brian

The sniffer dog used her individual scent, preserved in advance for emergencies, to track her down.

A California man could face jail time for smuggling dangerous snakes into the U.S. via some dinky little potato chip canisters.

Per a statement from the Department of Justice, Rodrigo Franco of Monterey Park was taken into custody Tuesday morning for attempting to illegally bring three king cobras into the United States from Hong Kong.

The United States Customs and Border Protection officials intercepted the package on March 2 and seized the venomous animals shortly thereafter. Each snake was about two feet in length, though king cobras can grow to measure about 18 feet. The package also contained three albino Chinese softshell turtles.  Read more...

More about Watercooler, Culture, and Web Culture

A jump into Barton Springs Pool raises goosebumps and turns lips blue. That’s what 68-degree year-round water does to a body, right?

Not so fast.

Despite T-shirts that proclaim it, websites that tout it and a Wikipedia entry that boasts it, the water temperature at Barton Springs isn’t 68 degrees, and rarely has it been.

We headed to the pool this week with David Johns, a hydrogeologist for the City of Austin, and his assistant, Walker Stone, to dunk a multi-sensor probe into three locations at the spring-fed swimming pool and let science do the talking.

RELATED: What are the best swimming holes in Central Texas?

Our results? At the fault line next to the diving well, near the main spring, the temperature read 70.6 degrees. But at the surface by the downstream dam, it was 71.6 degrees. It was even warmer at the shallow end of the pool, where it measured 74.9 degrees.

Myth busted, then? Sort of.

The pool has, at times, measured 68 degrees. But it’s not all that common, and certainly not during the summer, when most people are taking that polar bear plunge. The temperature varies slightly, depending on time of year and discharge volume. Mostly, it depends on what season rains fall.

RELATED: What do you see if you open your eyes in Barton Springs Pool?

The 68-degree myth has been propagated by the City of Austin website which long stated that the pool water hovered around 68 degrees year-round. Today it reads “average temp of 68 to 70.” Still not quite accurate, but closer than the Wikipedia entry for the pool, which boldly states, “The pool is a popular venue for year-round swimming, as its temperature maintains a stable 68 °F (20 °C) in the winter and summer.” 

RELATED: Have you ever swum naked in Barton Springs Pool?

Want more evidence? The USGS monitors a probe placed in a small opening at the bottom of the pool where spring water comes out, taking temperature measurements every 15 minutes. That’s typically the coolest spot in the pool during the summer, and the temperature there has held a consistent 70.5 degrees there during the last few weeks.

“Some people say it seems colder than that, but it’s still 30 degrees colder than body temperature, so it’s cold,” Johns says.

Still get goosebumps when you leap in? That’s OK. We do too.

“For you and me, it’s still bracing,” Johns says.

Read more about the pool’s temperature in an upcoming story.

 

Fragile Rock is a band that relies on the boogie of The B-52s, the melancholy of The Smiths and the humor of Kermit the Frog. Oh, and they're all puppets.

(Image credit: Liam James Doyle/NPR)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYFt5vsleTg&list=PLykzf464sU9-IFE2ZBbUyfbi6_uNBQavD&index=1

WASHINGTON—Responding to an unsettling incident that has raised concerns about worker exploitation within the organization, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Friday it was launching an investigation into working conditions within Habitat for Humanity after a 92-year-old laborer reportedly collapsed on a job site yesterday. “According to the shocking and disturbing reports we have received, it appears that an elderly man in his 90s—who was observed to be exceedingly thin and frail—was being used as a manual laborer at a residential construction site, where he eventually succumbed to exhaustion and dehydration,” said agency spokesperson Jillian Rogers, adding that authorities were “sickened” to discover records showing that the nonagenarian laborer had been performing blue-collar work for the organization for over 30 years, and had been transported from one construction project to another—sometimes internationally—without any compensation. “This man appears to have had minor farming and public ...

Full cocktail bar with vermouth and amaro, too

Austinites have been eagerly awaiting any updates on Home Slice’s North Loop expansion, and the New York-style pizzeria is ready to share some details: Expect buffalo wings, cocktails, and Sicilian slices when the second location finally opens on 53rd Street sometime in late fall 2017 (though no exact date or month was provided).

What is being referred to as Home Slice NOLO will differ slightly from the original South Congress one. First, it will offer those buffalo wings, one of those standard Northeastern bar snacks. The pizzeria will offer a gluten-free version of the poultry dish, too. Home will also expand its Sicilian square pie offers to daily (currently, the South Congress shop fires up Sicilian pies twice a week).

