Reefmonkey

There are something like 40-some other subforums containing countless other threads if this one isn't to your liking, CaptainJilliams.

Nope, scrounging around for an obscure nearly 50 year old report that doesn't say what you obviously think it says isn't a "checkmate", maybe if you had actually gotten a decent education instead of disdaining those of us who did, you'd understand why.

Tell it to the National Weather Service, I'm done trying to overcome your obstinate obtuseness.

Oh, and looking into the reason for the Memorial Day 2018 beach water clarity, the National Weather Service's West Gulf River Forecast Center explained that on that Monday there were two factors, first, that there was not the typical outgoing tide that dumps large amounts of sediments from the bay system into the Gulf, and second, that Tropical Storm Alberto pushed a large plume of clear water that flushed the existing sediments up the coast and away from the island. But clearly, the National Weather Service identifies sediments coming from the bay system as the main culprit of Galveston's usual turbidity, and even has satellite imagery showing the usual plumes and where they originate from. But NWS's satellite imagery clearly must be wrong, because AnTonY says this is impossible: I think we're done here.

You're just babbling at this point, trying desperately to appear to poke holes in what I have said. These are upper-level sediments, extending well out into the Gulf. The current state of the Gulf coast is as it has been for at least 4,500 years. If Mississippi were dumping all these sediments our way, they'd have covered up the Texas river sediments. As for the dead zone, all those rivers like the Calcasieu, Sabine, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado couldn't possibly also be contributing freshwater and nutrients that create a plume which could be meeting up with the Mississippi-generated plume, thus expanding the extent westward, could they? Naaaaahhhhhhh. "beating around the bush with unnecessary flex?" I don't know what "unnecessary flex" even means, but I am certainly not "beating around the bush" when providing detailed information to support the truth that the sediment making Galveston beach waters brown is from Texas Rivers. And you're saying that at least 4,500 years of Mississippi sediment significant enough to perennially keep Galveston's waters brown hasn't settled at all in 4,500 so can't be found when taking surface sediments......yet when the easterly current momentarily stops, all that sediment that it already brought here that supposedly hasn't settled in 4,500 years suddenly drops out and makes it crystal clear......riiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhttttt. And what even is your "source" for the Memorial Day 2018 current reversal? Oh yeah, it was a Facebook post by the city of Galveston: I love the use of the weasel word "they in "they say it's due to the current changing". The reason you see the "area of purple" along the lower Texas coast is because you have fewer rivers down there, and the rivers you have are lower-flow than the ones north of the Coastal Bend. And it is the lack of high flow Texas rivers that makes the water clearer down there. "Up in your feelings?" Try talking like an adult. And don't even start with accusing me of having my "knickers in a twist" when you escalated today's conversation with an insult aimed at my grad degree. What this really came down to is you getting your hackles up because I dared refute your confident but unsubstantiated assertion that the discoloration "clearly comes from the Mississippi" with facts. So you grasped at a few straws, babbled about the Dead Zone and satellite images, provided sources like the "they say it's due to the current changing" Facebook post, but it's all been sound and fury signifying nothing.

And another figure showing sediment distribution showing that Mississippi sediment gets distributed toward the southeast, and Texas river sediment predominant, especially along our stretch of the coast. Figure 3.17 Map showing Gulf of Mexico sediment distribution along with sample sites (from Balsam and Beeson 2003: reprinted from Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, Vol 50, Seafloor sediment distribution in the Gulf of Mexico, Figure 4, Copyright 2003, with permission from Elsevier). Contrast this map with that in Figure 3.10 Beachwater turbidity is primarily influenced by wave action, this is why those of us who fish offshore know that the gulf water is very clear just a few miles out. It is why Galveston’s beachwater can get surprisingly clear on very calm days, like it did last Memorial Day weekend. The Mississippi doesn’t stop flowing nor do nearshore currents grind to a halt just because the wind dies down on the Texas coast. When Galveston beach water is brown, that’s because waves are stirring up local sediments, and as the figures I posted show, those sediments are predominately from Texas rivers. Our brown beach waters are NOT from the Mississippi.

You’r hanging your hat on the dead zone, but it is a layer of stratified high nutrient freshwater floating on top of the denser saltwater below and is a separate issue from sediment distribution. The fact that it stays where it is and doesn’t get dispersed westward demonstrates this.

