox have been positive, it has faced criticism concerning child safety and its content moderation, due to material pornographic or politically extremist in nature. It has been criticized for its alleged exploitative practices toward children and microtransactions. The platform has been restricted or completely blocked in several countries, including China, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:22 UTC on Tuesday, 11 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Roblox on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Brian.
Astronomy Daily · S05E163 · “The Long Way Home” · Monday 10 August 2026. Sources verified against primary / institutional outlets. Starship “lost at sea” (Flight 13) • Flight 13 launched 24 July 2026 from Starbase, South Texas; the upper stage (“Ship,” Ship 40, ~52 m) made the softest Starship water landing yet in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia — and, in a program first, survived intact and afloat. • SpaceX had not planned to recover it. Musk confirmed the salvage attempt on 28 July (“We're sending a ship out to recover Starship”); recovery ship Go Australis was joined by Norwegian tugs Normand Ranger and Skimmer Tide, with a tow line to the nose. • On 7 August, Musk said recovery is “not looking good right now” in rough seas — but the team had already obtained close-up photos of critical heat-shield and engine regions for future upgrades. A saltwater-soaked Ship was never going to be reflown. • Heat shield: on SpaceX's first quarterly earnings call (4 August) Musk said he'd “consider the heat-shield problem solved,” long the biggest hurdle to full reuse. • The flight also deployed 20 next-gen Starlink V3 satellites; the Super Heavy booster had engine trouble and was lost in the Gulf of Mexico. Stacked, Starship stands ~124 m. Flight 14 is targeted for late August — its first attempt at operational orbit with production Starlink. • Sources: SpaceX / @elonmusk on X (7 Aug); Space.com (Mike Wall, 7 Aug); CNN (3 Aug). Landspace Zhuque-3, second landing attempt • Landspace (private, Beijing, founded 2015) targets liftoff ~7:45 p.m. EDT Mon 10 Aug (23:45 UTC / ≈9:45 a.m. AEST Tue 11 Aug) from Jiuquan, aiming for a propulsive first-stage recovery on legs (Falcon 9-style), landing downrange in Gansu. • The methalox, stainless-steel Zhuque-3 (~66 m) is broadly a Falcon 9 rival. Its Dec 2025 maiden flight reached orbit but the first stage failed its landing burn and crashed. • Accuracy note: this is China's fourth orbital-class recovery attempt. A Long March 10B already landed via net-capture on 10 July (China became the 2nd nation to land an orbital booster) — so tonight would make Landspace the first Chinese company to attempt a propulsive/landing-legs recovery, not “China's first.” • Sources: Space.com (7 Aug); Yahoo/Space (7 Aug); launch trackers (NOTAM-based). Uranus's “breathing” bow shock • New multifluid-MHD modelling shows Uranus's bow shock expands and contracts over a single ~17-hour Uranian day — driven by the planet's own extreme rotation and tilted, offset magnetic field, not by changes in the solar wind. • The model is constrained by Voyager 2's 1986 flyby — still the only direct measurements ever taken inside the Uranian system (a nice callback to E159's Voyager 2 “Big Bang” lead). • Implications for future ice-giant missions and for the many ice-giant exoplanets now being found. Cao et al., AGU Advances; surfaced via an Eos research spotlight this week. (Framed as newly-spotlighted rather than newly-published.) • Sources: AGU Advances (Cao et al.); Eos research spotlight; phys.org (7 Aug). Total solar eclipse — 12 August 2026 • The only total solar eclipse of 2026. Unusual over-the-pole path: Arctic Siberia → eastern Greenland → western Iceland → northern Spain (clipping NE Portugal) → the Balearics at sunset. • Greatest eclipse ≈17:46 UTC; max totality 2 min 18 s just off Iceland's west coast, with the Sun only ~26° high. Iceland's first total eclipse since 1954 (Reykjavik's first in 593 years); Spain's first since 1905. • North America sees a partial across the northern tier (Alaska to North Carolina) and most of Canada — deepest in the far north, a shallow bite (
fWotD Episode 3384: Toys for Bob Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 10 August 2026, is Toys for Bob.Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. It was founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. The studio is known for creating Star Control and the Skylanders franchise, as well as for working on the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro franchises.Toys for Bob began as a partnership between Reiche and Ford. The two had separately attended the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1970s before entering the video game industry in the early 1980s. They later met through mutual friends in 1988, when Reiche was seeking a programmer to develop Star Control for Accolade. This led to the creation of their partnership in 1989 and the debut of Star Control in 1990. The release was considered a landmark science fiction game and led to the 1992 sequel Star Control II, which greatly expanded the series' story and scale. Star Control II is celebrated as one of the greatest games of all time and is featured on several "best of" lists for music, writing, world design, and character design. The studio adopted the name Toys for Bob to stimulate curiosity and differentiate themselves from other studios.With Crystal Dynamics as their publisher, they developed several games, including The Horde, Pandemonium!, and The Unholy War. In the early 2000s, the studio transitioned to working on licensed games before being laid off by Crystal Dynamics. With Terry Falls as a co-owner, Reiche and Ford incorporated the studio in 2002. Activision became their publisher soon after, and eventually acquired the studio in 2005. Toys for Bob created the Skylanders series when Activision merged with Vivendi Games and acquired the Spyro franchise. The developers at Toys for Bob had already been experimenting with using physical toys to interact with video games and believed that this technology would be ideal for Spyro's universe of characters. Credited with inventing the toys-to-life genre, the 2011 release of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was considered a technological and commercial breakthrough. This led to a spinoff series with several successful games, generating a billion dollars in revenue for Activision in the first 15 months and winning several awards. In 2018, Toys for Bob assisted with the development of the remaster compilations Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy, earning a reputation leading a revival of properties from the original PlayStation.After the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time in 2020, Reiche and Ford left the company to start an independent studio. Toys for Bob took on new leadership under Paul Yan and Avery Lodato while working on the Call of Duty series. After Activision's parent company, Activision Blizzard, faced lawsuits over workplace harassment and discrimination, Microsoft acquired the holding in October 2023. Following layoffs at the studio, Toys for Bob spun off from Activision in May 2024.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:34 UTC on Monday, 10 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Toys for Bob on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Salli.
rWotD Episode 3385: David Murphy (footballer, born 1984) Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 10 August 2026, is David Murphy (footballer, born 1984).David Paul Murphy (born 1 March 1984) is an English former professional footballer who made more than 200 appearances in the English and Scottish Leagues. Born in Hartlepool, County Durham, Murphy played as a left back.Murphy started his professional career at Premier League side Middlesbrough in 2001, and remained at the club for three years, making sixteen appearances. During his time at Middlesbrough, he also had a loan spell with Division Two side Barnsley in 2004, where he made ten appearances. He left Middlesbrough for Scottish Premier League side Hibernian in the summer of 2004, and made 134 appearances for the club, before signing for Birmingham City in January 2008. He played 132 matches for the club in all competitions, and was an unused substitute as they won the 2011 League Cup Final, but his six-year stay was blighted by injuries, and he retired from football on medical advice in March 2014.He played several times for England at under-16 level.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:42 UTC on Monday, 10 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see David Murphy (footballer, born 1984) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Danielle.
pWotD Episode 3386: Tobey Maguire Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 25,315 views on Sunday, 9 August 2026 our article of the day is Tobey Maguire.Tobias Vincent Maguire (born June 27, 1975), is an American actor and film producer. He began his career in supporting roles, before gaining international recognition and critical praise for his role as Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's 2002 film Spider-Man. Maguire reprised the role in two sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). He returned to the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).Maguire expanded his career with dramatic roles in Seabiscuit (2003), The Good German (2006), and The Great Gatsby (2013). He received critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his role as a PTSD-stricken soldier in the war film Brothers (2009).Outside of acting, Maguire has also produced several films, including 25th Hour (2002) and Seabiscuit. He later established his own production company, Material Pictures, in 2012 and co-produced Good People (2012), Pawn Sacrifice (2014), and Babylon (2022).This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:46 UTC on Monday, 10 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Tobey Maguire on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.
