Science and Technology

Citizens Form Unofficial Drilling Task Force, Present Recommendations to City Council

The Dallas gas drilling task force sees many of the same faces at each meeting: a small and dedicated group of Dallas residents who show up every Tuesday afternoon and, as it turns out, have formed an unofficial task force with the same goal as the city's official entity -- making drilling ordinance ... More >>

Police Officers Flock to Dallas to Learn How to Tweet Like Professionals (#thisisahashtagguys)

​If you're planning on doing anything illegal in the next three days (not that you would), may we suggest keeping well away from the Aloft Hotel on Young Street? That place is crawling with cops. This morning marked the start of the SMILE Conference -- Social Media Internet Law Enforcement -- whic ... More >>

After Talking Water Supply, Cause of Quakes, Drilling Task Force Gets Down to Business

Photo by Leslie MinoraPhilip Dellinger, Regional Ground Water/Underground Injection Control Chief for the EPA, presents a fracking overview.​Water, water, everywhere -- more than ample supply to frack, according to Jody Puckett, the director of Dallas Water Utilities, who spoke at yesterday's ... More >>

Chatting With a NOAA Meteorologist About This Drought: What It Is and What It Ain't

Photo by Brantley HargroveA stock pond in Archer County​So, what's our problem? Mostly, it's La Nina, that little trollop. She's been messin' with Texas for a long time. And the relationship between her cool Pacific sea-surface temperatures and dry times here is pretty well established. For n ... More >>

Sucking Up Water and Sand in the Quest for Natural Gas

For folks in the sandy hills northwest of Dallas, it's a devil's bargain for gas, water and jobs.

Modern Artifact

Gas Drilling Task Force Absorbs More Info as It Inches Closer to Making Reg Recommendations

Photo by Leslie MinoraReal estate expert, Dan Wright, talks to the task force about drilling's effect (or lack thereof) on property values.​Yesterday afternoon, the city's gas drilling task force heard presentations (slideshows here) from three experts who explained the impact of drilling on n ... More >>

CBS Is Looking For The Best Food Blogger, Kinda

​Early last month, the CBS-11 announced a friendly competition to crown the area's Most Valuable Bloggers. Categories include local affairs, sports, lifestyle, entertainment and dining, among others. Contestants are entered into the event through a nomination process in which anyone can partic ... More >>

City's Gas Drilling Task Force Received a Public Education at Last Night's Hearing

Photos by Leslie MinoraJeffrey Jacoby, the Program Director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, gave the task force a passionate three minutes, emphasizing their responsibility to protect Dallas citizens.​In the end, council members Delia Jasso, Dwaine Caraway and Scott Griggs skipped M ... More >>

The Conversation: The Effects of Blog Culture on Music in North Texas

Sachin TengThat's a Gorilla versus a Bear -- get it?​As you can see from the cover story this week, blog culture has undoubtedly changed the face of the North Texas music community. The sheer amount of blogs here in the metroplex is evidence that some feel their favorite artists are not being repr ... More >>

Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force's Field Trip Was Practical, Educational and Quite Hot

Photos by Taryn WalkerThe crowd at yesterday's Arlington trip sizes up an actively drilling Chesapeake site.Tuesday, Dallas gas drilling task force members -- and city council members Angela Hunt, Linda Koop and, but of course, Sheffie Kadane -- poured out of two white 15-passenger vans and into the ... More >>

America: Meet Spotify, Europe's Successful Foray Into The Future of Free(ish) Music...

​Americans are understandably wary of sites that offer free music. For the past decade, we've seen site after site go in and out of favor, sometimes quickly. We got excited about Napster back in 2001, but after all the foolishness that ensued in the wake of its demise, we're quick to give the side ... More >>

Finkelman Vows to Keep an Eye on Council Members Drilling In On Task Force Meetings

​I've heard from a few folks furious that council member Sheffie Kadane, a vocal proponent of gas drilling within the city limits, sat with the gas drilling task force yesterday during its inaugural meeting. As Marc McCord, an anti-drilling activist, put it in the comments below: "He showed up, to ... More >>

City's Gas Drilling Task Force Makes Its Official Bow With Vow to Protect Citizens of Dallas

Photos by Leslie MinoraLois Finkelman and task force member David Sterling at today's introductory meeting​Today's first meeting of the city's gas drilling task force meeting played out like the pilot episode of a new TV series: It laid out the basic plot line without giving away too much. Which i ... More >>

A Few Council Members Take in Gasland, But Not Before Mayor Mike Makes a Promise to City

Photos by Leslie MinoraAngela Hunt was asked whether it's likely Dallas will be sued by gas drillers awaiting their SUPs.​Mayor Mike Rawlings took the mic before last night's Observer co-sponsored Gasland screening and told the audience of council members, activists and concerned locals, "I wi ... More >>

