Category: Science

Saving Sonora

The patient is in critical condition, surrounded by medical professionals who are frantically working in uncharted territory. The patient, just four years of age, has something in her bloodstream that is preventing it from clotting. The medical team knows what it is, but the patient’s unique characteristics are posing a challenge as to the right… Continue reading Saving Sonora

Random Thursday: Shambling into a new year

Hello, America. It’s the first Thursday of 2022, and this is the year that I’m finally going to get serious about my journalistic responsibilities. Of course, that will have no effect on this website. As I’m sure you all know, today is National Cuddle Up Day, which sounds quite inviting, only it’s also National Bean… Continue reading Random Thursday: Shambling into a new year

Random Thursday: The Thawed Monday Edition

Howdy, buckaroos. We just received the cancellation of the boil water notice that we’ve been living under for the last eight years* so I’m giddy and in the mood to engage in some mindless activity…like blogging. I don’t know if you heard, but Texas traded places with Antarctica for a week, and then Hell took… Continue reading Random Thursday: The Thawed Monday Edition

A Pleasant (and Sometimes Challenging) Interlude on South Padre Island

Debbie and I recently returned from a very enjoyable and occasionally adventuresome stay on South Padre Island with our good friends Sam and Trish. Their house is mere yards from Lower Laguna Madre (aka “the Bay”) which bounds the island on the west side, and an easy walk from the Gulf of Mexico (aka “the Gulf”… Continue reading A Pleasant (and Sometimes Challenging) Interlude on South Padre Island

“Our Desired Future” website launches

Texas has 500 times more water underground than anything you see above the surface.  The question is, how much do we pump and how fast? Late last year I reported on a project called Our Desired Future that focuses on issues surrounding groundwater conservation in Texas. I’m now happy to report that the new ODF… Continue reading “Our Desired Future” website launches

Venus in Transit (A faithful re-creation)

For those who were unable to experience the joyous, mystical, deliriously magnificent spectacle of Venus crawling across the face of old Sol like a mobile blackhead, you’ll get another chance to see it in about 105 years. But if you have other plans – like, say, washing your flying car or catching Betty White live on… Continue reading Venus in Transit (A faithful re-creation)

Hydraulic Fracturing Chemical Disclosure: Too much information?

As you’ve probably already heard, the Texas Railroad Commission (the oversight agency for the Texas oil and gas industry, for the non-Texians in the audience) today approved a regulation that will require the public disclosure of chemical ingredients used in hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells permitted on or after February 1, 2012 [read… Continue reading Hydraulic Fracturing Chemical Disclosure: Too much information?

Desalination a solution for our water woes? Uh, not so fast…

As we creep inexorably toward the one-year mark without meaningful rainfall (how mind-boggling is that, anyway?), ideas that were once bandied about in sci-fi mode now start to take on some semblance of credibility. Like, for example, the idea that we have plenty of water available to Texas, it’s just a bit on the salty… Continue reading Desalination a solution for our water woes? Uh, not so fast…