sarahiki

We lost power for several hours in the Third Ward. Cool storm.

Off topic, perhaps, but a word of realistic warning to people thinking that magnets can solve their school problems... I am one of several people I know who have kids that did not get accepted into ANY of the magnets to which they applied. It's a lottery, and for some it works out well, and for others, it doesn't. Make sure you have a long list of magnets and a back-up plan.

This is always true of media coverage of protests. Protesters are always portrayed as crackpots. The media will focus on one strange or violent episode in an otherwise peaceful protest, while neglecting to discuss the issues at all. It doesn't really matter whether it's a so-called "liberal" or "conservative" protest; the American media (with the exception perhaps of "Democracy Now") never provides good coverage.

Thanks Dan, it's good to know that works. I'd love to see a photo...

Not a city sidewalk, actually; it's a path to the front door. Maybe I can redirect it as Crunchtastic is talking about... have the path come in from an angle so it goes around the tree. In which case pavers or concrete could be used.

But I am a tree-hugger.

Does anyone have ideas for a front walk that is next to a beautiful old tree with huge roots? The concrete has lifted and cracked, of course. I don't want to replace it with more concrete. I've seen gravel, but I'm afraid it might be messy, and track into the house/scratch the floors.

Oh yes, sorry I misread you. But nevertheless, people do think of this as a transitional neighborhood, in the sense that I was talking about. And I'm not sure it is.

The problem is that this neighborhood is not a "transitional" neighborhood. It just is what it is. It would seem like it ought to be transitional... still priced low, close to everything. But many people living here really don't want it to change. Plus there are a lot of really trashy apartment complexes, and an awful lot of police activity. Maybe it will turn out to be a model of healthy development... some plots, here and there, developed into denser townhomes, mixed with large single family houses, and apartments. There are certainly enough buses to make it a no-car urban neighborhood. But it is in serious need of decent retail, and I just don't see that happening with the perception (and reality? I don't know) of crime here.

thanks for the advice!

Oh man, I missed it again. I have to stop automatically tuning to HGTV.

Does anyone have experience with strand bamboo flooring? I understand that is extremely hard and durable, but I'm concerned because I've also heard that the surface scratches easily. It is very smooth and shiny, and scratches would really show, I think. I'm trying to decide among a number of flooring options. Bamboo is an attractive choice because it's sustainable, very hard, and relatively inexpensive. But I've got kids and I'm concerned about this scratching issue. THanks for any advice!

English is not the official language of the United States. That's why.

I admire you for your fashion bravery. I think, though, you can argue the practicality of this one all you want, but you have to be gay or Euro (or both) to wear a man purse.

The tide is turning! This is a freedom I would rally for. Love, not guns, baby.

Niche, I disagree with you 99% of the time, but I think you're right on here.

Do you mean, like, at the Sarah Palin campaign events when people would shout "Kill him!" about Obama? Yeah, that's civil.

That is quite helpful, thanks.

There's a lot in your statement that makes absolutely no sense to me, but this phrase in particular had me wondering. How is it that you see the government being run by a less intelligent, non-tax-paying majority? If someone is running the government, they are working, and therefore paying taxes. Or is there a secret cabal of stupid, unemployed people actually running the goverment? If so, they are probably not so stupid. Plus, it is clear that whether or not you agree with his policies, Obama is far more intelligent President than the last one, again making me wonder about this "less intelligent" comment. I also suspect that you are equating rich with smart. In some cases this is surely true... someone smart might know better how to make money. But not all smart people dedicate themselves to getting rich. I am thinking of myself as an example. So I must take exception to that argument. Now, as for this ascent or descent into Socialism, that has been addressed on this board too many times already.

I've just been reading up on these. Engineered hardwoods are not the same as laminate. They can have differing thickness in the top layer, which would determine whether or not they could be refinished at some point. What got me interested, when I had been thinking solely about traditional hardwoods, is that they are supposed to be better in a humid climate. Less warping, less cupping. Has anyone had a problem with that in regular hardwood floors here? Personally, I would prefer regular hardwoods, unless there is some real advantage to the engineered, in terms of how humidity affects them.

I was seriously looking at Pearland for a while; it's got some very nice neighborhoods with nice parks and playgrounds, lots of families. If your wife is going to be home with the baby, I think it would be a good place to be. Plus there are tons of nice supermarkets & shopping centers. The downsides, as I see them, are: 1. Traffic. Just getting around Pearland can be tough, especially on the west side, due to rapid development. 2. Not as many interesting restaurants as within Houston; mostly chain restaurants. Same with shops. Those aren't big negatives, and the trade-off, in a neighborhood like Silverlake, for example, is a nicely-maintained, lovely place to live with parks & playgrounds, that's relatively safe (I say relatively because there has been a little crime spike lately, though it seems to have been mainly one bad dude who has been arrested).

I don't know if you can rent a place in the Heights for that, but it would be worth trying. Easy commute to UH, nice for families. Either Sugar Land or Pearland would be good choices, too, especially if, as a student, you have a little flexibility in your commute time. Neither place is very far, it just takes a hella long time during rush hour. Those are three good options; I don't think you need more. As for hurricanes, don't worry. Get supplies and plan to hunker down. Pearland might face mandatory evac but other neighborhoods you are considering would not. Oh, and by the way, welcome to Houston! UH is a great school. I hope you like it here.

Meme explains this stuff better than I do, but I guess I'll give it a shot. I think you are thinking about it from the wrong perspective. It's not so much that there was a NEED for change, and so beings evolved. Rather, variability is inevitable, because of mutations and sexual selection. From that vast sea of variability, certain traits were useful. It's a long term process, but condense it and magnify the scale of the mutation, and imagine a person born with a mutation that gives them an extra arm. Useful! That three-armed dude is able to get a ton of work done, plus is quite attractive to women for his abilities & wealth. He has lots of babies, some of whom inherit the third arm. They also find the third arm to be a useful trait to have, and it allows them to succeed and reproduce. It's not that anyone NEEDED a third arm to get by, but once it was introduced, it was "selected for." This is probably a terrible example since in fact mutations and variations happen on a much smaller scale over a much longer period of time, but I think it still illustrates the process. (edited to remove weird duplication of text)

I am not used to thinking about it from a "design" perspective, though it's certainly interesting to consider. However, why, then, would whales be designed with five useless fingers, instead of having a more fish-like skeleton? It defies the logic of design. For that matter, why not design the whale as a fish entirely, rather than as a mammal. It lives in water, after all. I realize that from the perspective of belief, one shouldn't ask "why" the Designer designed things, one should just accept that it must have been done for very good reasons that are none of our business. But in that case, we really can't examine the case for design. So it really can't be considered in a classroom. And thus, another very good reason that religion doesn't belong in a science classroom.

But whales have five fingers, too. The bones are there, within their fins. Certainly they don't need five fingers. But the whale, and other mammals, have a common point of origin in the distant past. Hence, we all have five fingers. This is the kind of thing I love about evolutionary theory... it is so elegant.