Science and Technology

Challenger Disaster, 25 Years Later: The Five Most Chilling Moments

Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, a news event that remains so vivid -- especially to Houstonians -- that most everyone can remember where they were when they learned of it or when they first saw a replay of that launch, embedded above. That day and its aftermath trigger ... More >>

What Do Rappers Have Against Facebook?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday (or thereabouts) that isn't a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Z-Ro, Slim Thug, hasHBrown, Kirk ... More >>

Before Networking Was Social: Ten Early Social Websites That Are Dead or Dying

Who needs Classmates.com when we have Facebook?​Social networking today is a foregone conclusion. Many of us wake up and check Twitter on our smart phones or pull up Facebook on our laptops. We surf YouTube videos in our spare time, find dates on Match.com and spend hours reading music, politi ... More >>

Earth's Wild Ride

Life in the Universe

Five Tips for Shooting Food Photos with Your iPhone

Photo by hirotomoThe iPhone really can take good photos if done correctly.​Lots of you like snapping photos of your food while preparing it or after it is served. Most of the time, that means using a point-and-shoot digital camera or something nicer if you have it despite the weird looks of wa ... More >>

Teen Birth Rate Hits Lowest Point In 70 Years

Less chance these days his mom's a teenager​See what happens when you get rid of abstinence-only sex education? The birth rate for teen mothers is at its lowest point since 1940, when records were first kept, a federal study released today says. The report from the National Center for Healt ... More >>

Lunar Eclipse: Viewing Tips That Might Or Might Not Be Useful

The lunatic is in the grass, trying to see an eclipse through the clouds​It's Lunar Eclipse Night!! Feel the excitement!! What? You're not on the edge of your seat? CHeck out this paragraph from ABC News: If the sky is clear, experts say the show might be extra spectacular, as the moon will ... More >>

Outsmarted By Your Smartphone? T-Mobile Wants To Help

Photo by Flickr user tomsunThese are not the Droid apps you are looking for.​What's so great about the holidays? You never wear those horrendous sweaters from Grandma, all the money you get burns a hole in your pocket, and you forget to use all of your gift cards, which eventually expire. Don' ... More >>

Star of Bethlehem

iPod: Happy Anniversary, You Little Devil

Can somebody please tell us what the hell Firewire is? Nine years ago today - November 10, 2001 - Apple unveiled a new kind of MP3 player known as an iPod. About the size of a deck of cards, the device contained five gigabytes of memory, enough for about 1,000 songs, and cost $400. Four. Hundred. ... More >>

Richard Leakey: Why Our Origins Matter

Intelligent Life

When NASA employee April Evans questioned animal experiments, her career fell apart.

Space Shuttle Discovery: Five Notable Missions, For Better Or Worse

Godspeed, Discovery​The space shuttle Discovery headed to the pad yesterday for its last trip into space.The 26-year-old craft has seen a lot in its career, some good, some bad, some odd. Here are five highlights:5. Being used as an old-folks' tour busIn 1998 Discovery took John Glenn up to space ... More >>

Ford Jumping On Houston's Electric-Car Trend

Horseless carriages that run on electricity?​Houston has been getting a lot of attention for its seeming devotion to the electric car -- or at least its demonstrated devotion to issuing plans about using electric cars -- and now Ford is jumping on the bandwagon.The company announced today it would ... More >>

10 Reasons Your Restaurant Website Sucks

Your restaurant website probably sucks​I have spent more than ten years consulting with companies in a wide range of industries on the design and development of their websites. It's a job that can be quite challenging because I often work with organizations who don't know very much about websi ... More >>

Climate Change, Houston's Hot Summer And An Extreme-Weather Future

The heat is on in Texas and elsewhere​August was the hottest month ever in Houston. A whopping 88.7 degrees, on average, topping previous records from both 1980 and 1962 by a full three-tenths of a degree.And while that doesn't sound like a lot to most folks, it's the kind of number that makes sci ... More >>

Dana Durnford Fights To Give Indie Artists A Chance On YouTube

​From a hospital bed in British Columbia, one man is fighting as hard as he can to open the doors for independent musicians to go viral on YouTube. Eleven years ago, Dana Durnford woke up in a hyperbaric chamber after a commercial diving accident, and has lived the rest of his life in a whee ... More >>

New Web Series "Tour H Town" Opens With Punk Lifers The Hates

The Hates' Christian Arnheiter in the inaugural episode of Christine Dauzat's Tour H Town​Christine Dauzat is not a filmmaker, television producer or musician. She's a realtor. Dauzat does, however, have a lot of musician friends. One day she woke up and asked herself, "How can I help those p ... More >>

Sidewalk Astronomy

Twinkle, twinkle...oh hell, that was just another plane

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. And after this Monday's nearly comprehensive list of all the Houston area food blogs, we now have even more blogs to spotlight each week! Know a blog we should be paying particular atten ... More >>

A Comprehensive Guide to Houston's Food Blogs

Cartoon does not reflect reality (most of the time).​In a city as large as Houston and with as many culinary options as we're blessed with, it's no surprise that the food blogging community here is large and diverse. Say what you want about food bloggers: that we're arrogant, obtrusive know-i ... More >>

Where Not To Go In Texas If You Want Broadband Service

No broadband?!​More than a quarter-million Texans have no access to broadband service, according to figures and a new map put out today by Texas Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples.Two questions: First, how do these people live without viral videos like "BP Execs Spill Coffee"? Second, the Agri ... More >>

The Twitterverse

More than just cyberspace, the tweet life inspires people to make friends and adopt causes in person. It has a few problems, too.

