Things To Do In SW Florida

On a recent Sunday, Lauren Groff got out of bed at 3 in the morning, jolted by a mix of anxiety and adrenaline.

It was opening day for the Lynx, Groff’s new bookstore in Gainesville, and her mind raced with all that could go wrong. So she drove over to the store, where she felt reassured by the presence of some 7,000 books, a collection she had helped curate.

“I like being there alone because I’m surrounded by all of my friends,” Groff, a bestselling novelist and three-time National Book Award finalist, said of the books.

A few hours later, she was no longer alone: By 10 a.m., about 100 people had lined up outside the store to watch as Groff cut the ribbon. More than 3,000 people showed up throughout the day for a series of author readings, folk music, live poetry composition and book buying.

Groff and her husband, Clay Kallman, had toyed with opening a bookstore in Gainesville for more than a decade, but the timing never felt right. Groff’s writing career was taking off, and they had two young sons. But last year, as book bans surged across Florida, they decided that their town needed an independent bookstore where titles purged from libraries and classrooms would be on prominent display. read more

SpaceX lined up and knocked out another Starlink launch from the Space Coast on Friday night using a first-stage booster for a fleet-leading 21st time.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-59 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:32 p.m.

This marked the 21st flight for the first-stage booster, having previously flown on human spaceflight missions Inspiration4 and Axiom Space’s Ax-1 among others.

Falcon 9 completes its first 21st launch and landing! pic.twitter.com/m77JbAdNKJ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 18, 2024

It made another recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

This marked the 37th launch from the Space Coast for 2024 with all but two coming from SpaceX, although the majority have been for its growing constellation of Starlink internet satellites, which now number close to 6,500 launched since 2019, according to statistics tracked by astronomer Jonathan McDowell. read more

It’s been nearly two years since Blue Origin flew humans to space on its New Shepard rocket, but the next six passengers are set to go Sunday as the Jeff Bezos company gets back to the business of space tourism.

The six passengers include former Air Force Capt. Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate in the 1960s. Others flying are venture capitalist Mason Angel, French microbrewery founder Sylvain Chiron, software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth Hess, world explorer and retired CPA Carol Schaller, and pilot and holistic wellness entrepreneur Gopi Thotakura, a graduate of Daytona Beach’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Dwight was chosen by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to enter an Air Force flight training program that was one of the ways to join NASA’s astronaut corps, but despite graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School, he was not chosen, and retired from military service in 1966. Now 90, he has since become a sculptor with Black history the main theme among his subjects with more than 130 public installations throughout the U.S. and Canada. read more

Zach Dyer | KFF Health News (TNS)

Bill Thompson’s wife had never seen him smile with confidence. For the first 20 years of their relationship, an infection in his mouth robbed him of teeth, one by one.

“I didn’t have any teeth to smile with,” the 53-year-old of Independence, Missouri, said.

Thompson said he dealt with throbbing toothaches and painful swelling in his face from abscesses for years working as a cook at Burger King. He desperately needed to see a dentist but said he couldn’t afford to take time off without pay. Missouri is one of many states that do not require employers to provide paid sick leave.

So, Thompson would swallow Tylenol and push through the pain as he worked over the hot grill.

“Either we go to work, have a paycheck,” Thompson said. “Or we take care of ourselves. We can’t take care of ourselves because, well, this vicious circle that we’re stuck in.”

In a nation that was sharply divided about government health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, the public has been warming to the idea of government rules providing for paid sick leave. read more

Terrible, soul-sucking commercials get written, made and, by the public, rejected all the time. This one is different.

Apple’s “Crush” commercial, unveiled last week and no longer scheduled to air on TV in America because people just truly, madly, deeply hated it, constitutes something larger than a miss, or a flub. Contrary to the walkback last week by Apple marketing communications vice president Tor Myhren — “We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry” — the commercial for the new iPad Pro hit a much tougher mark by being both terrible and honest about Apple’s vision of the future.

Take the 60 seconds to see it (it’s all over the place, including YouTube), just to see how its images hit you. Ripping off a more benign 16-year-old commercial for a long-gone LG smartphone, as well as countless destruct-o videos online, “Crush” opens on a pile of familiar analog artifacts inside a hydraulic press. A turntable. A metronome. A trumpet. An Angry Bird. A stress ball with big eyes, ready to pop. read more