Would love to check out TX sometime. I get there impression that there are many distinct regions and cultures. A complex place.
Almost 5 years ago, I interviewed for a job in NYC (3 times)...and the offer letter came through with a move to San Antonio (the HQ).
I took the job and commuted for about 15 months...it wasn't a good fit, so the move never happened.
The wife visited a few times when I stayed for multiple weeks, and we got to see some of the surrounding areas...hill country, Austin, San Antonio. It's a really interesting place. The people are great, the food is great, and the overall quality of life seems pretty high. I love driving...so the distances between things don't really bother me...but it's BIG.
Politics are to be avoided. Opinions from my co-workers were hard and fast. Attempting to extract why they support most things is futile...it is what it is, and they don't really wanna talk about it. I was there for the Beto vs. Ted 2018 Senate race, and it was really interesting to see in person.
Regarding LBJ...we went to his ranch, which is now a national park. It was a lot better than I expected. Near Austin, maybe the best brewery experience we've had is at Jester King in the hills outside of town. Very cool place.
Houston and Dallas are (IMO) a bit too Urban vs elsewhere. Austin and San Antonio have grown like crazy, but they still feel "smaller". The weather in the evenings is great, and you can find places like this: The filling station and The friendly spot to hang out, within a mile of the more touristy Riverwalk.
Location: Blinding You With Library Science! Gender:
Posted:
May 16, 2022 - 7:47am
kcar wrote:
Would love to check out TX sometime. I get there impression that there are many distinct regions and cultures. A complex place.
Have you read any of Caro's LBJ books? Caro can be a bit heavy-handed in his good-vs-evil depictions but he's an amazing researcher and great writer.
Haven't read Caro, but I'm familiar with his work. I'll have to check it out.
Would love to check out TX sometime. I get there impression that there are many distinct regions and cultures. A complex place.
Have you read any of Caro's LBJ books? Caro can be a bit heavy-handed in his good-vs-evil depictions but he's an amazing researcher and great writer.
A very BIG place, too. Pine forests and swamps in the east to bone-dry desert in the west.
Well, it's the Hill Country - hilly terrain is typically not optimal for farming (at least not around here - which is about 70 miles due west of LBJ's birthplace). Caliche (the sedimentary soil that is present in much of Texas and is why cellars are rarely found in the state) makes any kind of digging, especially for planting, an enormous effort that may or may not reward the digger. On the other hand, LBJ's backyard is the go-to place for Texas peaches. And yes to the flash flooding (also a regular issue in much of Texas). Point being there's a hell of a lot more at play than simply weather.
Would love to check out TX sometime. I get there impression that there are many distinct regions and cultures. A complex place.
Have you read any of Caro's LBJ books? Caro can be a bit heavy-handed in his good-vs-evil depictions but he's an amazing researcher and great writer.
Location: Blinding You With Library Science! Gender:
Posted:
May 15, 2022 - 9:01am
kcar wrote:
I stand corrected. I was going off of my memory of Robert Caro's first book on LBJ, which described the region's thin layer of topsoil on top of hardpan. That made farming quite difficult.
I noodled around in response to your post and it seems the area has about the same rainfall as the US average. The Wikipedia entry on the Hill Country had this to say, though:
"The terrain throughout the region is characterized by a thin layer of topsoil and many exposed rocks and boulders, making the region very dry and prone to flash flooding."
Well, it's the Hill Country - hilly terrain is typically not optimal for farming (at least not around here - which is about 70 miles due west of LBJ's birthplace). Caliche (the sedimentary soil that is present in much of Texas and is why cellars are rarely found in the state) makes any kind of digging, especially for planting, an enormous effort that may or may not reward the digger. On the other hand, LBJ's backyard is the go-to place for Texas peaches. And yes to the flash flooding (also a regular issue in much of Texas). Point being there's a hell of a lot more at play than simply weather.
LBJ is from the Texas Hill Country - not an arid portion of Texas at all.
I stand corrected. I was going off of my memory of Robert Caro's first book on LBJ, which described the region's thin layer of topsoil on top of hardpan. That made farming quite difficult.
I noodled around in response to your post and it seems the area has about the same rainfall as the US average. The Wikipedia entry on the Hill Country had this to say, though:
"The terrain throughout the region is characterized by a thin layer of topsoil and many exposed rocks and boulders, making the region very dry and prone to flash flooding."
Amazing the lengths and contortions you attempt in order to try and legitimize an ignorant statement made by an ignorant and unintelligent president. I should nickname you âpretzelâ. There is no hurricane gun as there are no: twister, volcano, tsunami, earthquake guns. To seriously inquire about the possibility is laughable.
How so? Well before we even get to the extreme of talking about manufacturing something as extreme as a hurricane one would have to prove that someone had the means to make it rain on-demand. To date no nation has been able to do that. If they had the technology would have used it to counter droughts in African nations in order to ward off famines. We would have used it here to put down severe Californian forest fires and would be using to to replenish the dangerously low levels in lake Meade. So wouldnât making rain be a first step in the quest to form a hurricane? God I feel like Iâm trying to talk sense to a 7 year old. You supporting Trump in asking about China having a hurricane gun is probably about as ridiculous as him asking it.
You like to live in the world of fiction. Which I actually understand as it is the only way to continue to support Trump.
Here try this one on for size ... it is obviously breaking news to you.
and another ... don't get hung up on the thing about the arch, pay attention to the rest of it.
.
No worries, weather control by the military and the ability to do so is just another conspiracy myth invented to sell tin foil.
Or, Global Warming really is man - made, but it's not because of the use of fossil fuels ...
Amazing the lengths and contortions you attempt in order to try and legitimize an ignorant statement made by an ignorant and unintelligent president. I should nickname you âpretzelâ. There is no hurricane gun as there are no: twister, volcano, tsunami, earthquake guns. To seriously inquire about the possibility is laughable.
How so? Well before we even get to talking about triggering something as extreme as a hurricane, one would have to first prove that they had the means to make it rain on-demand. To date no nation has been able to do that. If they had, the technology it would have been used to counter droughts in African nations in order to ward off famines. We would have used it here to put down severe Californian forest fires and would be using to to replenish the dangerously low levels in lake Meade. So wouldnât making rain be a first step in the quest to form a hurricane? God I feel like Iâm trying to talk sense to a 7 year old. You supporting Trump in asking about China having a hurricane gun is probably about as ridiculous as him asking it.
You like to live in the world of fiction. Which I actually understand as it is the only way to continue to support Trump.
Kurt, it's possible that LBJ's interest in controlling the weather arose from his youth in an arid portion of Texas.
It's also possible that he was interested in preventing global warming. He was the first president to be briefed on the topic. One of the more feasible geo-engineering projects being researched is increasing marine cloud layers. Doing so would reflect more sunlight back into space and contribute to a decrease in global temperatures.
Let's also consider that Trump had access to 45-50 more years of research and common knowledge than LBJ... And yet he came up with a fifth-grader's idea about nukes and hurricanes. That's on par with his suggestion to bomb Russia and claim the Chinese did it. Or shooting missiles at Mexican drug gangs and deny responsibility.
Right. Well, clearly that means we should buy Greenland, nuke hurricanes, and shine UV lights inside our bodies to kill covid. But no bleach. That's fake news.
I wonder who got shouted down when they said: "How about if we take all that money, all those scientists, all that manpower, all that tech - and give our citizens such a wonderful life that if an enemy came calling, they'd fight tooth and nail to prevent their lovely setup from being disrupted?"
