Simbha

I don't know anything about Children's Palace, but I found this video on-line; it appears to be an advertisement for the place... Also... It appears that you can relive your childhood with these handy tees: http://www.80stees.com/products/Childrens-Palace-Shirt.asp And I found these flyers from 1974 on-line: http://plaidstallions.blogspot.com/2009/03/1974-childrens-palace-toy-circular.html. They do not appear to be for Houston stores, however.

Well... Remember that this is just a concept drawing. It doesn't have to be completely accurate regarding the surrounding landscape. I have no idea about this complex - just offering a response to your comment.

The crowd may not have been large by ESPN standards, but it was the largest attendance in the history of the present capacity. I suspect - although this is purely conjecture - that the stadium would've been full even if it had had twice its current capacity.

I live a few blocks away from this. I really like the building; it's simple and elegant. However, what I'd prefer - and I'm just one person who's not an expert at design - is that they used that greenspace in front of the building for more than just a lawn with a few trees. I'd really like to see a beautiful garden there - perhaps something that is a mix of Korean, Japanese and Chinese garden elements.

This is good news, but I'm confused about what this means. The article linked by asubrt above indicates this will be an Embry-Riddle Worldwide campus. From what I can tell, this means it will be one of 150 locations for their on-line learning. However, I was under the impression that this was a rare type of facility - perhaps something akin to their Daytona Beach and Prescott, AZ residential campuses. Which is it?

Yeah, I understand this - thus, why I noted that it was not my intention to do so. Even so, the comments thus far have been kind.

There's a Houston Bonsai Society. Their website contains a list of local vendors: http://www.houstonbonsai.com/vendors.asp. I hope this helps.

I have a friend visiting this weekend, so I was browsing About.com's list of tourist attractions in Houston (I'm not feeling very creative...). I had to rub my eyes when I came across the Montrose listing... The description has a small picture attached. Here it is: (link -- Montrose is #8) I'm all for building light rail in the city, but I'm not sure it's best to advertise its scale until construction is finished (or started).

I was browsing the web doing a bit of research for a client this morning, and I came across this article discussing the differences between Dallas and Houston. It's from Time Magazine and dated November 30, 1981. Here's the article link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925046,00.html I'm NOT trying to start a flame war here. I thought it was an interesting read comparing the two cities at a time nearly 30 years ago. Here's the start: And the finish: What do you think, fellow HAIFers? Have things changed in 30 years?

I'd imagine UH is attempting to create a sense of 'community' among these students. Not saying I agree with it - but that could be why.

Based on this document, dated 10-12-2010, MacGregor Park was also being considered as a possible site: http://www.uh.edu/af/docs/HI/HousingSite.pdf.

I've been meaning to post this analysis for a while... Often people talk about the 'diversity' of a population, but what they really mean is that the city/MSA has a large 'non-Hispanic white' population. But, another way of looking at diversity is the variation within the population, without exclusion. One way of measuring this latter form of diversity is to apply a method found elsewhere in the social sciences -- to take a 'sum of squares' of shares (e.g., the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in economic analysis of supplier concentration). As an example, here's the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown MSA (again, first posted by Sellanious Caesar): 2010: Non-Hispanic White: 2,360,472 (39.7%) Non-Hispanic Black: 1,029,880 (17.3%) Hispanic: 2,099,412 (35.3%) Asian: 417,415 (7%) Other: 39,621 (0.7%) Taking the shares and discarding the percentages, we have: 39.7, 17.3, 35.3, 7 and 0.7. Squaring these and summing the resultant figures gives: 3,170.96. A lower number indicates greater variation with the population. To see this, consider two populations: one with 100 groups of 1% each, and the other with two groups with 50% each. The former is 'clearly' more varied, and the index represents this; the first population has an index of (1^2*100 =) 100, while the second population has an index of (50^2*2 =) 5000. Applying this to the data to which Sellanious Caesar has linked and focusing on the largest 10 MSAs in the country, we get the following indices (sorted in ascending order): 1. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA -- 3170.96 2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA MSA -- 3279.7 3. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA -- 3310.86 4. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA -- 3363.45 5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA -- 3364.88 6. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA -- 3549.07 7. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA MSA -- 3789.64 8. Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA -- 3801.94 9. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA -- 4764.8 10. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH MSA -- 5798.74 So, by this measure at least, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown MSA is the most 'racially diverse' major metropolitan area in the country (of the ten largest). Two caveats: (i) I am well aware that this method isn't 'perfect'; it's just (to me) an interesting way of quantifying diversity which I thought others might also find interesting. And, (ii) While I think that there's value to understanding ethnic diversity, I think there's an over-emphasis on racial diversity, which is what the data represents - and thus, this analysis too. Edit: To my knowledge, the method presented above is used in the social sciences with some prevalence, but is not used in the analysis of population diversity; I don't make any claims to have 'invented' this method, but I think this is an interesting application of it.

It's my understanding that the WM is the tallest stone structure in the world. The SJM is taller, but is not all stone - being mostly reinforced concrete with a shellstone cover. The WM is arguably also the tallest obelisk in the world, since the SJM is not technically an obelisk (despite being obelisk-like in shape). However, the SJM is the tallest monumental column in the world.

The address is given at the bottom of the OP's linked article: Sam Houston State University LSC-University Center 3232 College Park Drive The Woodlands 936-273-7518 This takes you to the LSC-Montgomery campus located just across 242 from The Woodlands College Park HS campus which is adjacent (to the east) of the spot you've marked.

