Good morning, Houston. In these days of near-$3 gas, there's one group of drivers who aren't so worried: hypermilers, who use certain techniques to squeeze every possible M out of their MPG. Hypermiling involves a few pretty simple changes in the way you drive, including coasting, accelerating slowly from stops and the skillful use of cruise control. Used correctly, hypermiling can increase your car's fuel efficiency by 30 percent or more — so why......

Good morning, Houston. How many of you knew what Monday was? Anyone? Anyone? That's right: It was the 220th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. To mark the anniversary, the nation had a little holiday, Constitution Day — but how many people actually knew about it? Not many, apparently: Though federal law says students at public high schools should be taught about Constitution Day, a recent survey of students found that......

Good morning, Houston. The Chron's Eric Gerber points out something interesting: a Washington Post story that says people hold onto utterly untrue myths even when they're faced with factual information that disproves them. An example: A University of Michigan psychologist showed people a CDC flyer stating that myths about the flu vaccine aren't true — such as the story that the side effects of the vaccine are worse than the flu itself — and......

When we were very young, there was a pizza joint called Showbiz Pizza (which became Chuck E. Cheese), which featured the usual: cardboard pizza, games, and singing animals. Well, those singing animals (known as Rockafire Explosion) that scared the bejesus out of us back in those days are back -- singing Bubba Sparxxx's hip-hop tune "Ms. New Booty." It seems that someone who calls themselves Christhrash on YouTube, bought these mechanical animals and decide......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Well, here's something you don't hear about very often — and thank goodness you don't: In Conroe, a woman has died after her boyfriend set her on fire during an argument. It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday when John Marshall Dodd, 41, got into a fight with his girlfriend, 44-year-old Terry Leigh Lee (or Terry Lee Bailey, according to KPRC and KHOU), at Lee's house. "Apparently they had been out for the evening, gotten......

A fire in far north Houston that damaged the homes of three families, including that of Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina, also injured four firefighters late last night. Fire investigator Nathan Green told reporters that the fire started in the justice's garage. Justice Medina was in Austin, but his wife and son were at home when the fire started, but they escaped unharmed. However, the blaze destroyed their garage (which is detached from the......

Finally, a summer movie worthy of your popcorn dollars. Bruce Willis and his action franchise are a little old, and as Life Free or Die Hard begins, Houstonist found ourselves worrying that maybe they were both a little worn around the edges. Then, Bruce, with help from Justin Long (Dodgeball) and Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) proceeded to prove us ass-kickingly, wise-crackingly wrong. And it was good. See, the bad guys have totally crushed......

Bizarre news from downtown: A man driving through the parking garage at the high-rise Houston House apartments somehow ended up crashing through a wall of the garage yesterday evening, sending his car plummeting about five floors onto the roof of an adjacent building. The man — who was driving a Mustang convertible — died. The crash was reported around 6:30 p.m., and it's not clear yet exactly how it happened, though KTRK reports that the......

The big stories Thursday: two inner-Loop fires, one of which cut electricity to thousands of people and another that potentially endangered workers in a high-rise under construction. Fortunately, no one was injured in either fire, though they both caused headaches for people trying to get around the city. The first fire broke out at an electrical substation off the Southwest Freeway just before 1 p.m. yesterday, knocking out electricity to about 17,000 customers in the......

Good morning, Houston. Blah blah blah, et cetera. (Yeah, you can tell it's Friday again.) >> BP: Managers to blame for 2005 blast: An internal BP report on the deadly 2005 explosion at its Texas City refinery recommends that four top managers be fired for bad judgment and failing to do their jobs. The report — completed in February but kept confidential until it was released under court order Thursday — named Pat Gower,......

Here's a joke waiting to be told: What would soldiers and Marines want with silly string, bubble gum and pantyhose? Go ahead, take your best shot. We'll give you a second to think it over. (In the meantime, have you heard the one about the duck that walks into a drugstore ... ?) Seriously, though — the silly string, bubble gum and pantyhose were part of military supply kits that kids at Memorial Drive Elementary......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. "Houston, we have a problem" It was 37 years ago yesterday, April 14th, that those tragic words transmitted to Mission Control in Houston as Apollo 13 suffered an oxygen tank explosion that damaged critical on board systems and forced the moon mission to be aborted. The crew underwent an intense repair job to save their lives. UK website Apollo Explorer has info on the event as......

Three bodies have been found in the search of an East Loop office building damaged by fire yesterday afternoon, and a few firefighters and civilians — one of them in critical condition — are still recovering from injuries and smoke inhalation connected with the blaze. Details of the fire are still unclear, but we know that it began at about 5:15 p.m. on the fifth floor of the building at 9343 North Loop East. Smoke......

Good morning, Houston. Do you feel more metropolitan? Or bigger, maybe? According to estimates released by the Census Bureau yesterday, the influx of hurricane evacuees has made the Houston metro area the country's sixth largest. The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area now has an estimated 5,483,857 residents, which puts it ahead of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach but still behind the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Philadelphia metro areas. Another population fact: Harris County......

