Coogs even record with win over UAB

Although I would have preferred more touchdowns and fewer field goals, there really wasn't too much to complain about in Houston's 39-17 win over Alabama-Birmingham last Saturday. In addition to kicker Matt Hogan's six successful field goal attempts - a Conference USA record - the Cougar defense finally discovered how to properly execute a pass rush and sacked hapless UAB quarterback Austin Brown eight times. Meanwhile, running back Charles Sims rushed for 133 yards - his third 100+ yard game in a row - and quarterback David Piland had another decent game, completing 32 of 44 passes for 362 yards and a touchdown.

With the win, what a few weeks ago was the most disappointing team in college football is now .500 and on a three-game winning streak. They head into the second half of the season showing  week-by-week improvement and what once looked like a disaster of a season is turning into one that could possibly see the Cougars go bowling.

However, the Cougars will have a short week to prepare for their next game, on the road against SMU Thursday night. The Ponies are nobody's idea of a powerhouse, but the Cougars need to continue to pressure the quarterback show more efficiency in the red zone than they did last Saturday if they expect to come away from that important divisional game with a victory.

Finally, while I know that the University of Houston is at the mercy of the television networks with regard to start times, the program really needs to avoid 11 am kickoffs as much as possible. They just don't work in Houston: too many people have other activities (kids' soccer, etc.) to attend to, students don't like to wake up that early on weekends, and even in mid-October it can be very hot. Such was the case last Saturday: the crowd was small, and I came away from the game with a nasty sunburn.

Defacing or stealing political signs is weak sauce

Because nothing says "I'm a cowardly loser who can't intelligently participate in the political process" like defacing a mural of our current President:

A mural of President Obama that’s become a landmark in midtown Houston has been defaced and essentially destroyed in what looks like an act of political vandalism.

Someone splashed red paint across the image of the president displayed on an outside wall of The Breakfast Klub, a popular midtown dining spot.  The restaurant’s owner quickly had the damaged painting covered with whitewash, but pedestrians walking down the street could still see streams of paint streaming down the wall.

I am familiar with this particular mural on Alabama Street between Travis Street and Spur 527 because I see it every time I drive into downtown. The mural has been defaced several times before; each time the owner has had it repainted and will do so once again. 

Meanwhile, a wave of Obama sign thefts continued in the upscale neighborhoods west of Rice University.  One homeowner, a retired Navy veteran named Joe Santamaria, was so irritated after his second Obama sign was stolen out of his yard that he decided to post a warning notice in his yard.

The warning sign cautions sign thieves they’re trespassing and vows that if the sign is stolen, Santamaria will donate $1,000 to the Obama campaign.

That's probably one way to handle it. But it's unfortunate that it happens to begin with (and to be sure, partisans on both sides are guilty of it).

Activities like defacing murals, stealing yard signs, tearing bumper stickers, and the like are illegal (last I checked, vandalism and trespassing were criminal offenses), as well as infringements upon another's right to free speech. But they're also weak, crude and rather pathetic forms of political intimidation.

Are the people who engage in these kinds of activities really so insecure in their own political beliefs that seeing an opposing political sign sets them off in a fit of childish rage? Are they really that intolerant of the beliefs of others, and of their ability to freely express themselves?  Do they really think that by doing these kinds of activities, they're going to change the outcome of the election in any way (other than by, say, making their own side look desperate and thuggish)?

If you see somebody stealing or defacing political signs, confront them. Ask them what they're so afraid of and why they can't respect other peoples' property or right to free speech. Or call the cops and report their criminal behavior.

If you are somebody who steals or defaces political signs, GROW THE FUCK UP. You're just making yourself, and your side, look stupid.

Houston 44, North Texas 21

My mixed loyalties: a Mean Green hat and a Cougar shirt.

AKA the Mean Green Cougar Red Bowl! This was UNT's first visit to Houston since 1980, and a game I had been looking forward to, for obvious reasons, since it featured my two favorite schools.

