Things To Do In SW Florida

We try to keep moving at Theme Park Rangers Radar, but this week we found ourselves standing with a stack of Universal Orlando notes. The planets – including Universal’s maddeningly slow rotating globe – must have aligned. We have a peek at Minion Blast’s future, a Halloween Horror Nights math test and  a lunch menu with Florida’s own Lionel Messi.

Radar is a weekly compilation of observations from Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions. It’s posted on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Having a blaster

Universal Studios has been showing off its Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast thanks to technical-rehearsal mode that allows some park guests to try it.

The attraction puts players on a moving sidewalk arms them with E-Liminator X “blasters” to point at passing targets on giant screens. In the storyline, folks aim to impress members of the Vicious 6, characters from “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” a 2022 animated film.

Before a recent media preview of Blast, Victor Lugo, director of immersive experiences, explained it’s a “rough cut” of the ride, which is set to open officially this summer. When that happens, there will be more features, including a connection with a Universal app. read more

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook parent company Meta Platforms has built an artificial intelligence system that rivals the likes of ChatGPT and Google’s Bard but it’s taking a different approach: releasing it for free.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that the company is partnering with Microsoft to introduce the next generation of its AI large language model and making the technology, known as Llama 2, free for research and commercial use.

Much like tech peers Google and Microsoft, the social media company has long had a big research team of computer scientists devoted to advancing AI technology. But it’s been overshadowed as the release of ChatGPT sparked a rush to profit off of “generative AI” tools that can create new prose, images and other media.

Meta has also tried to distinguish itself by being more open than some of its Big Tech rivals about offering a peek at the data and code it uses to build AI systems. It has argued that such openness makes it easier for outside researchers to help identify and mitigate the bias and toxicity that AI systems pick up by ingesting how real people write and communicate. read more

By MIKE SCHNEIDER (Associated Press)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — AAA won’t renew “a very small percentage” of homeowners and auto insurance policies in hurricane-wracked Florida, joining other insurers in limiting their exposure in the Sunshine State despite efforts by lawmakers to calm the volatile insurance market, the company said Tuesday.

AAA said in a statement that it wasn’t leaving Florida, but that last year’s devastating hurricane season had led to an “unprecedented” rise in reinsurance rates, making it more costly to operate.

Officials with the company refused to say how many policies in Florida wouldn’t be renewed but said that they were “higher exposure” package policies which bundle homeowners and auto policies and were underwritten by Auto Club Insurance Company of Florida. An AAA spokesman wouldn’t explain how the company defined “higher exposure,” when asked.

“This is a decision we do not take lightly,” the AAA statement said. “We acknowledge that this is a difficult time for those affected.” read more

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, PAUL WISEMAN and DEE-ANN DURBIN (AP Business Writers)

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans increased their spending last month as inflation eased in many areas, and the job market remained remarkably strong.

Retail sales rose 0.2% from May to June, following a revised 0.5% increase the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The figure matched the pace of consumer inflation in June from the prior month, underscoring that shoppers are just about keeping up with pricing pressures. While the headline number of 0.2% was a bit weaker than expected, economists Tuesday focused on data that excludes volatile autos, gas, building materials and food services, which rose a solid 0.6% in June. That 0.6% figure is used to help calculate overall economic growth in the U.S., and it was a pretty strong showing in June.

Shoppers increased spending at electronic stores and furniture and home furnishings stores after a recent pullback. Online sales also had a solid increase. But sales at grocery stores, gas stations and sporting goods stores fell. At restaurants, sales eked out a tiny increase. read more

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — The tablecloths come out inside as the pool at Chase’s on the Beach closes down.

The beachfront bar with a pool recently reopened, eight months after the double whammy of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole shuttered it last year. The pool and tiki bar are still part of the fun, but now Chase’s has added an air-conditioned indoor dining room, and with that, a more upscale menu for the venue that dates back to the mid-1990s.

“The town has changed a lot since then,” said Joe Ryan, general manager. “There’s a different clientele in town, and we wanted to grow with the town.”

Chase’s closed last October to make repairs after Ian damaged the deck, but then “Nicole did the knockout punch,” washing the deck away and damaging the tiki bar, Ryan said.

“There was nothing we could do at that point,” he said. “We had to rebuild.”

It reopened at the end of June, with repairs made and the new dining room added. Ryan did not disclose the cost of the work.

“We never really had indoor seating, even the stuff that was under cover, if it was 110 degrees out, you were covered, but you were sitting and eating in 110 degrees,” Ryan said. read more