rWotD Episode 3384: Bunde Tolimense Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Sunday, 9 August 2026, is Bunde Tolimense."Bunde Tolimense" is a Colombian song written by Alberto Castilla in 1914 and popularized in the 1950s with a recording by Los Tolimenses. In 1959, it was adopted as the official anthem of Colombia's Tolima Department.Viva Music Colombia rated the song No. 15 on its list of the 100 most important Colombian songs of all time. In its list of the 50 best Colombian songs of all time, El Tiempo, Colombia's most widely circulated newspaper, ranked the version of the song by Los Tolimenses at No. 18.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:41 UTC on Sunday, 9 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Bunde Tolimense on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Aria.
fWotD Episode 3383: Wild Australia Show Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 9 August 2026, is Wild Australia Show.The Wild Australia Show was a troupe of Indigenous Australian performers that toured Australia during 1892 and 1893. The group was formed by the white businessman Archibald Meston and his business partner Brabazon Harry Purcell with the intention of performing in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe on the way to Chicago to perform at the World's Columbian Exposition. It included 27 Indigenous people from across northern Queensland and the surrounding region: 21 men, 5 women, and 1 child.The Indigenous performers were recruited by Purcell during 1891 and 1892. Their motivations for joining the tour are unknown; scholars have suggested that some may have been kidnapped or coerced, while others may have sought an escape from violent and oppressive conditions on the Queensland frontier. Inspired by the ethnological expositions popular in the colonial era, as well as by Wild West shows like Buffalo Bill's Wild West, the troupe's performances included dances, corroborees, demonstrations of spear and boomerang throwing, and stagings of scenes inspired by the Australian frontier wars. Meston and Purcell acted as narrators and provided commentary on Aboriginal culture during each performance. The group performed in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. They were photographed during their tour at the studios of the photographers Charles Kerry, John William Lindt, and Henry King.Facing financial pressures and contractual disputes, Meston abandoned the troupe in Melbourne in 1893, leaving Purcell and the performers stranded without the funds to return home. Purcell made attempts to continue their planned world tour but was eventually forced to return to Queensland. The performers returned to their lands and largely faded from the historical record. The failed endeavour led to criticism of Meston for his abandonment of the troupe, as well as accusations of kidnapping and a fierce legal battle between the two former business partners.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:43 UTC on Sunday, 9 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Wild Australia Show on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kimberly.
pWotD Episode 3385: House of the Dragon Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 32,002 views on Saturday, 8 August 2026 our article of the day is House of the Dragon.House of the Dragon is an American fantasy drama television series created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal for HBO. A prequel to Game of Thrones (2011–2019), it is the second television series in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire franchise. Based on parts of Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood, the series begins about 100 years after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen conquest, nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen. Featuring an ensemble cast, the show portrays the events leading up to the decline of House Targaryen, a devastating war of succession known as the "Dance of the Dragons".House of the Dragon received a straight-to-series order in October 2019, with Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik serving as showrunners. The series premiered on August 21, 2022, with the first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was renewed for a second season five days after its premiere. Sapochnik departed as showrunner after the first season, leaving Condal as the sole showrunner for the second season. The second season premiered on June 16, 2024, with eight episodes. The series was renewed for a third season in June 2024, which premiered on June 21, 2026 and is expected to consist of eight episodes. A fourth and final season is in development and expected to be released in 2028.The premiere of House of the Dragon was watched by over 10 million viewers across the linear channels and HBO Max on the first day, the biggest in HBO's history. The series has received positive reviews. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, while Emma D'Arcy earned two nominations for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama. It earned nine Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, and won three British Academy Television Craft Awards.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:33 UTC on Sunday, 9 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see House of the Dragon on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Joanna.
rWotD Episode 3383: John Shirley-Quirk Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Saturday, 8 August 2026, is John Shirley-Quirk.John Stanton Shirley-Quirk CBE (28 August 1931 – 7 April 2014) was an English bass-baritone. A member of the English Opera Group from 1964 to 1976, he gave premiere performances of several operatic and vocal works by Benjamin Britten, recording these and other works under the composer's direction. He also sang and recorded a wide range of works by other composers, ranging from Handel through Tchaikovsky to Henze.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:13 UTC on Saturday, 8 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see John Shirley-Quirk on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Gregory.
fWotD Episode 3382: Cerro Panizos Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Saturday, 8 August 2026, is Cerro Panizos.Cerro Panizos (Spanish: [ˈse.ro paˈni.sos], "Maize Hill") is a late Miocene-age shield-shaped volcano spanning the Potosi Department of Bolivia and the Jujuy Province of Argentina. It features two calderas (depressions formed by the collapse of a volcano) and a group of lava domes. It is part of the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex (APVC), a group of calderas and associated ignimbrites (a form of volcanic rock) that erupted during the past ten million years. Cerro Panizos is part of the Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ), a volcanic arc that extends from Peru to Chile which was formed mostly by subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath South America.Volcanic activity commenced in the APVC about ten million years ago, producing the large volcanic calderas Panizos, Vilama, Cerro Guacha and the volcano Uturuncu. The formation of the APVC has been linked to the existence of a giant magmatic body in the crust of the Central Andes.The Cienago Ignimbrite erupted over 350 cubic kilometres (84 cu mi) from Panizos about 7.9 million years ago, and 6.7 million years ago the Panizos Ignimbrite erupted over 650 cubic kilometres (160 cu mi). The Panizos Ignimbrite has been noted for volcanic rocks containing orbs. Several volcanic cones such as Limitayoc were active between the ignimbrite eruptions, and a plateau of lava flows and lava domes formed in the central area of the Panizos Ignimbrite after the last eruptions.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:44 UTC on Saturday, 8 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Cerro Panizos on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Raveena.
pWotD Episode 3384: Chris Hansen Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 218,524 views on Friday, 7 August 2026 our article of the day is Chris Hansen.Christopher Edward Hansen (born September 13, 1959) is an American television presenter, journalist, and YouTube personality. During his tenure as a correspondent for Dateline NBC, he hosted the program's segment To Catch a Predator (2004–2007), which revolved around catching potential Internet predators using a sting operation. When the segment's three-year run concluded, Hansen continued to host shows on other networks with a similar format.After parting ways with NBC in 2013, he began hosting Killer Instinct on Investigation Discovery in 2015, a short-lived series that documented homicide investigations. That same year, he replaced Matt Doran as the host of the syndicated series Crime Watch Daily, which he hosted for two seasons and had his own segment similar to his Dateline feature, Hansen vs. Predator. He co-founded the true crime–oriented streaming service TruBlu in 2020, for which he produced and starred in the web series Takedown with Chris Hansen.Hansen has earned several accolades, including ten Emmy Awards, five Edward R. Murrow Awards, three Clarion awards, the National Press Club award, and awards for excellence from the Associated Press and United Press International. Hansen and numerous subjects of his investigations have garnered online cult followings, and Hansen is considered a progenitor in content centered around sting operations.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:33 UTC on Saturday, 8 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Chris Hansen on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Jasmine.
rWotD Episode 3382: Greek National Road 89 Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Friday, 7 August 2026, is Greek National Road 89.Greek National Road 89 (Greek: Εθνική Οδός 89), abbreviated as the EO89, is a road in East Attica, Greece. It connects Gerakas with Sounio, via Koropi and Lavrio. Between Gerakas and Koropi it has lost importance after the opening of the A6 motorway. There are plans to upgrade the section between Koropi and Lavrio to motorway standards, by constructing junctions to replace the traffic lights and generally upgrading the road. This new road may carry the designation A61.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:19 UTC on Friday, 7 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Greek National Road 89 on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.
