Tom Gill

YouTube video by Gozmodon The Flatlanders- Dallas

In my dream the Cowboys became the Dallas DC-9s.
Don't remember any other teams other than Seattle, Minnesota and Dallas.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1mQ...

Sorry, in my dream they were the Grunge.

Hurricane Melissa, just before the sun set over the Caribbean tonight. GOES-19 image. A clear eye, and starting to look like a buzz-saw. South of Jamaica but about to make a beeline for it. Could be one of the worst disasters ever for Jamaica in the next few days.

Eight years ago today I dreamed that President Trump made an edict that NFL Teams had to rename themselves after music associated with their city. The Seahawks became the Seattle Grunge, and the Vikings became the Minnesota Purple Rain.

When I was a young boy, my parents and I were sitting in a physician's waiting room for a medical appointment. A man with a large and obvious beer-gut walked in and sat down across from us. My dad discreetly motioned in his direction and whispered to me, "See that guy? He's got Anheuser's Disease!"

Eight years ago today on an airplane I witnessed a man get kicked off the flight because he said the F-word when the flight attendant wouldn't let him put his bag in the bin the way he wanted. I've also witnessed (not on this day) a man get kicked out of Walgreens because he said "damn" out loud.

Last night I dreamed that cockroaches (the home-pest kind) evolved the ability to hop like frogs. Watch out, world.

Nearly continuous dust emission from the north playa of Honey Lake, California this afternoon. Someone should be studying it! From the @alertcalifornia.bsky.social Shaffer Mountain webcam.

Just a few small dust plumes from the north playa of Honey Lake, California, today, shown from the @alertcalifornia.bsky.social Shaffer Mountain cam. Can you spot the dust?

The Art of ‘No’ Don’t allow yourself to be treated as a checked box on someone else’s to-do list.

An important skill to learn in academia is the art of saying "no." All you may need to say is "no," or maybe nothing at all. Sometimes providing an explanation is wise. I've been saying "no" a lot more lately for the sake of my physical and mental health.
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Rare look at the last days of the dinosaurs shows they were thriving, scientists say | CNN A fresh analysis of a site in New Mexico provides a glimpse into the final days of the dinosaurs, showing their diversity before going extinct.

Data from northern New Mexico... www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/s...

Our policy-focused review on Valley fever, written for Texas Tech's medical journal along with my colleagues from the Texas Tech medical school in El Paso, is published.
"Coccidioidomycosis in Texas: Valley fever must be reportable, recognized, and taught."
pulmonarychronicles.com/index.php/SW...

How to Develop a TSC (Trusted Senior Colleague) Your first priority as a new faculty member should be to find the right allies.

Very smart advice for those fortunate enough to be new faculty members. In retrospect, I basically followed this advice (though the first time I read this was today), and it really helped me. It probably also works in the government world and corporate world, too.
www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

Toxic Salton Sea dust triggers changes in lung microbiome after just one week Dust from California's drying Salton Sea doesn't just smell bad. Scientists from UC Riverside found that breathing the dust can quickly re-shape the microscopic world inside the lungs.

phys.org/news/2025-10...

Covid vaccine could help cancer patients fight tumors

earthsky.org/human-world/...

Temporal surveillance of Coccidioides in Aerosols in Mesa, Arizona Valley fever is a lung infection caused by the inhalation of infectious spores from the fungus Coccidioides spp. Coccidioides is a genus of soil dwelling fungi endemic to the arid regions of the south...

Important new research on the Valley fever- dust connection: Temporal surveillance of Coccidioides in Aerosols in Mesa, Arizona doi.org/10.1021/acs....

New study says microbes on Mars might be living in the ice

New study says microbes on Mars might be living in the ice earthsky.org/space/microb...

Prenatal air pollution exposure may slow newborn brain development The study shows prenatal air pollution exposure correlates with slower brain myelination in infants, emphasizing the need for improved air quality policies.

www.news-medical.net/news/2025102...

People Need Clean Air. To Get It, They Need Clear Data.

Unfortunately, almost all low-cost air sensors don't work for dust. But they surely have their place.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/h...

The snackdown: Apparently, we forgot what potato chips are made from Turns out, more than half of us didn’t know chips are made from potatoes – and now food brands are scrambling to remind us what we’re actually eating.

Only 42% of the people surveyed by Lay's understood that potato chips are made from actual potatoes. WTH?
www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Article/2025...

Dimming the Sun Like a Volcano? This Climate Fix Could Backfire Horribly Scientists are seriously considering mimicking volcanic eruptions to mitigate global warming, but that comes with more than a few issues.

I heartily oppose this. We mess with Mother Nature enough, this is just tempting fate more.
gizmodo.com/dimming-the-...

OMG, Condiment Udders!

Research shows how Dust Bowl-type drought causes unprecedented productivity loss A global research effort shows that extreme, prolonged drought conditions in grasslands and shrublands would greatly limit the long-term health of crucial ecosystems that cover nearly half the planet....

Press release says "Research shows how Dust Bowl-type drought causes unprecedented productivity loss." Not sure I agree completely, or that's the full story. www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Low cloud layer looming at Buck Rock on the @alertcalifornia.bsky.social webcam a while ago

I did a bunch of interviews on this in 2023 - spoke to most of the same people - but failed to do anything with it as it collided with book copyedit deadline hell.

Really glad to see this get coverage. Carlin Stiehl's photos really make the piece too

(The book: www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jay-o...)

The little-known groundwater Los Angeles pumps in the Owens Valley, and the tribes who want it back In the Owens Valley, Los Angeles siphons water from Sierra streams and also pumps groundwater from wells. Native tribes are calling for the city to take less water.

In desert eastern California, Los Angeles pumps huge amounts of groundwater - equivalent to 15% of the city's use - only to return the water back to Owens Lake to keep down dust.

This doesn't make much sense.

@ianjames.bsky.social reports on “a man-made drought”

www.latimes.com/environment/...

Mysterious wreckage in Australian Outback is likely part of Chinese rocket "It could actually be (a significant part of) the upper stage itself."

a "mysterious smoking slab" was found sitting on a road way out in the Australian Outback...
www.space.com/space-explor...

Long-term Calif. study finds surprising link between birds and wildfires New long-term research investigated 42 bird species in several national parks.

Moderate-severity fires tended to benefit a large number of bird species in the Sierra Nevada. But not the black-headed grosbeaks.
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

Kaur et al., Atmospheric Pollution Research: Long-term PM2.5 source apportionment at 12 sites in the western United States from 2000 to 2020
Excerpt: "dust concentrations generally increased, likely driven by rising regional aridity and VMT."
doi.org/10.1016/j.ap...

To Find Critical Minerals, Look to Plate Tectonics - Eos A study of “weird” Australian rocks suggests stores of niobium rose to the surface during the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia.

eos.org/articles/to-...