Then there’s the full bar with cocktails (as opposed to the current wine and beer selection down south). It will focus on vermouths, amaros, and classic cocktails like Manhattans and Boulevardiers.

The new restaurant will offer both dine-in and takeout, as well as seating every which way from the patio to bar. The capacity will be the same as the combined South Congress locations (the restaurant proper and the takeout annex), but parking is doubled.

Three longtime Home Slice employees are being promoted to partners and minority owners of the pizzeria, Nano Whitman as director of operations, Jeff Mettler in charge of special projects, and Adam Cooper, director of infrastructure. Co-founders Jen Scoville Strickland, Joseph Strickland, and Terri Hannifin-Buis opened Home Slice on South Congress in November 2005.

For the North Loop expansion, which was announced back in the fall of 2015, the trio took over a lot which used to house shuttered sandwich trailer Melvin's Deli Comfort.

• Mega-Popular Pizzeria Home Slice to Expand to North Loop [EATX]
• All Coverage of Home Slice [EATX]
• All Coverage of Home Slice North Loop [EATX]

There’s a Twitter account too

Is Chili’s, the American chain restaurant, expanding to East 6th Street or is this just a joke? According to signage draped in front of the former Uptown Sports Club building on East 6th and Waller streets spotted by tipsters, then yes, Chili’s is opening an East Side location.

However, it’s looking like a joke, potentially inspired by online forum Reddit. The 45th Street location of the chain is a known running gag on the site’s Austin section as a go-to suggestion for every question. Reddit is aware of the signage, too.

There is even a Twitter account for the restaurant location (though it is preceded with a "temporarily restricted" warning because of "some unusual activity from this account”). Its first and only tweet says that the chain is on the way and that it "can't wait to serve you East Austin!" But it could be a fake account — it also should be noted that Chili’s doesn’t normally open location-specific Twitter accounts, unless it is country-based. There doesn't seem to be anything in permitting either.

It seems like whoever is behind the signage even distributed menus across the East Side, boasting of Austin-inspired dishes like the Austin City Limitless Queso and Fun Fun Fun Fries and SXSWestern Eggrolls.

Courtesy of Eater tipster

Eater reached out to an Austin Chili’s location, but the manager didn’t know anything about a potential expansion. Eater also reached out to Chili’s headquarters, watch this space for updates.

There are currently 14 Austin-area Chili restaurants.

Update, 2:50 p.m.: A rep for Chili's pointed to the chain's Twitter account for its official statement, where it acknowledged the absurdity of the potential new location: “That would be weird for us to move to East 6th" with the hashtags Keep Austin Weird and Fake News.

Update, 4:46 p.m.: Whoever is behind Chili’s East is still going strong with an Instagram page, where it teases tacos for brunch.

• Chili’s East [Twitter]
• Chili’s East [Instagram]

Man Clearly Gamed ‘Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Are You?’ Quiz To Get Raphael:

This is silly. Raphael is no one’s favorite. Leonardo is where it’s at.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Stubb’s restaurant and music venue in downtown Austin will have to change its name following a settlement with the company that owns Stubb’s Legendary Bar-B-Q sauces.

One World Foods, the Austin-based maker of the sauces, announced the resolution to the trademark dispute on Thursday, saying they have agreed to settle their lawsuit with Stubb’s Bar-B-Q at 801 Red River St, owned by Stubb’s Austin Restaurant Company.

Numerous discussions with the music venue were held for 18 months before agreeing that, going forward, One World Foods will have exclusive ownership and right to use the Stubb’s brand.

Without detailing when the name change will happen — or what the restaurant and venue will change its name to — Stubb’s Austin Restaurant Company will be phasing out its use of the various Stubb’s trademarks.

One World Foods says the resolution allows the venue to live on and their own company to expand the Stubb’s brand of products, with intentions to explore new restaurant opportunities in Austin.

“The founder of Stubb’s products, C.B. Stubblefield, was a cook. He loved making food, especially authentic Texas barbecue,” Jennifer Barr, business director of One World Foods said. “He wanted the flavors he created to bring love and happiness to people’s lives, and our aim is to follow that lead. We’re proud to have C.B. Stubblefield’s grandsons on our team to continue that mission, and we’re confident many, many more people will love the Stubb’s family of products.”

One of Austin’s best taco trucks will soon have a companion indoor space. Pueblo Viejo, which had operated two trucks in East Austin in recent years before closing one, is moving into the North Door (502 Brushy St.), according to a post on the taco truck’s Facebook page. Pueblo Viejo said they intend  to open “around July 15.” The truck at 2000 E. Cesar Chavez St. will continue its normal operating hours.