There's a recent (read: past 8 to 10 years or so) for large national/international service companies to build 'local' brands in conjunction with the broader brand. This is part of that trend, which is also related to 'glocalization'. My suspicion is that we'll see this continue for another 5 to 7 years, then wane. Once it does, NRG will likely slowly consider re-branding Reliant as NRG. Much of this is going to depend on cultural trends, though. My principal concern with this branding is that it's backward-looking. It doesn't anticipate future shifts in social perspective, but instead (per my previous post, above) is reactive to social trends over the past 5 to 15 years. That's NOT a good thing for Reliant/NRG in a competitive, deregulated environment. Then again, this is common - and NRG probably doesn't care. <sigh> Edit: Woohoo! I'm now a 'museum'!

I'm somewhat of a branding consultant. (I own a firm that advises on branding/marketing, in addition to other strategy, issues.) That does NOT mean my opinion means more than others, but I actually like the new logo (albeit, not on the stadium). What my position may give me is an informed perspective on the process companies use in re-branding. Reliant/NRG's branding directors (should have) had a particular image they wished to convey, and this logo fit the bill in their mind. It's nothing less isolated than that. Whether the image they choose to convey is the appropriate one, or whether this image conveys it properly to their target market, is a different issue. I'll point out that the new Reliant logo was released at the same time - and is based on - the new NRG logo (below). NRG is a national company which also recently (last year) acquired Green Mountain Energy and now touts itself as a provider of 'green power'. The new logo (for NRG and Reliant) may convey this image better than the last. Here's the new NRG logo: I believe the design elements were purposefully chosen to appeal to a younger audience - likely, those who would more care about 'green energy' (at least in the minds of the company exec's). The lowercase 'nrg' is a trend that's been seen for the past 15 or so years that is built off 'netspeak'. The colored elements seem to convey connections - perhaps between 'people' (i.e., consumers), the company and the environment. The 'connection' part is apparent from the use of secondary colors at the joins. Nothing I've said should be non-obvious; that's the point -- that it can be understood easily by the masses. Here's NRG's logo prior to 2004: And, here's the one released in 2004: Each of these conveys a particular image. The contrast between the one prior to 2004 and the new one is quite obvious. It does appear that NRG is attempting to move towards an image of 'friendly' (e.g., green) energy. The move to lowercase letters in the newest design is likely influenced by the cultural impact of 'netspeak' - although I, personally, think this is way overplayed. The colored design elements are simplistic, but that's probably the right way to go. Our designers likely would have gone with a different tact on this, but I don't think they've done horribly or anything with the new logo.

It's all opinion and taste. No right or wrong. Ask 10 different people, get 12 different opinions. There, I corrected that for ya.

According to this report from ArtInfo, the frescoes which are currently housed in the Menil Collection's Byzantine Fresco Chapel will be returned to Cyprus next year: The frescoes were restored by Dominique de Menil, but were then found to have been stolen. She offered to return them to their rightful owner, the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, but the Church allowed them to be on loan to the Menil Collection. According to the Menil's website, these pieces are "the only intact Byzantine frescoes of this size and importance in the Western Hemisphere." I have hope that the Menil's directors will create something equally awesome for this space in the future. http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38701/the-menil-collection-to-return-byzantine-frescoes-to-greek-orthodox-church/

Here's an infographic found on-line today. It shows various statistics on city economics, including purchase price-to-rent ratios. http://insights.truliablog.com/vis/rent-vs-buy-q3/ Unsurprisingly, Houston and Dallas show up as 'more affordable to buy'. In NYC, it's more expensive to buy. What's striking to me about this data is that Fort Worth shows up as the second most expensive city in which to buy (relative to renting). Can anyone who knows about the city shed some light on this?

Hi all, I've got a friend in town tonight and he'd like to hit a good blues or zydeco spot. So far, I'm considering either Shakespeare's (blues jam) or The Big Easy (Zydeco Dots). I haven't been in a LONG time - but I was also looking into Mr. Gino's; however, I'm unsure if it's still around. Anyone with info Mr. Gino's or any other good places for tonight? I'm aware it's short notice and that it's a Sunday, so there may be slim pickins. Thanks in advance!

I don't personally know of anyone who could help you, but you may be interested to know that a new 'folk art park' is going up next to the Orange Show. It's called Smither Park. Information can be found on-line at http://smitherpark.org. It may be of interest to you to contact people involved in putting this together now. Good luck!

The AP reports that Dallas-based billionaire Charles Wyly, who was a principal donor to the Dallas Arts Center, was killed in a car accident today in Colorado. Here's the story in the Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7687478.html

My wife and I had a favorite called, simply, Asian Restaurant. It was located at/near the intersection of Richmond and Weslayan. The owner was a man named Tom - very friendly and knowledgeable - and the food was always good. The cuisine appeared to be American-style Chinese with some other dishes thrown in. My wife, a vegetarian, loved the way he fried the tofu. Alas, Asian Restaurant went away along with the strip center to make room for the Edwards that's there now.

To my knowledge, many of these projects were proposed just before the latest downturn began - although I can't say which those are. Any thoughts on whether some of these may reemerge as the national/global economy picks back up?

If ever I'm in a hurry to get somewhere in this city, I'm calling on you to drive. Every red light you approached magically turned green! (Seriously, nice vid. Thanks!)