Bonsai open house By WINK News Story Created: Feb 28, 2010 at 4:25 PM EST Story Updated: Feb 28, 2010 at 4:42 PM EST NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. – A horticultural art native to Asia is finding a home in North Fort Myers this weekend. Wigert’s Bonsai hosted their fourth annual open house this weekend. Bonsai is the horticultural art of growing trees in pots with origins in China and Japan. Master artists including Pedro Morales and Irene Vasquez, Puerto Rico; Adam Lavigne, Orlando; and Erik Wigert, North Fort Myers hosted demonstrations, showing off the iconic juniper bonsai tree and many others. Follow the link for more information: www.wigertsbonsai.com Previous article Harborside Home Auction Next article New report shows Florida offshore drilling may be minimally effective
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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Harborside Home Auction By WINK News By Max Turnier Story Created: Feb 28, 2010 at 5:02 PM EST Story Updated: Feb 28, 2010 at 5:02 PM EST FORT MYERS, Fla. – A few hundred potential home owners kept with the pace in hopes of finding a screaming deal at the Harborside Event Center. “I think it’s a great value, some people got some awesome deals here,” said potential home buyer Sandi Baldi. Baldi and her family waited to see if the home they wanted would come back on the board after they were out-bid. It happens, especially when you have homes originally priced at $285,000 with an opening bid of only $89,000. Homes are selling, but are the right people buying? Baldi worries too many investors could be dangerous. “That’s what brought everything down originally, everything escalated. and now, there are too many good values to pass up, so if we didn’t get it, which we didn’t…then somebody else will,” said Baldi. Tim Ohagen came to bid on a home to flip. While aware of criticisms, he says he’s providing a needed service by seeking out a certain type of home. “A lot of people don’t want to move into a home with no air conditioner, no water heater, no garage door opener, no appliances. there are a lot of questions when you move into a home like that. A lot of people want to be able to just move into a home and be comfortable,” said Ohagen. A local Realtor reminded us of a reality anyone in the housing market should be aware of. “Some of these homes that are selling for about 100 to 105 thousand dollars clearly are in areas I know have severe Chinese drywall problems, and …these are beautiful 3-thousand square foot houses,” said Exit Realtor Mark Hendges. As for the Baldi’s, today was not their day to buy. “We just missed it by a little bit,” said Baldi. 66 homes were on the block in Sunday’s auction. During the last auction in December, 63 homes were sold for a grand total of $3.2 million. Next article Bonsai open house
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A rare documentary about Nobel Prize winning poet Wislawa Szymborska portrays a lively yet distinguished woman who savors the world’s contrasts, from 17th-century Dutch painting to boxing. And, in a bit of unsuspected prescience, it shows a school document from 1937 that saw a classmate declare that she would one day win the Nobel Prize in literature, a feat she accomplished in 1996. The 70-minute documentary “Sometimes Life is Bearable” by Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska, which aired Sunday, is the first time the notoriously media-shy writer has offered such insight into her life and fascinations. She let a crew from Poland’s TVN television visit her at home in Krakow and accompany her on travels throughout Europe from Italy to Ireland. Viewers see Szymborska, 86, enjoying her less-known literary hobby – composing saucy limericks – while visiting places including Moher, Ireland, and Corleone, Sicily. She is shown visiting art galleries and browsing in small shops for kitschy objects of art for herself and for friends. But, in a more serious vein, she also explains why, as a young poet in 1953, she mourned the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin “I wrote it. A pity. I regret it,” she said, recalling that, at the time, many Polish intellectuals had placed great faith and hope in communism in the aftermath of World War II. “I didn’t do that for career or for money,” she said. “That’s how I thought then.” In the film, Woody Allen, Czech playright-turned-president Vaclav Havel and British anthropologist Jane Goodall speak of their appreciation for Szymborska’s verse, which deals with the profound or tragic in life through small details of daily existence, laden with empathy that is sometimes veiled in a joke, sometimes in irony. “She is able to capture the pointlessness and sadness of life, but somehow still be affirmative,” Allen said. “She fulfills my definition of what an important artist should be: profound, but always remembering that his obligation is to entertain the reader.” Szymborska’s interest in Goodall’s work with chimpanzees and her love for animals suggests she draws more fascination from nature than from civilization. Her distance to the things worldly and distinction is, perhaps, best summarized in the film by a long, drawn-out search in her apartment’s many cupboards for the Nobel Prize medal – eventually found buried deep in a distant corner and then placed in a drawer with old souvenirs and medals. She still refers to the 1.3 million kroner prize – the highest honor for literature there is – as the “Stockholm Tragedy” that upset her life and writing rhythm, creating constant pressure for public appearances and interviews. In more personal moments, the document details Szymborska’s insatiable love of a good prank, too. Appreciating Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece “The Milkmaid” in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, she suddenly jokes, with a gleam in her eye: “Now we take out the knife and cut it out.” But just before she cracked that joke, Szymborska read her poem inspired by the painting, which said that as long as the milkmaid pours the milk, the world does not deserve to end.