fWotD Episode 3381: Henry Macandrew Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 7 August 2026, is Henry Macandrew.Major-General Sir Henry John Milnes Macandrew, (7 August 1866 – 16 July 1919) was a British Indian Army officer who fought in the Boer War and First World War, rising to command cavalry divisions on the Western Front and in the Sinai and Palestine campaign.Predominantly serving in the cavalry and also as an intelligence officer, Macandrew fought through the Tirah campaign in India in 1897 and 1898, and then served as a staff officer during the Boer War, participating in several battles and receiving the Distinguished Service Order. Macandrew was given command of the 5th Bengal Cavalry in 1914, and upon the outbreak of the First World War travelled to France as general staff officer grade 1 of the 1st Indian Cavalry Division. Soon afterwards he was promoted to become brigadier-general general staff for the Indian Cavalry Corps, with which he participated in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.Macandrew assumed command of the 2nd Indian Cavalry Division in 1916, leading it during the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Cambrai with limited success. In 1918 he was given command of the newly created 5th Cavalry Division for service in the Sinai and Palestine campaign. He commanded the division throughout the campaign, including at the Capture of Damascus and the Battle of Aleppo. In the spearhead of the advance, his division travelled 600 miles (970 kilometres) in thirty-eight days. Knighted in 1919, Macandrew stayed with the 5th Cavalry Division at Aleppo. He died of wounds he received in an accidental explosion of petrol fumes there later in the year.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:35 UTC on Friday, 7 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Henry Macandrew on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Amy.
pWotD Episode 3383: Abdul El-Sayed Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 395,696 views on Thursday, 6 August 2026 our article of the day is Abdul El-Sayed.Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (born October 31, 1984) is an American politician and epidemiologist who is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan. From 2023 to 2025, he was the director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services of Wayne County.El-Sayed is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Oriel College, Oxford, attending them on a full-tuition scholarship and a Rhodes Scholarship, respectively. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University. El-Sayed was an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University from 2014 to 2015. He was the executive director of the Detroit Health Department and Health Officer for the City of Detroit from 2015 to 2017. His publications in public health include three books and several academic journal articles.A progressive Democrat, El-Sayed supports Medicare for All, enforcing an arms embargo on Israel and abolishing ICE. He ran for governor in 2018, placing second to Gretchen Whitmer in the Democratic primary.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:50 UTC on Friday, 7 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Abdul El-Sayed on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Joey.
Astronomy Daily · S05E160 · 6 August 2026. In this episode: a Falcon 9 upper stage confirmed to have struck the Moon; a live ISS spacewalk; supernova SN 2026gzf caught at first light; SpaceX Crew-13 previewed; and a both-hemispheres guide to the 12 August eclipse and Perseids. FALCON 9 LUNAR IMPACT (LEAD) ● Spent upper stage 2025-010D struck near Einstein Crater (~19.4°N, 93.3°W) at ~06:35 UTC, 5 Aug 2026 — matching Bill Gray / Project Pluto predictions. ● ESO's Very Large Telescope (Paranal) detected sodium and lithium in the impact plume for ~5–10 minutes — sodium from lunar soil, lithium likely from the rocket. ● NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter holds a pre-impact baseline and will image the fresh crater, giving a rare before-and-after dataset to validate hollow-body impact models for future landers. ● Origin: Falcon 9 launched 15 Jan 2025 with Firefly Blue Ghost 1 and ispace Resilience; the stage was left adrift and returned unplanned via solar activity and gravity. ● Sources: NASA; ESO / VLT; CNN; Project Pluto (projectpluto.com); Fernando et al., arXiv:2607.14625. ISS SPACEWALK — U.S. EVA 96 ● NASA's Jessica Meir (Expedition 75 commander) and Anil Menon; ~6.5 h EVA beginning ~08:35 EDT, 6 Aug; live on NASA+. ● Task: reconfigure the 3B power channel to accept a seventh roll-out solar array later in 2026 — part of station upkeep ahead of the planned 2030 deorbit. ● Menon's first spacewalk; two further EVAs scheduled 13 and 25 Aug. ● Sources: NASA / NASA+ ; NASA ISS blog. SUPERNOVA SN 2026GZF ● X-ray “shock breakout” (EP260321a) detected by China's Einstein Probe on 21 Mar 2026 from a galaxy ~500 million light-years away; follow-up revealed a broad-lined Type Ic supernova. ● Unusually, no gamma-ray burst and no lasting relativistic jet — and the faintest shock breakout yet linked to this class; a possible missing link between ordinary and GRB-producing supernovae. ● Follow-up used NSF NOIRLab facilities including DECam and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Two teams: O'Connor et al. (CMU) and Rastinejad et al. (UMD), in ApJL. ● Sources: NSF NOIRLab; Carnegie Mellon University; The Astrophysical Journal Letters. SPACEX CREW-13 ● Targeting NET 12 Sep 2026 aboard Crew Dragon Grace from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral. ● Crew: Jessica Watkins (NASA, cmdr — first NASA astronaut to fly Dragon twice), Luke Delaney (NASA, pilot), Joshua Kutryk (CSA), Sergey Teteryatnikov (Roscosmos). 180-day stay; moved up from November. ● Sources: NASA; SpaceX; Houston Public Media. SKYWATCH — 12 AUGUST & BEYOND ● Total solar eclipse 12 Aug: totality across E Greenland, W Iceland, N Spain and NE Portugal (max 2m18s). Partial across northern US (Alaska–N Carolina), most of Canada, much of Europe and NW Africa. NASA livestream from 1:15 pm EDT. ● US partial highlights: Presque Isle ME ~29% (contiguous-US max); NYC ~9% from ~1:07 pm EDT; Boston ~16%; Toronto ~8%; Montreal ~18%; St John's ~53%. ● Perseids peak 12–13 Aug under a new Moon (northern-favoured, up to ~100/hr from dark northern sites). ● Southern Hemisphere: pre-dawn planet parade (Saturn best, near opposition; Mars, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune), brilliant Venus in the evening west, and the winter Milky Way high overhead. ● Look-ahead: deep partial lunar eclipse 28 Aug (96% umbral), favouring the Americas. ● SAFETY: use only ISO 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses / solar filters during any partial phase. ● Sources: NASA; ESA; Sky & Telescope; BBC Sky at Night; EarthSky; timeanddate.com; The Planetary Society.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.
rWotD Episode 3381: Hush (Asobi Seksu album) Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Thursday, 6 August 2026, is Hush (Asobi Seksu album).Hush is the third studio album by American shoegaze band Asobi Seksu. It was released on February 17, 2009 by Polyvinyl Record Co., marking the band's first album for the label. Hush was recorded in the summer of 2008 and was produced by Chris Zane, who had also worked on Asobi Seksu's previous album Citrus (2006). The album demonstrated a shift from the more shoegaze-inspired work of prior releases to a mellower, quieter sound.Hush produced four singles: "Me & Mary", released on November 17, 2008; "Familiar Light", released on February 16, 2009; "Transparence", released on August 21, 2009; and "Layers", released on December 7, 2009.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:00 UTC on Thursday, 6 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Hush (Asobi Seksu album) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Joanna.
