10 Amazing Discoveries including real life light sabers, purple crabs & 'weapon of mass instruction'

Things keep getting better & better for my new column on Alternet....so far it's gotten twice as many shares on Facebook in less than three days this week than it did all week last week! So thank you to everyone who has been passing it around!
 I love it and am happy to share it so
Click Here for Ten Amazing Discoveries You May Have Missed This Week!
Here's a tiny preview...there's sci fi tools from Dr. Who & Star Wars come to life (a sonic screwdriver & teeny tiny lightsaberes), the crab formerly known as Prince, birds exterior decorators, a solar power project on a possible Native American cremation site and a "weapon of mass instruction" - the amazing picture of what one artist did in repurposing a military vehicle to bring free books to the people.

Hope you enjoy it - pass it on, subscribe, and I'll be back with more! Yeay!!  
                  
(photo by Senckenberg Research Institute, Germany)

Chimpanzee: The Movie

So finally a week after seeing Jane Goodall at Rollins College I got to see Chimpanzee, which Dr. Jane was promoting. Those of you who either know me or have read my work for awhile know that I'm a chimp girl...I wish I could just walk into the bush like Dr. Jane and sit and watch the chimps for a few years. They're amazing, riveting to watch, plus they don't talk. For someone who is so constantly surrounded by words that seems like an awesome oasis.

       Chimpanzee is as close as I'm likely to get to an adventure like that in the near future, so I'm glad I got to go and would go again. It's a documentary that managed to snare a remarkable storyline...(SPOILER ALERT) one of little Oscar, an orphaned chimp and the cutest baby of all time (sorry, everyone, but look at him) who is adopted by the most unlikely member of the troupe: the alpha male.

       The scenes these cameras capture is jaw-dropping especially of the way the apes strategize to win battles or to hunt monkeys  (seriously...it's like a football play) or comfort and teach each other. They're so stunningly like us: their dilemmas are just different, (like how to eat army ants without getting eaten by army ants).  Not only is it profoundly moving to get to see our cousins so closely, but the images of the rain forest. the storms, fruits, mushrooms, waterfalls and other animals are hypnotic in their alien beauty.

        So the movie is 100% worth seeing; unfortunately it's only about 75% worth hearing.

        One problem is Tim Allen as a narrator. Were there no Brits available to do this? Any Brit would have lent the movie more deserved dignity than Tim Allen doing his horrible arr-arr-arr caveman laugh (only once but still cringe-worthy) and The America's Funniest Home Video asides were unnecessary as well. The animals themselves are really enough and the blather is distracting. The music was as well...it really should have been a bit more John Williams or Echoes with John Diliberto and finally there were scenes, like plants that popped and emitted what looked like tear gas, that went unexplained. So there was chatter when you didn't want it and sometimes none when you did.

         Those few distracting points didn't get in the way of the fact that it's a breath-taking and even haunting movie. I keep thinking about little Oscar and, like Dr. Jane, could sit and watch him all day long, especially on the big screen where the beauty and power of his world is brought into sharp relief.
         Lucky me, though....my chimp watching gets to be done in the air conditioning.

10 Amazing Things the World Learned This Week: the tech behind the Tupac illusion, blood test for depression & adorable caterpillars that will put you in a world of pain

So far, so good....for the past three weeks I've had this awesome new column running on Alternet and the new installment is up!! In Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week! you'll learn about how the Tupac stage illusion was created, a potential new blood test for depression, shrimp with no eye sockets and other deformities, post-BP spill, a fabulous new kind of sponge that should help in cleaning up such oil spills in the future, creatures under the Arctic ice sheets that may be making a comeback, caterpillars with stings so painful (but faces so precious!) you'll want to garden in a Hazmet suit (be careful, fellow Floridians!).


Like all people who are newly in love I have been obnoxiously gushing about how smitten I am with this column...I really want to keep it! So if you like it, FB share, tweet, pass it on in whatever way you can. Most of all I hope you enjoy it!

(Tupac picture from E! Online, Pus caterpillar pic from NY Daily News)




                                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                             
       

What's Hot in Central Florida! There's no place like home

This weekend What's Hot in Central Florida is all about home - taking care of it culturally & environmentally starting on Saturday with the Hannibal Square Heritage Center Folk Art & Craft Festival with lots of great local Florida artists, music & food and really, is any day spent in Winter Park a bad day? Also on Saturday, you all know there's nothing I won't do to skip out and head to the beach and I can't think of a better reason than Turtle Day at the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, celebrating the conservation and rehab of marine and wildlife with the planned release of several animals to end the day on a happy note. Finally Central Florida Celebrates Earth Day in downtown Orlando with lots of local vendors, more great music and educational stations with tips on green cleaning, gardening, food prep and all kinds of stuff you'll want to know about to help make your world - especially your little patch of it - a nicer place. 
You can listen in today on WMFE 90.7 FM at 4:32 PM or you can check out the segment any time this weekend at What's Hot in CF. See yez out there!

