In the decidedly common pastime of river tubing, what could be better for floating your cosmopolitan cred than the Mediterranean-inspired wineskin?
You may be used to seeing this on the sidelines of football games, but its utility goes much further — it can serve a hoard of tubers at once.
There are few more classic examples of taking spirits on the road than the good, old-fashioned flask. As long as the flask holds at least five ounces, you can swig away while floating.
You might wince when its labor-inspired aesthetic reminds you of what your float was supposed to be an escape from. But at least its thick layer of insulation will keep your drinks nice and cold.
Humps aren’t just for camels anymore. No hands needed, either! Just don’t let the drinking tube fall out of your mouth.
Under the city’s “Can Ban,” several traditional methods of imbibing on the river have been outlawed in the name of conservation. But take note: alcohol itself is not banned. It’s just that all items consumed on the river, both food and beverage, must be held in non-disposable containers.
As our lead station KUT reports today, the ban has had a negative impact on businesses that rely on tubers.  Scott Gromacki, assistant manager at Greune River Co, tells KUT that his business is down 40 to 50 percent for this time of year. “We’re hoping it picks up,” he says. “If we get more rain that would help. But, the main factor that we’re down is the city ordinances.”
So what’s allowed on the river? It might be easier to start with what isn’t :Â No glass or Styrofoam. Containers cannot be smaller than five fluid ounces. People may bring along coolers but no more than one per person and no larger than 16 quarts. And no “volume drinking devices,” like beer bongs, are allowed.
With these (not-so-clear) rules in mind, we’ve compiled a list of five ways to get out on the river, cerveza in hand, keeping in mind that safe floating and responsible drinking are the best way to enjoy any river:
Coffee Thermos: You might wince when its labor-inspired aesthetic reminds you of what your float was supposed to be an escape from. But at least its thick layer of insulation will keep your drinks nice and cold. Continue Reading →
What was once a marina is now a cliff overlooking a dry riverbed in Spicewood Beach
Rain clouds are scattered across the radar today for Central and Northern Texas. But the overall trend in the state for the past several weeks has been dry. In fact, the results of the U.S. Drought Monitor Map released today shows 6.5 percent more of the state is in drought this week than last week.
While Texas had a relatively wet winter that has brought great relief to many parts of the state, the drought isn’t officially over. And May and the first half of June tend to be the wettest parts of the year, before the evaporating rays of high summer begin. So was the rainy relief we experienced this winter nothing more than a mere tease, or is the rain just running a bit behind?
To find out, StateImpact Texas consulted state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. He talked to us about precipitation predictions for the rest of the summer.
The simple response, typical of fields based on prediction: there really is no certainty. “Summertime rains are unpredictable,” Nielsen-Gammon says. Continue Reading →
The state drought map released Thursday, May 31. The tan and red areas denote areas in drought.
After so much progress over the winter months, it’s a let down to see the drought map released today by the U.S. Drought Monitor showing a slight reversal in recent trends.
Despite an overall retreat of drought in Texas, the percentage of the state experiencing drought conditions actually increased by two percentage points since last week.
The Drought Monitor map released today reveals that 59.18% of the state is still in drought conditions, with parts of northwest Texas continuing to harbor islands of extreme and exceptional drought.
Recent weather for much of the state should allay some alarm, however. Wet weather passed through the Dallas-Fort Worth area yesterday and is in the forecast for much of the central and eastern parts of the state today. Still, some analysts say it’s anybody’s guess if wetter trends will continue. Continue Reading →
Photo by Jillian Schantz-Patrick/StateImpact Texas / StateImpact Texas
Janna George of Fertile Ground Organic Gardens takes the grass lawn out of a backyard where hardier native species will be planted.
Landscape worker Janna George sweats in the midday sun as she thrusts her shovel into the ground. She’s trying to get up all the grass in the backyard of a South Austin home. As anyone who’s dug into the Central Texas ground and come out with a rock-dented shovel knows, there’s little dirt to dig into. So for the needs of her job, she says, she has to salvage as much precious soil as possible.
Why save the dirt but take away the grass? It’s because the company she works for, Fertile Ground Organic Gardens, designs landscapes to be more compatible with the Texas climate. They follow an ethic of conservation, viewing grass lawns as a unnecessarily thirsty option for our semiarid climate.
Consider the findings of one Texas survey: about 2/3 of residents’ water use in the summer goes to watering their yards. Is the desire to have a nice yard in opposition to conserving our volatile water sources? For co-owner of Fertile Ground, Alexa Villalobos, achieving the two is not only possible; it’s ideal. Continue Reading →
Defense official Sharon Burke says the military needs to change how it supplies its energy.
How’s this for a mouthful: Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs. It’s basically a complicated way of saying the Defense Department official in charge of figuring out how the military uses and deploys energy in the field. That is Sharon Burke’s position, and in a recent speech at the University of Texas at Austin, she talked about the military’s new mission to reexamine their sources of energy.
Why? For reasons both economic and strategic. By virtue of its mission, the military is a prodigious consumer of energy, Burke says. “Implicit in the kind of military force we need to have moving forward” is the need for an immense capacity to use energy, she said. For instance, Burke noted that the military uses 1.7 million gallons of fuel per day in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, where the terrain and climate can be quite inhospitable, it’s tough to transport fuel to where it’s needed. She showed one photo displaying an adaptation the military has come up with: a mule with generators strapped to each side. (Soldiers aren’t strangers to being beasts of burden themselves; Burke says they carry an average of sixteen pounds in batteries alone.)
In order to overcome these energy challenges, the Department of Defense is looking at solutions both big and small. Continue Reading →
Photo courtesy of the University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Danny Reible will chair the 2012 Texas Water Summit.
Water, water everywhere. Let’s keep some drops to drink. But how? That’s why scientists, politicians, and water utility leaders are meeting up today for the 2012 Texas Water Summit from the University of Texas at Austin’s Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science. It will feature prominent statewide leaders on water issues like state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, San Antonio Water System’s CEO Robert Puente and Robert Mace of the Texas Water Development Board.
To get a preview of the summit, StateImpact Texas’ Terrence Henry talked to its director, Danny Reible. He works at the University of Texas’s Center for Research in Water Resources. He is also the program chair for the summit. The interview was edited for clarity and content.
Q: Tell us about what people can expect from this conference.
A: The Texas Water Summit is an effort to explore the consequence of our drought. What is our availability of water? What are our needs for water? And ultimately how can we match the gap between the two now and in the future?
Q: What are some of the issues you’ll be looking at? Continue Reading →
Photo courtesy of NASA via Flickr’s Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5246675993/lightbox/#/photos/gsfc/5246675993/
This NASA photo shows an algae bloom near New Zealand’s Chatham Islands. The bloom is an example of a carbon sink, an area that absorbs more carbon than it produces.
Carbon emission is one of the scientific issues of our time. While an overwhelming majority of scientists see a link between man-made emissions and global climate change, the rate at which emissions are entering the atmosphere and their precise impact continues to be hotly debated.
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