It was also the best game that the Cougars have put together so far this season, as they won handily. Running back Charles Sims had the best day of his career, rushing for 210 yards and scoring a touchdown on 21 carries. He also caught five passes for 55 yards and another touchdown. Quarterback David Piland, meanwhile, continued to show improvement, completing 31 of 41 passes for 321 yards and two touchdowns; he also rushed for another. Piland was, to be sure, helped by the fact that receivers are no longer dropping passes the way they were the first couple of weeks of the season, which speaks to the improvements being made by the team overall. Other good news: the Cougar offense gave up no turnovers, kicker Matt Hogan connected on all three field goal attempts, UNT kick returner Brelan Chancellor was held in check, and the team as a whole was only flagged four times for 30 yards.

David Piland directs the UH offense in the first half. He had a good outing, but RB Charles Sims was the player of the game.

This isn't to say that everything went well; the Cougar defense showed a disturbing inability to tackle or pressure Eagle quarterback Derek Thompson as they yielded 483 yards of total offense to North Texas. The defense was particularly embarrassed late in the first half when Mean Green running back Jeremy Brown broke six (!) tackles on his way to a 48-yard touchdown run, and North Texas rammed the ball down the Cougars' throats for another easy score early in the third quarter. North Texas didn't see the endzone again after that; I'm not entirely sure if that's because the Cougar defense made adjustments or UNT's offense just packed it in (they didn't seem to play with much of a sense of urgency in the second half, and they also threw two interceptions). Hopefully it's the former, but the defense still remains very much a work in progress. Proper tackling is a fundamental aspect of defensive play and I just don't understand why this defense is having such a problem with it.

The Green Brigade performs at halftime. They were larger, louder and had a more interesting show than the the UH band.

North Texas can take pride in the fact that they won halftime; the Green Brigade is a much better band than the Spirit of Houston. I know the bands are entertaining, not competing, I know that UNT is known for its music curriculum, and I know that caring about halftime at all is lame, but still...

The Spirit of Houston has new uniforms this season and a lot of people I know don't like them. I haven't formed an opinion.

The really disappointing aspect of the game was the attendance. The crowd was announced at 25,746 but considerably fewer than that number were actually in the stands, and the number would have been even worse had it not been for the two or three thousand fans (and band) that North Texas brought. Student turnout was particularly disappointing. It just goes to show that Houston's fanbase is among the most fickle and fair-weather in the nation: if you're not winning, they're not coming. A lot of people sat through the first two losses at Robertson and decided that it just wasn't worth their while to return. The pregame tailgating scene was as desolate as I had ever seen it.

The stadium was only about two-thirds full for this game. A lot of people have given up on the Coogs after their 0-3 start.

That being said, the Cougars are now on a two-game winning streak and can even their record if they get past Alabama-Birmingham next Saturday. This is a home game against a team whose only win is against an FCS school, so the Coogs should be expected to do so, especially since the team is inarguably improving from week to week. The Eagles, meanwhile, fall to 2-4 and continue to struggle.

UNT quarterback Derek Thompson rolls out. He ended the day with 252 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns.

In spite of the fact that the Cougars have won the last four meetings against the Mean Green, UNT still leads the all-time series between the two schools, 6 games to 7. This is the end of a one-off home-and-home series with North Texas, but I hope the two schools schedule each other again in the future.

A railroad tunnel through the Andes

This would be very cool, should it actually come to pass:

South American engineers are trying to tackle one of the continent's greatest natural challenges: the towering Andes mountain chain that creates a costly physical barrier for nations ever-more-dependent on trade with Asia.

Instead of pushing cargo over a 10,500-foot (3,200-meter) pass that is often blocked by snow for weeks, they plan to build the longest tunnels in the Americas right through the mountains. That would make billions of dollars worth of Chinese electronics, Chilean wine, Argentine food and Brazilian cars cheaper and more competitive.

The proposed $3.5 billion private railway known as the Aconcagua Bi-Oceanic Corridor would link train and trucking hubs on both sides with a 127-mile-long (205-kilometer) railway, including twin 32-mile (52-kilometer) tunnels. Construction would take 10 years, but once completed, it could save millions of dollars and carve days off shipping times.