 

Here’s what I wrote about Pueblo Viejo last year:

When your trailer sits in the shadow of the popular El Milagro Tortillas on East Sixth Street, you can be forgiven for not making your own tortillas. What’s easier than just running across the street? And when you make salsas as diverse and compelling as Pueblo Viejo, nobody’s going to spend too much time bemoaning tortilla quality, even if the corn version crumbled liked baked clay.

The five salsas, which you can purchase in 5-ounce cups, run from the smoky dusk of an exceptional black habanero to the morning glow of creamy jalapeno, with a fresh tomato sauce with onions and cilantro streaming through the middle ground.

Breakfast tacos run $2.50 at the massive trailer hitched to a pickup at the location closest to Interstate 35, and the bacon on the Don Chago is deserving of breakfast platter real estate. It crackles at ends just shy of burned on a taco creamy with avocado and beans almost liquefied by lard.

Choose between chicken and steak to supplement your Guaca Taco ($3.90). The beef didn’t have much blush to its interior but remained tender, with caramelized onions wrapping their sweet embrace amid the mash of ripe avocado and expressive spinach. Drape one end of the taco with the orange habanero salsa and the other with the smokier black version.

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• Austin’s taco all-stars
• 2016 Austin360 Dining Guide:Best Mexican Food in Austin
• 2016 Austin360 Dining Guide:Best Food Trailers and Trucks in Austin
• From the archives (2014):10 tasty tacos to try in Austin

PASADENA, CA—In hopes of better understanding a phenomenon that has vexed researchers for decades, hundreds of theoretical scientists have assembled at the California Institute of Technology for the 35th annual symposium on how gas nozzles know when a car’s tank is full, sources said Thursday.

The weeklong academic conference, which draws top experts in quantum physics, pure mathematics, systems theory, and numerous other scientific fields, will feature a variety of interdisciplinary panel discussions and collaborative workshop sessions, as well as dozens of presentations from theorists sharing their ideas about what kind of mechanism could possibly enable a gasoline pump to turn itself off at just the right moment and avoid spilling fuel all over the place.

“All we know for certain is that you leave the nozzle in there for a while, it makes this little popping sound, and then your tank is full. Maybe this is the ...

Thanks to a keen-eyed industrial shovel operator named Shawn Funk working in Alberta, Canada,  paleontologists have put on display the most well-preserved nodosaur, or armored dinosaur, ever found.

It took six years — Funk stumbled on the 112-million-year-old fossil in 2011 — to complete the excavation near the Suncor Millennium Mine near Fort McMurray, but the exquisitely preserved skeleton is now on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta, according to CBC News.

You can see a photo display of the exhibit at National Geographic.

“It’s been worth the wait,” said Donald Henderson, curator of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, during the unveiling announcement, as reported by Toronto’s Metro News. “It’s the best-preserved dinosaur in the world.”

Instead of being flattened out like most specimens, the nodosaur has been preserved in its three-dimensional state with skin, armor, and stomach contents intact. The newly discovered species of nodosaur — a type of vegetation-munching ankylosaur —was 18-feet long and weighed some 3,000 pounds. At about 112-million-years old, it is the oldest dinosaur fossil ever recovered in Alberta.

“It’s basically a dinosaur mummy — it really is exceptional,” says Don Brinkman, the Museum’s director of preservation and research, in a report by The New York Times.

When the nodosaur trundled its heavy bulk in what is now Alberta, the region was thickly forested in a warm, subtropical climate with rivers and an inland sea. The dinosaur probably fell into a river and was carried to sea, where it sank to the bottom to be buried in mineral-filled mud. The minerals seeped into the animal’s skin, armor, and internal cavities, creating what resembles a petrified statue of stone.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology’s new exhibit, called Grounds for Discovery, focuses on fossil specimens unearthed by industrial workers.

“Staff at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and our colleagues at the Royal Alberta Museum have been working for several decades to educate the industry on the importance of preserving and protecting fossils uncovered by industrial activities,” said executive director Andrew Neuman. “This exhibit highlights some of the results of this collaborative approach to heritage preservation.”

Author information

The post New species of armored dinosaur is ’best preserved’ of its kind appeared first on Science Recorder.