fWotD Episode 3380: Big Duck Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Thursday, 6 August 2026, is Big Duck.The Big Duck is a 20-foot-tall (6.1 m) ferrocement building in the shape of a duck: a canonical example of novelty architecture. Built in 1931 in Riverhead, New York, United States, it was moved several times to various locations on eastern Long Island, ending up in Flanders in 2007. Well-known for its distinctive appearance, this structure inspired the word duck as a common term in academic literature used to refer to buildings shaped like everyday objects or describe excessive ornamentation used in graphical presentations of data.The Big Duck was built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer for use as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. This was during a period when duck farming was a growing industry on eastern Long Island and novelty architecture was on the rise due to the increasing popularity of automobiles. The building attracted both widespread academic criticism and public acclaim. It was added to both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places in 1997 and is a principal building on the Big Duck Ranch, which was listed on both registers in 2008.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:23 UTC on Thursday, 6 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Big Duck on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Arthur.
fWotD Episode 3379: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (EP) Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 5 August 2026, is Yeah Yeah Yeahs (EP).Yeah Yeah Yeahs is the debut extended play (EP) by the American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It was self-released on July 9, 2001, and reissued in 2002 by Wichita in the United Kingdom and Touch and Go in the United States. It was recorded as a demo over two days in early 2001 with producer Jerry Teel, and developed into their debut EP to land more shows. Yeah Yeah Yeahs features the band's early garage rock and art punk influences, and lead singer and lyricist Karen O's themes of romance and sex.Yeah Yeah Yeahs topped the UK Indie Chart and had sold over 71,000 copies by the end of the decade. It was praised by critics for its unique sound and Karen O's performances, and named among the best releases of 2002 by The New York Times and NME. In 2024, Paste placed it among the 100 greatest EPs of all time.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:39 UTC on Wednesday, 5 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Yeah Yeah Yeahs (EP) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Aria.
rWotD Episode 3380: 1-Methyl-2-iodo-LSD Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Wednesday, 5 August 2026, is 1-Methyl-2-iodo-LSD.1-Methyl-2-iodo-LSD (MIL) is a serotonin receptor modulator of the lysergamide family related to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). It is the 1-methyl derivative of 2-iodo-LSD (IOL). Extensive metabolism of other 1-methylated lysergamides to their secondary amine derivatives, for instance methysergide (1-methylmethylergometrine) conversion into methylergometrine, has been observed. The properties and effects of MIL in humans are unknown. However, a radiolabeled form of MIL, 1-methyl-2-[125I]iodo-LSD ([125I]-MIL), as well as the analogue 1-ethyl-2-[125I]iodo-LSD ([125I]-EIL), have been developed for use as presumably non-hallucinogenic agents in imaging of serotonin receptors. [125I]-MIL has much greater selectivity for serotonin 5-HT2 receptors over dopamine receptors compared to LSD. MIL and [125I]-MIL were first described in the scientific literature by Beth J. Hoffman and colleagues by 1985.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:48 UTC on Wednesday, 5 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see 1-Methyl-2-iodo-LSD on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kendra.
S05E158 — “The Crater Makers” · Tuesday 4 August 2026. Four stories on cosmic impacts — and a new map of the X-ray sky — plus a both-hemispheres skywatch. ① A dead Falcon 9 is about to crater the Moon ● A spent SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage (catalogued 2025-010D) is predicted to strike the Moon near Einstein Crater on 5 Aug 2026 at ~06:35 UTC — the second documented uncontrolled rocket impact on the Moon. ● The stage launched Firefly's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience landers in Jan 2025, then was stranded in a chaotic Earth orbit for ~18 months. Impact speed ~2.4 km/s (~5,400 mph); expected crater ~17–27 m across. ● Prediction by Bill Gray (Project Pluto). NASA's LRO can image the site before and after; a ~two-dozen-author campaign is coordinating observers to chase the ejecta plume. ● Governance angle: no international framework governs cislunar debris — a growing hazard as lunar traffic increases (callback to E154's distant-retrograde-orbit debris study). Sources: Space.com / Forbes / Reuters (Cris Tolomia) — impact preview, 31 Jul–3 Aug 2026 · Project Pluto (Bill Gray) — 2025-010D impact page · ZME Science — impact timing, 3 Aug 2026 ② Neptune's inner moons: shrapnel of a shattered world ● JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy of Neptune's inner moons Larissa, Galatea and Proteus (Caltech; lead author Ryleigh Davis, Mike Brown's group) detected magnesium-rich phyllosilicates — clay minerals that require liquid water and had never been seen beyond Jupiter. ● The clays imply the material came from much larger, water-bearing worlds — evidence that Neptune's original regular moon system was destroyed when Triton (a captured Kuiper Belt object) arrived. ● Proteus, the largest of the three, lacks the clays — possibly re-heated and reprocessed after re-forming, hiding its history. Sources: Davis et al., Science Advances, 29 July 2026 · Caltech / phys.org press coverage, 29 Jul–3 Aug 2026 · Space.com (Charles Q. Choi), 3 Aug 2026 ③ “Charbroiled within hours”: impact dust and the dinosaurs ● New modelling (Brandon Johnson et al., Purdue) argues ultrafine impact dust from Chicxulub acted as an insulating blanket, raising surface heating ~3.5× above the spherule-only estimate — enough to ignite global wildfires and kill exposed animals within hours. ● The same dust then blocked sunlight for years — so the model adds a ferocious opening act to the established “impact winter,” rather than replacing it. Sheltering underground or underwater aided survival. ● Caveat: the strongest physical wildfire evidence is so far confined to North America (per UCL's Alfio Chiarenza, not involved in the study); a truly global fire record remains unconfirmed. Sources: Johnson, Johnson, Wakita & Robertson, JGR: Biogeosciences, 2026 · Popular Science / Space.com / ZME Science, 28 Jul–2 Aug 2026 ④ eROSITA DR2 — the X-ray sky doubles ● The eROSITA telescope (SRG mission) released its second data set (DR2) on 31 July 2026: ~1.9 million pointlike and ~64,000 extended X-ray sources from the first three all-sky scans — nearly doubling the previously released eROSITA catalogue. ● For scale: ROSAT catalogued ~130,000 sources in the 1990s and was the benchmark for 30 years. Lead author: Miriam Ramos-Ceja (MPE). ● DR2 delivers the first direct census of cataclysmic-variable binaries sufficient to explain the decades-old Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission. It coincides with SDSS DR20 (Black Hole Mapper), enabling 3D mapping of active black holes. Sources: Ramos-Ceja et al. (eROSITA-DE), arXiv:2607.27772; DR2 release · Max Planck Society press release, 29 July 2026 · phys.org, 31 Jul 2026 Skywatch — both hemispheres ● Falcon 9 impact (5 Aug, ~06:35 UTC): not naked-eye; ejecta plume a long shot for advanced amateurs in the Americas near the western limb (~2:35 a.m. EDT). Sydney: Moon below horizon — watch for LRO after-images. ● Comet 10P/Tempel 2: perihelion 2 Aug, closest to Earth 3 Aug (~0.41 AU); ~mag 8–9 near M30 in Capricornus. Best return of the century; Southern-Hemisphere-favoured; Northern viewers low on the southern horizon. Darkest window ~7–8 Aug. ● This evening: Venus threads between Regulus (Leo) and Spica (Virgo) in the west — both hemispheres, no equipment. Mercury at its best morning showing (greatest western elongation 2 Aug), low in the pre-dawn east. ● Diary — 12 Aug: total solar eclipse (Greenland/Iceland/Spain), moonless Perseid peak, six-planet alignment. Always use certified ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses / solar filters except during totality.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.
