Liz Langley

This is not the face you want peering at you from your computer just before you go to sleep. Which is why I'm still awake. I've heard that the French have a word for "ugly-beautiful" and we officially need a word for "creepy beautiful," as of this photograph, taken by Shaul Schwarz and featured on National Geographic's front page today. It's part of a series of photos by Schwarz and Paul Micklin called " Underwater Secrets of the Maya ," which mostly show stunning images of people visiting cinotes - limestone sinkholes - and other sites. The one above was taken at a theme park south of Cancun and the figure is "a mythic Maya lord of death," part of a ceremony honoring the goddess of fertility, hangin' with tourists. A theme park? A theme park? I'm no adventure traveler - you'll never catch me scuba diving in some Mexican sinkhole or anything - but I'm perfectly capable of going to a theme park. And I want t

Listen for me at 4:32 pm today on WMFE 90.7 FM for What’s Hot in Central Florida , including TONIGHT Winter Garden’s Garden Theatre is showing Monty Python and the Holy Grail - with costume contest ! Tomorrow they’re doing two shows of a sing-a-long Muppet Movie, hosted by Orlando’s own  Heather Henson and Sunny Raskin - two shows, 3pm and 7pm. Also this weekend, a Winter Park Canine Floating Lantern Memorial and Game Warp , vintage arcade game extravaganza! 

    6 word story : Star Wars, Dune, Gone with the Wind       There are certain diehard types of Star Wars fans who would like to see anything having to do with the prequels ( Phantom Menace, Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith)  buried under the desert for  eternity.  They may have lucked out. It appears that the set built in Tunisia for The Phantom Menace  is eventually going to be swallowed by a barchan, a type of sand dune, that’s creeping forward at a rate of 50 feet a year, according to National Geographic’s Amanda Fiegi . Dunes move, the Discovery Channel explains , by wind, which can pick up grains of sand once it reaches 15mph. When enough sand picks up and piles against something a dune starts to form and as it grows it eventually collapses and kind of folds over onto itself, building up again in the spot where it fell. They can swallow real villages whole. One imagines a fake village would be no match at all for the sandy earth out for a stroll.  The rol

What's Hot in CF this weekend on WMFE 90.7 FM is Shrek! The Musical at the Orlando Rep , a free talk on the history of animation and tips on how the art is done by Paul Alvarado ( Mulan, The Lion King)  at the Southwest Branch of the Orange County Library and the dive-in movie, National Treasure  at the Chris Lyle Aquatic Center in St. Cloud ( 407-957-7243 )  Enjoy!  

Male anglerfish are even more codependent than Single White Female, flatworms have sword fights with their penieses and porcupines are into, well, you'll have to read it for yourself. You thought you knew kinky? Check out the  10 Weirdest Things About Animal Sex  and have something to talk about at any (adult) gathering you attend for the next month. Enjoy!

When I saw this image on National Geographic at first I thought it was a manatee outfitted in some kind of anti-boat-propellor suit. The text, however, described it as a "color-enhanced electron microscope photo" of a microscopic invertebrate called a tardigrade. Now National Geographic is inherently reliable, trustworthy as one's own mother. Maybe more so (I don't know your mother) but I still  couldn't wrap my mind around this creature being real. Well! Not only is the tardigrade real - it's quite the jet-setter. It's a member of a class of called extremophiles who are able to live in extreme conditions, "like an ice cap" says Merriam-Webster  and the BBC's Emma Brennand reports  that the 'water bear' as it's commonly known, is the "hardiest animal on earth" and has repeatedly journeyed into space. It also has it's own  Cafe Press page , a propaganda poster , a newsletter ....you can even get a little t

Listen for me here for What’s Hot in Central Florida on 90.7 WMFE FM or at 4:32 pm Fridays - this week it’s Kathy Griffin at Bob Car Performing Arts Center,‘From Start to Finish” sculpture demo at the Polasek Museum in Winter Park and the Baby Squirrel Shower at the Back to Nature Wildlife and Education Center in Bithlo. Hope nothing gets rained out - stay cool & dry out there!

What's Hot in Central Florida ton WMFE 90.7 FM today at 4:32 pm and on this link RIGHT HERE includes: Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes TONIGHT at Plaza Live Orlando with  Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie , (that's a probably NSFW clip - hope you didn't click it and find out too late), Ocala's  Appleton Museum of Art's "New World Treasures " exhibit of Florida artifacts and Enzian Theatre's Opera and Ballet on the Big Screen this Sunday. Happy Extended Holiday Weekend!