The existing crossing, which includes a two-mile-long tunnel between the two countries, connects Argentina's National Route 7, which stretches all the way from Buenos Aires, with Chile Highway 60, which continues on to the Pacific seaport of Valparaíso. The highway at this crossing is a narrow two-lane road which negotiates multiple switchbacks (especially on the Chilean side) and is clogged with truck traffic when it's not closed due to snowfall. There used to be a railroad linking the two countries at this location as well, but it has been out of use since the early 1980s. The result is a bottleneck hampering trade between Chile, Argentina and Brazil, which are three of South America's four largest economies:

Currently, much of the processed soy oils, wine and meat Argentina sends to China, as well as Asian electronics destined for Brazil, must first sail around the tip of South America, adding nearly 3,000 nautical miles and another week to the trip. Shipping by rail between Atlantic and Pacific ports would unite the most productive regions of Chile and its South American neighbors, making trade more competitive for all involved.

The shipping cost would drop from $210 to $177 a ton for cargo that now moves between Cordoba, Argentina, and Manzanillo, Mexico, the closest major port with direct rail links to the eastern United States.

"This project is just what's needed," said Mauricio Claveri, an economist with the Abeceb.com consulting firm in Buenos Aires. He called it a strategic necessity for the Mercosur nations of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela to develop more efficient trade links with China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

The plan is for this project to be privately built and operated by a multinational consortium, which would then recoup their investment through usage fees. The Chilean and Argentinian governments would provide loan guarantees, but public money would not be used to build this railroad. Bidding on this project has yet to occur.

The train engines, which would be powered by electricity rather than coal or diesel to reduce the environmental impact, are to link a transportation hub in Lujan de Cuyo on the Argentine side with Los Andes, Chile. The tunnels will descend from Punta de Vacas, Argentina, at 7,851 feet (2,393 meters) above sea level, to Saladillo, Chile, at 5,039 feet (1,536 meters), both below the steeper slopes and higher altitudes that get paralyzing snow each winter.

The initial phase would open a single tunnel and cost $3.5 billion with a capacity of 24 million tons of cargo a year. Depending on demand, the capacity could grow to 77 million tons and the total price tag to $5.9 billion by adding a second tunnel and additional rail lines on either side. As many as four mechanical excavators will be used to carve through the mountains.

I suppose the railroad could also carry passenger traffic in addition to cargo if the demand were there, but that's obviously never going to be its primary purpose. The tunnels would be among the longest in the world, just a few miles shorter than the Gotthard Base Tunnel set to open in the Swiss Alps later this decade. They would nevertheless be an incredible engineering feat for Latin America, not to mention a huge boon to its economy.

There are, to be sure, several hurdles this project must clear. In addition to the technical challenges of tunneling 32 miles through the Andes, there is the question that invariably arises when infrastructure projects of this magnitude are proposed to be constructed entirely with private funds: will it really be profitable, or will the Chilean and Argentinian governments be forced to come to the project's rescue at any point? And then there are the usual risks associated with doing business in Latin America: political unrest, economic instability, and corruption.

Nevertheless, and in spite of its cost and the obstacles it faces, this seems to me like a reasonable, feasible and beneficial project and I'm hoping to see it happen. Time will tell.

Coogs 35, Owls 14

A much-needed win.

Charles Sims ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns, and the UH defense turned in its best performance of the season in a 35-14 victory over rival Rice on Saturday at Reliant Stadium.

The Cougars (1-3) snapped their longest losing streak to begin a season in 11 years and won their Conference USA opener in their final season before moving to the Big East.

"Everyone was going into this game with the mindset that what's done is done," said UH quarterback David Piland, who threw for 361 yards and two touchdowns.

This win was important not just because it was against crosstown rival Rice, or because it was the first time the Coogs have won at Reliant Stadium (they were 0-4 at that venue prior to Saturday). This win was important because, after an 0-3 start, the struggling Cougars desperately needed something positive to happen. Yesterday, the positive finally happened. They got a win.

