Florida,USA
Created | Updated Jan 15, 2011
The state of Florida sits in the lower right corner of North America like a stocking dangling from Georgia's ankle. 
Located between Latitudes 25°N and 31°N there is no state in the Continental U.S. that reaches farther south. The main seasons are
Tourist Season
(late October through Easter), and
Hurricane Season (June 1 through November 30). Each year multitudes come there to visit its beaches and theme parks.
Florida statistics
Area: 65,758 square miles (170,300 km2)
of this 11,761 sq. miles (30,460 km 2) is water
Length: 500 mi. (805 km)
Width 160 mi. (257 km)
Population 18,801,310
State Tree: Sabal Palm
State Bird: Mockingbird
State Beverage: Orange Juice
State Reptile: American Alligator
Climate
During winter the temperatures rarely go below freezing except in central areas like Lakeland. In summer however the direct rays of the sun are brutal. During June the most direct rays of sunlight in New York are at a 65 degree angle. Meanwhile in Miami the sun is almost directly overhead. Perhaps they should consider changing the state drink to something that fights dehydration. The sports drink Gatorade was invented in Gainesville Florida for that purpose by a football coach for the Florida Gators.
All this UV exposure is very telling on the lifelong residents. The dry wrinkled appearance is a clear indication that someone has spent many years here. Hurricanes can do more damage in this Peninsula than almost anywhere else in the U.S. because of its location between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Yet this is the climate many people choose to retire to in their senior years. And so of the 18,801,310 1 Floridians over three million of them are 65 or older.
Their blood is thinned by the heat and they would rather face skin damage than frostbite, hurricanes than snowstorms, and wear sunblock rather than parkas. Others known as snowbirds split their year spending the summer half up north and the winter half in Florida.
While known as the Sunshine State only Louisiana has more rain. However these rains usually last but a few hours. Lightning is also intense in Florida and even Louisiana does not have as many people struck by lightning as Florida.
Topography of Florida
Unlike Cuba whose mountains make a real impediment
to any hurricane
passing through, the state of Florida is mostly flat. Its highest points are Britton Hill near the Alabama border(345 ft), Sugarloaf near Orlando(312 ft) , and Mt. Trashmore where Dade county dumps its garbage (149 ft). More than half of Florida is less than 100 feet above sea level. Also found here are sinkholes and springs some of which have become state parks like Ginnie Springs Wilderness Park. In the toe of this sock sits the Everglades, the world's largest swamp (which has some of the world's largest mosquitoes).
History
This state was discovered,and named, by Don Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. It was populated in the late 1800s by a couple of railroad tycoons who wanted some land to sell to old people. By the 1950s, air conditioning made Florida liveable except during hurricanes.
Florida became part of the U.S. under the fifth President (James Monroe) and had a territorial government alternately meeting in Pensacola and St. Augustine. These leaders decided to put the capital half way in between and named it Tallahassee from a Creek word ( although there were no Creeks living there just Seminoles)
This government did not have enough funds to build a proper Capitol Building and had to go to Congress several times for more money.
They finally got it built just before Florida became a state in 1845.
Fifteen years later they showed their gratitude to Congress by signing the "ordinance of secession" and leaving the US to join the Confederate States of America
. This was annulled five years later and Florida got a new constitution in 1868.
A State Seal adopted in 1865 had so many errors that it was finally revised in 1970. Among its errors was a plains indian woman wearing a headdress. The Seminoles meanwhile were seeking monetary compensation for letting the white man steal their land.
The official state flag
was adopted in 1890 with the Seal on a white background. The red bars (also known as St. Patricks Cross) were added ten years later. Reminiscent of the confederate battle flag one source said they added these so the flag did not look like a white flag of surrender.
This was also the time when a couple of tycoons advertised land for sale and made huge profits selling cheap land to whoever was gullible enough to buy it.
Later an inrush of retirees pushed the population centre southward, and in the early nineteen-seventies Disney World opened turning huge sections of orange groves into theme parks.
The Present
Today, theme parks,golf courses, gated communities, and mobile home parks are rapidly replacing the orange groves,mangrove swamps, and saw palmetto.
Many authors including John D. MacDonald and Randy Wayne White have used Florida as an integral part of their novels. It is the home of Jimmy Buffett. It is also home to drug dealers, Cuban nationalists, and some crusty old hicks that they call crackers.
Florida is also where U.S. spacecraft are launched from. Knowing, however, the Floridian tendency of getting things wrong, NASA decided to give control of the rockets to the
Johnson Space Center
in Texas rather than having them controlled from Cape Canaveral.
During the 2000 Elections Florida was first listed as going Democratic, then changed to undecided, then changed to give its electoral votes to George W. Bush who just happened to be the Governor's brother.
There is also a sizable population of homosexuals which prompted Disney World to start "Gay Pride Week" Which in turn caused a backlash from the even larger Southern Baptist population.
Florida is one state that uses the death penalty. They also allow concealed weapons and a 2005 change in Florida law said that in self defense an armed person can use their gun and kill without backing off a confrontation. Perhaps at Disney World some year the gays and the baptists will have a shootout and decrease the surplus population of both groups.
The Future
One Key West resident told the NY Times that house insurance had gone to $14,742 for a small home. Many insurance companies will no longer cover property on the Florida coast and with private insurers jumping ship the state has had to divert three-fourth of a billion dollars to cover the breach.
What with global warming and the Republican mindset of ignoring same, the land area of Florida a hundred years from now may be a fraction of its present size. Under worst case scenarios the oceans may rise hundreds of feet. Even a small change like two meters would have a profound impact. Any significant rise will convert places like Miami to underwater museums. 
As the intensity of hurricanes increase,
more and more of its citizens and businesses will choose to move elsewhere, which will shrink the state population. It is doubtful,however, that it will ever return to the 1950 population of 2,771,305 people.
