The photo below is not part of the exhibit, but when I was walking towards my car, I couldn't pass this scenery without making a photo.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Bernar Venet
Until October 8 gigantic sculptures will be displayed in Hermann Park (Houston). The sculpture of these pieces of art is Bernar Venet. He made the sculptures out of 15 ton of Cor-Ten steel.
The photo below is not part of the exhibit, but when I was walking towards my car, I couldn't pass this scenery without making a photo.
The photo below is not part of the exhibit, but when I was walking towards my car, I couldn't pass this scenery without making a photo.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mitt Romney
As a member of the World Affairs Council Houston, I was invited to tonight’s event which featured Mitt Romney. For those of you who don’t live in the US, Romney was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election, winning several caucuses and primaries but ultimately losing to John McCain.
A large part of his speech was rhetoric about the political situation, you can fill in what was said yourself. However there was an interesting item about education. Nearly always when lawmakers want to improve the quality of education, it is suggested to reduce the number of students in the class rooms. Where in most countries the number of students in a class room is set on a federal level, in the US the local school board determines this number.
When Mitt Romney was Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, he was approached by lobby groups to reduce the maximum number of students to increase the quality of education. Because of the way the school districts are organized, there was a way to check the ‘class size’ hypothesis. Comparing all school districts with their class size vs. the performance of the students, no correlation could be found. According to Mitt Romney the quality of the teacher determines the eventual quality of the school not number of students in one class.
Unfortunately he didn’t have supporting evidence for his teacher hypothesis or how he determined the quality of the teachers.
A large part of his speech was rhetoric about the political situation, you can fill in what was said yourself. However there was an interesting item about education. Nearly always when lawmakers want to improve the quality of education, it is suggested to reduce the number of students in the class rooms. Where in most countries the number of students in a class room is set on a federal level, in the US the local school board determines this number.
When Mitt Romney was Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, he was approached by lobby groups to reduce the maximum number of students to increase the quality of education. Because of the way the school districts are organized, there was a way to check the ‘class size’ hypothesis. Comparing all school districts with their class size vs. the performance of the students, no correlation could be found. According to Mitt Romney the quality of the teacher determines the eventual quality of the school not number of students in one class.
Unfortunately he didn’t have supporting evidence for his teacher hypothesis or how he determined the quality of the teachers.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Alley (Galveston)
Most people stay on Main Street while shopping. As you probably had expected by now, today’s fieldtrip had the back alley as its destination. You might wonder what is interesting about an alley. We didn’t just go to an average alley, went to the alley of ‘the Strand’. This is one of the main shopping areas on Galveston Island, which is about an hour drive south of Houston. This area has an 100+ year history, which we hoped would result in a few interesting photos.
The photo below displays one of those 100 year old building. I was a bit amazed by the gigantic size of the wall/beam anchors. And why are the anchors in the building on the right nearly twice as large as the building on the left?
My personal assignment is to get at least one reflection shot during every fieldtrip.
Maintenance is usually not a priority in the alley.
Most houses in the US have an electricity meter on the outside of the building. This is just one of the numerous examples of relative fragile items in public which hardly get demolished. Similar items in public in Europe need to be constructed like a tank otherwise they won’t survive the following weekend.
Galveston Island suffered a lot of damage during hurricane Ike. I think the repair man working on the electricity system below took a few short cuts to go home early.
This shutter must be quite old and I think only the right shutter is keeping it in its place. As a risk engineer I didn’t stay here more than needed just to take the photo. All the wooden shutters in this alley were covered with metal. The reason was not very clear to me, because it accelerated the wood to deteriorate.
This old door has quite a long history of replacing the door handles. In the past someone cared about the door and filled the empty holes from the screws. The guy making the last changes didn’t care anymore and just replaced the lock leaving the wood more vulnerable to deterioration.
The photo below displays one of those 100 year old building. I was a bit amazed by the gigantic size of the wall/beam anchors. And why are the anchors in the building on the right nearly twice as large as the building on the left?
My personal assignment is to get at least one reflection shot during every fieldtrip.
Maintenance is usually not a priority in the alley.
Most houses in the US have an electricity meter on the outside of the building. This is just one of the numerous examples of relative fragile items in public which hardly get demolished. Similar items in public in Europe need to be constructed like a tank otherwise they won’t survive the following weekend.
Galveston Island suffered a lot of damage during hurricane Ike. I think the repair man working on the electricity system below took a few short cuts to go home early.
This shutter must be quite old and I think only the right shutter is keeping it in its place. As a risk engineer I didn’t stay here more than needed just to take the photo. All the wooden shutters in this alley were covered with metal. The reason was not very clear to me, because it accelerated the wood to deteriorate.
This old door has quite a long history of replacing the door handles. In the past someone cared about the door and filled the empty holes from the screws. The guy making the last changes didn’t care anymore and just replaced the lock leaving the wood more vulnerable to deterioration.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Photowalk: Jake’s Finer Food warehouse
On Monday, when I will tell my colleagues what I did today, they will probably think I lost it. Today, the Photowalk group went to a warehouse. By now you are thinking: “Why a warehouse?” Jake’s Finer Food recently opened a new warehouse and allowed the Photowalk group to shoot some photos during their family day.
The company Jake’s Finer Food delivers food to restaurants in the Texas and Louisiana. In early 2010, Jake’s moved to the new location.
In the new warehouse there are mainly two compartments, i.e. the refrigerated and the regular storage. Cans don’t need to be stored at a low temperature. Thinking about the photo below, I can’t remember getting spinach served in a restaurant.
Nothing goes without food in Texas. Therefore the warehouse had its own demonstration kitchen.
The family day started at 11am. After an hour most people got hungry.
From Sunday through Friday, the products are shipped to the restaurants.
The few hours we got to take pictures inside the ware house were way to short to shoot everything. All together it was fun day with another odd Photowalk.
The company Jake’s Finer Food delivers food to restaurants in the Texas and Louisiana. In early 2010, Jake’s moved to the new location.
In the new warehouse there are mainly two compartments, i.e. the refrigerated and the regular storage. Cans don’t need to be stored at a low temperature. Thinking about the photo below, I can’t remember getting spinach served in a restaurant.
Nothing goes without food in Texas. Therefore the warehouse had its own demonstration kitchen.
The family day started at 11am. After an hour most people got hungry.
From Sunday through Friday, the products are shipped to the restaurants.
The few hours we got to take pictures inside the ware house were way to short to shoot everything. All together it was fun day with another odd Photowalk.
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