Things To Do In SW Florida

Paul Sisson | The San Diego Union-Tribune

Doctors traditionally use a finger to gauge how well a baby suckles, but researchers at UC San Diego have come up with a new way to more precisely measure just how well each child gets the job done.

Led by engineer James Friend, a team in the university’s Medically Advanced Devices Laboratory rigged up a “non-nutritive suckling system” by connecting a digital vacuum sensor to an ordinary disposable pacifier, allowing for 60 seconds of real-time continuous measurement.

“We establish normative data for the mean suck vacuum, maximum suck vacuum, suckling frequency, burst duration, sucks per burst, and vacuum signal shape,” the authors said, noting that sophisticated statistical analysis and even machine learning, a fundamental method of what many call artificial intelligence, was brought to bear to sift patterns from the analysis of 91 babies measured with the device.

Some might wonder, what’s the point? Why so much focus on measuring and analyzing the most basic of human reflexes? read more

The first crewed flight for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will have to wait a little bit longer but is still targeting a May launch. The mission is now slated for no earlier than May 21 at 4:43 p.m, NASA revealed Tuesday.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were sitting in the capsule last week atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 with just two hours to go before launch.

Issues with a valve on the ULA rocket forced a scrub of that launch attempt and a rollback of the rocket from the pad to change the valve, pushing the launch date to what was supposed to be as early as this Friday.

NASA said the valve issue on the ULA rocket’s upper Centaur stage was resolved, but Boeing teams found a new issue on the Starliner spacecraft itself.

“Starliner teams are working to resolve a small helium leak detected in the spacecraft’s service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster,” according to a NASA press release. “Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic.” read more

Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando have shared details about annual-passholder previews for a pair of coming attractions: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom at DreamWorks Land at Universal Studios theme park.

Both have official opening dates in late June, but passholders will be able to get early looks at the projects.

Previews for Disney World passholders will happen on June 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 and 20, and the park is using a virtual queue for the event.  Park reservations are required in most instances for these previews.

Disney, via email, instructs passholders to make reservations for Magic Kingdom on the desired date to have a shot at the 7 a.m. virtual queue, accessed via the My Disney Experience app. Or, Disney says, they can make reservation for one of its other three theme parks on preview dates to join the 1 p.m. queue.

Passholders do not have to have entered any park to request the virtual queue, but if they have requested Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios or Disney’s Animal Kingdom parks, they must enter those parks before traveling over to Magic Kingdom. This is the way. read more

Cirque du Soleil is adding a behind-the-scenes tour for “Drawn to Life,” its production at Disney Springs. The new Page to Stage Signature Experience includes a ticket with premium seating to the show, a meet-and-greet with an artist, a gift bag, a souvenir popcorn bucket and more.

A guided post-show tour of the theater — including backstage and beneath the stage — is the cherry on top.

“We’re hoping for people to walk away feeling a sense of joy, feeling a sense of real connection to the show. It’s such a nice chance for us to be able to share the inside workings of our world with people because people are blown away by the show,” Justin Sullivan, artistic director, said after a preview of the experience.

Page to Stage nights launch May 24, and they’ll be available for the 8 p.m. show on Fridays and Saturdays. Without being too spoiler-y, here are seven takeaways from the experience preview.

Stage directions

The stage of the theater was revamped after “La Nouba” closed in late 2017. It now reflects the “Drawn to Life” storyline of an animator and his young daughter Julie, and the stage has permanent fixtures that are greatly enlarged elements found on Julie’s dad’s desk, including a pencil sharpener and container, eraser and lamp. read more