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — A new Web sensation called Chatroulette feels like a throwback to the early 1990s, when online chat rooms brimmed with lonely strangers looking for meaningful connections, meaningless sex, or something in between. But this time, there’s a twist: Everyone on the site has a webcam. Chatroulette randomly links users with strangers who could be anywhere in the world. If you don’t like the person who pops up on the screen, just click “Next.” Repeat. The result can be unpredictable and raw, like a slap in the face, but also refreshing, a peek into someone else’s life. It’s far from the sanitized worlds we create for ourselves on sites such as Facebook, where we mainly connect with friends, family and people with common interests. “Chatroulette is stark because it feels like television. It’s like sitting in front of the TV flipping channels, except the people are real,” says Hal Niedzviecki, author of “The Peep Diaries: How We’re Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors.” A quick spin the other night yielded a pair of rejections – swift and brutal – from two male users, their faces popping up briefly before they moved on. Next up was a blur of flesh-colored mass. A blanket? A person? It didn’t seem worth it to stick around and find out. To be clear, Chatroulette bans “obscene, offending, pornographic material” and says it will block users who violate these rules, though that does not seem to trouble some people. Then, a young woman wearing headphones popped up on the screen. Would she hit “Next,” like the others before her? She didn’t – she typed “Hi.” She said she was from China, studying computer engineering. The conversation went something like speed-dating, a little choppy at first but kind of intriguing. She was eating a bag of potato chips. Chatroulette’s setup is simple: Two boxes on the left side of the page are for the webcam videos – one marked “Partner” and the other “You.” A larger box to the right is where you type messages to the stranger staring back at you. To start, click “Play,” and the site connects you to a random person until you, or the other person, hit “Next.” You can also enable audio. Some folks have used it to play music to their chat partners in hopes of getting them to dance. People don’t need to register to use Chatroulette, though the site asks they be at least 16 years old. It’s free to use and has just one understated, text-only advertisement on the bottom of the screen. The creator of Chatroulette did not respond to messages from The Associated Press. The New York Times identified the creator as a 17-year-old Russian teenager named Andrey Ternovskiy. The site is no more than a few months old – its domain name was registered in November – yet it drew nearly 1 million unique visitors in January, more than 100,000 of them from the United States, according to comScore. At any given time, tens of thousands of people may be logged on, taking their chances on a finding a meaningful connection, just like a game of roulette. As Chatroulette takes off, so are copycats and Web sites that collect screen shots showing the best, worst and grossest pairings of people. Some people record video of their sessions and post them on YouTube. A recent search yielded more than 1,200 “Chatroulette” results. Niedzviecki says Chatroulette is yet another iteration of how we are slowly replacing scripted material with other people’s lives as entertainment. YouTube, Twitter and even reality TV let us cruise through a real person’s world instead of watching “anointed celebrities entertaining us through their `talents.’” But when we do, some troubling questions arise. Chatroulette, after all, is not TV. One widely circulated black-and-white image from the site shows what looks like a man who hanged himself. In some cases, people set up their computers to show prerecorded video rather than a live webcam feed, possibly to witness a stranger’s reaction to, say, a man slapping a woman so hard she falls out of her chair. “When you come across someone with a noose around their neck, and it looks like they are dead, you don’t have the protection that this is a story, fiction filtered through a board room,” Niedzviecki says. “On Chatroulette, that person waving a swastika flag may really be a Nazi trying to recruit you.” The concept of Chatroulette is not entirely new. Sites such as Omegle.com and gettingrandom.com connect strangers for one-on-chats, but without cameras. Justin.tv, meanwhile, lets users broadcast their own live video channels to anyone over the Internet. And so the troubles that come up aren’t new either. Justin.tv came into the spotlight in 2008 when a college student committed suicide with people watching and egging him on. While some viewers called police, it was too late to save the 19-year-old. Chatroulette, like so much else on the Internet, is not for kids. Sit in front of it long enough and you probably will see a naked person. For people who don’t normally seek explicit content on the Internet, this may even be one of the site’s appeals, says Robert Thompson, pop culture professor at Syracuse University. “It’s like getting a ‘Joker’s Wild,’ getting a ‘Bankrupt’ on ‘Wheel of Fortune,’” he says. As for meaningful connections? Chatroulette is kind of like striking up a conversation with a person next to you on the bus or in a bar. You’ll probably never see him or her again, but that doesn’t mean the talk was worthless. “There is a great short story to be written about that,” Thompson says. “Someone meets the person they were meant to be with … and they accidentally hit `Next,’ never to find them again.” — On the Net: http://www.chatroulette.com