For anyone who is interested, this is a great paper explaining sediment patterns in the Gulf. If you have the patience to read through the entire paper, it will become clear that the dominant contributors to sediments in nearshore Texas Gulf waters are Texas rivers. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-3447-8_3 For a “quick and dirty” snapshot, this figure of mineral group distribution showing Central Texas origin minerals dominating in the Gulf adjacent to our portion of the coast is pretty persuasive. Figure 3.15 General map of heavy mineral group distribution in the Gulf of Mexico (from Davies and Moore 1970: reprinted with permission from The Journal of Sedimentary Research). Province I is from the Appalachians; kyanite and staurolite dominate. Province II is from the Mississippi River; augite, hornblende, and epidote dominate. Province III is from Central Texas with hornblende and epidote dominating. Province IV is Rio Grande; epidote, augite, and hornblende are dominant, and Province V is in Mexico; little is known about the heavies in Province V

Nope, you don’t know jack —— of what you’re talking about. The position of the dead zone, influenced by the warm core eddies’ deflection of the loop current actually proves my point and disproves yours. And sand and silt are just gradations on a spectrum of the same material based on particle size. Texas’s beaches are colloquially sand, though technically silt. So much for your nursery school level understanding of ocean hydrology.

At first I thought having another commercial airport so close to a big one like IAH would cause air traffic congestion and maybe even safety issues. However, at 22 nm, the distance would be greater than that between LAX and LGB (15 nm)

Is there really that much to see in Arlington anyway? The coasters at Six Flags? 😉 I know what you mean though. I went to one or two games there when I was in college, back when it was brand new. The only other ballpark I had ever known was the Astrodome. I actually liked Arlington's architectural style, felt like classic Americana style at the time, especially compared to the Astrodome's 60s Modernism. I was also struck by how different it was to go to a baseball game at an outdoor park, felt to me like what it should be. Of course, it was a night game, and during the school year, so not yet in the heat of summer. Since we were college students, of course we had to climb up into the nosebleeds, and that's the other thing that struck me, how steep it was, so I can imagine that would contribute to the "boxed in" feeling you're talking about. I can definitely see the appeal of moving it to Dallas where it would be accessible by DART rail. I guess though all the pro-stadium boosters did a good job of laying on the usual scare tactics of what would happen if the Rangers left Arlington to spook Arlington voters into approving another boondoggle to keep them there.

I'll tell you what, I'm not a huge fan of HEB, either, their cavernous stores with the one-way maze you have to go through in the produce aisle, they're kind of a nightmare to shop at, if they are at all busy. Also, no matter what time of day you go, there will be multiple aisle partially or even fully blocked by restocking activities. Sometimes it is an employee actively restocking, and they act annoyed if you dare reach around them to get the item you need that they are blocking, but just as often, they will have a big cart sitting there unattended blocking an aisle. It can even be a Saturday afternoon, the busiest time for the Bunker Hill store, and there will still be massive restocking activity going on, to the detriment of shoppers actually trying to move through the store to get what they need. Below is an excerpt of an email exchange I had with the manager of the Bunker Hill store:

Wow, how pathetic, The Cubs and Red Sox are playing in stadiums over 100 years old, so venerable that they are national landmarks, meanwhile here in Texas, once a stadium reaches the age that, were it human, would just barely be old enough to rent a car, and the team calls on the city to tear it down and build a new one - and the cities usually acquisece and build new ones. But not at the expense of the teams that use them, of course. An organization that spends $93 million a year on salaries for 15 people couldn't possibly be expected to pay for its own stadium, so let's jack up sales and hotel taxes for all the little people. 🙄

I'm not desperate to find the cheapest price either, and I think many Houstonians were happy to pay more at Randall's for decades when they felt they were getting a better shopping experience - better shopping environment, better service, better selection, and for years that was the case. But now all that is gone, and all that is left is the higher price, and that does play a significant part in Randall's decline, despite the OP wanting to slap anyone who says so. According to the USDA, a moderate-cost food plan for a family of 4 with kids between 6 and 11 is $1,051.80 per month (low-cost is $843.50 and thrifty is $639.80). With a price difference of ~15%, you're talking almost $2,000 more a year you're spending at Randall's for the same stuff. That's more than pocket change.

Alright, so I just shopped at Kroger the same basket of of common staple food items and household goods I had shopped at both HEB and Randall's (remember, Randall's was 13% higher than HEB), and Randall's was 17% higher than Kroger. With all due respect to peoples' feelings (aka gut instincts) about what they personally tend to buy, or cherrypicking a special promotional item, comparing the exact same basket of common staple goods is the only reliable method to determine whether Randall's is actually more expensive, and it is more expensive than both HEB or Kroger. I doubt I need to go through the same process to demonstrate that Randall's is more expensive than Fiesta, Walmart, and SuperTarget.

