Things a lot more serious than my coconuts pictures are happening right now... Easy, 2 mouse clicks donations via Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/paypage/PX3BEL97U9A4I.

A few Florida Palm Trees...

A palm tree forest:

The small black spot in the middle of the picture in the sky is a Bald Eagle watching over the forest from its top, a dead tree.

Weeki Wachee means "Little Springs" in the Seminole Indian language. It is a warm springs located about 50miles north of Tampa. The Weeki wachee river is about 6miles long and goes from the springs down to the Gulf of Mexico. This is one of the few places where you have good chances to spot manatees in the wild. They are very sensitive to cold and stay near warm springs in winter such as the Weeki Wachee.
The manatee is the nicest animal you could imagine, slow and harmless, looks like a big sea teddy bear! If you don't know what a manatee is, check here.

Unfortunately, I did not see any manatees that day. It was low tide when I paddled the river and I am guessing the water level was too low for them to swim comfortably. They average 10ft (3m) in length and weigh about half a ton. There are only between 2000 and 3000 manatees left in Florida, it is a relatively small number, compared to over a million alligators, so spotting a manatee is never a guarantee anyways...

The weeki wachee is developped on its downstream third and untouched on the upstream 2/3. I posted a few pictures yesterday of the upstream part. A small tropical paradise awaits you at every turn! Turtles, exotic birds and even alligators, even though I actually did not see any either.
The lower third is not too bad, it is mostly houses build on one side of the river like the one below. I can't believe people live here, I am so jalous!!!

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There is a very extensive canal and river network in this area that looks as important as the road one and it seems like everybody has a boat in its backyard!

Is it winter? Are you cold? Is the sky gray? Is it snowing? These pictures are for you. Hold on tight, spring will come soon!

I am back from a small trip in Florida. I went kayaking the weeki wachee river, a small river on the west coast of Florida, about 50 miles north of Tampa. Aaaaaah, Florida, it is so beautiful that each time I go there, I need a couple week to recover emotionaly;-) Can't wait for retirement!

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Whenever I have the option of doing so, I use "online billing" i.e. I don't receive any bills by regular mail but an email notification that my bill is ready on line and I usually pay with an e-check. You know the old thing of opening a letter, writing a check, posting it, shredding the letter, etc... it is way too much work... Besides don't you hate the fact that you must cut down trees to produce paper? I do!

I have been doing that for years with Citibank and many other companies. Recently, I don't know if they changed their software or what but I received today a regular paper mail from Citibank:

This was in addition of the 2 emails I received yesterday to tell me the same thing (for some reason they are always duplicated). Pfff..... depressing.

Fallout Shelter - Capacity 150.

Old sign on a library wall.

At Roswell, Georgia, the city that has the honor of counting me as one of its tax payers, Holiday decorations are out there!

I am talking about the things attached on the poles in the parking lot if you are wondering... It is written "Holliday Greetings" on it so that you know what it is for. Pitiful! Fortunately, the "people" is here to decorate their houses:-) A few examples:

Classic style:

Retired Delta Airlines Pilot:

The bare minimum:

The christian. I am no religion expert but isn't Jesus supposed to arrive only the 25th? There may be an exception for fluorescent Jesuses:

Nice work on the tree:

Bigger is better:

The jeweler, very shiny:

And even the body shop. Very square, almost manly:

WARNING, technical post. Non-Geeks, you may stop reading now.

It is the beginning of the end for the hashing algorithm MD5 (Message Digest 5). Someone just managed to find a way to modify data in a way that the MD5 digest of the modified data is the same as the one of the original data. It makes a MD5 hash not unique and reverisble anymore, i.e. useless..

Article sur slahsdot.

The consequences are potentially huge. MD5 is not only used by the basic user who wants to validate a file downloaded or by P2P, but also some networking algorithms use it to authenticate packets (HMAC-MD5), even some basic encryption algorithms use MD5, and a lot more..

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Fall lingers in Atlanta. Temperature are pretty mild (60°F/16.5°C today), some trees still have their leaves and it still looks mostly green, like here around the Rice Creek.