Yes, the team is still in disarray. Yes, I'm still suspicious of head coach Tony Levine. But with a 1-0 record in division and with two very winnable games at home (against North Texas and Alabama-Birmingham) coming up, the Cougars have the opportunity to salvage the season and - dare I day it? - even compete for the conference title.

Yesterday's win wasn't just a win. It was a huge confidence boost for a program that sorely needed something right to happen. The fact that it was against the elite private school a few miles down the road was just gravy.

Astros get a new manager

There's one week left in the season, and the Astros, at 51-105, are on track to have their losingest season in franchise history, topping last year's 106-loss debacle. Last night was the final home game of the season. It was also Minute Maid Park's final night as a National League field. 18,712 hearty souls watched the Astros manage a 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Pitcher Bud Norris, who was credited with the win, will go down in history as the last pitcher ever to bat at Minute Maid. Last night was also the final game for legendary broadcaster Milo Hamilton, who is hanging up his microphone after 28 years.

I was not (and still am not) a fan of the Astros moving to the American League next season. But like it or not, it's going to happen. The only thing that can be done now is to hope that the Astros are more competitive in the AL than they have been in their last several seasons in the NL.

To that end, earlier today the Astros announced the hiring of Bo Porter as their next manager. Porter is currently the third base coach for the Washington Nationals; he will stay with the Nats through their playoff run before officially taking over as Astros skipper.

Will Porter be the one to reverse the Astros' sagging fortunes? The Chronicle's Jerome Solomon goes to the history books to suggest that he probably won't:

It is a bad deal to become manager of the club that has lost more than 100 games two years in a row.

When you look at MLB history, the guys who stepped in either during the second 100-loss campaign or immediately afterward weren’t on those jobs long. It’s probably a good thing Porter already lives here, because history says his expiration date his managerial milk cartoon is sometime in 2015 … if he’s lucky.

Hey, maybe Porter can buck history. Everything I have heard makes you want to root for him, and he is a guy who knows what he is doing and works well with young players.

I am skeptical as well. Porter has no previous experience as a manager and no experience at all in the American League. For a team undergoing a comprehensive rebuilding process and switching leagues at the same time, he seems like an odd choice. However, owner Jim Crane and general manager Jeff Luhnow obviously see something in him, and for what it's worth he gets rave reviews from his current team (which, incidentally, has gone from 103 losses to the playoffs in the span of four seasons). Time will tell, and I wish Porter the best.

As for 2012 Astros season, the only good thing that can be said about it is that it is almost over. It sucks that the team has to end 51 years of National League play on such an ingloriously low note, but such is the nature of sports. Especially sports in Houston.

Kid-free sections of airplanes are a good idea

Having spent many a transcontinental flight in the vicinity of screaming children, I must say that I heartily approve of this:

Passengers who don't want to sit near young children will soon get that option on Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia X.

The airline, which functions of the long-haul unit of Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia, says it will set aside the first seven rows of coach for passengers aged 12 and older. AirAsia X is euphemistically calling the area the "Quiet Zone," saying it will debut in February.

The airline says on its website that it is introducing the seating section because "we know that sometimes all you need is some peace and quiet for a more pleasant journey with us."

AirAsia X's move follows one made earlier this year by its rival, Malaysian Airlines, to prohibit children from sections of some its aircraft. AirAsia X passengers will be able to reserve seats in the Quiet Zone for a small fee.

I'd really love to see other airlines adopt policies such as this, especially for their long-haul flights. These trips are long and uncomfortable enough, especially in economy class. Having to listen to a screaming infant or toddler while you're trying to sleep, watch a movie or just relax makes the experience that much more unbearable.

Creating kid-free zones on airplanes is not unfair or discriminatory, as long as families with small children are accomodated elsewhere on the aircraft. It's just another option, like seats with extra legroom, being offered for a fee to adult passengers. I'd even be okay with lowering the restricted age from 12 to 8 or even 6, because it's not the older kids that cause disturbances as much as it is the infants and toddlers.

Making transcontinental flights with small children is hard, and as a parent I give those families my sympathy. But the passengers that are forced to fly with them and be disturbed by them also deserve some sympathy. This is why creating child-free quiet zones on all long-haul flights is a good idea.

