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Thursday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
The hurricane season has been rather quiet. Will it last?
If you think it's been an unusually quiet hurricane season, you're right: The last time we went from July 15 through Aug. 19 with no named storms in the Atlantic was 1982, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach. Could this be the calm before the storm? History says yes: Over the years, the period from Aug. 20 through Sept. 11 marks the sharpest increase in named tropical systems in the Atlantic, AccuWeather said. More from USA Today and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
See also:
» More areas to watch over Atlantic as the peak of hurricane season approaches
Florida Trend Exclusive
Python detection cameras in Florida
From its new U.S. headquarters in Osceola County’s NeoCity technology district, Belgian nanotech research firm Imec and partners are developing a camera designed to allow faster and more accurate detection of the invasive Burmese and rock pythons that have infiltrated the Everglades. Currently, licensed python hunters drive down levees and back roads at night with large spotlights mounted on their vehicles looking for pythons. But that leaves vast swaths of the Everglades beyond their view and open for pythons, which lay as many as 50 eggs at a time, live up to 20 years and feast on native Everglades mammals. More from Florida Trend.
Boca company brings rent-to-own into Amazon age
For a working-poor consumer in need of tires, a TV or a refrigerator, which is the more costly scenario: Buying at a triple-digit interest rate, or not buying at all? That’s the prickly question underlying the business model of FlexShopper, a Boca Raton-based company that’s following the oft-criticized rent-to-own concept into the Amazon era. More from the Palm Beach Post.
Overwatch League bringing esports battle to Full Sail University
A professional esports team from Miami will bring one of its home games to Orlando next season, bringing the global Overwatch League to Central Florida for the first time. The Florida Mayhem will host a league competition May 16-17 at Full Sail University, which recently unveiled its 500-seat, $6 million esports arena. More from the Orlando Sentinel.
Bradenton Costco warehouse store opens
Aug. 21 was the much-anticipated grand opening of the new Bradenton Costco store at 805 Lighthouse Drive, at the northeast corner of Interstate 75 and State Road 64 in Manatee County. Rumors of Costco coming to Manatee County started bubbling up in 2017. It was the worst-kept secret in that part of Bradenton for a long time before official confirmation came by way of commercial building permits last October. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Arts and Culture
Museum seeks visibility after major rebranding
The museum officials sat behind a one-way glass window and listened in as people in focus groups gave honest feedback about their organization. A researcher posed questions to people from Sarasota, Manatee and Tampa and people likely to visit museums. The results of the two focus group sessions bolstered the need for what the museum had already started pursuing — a new identity. “That’s when we learned we were invisible,” says Brynne Anne Besio, CEO of the Bradenton institution formerly known as the South Florida Museum, now The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.
» More from the Business Observer.
Editor's Page
Safe places
Young Floridians are committing suicide in larger numbers and at a higher rate than they did a decade ago: From 2007-09, according to data from the Florida Department of Health, 245 people between ages 12 and 19 killed themselves — a rate of 4.3 per 100,000 people in that age range. Florida shouldn’t have needed those statistics — or the staggering number of opioid-related deaths or the Parkland school shooting — to pay more attention to the availability of behavioral health services. Few states spend less than Florida on mental health, and we rank 43rd in the availability of mental health services.
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