Info, links, news and calendar items from the virtual streets of Houston, Texas.
The Houston Chronicle has picked the top ten films ever shot in Houston. Their list:
From the City of Houston:
CITY OFFICIALS SELECT EARTHLINK AS THE COMPANY TO NEGOTIATE FOR THE RIGHT TO CREATE A CITYWIDE “WI-FI” NETWORK
Mayor Bill White today announced that EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK) has been chosen by the City of Houston to build a citywide wireless broadband network, pending contract negotiations. The selection comes following the review of five companies that submitted proposals. EarthLink’s experience in developing systems for other cities and its plan to finance the network on the equity of its available cash reserves figured prominently in the selection.
The Wi-Fi mesh network will provide affordable, high-speed Internet access for residents of and visitors to Houston. It will also enable municipal employees to work in the field without having to return to an office to use traditional landlines to complete their tasks.
Houston’s 600-square-mile service area will make this Wi-Fi deployment the largest in North America.
“This is a very important initiative for Houston as it will bring the consumer cost of broadband down significantly and already has,” said Mayor White. “It will provide a scarce resource to help our low-income households have access, benefiting students at home, helping telecommuters for whom childcare or transportation creates limitations, and benefiting telemedicine in the future. Houston’s workforce will be more productive.”
“Mayor White has made his goals for wireless broadband pretty clear: make City Hall more efficient and responsive and improve both the City’s business climate and residents’ quality of life,” said Donald Berryman, EarthLink Executive Vice President and President of the Municipal Networks Unit. “Our Wi-Fi networks give consumers an affordable and portable broadband Internet connection anytime, or any place, throughout the City. We will also offer a fixed wireless solution that when compared to existing landline offerings, is faster to install and much more cost effective.”
EarthLink has major initiatives under way in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Alexandria, VA., and Milpitas and Anaheim, California. The company is also finalizing agreements with the cities of Pasadena and San Francisco, California. These initiatives clearly indicate EarthLink has an experience advantage over the other companies that provided proposals. Additional criterion for the project included value to the community (including soundness of the financial plan, low-income inclusion investments and wholesale rates), deployment strategy and value to city government. City Officials spent five months evaluating the firms.
EarthLink agreed to offer a very competitive wholesale rate capped for at least the first seven years. For up to 40,000 low-income users, EarthLink will provide a discounted rate of $10 per month or lower, depending on the competitive wholesale rate.
Members of the evaluation team, City IT Director Richard Lewis and Assistant IT director Janis Jefferson, along with EarthLink representatives, will brief City Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure and Aviation Committee, this Thursday at 2 p.m.
As part of its commitment to open access, EarthLink will enable multiple providers, such as PeoplePC (www.peoplepc.com), Vonage (www.vonage.com) and DirecTV (www.directv.com) to offer their Internet service to consumers and businesses over its network. For small businesses, Houston’s wireless network will also provide an alternative for broadband connectivity, such as affordable fixed wireless solutions.
Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity. It enables a person to connect his or her Wi-Fi enabled computer, cell phone or PDA to the Internet or another Wi-Fi enabled device, without a traditional ‘wire’ connection. For more information on EarthLink Wi-Fi, please go to: www.earthlink.net/wifi. For more information on EarthLink’s Municipal Networks business unit, please go to: www.earthlink.net/muni.
About EarthLink
“EarthLink. We revolve around you.” As the nation’s next generation Internet service provider, Atlanta-based EarthLink has earned an award-winning reputation for outstanding customer service and its suite of online products and services. Serving over five million subscribers, EarthLink offers what every user should expect from their Internet experience: high-quality connectivity, minimal online intrusions and customizable features. Whether it’s dial-up, high-speed, voice web hosting, wireless or “EarthLink Extras” like home networking or security, EarthLink connects people to the power and possibilities of the Internet. Learn more about EarthLink by calling 800.EARTHLINK or visiting EarthLink’s Web site at www.EarthLink.net.
Houston dodges major outbreak of flu
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Two-thirds of the way through the season, flu finally is spreading throughout Texas, but Houston remains an oasis of pink throats and normal body temperatures.
The Houston Independent School District, the city health department and area clinics are reporting mild flu activity, and the area’s leading expert is predicting that will continue through March, the traditional end of the season.
[snip]
Glezen said Houston had a sharp peak in December, when children were still in school, but it dropped off when they went home on break and hasn’t dramatically picked up. He also said the flu strains circulating this year are milder than those of the past three years and are covered in this year’s vaccine.
Glezen urged people who haven’t gotten a flu shot to get one, noting that this year’s flu has killed a number of children.
Despite the mild activity in Houston, Texas has hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “widespread” classification. The category, the highest, means that more than half of the state’s regions are reporting the flu.
[snip]
Additional Resources:
The Mardi Gras Celebration in Galveston began last Friday. Activities will continue through February 20th, so you still have time to catch some of the events.
For more information, visit the Mardi Gras Web site.
Additional resources:
“Masterpieces of French Painting From the Metropolitan Museum of Art” is on display now through May 6th at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The exhibit includes nearly 3,000 pieces of art that are a can’t miss experience. As reported by the Houston Chronicle:
Sacred and profane. Landscapes and portraits. Genres and fantasies and nudes. Masterpieces of French Painting From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800-1920, on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, holds them all.
The paintings span the 19th century, a time of multiple wars, from Napoleonic to World War I, and convulsive aesthetic revolutions, from neoclassicism to Cubism, ending just short of the 1924 Surrealist manifesto.
With 132 paintings by artists whose names define the period’s art history, the choices of study and delight are multiple: eight by Degas, 10 Monets, three van Goghs, six Renoirs, nine Cézannes, nine Manets, three Picassos, three Matisses, three Modiglianis, four by Ingres — among others.
More info on the exhibit:
Masterpieces of French Painting From the Metropolitan Museum of Art
When: Now through May 6; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 12:15-7 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Audrey Jones Beck Building, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 5601 Main; 713-639-7300
Admission: Timed-entry tickets: $15 adults, $10 ages 6-18 and 65 and older Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; $18 adults, $11 ages 6-18 and 65 and older Saturdays-Sundays; $8 adults, $6.50 ages 6-18 and 65 ages Thursdays. Free for ages 5 and younger. VIP tickets, good for admission at any time, $25. Advance tickets available 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11:30 a.m-5 p.m. Sundays; 713-639-7771 or www.mfah.org.
Resources:
Groundhog Day has come and gone, and we have a prediction of an early Spring.
Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow, predicts an early spring
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
A new pair of hands pulled Punxsutawney Phil from his stump this year, so it was only fitting that the groundhog offered a new prediction.
Phil did not see his shadow today which, according to German folklore, means folks can expect an early spring instead of six more weeks of winter.
[snip]
Each Feb. 2, thousands of people descend on Punxsutawney, a town of about 6,100 people about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, to celebrate what had essentially been a German superstition.
The Germans believed that if a hibernating animal cast a shadow on Feb. 2 — the Christian holiday of Candlemas — winter would last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early.