The middle of the world isn't where I thought it was

The Mitad del Mundo, or Middle of the World, is probably Ecuador's most-visited tourist attraction. The monument and museum, located a few miles north of Quito, marks the location of the equator. That is, if the equator were several hundred feet south of where it actually is:

The yellow line and sign at the Mitad del Mundo in Ecuador.

Those who visit the Middle of the World, a government-owned park that pays tribute to the Equator, are not drawn by the trinket shops or cafes offering roasted guinea pig. They want to stand on a yellow line painted on the ground here that is said to be precisely at Earth’s midpoint — 0 degrees latitude, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.

Except that it is not.

The Equator is hundreds of feet to the north.

For tourists reveling in the notion of being, for once, at the very center of things, the truth can be a bit of a letdown.

First, let me say that I ate roasted guinea pig, or cuy, at a restaurant near this monument in 1990. I wasn't too impressed. There wasn't a lot of edible meat on the little guy, and it was kind of greasy.

Now that that's out of the way: I had heard rumors that the Mitad del Mundo wasn't in the right place since I first started spending my summers in Ecuador in the late 1980s. I had always thought these rumors were hoaxes concocted by hucksters trying to drum up business for their own "this is where the equator really is" tourist traps. I thought that the Ecuadorian government wouldn't risk their credibility by getting something as critical as the exact location of the equator wrong. After all, they had to have used the best geography and surveying techniques available in order to accurately determine where to place the monument. Right?

Well, maybe not:

Just how the Middle of the World wound up being not quite at the middle of the world is unclear.

Luis Pulgar, an administrator at the park, which is just outside Quito, the capital, said that the nearby land where the Equator runs is traversed by a ravine and that the ground there was not suitable to hold a monument, so the builders chose a different location. The current monument, built in 1979, is almost 100 feet high, topped by a globe five feet across. Raquel Aldaz, the park’s museums chief, said the site first contained a smaller monument, erected in 1936. The builders, she said, believed they were placing the monument in the correct spot, except that measuring techniques at the time were not as accurate as they are today, so they were off by a few hundred feet.

Ramiro Pontón, the head administrator of the park, which is owned by the government of Pichincha Province, said that different GPS technology can result in conflicting measurements, but that according to one of the most commonly used GPS devices, the monument is about 800 feet, or more than two football fields, south of the Equator. 

Indeed, if you find the Mitad del Mundo in Google Earth and place the cursor right over the top of the monument, you'll see that, according to the datum Google Earth uses, the monument is 7.78", or just under 800 feet, south of 0° 0' 0" degrees latitude:

The end result is that the monument marking the equator is, for whatever reason, not where it's supposed to be. And to think about all those times as a teenager that I stood astride that yellow line running through the middle of the monument, believing I had one foot in the southern hemisphere and the other foot in the northern... Alas. 

So now that, thanks to the modern miracle of GPS technology, we know that the Mitad del Mundo is not in the right spot, are there any plans to correct the problem?

That's the monument in the center... and me in the lower right.

Back at the Middle of the World, the local government has plans to set things right in a big way. It has asked the New York architect Rafael Viñoly to come up with a plan for a new monument that would stand exactly astride the Equator. 

Mr. Viñoly’s proposal, unveiled in February, calls for a tapered tower of latticed metal that, at nearly 5,000 feet, would be the tallest man-made structure in the world. The cost, according to a display here, is estimated at $250 million, a vast sum for a poor country like Ecuador. There are no plans to begin the work yet. 

Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.  But perhaps a more modestly scaled and priced monument, one that hopefully updates and expands the interesting ethnographic museum inside the existing structure, could be built at the correct spot. It could even feature a permanently-installed GPS receiver showing that its location is accurate and house an exhibit explaining how new technology has allowed us to more accurately map and understand our world.

You can be sure I'd come back to visit. I might even give the cuy another try.

"Quiet Zones" aren't always quiet

As reported by Michelle Leigh Smith in this week's issue of Southwest News (zoom into "Westbury's New Quiet Zone Isn't So Quiet;" the story continues on the last page:

The quiet zone along the Union Pacific railroad tracks in Westbury is not so quiet.

