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OUTER AND INNER SPACE

Today, again, nothing worthy about Donald Trump, although tomorrow could be another major House January 6 Committee hearing day.  Starts at 11 AM EDT, focusing on how the Trump team marshaled the mob.  Then, on Thursday, possibly their final hearing, the Committee will zero-in on The Donald.

Today a few odds and ends accumulating on this blog site.  To start, a few more tidbits about The Open, which Wednesday night at 10PM in Hawaii begins telecasting on the USA channel:

  • About the 100 golfers teeing off:
    • #74  Kurt Kitayama, a 29-year old American who graduated from UNLV, has been playing on the DP World (European) Tour, and was #2 on the Genesis Scottish Open yesterday.  And for those who watched that tournament and didn't figure it out, Genesis is the luxury line of Hyundai, officially becoming a standalone model with the Genesis G90 in 2017.  JD Power named Genesis the most dependable automative brand in 2020.
    • #57  Bryson DeChambeau.
    • #37  Justin Rose
    • #29  Tiger Woods (has won The Open three times)
    • #24  Hideki Matsuyama
    • #17  Collin Morikawa (champion last year)
    • #6  Scottie Scheffler
    • #2  John Rahm
  • The Old Course was 22 holes until 1764 when the 18-hole layout became the world standard.  
  • The first champion in 1860 was Willie Park.  Abraham Lincoln was President of the USA.  Then Old Tom Morris (right) won 4 of the next 6 years. He held the record for the largest margin of victory, 13 strokes, in a major championship, until Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open in 2000 by 15.  In 1868 his son Young Tom (above with dad) at the age of 17 became champion, a record that still stands.  The Younger also won the next three, and soon thereafter, at the age of 24 passed away on Christmas day of lung hemorrhage, three months after his wife and child died in childbirth.  
  • There was no Open in 2020, but Shane Lowry was the victor in 2019, probably explaining why he is ranked #1 in 2022.
  • You probably know of the Old Course at St. Andrews.  There are seven courses operated by the town through a charitable organization, including the New Course, which opened for play in 1895. 
  • However there are 42  golf courses in this region of Fife.  The two best next to the Old Course I've played on are The King's Course (The Gleneagles Resort), a 37 mile drive, and Carnoustie, located 25 miles away.
  • St. Andrews is a college town, home of the University of St. Andrews, which was founded in 1413.  In 2021 it had the highest entry standards for undergraduate admission in the UK.  Prince William and Kate Middleton were students here.  While they were matriculating there, a group of us were allowed to stay in a dormitory on campus for a few days while we golfed on the Old Course, New Course and Jubilee.

At 5PM EDT today, the first full-color images taken by the James Webb Telescope will be shown by President Joe Biden and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.  Then tomorrow, NASA will follow up with a series of briefings at 9:45AM, 10:30AM and 12:30 PM EDT.  NASA will also livestream everything on NASA TV found on You Tube.

The 21 feet across mirror is made of gold-plated beryllium designed to gather infrared.  Will pick up light when stars and galaxies first formed soon after the Big Bang.  You will remember that the telescope was launched on Christmas Day 2021.

The powerful new James Webb Space Telescope will search for signs of life in the universe.  So far scientists have found more than 5000 exoplanets (planets circling around another star).  An intriguing target are seven planets orbiting a star called Trappist-1.  Three are in the habitable zone.  If an atmosphere is found on one, that would be a progressive next step.

Scientists just identified the fastest-growing black hole, shining 7000 times brighter than the entire Milky Way.  Every second, the equivalent of Planet Earth falls into this black hole.  The image has travelled some 7 billion years to reach us and black hole is around 2.6 billion times the mass of our Sun.  Until they name it something more snappy, for now, it is called: SMSS J114447.77-430859.3 – J1144. Watch a video of this monster.

Finally, Richard Branson just went to Ukraine.  Well, what's the big deal, for just about everyone now pops in to take a short tour?  His was to visit  Hostomel near Kiev, the Antonov Airport, severely damaged by the Russian invasion, to view the wreckage of the world's largest cargo plane, the Antonov Anp225 Mriya.  Didn't say so, but perhaps he will help finance the resurrection of the Mriya.

As I featured Tiger Woods above, here is a TikTok I received showing where he lives in Florida.

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