Code the Road

Google Maps APIs is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Since Google Maps released its APIs to developers 10 years ago, developers have been able to integrate maps and location service to online and mobile apps. It was interesting to hear that a member of a band playing at the 2015 Google I/O Afterhour at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on May 28, 2015 shouted out to Google Maps, among all the Google services, when they recognized the host.

Departing tomorrow afternoon from Google I/O, Google's annual developer conference, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, a 1959 GM tour bus, powered by bio-diesel, is hitting the road for a 14-stop cross-country trip called Code the Road to meet application developers and map creators along the way. The bus will make its first scheduled stop at the iFit ICON Heath and Fitness 5K treadmill run in Logan, Utah on June 2, 2015. From there, the bus will stop in Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Virginia, and Georgia, with the final destination at the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, showcasing many map and location applications developed using Google Maps APIs from iFit, Harley-Davidson, Lyft, Hilton Hotels, The Weather Channel and Walt Disney World.

Outgoing postcard US-3373238 to Germany was sent from the bus when it was parked at the north-east corner of 4th Street and Howard Street, across from Moscone West during Google I/O.

Volkswagen Samba Bus

Postcard US-3202842 from Los Angeles was a vintage travel postcard by Lantern Press showing a Volkswagen Samba Bus cruising along the Los Angeles coast. First produced in 1951, Samba-Bus, also known as Deluxe Microbus, was the most luxurious version of the Volkswagen Transporter T1 with panoramic windows and a fabric roof. It became popular as a hippie bus in the 1960s.

Restoration of Zwolle Station

Postcard NL-2104782 from the Netherlands shows restoration of the Zwolle Station with bus and train services, circa. 1954. Zwolle is the capital of the province of Overijssel, the Netherlands. More recently, the station underwent a major renovation in 2000, which resulted in an increased capacity among the effort to overhaul the entire public transportation systems in the city to serve the bus and train passengers better.

Zwolle was built on a hill overlooking four rivers: the IJssel, Vecht, Aa and Zwarte Water. It has a long history dated back to the Bronze Age period while the city as it is now known was founded around 800 A.D. The compact old city was surrounded by a star-shaped moat traversed by the Zwarte Water which means black water.

Map of Zwolle by Joan Blaeu in Blaeu's "Toonneel der Steden", 1652, from Wikipedia 

Zwolle residents were known as Blauwvingers (Bluefingers) from a folk story dated back to 1682 when the St.Michael's church tower collapsed. The city government was short on cash and had to sell the church bells to neighbouring city Kampen. However, Kampen residents found out the bells were too damaged to be played, after agreeing a high price. In revenge, Kampen residents paid in copper coins of four duiten (the equivalent of 2.5 cents). Distrusting Zwolle people went through a rigorous counting to make sure that they got paid in full. As a result, their fingers had turned blue from the copper after counting this vast amount of coins.

The following video on YouTube shows that Zwolle is really a charming city.

Never Be Fearful About What You Are Doing When It Is Right

Rosa Parks Bus at Henry Ford Museum

Fifty nine years ago on May 17, 1954, United States Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education. That ruling signified a turning point and was a major victory for the civil rights movement.

When I was searching for a postcard for an 8th grade teacher in Taiwan to show her students, I found one marking another historical event in the same era. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, on her bus trip home after work, refused to obey bus driver's order to yield her seat to a white passenger. Her act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern civil rights movement. It resulted in another Supreme Court decision on November 13, 1956 to upheld a district court's ruling to desegregate the buses. The card shows the restored Rosa Parks bus currently on exhibit in Henry Ford Museum.

With a USPS stamp issued on February 4, 2013 to commemorate Rosa Parks' 100th birthday, I hope the card can convey an important message to the students. “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” said Rosa Parks.