New $5 Million Penguin Exhibit Opens at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies The gang has arrived in town. Dressed to the nines in black and white tuxedos, the 18 new residents of 88 River Road arrived in darkness on a chilly night in early April. Fast Eddie was first out of the van, followed by Little Joe, Fearless Frank and then Stormin’ Norman. One by one they were shown to their new digs – the new Penguin Playhouse at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. The disgruntled group had just made a 10 hour road trip from New Orleans and they were hungry and tired – and ready for a good swim. Once in their new home, most took immediately to the water. They dove in, speedily darting back and forth as they played in the waves while becoming familiar with their new surroundings. It didn’t take long for their quirky and whimsical personalities to show through. The playful colony of Blackfooted Penguins is now totally acclimated to their home in the new $5 million, state-of-the-art indoor/outdoor... (more...)

Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, Voted America’s Number One Aquarium in the United States, welcomes their new Bowmouth Guitarfish. This incredible fish also known as the “shark ray” has a very distinctive profile and is related to sharks and rays, but mostly stingrays. It looks like a cross between a ray and a shark. The head is flattened and broad like a stingray, while the rest of the body is long and sleek, like a shark. This very special combination is what gives the Bowmouth it’s guitar like silhouette. Often described as prehistoric in appearance, the bowmouth guitarfish’s broad rounded head has several horny ridges on it’s top side. Ripley’s Shark Lagoon exhibit has an under water tunnel and surface viewing which allows their guest unique vantage points to view this animal’s extraordinary features. “The Bowmouth Guitarfish is a great addition to the Aquarium. It is so incredible and it stands out because it swims like a shark, but looks like a guitar when you... (more...)

Professional drivers and motorists can now locate the nearest Pilot Travel Center anywhere in North America with a new free iPhone application introduced this month to users of the popular mobile handset. “We appreciate the fact that many loyal Pilot customers only look for Pilot Travel Centers when they are on the road, and this online tool makes it very easy to find the closest location,” said Lynsay Caylor, Social Media Marketing Manager for the company. Caylor said Pilot plans to add the Pilot Travel Center Locator service to Windows Mobile and Android platforms in the near future so that customers with those widely used handset platforms will have the same ability to find Pilot easily. Pilot customers simply enter the city, state or zip code, and the nearest Pilot locations including interstate exit numbers will pop up on the handset screen. The information will include the traveler’s distance from the location, restaurant information, and the phone number. Locations can also... (more...)

Chris King (center), owner of Green Car & Courier, celebrates his $10,000 award as winner of the Greater Knoxville Business Journal’s 2010 Business in the Green contest at the News Sentinel on April 19, 2010. Joining King are sponsor representatives (from left) Greater Knoxville Business Journal editor Amy Nolan, KUB vice president of communications and environmental stewardship Susan Edwards, Efficient Energy of Tennessee vice president of sales and marketing Harvey Abouelata, and Thermocopy chief financial officer and executive director of sales and marketing Mark DeNicola. King plans to add bicycle courier service for downtown Knoxville businesses with his winnings. Businesses will soon have an energy efficient and environmentally friendly way to make their deliveries – via bicycle. Green Car & Courier plans to launch... (more...)

April 19, 2010 – The concrete has been poured; the parking lot striped, and the skaters are ready to take their wheels to the pavement in Fountain City. The City of Knoxville Parks and Recreation Department will hold the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the long-anticipated Fountain City Skatepark on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 4 p.m. The 7,000 square-foot skate plaza, located on the corner of Maple Drive and Knox Road, has been the focal point of community interest for many in Fountain City and across Knoxville for over three years now. Going back to 2007, the Fountain City Town Hall members have been working with the City and the Legacy Parks Foundation to raise money for the new skatepark. Over $44,000 in private monies from individuals and corporate donors were invested toward the project. Michael Kane, a Fountain City resident and leading advocate for the project, led much of... (more...)

Biologists at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have received confirmation that one Little Brown bat collected from its hibernating refuge in the Park’s White Oak Blowhole cave tested positive for Geomyces destructans [the fungus and the presumptive causative agent of White Nose Syndrome (WNS)]. White Oak Blowhole cave contains the largest known Indiana bat hibernacula in Tennessee. The Indiana bat is a federally listed endangered species which has seen declines in the Northeastern U.S. due to WNS.  White Nose Syndrome has killed in excess of 90% of the bats in many of the caves and mines in the Northeast, and is just now showing up in the Southeast. The fungal infection of one of the two bats collected in the Park was confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI.  In addition to confirming the fungal infection of the Little Brown bat, a common bat species, photographs taken of federally listed Indiana bats in the cave were... (more...)

Do you need a little motivation to get out and enjoy the great outdoors? A new program, “Reward Yourself – Hike the Smokies Challenge” in 2010, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park will help visitors reach individual milestones. The park is distributing mileage record books for free on Sunday, April 25, at Sugarlands and Oconaluftee Visitor Centers between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and at the Cades Cove Visitor Center from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. After April 25, the pocket-size booklets will be available at the three visitor centers for $1.00. The challenge is to keep track and record the mileage from each trail excursion, even if it is the same trail day after day. As a recreational benefit, when a person has “hiked” 100 miles, 250 miles, and 500 miles, he/she can bring their mileage record to one of the three visitor centers to receive a mileage pin and be recorded in the “Hike the Smokies” 2010 web records. A video podcast, Day ... (more...)

April 19, 2010 – To help kick-off Earth Week in Knoxville, Mayor Bill Haslam visited the site of the newest and largest solar installation in the City and joined the owner of Tillery Self-Storage and the founder of Sustainable Future of Knoxville, the system installer, in “flippin’ the switch” to solar power generation for the self-storage company. Tillery Self-Storage, located at 115 Tillery Drive in the City, is the site of Knoxville’s largest commercial solar installation to date. At Tillery, roof mounting was not structurally feasible so a pole-mounted system was designed by Sustainable Future and consists of 7 solar arrays with 18 panels each. PV Systems can be ground mounted, roof mounted, or pole mounted. Sustainable Future installed a 22.05 kW solar photo voltaic grid-tied system at the site which allows... (more...)

Regis Philbin and Neal McCoy help give the Titanic a grand send-off The new Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. had a star-studded weekend-long Grand Opening hosted by Regis Philbin this weekend. The event also featured numerous descendants and family members of those on board the Titanic and included a christening of the ship by Captain Edward J. Smith. The weekend-long Grand Opening Celebration at the new Titanic Museum Attraction included the christening, a special Grand Opening ceremony hosted by Philbin, a free concert by country music legend Neal McCoy, a free concert by Beatles cover band Liverpool Legends (hand-picked and managed by George Harrison’s sister), amazing nightly fireworks displays and special events and performances over a three day period. More than 20,000 guests from all parts of the nation visited the attraction during its opening weekend. During the free evening concerts with Neal McCoy and the Liverpool... (more...)

April 19, 2010 – The City of Knoxville’s Equal Business Opportunity Program is partnering with Knoxville Area Transit, the Public Building Authority and Merit Construction to host an informational breakfast for contractors interested in working on the $2.36 million KAT Renovation project. The free breakfast meeting is set for May 4, at the Associated General Contractors Office at 3306 Ragsdale. It will begin at 7:30 a.m. with the business sessions running from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. Contractors from all trades are invited to attend and are asked to bring a business resume, including references, for the prime contractor, Merit Construction. This project is being completed with funding from the federal American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act and all work will comply with its requirements. Topics at this meeting will include: American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment... (more...)