Hubble 3D

Blast off with the crew of the Atlantis STS-125 at HMNS IMAX¨

Blog Stars

Ten local sites that rock our world

Mayor Parker On Twitter, Facebook And Those Nasty People Who Leave Comments On Blogs

Intrepid blogger Mike McGuff  has an interview up with mayor Annise Parker on her -- and the city's -- use of social media in the past and the future."She reveals the steps her campaign took to effectively utilize social media and the blogosphere to win the votes," McGuff tells Hair Balls.No ... More >>

The Buzz Is Building, Somehow, For Houston And Its Alleged Love Of Electric Cars

​Earlier this month city officials announced they'll be buying more electric cars and also providing (temporarily) free charging stations for such vehicles downtown.The photo op seems to be paying off -- there seems to be the beginning of a small groundswell in the national media citing Houston as ... More >>

Computer Driven

The new HISD credit recovery program matches students with a software program and a coach to get them fast-tracked to graduation.

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Beyond Beltway 8: Although he shut down his previous food blog, Cory Crow (our ... More >>

Tricks, Treats & T. Rex

Mad scientists, dinosaurs and candy - what's not to like?

Houston Touts Its Clean-Air Credentials (Yes, Dammit, We Do Have Them)

Photo courtesy GHCVB​Everyone knows that Houston is the smog-riddled energy capital of the world, so it was with a touch of irony that the annual Clean Air Through Energy Efficiency Conference awards were announced this afternoon in Houston.Attendees from across Texas and other states, munching on ... More >>

Aaron Elkins

Web exclusive

A Third Ward Pawnshop iPod and the Mysterious Fate of Previous Owner "Scooby"

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Social Distortion: The End-All, Be-All Cure For Your Social Media Sickness

You log into Facebook, and you're hit with the sudden pang of 172 unread messages in your inbox, 146 unread updates, 59 event invitations, and a partridge in a pear tree. Your Google Reader is uncomfortably lodged at 1000 unread, and it hasn't been touched in ages, sorta like your sexy bits. You ... More >>

Burnin' for You

Outed on the Internet: A Houston professor's plight becomes a web phenomenon

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Byte This

Consumers try hawking "old" digital music files through new Web sites.

Social Distortion: Every Blog Has Its Day

Stardate: 1999 (or 02254.5, if you're nasty). Also known as Pretty Much the Stone Age, when talkin' 'bout the internets. Al Gore had barely invented the term "social media," and no one called themselves social media gurus. Yes, those were the good ol' days. Amidst the tumult that climaxed in the ... More >>

What It's Like To Get Outed On The Blogosphere

Photo courtest STCLBlevins the BloggerThe famous blogger was on the computer in his mother's basement when he got the news. A rival had uncovered his true identity and would soon reveal it to the world.And so John Blevins gathered his kids and went to lunch.Blevins, a professor at South Texas Colleg ... More >>

“Terra Cotta Warriors”

Ashes to ashes, dust to clay

Better Watch What You're Putting On Your Facebook Page

Allegedly, more people use Facebook than e-mail, and during the last several months, Twitter became a verb. But for Corporate America, that could cause some problems, according to Houston attorney Chris Schaeper. "Twenty years ago, you might be having beers with an old frat buddy from college and ha ... More >>

Playing Favorites

The Search For A Lonely Houston Web Phenom

This is the story of an overweight, lonely, possibly lesbian, cheating, married, Christian and, at the moment, anonymous Houston woman. She was one of 650,000 AOL users whose Internet queries were publicly posted by the company for three days in 2006. By the time AOL removed the data, it was too lat ... More >>

Out On A Limb Over Rosharon, For A Good Cause

Photo by davemasterking2000If you happen to be driving through Rosharon Saturday and see 50 skydivers headed toward you, don't panic - it's not Red Dawn come to life. And don't freak out over the fact that they all just happen to be amputees, 'cause it's not a coincidence: It's the second annual Air ... More >>

The T. Boone Pickens Road Show

A former wildcatter and corporate-takeover tycoon preaches alternative energy across America.

See Yourself On TV From Space!

Photo courtesy NASAHere's something neat from NASA that will let you while away your cubicle hours waiting for the corporate ax to fall: live shots of Earth from the space station.The International Space Station will be streaming live video from external cameras seven days a week at this website. Th ... More >>

Follow Friday for Foodies

The group collective on Twitter, the increasingly popular micro-blogging and social networking platform, has developed a recent tradition called Follow Friday.  Follow Friday is part circle jerk, part honest and helpful advice from your Twitter friends on who to follow if you're new or simply l ... More >>