Local city spent a lot of money on potential culinary water wells…and the contractors targeted normally-faulted Mesozoic strata that are very gypsum rich. AKAIK the only folks directly consulted were the ones making money on this (not state employees)… www.cedarcityutah.com/news/highly-...

Made a couple geology-themed mugs in a pottery class this month. ⚒️

"The Trump Administration has begun the great public lands sell off in earnest." Interior to Sell Off Millions of Acres of Public Lands in Alaska open.substack.com/pub/morethan...

Interesting! arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’

Concerned about ICE's $45 billion plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers? This is what they'll look like inside. From ICE's plan for the Social Circle, GA facility. Each little dot: a person. www.socialcirclega.gov/home/showpub...

If the McCaskeys are considering an Indiana stadium but not intending to sell the Bears they are banking on Ben and Caleb really hard, because their ticket buying fan base is definitely not in that direction/Kevin Warren and the McCaskeys don’t know about GIS: proximityone.com/metros/cbsa1...

You can tell how entitled someone is by how they commute in snowy conditions. The number of people who know a storm is coming but wake up expecting to operate on the same schedule as usual is baffling.

i think lots of people underestimate how badly these “AI” companies want people to be unable to afford computers. they view personal computing as a roadblock to their desire for complete end-to-end centralization. the fact that their tech is putting hardware out of reach is not just a happy accident

It’s exceptionally clear and crisp right now, but the intensity of wind has picked up and it’s from the south, which is somewhat weird for here. There do appear to be some clouds encroaching from the SW, so hopefully that much needed moisture is on the way.

Wrote an OP-Ed about the lack of outdoor dining in SLC. I was able to quantify that SLC has a great number of days throughout the year when eating outdoors would be ideal - why doesn't our built environment reflect that? (written on personal time) buildingsaltlake.com/slc-is-ideal...

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

I don't post enough about the other central pillar of my politics, aside from anti fascism: being anti car cars are bad in almost every way, especially in cities if you go to even large, bustling cities that are actually dense, they are quieter than US cities because you can get away from cars

If you know any #geology #geosciences #earthsciences undergraduates looking for an affordable field course this summer, we still have several spots available at Southern Utah University: www.suu.edu/geosciences/...

The front page of tomorrow's Minnesota Star Tribune: Feb. 1, 2026

Infections are primarily among unvaccinated. files.epi.utah.gov/Utah%20measl...

New at Can We Still Govern: Here is one thing I wish more people understood about government. There is a lot of rent-seeking by private vendors in our social safety net. Trump's policies will make this worse. @lukef.bsky.social breaks it down. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-means-...

I'm calling bullshit on the media narrative that Trump is "pivoting" and "deescalating" on his ICE raids. The threshold is this: As long as the military occupations and the treatment of US cities as enemy territory continue, there's no pivot. ICE out. 1/ (New piece) newrepublic.com/article/2057...

The Trump regime got rid of 10,109 PhDs in science and related fields, representing 14% of the total number of PhD scientists in the federal workforce.

Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.

"They say they're coming to save us from some evil? They're talking about our neighbors who take care of us ... Alex was murdered while he was helping. Mr Rogers said look for the helpers, & right now the helpers have a target on our forehead ... Mr Rogers would be here right now too, so I'm here."

Best part of staying late at the office in the winter is the gathering of the ravens at dusk.

This kid and his father entered via CBP One app. It's just absurd and monumentally unfair for people who availed themselves of lawful channels when they existed by following government processes to suddenly get detained and deported to a third country. newrepublic.com/article/2056...

St George has a solution to its awful traffic and thirst for HOAs: more unaffordable housing, more traffic, and less nature. At least the collision cam guys will get more great videos. www.cedarcityutah.com/news/opposin...

🔥🔥🔥 December 2025 temperature ranking (since 1895). A lot of the West had their warmest December on record and nearly everywhere out west had a top 5 warmest December. 🫠

I’ve started recording original songs. Figured it was about time, no sense waiting until I actually got good at singing: youtu.be/7Z630QzGkNo?...

Some GTA type police chase going down in my neighborhood. Cops are chasing someone in loops around the blocks.

Look, I think PI on under thrown passes is one of the worst calls in football…but I never thought tackling the receiver was a valid option to prevent it.

Matt LaFleur has an absolutely abysmal beard:coaching talent ratio. This is regretfully complimentary.

Time to get your public comments in on the proposed Waters of the U.S. rule that would strip protections for countless wetlands and streams. Trout unlimited has a tool on their page that will automatically send your message to the EPA as well as your representatives: www.tu.org/conservation...

#FossilFriday Late Triassic Chinle Formation coprolite. You can see the spiral pattern in at least one of the images. No wolf hair or credit card fragments…

38°38” N. Video slightly undersells how vivid it is this far south. #AuroraBorealis

Regarding the general vibes of 2025.

More pictures from the Beaver Dam area, far SW Utah. #geology

Fossil corals and other bits, unknown Paleozoic age.

This isn’t my university but it’s not far away. It’s a good opportunity for someone who loves teaching and wants to develop some undergraduate research, too. Highly deformed rocks aplenty within 5-30 minutes from St. george. #geology www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...

#Triassic plant (?) #fossils from the Chinle Formation, found in a talus slope full of boulders from the Shinarump Member. I don’t recognize anything, but I’m no paleobotanist. #Paleontology

@adobe.com has so enshittified their software that Photoshop can’t even complete my “request” to close the program. To Task Manager I go!

Some iPhone dark sky images from southern Utah. Remarkable for a phone camera, even more spectacular in person.

Based on the CBS commercials during this Lions-Packers game I have a new pilot to sell them called Detective Police Cop. If it is successful I will follow up with my script for Detective Police Cop: Firefighter, M.D. 911

desert summer monsoon rain, better late than never. waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site...

I’ve discovered that, at least temporarily, lower back pain is great at relieving feelings depression. Silver linings! Now time to hobble off to work.

Highlighting the grain flow and grain fall deposits in the preserved lower part of a Jurassic dune, Navajo Sandstone, Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, Utah 🧪⚒️

The most frustrating narrative around deep-sea mining is the argument that it is "better" than terrestrial mining. There is no version of deep-sea mining that offsets terrestrial mining. The commercialization of deep-sea mining may accelerate terrestrial mining. It is an additive impact.

Got a tire puncture today and could hear the hissing (stopped to reinflate and head home before putting on the spare). Figured I’d try the old dish soap method to find the leak and it was a lot more obvious than I expected.

Good article on local wildfire in southern Utah. www.kuer.org/science-envi...

WEATHER ALERT: Yet another red flag day. A reminder, red flag is hot temperatures + strong winds = fire danger! #utpol #Utah

It's important to note here that we're not just talking about faculty & university staff. 100s of U.S. colleges are in towns or small cities where they form the major industry & lifeblood of the community. Loss of students -> loss of rent $, restaurant $, bars, bookstores, gaming stores...

This is why we use 3D sensors in earthquake data analysis. I selected a seismogram that highlights how the vertical channel has a clearer P-wave onset. The S-wave arrival on this channel is really unclear compared to the horizontals. Low-frequency high-energy S-waves are often the destructive phases