Shuttle Atlantis to make its final journey
On Friday,
the last space shuttle will make its final journey. Atlantis, the last orbiter
from the retired shuttle fleet to move to its exhibition space, will travel
from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (pictured above) to the visitors
complex. The daylong, 10-mile journey will include a couple stops, one private,
before it ends at the building still under construction where it will go on
display next summer. For the journeyworkers will have to remove and replace 120
light poles, 23 traffic signals, 56 traffic signs and one high-voltage power
line to make way for the orbiter. Tickets and advance reservations are required
to attend the event. Several packages are available; cost is $50-$90 for adults,
$40-$80 children. Click here for information.
White rhino born at Busch Gardens
A white rhino was born
at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this week, the seventh white rhino to be born at the
park since 2004. The baby, shown with mom Kisiri, is not yet named. It weighed
about 140 pounds at birth and is expected to gain about four pounds a day until
it reaches an adult weight of 3,500 to 4,000 pounds. Busch Gardens says that fewer
than 15,000 white rhinos remain in the wild, and approximately 200 live in
zoological facilities across North America. Busch Gardens has eight black and white rhinos.
Photo credit: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Countdown to Legoland's "Star Wars" installation
Models that will be used in Legoland’s newest
attraction — a Miniland section based on the Star Wars movie series — have arrived from model shops in Germany and California. Now, model builders at the Winter Haven park (including
Jason Miller, master model builder, pictured above) are putting the parts together. The new display
will officially open to guests on Nov. 9.
The exhibition will consist of a
scene from each of the six Star Wars
movies plus the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, built in
1:20 scale. Above: The cantina from Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
The scenes will include more than 1.5 million Lego bricks and 2,000 Lego models, some of them more than six feet tall. As with the other Miniland displays, some of the scenes will have moving parts that can be animated with the push of a button.
Here is a photo of the Darth Maul character that will go in the Episode I: The Phanton Menace scene.
Click here for info on Legoland.
Photo credit: Legoland FloridaHappy ending for rescued manatee
This morning, SeaWorld’s Animal Rescue Team returned Goodby, an
adult male manatee, to Goodby Creek near Jacksonville.
Goodby was rescued due to cold stress in March 2012 from Goodby Creek and had
seven months of rehabilitation at SeaWorld. The return of the manatee, who
weighs almost 1,000 pounds, was coordinated with the Florida Fish &
Wildlife Conservation Commission and Sea2Shore alliance, which tagged Goodby
for future tracking.
Photo credit: SeaWorld Orlando
New art at Miami International Airport
Travelers who use the Miami airport: MIA now has three new art installations:
Air Chair, a construction of a discarded wheelchair and steel and wood materials, floats above passengers near North Terminal’s gate D-14. Paul Villinski, a New York artist who jogs near two VA hospitals on Roosevelt Island, was inspired by men he saw in wheelchairs. As a sculptor and paraglider pilot, he said, he wanted to contrast the image of limitation (a wheelchair) with the freedom of flight.
Roberto Juarez’ MIA Flower Fence, a painted mural that juxtaposes botanical-style renderings of Florida wildflowers with the geometric patchwork designs of Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe, is by skytrain Station 1 on Concourse D. “A glimpse of Miami's clear skies and starry nights celebrates the splendor of Florida's tropical climate and blossoming gifts of nature,” Juarez said.
Hortensia, two kaleidoscopic mixed-media murals by local artist Aramis O’Reilly, is by the exit doors between the South Terminal international greeter’s lobby and the Flamingo parking garage. “My work is an exercise in creating moments that describe the play between the act of creation and the deeper forces of design with purpose. In this work, I represented nature vaguely abstracted and created a design that attempts to express the exuberance of life,” O’Reilly said.
For more information about the new installations, click here. All photos by Dan Forer.