2011 Christmas Lights- Thank You Troops and Veterans!

Since 1775, over 1.3 million American troops have made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you and please visit SemperFiFund.org to help give back to those who protect our freedom. A Big Thank you to everyone who voted and helped us win the Good Morning America Contest. Now on iTunes! All Profits go to the Semper Fi Fund. The America Patriots- God Bless The Usa and Armed Forces Medley http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/god-bless-the-usa-armed-forces/id489731812?i... Thanks to Ford at Ford@fordproductions.com for doing all the music work and his wonderful wife for doing the voiceover. This house can be seen on Mossy Creek Lane in Southwood, Tallahassee, FL from 6-10 on weeknights and until 11 Friday and Saturday night. Christmas night will be the last night. LINK: Youtube

New Salvador Dali Museum Opens in St. Petersburg, Florida

The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida has moved to a new location in a beautiful new Salvador Dali inspired building designed by HOK. The new museum is 68,000 square-feet and contains the largest collection of Salvador Dali artwork in the world. Check out more photos of the museum on designboom. LINK, Via: designboom

A Model Day at Epcot - Exclusive Disney Parks Tilt-Shift Video

Epcot at Walt Disney World in Florida from a whole new perspective. The exclusive video first featured on The Disney Parks Blog was created from a series of photos snapped inside the park. Our celebration begins at Spaceship Earth and after a brief trip through Future World, shifts to some of out favorite World Showcase areas. LINK: Youtube

The Frank Lloyd Wright Water Dome @ Florida Southern College

The Water Dome was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as part of Florida Southern College's "Child of the Sun" campus in Lakeland. It was constructed in the 1940s but was not completed as Wright envisioned until 2007. The Water Dome premiered on October 25, 2007. LINK: Youtube

The Great Python Hunt in the Florida Everglades

Joseph Wasilewski, Desiree Dov, Mario Aldecoa with a captured 13-foot Burmese python. Photo: Wick Beavers

Thanks to some irresponsible pet owners releasing their snakes in the wild, thousands of 10-foot Burmese pythons roam the Florida Everglades, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. To help control the situation, the local Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission declared an open season on the giant pythons. For 6 weeks, all you need is a hunting license to kill yourself some snakes.

Catherine Skipp of The Daily Beast went to catch her first "Burm," as the Burmese python is lovingly called by those who hunt it, in the first ever Great Python Hunt:

No sooner does he have the snake in hand than another sound distracts him; he spies a second, smaller python heading for the water about 20 feet away. “Here, hold this,” he barks, handing me the back end of the writhing monster. Fobb runs off to try to capture its companion. But I dare not watch him go, focusing instead on the gift he’s just given me: a shovel-headed constrictor that suddenly seems all mouth, as it stretches its jaws wide, exposing soft, white gums that I know from careful research conceal 100 teeth in four rows. They’re now pointing toward my throat, and lunging straight at me.

Link, Via: Neatorama

Dolphin Research Center-Dolphins Football

The Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl are both in Miami in 2010, but great football gets played all of the time at Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys. Check it out! LINK: Youtube

Bottlenose dolphins mud-ring feeding

A pod of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida have developed a remarkable hunting strategy in order to catch fish. Another awesome thing about this technique is that only one female in the pod can create this ring. LINK, Via: Youtube

Two Musicians One Guitar

The 2009 Brazilian Music Institute in Gainesville, Florida featuring CECILIA SIQUEIRA and FERNANDO LIMA (Duo Siqueira Lima) http://www.duosiqueiralima.com.br/eng... performing Tico Tico no Fuba (Zequinha de Abreu). The Institute has been active since 2001 and is organized by musician and professor WELSON TREMURA.

This particular performance took place at Santa Fe Community College, May 8 - 2009 which also involved Institute participants. LINK: Youtube, Via: Arbroath, Via: Neatorama

GIANT SNAKE PICTURES: Alien Species Invading U.S.?

