Cooking and technology business now offering after-school care

Check out this clay animation movie created over the summer by members of the Young Chefs Academy's summer campers. Then read more about YCA's after-school classes now being offered.

USF Engineering EXPO today, Saturday

The 36th annual University of South Florida Engineering EXPO is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today (Feb. 13) and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 14) at the engineering complex at the school campus, 4202 E Fowler Ave. Elementary, middle and high school students are encouraged to participate as the goal of the event is to educate students on how technology, engineering, math and science affect everyday lives. The expo is open and free to the public. A highlight of the two-day event is the USF College of Engineering Electrathon on Saturday. It will feature about 20 students from the electric car clubs of Middleton, King, Brandon and Tampa Bay Technical high schools racing electric cars they built at the beginning of the school year. The vehicles are similar to go-carts, powered by an electric motor and batteries. The track opens at 8 a.m., the first race starts at 10 and the second race is at 2 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony in the USF College of Engineering parking lot. For information, call Ken Fiallos at (813) 272-4703.

Art display, discussion

The "Audience & Avatar" exhibition brings international artists exploring video games, gaming culture, technology and psychology influences with viewer participation in art. Check out displays by artists including John Paul Bichard, Damiano Colacito, Jon Haddock, and Eva and Franco Mattes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tonight (Oct. 24) in the Contemporary Art Museum at USF, 4202 E Fowler Ave. A reception for the show is 7 to 10 p.m.

The event also features Modifications, a project gallery featuring the works of Brody Condon in the West Gallery. Condon’s art will be on display until Dec. 13.

An artist talk featuring Colacito and Condon is 7 to 8 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall at USF. Call (813) 974-4133.

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Draper Laboratory Technology Expo

Come see what they do. The Draper Laboratory Technology Exposition will feature robotics, biomedical engineering, microelectromechanical systems and more from 1 to 4 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 22) at the Galleria at USF Connect, 3802 Spectrum Blvd.

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Erotic Web site designed for older women

Erotica. Older women. Hunter's Green. Yea, G'han Singh's story has all of that and more. Enjoy!

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Live Oak cable deal becomes national issue

In 2003 a developer, a homeowner association and a cable TV company made a deal that was a portrait of efficiency: A new development, and every house in it, would be wired from the get-go for cable and Internet service. Fees would be collected in bulk through everyone’s homeowner dues. The cable company, blessed with those shortcuts and years of guaranteed money, would keep its prices competitive.

But that deal — and others like it across Florida — are fueling a consumer controversy today that stretches from here to Washington, D.C.

The deal actually was an insider arrangement front to back. The same trio of brothers controlled the developer, the homeowner association and the cable company

They locked the future homeowners in the development, Live Oak Preserve, into at least 10 years of payments to the family-owned cable service, Century Communications

Some of those homeowners preferred Verizon, or satellite hookups. So they paid for those, plus Century. Some never used the Internet. But they still paid Century. Some abandoned their houses to foreclosure. The homeowner association remained on the hook for their fees.

A question about cable

Bright House Networks uses two slogans frequently in their ads: 1. "No long term contract to sign," and 2. "No asterisks -- we're not fond of asterisks." Shouldn't a more truthful slogan be "No long term contract to sign  *unless you live in Live Oak Preserve" ? There, you must have a 10+ year contract.
John Carter, Live Oak Preserve

Sad-ellite radio

Is it just me, or is New Tampa one of the worst areas to get satellite radio reception. It's starting to tick me off!

I find particularly bothersome the stretch of Cross Creek from Bruce B. Downs to Morris Bridge. Sadly, that area marks the last 6 minutes of radio listening I will usually have for the day, so it's a precious, sad, melancholy time for me.

(Okay, fine, so I maybe I love my XM radio a little too much).

But when I make that turn on Cross Creek, I know the gig is up. And without fail, the rest of my ride becomes a mish-mash of silence, silence, some talking, silence, a joke cutoff by silence, more silence, then people laughing at the joke I just missed, then silence, then...well, you get the idea.

Forget about the time I tried to hook up a home unit -- spotty reception, and I'm being kind. And there are lots of other "dead" spots along BBD (heck, I dare you to even try staying on a cell phone call when driving past where the old Tampa Brickhouse used to be. I double dog dare you, in fact).

If it weren't for so many delicious ice cream joints out this way, and the good middle schools, and my family, and my nice house, and Starbucks, and being in between two Publixes, I think I might even consider moving.

-- JOHN C. COTEY
Times staff writer

We are wired, and we need a break

By Maya Vaidya

Admit it. There have been times when you have dropped everything you were doing to watch a video on YouTube. And perhaps there have even been occasions when watching TV for 10 minutes ended up being an hour.

But it’s not your fault, right? That Internet snared you in its web and refused to relinquish its grip. That television show cast a spell on you and put you in a zombie-like trance. You still are completely innocent.
Right?

I too have fallen victim to the enchantments of the Internet and TV. There have been times when I was riveted to the computer or television screen and just could not tear myself away.

Still, I wonder what price we are paying when we give so much importance to the computer and TV. We read news, listen to music, talk to friends, and look up almost everything we have a question about on the net. We schedule our lives at home around the times of our favorite TV shows.

Arrest made in PlayStation murder

Authorities arrested  a Wesley Chapel man accused of shooting and killing his neighbor last month over an argument about a missing PlayStation 3.

Edward Keith Stoddard Jr., 28, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He surrendered without incident just before 9 p.m. Wednesday after the Pasco Sheriff's Office SWAT team surrounded a Dade City home where he was staying. Authorities say they had gotten a tip that Stoddard was at the residence at 38540 Burger Lane.

Stoddard is accused of killing Douglas F. Abrams, Stoddard's neighbor, on Mangrove Drive in Wesley Chapel. Neighbors said Stoddard thought Abrams, 26, stole a PlayStation 3 and television from his mobile home in March.

Witnesses helped deputies identify Stoddard as the man who fled the scene of in the shooting. Authorities had considered Stoddard to be armed and dangerous.

Stoddard is expected to make his first court appearance at 1 p.m. today.

Previous coverage here:

- Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer