Category Archives: Technology, science, and math

The reopening metric we should be heeding

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From Twitter: This graph is amazing. It shows that measuring #SARSCoV2 levels in municipal sewage almost perfectly predicts forthcoming #COVID19 cases with a full week’s notice (R=0.994). It’s one of several discoveries in this new study from @Yale: https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.20105999v1.full.pdf. C-19 … Continue reading →

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How about some antibody tests?

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That would be good. After months of emphasis on diagnostic screening, contact tracing and research into possible treatments, Houston is about to deploy a new tool in the effort to contain COVID-19: antibody testing. Baylor College of Medicine researchers last … Continue reading →

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Making a better severe storm warning

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. We’ve all heard them – the blaring alerts that activate our cellphones or television when a severe weather warning is issued. Perhaps our favorite weather app sent us a push notification, or we saw a television meteorologist pointing … Continue reading →

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TxDOT hit with ransomware

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not great. Texas’ transportation agency has become the second part of the state government to be hit by a ransomware attack in recent days. On Thursday, someone hacked into the Texas Department of Transportation’s network in a “ransomware event,” according … Continue reading →

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Ransomware attack on state court system

Posted on May 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not great. Websites for the Texas court system were still down Monday after a ransomware attack late last week left the network temporarily disabled, according to the Office of Court Administration. Officials discovered the breach early Friday and quickly shut … Continue reading →

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Are we sure we’re using the right models?

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s check our assumptions before we do anything dumb. A widely followed model for projecting Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. is producing results that have been bouncing up and down like an unpredictable fever, and now epidemiologists are criticizing it … Continue reading →

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Treating COVID-19 patients at nursing homes

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This is a huge can of worms. When Larry Edrozo got a phone call from his mother’s nursing home in Texas City telling him she was being treated for the novel coronavirus with an unproven pharmaceutical drug, he had two … Continue reading →

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The digital divide

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Online learning is great, if you can get online. The lack of access to technology among students — commonly referred to as the “digital divide” — has come into sharper focus in recent weeks as school districts across Houston transition … Continue reading →

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We are doing a good job of keeping our distance

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That’s what our phone say, anyway. Harris County residents are doing a good job keeping their distance, according to location data culled from smartphones, earning an “A” on a nationwide scoreboard. The Social Distancing Scoreboard is a creation of Unacast, … Continue reading →

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Preserving Texas’ film history

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Cool story. Click play on the grainy, black-and-white image titled simply “Houston Time Service” on the website of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and you’re treated to a 110-second Houston love story. The film, from the 1940s, is … Continue reading →

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Calendar reform

Posted on March 8, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Well, this is an interesting idea. Feb. 29ths, like the one tacked to the end of [last] month, exist because Earth’s orbit and human calendars are slightly out of sync. The planet completes its 584-million-mile loop around the sun in … Continue reading →

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The robot nurse

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We are living in the future, for better and for worse. https://www.instagram.com/p/B01H56Fn8_0/ A friendly one-armed, bright-eyed robot is roving the hallways of Medical City Dallas’ Heart and Spine hospitals, helping nurses with routine tasks that previously took time away from … Continue reading →

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How Nuro is mapping Houston

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Really interesting story. On the muggy streets of suburban Houston, amid McMansions, bright green lawns and stately oak trees, a futuristic race is quietly afoot. The contestants are not people but late-model Toyota Priuses outfitted with an array of sophisticated … Continue reading →

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“Coordinated cyberattack” on several Texas cities

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

That doesn’t sound good. Twenty-three Texas towns have been struck by a “coordinated” ransomware attack, according to the state’s Department of Information Resources. Ransomware is a type of malicious software, often delivered via email, that locks up an organization’s systems … Continue reading →

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Big Bend yields a new dinosaur species

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Cool. A new, more primitive species of dinosaur was discovered at Big Bend National Park this week. The fossil of the new specials, Aquilarhinus palimentus, was unearthed in the 1980s by Texas Tech University Professor Tom Lehman. But because the … Continue reading →

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Perspective on the anti-vaxx situation

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe it’s not as bad as we think. It’s certainly true that pockets of vaccine refusal persist in this country, as they have for many years. If those pockets are now experiencing greater numbers of measles cases, it may be … Continue reading →

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Do we still want to go to Mars?

