Highway6

I'm a Reversi/Othello freak... The extensive Reversi community and play/wait nature of FB games is what sucked me into FB and what has kept me there. I really try to avoid the narcistic status/commenting side of FB. But since I mostly get my Reversi fix through iReversi now.. My FB use has greatly declined over recent years. All of that was just to preface that I would love to see FB go the way of myspace, friendster, irc, and icq.... So here's hoping google got this one right and it helps speed the demise of FB. Ps.. If editor could add a haify game room with chess, cards games, and Reversi.. I'd consider naming my first born after him.

I knew I didn't have it exactly right...( I knew small planes had a ceiling inaddition to the distance thing but whatever) ... the result is the same. Bldg height is not restricted by the FAA or the non- proximity to Hobby. Airlines have plenty of airspace to circumnavigate. Do appreciate the link though.. wasn't able to come up with the right search terms to find exactly that on google.

Spires are indicative of the time when the skyscraper boom hit a particular city. They are prevalent in NYC and Chicago, because of course during the 30's they were in constant competition trying to have the tallest buildings, best skyscrapers, most impressive skylines, and adding spires was part of that. No other US city had a boom like those two nor were they trying to achieve height for the sake of height like those two. Philly, Boston, Cleveland, and other old NE city.. they weren't part of this race. As their much smaller skylines would indicate, they weren't building any supertalls to put spires on. Two of our oldest skyscrapers.. Esperson building and the Jp Morgan Chase building.. built in the late 20s, weren't part of this race either. At 35ish stories each, they had no need for adding height for the sake of height. Houston's boom started in the 60s And while there was still egos trying to one up each other ( esp bank owned skyscapers), art deco was out, superfluous ornamentation was out. Modernism and the International style were in. You get the Exxon building, One City Center, El Paso Energy building etc. Our boom continues up to the 80's when postmodern style dictated strict modernism sucked and ornamentation and referencing other styles were okay. here you get the Bank of America Bldg, Penzoil Bldg, Heritage plaza... those are our time-appropriate "spires". We could have added spires during the 80s, like Atlanta, but we didn't.. but I'd put the likes of those 3 against their spires any day. Most architects today aren't going to want to build a american classical skyscraper with a spire unless the client wants it. They're not going to consider adding something that superfluous, good design. You end up with crap like the Memorial Herman hospital at 10 and Gessner. I would also say it's probably not considered very economical to developers, nor the slightest bit green, to add 5-10 stories of unusable space. The Hobby/FAA thing is bunk and pretty silly if you think about it.. Planes taking off or landing just go to either side of downtown...they aren't that close. There is a FAA map that shows concentric rings around downtown.. the closer you are, the higher you have to be. Every local pilot is gonna have it and every Airline pilot is going to be in contact with Air Traffic Control telling them how high to be when that close in. A similar map exists for every downtown area. Hobby airport is 7-8 miles away from downtown. LaGuardia is 3 miles from Manhattan.. and they certainly don't have a FAA-directed skyscaper height cap. PS.. Chase tower is over 1000' PSS.. One Shell Plaza's antennae had a functional reason for being. One Shell was the tallest building built during the 70s.. its antennae serviced numerous radio and tv stations. There would be no reason for any other building to come along downtown and also add an antennae. There would most likely not be any reason today for a spire of that magnitude to be built since the Ft Bend antennae farm exists.

I agree.. or a full-on Cat II hurricane... but alas, it's not meant to be anytime soon... http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

But that's a byproduct of being one of the first cities to fully utilize feeders along every freeway. TXDOT can do nothing about adjacent development.. and having driven in LA, Charlotte, Chicago, among others.. i think adjacent development is a not unfair price to pay for the access and wayfinding advantages our feeder system has. But for stuff TXDOT can control... all their freeway improvements the past decade have taken enormous steps in fighting the ugly.

I think visitors would see our freeways as horribly massive... but ugly? All new freeway work the past decade has put significantly more thought into the aesthetics - Ribbed sides and signage columns along 610.. painted columns and painted star emblems the length of 10.. sunken 59 and its greenery along the sides. And there has also been a huge effort to replanting trees along reworked feeders and exchanges. The older one's are still ugly.. but it used to be much worse and will get better as segments are rebuilt.

Since this is the new Anything Ya Want Thread.... Imagine...... Switching sides.... http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/28/lennon-was-a-closet-republican-assistant

My wife and I caught the last 20 minutes of the parade and were able to rack up 6 bead necklaces, 3 mini frisbees, and 2 glow bracelets. I'd say the most obscene and disgusting car/float there was the one with Queen SJL on it.

Keepin it Live, Keepin it real. Lovett 2011 So... How bout that Dow Jones, eh ? Keep falling I say, I pulled out... Not riding this ride down, the lower the better, eh?!? So, my place was being treated for TERMITES today.. So I went to get ice cream... and Whatdoyaknow ?!?!? My marble SLAB icecream cone had a CRACK in it. Hey.. I'm doing ASBESTOS I can here .....