Hunker Down for Hubble

Fire In the Well: Weatherford Couple Sues Range Over Nearby Gas Drilling

​Maybe you've seen the ads: On Wednesday we're co-sponsoring a special screening of Gasland at the Texas Theatre, which isn't the only movie we're screening next week. More about that later. But Josh Fox's Oscar-nominated film, as you probably know, features that now-infamous scene of a Colorado m ... More >>

EPA to Study Whether Hydraulic Fracturing Taints Drinking Water in North Texas

Photo by Patrick MichelsAt the EPA's public hearing in Arlington in August of last year​All at once the in-box filled up with releases from the Environmental Protection Agency, both the national HQ and the regional offices. Long story short: After a series of public hearings held last year, includ ... More >>

Gas Drilling Committee Trims List of Task Force Applicants to Nine Slated For Council Vote

Photo by Leslie MinoraLinda Koop, seated next to outgoing council member Dave Neumann, chaired yesterday's meeting.​After postponing last Thursday's meeting so council members could ride in the Dallas Mavericks' parade through downtown, the city council's Ad Hoc Gas Drilling Task Force Nominating ... More >>

Five Months After City Extended XTO's Gas Drilling Lease, Trinity East to Get Same Deal

From the city council's February 2008 briefing on gas drilling within city limits​First, a programming note: Plans are to liveblog, yet again, today's 2 p.m. meeting of the council's Ad Hoc Gas Drilling Task Force Nominating Committee, if only because last week's was such a humdinger as the counci ... More >>

UT Researcher Leading Fracking Study: "We're Gonna Look at Every Claim We Can Find."

UT-Austin geology professor Chip Groat​A week ago today, as you may recall, the University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute announced they'd be joining the growing ranks of universities with major studies of hydraulic fracturing, with a $300,000, nine-month project of their own. Today, thank ... More >>

Fracking Chemical Disclosure Bill Blasts Through Texas House, Enviros Unimpressed

From the rapidly spreading "Fracking Song" from ProPublica and Studio 20 NYU.​In these final days of the 82nd Texas Legislature, lawmakers in Austin are throwing support behind Eastlake Rep. Jim Keffer's bill that'd require drillers to report the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing at each of t ... More >>

Want to Be on Dallas's Gas Drilling Task Force?

​After council member Angela Hunt pushed the city council to form the gas drilling task force Dave Neumann only talked about, it's time to assemble the dream team: Moments ago, Dallas City Hall sent word that it's taking applications from those interested in serving on the task force. For those wh ... More >>

Kunkle and Rawlings Say That As Mayor, They'd Push for Gas Drilling Moratorium

Photos by Patrick MichelsDistrict 3 City Council candidates Dave Neumann and Scott Griggs joined all four mayoral candidates in a forum with Mountain Creek neighbors last night at Harmony School of Nature and Athletics.At a campaign forum in far western Oak Cliff's Mountain Creek neighborhood last n ... More >>

Raymond Crawford, Actual Citizen, Fought the City on Fracking -- and Won

When Dallas' drilling rules get tougher, you'll have a professional needlepointer to thank.

Maybe City Council Should Have Asked Some Questions Before Taking Drillers' Money.

Presenting! The New Village Voice Best Of App

Download the App in the iTunes Store, or search "best of " in the App Store.​A few months ago we announced the launch of the Dallas Observer iPhone app, (which is completely free, dudes), and now we have a new one for you: the Best Of.. Village Voice Media App. Before we get a breathy announcement ... More >>

Hacker Known as "GhostExodus" Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Federal Prison

From Jesse McGraw's video "Post July 4th Infiltration," posted before his intended attack on the hospital's computer system​For those who do not recall the name Jesse William McGraw, a brief refresher: He's the 26-year-old Arlington man Formerly Known as GhostExodus of the Electronik Tribulation A ... More >>

Ladies Night, All Month Long

Toxic Avenger: In the War Between the Feds and Texas, EPA Chief Al Armendariz has Science on His Side. Is That Enough?

Documentary About New Orleans' Killer Floods Draws Uneasy Parallels to Dallas.

Oscar-Nominated Gasland Director Josh Fox On Gas Drilling in the Barnett Shale and the Backlash from Industry

Patrick MichelsGasland director Josh Fox answers questions at an October screening at the Magnolia, alongside DISH mayor Calvin Tillman and gas drilling activist Sharon Wilson.Almost as soon as Gasland nabbed one of this year's Academy Award nominations for best documentary, industry groups rushed o ... More >>

McKinney's Newtoy Now "Zynga With Friends"

​Two months ago, Zynga, makers of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, snapped up Dallas-based Bonfire Studios -- one of many such acquisitions in recent months. This morning it held a telephone press conference to announce it's bought yet another locally based game-maker: Paul and David Bettner's Newtoy, ot ... More >>

Where Does Dallas Stand on the Human Development Index? Let's Go to the Report!

