January 2012
10 posts
YCRFS 9: Kill Hollywood →
Prescient.
Seth's Blog: When did we lose Congress? →
A pretty scathing indictment of the Congress as a whole. Sad stuff, because it’s all true.
2013 Ford Fusion →
Wow. Sometime in the last 2 years or so Ford woke up and learned how to make beautiful cars. The new Fusion (next year’s model) looks amazing.
English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout - Wikimedia... →
Wikipedia is going to shut down for a day in protest of the internet-breaking SOPA and PIPA legislation currently being pushed through Congress. If you don’t want to see sites like Wikipedia censored by Congress, write your Congressman and tell him to keep his grubby hands off the internet!
“Read more…”
– STEEL SPACE is a recycled shipping container converted into a unique event and marketing experience.
“Finally today, we find ourselves in a situation where our cities develop...”
– The Great American Grid – A History of the American Grid in 4 Minutes
‘If Fred Got Two Beatings Per Day…’ Homework Asks... →
Unbelievable. Whoever thought this was a good idea is clearly not qualified to be a teacher.
“the grid gives physical form to a certain democratic, melting-pot idea — not a...”
– Manhattan Street Grid at Museum of City of New York - NYTimes.com
Texas A&M Moves Up In Kiplinger’s ‘Best Values’... →
December 2011
6 posts
“American capitalism hangs in the balance, writes Martin. His book gives a clear...”
– The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value - Forbes
Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? |... →
Congress is about to pass a bill to create an... →
Cool tiny houses in Houston →
Fox News using deceptive and inaccurate graphics →
Waldo Jaquith - On the impracticality of a... →
The things we take for granted :)
November 2011
1 post
CNU’s take on the proposed parking ordinance... →
The following statement concerning the proposed changes to the City of Houston’s Parking Reg’s was posted at CNU-Houston.org today. I helped write the statement, so I thought I’d share it with…
October 2011
2 posts
A&M sees parallels with Mizzou →
Get a sneak peak at Wunderkit →
The people who made “Wunderlist” (a really awesome free to-do tool), are coming out with a new product called “Wunderkit.” It looks like a pretty ridiculously awesome digital organizer. You can sign up to get the beta from the link.
September 2011
11 posts
“Word from out west Wednesday is Scott was “appalled” at the...”
– Sooners embarrassed after not following Aggies’ strategy with UT | Randy Galloway | Sports Ne…
Texas, you ruined it for everyone, now apologize... →
Urban sprawl will consume an area the size of... →
Eversole resigns from office | Houston Politics |... →
Thank goodness.
The Geography of College Football Fans (and... →
A&M has the #6 largest fan-base in the country. Top 6: Ohio St., Michigan, Penn St., Notre Dame, Texas, Texas A&M. UT Only *barely* edges out A&M, much smaller than the ‘perceived’ gap between the two programs popularity.
Texas has a $315 Billion highway deficit. But it's... →
“Texas looks out for No. 1 and doesn’t give a rip about about anyone else. Texas...”
– Baylor keeps talking up tradition and rivalries, but why didn’t it plead for those things when SMU, TCU, Rice and UH got dumped? | SportsJustice | a Chron.com blog
Fingers point toward Texas for this Big 12 mess |... →
Texas A&M and Oklahoma Declare Independence from... →
OSU's Boone Pickens chides Texas, predicts Big... →
UT ruins everything. The end.
ESPN Loves Those Longhorns: Unranked Texas Somehow... →
August 2011
15 posts
Dave Sittler: Texas' arrogance at heart of Big 12... →
Texas abusing its power in the Big 12 -... →
disappearance-american-working-man-businessweek:... →
The education system overwhelmingly favors women over men. Is there any doubt that in a knowledge economy the trend of women displacing men will continue? Gender matters. We need to focus on teaching young men in elementary and high school if we want them to be able to succeed in college and in the knowledge economy of the future.
Jobs’s Greatest Contribution Was Beyond Apple |... →
What I’ve been working on →
Over the last eight months I’ve been putting a ton of time and energy into a project that’s part of my consulting practice. The challenge I kept running into was a need for photographs to illustrate…
Why Toronto grows while Detroit shrinks →
Administration moves plan to ax hundreds of rules... →
Good move.
The Deep Aggie Roots Of Would-Be President Rick... →
This article has nothing to do with political policy, but is a remarkably fair national media piece about A&M. Worth a read. If the media attention A&M gets from his campaign is this positive it would a great blessing to the University.
Pickens: Texas A&M leaving Big 12 would be mistake... →
GoDaddy.com
Even though I do a ton of web stuff, I always avoided using GoDaddy.com for anything because I thought the whole ‘pin-up girls’ thing was pretty trashy. A few months back, though, they had a promo for SSL certificates for $13, and the cheapest competitor I could find was $70. So, I just couldn’t avoid them any longer.
I just made my second tech support call to GoDaddy, and I...
Texas economy - leadership or luck? →
A valid question. I think the same can be said for Houston: any city that had oil, medical, and shipping as the pillars of its economy would have done well over the past decade. Our public policy hasn’t hurt, but is it reasonable to expect that in other parts of the country *without the same industries* the same policy would have the same outcome? I don’t think so. That’s not to...
“4. Maybe it’s just me, but it sure seems like Byrne has been marginalized...”
– 9 things and 1 crazy prediction
For all your SEC crazy aggies out there — THIS is a major cause for concern. Loosing Bill Byrne would be a devastating loss for every sport on campus.
Commentary: Aggies-to-SEC talk has Perry's... →
Here’s my question: Why is the Big 12 putting up with UT chasing off members? UT is working toward becoming an independent, and is determined to leech the conference for all its worth until it burns to the ground. Why put up with that? Kick UT out, bring in TCU, and move to a conference network ala the Big10 or Pac12. Let UT be an independent, but skip the part where the rest of the...
Joseph Stiglitz’s Simple, 4-Step Plan to Solving... →
There are exactly zero urban Republicans in the... →
Missed this story early in the year — it shows an interesting take on the demographic split between democratic and republican strongholds. Every demographer and futurist out there thinks that cities will continue to hold larger and larger percentages of the population, and the fastest growing areas are the densest.
In other words, if the Republicans don’t learn to care about cities,...
July 2011
3 posts
why-debt-crisis-is-even-worse-than-you-think-busine... →
“Underbelly aims to tell ‘the Story of Houston Food,’ focusing on...”
– Secrets of the Underbelly: Chris Shepherd’s anticipated new restaurant brings barn ceilings & butchery - 2011-Jul-29 - CultureMap Houston
Cow-Oriented Development
Dan Bartman and I were talking about the distinction between places with walkable urban character, auto-dependent suburban character, and rural character. We were trying to describe how rural is neither walkable nor auto-dependent, it’s simply not built-up yet.
Dan says this:
Urban: Pedestrian-Oriented Suburban: Car-Oriented Rural: Cow-Oriented
I love it. Absolutely beautiful.
June 2011
11 posts
“The 61-mile project would be built in two phases, the first covering 31 miles...”
– This is the kind of project that rail advocates should quit supporting and acknowledge as a failure. If you can’t deliver a decent service then people won’t use the train, and you’re better off with 5 miles of good service than 500 miles of terrible service. When you build a...
“While many building codes in Europe cap the number of parking spaces in new...”
– Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Mass Transit and Walking - NYTimes.com