Sorry for the light posting these last few weeks. We're adding lot's of new bells, whistles, chutes, ladders, tools, and gizmos to the site.

The posting of local news will pick up shortly. Stay tuned :)

In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, Google added some NASA imagery to the Maps interface -- check out their use of Google Maps technology on Google Moon.

And they have a sense of humor – check out their job posting for their lunar location called Google Copernicus Center.

Update: It's looks like Google's sense of humor is getting more cheesy -- zoom in all the way on the moon image to find out why.

Update 2: We're also playing with a Google Map of Miami, Florida. We're plotting local restaurants, hotels, and real estate. The Miami Map is in beta. The official launch is August 3, 2005.

The NFL has cleared running back Ricky Williams to return to the Miami Dolphins, in time for him to show up to the team's training camp that starts Sunday.

Williams abruptly retired last July, just before training camp, amid speculation of a failed drug test for marijuana. He took the year off, a move that triggered one of the worst seasons in Miami history.

If smoking marijuana is supposed to make you lazy, this sure wasn't the case with Ricky. I used to see him working out in the afteroon on the Beach. I've never seen anyone train that hard before.

He always trained by himself. Come to think of it, they say marijuana also makes you anti-social, so maybe there is some truth there, but Running Backs don't get paid to be the life of the party.

I'm happy he's back.

Source: nbc6

With all the buzz about banking and real estate, we decided to add a Finance section to our News Blog. Our aim is to provide practical information about the buying and selling of real estate, as well as Florida market coverage, and industry tips.

The Finance section will be maintained by my dad, Jim Moore. I'm very excited he's blogging. He's worked in Mortgage and Sales for most of my life.

Having my dad around will be a great contribution to the site, and I know he'll have some fun stories to share.

Welcome aboard, dad.

Incidentlog.com combines data from fire and rescue events across the country with the Google Map. The Miami-Dade County feed is refreshed every 10 minutes. Users can also search by street, and setup alerts, to be notified when incidents happen on streets they wish to monitor.

Future additions will include city-based RSS police/fire/911 feeds, and radius-searching.

Google added a new currency conversion tool to their help page. I just used it to convert "70 miles to kilometers".

Source: Google Help Desk

Gerry Kelly, a longtime veteran of the South Beach nightlife scene, has resigned from his partnership in the State nightclub on Lincoln Road.

In an email, Kelly, writes that he is resigning:

"to develop `SHINE' a new entertainment concept within the Shelborne Hotel."

Kelly said he would be a partner with Shelborne co-owner Jon Cowan, the former music director of Groove Jet and former owner of Nerve, in the venture.

Kelly also writes:

"I will keep you all posted as renovations are completed and we announce our opening dates in November."

Gerry's cool. We wish him best of luck with his new venture.

The Miami Beach City Commission has approved new guidelines for special events. Among its provisions: a key clarification allowing hotels to host some types of events without requiring additional permits.

The new guidelines formally established that common events such as weddings, bar mitzvahs and proms were part of the normal functioning of a hotel and required no additional permits.

In addition, the revisions limit each hotel applicant to five events a year. The changes also impose immediate fines for permit violations and tighten the limitations on which organizations were eligible for waivers of the special events fees.

You can find out about fees and application requirements from the City if Miami Beach's Special Events Division.

For more information contact the Miami Beach Special Events Division at (305) 604-2489.

Source: miamibeachfl.gov

Looking for somthing to do? We've recently added a number of upcoming events to our Miami events calendar. Be sure to check it out!

Officials said eight migrants, including a 4-year-old boy, were found sitting along the Rickenbacker Causeway at 6:30am Wednesday.

The migrants said they left from the east coast of Cuba Tuesday morning and arrived in Florida Wednesday.

The Coast Guard released statistics showing officers have made over 4,600 interceptions at sea this year. Of those, 1,331 were Cuban migrants.

The Coast Guard says in 2001, 777 Cubans were intercepted at sea. In 2004, nearly 1,500 were picked up before reaching the coast.

See pictures at nbc6.

The US Census has released their list of America's fastest-growing cities and not surprisingly, a Florida city tops the list again. But now the attention has moved to the east coast: for years the fastest-growing city was on the west coast, places like Naples or Fort Myers. This year, the honor goes to Port St. Lucie, where the population increased 12 percent between July 1, 2003 and July 1, 2004.

Also making the top 10 list: Miramar, in Broward County, and Cape Coral. The full list of the 25 fastest growing cities is available for download at the Census site, as an Excel document.

Source: US Census

Traffic is bad and it's only getting worse.

If you're tired of waiting in line at toll booths, you can purchase a SunPass and fly through the fast lane of most of toll roads, saving time, money, and the hassle of digging for change.

Here's how to get a SunPass:

1. Decide how you will obtain your SunPass. If you can wait, purchase it online at sunpass.com. You can also mail order one by calling 1-888-TOLL-FLA.

2. If you can't wait and need one right away, you can purchase a SunPass at any service center located on Florida's Turnpike.

3. If you want a SunPass before you even get on the Turnpike, you can purchase one at any Florida CVS or Publix store.

4. If you purchased a SunPass at a retail location, you'll need to activate it before use at - https://www.sunpasssecure.com/retail_account_agreement.cfm.

Tips:

1. SunPass users get discounts on tolls. Check the most recent discount offers at - http://www.sunpass.com/discounts.cfm.

2. Remember to replenish your SunPass to avoid running out of money at the toll booth and risking a fine. You can set up automatic replenishment for your account if you prefer.

3. SunPass users actually pay less for tolls than those who have to wait in line.

Source: sunpass.com

The Learning Channel (TLC) has set up shop in Miami Beach to take viewers inside the world of tattoo artistry in Miami Ink.

"In the series, a motley crew of best friends open and run a custom tattoo parlor. The resident artists — Ami James, Chris Nunez, Chris Garver and Darren Brass — live and work together to promote the art of tattooing while running a new business."

In addition to spotlighting the artists at work, each tattoo in Miami Ink has a story to tell.

Many people get tattoos to signify some pivotal moment or event in their lives. The show will offer insight into each Miami Ink customer and the impetus behind his or her choice of artwork.

The show premieres on Tuesday, July 19, at 10pm on TLC.

Source: TLC, via CriticalMiami

Today I noticed Univision.com added a search box at the top of their portal saying "Optimized by Google" in Spanish. I tried it out, and it's great. What I especially like about the new search engine is being able to switch between English and Spanish results on the fly.

If you chooses to do a search of the www then no matter what language the keyword you use it defaults to Spanish results pages as the first option. If you change a radio button to “Internet (Inglés)” then it searches the English pages on the web.

Recently, we translated much of Miami Beach 411 en Español. Our goal is to be the first bilingual search search engine in Miami.

It's exciting to see so many of our pages appearing in the spanish results by Google.

Source: Univision.com