As we noted over the weekend, it's pollen season in Houston — and even if we hadn't mentioned it, we're sure you would have noticed that your car, your house and your pets have all turned yellowish-green from being outside. Turns out, though, that this is no ordinary spring: According to local health officials, Houston is having record levels of pollen this year. "The counts that we are getting now are pretty alarming, and the......

The bit of good weather we've had has done wonders for Houstonians' social lives as people are getting out more and making -- and missing -- connections. Never fear. You can always go home and write about it on Craigslist! saw you at Explosions in the Sky You: cute blonde chick (21-24ish), walking around the back bar, fast paced, smoking. Me: clunky, goofy, bourbon, fluffy brown hair, glasses, off-kiltered, standing by the bathroom area.......

Good morning, Houston. Here's one of our favorite news stories this week: During an arson trial downtown yesterday, Hunter, a chocolate lab, took the stand and demonstrated how he investigated the fire in question. The Harris County Fire Marshal's office uses Hunter to sniff out accelerants; he has investigated more than 400 fires and has testified in at least a half-dozen cases. >> Watch that truck: If you pay any attention to HPD's lists......

Good morning, Houston. We hope you're recovering from your President's Day festivities — if you need something to take the edge off, we suggest one of President William Howard Taft's favorites, the Bronx Cocktail (and in case you wondered, there is precedent for drinking them at this hour — just don't indulge too much or you could end up more like Taft than you'd want to be). Cocktail or no, we all know nothing......

This weekend, Cy-Fair residents were surprised — we imagine that's putting it mildly, actually — when a 31-inch natural gas pipeline exploded, sending a fireball more than 100 feet into the air Saturday evening. Fortunately, the explosion was in an area not immediately near any homes, but it was close enough to make some people really jumpy. The explosion happened about two miles north of FM 529 and two miles west of Fry Road, near......

From Missouri City comes the story of a woman who shouldn't be alive this morning: She's Ann Patterson Smith, and her house exploded just after midnight. And we mean exploded — according to reports, the chimney was the only thing left standing. Well, the chimney and Smith, of course. No one's sure yet why Smith's house at 3404 Covey Trail blew up, but the blast was apparently really something. "A noise that sounded much bigger......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Saturday: MFAH Mixed Media Series Once in a while, an event comes along that makes even us proud, art-loving citizens feel lucky. We are quickly learning to play with the big boys of the art world, and more and more often people are taking notice of the untapped energy in this city's metropolis. Last year's Starbucks Mixed Media Series at the Museum of Fine Arts was evidence that Houston is bursting at the seams......

Last night in northwest Houston, a car a car hit a natural gas pipeline meter station, causing the line to explode — and the people involved in the accident walked away uninjured. And we thought that kind of thing only happened in the movies. The accident happened near Kuykendahl and FM 1960 at about 7:15 p.m. Police said two cars collided, which caused one to flip over a fence and crash into the meter station.......

One of our favorite current albums is Dog Problems from the Arizona band The Format. It’s pure pop goodness from start to finish. The first single, “The Compromise,” seems to be about their experiences with a major record label (yes, we know that’s not a new topic). The video reminds us a little bit of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” but simpler. It’s an explosion of origami and papier mache – animals, plants and robots all......

A man was arrested today after a six-hour standoff at a southwest Houston convenience store The average price of a gallon of gas in Houston dropped to $2.02 this week, marking the 11th straight week of price drops Ronald Williams, a 19-year-old cadet at A&M, claims he's been the victim of racial harassment from fellow cadets Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California called on the Justice Department to appeal the decision to overturn ex-Enron Chairman Ken......

Like most red-blooded American teenagers men, Houstonist has a bit of a fascination with explosions. That doesn't mean we're going to go out and cause one, mind you, but we're often interested by them. And now that we've made you think we're pyromaniacs, here's some news: A house in River Oaks exploded and burned this morning; fortunately, neither of the occupants was killed. Firefighters arrived at the house at South Shepherd and Chilton shortly after......

Curtis Jetton, the man injured in a Texas City apartment explosion last week, ">may be headed to a mental hospital rather than to jail, the Galveston County Daily News reports. Jetton, 21, was set to appear before a U.S. district magistrate Tuesday to be arraigned on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm ("firearm" in the charge refers to "a destructive device" — here, explosives and detonators), but public defender Thomas Berg asked Magistrate John......

The possibility still exists that a string of murders in Acres Homes were committed by more than one person rather than a single serial killer, HPD says A Continental Airlines pilot has been fired for testing positive for alcohol use while on his way to a flight Sunday Curtis Jetton, the man who survived last week's explosion in a Texas City apartment, has a history of mental illness, his lawyer said today Yeah, it's wet......

A robbery suspect led police on a two-hour chase today; it ended when the man crashed his pickup into a Pasadena waterway Eskico Truman Garner, a 75-year-old Texas City man, was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison today for trafficking in crack cocaine Also in Texas City, some residents of the apartment complex where an explosion occurred Wednesday still can't go home because of smoke damage and electrical outages And Curtis Jetton, injured......