I knew some of that, but appreciate the detail. I do think though that the dismissal of Randall’s higher prices (ie, him wanting to slap anyone who mentions it) is off base. I did a quick comparison of Randall’s prices with HEB because I happen to have an HEB account for curbside ordering, which made it quick for me to be able to compare Randall’s to a competitor and show they are in fact more expensive. I think his “feeling” that Randall’s is no more expensive than Kroger’s is just that, just a feeling, not based on comparing the same products side by side like I did with HEB.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong, Randall's higher prices are still a salient issue. I just compared the same "basket" of goods between Randall's and HEB, and Randall's total was 13% higher than HEB - even with the Remarkable Card discounts from Randall's and no discounts of any kind with HEB. Randall's was able to get away with higher prices for decades when the Houston grocery shopping market was smaller and Randall's had a reputation for superior service, selection, and shopping environment, but when HEB repositioned itself in the market, going from "Pantry" to "Central Market" in the 2000s, that was the death knell for an already ailing company. Even Kroger was modernizing its store layouts and inventory starting in the late 90s, while Randall's made little to no changes to layout, and was actually contracting its inventory, reducing choices, like when it stopped carrying Boar's Head so Safeway could push its in-house Primo Taglio brand. On top of contraction of selection, inventory management has gotten worse, as new owner Albertson's has closed the Houston-area Randall's distribution center and is now distributing to Houston out of DFW area. Randall's was able to ride on hometown customer loyalty for about 20 years to justify its higher prices, but when Houston's growth is mostly due to newcomers to the area with no loyalty to the brand, and it's alienating its longtime customers by no longer carrying their favorite items and running out of what it does carry, even long time customers start to notice they are paying a significant amount more and getting less for it. The nearest grocery store to me is a Randall's, though I usually go out of my way to either HEB or Fiesta, and even if I just want to quickly run in for something, I go to the next-nearest store, a Kroger, even though it's an old, small one, I know it doesn't run out of the things I buy regularly, is faster to get in and out of (usually because it has 2 to 3 times the number of checkouts open), and is cheaper. When I do run into Randall's, it's after a workout because it's right next to my gym, and I've noticed the clientele is getting older and older looking, the little old ladies who've shopped at this Randall's for 40 years, and when they die out, I'm sure this Randall's will close, if it doesn't do so before that. Another reason not to shop at a Randall's - they usually only have two checkouts open, and there is a very high probability that whichever one you choose, ahead of you will be a bluehair who waits until the checker has finished ringing up the entire cart, then fumbles in her purse for paper coupons, and then waits until after the checker has credited her for those coupons before fumbling in her purse for her checkbook to write a paper check.

I've been thinking about the negativity about the 80s some have expressed in this thread. I remember when I was a kid someone explaining to me nostalgia meaning "remembering the good and forgetting the bad." I'm not sure what the word is for the opposite of nostalgia (forgetting the good and remembering the bad), but I think that's what's going on here. Things really didn't get bad until 1986, and by 1988-89, they were picking back up again. Every decade has its low point, and condemning an entire 10 year period for a 2-3 year nadir is a bit unfair. On the issue of Houston's murder rate, this was happening at a time when crime was at an all-time high around the country (peaking in 1992). Still, white flight had already largely occurred, most murders were happening in low income areas within the city limits, so the average middle class and above Greater Houstonian wasn't worried about being murdered in his own backyard. Unlike cities like LA and Miami, where the crime was more evenly distributed. My grandfather, for instance, was pistolwhipped in his own backyard in Coral Gables, the West U of Miami, in 1988. 1986 really was the watershed year for Houston, because though the price of oil had been declining since 82, 86 was the precipitous price drop, and it occurred at the same time the Tax Reform Act of 1986 eliminated the tax shelters for passive real estate development, even wiping them out retroactively. Suddenly deals done years earlier were much less, bursting the Texas real estate market bubble of the 70s-early 80s, and helping initiate the S&L crisis. So 1986, that watershed year, cleaved Old Houston from New Houston. It precipitated a lot of Old Houston institutions going out of business, like Sakowitz and Jamail's Grocers. Sadly, Houston lost a lot of its unique local character, and New Houston became culturally a lot more like most other major cities - we went from Urban Cowboy to Reality Bites, but it can be argued that this change made Houston more attractive to transplants from other parts of the country, and allowed the city to become as international and cosmopolitan as it is today. But coming back to the "pre-1986" Houston, I think it is worth reminiscing over, because it was the apogee and last gasp of high flying, unique Old Houston culture.

I’m happy to drop it, just so we’re clear that there would be nothing to drop if you hadn’t made an issue out of something so inconsequential to score cheap points in the first place.