American Human Development Project of the Social Science Research CouncilClick to embiggen​Just spent the better part of the morning browsing the The Measure of America 2010-2011: Mapping Risks and Resilience, a report released this morning by the Brooklyn-based nonprofit Social Science Research C ... More >>

At Friday's Screening of Gasland, Rallying the Troops to Keep Gas Drilling Out of Dallas

Photos by Patrick MichelsAfter the movie, director Josh Fox, center, stuck around for a Q&A joined by the Sierra Club's Peter Wilson, Dallas drilling activist Raymond Crawford, DISH mayor Calvin Tillman and drilling activist Sharon Wilson.​Gas drilling opponents from around North Texas rallied ... More >>

Liveblogging's A Gas at City Hall, As Plan Commission Denies XTO's Drill Site Application

Flickr user Schlüsselbein2007Mountain Creek Lake in far western Oak Cliff, which could be the site of Dallas's first gas drilling operation.​[Update at 6:45: To spare you the trouble of reading all the way through, here's the news. With a 7-6 vote, the commission denied XTO Energy's application f ... More >>

A New Dance Step at City Hall: Mayor Tom, Dave Neumann Are Doing the "Levee Slide"

Among the myriad levee slides depicted in the Corp of Engineers' 2007 report on the Trinty River levees​The Dallas Morning News's City Hall blog today carries two items in which Dallas city council member Dave Neumann and our mayor, Tom Leppert, alternately bitch about and then sort of pooh-pooh t ... More >>

Next Week at SMU, the Discovery Institute's Finally Nailing Darwin For Good

​If you fell prey to the siren call of the Discovery Institute's 2007 Darwin vs. Design conference at Southern Methodist University, well, dust off your fossil records and get your ape suit to the dry cleaners, because next Thursday night we're gonna do it all again.Next week's panel discussion, " ... More >>

Texas Motorplex Celebrates Its Unlikely Silver Anniversary With A Little Help From Championship Driver John Force.

Liveblogging as the City Plan Commission Hears from the People on Gas Drilling and Food Trucks

This guy didn't make it to City Hall this afternoon, but plenty more folks have something to say about new gas drilling sites in Dallas.​We're down in the big room at City Hall, where the City Plan Commission's taken over the big boy chairs and taped their nametags over the City Council's placards ... More >>

Got Something to Say About Coal Ash Pollution? The EPA Wants to Hear From You Today.

Lower Colorado River AuthorityA new Sierra Club report says coal ash from Central Texas' Fayette Power Plant is polluting the groundwater nearby.​One month since the EPA's stolid road warriors blew threw Arlington to get your thoughts on pollution from gas drilling, the agency's making its triumph ... More >>

Presenting! The Completely Free Dallas Observer iPhone App

Download the App for free in the iTunes App Store under Dallas Observer.​Let's get right to the announcement: our brand-spanking new Dallas Observer iPhone App is available for download, right now, in the iTunes App Store. Before we launch into an epic "presenting" speech, where we tell you that's ... More >>

Mayor Tom Leppert Welcomes Windpower Expo to Dallas, A "Quiet" Green Energy Leader

Photos by Patrick MichelsMayor Tom Leppert welcomed wind power players to this week's convention, telling them Dallas has quietly become one of the country's leading green cities. Texas is already king of the hill when it comes to turning wind into electricity, and for folks who work in the industry ... More >>

The Tweet Life Inspires People to Make Friends and Adopt Causes in Person. It Can Also Cause a lot of Trouble, 140 Characters at a Time.

Spaced Out

Hacker Known as "GhostExodus," Who Broke Into Carrell Clinic Computers, Pleads Guilty

From Jesse McGraw's video titled "Post July 4th Infiltration," posted before his intended attack on the hospital's computer system​It was almost one year ago the feds introduced us to 25-year-old Jesse William McGraw -- otherwise known as "GhostExodus," founder and the, uh, leader of the Electroni ... More >>

Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Server Farm No More: The DFW's a Data Center!

​A few days ago, Stream Data Centers announced it was in the process of building out a 20,000-square foot server farm in Richardson, in the Telecom Corridor -- not necessarily the sexiest press release in the world. (Though there is the part about the building's being able to "withstand 125 mph wi ... More >>

Moms Gone Wired: One Woman's Journey Through the Mommy Blogosphere to Gain Parental Prowess and Free Stuff