rWotD Episode 3379: Saddle chair Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Tuesday, 4 August 2026, is Saddle chair.A saddle chair uses the same principles in its design as an equestrian saddle. It is equipped with a chair base on casters and a gas cylinder for adjusting the correct sitting height. The casters enable moving around and reaching out for objects while sitting. Some saddle chairs have backrests, but most do not.Riding-like sitting on a saddle chair differs from sitting on a conventional chair. Saddle chair users sit 20–30 cm higher, which puts the hips and the knees into a 135° angle, compared to the 90° angle typically associated with sitting on a traditional chair.Because the saddle chair is higher than a normal office chair, the desk has to be higher as well. For this purpose there are desks that can be electronically or mechanically adjusted to fit the user. A saddle chair can also be used with a normal office desk, but then the desk has to be lifted up with height extension pieces.The saddle chair seat is either solid or divided. A divided seat reduces pressure on the perineum and lowers the temperature in the genital area. A divided seat is thought to be healthier, especially for men, than a solid seat.Some saddle chairs include not only height adjustments but also a tilt mechanism. There is also a divided saddle chair model on the market that has an adjustable gap between the two seat parts. Accessories, such as elbow and wrist supports, are available for saddle chairs to make different work tasks easier.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:34 UTC on Tuesday, 4 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Saddle chair on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Arthur.
fWotD Episode 3378: Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356 Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Tuesday, 4 August 2026, is Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356.The Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356 was a large-scale mounted raid by an Anglo-Gascon force under the command of Edward, the Black Prince, between 4 August and 2 October 1356 as a part of the Hundred Years' War. The war had broken out in 1337, but a truce and the ravages of the Black Death had restricted the extent of the fighting since 1347. In 1355 the French king, John II, determined to resume full-scale war. That autumn, while Edward III of England threatened northern France, his son, Edward of Woodstock, later known as the Black Prince, carried out a devastating mounted raid, or chevauchée: an Anglo-Gascon army marched from the English possession of Gascony 675 miles (1,086 km) to Narbonne and back. The French refused battle, despite suffering enormous economic damage. In 1356 the Black Prince intended to carry out a similar chevauchée, this time as part of a larger strategic operation intended to strike the French from several directions simultaneously. On 4 August 6,000 Anglo-Gascon soldiers headed north from Bergerac towards Bourges, devastating a wide swathe of French territory and sacking many French towns on the way. It was hoped to join up with two English forces in the vicinity of the River Loire, but by early September the Anglo-Gascons were facing the much larger French royal army on their own. The Black Prince withdrew towards Gascony; he was prepared to give battle, but only if he could fight on the tactical defensive on ground of his own choosing. John was determined to fight, preferably by cutting the Anglo-Gascons off from supply and forcing them to attack him in his prepared position. In the event the French succeeded in cutting off the Prince's army, but then decided to attack it in its prepared defensive position anyway, partly from fear it might slip away, but mostly as a question of honour. This was the Battle of Poitiers.Between 14,000 and 16,000 French troops, including at least 10,000 men-at-arms, attacked on the morning of 19 September in four separate waves. The Anglo-Gascons defeated each in turn during a long-drawn-out battle. They partially surrounded the final French attack and captured the French King and one of his sons. In total 5,800 Frenchmen were killed and 2,000 to 3,000 men-at-arms captured. The surviving French dispersed while the Anglo-Gascons continued their withdrawal to Gascony. The following spring a two-year truce was agreed and the Black Prince escorted John to London. Negotiations to end the war and ransom John dragged out and Edward launched a further campaign in 1359. During this both sides compromised and the Treaty of Brétigny was agreed by which vast areas of France were ceded to England, to be personally ruled by the Black Prince, and John was ransomed for three million gold écu. At the time this seemed to end the war, but the French initiated a resumption of hostilities in 1369 and recaptured most of the territory lost. The war did not end until 1453, with a French victory.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:31 UTC on Tuesday, 4 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356 on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Patrick.
Astronomy Daily · S05E157 · “The Edge of Everything” · Monday 3 August 2026 In this episode • The largest galaxy, measured at last. Ultra-deep imaging of IC 1101 in the Abell 2029 cluster has traced its outer edge for the first time: an edge radius of ~260 kpc, a diameter near 520 kpc (~1.7 million light-years), and ~3.4 trillion solar masses in stars — about 17× the width of the Milky Way. Faint outer structures aligned with cluster X-ray disturbances show it is still accreting. Source: Marrero-de la Rosa et al., “How large can galaxies be? Ultra-deep imaging of IC 1101”, accepted A&A (arXiv:2607.15340, 16 Jul 2026); phys.org, 31 Jul 2026; The Debrief, 1 Aug 2026. • Hayabusa2's record asteroid flyby. JAXA confirmed (press conference 30 Jul) that its Hayabusa2 probe passed just 400 m from the surface of near-Earth asteroid Torifune on 5 July — 744 m from centre at >18,000 km/h — the closest asteroid flyby by any mission, plus the first-ever laser ranging of an asteroid during a flyby. Torifune proved to be a contact binary. Source: JAXA press conference, 30 Jul 2026; phys.org / Japan Today (AFP), 31 Jul 2026; autoevolution, 1 Aug 2026. • UK's first orbital launch on hold. Rocket Factory Augsburg de-stacked its RFA One at SaxaVord Spaceport (Unst, Shetland) after finding a vehicle issue during hot-fire test prep (announced 28 Jul). The certified launch window opens 10 August; a successful flight would be the first orbital launch from UK soil. Source: RFA statement (X), 28 Jul 2026; Space.com, 1 Aug 2026; Shetland Times, 28 Jul 2026. • Andromeda is winding down. A new Hubble study mapping ~200 million stars across two-thirds of Andromeda's disk finds star formation has declined over ~500 million years (from ~1 to ~0.2 solar masses/year), with the steepest drop in the last 40 million years — possibly linked to an interaction with satellite galaxy M32. Source: Williams et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 27 Jul 2026; NASA/STScI release, 27 Jul 2026. Skywatch — both hemispheres • Comet 10P/Tempel 2 — perihelion 2 Aug; closest approach to Earth tonight (3 Aug). Binoculars/small scope, dark skies. Best pre-dawn from the Southern Hemisphere; ~9:30–10:30 pm local for mid-northern latitudes before moonrise. • Moon near Saturn tonight (3 Aug) — naked-eye pairing, both hemispheres, up into dawn. • Mercury at greatest western elongation (2 Aug) — low eastern horizon ~1 hr before sunrise, toward Gemini; Mars higher. Better placed for northern observers. • Diary (2 days out): Falcon 9 upper stage (2025-010D) lunar impact near Einstein Crater, 5 Aug ~06:35 UTC — ~2:35 am EDT / 11:35 pm PDT (4 Aug); North America best-timed on the dark limb. Southern Hemisphere: ~4:35 pm AEST (daylight) — await orbiter after-images. • Looking ahead: 12 Aug total solar eclipse (Greenland/Iceland/Spain) + moonless Perseid peak + six-planet dawn alignment. View partial phases only through certified ISO 12312-2 filters. Links & follow • Website, back catalogue, news feed & newsletter: astronomydaily.io • Social: @AstroDailyPod · Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast NetworkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.
fWotD Episode 3377: Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894) Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 3 August 2026, is Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894).Petropavlovsk (Russian: Петропавловск) was the lead ship of her class of three pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the last decade of the 19th century. The ship was sent to the Far East almost immediately after entering service in 1899, where she participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion the next year and was the flagship of the First Pacific Squadron.At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Petropavlovsk took part in the Battle of Port Arthur, where she was lightly damaged by Japanese shells and failed to score any hits in return. On 13 April 1904, the ship sank after striking one or more mines near Port Arthur, in northeast China. Casualties numbered 27 officers and 652 enlisted men, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, the commander of the squadron, and the war artist Vasily Vereshchagin. The arrival of the competent and aggressive Makarov after the Battle of Port Arthur had boosted Russian morale, which plummeted after his death.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:55 UTC on Monday, 3 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Gregory.
