Visit Florida Removes LGBTQ Travel Section
Tourism is one of Florida’s biggest industries. The state’s official tourism marketing corporation removed the “LGBTQ Travel” section from its website. Visit Florida was created as a public private partnership by the Florida Legislature to be the official source for travel planning for visitors. Gina Duncan is CEO and President of the Pride Chamber in Orlando that promotes the LGBTQ+ businesses community in Central Florida. She joins Engage to discuss the change. We reached out to Visit Florida but did not get a response.
Martian Dust
Mars is a destination for human exploration according to NASA because the Red Planet can teach us about the Earth and help determine whether life exists elsewhere. Mars is dusty, rocky, frigid, and uninhabitable by people. Terraforming it is a process of transforming the planet to be more like Earth so it can support human life. There’s a researcher at UCF working on a new way of terraforming Mars, and part of that research was recently published in the journal Science Advances. Physics Professor and Planetary Scientist Ramses Ramirez develops atmospheric models that simulate habitable planets. He joins Engage to discuss the research and the idea of using Martian dust to warm Mars to make it habitable.
Reggae Festival
Reggae music as we know it emerged from Jamaica in the 1960’s born from an amalgam of jazz, blues and rural island church music. The genre became instantly identifiable by the unusual rhythm with the drums and bass playing off of the downbeat. The lyrics spoke of life in Jamaica, often driven by political messaging. From one end of the Earth to the other, one name emerges as the king of reggae. Bob Marley’s influence cannot be denied.
A Bob Marley cassette brought music into Craig Thompson’s life. The young teen had spent his life in Kingston, Jamaica, and once that bug bit him, there was no turning back. In 2008, at the age of 25, Craig moved to Orlando and begun performing under the name Cacique. Today, Cacique leads Shamanic Rootz, an Orlando based reggae band. On Saturday, Shaminc Rootz will be a headliner at the Reggae Day music festival at Boxi Park in Lake Nona. Cacique joins Engage in studio to talk about his journey from Jamaica and this weekend's performance.