Liz on MyPleasure: Men, Women & Mismatched Speech Patterns

You'd think men would subconsciously want to match the speech patterns of fertile women...but they do just the opposite. In a story on MyPleasure.com I got to look at a study on Men, Women and Mismatched Speech Patterns During Fertility and why it might be that guys do the things they do. Enjoy!

What's Hot in CF: The Florida Film Festival and My First Radio Interview

Friday the 13th is my lucky day. I was born on Friday the 13th. Today is already turning out to be a good one. My new column (second week) is up today on Alternet, Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week, AND this afternoon my FIRST RADIO INTERVIEW is going to air on WMFE!

Usually I do a segment called "What's Hot in Central Florida," but since the Florida Film Festival starts today I got to do something very different and interview FFF and Enzian Theater programming director Matthew Curtis (who was a great sport in being my very first radio interview subject).
Matthew and I covered some great stuff in our 3-and-a-half-minutes, which you can hear LIVE today at 4:30 pm or by clicking HERE to go right to WMFE, and you have to listen to it to hear who the BIG CELEBRITY GUESTS are going to be!!! Of course, as in every interview, there were a lot of things we talked about that didn't get into the mix, inevitable with something as vast as the FFF, here's an added-bonus-extra some of the things Matthew and I discussed and some of the movies I really think you'd like to check out....because I'm going to!

- There will be 169 films from 31 countries and about 60-70 filmmakers, some of whom bring actors and other talent with them AND this year audiences can SKYPE with filmmakers at some of the screenings, a new techno-component to the FFF!

- Shorts program 5: Animated shorts & features!! Everyone knows animation is one of my favorite parts about the Festival and I can't wait to see this year's shorts & feature! Last year one of the shorts in the program The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won an OSCAR!! It was so exciting to see the filmmakers on stage and think "OMG - I met that guy!" (Brandon Oldenberg, who was here at Regal WP showing the film). This year the festival will also show the Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris looking forward to that!


- Documentaries! So many I'm psyched about, starting with I'm psyched about are Jiro Dreams of Sushi a documentary about a tiny sushi restaurant in Japan - seats only ten people - said to be the best sushi in the world. Sushi fans - and who isn't one? - are sure to melt over this one.

 - Bury the Hatchet another one I can't wait to see, about the Mardi Gras Indian Chiefs, the descendants of runaway slaves who were harbored by  Native Americans in the Louisiana bayous -  amazing! Not just a history lesson but a glimpse into the beautiful diligence of carrying on a tradition of honor - with Mardi Gras music and costume style.

 -  One film that sounds like it's going to have serious echos of the Trayvon Martin case is Beating Justice: The Martin Lee Anderson Story about a boy who went into the juvenile detention system...and ended up dead. Surveillance video told another story, one of violence and injustice in the state of Florida, so sadly like what we're seeing in the headlines again, a must-see, especially now.

- An Affair of the Heart has it's world premiere tomorrow - a doc about Rick Springfield but mostly about the rocker/actors loyal fans who have stuck with him all these years, PLUS Rick is going to be playing at the Plaza in Orlando this week to boot! Filmmakers Melanie-Lentz Janney and Syvia Caminer already have a bang-up success with this film - it's the FFF's fastest film ever to go on standby and Matthew says "I think people are coming in from Australia to see this..." and it's right in your backyard, so check it out! 

 - Another music doc I'm curious about is Paul Williams: Still Alive. If I'm going to drown in anything I'd like it to be 70's nostalgia and I remember Paul Williams, from TV, from Phantom of the Paradise, and can't wait to see the clips from his appearances of yore and what he's like today. Jobriath A.D. about the glam-rocker who was supposed to out-Bowie Bowie and kind of...fizzled. I wonder if this isn't going to be the Anvil the Story of Anvil of this year's festival.

- Finally one last feature and it's playing at midnight!!: God Bless America, which sounds like one of the darkest of dark comedies and which made me laugh so hard at the press preview I was a little embarrassed...I mean, it is about a homicidal maniac. Imagine a mix of Falling Down and Heathers only haaaaa-larious. Can't wait.

- There's so so much more you'll want to know about much more AND you have to listen to the interview to hear who the big guests are going to be! I know I'll see you there sometime this week!!

    

My new column on Alternet! 10 Amazing Things The World Learned This Week

Oh, my god! They let me do it again!