It looks impressive and seems like the kind of development that would draw in others. I wish them luck in raising the money for this.

This was mentioned in another Midtown thread.. but figured a new project needed a new thread. Midtown Arts And Theater Center Houston (MATCH) At 3400 Main Street. Swamplot just broke a story on a new Arts Center planned for Midtown, about a block north of the Ensemble Station. 90,000 SF 3 story Owner/Developer - Independent Arts Collaborative, a consortium of local arts organizations — including Fotofest, Diverseworks, the Houston Arts Alliance, Musiqa, Suchu Dance, Opera Vista, Catastrophic Theater, Nameless Sound, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and Main St. Theater. http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/iac-corner-close.jpg http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/iac-section-persp.jpg

I can understand why this one company in AZ is fighting all this.. their livelihood is on the line. But at the same time, Once your service or product is no longer in demand, don't whine about it and sue everyone in sight. ATS, your time is soon to be over. Move on. Uncannily timed article. - http://www.msnbc.msn...s/us_news-life/. One of the places is Los Angeles, where, if the Police Commission gets its way, the red light cameras will have to come down in a few weeks. That puts the nation's second-largest city at the leading edge of an anti-camera movement that appears to have been gaining traction across the country in recent weeks. Los Angeles hasn't been so lucky. The city gets only a third of the revenue generated by camera citations, many of which go unpaid anyway because judges refuse to enforce them, the city controller's office reported last year. It found in an audit that if you add it all up, operating the cameras has cost $1 million to $1.5 million a year more than they've generated in fines, even as "the program has not been able to document conclusively an increase in public safety." And yet, in addition to the votes in Los Angeles and Houston:The Albuquerque, N.M., City Council voted this month to let residents vote on the future of the city's 20 red light cameras in October. (City lawyers are still weighing whether the vote would have any official effect.)In May, a Missouri circuit judge issued a preliminary ruling saying the measure that authorized St. Louis' 51 cameras was illegally enacted.Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he would sign a bill the Legislature passed last month to limit — though not ban outright — localities' use of cameras at intersections.The North Carolina Senate voted in April to ban cameras; the measure awaits House action.The Florida House passed a bill last month to ban red light cameras; the measure failed in the Senate.A Superior Court judge last week struck down the law that enacted use of cameras in Spokane, Wash., agreeing that citations generated by the cameras were invalid because they were not personally signed by a police officer.

They carry the organic vodka and their rotten potatoes are hormone and steroid-free.

You misspelled "Any"

They have the most efficient system by far. They are the one city that tops us, if you look at that link I posted, and they do so significantly. Boston isn't that big.. their city limits are 85% smaller than Houston.. Their MSA is about 60% smaller than ours. They are middle of the pack as far as size ( track miles) but that's because their city size and layout and density allows them to be. Boston serves 215k boardings per day with 25 miles of track for #1 in boardings per mile. Dallas serves 69k with 72 miles of track LA serves 154k with 62 miles of track. The worst fair sized city appears to be Trenton NJ.. they serve 10k with 34 miles Houston is 35k with 7.5 miles. ( 1/2 as much as dallas ridership with 1/10th of the track ), #2 in boardings per mile. San Francisco, with as big and far reaching a system as they appear to have on that map, is doing something right.. They are #3 in boardings per mile with 158k served with 37 miles. ( same boardings as LA, but with 60% of the track) EDIT: I missed the footnote on that wiki table that said those #s were for LRT only... but some of those complete systems also have heavy rail. E.G. SF BART is 37 miles of LRT, but 71 miles complete system.... So Nevermind, scratch all those comparisons.

Compare ours to Dallas, and LA.. comparable cities in size, but their systems are far reaching into the extents of their sprawl. Now imagine ours with the phase II lines that are currently planned or under construction. It's still going to be a relatively compact network. It shows the 2 opposing philosophies - build the core first vs reach the commuters first. We had the network of HOVs and commuter buses in place, allowing us to go core-first. Consequently, we have the 2nd highest per mile LRT ridership in the US ( not counting Subways systems - ATL, NY, DC, CHI ) and blow Dallas and LA out of the water. http://en.wikipedia....ms_by_ridership If you were to add our HOV and Commuter bus routes to that map... we'd have a more extensive and far reaching system than Dallas and LA at a fraction of the cost. That being said.. we'll get the far reaching CRT eventually.

I know this has been posted before, but it fits here. Similar map for US cities transit systems. http://www.radicalcartography.net/?subways

That's not correct. The same thing happened to Ltwacs that happened to 20thstDad. There was a 10-1 split. When Ltawacs purchased on Dec 17th, the price of citibank was 4.70 per share. http://www.google.com/finance?q=C But now, the link above, google shows that the historical price per share was 47.00 on the 17th. Which means a) he only would have been able to purchase 21.2, not 212 shares and b ) at today's price of 38.16, he would have have losses of about 20% right now. When there's a split, if you have real stocks.. everything is done automatically. But for our spreadsheet.. I have to go in manually and change the purchase price and # of shares... Done.

