Outdoorsy fun for the New Year’s holiday

So, as Miss Ella once sang, What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

Many of you, of course, will ring in 2013 with champagne and dancing at one of the clubs in Miami Beach or downtown Miami — and many of these same people will wake up with a hangover Tuesday only to wonder why they spent $2,000 to be in the same space as R&B/hip-hop act Drake and a DJ at the Fontainebleau or depressed that they spent $1,500 for a VIP table at the Catalina’s Studio 54 party to hear ’70s disco when they could have played Donna, Gloria and the Village People at any old time on iTunes for a few houseguests.

Clubbing not your thing? Good thing you live in South Florida, where going outside generally makes sense at this time of year. Here are some suggestions for activities, with an accent on the great outdoors and even a little fitness thrown in for good measure.

King Mango Strut

The annual spoof of the Orange Bowl Parade — or whatever some politician wants to call it now, as in ‘La Gran Naranja’ — has been “putting the ‘nut’ back in ‘Coconut Grove’ since 1981,” its ads tout. This time around, being an election year should provide plenty of fodder, and not just the silliness going on in West Kendall and Brickell, where some people are still waiting to cast a vote in the presidential race. (Obama won, go home.) The snarky parade pokes good-natured fun at the people and things behind the events that made the news snap during the year. This year’s grand marshal will be Clint Eastwood’s chair, fresh from the Republican National Convention.

This year’s parade takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday in downtown Coconut Grove on the corner of Commodore Plaza and Main Highway. The wacky participants turn left onto Main Highway and then left onto Grand Avenue at CocoWalk. Get comfy along the street and prepare to giggle. Call the Mango Hotline at 305-582-0955 for information.

The orange rises

You can go traditional and watch the ball rise in downtown Miami at the Bayfront Park Amphitheater New Year’s shindig, La Gran Naranja. The free event features music and the midnight countdown for the climb of the Big Orange along the side of the Hotel InterContinental, followed by fireworks. Be there at 301 N. Biscayne Blvd. Call 305-358-7550.

Just want the fireworks part? Miami Beach’s New Year’s Eve Party offers a free fireworks celebration at midnight on the beach near Ocean Drive and Eighth Street, if you can tear yourself away from Carl Cox at Mansion and Calvin Harris at Liv. Call 305-673-7400.

Bike It

Shark Valley, on the Tamiami Trail about 35 miles into the Everglades, is a real South Florida experience. Cycle amid gators — and we’re not talking the University of Florida variety. Alligators, wading birds and turtles frolic freely in the greenery along the 15-mile round-trip bike path. A multilevel observation at the midpoint offers a nice break spot for a boxed lunch or photo ops. There are no shortcuts, but you can opt for a tram tour. Call 305-221-8776.

Other leisurely bike rides around town include the shaded 13 or so miles of the Old Cutler Trail in South Miami, and you can pop over to Pinecrest Gardens for the Sunday Green Market, one of South Florida’s best farmers markets. North Dade residents aren’t too far from the restored Hollywood Beach Broadwalk for some nice ocean views while cycling or strolling.

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Adorable Tots: Celebs and their Cute Kids!

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris posted a slew of pics of his adorable family on Dec. 25, 2012, including this one of Harper. The How I Met Your Mother star tweeted: "Ms. Harper likes Mr. Potato Head's fashion sense. She is quite the looker, but I think it's a bit shortsighted."

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Whale beached in Queens, crews race to rescue ahead of low tide

Ellis Kaplan

Rescue crews are in a race against the clock after a whale beached itself this morning in Queens.

A resident reported the stranded sea mammal just before 9 a.m., a security staffer for the Breezy Cooperative told The Post.

The 50-foot-long whale is believed to be a female humpback whale. Point Breeze firefighters are using a water pump to keep the mammal alive.

"I haven't seen a whale like this in Breezy since I was a kid," said Joan Washington, who has been a resident of Breezy Point for the past thirty years.

"We started seeing wildlife like this again last summer. We see dolphins and sharks on the ocean side but not in the bay."

Ed Manley, a volunteer from Florida helping with Hurricane Sandy cleanup efforts, was the first person to get to the beach, he said.