The head-spinning Battle of Sam Houston’s Statue is over, culminating in a media circus that was ultimately birthed from a troll job. And that’s exactly what many believed it to be all along. To rewind, a group calling itself “Texas Antifa” (“antifa” is short for anti-fascists) posted on Facebook a few months ago that their group wanted to topple the statue of Sam Houston that stands at the northern entrance to Houston’s Hermann Park. From there, they would plot to smash the massive Sam Houston statue standing guard along I-45 in Huntsville into gravel. Finally, they would rename the Sam Houston National Forest. And why would these group of people purporting to be liberals target ol’ Sam? “Texas Antifa” claimed to make these demands because Houston had been…View Original Post

The post The Battle of Sam Houston’s Statue appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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You might know Ronco Brands, a new Austin-based holding company, has filed to raise $30 million in an initial public offering.

Founded by inventor and entrepreneur Ron Popeil in 1964, Ronco is famous for gadgets sold on late-night infomercials. Though it has struggled financially in recent years, Ronco maintains that it has sold over $2 billion in Ronco-branded products in the U.S. since its inception.

 

Let’s look back at a few classics from decades ago:

 

Take that, BeDazzler!

 

Awww, yiss. The original gangster.

 

Perpetuating stereotypes and enabling creeps in cars since 1978!

 

Hear that? That’s the sound of every hipster in town flocking to eBay …

 

Nothing says sex appeal like “rich foamy dust.”

 

“Want to come over? I got ‘Boogie Nights.'” “On DVD?” “Nah, baby. On 8-track!”

UPDATE: Giveaway is now over.

Austin City Limits will be taping performances by NORAH JONES on Sunday, June 11th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). We will be giving away a limited number of space available passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by noon on Thursday, June 8th.

Winners will be chosen at random and a photo ID will be required to pickup tickets. Winners will be notified by email. Passes are not transferable and cannot be sold. Standing may be required.  No photography, recording or cell phone use in the studio. No cameras computers or recording devices allowed in venue.

Doctor Who fans, rejoice. A man in Detroit built a real-life TARDIS, and it can take you across galaxies and back in time. 

If you like to read, that is.

Dan Zemke built a real-life version of the Time And Relative Dimension In Space machine (TARDIS) from Doctor Who, except he calls it a "Totally Awesome Reading Dispensary," which will function as a free library. 

Image: daniel zemke

Zemke, whose brother rehabs homes in Detroit, according to The Detroit Free Press, said he's always wanted to fill up a vacant spot in his neighborhood with something "cool" to attract people. So, as a big fan of the hit British sci-fi series, Zemke settled on a TARDIS. But he put his own spin on it — or in it, rather.  Read more...

More about Entertainment, Doctor Who, Library, and Entertainment

For the past few weeks, “Twin Peaks” fans have been parsing the meaning of slot machines, coffee cups and the Log Lady’s prophecy in the Showtime reboot of David Lynch’s cult TV classic. But Austin music fans of a certain age might be wondering why Agent Tammy Preston looks so familiar.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExrIbH2Z9UI&w=640&h=390]

Chrysta Bell, the actress who plays the series’ most stylish fed, is a San Antonio native who spent her post-high school years in Austin where she did a stint fronting the gypsy jazz band 81/2 Souvenirs. The band, led by Olivier Giraud and Glover Gill, had a residency at the Continental Club and each week they added another dimension to the idea of “Continental,” transforming the South Austin spot into a Parisian hideaway, circa 1935.

Bell was one of three female vocalists who did a turn in the band.

» RELATED: Kyle MacLachlan, pastries and ‘damn fine’ coffee at the ‘Twin Peaks’ SXSW party

In 1999, she was discovered by Lynch who was quite taken by her. She became a muse to the director, who collaborated with her on a series of musical projects. “The first time I saw her perform, I thought she was like an alien. The most beautiful alien ever,” Lynch said of Bell.

She talks about their relationship and its impact on her music in a new feature in Interview magazine.

And the good news for Austin music fans who want to experience that Parisian cafe vibe? The original 8 1/2 Souvenirs lineup with vocalist Kathy Kiser Benayoun is back together. They play a happy hour set that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday at C-Boys Heart and Soul. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schoolhouse Rock's "I'm Just a Bill" segment has been used to explain the basics of Washington to young students for decades.

But with Donald Trump in the White House, things don't seem to work the same way and the iconic song is starting to feel a bit behind the times. That's why Jimmy Kimmel created "I'm Just a Lie" — an all new Schoolhouse Rock song for the Trump era on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday.

Where the old song explained the slow and difficult process by which a bill becomes a law, this one explains how the president just makes things up. Neat!

"I just popped out of the president's brain, and the very idea of me is completely insane." Read more...