rWotD Episode 3378: George Brett Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 3 August 2026, is George Brett.George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953) is an American former professional baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals.Brett's 3,154 career hits are second most by any third baseman in major league history (after only Adrian Beltré's 3,166) and rank 18th all-time. He is one of five players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average (the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Miguel Cabrera, and Stan Musial). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 in his first year of eligibility, and is the only player in MLB history to win a batting title in three different decades. He was also a member of the Royals' 1985 World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.Brett was named the Royals' interim hitting coach in 2013 on May 30, but he stepped down from the position on July 25 to resume his position of vice president of baseball operations. In 2015, he won his second World Series ring when the Royals won the series in five games over the New York Mets.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:22 UTC on Monday, 3 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see George Brett on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Emma.
rWotD Episode 3377: Nordreisa Municipality Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Sunday, 2 August 2026, is Nordreisa Municipality.Nordreisa (Norwegian), Ráisa (Northern Sami, pronounced [ˈraːjːsa]), or Raisi (Kven) is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Storslett. Other villages include Oksfjordhamn, Sørkjosen, and Rotsund.The municipality consists of the Reisadalen valley, with the river Reisaelva and deep pine forests, surrounded by mountains and high plateaus. Most people live in Storslett, where the river meets the Reisafjorden. Sørkjosen, just northwest of Storslett, is the location of Sørkjosen Airport with flights to Tromsø and several destinations in Finnmark. The European route E6 runs through the northern part of the municipality.The 3,438-square-kilometre (1,327 sq mi) municipality is the 9th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Nordreisa is the 187th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 4,794. The municipality's population density is 1.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (3.6/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 1.2% over the previous 10-year period.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:23 UTC on Sunday, 2 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Nordreisa Municipality on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Aria.
fWotD Episode 3376: Old Frisian Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 2 August 2026, is Old Frisian.Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the late 13th century and the end of the 16th century. It was spoken by Frisians who comprised a loose confederacy along the North Sea coast from around modern-day Bruges in Belgium to the Weser River in modern-day northwestern Germany. The vast majority of the surviving literature is composed of legal documents and charters, though some poetry, historiographies, and religious documents are attested as well. An early standard language for the Frisians, surviving texts show remarkable uniformity across time and space. Grammatically, Old Frisian generally marked for four cases, three genders, and two tenses, though more complex grammatical functions could be achieved through periphrastic constructions, where other words may be added to create different grammatical meanings. Its vocabulary had a variety of origins including loanwords from Celtic and Slavic languages. Latin loanwords and calques were relatively common as a result of Christianization. Word order in Old Frisian was varied; although its typical constituent word order was subject–object–verb, many different word orders are attested in the surviving texts. Old Frisian is the common ancestor of all modern Frisian languages except for the Insular North Frisian languages, with which Old Frisian shares a common ancestor called Pre–Old Frisian or Proto-Frisian. Old Frisian was closely related to and shared common characteristics with the forms of English and Low German spoken during the period. Scholars have argued that the term "Old Frisian" is somewhat misleading, since Old Frisian was contemporary with other Germanic languages during their "Middle" period, such as Middle English and Middle High German. Although earlier scholarship contended that Frisian and English had a closer relationship to each other than to Low German, this is no longer the prevailing view. By the 15th century, use of Old Frisian had begun to decline as the language was gradually displaced by Middle Low German as the language of trade in the North Sea. In the mid-16th century, a century-long internal conflict between two competing factions led to Frisia's subjugation by the Duchy of Saxony, which further displaced the language with Early Modern Dutch as the language of administration. No original Old Frisian compositions occur at all after 1450 and the last known work in the language was created in 1547, though writings made shortly thereafter suggest the Old Frisian used was probably already archaic by that point. Around the turn of the 17th century, the language is considered to have fully evolved into Middle Frisian, where it persisted mostly as a rural vernacular language.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:11 UTC on Sunday, 2 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Old Frisian on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kevin.
fWotD Episode 3375: Aquilegia Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Saturday, 1 August 2026, is Aquilegia.Aquilegia, commonly known as columbines, is a genus of perennial flowering plants in subfamily Thalictroideae of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercups). The genus includes between 70 and 400 taxa (described species and subspecies) with natural ranges across the Northern Hemisphere. Natural and introduced populations of Aquilegia exist on all continents but Antarctica. Known for their high physical variability and ease of hybridization, columbines are popular garden plants and have created many cultivated varieties.Aquilegia plants typically possess stiff stems and leaves that divide into multiple leaflets. Columbines often have colorful flowers with five sepals and five petals. The petals generally feature nectar spurs which differ in length between species. In North America, morphological variations in spurs evolved to suit different pollinators. Some species and varieties of columbines are naturally spurless. In cultivation, varieties bearing significantly altered physical traits such as double flowering are prevalent.Columbines were associated with fertility goddesses in ancient Greek and ancient Roman religion, and connected to Christian religious concepts. Archeological evidence suggests Aquilegia plants were in cultivation by the 3rd century AD in Roman Britain, and they remain popular in gardens worldwide. Despite often being toxic, columbines have been in use by humans as herbal remedies, perfume, and food. Asian traditional medicine practitioners, Indigenous North Americans, and Medieval Europeans have considered portions of the plants to have medicinal uses. Selective breeding and hybridization of columbines has occurred for centuries, with genetic exchanges between Old and New World species creating further diversity.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:01 UTC on Saturday, 1 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Aquilegia on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Patrick.
rWotD Episode 3376: Black Mariah Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Saturday, 1 August 2026, is Black Mariah.Black Mariah (Mariah Dillard) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of Luke Cage. She was created by Billy Graham, George Tuska, and Steve Englehart, and first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #5 (January 1973).Alfre Woodard portrayed Mariah Dillard in the series Luke Cage, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:10 UTC on Saturday, 1 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Black Mariah on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Danielle.
S05E155 · Friday 31 July 2026 · Astronomy Daily with Anna & Avery. Four stories and a both-hemispheres skywatch. Australian English. ① Asteroid (44) Nysa — the first three-lobed world, and its hidden moon ● trilobate body — three lobes joined by two narrow necks; a candidate “first” of its kind. ● A new ~1 km moon, S/2026 (44) 1, was found orbiting ≥170 km out — spotted using high-contrast imaging borrowed from exoplanet work, and confirmed moving across two observing runs. ● The moon lets astronomers weigh Nysa (mass → density), which should help decide between a genuine contact-trinary and a single, deeply indented body. ● Nysa is a bright, main-belt E-type (enstatite-rich) asteroid, ~75 km across, known since 1857. ● Source: Lowell Observatory / University of Arizona press release, 29 Jul 2026; study “Unmasking (44) Nysa: Evidence for a Trilobate Structure” (Minker et al.). Coverage: Space.com, Gizmodo, 29–30 Jul 2026. ② Mapping Alien Continents — a NASA concept to image an exoplanet's surface ● NASA's 2026 NIAC round funds 18 early-stage “visionary” concepts (~$175k each, 9 months). These are seed studies, not missions. ● Paul Stankus (Brookhaven) proposes “Mapping Alien Continents”: resolve the surface of an Earth-like exoplanet — continents, oceans — in visible light. ● Method: a novel “dynamic hierarchical nulling” interferometer to suppress starlight at 10¹⁰-to-1 contrast, then combine beams from two spacecraft ~100 km apart (optical VLBI-style imaging). ● Source: NASA “2026 Innovative Technology Concepts” release and NIAC selections (posted 21 Jul; consolidated release ~29 Jul 2026); Universe Today feature, 30 Jul 2026. ③ Solar-storm watch — CMEs inbound, minor-storm and aurora potential ● Two faint coronal mass ejections, plus coronal-hole solar wind, are set to give Earth glancing blows; forecasters flag possible G1 (minor) geomagnetic storms and auroras over the coming days. ● G1 means little grid impact but aurora visible at somewhat lower latitudes than usual — see the skywatch for where to look, both hemispheres. ● Source: NOAA SWPC (WSA-ENLIL model); EarthSky / The Sun Today, 30 Jul 2026. ④ ESCAPADE's family portrait of Earth and the Moon ● NASA's twin Mars orbiters (“Blue” and “Gold,” built by Rocket Lab) imaged Earth and the Moon as thin crescents in visible and thermal-infrared light from a loiter orbit near Sun–Earth L2. ● In infrared, Earth's night side glows with its own heat; the Moon's shadowed half is far colder — a calibration check before Mars. ● ESCAPADE's science goal (arrival Sept 2027): measure how the solar wind strips Mars's unshielded atmosphere — the payoff of today's solar-wind thread. ● Source: NASA (Goddard) image feature, ~25 Jul 2026 (images captured 3 Jul); NAU / phys.org; Universe Today, 29 Jul 2026. Skywatch — both hemispheres ● Bright waning-gibbous Moon (post-Buck-Moon, 29 Jul) washes out faint targets. ● Southern Delta Aquariids + Alpha Capricornids just past peak (SH-favoured; Moon-hampered). Perseids build to a near-moonless peak on the night of 12–13 Aug — prime for North America, low in the north for the SH. ● 12 Aug total solar eclipse: totality across Greenland / Iceland / Spain; partial for parts of northern North America and Europe. ISO 12312-2 eye protection required for any partial phase. ● Pre-dawn planets low in the east (Sydney and North American framing). Aurora watch for high latitudes both hemispheres if the storms land. ● Diary: a spent Falcon 9 upper stage (2025-010D) is predicted to hit the Moon near Einstein Crater on 5 Aug 2026, ~06:35 UTC (~2:34 a.m. ET). North America best-timed; telescope needed, Moon ~56% lit, target the limb dust plume. From Sydney the Moon is down at impact — rely on LRO after-images. Callback to E125/E147. Source: Fernando et al., arXiv 2607.14625.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.
