University of Texas System

UT Bomb Threat About Over, Classes May Resume (UPDATED, No Classes Today)

An unusual morning in Austin seems to be coming to a calm end. Students and staff received the above warning today after the University of Texas says it got several calls featuring "a middle eastern accent" warning of bombs on campus and connections to Al-Quaeda. Students mostly milled about the D ... More >>

Longhorn Network Begs You to Help Them Find a Home

I was sitting at the gym Wednesday morning pedaling my ass off on the stationary bike while watching Sports Center and a funny commercial came on the screen. It was obviously not of the professionally produced variety -- just a simple graphic screen with a voice-over imploring (okay, asking) viewers ... More >>

UT Hacks Unmanned Drone, Homeland Security Concerned

In February, when the U.S. decided to open the skies to unmanned drones by 2015, people nervously imagined Big Brother tracking them constantly from above. Now that's the least of their worries.  Last week, a team of researchers at University of Texas showed that it's pretty easy to hack -- or " ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Those New UT Football Uniforms

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

Cover Your Eyes, Longhorns: The New UT Football Unis Are Horrible

Nike is either the coolest thing to happen to college football or the absolute worst. Their attention-grabbing uniforms, which began with Oregon but are now spreading everywhere, look either hideous or hip, depending on your viewpoint. And now the University of Texas is in the spotlight. Photos an ... More >>

Longhorn Sex: UT Most Promiscuous Campus in U.S., Very Official Survey Says

Hook 'em Up, Horns. The University of Texas is a sex-infested 40 acres of nonstop carnality, according to....something called College Magazine. Since it has "College" in the title, we have to assume they know what they're talking about. The magazine's list of "Most DTF" campuses was put together, ... More >>

Sex Cures Teenage Delinquency, UT Study Says

Love conquers all, UT says.​Worried about your teenaged son or daughter becoming a delinquent? Get them into someone's pants, quick. A new study from the University of Texas says sex is the secret to solving delinquency. But before you get all riled up, understand that it's "romantic" sex the ... More >>

Longhorns Still Reeling In Party-School Rankings

UT disappoints again​First they get dropped from the top spot by Playboy. Now the Princeton Review barely keeps them in the top 10. How is the University of Texas going to keep being known as a top Party School if it can't get no respect? The Princeton Review's various surveys of colleges ca ... More >>

Gun Charges Dropped Against Two Rice Football Players

Rice football becomes a little less gangsta​In April we noted a surprising run of guns-and-ganja arrests among Rice football players, not a population normally given to resembling the University of Texas, either on or off the field. So, in order to dispel the impression that the campus on Sou ... More >>

William McRaven, UT Journalism Grad, SEAL Boss: Five Stories He Might Have Written As a Cub Reporter

How many units responded to the fire, McRaven?​As we noted yesterday, Admiral William McRaven, the head of Special Ops who commanded the raid that got Osama bin Laden, is a University of Texas grad with a degree in journalism. Like many cub reporters, he decided his journalism skills would be ... More >>

UT-Brownsville Using Text Message to Warn Students of Violence

UT-Brownsville: text messaging to fight the drug cartels. ​UT-Brownsville is using a new tactic to keep its students safe from violence across the border: text messaging. Students, faculty and staff at the school are being asked to enter their cell phone numbers in a university database, so whenev ... More >>

UT Study Shocks: For One-Night Stands, Men Value A Woman's Body More Than Her Face

Another report from Captain Obvious​Thank God the University of Texas exists, or we would never have learned this piece of information: When making "short-term relationship" decisions, men rate a good body higher than they do a pretty face.The study, published in the journal Evolution and Human Be ... More >>

UT-Notre Dame Football Series: It's Coming, Longhorns

Fear the leprechaun. Fear it!!!​It's not often that the University of Texas steps up to play major college football programs -- they seem to prefer the Sam Houston States and UL-Monroes of the world for their out-of-conference schedule -- but that may be changing.Rumors are flying that the Longhor ... More >>

The Five Best Houston Sex Scandals, Such As They Are

It takes two hookers to get James Worthy ready for Showtime​Houston is not a big town for sex scandals. Whether it's because we have a sophisticated European, laissez-faire attitude to such things, or because bigfoot Houstonians are better at hiding things, we don't know. Although we guess it's th ... More >>

Young and Recessioned: Stephen Rawlings, From Engineer to Part-Time Musician

​The Big Recession may have hit the rest of America harder than it has Houston, but that doesn't mean we're not feeling the effects. Especially the youngest people in the job market -- whether it's twentysomethings trying to start their dreamed-of career or teens looking to begin making money on t ... More >>

