Category: Technology

Street Sign Correction

Sally Ride Dr.
Dr. Sally Ride Drive street sign at a city intersection
The road I drive on daily with the Sally Ride Dr. sign is a simple double lane road that runs through an office park area. The area does not look like the image above, however, the street sign in this image generated picture is exactly how I think the sign I pass daily should be written.

This re-blogged post is from September 15, 2024. Today I decided to repost it with an image generated image of how I think the street sign should be written. Below you will see a picture of the real-life sign.)

Happy 11th Anniversary!

“Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!

You registered on WordPress.com 11 years ago.

Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.”

More realistic celebratory digital journey landscape
This looks a little like a marble game I played as a child. My uncle liked to send games for Christmas.

It is hard to believe that it has been 11 years. I started blogging for self-therapy. Now, I blog because it entertains me while tending to my responsibilities. Visiting a virtual world can break the monotony of my real world. (Thank you to WordPress.)

I will not make any predictions about this blog’s future other than I have paid for the year ahead.

Holy Moly!

White flowering plant with exposed roots in an enchanted forest
White blossoms rise from twisted roots in a glowing, mushroom-filled forest.
Batman and Robin driving a Batmobile through a city at night
Batman and Robin speed through a city skyline in their retro Batmobile comic scene.

The word moly does not stand alone as a single word except in myth. There is a magical herb in mythology called moly. In The Odyssey moly is a magical herb given to Odysseus by the god Hermes to protect him from Circe’s magic.

Several years ago I read the book Circe written by Madeline Miller, and moly is a magical plant that is also mentioned in this book. This mention carries forward the mystery of moly. Many botanists have tried to determine if there ever existed such an herb like it is described in these books. Nothing can be established conclusively, and it remains a mystery, though several theories do exist.

I remember watching Batman cartoons when I was a kid, and Robin would frequently use the phrase, “Holy Moly, Batman”, to express his surprise or shock about what was happening around them.

Molybdenum Mo, atomic number 42, electron configuration [Kr] 4d⁵ 5s¹
A futuristic infographic explores molybdenum’s atomic structure, electron configuration, and metallic crystal form.
No. 74 Moly Alloy Racing prototype car cornering on a racetrack
The No. 74 Moly Alloy Racing prototype accelerates through a sunlit circuit corner.

In real life there is the chemical element Molybdenum. It is a silvery white transition metal. It has many industrial uses. One use is to create an alloy called “moly steel”, and this is a high strength alloy that is often used to build race cars.

All the images and their captions were created by the WordPress image generator. I did provide prompts, though nothing as specific as what it creates. I find this fascinating, and I often want to exclaim, Holy Moly!

The Oldest Surviving American School Bus

This picture is from The Henry Ford Museum. https://thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/357533
As I was thinking about going back to work, and about the students coming back to school this year (2025), I wondered about the history of the school bus. It is interesting to see the yellow color has survived multiple upgrades of the American school bus. In American history 7th graders will learn about Henry Ford and his model-T car. Go to the museum link I have provided in the caption under the picture of the Blue Bird No.1., and you will be able to read more about the oldest surviving school bus in America.

Fortunately for students today the buses are much safer and more comfortable than back in 1927. I hope everyone has a good beginning to this school year 2025.

I know I have a picture of my daughter getting on a school bus for the first time, however, I could not find the picture at this time, though I did find a picture of her on her first bike with training wheels. I also found a picture of Ivan the giraffe from our visit to the San Diego Safari Park. I have added the picture to my post about date palm trees, and I found a picture of my daughter and my mother at the Anne of Green Gable house on Prince Edward Island, and I have added this picture to my last Sunday Reflection post.

Sally Ride Dr.

This is an AI generated image. The prompt was “general dynamics artificial intelligence.” I was curious how AI would picture artificial intelligence.

I pass Sally Ride Dr. almost every day I drive home. Occasionally I take a different route. This past Friday I finally wondered what was located on this road. I looked it up to discover a General Dynamics location was there.

I knew the name Sally Ride because she was an incredibly accomplished woman who worked for NASA as an astronaut for several years. She had a long and impressive resume. Sadly, she is no longer alive, though her legacy lives on. Today I discovered one of her projects which coincidentally is specifically for middle school students. Here is the link. (Update 9/15/26 — I deleted the link because it no longer works.)

The name of this drive has been in my mind all weekend. I learned that Dr. Sally Ride graduated from Stanford University in 1973 with a double major in Physics and English. She continued at Stanford, earning her Master of Science and doctorate degrees in physics in 1975 and 1978. In 1977, Ride answered a newspaper ad placed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

After learning this I think they should rename the road: Dr. Sally Ride Dr. This would make me smile.

I am a little hooked on using the AI image generator. I wanted a picture here, so I indulged my curiosity. Here it is alone at the office working unassisted.

 

The Spin is All that Matters

I ran across a bag of wooden spools the other day. They were in a box of odds and ends that had made it into our garage when we were cleaning out my mother in law’s house of forty years. She has been gone for many years now, and yet her memory is still alive in various things we still have around.

The wooden spools are all bare now. All the thread was used up in antique wares. I’m sure they were saved in hopes of being made into future crafts. They could be used since their simple beauty was still apparent. The wooden spools had been made from dead biological life, and thus they still had value.

Long before the wood was cut and shaped, it pulsed with life and color, and with a continuous exchange of gases from within and without. These spools are cylindrical in shape with a hole that runs from end to end. They can be linked together to form a chain. They can be made into decorations, and strung around a living tree, still breathing and growing. They can be assembled with other materials to make a vehicle since all spools can roll.

There is a big hand in all of this, coordinating, designing, and engineering all of it. A mind is needed to oversee it all. I call this mind, God, and I like to sit and contemplate his intentions. I think God is the original, the first and the ultimate one to recycle and reuse. To him the Blue Planet is a woman, and she is still a work in progress for him. His mind has become entangled with hers, and he cannot let go of her, at least not yet. His death will be her death and vice versa.