Consider supporting my show with a donation via PayPal to vorwinfo@gmail.com it needs your help to survive! New Broadcast to East Asia - Thursdays at 0900 UTC on 9740 kHz (300 kW from Taiwan) Main Broadcasts: 4840 kHz at 2 AM Eastern every Saturday Morning (New Show) 4840 kHz at 12 AM Eastern every Monday Morning (New Show) Live Stream of Main Broadcasts: https://tunein.com/radio/WWCR-3-s97252/ at 2 AM Eastern every Saturday Morning https://tunein.com/radio/WWCR-3-s97252/ at 12 AM Eastern every Monday Morning Repeat Airings: 5950 kHz at 7 PM Eastern every Saturday Evening (Rebroadcast) 5950 kHz at 8 PM Eastern every Sunday Evening (Rebroadcast) 5850 kHz at 4 AM Eastern every Tuesday Morning (Rebroadcast) 15770 kHz at 4 PM Eastern every Tuesday Afternoon (Rebroadcast) 9455 kHz at 7 PM Eastern every Wednesday Evening (Rebroadcast) 9395 kHz at 10 PM Eastern every Wednesday Evening (Rebroadcast) 15770 kHz at 12 PM Eastern every Thursday Afternoon (Rebroadcast) 9955 kHz at 6 PM Eastern every Thursday Evening (Rebroadcast)
Foundations of Amateur Radio When the Sun burps, something that it does regularly, the mainstream media starts talking about aurorae and optionally the end of the civilised world, not always as clinically as that. What's not talked about, let alone explained, is the nature of the solar burp. You've likely heard the terms Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, Solar Flare and perhaps Solar Wind, Solar and Geomagnetic Storm, and Solar Flux, but what do these terms actually mean and how do they relate? Let's start with some basic numbers. Our Sun is 150 million kilometres away from Earth. As seen from Earth, the Sun rotates on its axis every 27 days, called a synodic rotation period, because while the Sun is rotating, Earth is moving too. If that wasn't enough, the Sun isn't solid, depending on where you're looking at it, rotation happens at different speeds, faster at the equator, slower at the poles. You might have heard of the Solar Cycle, an 11 year period during which solar activity steadily increases, near the maximum activity its magnetic poles flip from North to South and activity slowly decreases until the cycle starts again. Until quite recently we've deduced this by counting the number of dark areas, called sunspots, on the surface of the Sun. All this to say that our Sun is one massively dynamic environment and with it come a whole lot of processes that science is still discovering. The YouTube channel Astrum has a fascinating video called "We Didn't Predict the Sun Would Do This", that describes much of what we're still learning. We experience the Sun as a source of light, but as a radio amateur you know that light only represents a small set of frequencies in the radio spectrum, it's better to think of the Sun as a radio source, emitting many frequencies at once. The strength of this is measured at 2.8 GHz three times a day at 17:00, 20:00 and 23:00 UTC at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. This measurement, the Solar Flux gives a good indication of the level of solar activity. Adjusted for the varying distance between Earth and the Sun, a Solar Flux Index, or SFI, below 70 means that solar activity is very low, above 150 is considered very high activity. In addition to radio waves, the Sun also spits out a continuous wave of particles. Different parts of the Sun emit these at different speeds, varying between 300 and 800 km/s. These particles, the Solar Wind, exist throughout our Solar system. Because the Sun rotates and the particles aren't being emitted evenly we experience the solar wind as having a 27 day cycle. Think of a water filled beach-ball hanging from a rope with a hole in it, spinning, creating spirals of water. Stand in one spot and every time the ball rotates, you get hit by water. When the Sun burps, often at a sunspot, where concentrations of magnetic fields cool the surface, bursts of electromagnetic radiation are generated throughout the radio spectrum. Measured in Watts per square meter, this radiation is called a Solar Flare. Travelling at the speed of light, it takes about nine minutes to arrive at Earth. Sunspot and solar activity is used to model and predict the potential for solar flares. Strength is classified in four stages, class B being the weakest, through C, M, and class X being the strongest, each ten times more powerful than the previous. Within each class, numbers 1 through 9 serve to provide additional resolution, X2 being twice as strong as X1. The most powerful flare on record was estimated to be about X45, recorded on 4 November 2003, when at strength X17 the sensors overloaded. Some solar flares coincide with a massive eruption of particles, some of which are ejected violently, called a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME. A slow CME, travelling at 500 km/s might take three days to hit Earth, an extreme CME, travelling at up to 2,500 km/s might arrive in 16 hours. As the CME particles arrive, they distort Earth's geomagnetic field and depending on the severity, might cause a geomagnetic storm where fields are pushed closer towards Earth causing visual effects as aurorae. Recovery generally takes up to two days, but in extreme cases has been observed to take four. Disturbances of Earth's magnetic field are highly variable and are expressed in several different ways, the K, Kp, A, Ap and G indices. The K-index measured at individual observatories, ranges from 0 to 9 over a three hour period represents the maximum horizontal fluctuation in the geomagnetic field. Values of 5 and above indicating a geomagnetic storm. The planetary Kp-index represents a weighted average of 13 mid-latitude observatories. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA uses a G-scale, between 1 and 5, equivalent to a Kp-index between 5 and 9. The A-index is derived over eight K-index readings over a 24 hour UTC period at a particular observatory, below 20 is calm, between 20 and 50 is unsettled and above 50 is a stormy day. The Ap-index is an averaged planetary index based on data from a set of specific Kp stations. There's more. In 1760, a publication by Swiss polymath Leonard Euler indicated the existence of three stationary points between any two large bodies, known today as L1, L2 and L3. In 1772, Italian born, French mathematician, physicist and astronomer, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, discovered two more stationary points, L4 and L5. Known as the Euler-Lagrange, or Lagrange Points, some of these locations are being used today for solar observations, predictions and early warning systems. Launched on 24 September 2025 and in orbit at L1, between the Sun and Earth, at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, the SOLAR-1 satellite acts as an early warning for solar storms. Since particles travel slower than the speed of light, this provides about 15 minutes warning for extreme CME's and longer for slower events. It became fully operational on the 10th of June, 2026. As part of the same Space Situational Awareness Programme as SOLAR-1 is the European Space Agency's Vigil space mission. Intended to be placed at L5, 150 million kilometres from Earth, it will be able to observe solar activity as the Sun rotates towards Earth and reports indicate that this will increase early CME warning by two to four hours. Vigil will also allow for four to five day space weather forecasts. It's planned for launch in 2031, mind you, it's going to take three years to get to L5. Aimed with all that information, I was actually, for the first time, able to at least understand the solar report in my Mastodon feed. "The Sunspot Number has dropped to 88. The Solar Flux Index has risen to 149. G1-class geomagnetic storms are predicted for today. A-Index is 14, K-Index is 2. Chance of flares today: 55% for M-Class, 10% for X-Class." Armed with that information I'm going to make myself a cuppa and figure out what my WSPR beacon has to say about all this. I'm Onno VK6FLAB