Bill Minutaglio: Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life

Discover the famous Texan’s private life

Attention Houston: What To Do When a Beloved Music Venue Says It's Shutting Down

​Rocks Off is here to help. That's why we keep an eye out for stories that, while they may not have anything to do with Houston per se, can still provide a valuable lesson. So as much as we delight in poking fun at Austin, the recent plight of the Cactus Cafe - the on-campus acoustic venue that ha ... More >>

SXSW: Protest Outside Austin City Limits

A dozen Austin activists staked out the four corners of the University of Texas communications building earlier today, passing out flyers to people on the way to Ben Harper's Austin City Limits taping. Surprisingly, the flyer had nothing to do with herb not being a gift of the earth, but rather was ... More >>

Local Scientists Say The Superbugs Are Coming To Get Us

Listen up people - we have run out of options. At least when we come to superbugs, if University of Texas Medical School researchers Dr. Barbara E. Murray and Dr. Cesar Ariasare to be believed. The two study infectious diseases for a living, so they should know. Their article in a recent New England ... More >>

The Mt. Rushmore of Texas Sports

ESPN is about to start on one of those stupid SportsCenter promotion things that has helped to make SportsCenter virtually impossible to watch. But over here at Ballz, we like stupid things - I'm sure that many of you think anything I write is stupid and virtually impossible to read anyway. So I' ... More >>

The Mt. Rushmore of Texas Sports

ESPN is about to start on one of those stupid SportsCenter promotion things that has helped to make SportsCenter virtually impossible to watch. But over here at Ballz, we like stupid things - I'm sure that many of you think anything I write is stupid and virtually impossible to read anyway. So I' ... More >>

A Little Sororal Love for Broward's BCS Live Blog

Our old pal Michael J. Mooney, who helped us out with our October feature about the Katy High School football team, posted up at Dolphins Stadium last night to live blog the game for our sister paper, the Broward-Palm Beach New Times. Here's the recap, which includes frequent references to the Uni ... More >>

Vince Young Can't Get Any Playing Time, But He Can Still Sue

Former University of Texas star and could-have-been Texans quarterback Vince Young has filed a lawsuit against three Houston men for stealing the rights to his nicknames.  The men and their company, Three Friends, are accused of applying for trademarks on "VY" and "INVINCEABLE" in interest of m ... More >>

Vince Young Can't Get Any Playing Time, But He Can Still Sue

Former University of Texas star and could-have-been Texans quarterback Vince Young has filed a lawsuit against three Houston men for stealing the rights to his nicknames. The men and their company, Three Friends, are accused of applying for trademarks on "VY" and "INVINCEABLE" in interest of mak ... More >>

Building Entrepreneurship on the Backs of Toddlers Gets All Kinds of Notice

Ike Also Did Damage Underwater

Charlie Wilson's War -- Over A UT Chair

“Imaginary Spaces”

The Menil Collection presents places you may or may not wish were real

Texas Horror Movies: The Top Five

Longhorns Retire Kevin Durant’s Number? Really?

Longhorns Party On, Burying Their Sorrows

Best of Cinematexas

A now-defunct short film festival heads to Houston for one last screening

Book Excerpt: What It Means to Be a Longhorn: Darrell Royal, Mack Brown and Many of Texas’ Greatest Players

Fifth Time's the Charm: Another UT Football Player Arrested

Yet Another Longhorn Player Arrested. No, Not Tyrell Gatewood. That's Old News. This Time It's Peter Gardere.

College Football Roundup

“Face the Music: An Evening of Jazz Dedicated to Fighting AIDS in Africa”

Music for a good cause

Harris County librarians and UT Longhorn football players' arrests

Send in the librarians!!

Too Bad A&M Doesn't Have a Law School

Gender Equality

Time Out, Mack

Rewarding bad behavior by underachievers

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Exploding the Canon

"Inverted Utopias" helps rewrite the story of modernism

Race for the House

Chris Bell finds it's lonely being white on this campaign trail

Leatherface to Picasso

UT's Harry Ransom Center has it all

Business Bewareing?

Will past financial flops come back to haunt a front-runner?

Hey, Bubba: Give Peace a Chance

UT researcher heads studies and a program attacking violence

Warming Up

The Texas Music Festival brings new meaning to the term "summer school"

Diner's Notebook

Old & New