The world's heaviest snake, the green anaconda is one of nine huge alien snake species that may wreak havoc if they take hold in the United States, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report released this week. (Read full story: "Alien Giant Snakes Threaten to Invade Up to 1/3 of U.S.")

The giant snake (pictured in the Peruvian Amazon) can reach lengths of 23 feet (7 meters) and weigh in at 550 pounds (227 kilograms). The olive-green reptiles would flourish in the Florida Peninsula and in southern Texas, regions that have climates similar to the anaconda's native South American habitat, the study authors say. LINK

Lightning over Clearwater Beach

A huge storm cell that stretched across a broad area of Central Florida produced a lightning show late Tuesday afternoon. At its peak, the storm produced about 1,000 lightning strikes every 15 minutes, mostly in the Gulf. Times photographer Jim Damaske captured several impressive strikes from a vantage point near the Clearwater Memorial Causeway bridge, looking across the harbor toward Clearwater Beach. LINK

Young deer bathing kitty

Arnold's Wildlife Rehab (in Okeechobee, Florida), one of the young deer started bathing this kitty. LINK: Youtube

Have You Seen Adji Desir ?

Case Type: Endangered Missing
Missing Date: Saturday 10th January 2009
Missing From: Immokalee Florida
Missing Country: USA
Sex: Male
DOB: 22/Oct/2002
Age Now: 6 Adji Desir
Specific Details:
Hair: Black Eye Color: Brown
Height: 3'0" Weight: 45lbs
Race: Black language: Limited Vocabulary

Distinctive Marks:
HFMC International Searching
Known Circumstances:

Photos shown is of Adji. He was last seen on January 10, 2009. He was last seen wearing a blue and yellow t-shirt, blue and yellow shorts, and black and gray sneakers.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT

Collier County Sheriff's Office (Florida) 1-239-793-9300 or
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

LINK: Youtube

The search for Adji entering a new venue -- the Internet
Submitted by Ellen on 20 July, 2009 - 21:56.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office has taken a new approach in the search for Adji Desir, the missing Immokalee 6-year-old, possibly initiating a new trend other area law enforcement agencies will pursue in the future.

On July 10, the six-month anniversary of Adji’s disappearance, Sheriff’s Office officials posted a video about the case to the agency’s many Internet presences and asked members of the public to share it on the Web, including their profiles on the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace.

Two missing child experts said this is the first time they have heard of law enforcement taking such actions.

“This is not standard for law enforcement to reach out to the community like this,” said Dave Thelen, who has been helping parents find missing children worldwide for 20 years. “It is a good thing, because overall they are doing something that I have rarely heard of law enforcement doing, which is thinking outside the box.” LINK

LINK: Youtube

You are in our prayers and heart. We will be praying for your safe return home.

Massive Herd of Manatee

The unseasonably cold temperatures have caused Florida’s manatees to huddle together for warmth. You can watch the video in the link, it is quite a sight.

Link - Via: cnn, Via: Neatorama

Albino raccoon

This is not a fox but rather a rare albino raccoon that lives in the woods of Rockledge, Florida. A local woman has been lobbying for the zoo to capture it for its own protection.

Michelle Smurl, Brevard Zoo's director of animal programs, said the zoo is not at liberty to trap an adult animal that is thriving in the wild. She viewed photos of the animal and confirmed that it is a white raccoon.

Woman fears for albino raccoon's safety (Via: Fortean Times), VIA: Boingboing

Vampire Moth

As if the vampire bats aren’t scary enough, scientists have just found a previously unknown population of vampire moths! The similarity between this species and a purely fruit-eating species seems to indicate evolution in action:

Entomologist Jennifer Zaspel at the University of Florida in Gainesville said the discovery suggests the moth population could be on an "evolutionary trajectory" away from other C. thalictri populations. This is the second population of vampire moths Zaspel and her team have found. They discovered the first in Russia in 2006.

Link, Via: Neatorama

Most Basketballs Spun Simultaneously

The most basketballs spun simultaneously is 28 by Michael Kettman of St. Augustine, Florida, USA, on 25 May 1999 on Guinness World Records, London, UK. LINK: Youtube