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A campaign to make Topeka a test site for a new, ultrafast Internet service is gathering speed. Google Inc. announced plans Feb. 10 to build and test new high-speed broadband networks in one or more places around the country. The company says the system of fiber-optic cables would deliver Internet connections 100 times faster than most systems now available. Over the past week, Topeka city officials have announced they’re completing Google’s request for information from potential trial communities. The City Council has indicated that it’s behind the effort. And a group called “Think Big Topeka” is campaigning to build community and government support. Google has given communities a March 26 deadline to submit the completed requests for information.
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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GENEVA (AP) — Operators of the world’s largest atom smasher restarted their massive machine Sunday in a run up to experiments probing secrets of the universe, a spokeswoman said. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, sent low energy beams of protons in both directions around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border at Geneva, said Christine Sutton. After a cautious trial period, CERN plans to ramp up the energy of the beams to unprecedented levels and start record-setting collisions of protons by late March, Sutton said. The restart follows a 2 1/2 month winter shutdown during which scientists made improvements and checked out the smasher’s ability to collide protons at energies three times greater than has ever been achieved previously. The new collisions are expected to shatter the subatomic particles and reveal still smaller fragments and forces than previously achieved on any collider, including the previous record-holder – the Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago. The Large Hadron Collider was built to examine suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and ultimately the creation of the universe billions of years ago, which many theorize occurred as an explosion known as the Big Bang. “We’ve started up again,” said Sutton. The restart follows successful trial runs late last year when CERN showed that it had made a big comeback from its initial Sept. 10, 2008, startup with great fanfare. The machine was sidetracked nine days later when a badly soldered electrical splice overheated and set off a chain of damage to the magnets and other parts of the collider. CERN had to undertake a $40 million program of repairs and improvements over 14 months before it was ready to retry the machine at the end of November. Then the the collider performed almost flawlessly, giving scientists valuable data in the four-week run before Christmas. “They learned a lot which they’ve gone away and digested, and now they’re trying to make adjustments,” Sutton said. CERN specialists have checked out and improved electrical connections and other parts of the machine since the shutdown, but still want to take further steps to make sure the Large Hadron Collider is ready to operate at higher energy. “There’s a long way to go between getting the first bunches of protons to go around and actually getting the machine to its top working levels,” Sutton said. “It’s a lot like having designed a Formula One racing car. The first time you send it out, the guy doesn’t go round the circuit as fast as he can. You have to learn about the controls, how the car handles.” At its greatest energy, the atom smasher collided two beams of circulating particles traveling in opposite directions at 1.18 trillion electron volts, or TeV, about 20 percent higher than the previous record set at Fermilab. After the current cautious restart, CERN will ramp up the energy pushing the beams of protons still higher, to 3 1/2 times the highest levels reached in Chicago. The showers of particles created at that level are expected to reveal still more about the makeup of matter. The long-term goal, after more modifications, will be to run the proton beams at 7 TeV in each direction, but CERN has decided that it will continue its cautious approach and run at 3.5 TeV for 18-24 months. Then a long shutdown will allow for further improvements for operation at the full design energy.