Well.. Then i apologize for misunderstanding ya.

It sounds like wxman has accepted himself and its you that has the problem with his failure to identify with or accept the flamboyant type. Your 'sigh' is meant to belittle but those acts arent imagined. Wxman gave a first person *** account of his views and observations of gays at a *** club. Flamboyant and promiscuous gays are fact. I myself have been on a strait date where she wanted to go dancing at South Beach. I felt like I was being constantly eye raped by half the guys there. Again.. flamboyant and promiscuous wasn't imagined. They are real observations. Yes.. it is perfectly acceptable to hate what someone does, how a group acts, actions commonly associated with a group of people. And as much as liberals hate this - Sterotypes don't materialize out of thin air.. they have roots somewhere. That being said.. I'm not stereotyping. I would be stereotyping gays if I said, Based on my observations all gays must be therefore flamboyant and promiscuous. I did not say that, nor do I believe that. I have 3 *** family members and I have a few good friends who are strait-laced gays, including one who was a groomsman in my wedding.. I know better. But It is not stereotyping for me to say there are flamboyant and promiscuous gays. That would be stating a fact. And while gays don't have a lock on promiscuous of course, they do on flamboyant. Again.. all of this is independent of the parade and if it perpetuates that stereotype or not. I think Wxman is entitled to his beliefs without being bashed or called a homophobe. I've been to the parade twice. I could take it or leave it. Do I think all gays are just like the flamboyant types on the floats? Of course not. Does it make me uncomfortable to see all the flamboyant types? Yes, some. Does that make me a homophobe? Not at all. I don't have to accept those that act in a way i don't approve of nor do I care if they have a problem with that. Wxman doesn't have to approve of people that are the same as him but don't act like him or in a manner he disapproves of. Do I have a problem with or hate the *** people at the parade? Not at all. I hate words that end in -phobe. When used, they imply that you fear something that you have no right to fear or hate something you have no right to hate. Wxman isn't a homophobe. He does not fear gays. He does have the right to hate how some gays act though. Me.. I'm a FlamboyantDisapprover. I live two blocks off Westheimer so the parade is unavoidable.... I'll be going again this year for a bit. Why? Because that's what us conservative stereotyping homophobes do.

My comments are to be taken separate from the act of going to the parade. Whether is tame or too flamboyant doesn't matter to my following point. It's been interesting watching this discussion, but I find myself agreeing with wxman. I don't consider it homophobic for him to have a problem with flamboyant and promiscuous behavior of *** men, but I do find pretty unbelievable that he can be called homophobic by other gays for his beliefs. He is separating what you are from what you do / how you act and I find that perfectly reasonable. Since baracuda wants to correlate *** and black - I see it as the equivalent of calling Bill Cosby a racist for calling out the ghettofied urban african american youth of today, like he has so many times. Bill Cosby isn't racist. He is against the behavior of other blacks who he believes harm themselves and perpetuate a negative image of african americans. You aren't required to be a ghetto thug if you are black.. Likewise you are not required to be flamboyant and promiscuous in the *** clubs if you are ***. Bringing up the history of gays and *** rights is irrelevant here. American's founding gays hopefully weren't wearing leather chaps and having orgies. Wxman.. You are not homophobic. Hating how a group of people act and carry themselves is not the same as hating that group of people, including yourself. I don't think we're going to reach an agreement here. Kinkaid and barracuda, it seems you see how you act as being the same as who you are. And from that point of view, then sure, having *** pride would include being flamboyant and promiscuous. Wxman appears to not share that view since in his original post he pretty eloquently separated what you are and what you do. That does not make him homophobic.

You shouldn't have to be creative. Seems like non-offensive words that are only offensive when used in a derogatory context shouldn't be bleeped. Or did I miss the memo that said homosexual is not offensive but *** is. Geez.. if my *** friends expect me to add 4 whole syllables every time I refer to them, they have another thing coming. Testing..... I took a poop on the poop deck of the yacht. "Look at that effin fairy", said the man as he pointed to the small mythical woodland creature fluttering above the pond. The ass is a beast of burden similar to a mule. When they don't move fast enough, it is sometimes necessary to slap that ass. The truck on the side of the road was selling Labrador ******* for $100 each. I won $100 at the cock fight in Cuidad Juarez. When a Londoner wants a cigarette, he asks for a ***. *** Dago Quite arbitrary set up around here. Sorry for digressing.

Why the hell is *** bleeped out ?

I Love ET (the alien, not the show) ... does that count

CVS, etc is good enough for small (5x7) vacation photos.. but usually if I have a nice quality photo I want framed or printed bigger and at better quality, I'll take it here. http://www.houstonphotoimaging.com