"We got a call this morning from the police department, they said come down and help out," said Manley, who has been volunteering in Breezy Point for the past 77 days.

Manley worked nonstop for three hours in the cold, throwing buckets of water on the whale to help it survive.

"They couldn't get the pump going so I was using a bucket to keep her nice and wet."

Manley, who has worked to save whales in Florida, said the next step is to slowly pull the whale back into the water.

"Dead low tide for Jamaica Bay is 12:46 p.m.," said Dennis Dier, Chief of Security for Breezy Cooperative. "In another hour, the water will go out another five feet. The whale will be completely beached. He's up against a lot right now."

When a whale is beached, it runs the risk of being crushed by its own weight, as well as becoming dehydrated.

Wildlife rescue crews are racing to the scene.

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Case-Shiller: Home prices up 8.5 percent in South Florida in October over last year

Home prices in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties were up 8.5 percent in October from the same time last year, an increase that put them in fifth place for the highest annual gain on the Standard&Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

The index, released Wednesday morning, showed South Florida losing some ground in October from September, with prices dropping less than a percentage point. But index experts said price drops are typical during the fall months.

“Annual rates of change in home prices are a better indicator of the performance of the housing market than the month-over-month changes because home prices tend to be lower in the fall and winter than in spring and summer,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee. “Looking over this report, and considering other data on housing starts and sales, it is clear that the housing recovery is gathering strength.”

The 20-city index composite showed a gain of 4.3 percent from last year. The Tampa market was up 5.9 percent.

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Memorial set for Ex-Florida governor candidate

A memorial service for Bill McBride, the Florida Democrat who defeated Janet Reno for the party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2002 but lost to Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, will be held later this week in Tampa.

The service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at the Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church.

McBride suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday while visiting with family in Mount Airy, N.C. He was 67.

McBride defeated Reno, who was U.S. attorney general under President Bill Clinton, in the Democratic primary to run against Bush. Before entering politics, he was managing partner at the prestigious Holland & Knight law firm.

McBride’s wife, Alex Sink, was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2010, losing to now-Gov. Rick Scott. The couple lived outside of Tampa.

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China may require real name registration for internet access

BEIJING (Reuters) – China may require internet users to register with their real names when signing up to network providers, state media said on Tuesday, extending a policy already in force with microblogs in a bid to curb what officials call rumors and vulgarity.

A law being discussed this week would mean people would have to present their government-issued identity cards when signing contracts for fixed line and mobile internet access, state-run newspapers said.

“The law should escort the development of the internet to protect people’s interest,” Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily said in a front page commentary, echoing similar calls carried in state media over the past week.

“Only that way can our internet be healthier, more cultured and safer.”

Many users say the restrictions are clearly aimed at further muzzling the often scathing, raucous – and perhaps most significantly, anonymous – online chatter in a country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for open debate.

It could also prevent people from exposing corruption online if they fear retribution from officials, said some users.

It was unclear how the rules would be different from existing regulations as state media has provided only vague details and in practice customers have long had to present identity papers when signing contracts with internet providers.

Earlier this year, the government began forcing users of Sina Corp’s wildly successful Weibo microblogging platform to register their real names.

The government says such a system is needed to prevent people making malicious and anonymous accusations online and that many other countries already have such rules.

“It would also be the biggest step backwards since 1989,” wrote one indignant Weibo user, in apparent reference to the 1989 pro-democracy protests bloodily suppressed by the army.

Chinese internet users have long had to cope with extensive censorship, especially over politically sensitive topics like human rights, and popular foreign sites Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked.

Despite periodic calls for political reform, the ruling Communist Party has shown no sign of loosening its grip on power and brooks no dissent to its authority.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Huang Yan; Editing by Michael Perry)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Bo Obama Interrupts Michelle Obama Reading Twas The Night Before Christmas

Last night, Michelle Obama prepared to read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas to the patients at Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C. and The First Family's dog Bo wanted to get a good seat. The best seat, in fact.

PHOTOS - The Sweetest Moments Between Michelle and Barack!