We build durable cyclists. New performance videos every week on YouTube:
This saturday, the Thunder will EDGE. We've got 6 wonderful finalists for an incredible game that I hope you for sure dig into. For this week, Hunter sat down with all of the Finalists to hear about their take on this wonderful game we all love. Special thanks to our Finalists: Denis, bambam, Will, Ultragainer, JadiimJedi, and Me (Myself) WATCH THE FINALS OF THE TOURNAMENT ON JULY 25th at 9AM Eastern/13:00 UTC over on https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles Come see our comedy show at Gen Con (July 30th 8PM): https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/371208 Come to our TF Tournament at Gen Con: https://www.gencon.com/events/320681 Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/ Art by Sun Sanders To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Hello and Welcome to the DX Corner for your weekly Dose of DX. I'm Bill, AJ8B.The following DX information comes from Bernie, W3UR, editor of the DailyDX, the WeeklyDX, and the How's DXcolumn in QST. If you would like a free 2-week trial of the DailyDX, your only source of real-time DX information, just drop me a note at thedxmentor@gmail.com {Marathon Alert} 3B9 - Rodrigues Island – Sebastian,3B8HR, will be QRV from 3B9HR, Rodrigues Island, July 22-28. holiday style. Since it is a holiday/vacation trip with simple gear, he will only be on the air “from time to time.” He will be running 100 watts to an end fed long wire on HF, SSB only. He thinks his operating times may typically be toward the endof the local day, 03-07Z. Confirmation of QSOs is through LoTW only. 9A – Croatia - The Croatian Amateur Radio Association willoperate the special event station 9A170NT to celebrate the 170th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's birth, and the station will remain active until December 31, 2026. QSL via LoTW, Club Log or QRZ.com. VP5 - Turks and Caicos Islands - G0VJG is QRV from North Caicos (NA-002), until July 30, operating VP5G from a beach location for 14 days. He will be using an inverted V and HF9V, a 6-element 6M Yagi, and a Juma PA 1000 amplifier. During the IOTA Contest he will operate single op. Activity will include SSB, CW, and FT4/FT8. QSL via M0OXO. {Marathon Alert} S7 – Seychelles - During the upcoming, July 25-26, RSGB IOTA Contest, members of the Seychelles Amateur Radio Association plan to be QRV as either S77HQ or S77SARA. No other details at the moment. {Marathon Alert} T2 – Tuvalu - The Rebel DX Group (3Z9DX, Dom) fired up T22TT Wednesday just before 1900Z. So far, they have been reported on 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters, all FT8. Listen for activity over the next 10 days in between work on the island. As always QSL only via Club Log, once they start uploading their QSOs. {Marathon Alert} T2 – Tuvalu - JK1JXZ, Masaaki “Aki” Iwasawa, will have callsign T2JK from Funafuti July 30 to August 7, 80-6M. On weekdays he expects to be on the air after 5 PM local time, and on the weekend, he will be on all day long. It is possible his stay will be extended to August 14. The flight arrival July 30 is at noon, so he may be able to get onthe air as soon as 3 PM local time there, he says. {Marathon Alert} 8R – Guyana - 8R1TM, operated byPY1SAD, Aldir, is QRV from Guyana until July 26. He is active on 160 meters through 6 meters, including CW, SSB, digital modes, and satellite activity. On weekdays his expected activity from 23:00 UTC to 03:00 UTC on 6–160 metersusing CW, SSB, digital modes, and satellites. And during weekends he will have Full-time activity planned on 6–160 meters using CW, SSB, digital modes, and satellite operation. {Marathon Alert} TY5FR, Benin - DL1BUG, Red Frenzel, is QRV as TY5FR, operating from Cotonou (grid locator JJ16FJ) until August 4. He will be using an ICOM IC-7300 with a CG Antenna CG-3000 autotuner, running 100W into a G5RV (2x 15M) antenna. His planned activity will be on 160-10M CW and SSB. QSL via Club Log (bureau or direct via OQRS), as well as bureau or direct via his home call, and LoTW. {Marathon Alert} E5/S – South Cook Islands - ZL2KE,Steve, will operate as E51KEE from the South Cook Islands from 22/23 July to 14 August 2026, mainly on CW with some SSB, likely focusing on 30 and 40 meters unless propagation improves. Another Steve, ZL4CZ, will operate as E51CZZ from26 July to 6 August on SSB. Neither operator uses FT8 or other digital modes. E51CZZ will bring a ZS6BKW multiband DX antenna, and the operators will help repair E51JD Jim's damaged Hex Beam on Rarotonga. If you have questions or need information, just drop me a note at thedxmentor@gmail.com Until next week, this is Bill, AJ8B saying 73 and thanks to my XYL Karen for her love and support. I Hope to hear you in the pileups! Have a great DX week!
Okay so this is a little bit crazy but Hunbun, Jadiim, and Blasto sat down recently to begin a long journey where they evaluate every action card and rank it on a tier list. They did not fully understand how big of a lift that would be and they only were able to cover Ancient Burial Sites through Divert Funding. There will be many more episodes on this but you should expect this one to take a while. Personally I think this is our magnum opus. WATCH THE FINALS OF THE TOURNAMENT ON JULY 25th at 9AM Eastern/13:00 UTC over on https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles Come see our comedy show at Gen Con (July 30th 8PM): https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/371208 Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/ Art by Sun Sanders To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
This episode summarized: 1. THERE IS GOING TO BE A UK INTERGALACTICAL SCPT TOURNAMENT JOIN THIS DISCORD (https://discord.gg/qt3Qj9qPyF) 2. THERE IS GOING TO BE AN ONLINE PATREON TWILIGHT'S FALL TOURNAMENT. SIGNUPS FOR YINSTERHOOD AND ABOVE TIERS ARE ON AUGUST 11th AT 11AM EASTERN US TIME. GALACTIC COUNCILORS AND ZINESTERS GET ACCESS ON AUGUST 12th AT 11AM EASTERN. WATCH THE FINALS OF THE TOURNAMENT ON JULY 25th at 9AM Eastern/13:00 UTC over on https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles Come see our comedy show at Gen Con (July 30th 8PM): https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/371208 Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/ Art by Sun Sanders To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Special bonus promo episode for y'all this week. I sat down with Joeri Hessels the Designer of Council of Serpents to talk about the game, it's a game about manipulative strategy card game. I've played it, it's sassy like we are so if that sounds interesting to you check out the interview! Support Council of Serpents on Gamefound: Council of Serpents Gamefound WATCH THE FINALS OF THE TOURNAMENT ON JULY 25th at 9AM Eastern/13:00 UTC over on https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles Come see our comedy show at Gen Con (July 30th 8PM): https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/371208 Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/ Art by Sun Sanders To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/