Baby boom spawned in wake of Ike - Houston Business Journal:

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Houston-area hospitals are gearing up for the Hurricane Ike Baby Spikrthis summer, expecting as much as a 25 percentg bump in June deliveries, according to the Associated Press. Some local hospitals have reportede increases in scheduled deliveries for June and June 13 will mark nine months to the day thatIke steam-rolled the Texas Gulf Coast and left millions withougt power for, in some several weeks. Humans react to grief and tragedy in many but a rising birth rate usuallyg follows nine months after a major orcatastrophicd event.
“It has happened before and it seems to behappening here,” says Jenifed Bratter, an assistant professor of sociologg at Rice University’s Center on Religion and Urban Life. “Ann event that inspires an increase infertility doesn’gt have a lot to do with fertility itself,” Bratter says. “Severe power outages increase time spenf together with less During Ike you were really left with nothinbg to do except bewith people. A massive change to the work-a-daty life can really shift human behavior.
” A notabld recent baby spike occurredf about nine months after the blackouttof 2003, which affected abouft 55 million people in the Northeastern Uniter States and nearby parts of Canada. Bratteer also cites spikes after 9/11 and the Oklahomw City bombing. Then there was the grandfathe r of baby booms followinh WorldWar II, when hundreds of thousands of Americaj GIs returned home from overseas. Peopl e who go through the experience of catastrophi c events such as terrorist attacks and global conflict will emerge not only with a renewexd senseof purpose, but perhaps a new slant on life’sz priorities. “Given the stress, there was a Bratter says.
“Will we survive What is this we mostvalue ? You can have a lot of different factors goinyg on at the same time, but it’s time to spend together and time to figure what’s most Of course, Bratter acknowledges the bumper crop of babied conceivably could be attributed to a lack of accesd to pharmacies and contraceptive devices. Or maybr there was simply nothinyg elseto do. “I’m sure there’s a big boredomj factor there,” she says. Two Houston publixc high schools have earned high praise for recengtrobotic projects.
This month, the Milbyt High School RoboBuffs earnex a variety of honors at the Worled RoboFest Competition at LawrencewTech University, outside of Detroit. The Milby team’s robot LARA (Legp Autonomous Robotic Android) placede fifth in one category and knocked off the defending championm Korean team inanother category. LARA also gave the Departmentt of Homeland Security a workout at theDetroitr airport. The robot with humanoid characteristics such as a vocalp system and blinking eyelids had to undergoo arigorous bomb-squad inspection via chemical swab and, yes, frisking. Last month a team from Waltripo High School took the top spot at the Texaes Regional MATE ROV Contesf hostedby NASA.
Waltrip’s challenges centered around competitiojn at the Sonny Carter Training Facility inCleare Lake, which contains the 6.2 million-gallonh pool where astronauts practice space walks and equipment “We’ve participated in it for a number of but this is the first time any HISD team has won firsg at this contest,” says Richard Lipham, Waltril technology education teacher and robotics team coach. This year’e contest required teams to come up witha made-from-scratch remot e operated vehicle (ROV) to “rescue” a downed submarine, performingy a series of timed tasks to the mock sub.
Teamw were graded on how quicklg and how well they completedthe tasks, their post-contesg presentations to NASA judgexs on the design and assembly of the ROVs, and each team’w assessment of its own performance. The Waltrip team won, runninfg away with 312 points earningh a bid to an internationalp competition in Massachusettsin June. But Lipham and his student are well aware of the 375 a team from Californi a posted in another regionalqualifying event. “We’ve got to beat that,” says The June 24-26 competition at the Massachusettas Maritime Academy will feature teams from as far away as Japan and Australia.
Students will have the chances to network with sponsors and learn about collegre scholarshipsas well. In additioh to fostering keen competition, the contests give students practical experience forfuture employment. Says “Every offshore rig has to have somebodgy there who can run anROV that’s what this type of training is for. There’z such a market for these kids, you can get a two-yead associate degree and start outat $60,000 to $70,000 a year. I make that and I’ve been teaching for 34 Several brokers recruited six months ago by Jones LangLaSallde Inc. to sell commercial real estatd have leftthe firm.
The sales team of Richardr Rudd, Mary Carolan, Kent Peterws and Jared Chua decide to form anew company, Alliee Advisors LLC, effective May 4. The brokers split away in order to concentrated more onclient needs, Rudd They no longer wantex to work for a publivc company, which must focus on the value of stoclk in addition to doing real estatre deals, he says. “It’s exactly the right time to bedoinh this,” says Rudd, who sees upcomin g sales opportunities due to markety conditions.
“There’s not an owner of real estat e rightnow that’s not feeling some pain,” he The brokers joined Jones Lang LaSalle last Septembetr for the purpose of establishing the real estate firm’xs first capital markets operation in Houston. The company’ds amicable response to the team’s departure came in a writtebn statement. “We continue to assess local activityy and monitor economic conditions in Houston and will consider advancing our capital marketsfoothold there, when and if, the rightg opportunity presents itself,” the firm stated. The Rudd sales team previouslyh worked at CB RichardEllisa Inc.
until the large publiclyg traded firm consolidated its Dalla andHouston teams. The May 22 article, “Stephens puts monet on energy banking,” incorrectlt stated that Stephens Inc. had acquired Dallas-basef Energy Capital Solutions LP. In fact, only the firm’s energyt investment banking teamjoinerd Stephens.