Train horns blast throughout the day, warning workers to move back from the tracks along old US Highway 90, near the ranch style homes and bungalows of old Westbury. The newly designated Quiet Zone that the City of Houston's Katherine Parker, Senior Project Manager in Traffic Operations, Public Works led through a multi-year process now faces a hitch or two as Union Pacific double tracks its line and construction crews work with safety issues and a busy train schedule.

"I have two small kids, age 3 and 8 months, and the train whistle wakes them up during their naptime and at night," says Westbury mom Jaimee Mathis. "It's frustrating - the horn blasts vary but it seems lately, it's been more frequent. This morning, there were several at 5:30 a.m. I've heard it four times since then and it's not yet 10 a.m. We are really close, at Chimney Rock and Airport, we are right there. It's supposed to be a quiet zone."

Union Pacific is double-tracking about eleven miles of their railroad running parallel to US 90A (part of what is officially known as the Glidden Subdivision) between southwest Houston and Sugar Land. This is one of the busiest stretches of railway in the Union Pacific network, since it is part of the "Sunset Line" which connects the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles on the West Coast to the ports of Houston and New Orleans on the Gulf Coast. In addition to Union Pacific trains, this section of railroad carries BNSF, Kansas City Southern, Ferromex and Amtrak traffic. UP says that the $46 million project "will help get trains through the area" and likens double-tracking to "adding a lane to a highway - it helps everyone get to their destination faster."

Indeed, nobody is arguing that this isn't a worthwhile project. What the neighbors are concerned about is the Quiet Zone. Don't locomotive operators have to respect it regardless of the presence of construction workers in the area? Not necessarily:

"Quiet Zones aren't bullet proof," says Jack Hanagriff, HPD's law enforcement liaison with the Federal Railroad Administration. "Quiet Zones only restrict routine horn use at designated public crossings. They do not stop horn use for safety. If there are people on the ground, a hazard on the track, a car crossing or anytime they pass another train, they will use the horn."

"We're just going to have to be patient while the maintenance takes place," Hanagriff says. "Typically the first 30 days are crazy, but you have to think about it, they are heavily regulated to use the horn and they are hammered on to use it - it's their main safety mechanism. It will settle down once the construction goes away."

In other words, there's not much residents can do other than complain to Union Pacific in hopes that they address the situation and, otherwise, endure the noise until the double-tracking project is complete. As somebody who lives behind the UP Terminal Subdivision, which feeds into the Glidden and isn't always "quiet" despite being a designated Quiet Zone, I can certainly sympathize. But on the other hand, I recognize that Union Pacific is not going to create a safety hazard or otherwise run afoul of FRA regulations by not using horns to warn construction crews of oncoming trains.

Hopefully the double-tracking work will proceed quickly and peace will soon return to the residents of Westbury.

And now for a quick history lesson: the section of railroad in question is one of the oldest in Texas. It was originally laid by the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway in the early 1850s. It then became part of part of Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad, and was later absorbed into the Southern Pacific system. Union Pacific assumed ownership of the line when they acquired SP in 1996.

No wonder Houston is America's "Fattest" city

Seriously, take a look at some of these ridiculous "eating challenges" offered around town. For example:

The challenge: You must finish two ½-pound beef patties, Ripps chili and fried onion rings sandwiched between two grilled-cheese sandwiches with a massive side of fries in less than 30 minutes. No napkins.
The cost: $15.95
The reward: Your name on the restaurant’s wall

Why anybody would want to put their stomachs, and by extension their entire bodies, through this kind of calorie-induced stress just so they can get their name written on a restaurant's wall is beyond me. Maybe some people are proud of the fact they are unhealthy gluttons and want the entire world to know. Maybe others are just up to any sort of a challenge, be it an eating contest or otherwise.

To each their own, I guess, but, as somebody who could afford to get healthier and lose a few pounds, none of these "challenges" interest me. In fact, a few of them really gross me out.

Other rewards for other challenges include t-shirts, discounts on future restaurant visits, or free dessert. Bon appétit!