Tag Archives: Houston

Houston at risk

Posted on July 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Houston at risk

While many Texans have less than total admiration for Houston and environs, especially the nightmarish traffic and general sprawl, none would be pleased to see the place get struck by terrorists, either by Al Q, an offshoot or a group of freelance jihadis. But that’s just what a recent issue of Homeland Security Today said could happen in the attack even official Washington believes is overdue. So let’s hope the city, county, and the directors of the ship channel and the petrochemical infrastructure are thinking creatively about protecting their soft as well as their hard targets.

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Posted in Texana, The War

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That’s one small step…

Posted on July 20, 2007 | Comments Off on That’s one small step…

No kidding. Talk about pathetic, as Instapundit says. Spend all that money, make all that effort, then go to the moon and pick up some rocks and hit a few golf balls. And never–NEVER–go again. Past pathetic. Bizarre. At least Houston got free advertising, and grew, and grew, and grew. Where was I? On patrol in Vietnam. Not, therefore, paying a whole lot of attention. I remember being only vaguely aware of it. Where were you?

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Posted in Space

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First word from the moon: Houston

Posted on October 2, 2006 | Comments Off on First word from the moon: Houston

While Times Online claims Neil Armstrong’s planned utterance ("One small step…" etc.) was ungrammatical–and sci fi writer Arthur C. Clarke (writing in 1986) agreed–until an Australian computer expert recently uncovered the missing article. Well, every Texas schoolboy knows the REALLY important matter was the First Word from the lunar surface, not those planned-in-advance words.

That first word? "Houston," as in Armstrong reporting the landing by saying "Houston, Tranquillity base here…" etc. I used to have a colorful poster of an orbiting city made up by the Houston chamber of commerce crowing about it. As a paid scribe, I even once examined the official transcript to confirm it.

Comes Wikipedia claiming the first words were those of Buzz Aldrin: "The first words spoken from the surface were Aldrin’s, who reported ‘Contact Light’ as the Eagle’s landing probe touched the moon."

Harrumph. This is why, as we so often hear, Wikipedia’s encyclopedic veracity is questionable at best. 

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Posted in Space

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Help Hugo…

Posted on September 29, 2006 | Comments Off on Help Hugo…

…end his oil addiction. It’s something we all can do.

"Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel…Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company…"

Sorry, Houston, but y’all can back another horse. 

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Posted in The War

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Longhorns redux

Posted on September 16, 2006 | Comments Off on Longhorns redux

The Horns are favored by a whopping amount over lowly Rice today at 5 p.m. at Reliant Stadium in Houston, despite the drubbing Ohio State gave Texas last Saturday. We’ll have a chance to see (ESPN2) the Tuscola Kid again, and maybe his backup, the (Jevan) "Snead in need." If he’s needed. Rice has beaten the Horns, but rarely, and not for a long time. I want the Horns to win decisively, but I hope Rice puts up a good fight.

Given that their offensive co-ordinator is none other than my old favorite Horns QB Major Applewhite, Rice certainly will try to fight. 

I’ll see if I can get my friend, Chuck Adams, a diehard Buckeyes fan in Jacksonville, Florida, to update us on their game. If Colt McCoy (the Tuscola Kid) keeps improving, and the Buckeyes do well, the Horns might just find themselves playing their nemesis again this season. 

UPDATE Cincinnatti put points up against the Buckeyes, to lose 37 to 7, and Rice finally found the end zone in the fourth quarter, but losing to the Horns 52 to 7 is hardly a good fight. 

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Posted in Texas Football

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Dewpoint

Posted on August 11, 2006 | Comments Off on Dewpoint

When Houston’s KPRC-TV, Channel 2 News, dropped the dewpoint readings from its on-air weather forecast (though the web site still has it), some meteorologists got rather exercised over what they saw as an attempt to dumb down the populace while making television news consultants (yes, they have those) happy.

I confess I have never understood the utility of mentioning the dewpoint. But Bob Rose says for athletes, for one, it has more value than knowing the relative humidity, for which I also confess I have only a vague appreciation.

"I hear a lot of people in the summer talk about the humidity being around 35 percent and thinking the air is dry when in fact it’s not," Bob writes. "It’s just that the temperature is so high, the air can hold more water vapor, so the humidity reading ends up being lower."

He says the dewpoint is actually an easier concept since it doesn’t change with the air temperature. 

"Basically, anytime the dewpoint gets in the 60s, or higher, the air is going to feel pretty humid.  And the closer the air temperature and dewpoint readings are, the more humid the air will be." 

Houston is a very humid town, so you’d think they’d want to figure this out. But not KPRC.

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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