Things To Do In SW Florida

University of Florida horticulture science professor Rob Ferl on Thursday became the first NASA-sponsored customer to fly to space on board Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, bringing along a plantlife experiment to study the effects of spaceflight on genes.

Ferl, a researcher within UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is also director of UF’s new Astraeus Space Institute. He joined five other people for what was the eighth human spaceflight of the suborbital rocket for the Jeff Bezos-founded company.

Dubbed NS-26, the capsule launched at 9:08 a.m. EDT from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch facility for its short trip to space, reaching an altitude of around 65 miles before returning for a parachute-assisted landing touching down amid the desert scrub within sight of the launch pad just over 10 minutes later.

“The ride was incredibly smooth, and I was so impressed with the ride up,” Ferl said after his return. “But being there, the darkness of space — you can’t — there’s no way to talk about it. There’s no way to talk about how impressive space is and the Earth below.” read more

Q: I helped my father sell his condo in 2017 and have been storing the paperwork from when he originally purchased it to when he sold it. I want to shred the papers, but I was wondering if I need to hold on to them for a certain length of time. How long should I keep the paperwork? — Lois

A: Good record-keeping can make a big difference should a problem arise. That said, with the deluge of paperwork that comes with living in the modern world, I certainly understand your desire to get rid of some clutter.

The length of time you are required to hold on to the documents will vary depending on the type of paperwork and where you live. This is further complicated by Murphy’s Law of Decluttering, which states that you will not need something until shortly after you throw it away.

Digitally scanning important papers before you shred them is a great way to reduce clutter, but it can be time-consuming.

Generally, you should keep contracts and other financial documents as long as the statute of limitations for where you live, which would begin when the contract is no longer active. read more

When the smoke cleared after the recent D23 announcements, Walt Disney World ended up with several notable developments. Orlando’s parks eventually will gain a villains land, two “Cars” attractions, a “Monsters, Inc.” land, rides based on “Encanto” and “Indiana Jones” scenarios, a “Mandalorian” update for a “Star Wars” ride, a nighttime parade and more.

Not too shabby, but it takes steam away from those folks who cry, “Be fair to Florida.” I’ll admit that when Disney execs started talking about the “Monsters” land, I assumed it would be in a far-flung theme park, perhaps Paris or Shanghai.

One item that local park watchers might be envious of is the full-size animatronic figure of Walt Disney that will be installed at Disneyland for a new show titled “Walt Disney – A Magical Life.” It debuts in 2025, Disney says.

“It’s like that light-bulb moment,” said Simon Veness, a travel writer and guidebook author. “Of course, there should be a Walt animatronic that needs to be in every Magic Kingdom park in the world tomorrow.” read more

Elvis is leaving the building. So are Cher, Colonel Sanders, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Mr. T.
But before they go, there’s going to be one final blowout: The Sunburst Convention of celebrity impersonators will celebrate its 20th installment Sept. 4-8 in south Orlando. Founder Greg Thompson says it also will be the last.

“It’s going to be a big family reunion,” he says. “This has become the hub of the celebrity-tribute industry.”

And the convention has become an annual source of entertainment to Central Floridians and visitors who enjoy performances and photos with famous-face lookalikes at the event’s public “Legends in Revue” showcases.

Thompson estimates more than 800 performers have attended over the years, with many returning time and time again. He can think of seven who have been to 18 out of the 20 conventions and says about 75 have been to 10 or more.

That family reunion vibe is enhanced by the shared attitude of the impersonators, who work in a unique niche of the entertainment industry. read more

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

Cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike Holdings on Wednesday estimated it absorbed a roughly $60 million blow to its sales pipeline last month after its botched handling of a software update triggered a technology meltdown that stranded thousands of people in airports in addition to other exasperating disruptions.

Although the massive outage spooked customers that had been expected to close deals totaling $60 million during the final few weeks of CrowdStrike’s fiscal second quarter, executives running the Austin, Texas, company predicted it will still be able to cinch those contracts before its fiscal year ends in January 2025 because customers still have faith in its cybersecurity products despite the July 19 gaffe that froze up machines running on Windows software.

“Our mission is alive and well, and I know that CrowdStrike’s very best days are ahead of us,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told analysts during a conference call covering the company’s April-July period. He also apologized for the company’s role in an outage that he said “will never be lost on me, and my commitment is to make sure this never happens again. The days following the incident were among the most challenging in my career because I deeply felt what our customers experienced.” read more