As Michelle sat down beneath the ornate Christmas tree, Bo hopped up on her lap as if there weren't hundreds of people watching (and as if the four-year-old was still the size of a puppy)!

"This is exactly what he does at home," the First Lady laughed. "He tries to beat Malia and Sasha to my lap."

Michelle forged ahead with gusto and you can watch the adorable scene play out in the video below!

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Upstate NY madman left chilling suicide note before torching town and luring firefighters to death

William H. Spengler Jr.

A homicidal maniac -- bent to “do what I like doing best: killing people" -- left a chilling suicide note before torching his neighborhood and murdering two firefighters, police said today.

Ex-con William Spengler Jr., a loser mama’s boy who once spent 17 years in prison for beating his grandmother to death, penned a murderous three-page missive, telling the world why he turned a quiet lakeside neighborhood into hell on earth.

“I still have to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best: killing people,” Spengler wrote his suicide note, made public by police.

Spengler, 62, set his home -- in the tight-knit, upstate town of Webster, just outside Rochester -- ablaze early yesterday morning to lure volunteer firefighters to the scene. The gutless killer then methodically shot four of those fireman, two fatally, before blowing his brains out.

"There was no motive in the note...there were some ramblings in there, said Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering told reporters this morning. “There was intelligence information that we obtained that our investigators need to follow up on. It spoke mainly that he intended to burn his neighborhood down and kill as many people as possible."

Four whiskey bottles, filled with gasoline, were found unspent against his house, law enforcement sources told WHEC-TV.

UPSTATE MADMAN SETS BLAZE TO LURE FIREFIGHTERS TO DEATH

Spengler ignited his deadly blaze with a flare gun that was recovered at the scene, the local NBC affiliate reported.

The sadistic killer was found with a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver, Mossman 12-gauge shotgun and a Bushman semi-automatic AR-15 rifle with 30-shot magazine, police said. Crazed gunman Adam Lanza used the same make of Bushman rifle in the tragic Newtown, CT shooting earlier this month.

As a convicted felon, Spengler had no legal right to possess guns so cops want to trace those weapons.

REUTERS

A house burns after Spengler set fire to it.

Police are exploring connections Spengler and his late mom, Arline, had to the West Webster Fire Department, officials said.

Spengler first torched his family’s home on Lake Road, where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, at around 5:45 a.m. — then lay in wait for his unsuspecting prey.

Crouched like a sniper and armed with a rifle and a handgun, Spengler targeted responding firefighters from behind an earthen berm that gave him a clear shot, said Pickering.

“He took a position of cover to be a sniper to shoot the first responders . . . It does appear it was a trap that was set,’’ a grim-faced Pickering said.

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Miami: We’re still busiest cruise port

Florida’s ports are steaming bow-to-bow in the race to be the world’s businest cruise ship port.

Though some publications have reported Port Canaveral in the lead with 3,761,056 million for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, PortMiami officials Monday said they had hosted 3,774,452 passengers during the same period, putting it slightly ahead. Fort Lauderdale’s PortEverglades reported 3,689,000 passengers for the period, putting it slightly behind the others in third place.

“We’re all very close,’’ said Paula Musto, PortMiami spokeswoman.

PortMiami has slipped below its previous high of 4 million plus passengers because of changing ship deployments, she said. That number is expected to again cruise past 4 million in 2013 as several new ships homeport in Miami.

Jane Wooldridge

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Bomb squad checking “suspicious object” found in MIA luggage

The Miami-Dade Police Department’s specialized bomb squad was checking out a “suspicious” item in a carry-on bag at checkpoint J in the South Terminal of Miami International Airport late Monday morning.

Airport Director Jose Abreu said the security checkpoint and all nearby ticket counters have been evacuated, and passengers rushing to travel for Christmas are being rerouted to checkpoints J and H, also in the South Terminal.

The terminal serves mostly foreign carriers. Abreu called the item a “suspicious object,” and said the bomb squad was on the scene.

A Transportation Security Administration worker found the object inside passenger luggage. Abreu said he believes the person is being interviewed by authorities.

Monday is one of the busiest days of the year, said Abreu. The airport expects more than 100,000 passengers.

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