Yes, I do know that cars were once a novelty, and the introduction of the car had a lot of growing pains as people struggled to figure out how best to incorporate them into society through regulation, etc. Since then we’ve learned from experience that new technologies and paradigms that may impact public safety should be rolled out slowly, with proper oversight. Unfortunately, though, Silicon Valley is a perpetual adolescent, quite often seemingly ignorant of painful past experience, apparently thinking AirBnB was the first to ever think of unlicensed boarding houses, Uber to “invent” the unlicensed gypsy cab. Back to when cars were first a novelty, it actually looked for a while that electric cars would win out over internal combustion. But they, along with the Stanley Steamer car, did not prevail. For electric cars, the infrastructure and technology had not kept pace with the promise, and the idea was effectively shelved for 100 years, and now its time has come. My read is that infrastructure and technology has not yet caught up to dockless e-scooter apps as a practical last-mile solution on a mass scale. In this case, it is not electrical infrastructure or battery technology, but city infrastructure. American cities have been built around the automobile for the past 90 years, making them an unfriendly place for smaller, slower, more vulnerable wheeled transportation, and the technology seems not yet ready for efficient distribution of scooters to where they are needed and to keep them from underfoot. Their moment has probably not yet come. And you are right that it wouldn’t make sense to make new laws for something that may be a flash in the pan, but we don’t have to make new laws, do we? There are laws against blocking and littering public sidewalks. There are laws requiring businesses that operate in public areas to get permission from local authorities, which indicate that the authorities have the power to review and require certain conditions, even deny activities. I’m a part of the riding community here in Houston, and I say you a vastly exaggerating the number of bicycles ridden on crowded sidewalks, and from my observations of e-scooters in San Francisco, they were being ridden on crowded sidewalks far, far more commonly than bikes. While you continue to double-down on making yourself look like a prat with your self-important pedantry over “shear” vs “sheer,” I’m just going to put this out here. https://www.sciencealert.com/people-who-pick-up-grammar-mistakes-jerks-scientists-find “People Who Constantly Point Out Grammar Mistakes Are Pretty Much Jerks, Scientists Find” As if we needed science to tell us that.

That all sounds pretty reasonable. If the gps resolution is a problem, then I guess the cities are going to have to get tougher, have their parking enforcement officers collect any scooters that are left out irresponsibly, and let the companies know they have them, fine them for every day they hold one, and at the end of 30 days they get auctioned off. Then the companies could start charging their users a surcharge equivalent to the cost of the fine if the last user left one somewhere it got picked up. That would encourage more responsible parking. The companies would need to require that only permanent credit cards or debit cards linked to a bank account be used when registering, no prepaid cards, because from what I read, that is already causing a problem and would be a way for people to dodge the fines. E-scooter aps or no, all cities need more and better protected bike lanes, and that would be the only place that these would be appropriate to ride. These devices should have highly visible (maybe even RFID) identification for each unit, so if a cop sees someone on the sidewalk on one and can’t take the time to stop him, can report it, the company gets a fine, which it passes on to the renter just like if you get a parking ticket in a rental car.

I don't go nearly that far back, but some of my fondest memories from high school in the early 90s was driving into town from the suburbs with my friends on Friday or Saturday nights, browsing for hours in the Bookstop where Trader Joes is (we were artsy nerds who also went to foreign films as Landmark River Oaks and sipped cappuccinos at Dolce & Freddo on lower Kirby).

I think a more apt comparison is not to cars legally parked in designated parking areas, but to people setting up "shop" on sidewalks, spreading out their merchandise they are trying to sell, so you have to walk around them, creating bottlenecks, etc., for that's what these dockless scooter services are, private companies using the public space to run their business, leaving their equipment out for people to have to step around. In places where sidewalk vending is legal, it is usually regulated, with the city approving locations people can set up their business, so that people don't set them up in places that cause foot traffic congestion problems and/or safety concerns. When a dockless scooter company's customers can just leave scooters just anyone they want, that kind of sensible regulation can't happen.

I would try to explain explain it to you again, but that's obviously futile, you can believe what you want to believe, I'm out.

When was the last "supertall" greenlit in Houston, anyway? I wonder if September 11 didn't put a damper on a lot of peoples' enthusiasm for supertalls. Not that I think everyone thinks that planes flying into them is now more than an astronomical risk, but seeing quite graphically how difficult it is to rescue people high up in one of those towers if any kind of emergency occurs. But even before then, I've avoided working or staying in high floors of tall buildings on a regular basis (watched Towering Inferno on the Channel 13 Million Dollar Movie a few too many times as a kid), so that may just be my thing, and plenty of supertall buildings could have been built since then. I have no stance one way or another on whether a supertall building should be built in Houston, but I do wonder why a passing observer would have much stake in wanting to see one built. Maybe it's a Freudian thing. I kid, I kid.