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Hot take: I dunno. Before the U.S. put the first man on the moon, before the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, people thought aliens lived on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor. The belief sparked fear in some — and outright … Continue reading →

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Bankrolling the anti-vaxxers

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is why we can’t have nice things. A wealthy Manhattan couple has emerged as significant financiers of the anti-vaccine movement, contributing more than $3 million in recent years to groups that stoke fears about immunizations online and at live … Continue reading →

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New fronts in the war on mosquitoes

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Science marches on. In the center of Anita Schiller’s dragonfly-ring-clad hand, a dragonfly nymph is scooting around. The dedicated naturalist and entomologist is explaining how the insect (which is a water-dwelling dragonfly with gills before it grows wings) expels water … Continue reading →

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Our measles risk

Posted on May 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Do I spend too much time worrying about stuff like this, or do I not spend enough time on it? Harris County is one of the nation’s most vulnerable counties to a measles outbreak, according to a new study based … Continue reading →

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The “Texas Serengeti”

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

How cool is this? During the Great Depression, some unemployed Texans were put to work as fossil hunters. The workers retrieved tens of thousands of specimens that have been studied in small bits and pieces while stored in the state … Continue reading →

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Senior stoners

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Makes a lot of sense, really. Most states now have legal medical marijuana, and 10 of them, including California, allow anyone 21 or older to use pot recreationally. The federal government still outlaws the drug even as acceptance increases. The … Continue reading →

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Instagram in space!

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Far out. Like, literally. Internet service can sometimes be spotty here on Earth. Just imagine checking email from the moon or searching Google from Mars. A Houston satellite and artificial intelligence company wants to make that possible through an “interplanetary … Continue reading →

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The red wolves of Galveston County

Posted on February 23, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Very cool. The coyotes Ron Wooten spotted on Galveston Island’s west end had eye-catching dark, reddish fur and long, slender builds. In the golden dusk of that July evening in 2013, about a dozen of the animals rested in what … Continue reading →

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Measles comes back to Houston

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We all vaccinated our kids, right? Five cases of measles have been confirmed in the greater Houston area, a regional cluster that makes Texas the eleventh state this year to report the highly contagious disease until recently thought virtually eliminated … Continue reading →

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Ebola treatment progress

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is encouraging. Texas scientists who developed an effective vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus are now reporting promising results with new medication to better treat full-blown cases of the disease. In a laboratory study published this week, researchers at … Continue reading →

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HPD and Ring

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We don’t have a Ring doorbell so this doesn’t affect me, but I do find it quite interesting. The Houston Police Department announced Monday that it is joining Ring’s mobile app, Neighbors, in a move officials hope will reduce crime … Continue reading →

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Another look at the state of recycling

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

One part supply, one part demand. Reducing contamination is largely considered the starting point for creating a more stable U.S. recycling market. And that means teaching consumers what they can and cannot put in recycling bins. For example, a triangle … Continue reading →

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The recycling recession

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Not good. A joint report by the trade groups American Chemistry Council and Association of Plastic Recyclers estimated that plastic bottle recycling decreased 3.6 percent last year, dipping to 2.8 billion pounds in 2017. The decrease is partially due to … Continue reading →

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El Nino 2018

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Here it comes. Houstonians can expect more rain than usual — and possibly street flooding — this winter, thanks to El Niño. The National Weather Service forecasts an 80 percent chance for a weak to moderate El Niño this winter, … Continue reading →

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Is there a better way to predict flooding?

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

This startup thinks so. An artificial intelligence startup now says it can provide that warning. The company, One Concern, has announced that it can predict whether your block will flood — and if so, by how much — five days … Continue reading →

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Look out for lionfish

Posted on December 2, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Hey, it’s another destructive invasive species, aided and abetted by climate change. Scientists battling coral reef deaths caused by warming ocean waters 100 miles off the coast of Galveston might now have another climate change problem to fight in coming … Continue reading →

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Our poor old voting machines

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

They really do need to be retired. A national spotlight fell on Texas’ voting equipment last week after some voters complained that their votes on electronic voting machines had changed. State election officials chalked it up to user error. Critics … Continue reading →

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Cyber insurance

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Seems like a good idea. Houston City Council on Wednesday unanimously agreed to spend $471,000 on cyber insurance, becoming the latest Texas municipality trying to bolster its response to growing technological risks. The insurance can cover up to $30 million … Continue reading →

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