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The German drama “The White Ribbon” has taken top honors from the American Society of Cinematographers. The group’s feature-film award Saturday night went to cinematographer Christian Berger for “The White Ribbon,” director Michael Haneke’s study of a small German town beset by mysterious violence on the eve of World War I. “The White Ribbon” won out over a field that included “Avatar,” “The Hurt Locker” and “Inglourious Basterds.” At the Academy Awards on March 7, “The White Ribbon” is competing against those same three films plus “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Television cinematography prizes went to Eagle Egilsson for an episode of “Dark Blue” and Alar Kivilo for the movie “Taking Chance.” — On the Net: American Society of Cinematographers: http://www.theasc.com
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — Fire officials say ice has broken through a glass atrium at the Sony Building in New York City and 10 people have sustained minor injuries. A spokesman for the New York City Fire Department says ice and glass fell into the lobby area of the Madison Avenue building on Saturday night. The spokesman said no one was seriously hurt, and that the injured were taken to area hospitals. A spokeswoman at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan says four of the injured were taken there with minor injuries. No other information about the incident was immediately available. The New York Post and celebrity Web site TMZ reported Sunday that “Jersey Shore” cast member Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi was among those attending a party in the building. The Web sites reported Polizzi said on Twitter after the incident: “Omg roof just collapsed!” A call and e-mail to Polizzi’s agent was not immediately returned.
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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New report shows Florida offshore drilling may be minimally effective By Haley Hinds, WINK News Story Created: Feb 28, 2010 at 12:11 AM EST Story Updated: Feb 28, 2010 at 12:11 AM EST FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. – To drill or not to drill? It’s been a heated debate between state leaders on whether or not to lift the ban on offshore drilling in Florida waters. Just 2 weeks ago, more than 100 people formed a chain at Fort Myers Beach protesting that very idea. Supporters claim drilling off Florida’s coast would lessen our dependence on foreign oil and potentially bring down prices at the pump. But a report released yesterday as part of the State Senate review says that might not be the case. At Fort Myers Beach, even the slightest whisper of the words “offshore drilling” fuels a heated debate. “It’s going to be an ongoing catastrophe, anything could happen!” Tim Hrad of Cape Coral said. CG: Derek Deshane, Fort Myers Beach “We’ll be fine,” Fort Myers Beach native Derek Deshane responds. “Tourism won’t be bothered. That’s the way I look at it.” Offshore drilling has been outlawed in Florida for the last two decades. But lawmakers may soon consider lifting that ban, which would allow drilling 3 to 10 miles off the coast. The new report has the potential to change all that. It estimates the oil in Florida waters would impact the country’s supplies by only a fraction of one percent. To put that in perspective, the report says, “the total estimated reserves in Florida would satisfy the U.S. demand for oil,” which is approximately 20 million barrels a day, “for less than one week.” Still, supporters like Deshane say, it’s worth it. “If we’re only going to have a week’s worth of oil, that’s a week less we’re having to spend the money on getting it, saving ourselves the money, bringing it to ourselves,” Deshane said. The report also says while chances of spills are minimal, any excess amount of oil could devastate Florida’s natural plants and reefs. And for some tourists, just sight of the distant rigs would tarnish their pristine ocean views. “I wouldn’t like it as well,” Phyllis Anderson said. “I have heard that there’s not that much oil out there so I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” But for others, drilling or no drilling, they’ll still be here. “I love to come to Florida!” Larry Sokob said. “I’d come to Florida anytime all the time, I like it here, I don’t think it would detract at all from my coming here.” The annual legislative session is set to begin Tuesday. So far, no bill has been filed on drilling in Florida waters. Next article Mother accused of trying to drown two young children
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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FHP looking for info in deadly January semi crash By WINK News Story Created: Feb 27, 2010 at 7:21 PM EST Story Updated: Feb 27, 2010 at 7:21 PM EST COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – The Florida Highway Patrol needs the public’s help getting information about a deadly accident on Alligator Alley last month. Two semi trucks collided at mile marker 62 overnight on January 26. One of the truck drivers was killed in the collisions. Troopers want to hear from from anyone who may have seen the crash between the red Coca-Cola trailer and a teal flatbed that was hauling lumber. If you can help, call the Florida Highway Patrol. Previous article Cape Coral mayor hosts town hall meeting Next article Hawaii “dodges a bullet” following tsunami warnings
February 28, 2010 | Posted in
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