More about Watercooler, Donald Trump, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jimmy Kimmel, and Bill

There is no Dana here, only Zuul! So make sure you get their name right, because paleontologists have actually found a Zuul in America—Northern Montana to be precise. This real Zuul is a new species of ankylosaurine dinosaur, however, and has been dubbed Zuul crurivastator as its discoverers believe it resembles the Gatekeeper of Gozer from Ghostbusters.

And they even got Dan Aykroyd to introduce it:

The discovery of Zuul crurivastator, and the subsequent paper published in Royal Society Open Science, comes to us via Ars Technica. In the abstract for the paper, the authors, Victoria M. Arbour and David C. Evans, note that the Zuul-faced fossil was found in the Judith River Formation in Montana, a geologic formation that’s rich in fossils from the upper Cretaceous period — which took place between 80 and 75 million years ago. 

Zuul crurivastator is not only a new species of ankylosaurine dinosaur (which were 2.5 ton, 20-foot-long armored dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous period), but also the “first ankylosaurine skeleton known with a complete skull and… the most complete ankylosaurid ever found in North America.” According to Arbour, this particular skeleton even has “fossilized skin, which is very very rare.”

The skull of this particular Zuul crurivastator was crushed under rock during fossilization however, deforming it into something resembling Falkor the Luckdragon from The Neverending Story. A simulated 3D “retrodeformation” of the skull is shown in the clip below:

Here’s a close-up of Zuul from Ghostbusters for a comparison:

Incidental to all of this Zuul-iness is this skeleton’s “complete tail club.” In fact, that tail club was the core weapon at Z. crurivastator’s disposal, as it was used as a weighted and spiked whip to crush the shinbones of its enemies — it would’ve been perfect height for Tyrannosaurus rex’s shinbones, for example. (Crurivastator literally means “crusher of shins.”)

Moving forward, Arbour notes that it’ll be an “interesting challenge… to see, and describe, and identify all of these structures that aren’t usually preserved in ankylosaurs…” It’ll also be an interesting challenge to see if this real-life Zuul also had “a lovely singing voice.”

What do you think about this Zuul-ish ankylosaurine dinosaur? Become possessed by a comment demon below!

Images: YouTube / Royal Ontario Museum

Want to live like Lizzie Bennet? The English country manor from the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride & Prejudice is for sale for the first time in 70 years.

READ MORE »

The late dance DJ hoped his biggest track would help stop Italy's "Saturday night slaughter".

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Police say a 20-year-old University of Texas student lied about being stabbed in West Campus on Monday, once he realized how expensive his medical bill would be.

Austin Chief of Police Brian Manley says the man admitted to fabricating the stabbing at Nueces Street and 26th Street, which the student tried to link to a deadly stabbing on the UT campus around an hour earlier.

The student, identified in police records as Lewis Yarbrough, was “playing with a knife and he accidentally cut himself,” the chief said. Police say the 20-year-old admitted to lying in an interview with them on Wednesday. Officers are considering charging the student with false report to a police officer.

He originally told police on Monday that a 5-foot-9 white man in his 20s, with sandy brown hair, threatened a woman with a knife. The student told officers that he was stabbed in the leg after getting into a confrontation with the unknown man.

His injuries were described as non-life threatening.

Chief Manley said they wanted to get this update out to the West Campus community quickly since they were “delayed” in alerting the neighborhood to the reported stabbing.

“We want to make sure that the UT community, the West Campus community, is aware of this and knows that they do not have to be in fear of an assailant that we had not yet captured, because this incident did not happen in the way it was reported,” Manley said.

On Thursday, LaVar Ball’s Big Baller Brand revealed Lonzo Ball’s new shoes, which look nice but come with a hefty $495 price tag. Ball has gotten a lot of grief over the price, to which he responded that if you can’t afford the ZO2’s, “you’re NOT a BIG BALLER! [money bag emoji].” In the wake of this news, Warriors interim head coach Mike Brown was asked on Thursday if he would buy the shoes for his kids.

Brown laughed his ass off:

Reporter 1: “Would you buy your kids a pair of shoes for $500 from an unproven NBA player after college?”

Brown: [laughs] “Uhhh ... no. Any other questions?”

[Brown leaves]

Reporter 2: “What about flip flops for $200?”

Brown: “No. No.”

So far, Michael Bennett and Chad Johnson have publicly stated they are buying the shoes; of course, they are athletes with lots of money, and they are free to do whatever they want with it.

Judging from the responses from Brown and basketball fans on social media, this is a really hard sell. Of course, as my colleague Dayana Sarkisova suggests, we may be underestimating LaVar Ball. If it turns out Lonzo Ball is as good as he was made out to be, if Ball’s gamble on the shoes was worth it, he may have the last laugh.