Fossil Fuel Energy

A N00b Runs the Houston Chevron Half-Marathon

Photos by Jason McElweenie / Click here for a slideshowRunners in the marathon, some of whom dressed like Disney characters.​Every January for the last several years I have stood on a curb along Allen Parkway, cheering for my friends in the early hours of a Sunday as they competed in the Chevr ... More >>

Fast As You: Rocks Off's Playlist for Sunday's Houston Marathon

anythingaboutcars.comThe 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner. Please keep your drooling to a minimum.​ The drinking stops tonight. Rocks Off is joining 30,000 other crazy, hardy souls to run the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon this Sunday. (We're running the half - it's only our second race ... More >>

Our Most-Viewed Posts of 2009

Awwwwwww...​When we sat down to assess our most popular posts of the year, the result wasn't entirely unexpected -- a blend of the sublimely bizarre, the achingly silly and the shockingly outrageous news from the year. In short, the average American's news interests in a nutshell. Below are o ... More >>

If Dallas Can Sponsor Their Landmark Implosions, So Can We

Hair Balls was excited to learn that Kraft Foods (specifically Kraft Macaroni & Cheese) is a frontrunner in the race to sponsor the implosion of Texas Stadium. Actually, we were first awestruck to learn about it, because we didn't think you could sponsor the destruction of buildings unless you l ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Year In Houston Movies

Like most years, 2009 wasn't hugely eventful for Houston as a movie town. There wasn't a big, locally filmed tentpole release like Armageddon, and most news revolved around the death of one of the city's biggest celebrities or, to a much lesser extent, the inaugural Cinema Arts Festival.Some movies ... More >>

A Quiet Hell

Thanks to lax enforcement by TCEQ, plants along the Houston Ship Channel launch tons of toxic gases into our air, and face little penalty even when they exceed pollution limits over and over again.

KBR Rape Victim's Arbitration Award Not So Final Yet

​Just when it looked as if the legal battle between former KBR contractor Tracy Barker and Halliburton, which used to own KBR, was about to come to a multi-million dollar conclusion, filings made today in the rape case seem to indicate there is still some ways to go until it is all over. More th ... More >>

The (Alleged) Dick-Measuring Lawsuit Ends With A Whimper

​It was a case that ended as strangely as it began. In April, Hair Balls told you about a lawsuit filed in Houston federal court aimed at Glacial Energy Holdings alleging that its CEO in 2007, Gary Mole, dropped trou at a work dinner, tried to force his way into the room of Amparo Gasca, who was ... More >>

Yep, Speculators Caused Last Year's Oil-Price Spike, Rice Says

​A couple of researchers at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy have released a study that gets close to proving that speculators caused oil prices to shoot up in 2008. This theory is nothing new, but the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency that regulates U.S. futu ... More >>

The Crucifer of Blood at the Alley Theatre

Todd Waite as Sherlock HolmesThe Crucifer of Blood, this year's ExxonMobil Summer Chills series at the Alley Theatre is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Sign of Four which was the second novel he ever wrote about Sherlock Holmes (after A Study in Scarlet). As Hair Balls wrote ... More >>

For This Awful Economy: The Five Best "You're Fired" Scenes

As someone who's been there, I can empathize with the folks from the Houston Chronicle, Schlumberger, and a host of other companies whose employees have gotten the axe in recent weeks. Not being an HR manager, I can unfortunately only offer up a collection of "laid-off scenes" to help you briefly f ... More >>

Don't Worry About That Plane Buzzing Downtown Houston. Really

Houstonians downtown during today's lunch hour were treating to a very curious aerial display as they walking to and from their offices. A small single-engine was seen doing swoops and twirls in between our tallest skyscrapers. The plane's flight was mostly up and down Main, but the flight plan seem ... More >>

Health Code Roundup: Health Department Violations Waning?

I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted. That's because I'm not sure if all the restaurateurs have been on their best behavior, or if the Health Department has just been sitting around playing GTA4 on the Xbox 360s they got for Christmas, because there were no health code violations whatso ... More >>

Oldies, And Not Goodies, On The Pollution Front

The wheels of environmental justice move ever so slowly. To call it a snail's pace would be an insult to mollusks everywhere. But it is what is, as we say in the parlance of our times, so now we have the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assessing penalties against two local polluters for ... More >>

Shell Oil Finally Gets Fined For What It Puts Into Deer Park's Air

It took awhile, but state environmental regulators and Shell Oil finally came to meeting of the minds about a slew of pollution violations committed at the Deer Park refinery. Upshot: Shell will pay a $345,744 penalty for 35 emissions events and record-keeping violations that occurred from 2004 ... More >>

Places That Are Open -- Constantly Updated

Protests Against ExxonMobil, But Not In Houston

Halliburton Depositions Could Start Soon in Iraq Case

Houston Dissed, A Continuing Saga

High Gas Prices: Protests, Segways and Prostitutes

Small Town Sausage at Krolczyk Meats

High Gas Prices Still Hurting Touring Bands

Notes toward a post-cheap-gas touring economy

Dewberry Time

Angry Scots and pidgin tongues

Don’t Go To Dubai With Doobie In Your Shoes: A Public Service Announcement From Houstoned Rocks

Bright Idea: Scalping Entries to the Houston Marathon

Take a Hike: Would an Extra Dollar a Gallon Keep People Thin?

Thanks to a Slick Move, Houston-based Weatherford Keeps Drilling in Sudan

So Many Bad Jokes, So Little Time

Don't Read This

Low-Cost Housing

A home for a buck, with one catch

Who Cares?

Celester Hall went to Afghanistan to help the troops and make his fortune. He came back deaf, in diapers and looking for benefits.

Letters

Spray It Loud

Grafitti collective Aerosol Warfare cans the elections in its new show

Gambling on Iraq

Hundreds of Houstonians have signed up for wartime jobs with KBR. The hefty paychecks come with a scary, bloody price.

Dance Fever

HISD kills a reality show on high school dancers

Welcome to Fire Island

While communities across the country block LNG terminals, Quintana just shrugs

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Hurtt So Good

A real shake-up at HPD? We thought that was impossible

All Aboard

Since 9/11, tanker sailors are having a tough time making it to dry land in Houston

Party Like It's 1899

Super Bowl week turned out to be a slow one for HPD's vice squad

Blunt About High Fashion

Roll up more than your sleeves with this clothing line

Trailer Treasure

Tired of galleries? Head to "Trailer Park"

Breaking the Mold

Plus: Bias -- By Whom?, No Alternative, South Park Fallout

Name-Calling at the Pump

Lessee dealers in the gas business

Adrift

Has the fight over port expansion turned a bay watchdog group into a rubber duck?

Trading with the Enemy

Houston oil companies maintain their profitable ties to Libya, in roundabout ways

Smile! It's Earth Day!

The Insider

King Benjamin's Mine

Save the politics for later Boss Hall's going for the gold right now!