TOM GILL PREDICTS and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster 30 years ago

An example of how I got the name TOM GILL PREDICTS:
As I write this post, it is still January 28, 2016.  Thirty years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded. 

For months in advance, from time to time, I'd have occasional but the same vivid dream- I'd dream of a space shuttle exploding on launch at Cape Canaveral. In my dreams, the shuttle consistently never even got fully off the ground enough to be above the tower before it blew up. 

Thirty years ago last night, they came in a crescendo. I kept having that same dream, over and over, over and over. I woke up shaken, certain in my knowledge of what was (well, ALMOST) exactly going to happen. I was in an absolute panic. I didn't know what to do- I thought that perhaps I should I call the police at Cape Canaveral, or NASA, and warn them.  But then I changed my mind and chickened out, figuring that if I did, they'd assume that somehow I had sabotaged the shuttle, and I'd be thrown in jail. 

I had to call a trusted friend over to try and calm me down and practically hold me down, I was so frantic. When the shuttle successfully lifted off and cleared the tower, I was relieved for a minute or so... And then IT HAPPENED. 

I was a science student then, and a scientist now. And my best scientific mind freely admits THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION FOR THIS. Things like this- repeated, vivid dreams of an upcoming world event (never about the personal) have happened multiple times to me before they actually happened (though with a slight twist, such as the height of the explosion in the Challenger case). AND THERE IS NO LOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR IT.

-Tom Gill

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HOWDY DAMFOOL

The human mind, and the Internet, are wonderful things. 

In my sleep, or drifting-off-to-sleep, last night, the phrase "Howdy damfool" flashed into my mind from some far, deeply-wrinkled corner of my brain.  I instantly was taken back to my childhood.  One day I was looking at one of my father's fishing magazines, and I saw a cartoon, which in my memory was a New Yorker- style cartoon; it included two men fishing in boats approaching each other, wherein the one guy (who, in my mind, looked like my dad) says to the other, "Howdy, damfool!"

For some reason at the time, that cartoon just struck me.  I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen in my young life.  It cracked me up so much that I took Dad's magazine to school, showed the cartoon to my friends during recess (and we chuckled over it together), and I even tried to recreate the cartoon during art class (I didn't have much success, which is probably good, since the teacher might not have liked the language).  

So, of course, what did I do this morning? I Googled the phrase, "howdy damfool" (you can too), and THERE IT WAS!

The layout of the cartoon wasn't exactly New Yorker- style, but the guy with the hat on did remind me of my father!

Amazing.

IDEAS

(This has been going around the Internet lately, and probably for a long time.  My apologies to the original author, if there really is one; and to whoever forwarded this to me.)
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1. The object of golf is to play the least amount of golf.

2. The sinking of the Titanic must have been a miracle to the lobsters in the kitchen.

3. Instead of all the prequel and sequel movies coming out, they should start making requels - films shot in the same time period as the original film, but from an entirely different perspective.

4. X88B88 looks like the word "voodoo" reflecting off of itself.

5. April Fool's Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

6. Websites should post their password requirements on their login pages so I can remember WTF I needed to do to my normal password to make it work on their site.

7. Now that cellphones are becoming more and more waterproof, pretty soon it will be okay to push people into pools again.

8. I had to use an unblocker to watch Argo on the Canadian Netflix. I was an American who had to pretend to be Canadian to watch a movie about Americans who have to pretend to be Canadians making a movie.

9. Maybe 'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?' isn't a show that displays how stupid grown adults can be, but rather, a show that depicts how much useless information we teach grade schoolers that won't be retained or applicable later in life.

10. Last night my friend asked to use a USB port to charge his cigarette, but I was using it to charge my book. The future is stupid.

11. When Sweden is playing Denmark, it is SWE-DEN. The remaining letters, not used, is DEN-MARK.

12. "Go to bed, you'll feel better in the morning" is the human version of "Did you turn it off and turn it back on again?"

13. In the future, imagine how many Go-Pros will be found in snow mountains containing the last moments of people's lives.

14. We should have a holiday called Space Day, where lights are to be shut off for at least an hour at night to reduce light pollution, so we can see the galaxy.

15. Your shadow is a confirmation that light has traveled nearly 93 million miles unobstructed, only to be deprived of reaching the ground in the final few feet thanks to you.

16. Senior citizen discounts should just round dollar amounts down so we don't have to wait in line behind them while they dig for change.

17. I have never once hit the space bar while watching a YouTube video with the intention of scrolling halfway down the page

18. Since smart watches can now read your pulse, there should be a feature that erases your browser history if your heart stops beating.

19. Waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay sounds super rad if you don't know what either of those things are.

20. The person who would proof read Hitler's speeches was literally a grammar Nazi.