Last week my new column "Ten Amazing Things the World Learned This Week," appeared on a trial basis on Alternet and it looks like so-far-so-good because they let me do it again! So here are  Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week some funny, some a little scary, some exhilarating notes from the world of science including moonbows, da Vinci's to-do list and the power of music to awaken people from the world of Alzheimer's. That one blew me AWAY. I link to video from a Time magazine story and you really have to see it, a clip showing an old man who literally seems to come back to life thanks to his favorite music being played for him on an iPod. If you need your faith in the world refreshed (and who doesn't sometimes, this'll do it.

So please click and if you like it pass it on - tweet, share, yell across the hall or whatever it is you young people do to get the word out these days. I love this job and I want it to get a zillion hits so I get to keep it!
As Janet Jackson so wisely said "I hope you enjoy this as much as I do..." Cheers!

Liz on Alternet: Our Ever-Changing Sexuality

As we age - not get old, but grow from our teens into our twenties and on into the golden years (or decrepitude, however you see it...I'm going for a blend) our sexuality changes. Quite a lot. It's a leap from virgin to non-virgin, from dating to monogamy, from monogamy back to dating, LOTS of datings, ometimes we find that we prefer a different sex or the same sex, less sex or more sex, experimental sex or no sex. And since our sexuality is such a huge part of our identity these changes can knock us for a loop.
      They did me, but luckily I am a journalist so when I have a problem everyone gets answers.
     In ruminating about my own alterations I got to talk to three fascinating people including Jaiya of World Sex Education, Dr. Thomas Ellis and the powerhouse personality HattieRetroAge in Sex Through The Years: The Fascinating Ways Our Desires Change Through A Lifetime, on Alternet. Enjoy!

The beautiful image above is from the Second Life Marketplace. Check it out!

Oh, what, you don't like being harassed?

Todd Stave owns a property on which sits the abortion clinic his father used to operate and which is now operated by someone else. When protestors held vigils on his property he didn't let it bother him; it was their right, he said. But when they brought their harassment to his child's school they crossed a line. Stave recruited a network to give them as good as they got. Pro-life protestors get a taste of their own medicine.

No sir....they didn't like it!

There's a "why didn't anybody think of this before" ring to the idea of giving anti-choice harassers the same back. I think it never occurred to the pro-choice mindset to harass people because it is, by definition, a hands-off mindset, an MYOB way of thinkingc. The anti-choice contingent, on the other hand, doesn't think you have private business, so why would it occur to them to keep their nose out of yours?
      Most Americans favor legal abortion, by the way. Majority. Just FYI.

My New Column on Alternet!!!

     One of the spiffy things about my job is that I get to sift through what feels like a google of stories every day on the web - funny, amazing, alarming, intriguing, beautiful stuff....most of which seems to get elbowed out of the way by whatever insipid junk (remember the attention paid to Sarah Palin's bus trip? remember Paris Hilton?) is screaming for attention like a wet baby in long a Target line.

     I'm so happy to take small part in changing that.
     This past weekend Alternet.org debuted a new column by yours truly, 10 Cool Things The World Learned This Week, a recap of all the coolest science news of the past few days. You'll get amazing stuff every week, like T-Rex's feathery ancestors, Bonobo robots (Bonobots!) and super Earths that could be suited for extraterrestrial life...in other words stuff that's a smidge more important than the Kardashians. 

      We don't all have time to look into every intriguing headline that flashes by us every day, so the weekend is the perfect time to play a little catch up and this column is a great way to do it. Plus it will it give you fab conversation starters for whatever social events you're attending. Say "So....did you hear that coral can get herpes?" and see if you're not suddenly the center of attention. 

      The column is running on at trial basis so please click the above link, pass it on and look for it next week (I'm happily working on that one already). Tweet it! FB it! Subscribe!! Your brain will be glad you did. 

What's Hot in Central Florida on WMFE

It's not even tax day yet and 2012 has worn me out. 

Good thing this weekend is full of refreshers, like Janine Klein singing an all-Adele set TONIGHT at Fringe Friday, 

Ron Jon's 48th annual Easter Surf Fest and 

Seminole State's Planetarium Show: The Final Frontier: The Age of Space Exploration (all I want to know is 'When do we leave?')

          

 You can hear more about all these things by listening for me live on "What's Hot in Central Florida" today on WMFE 90.7 FM at 4:32 pm OR if you're busy getting ready to run away to Mars (like I am) and can't wait you can listen to the podcast version right now, which is pretty spiffy! Maybe I won't leave after all....

Liz on MyPleasure: A good reason to exercise.

One word: Coregasm