Breaking the Wave

In keeping up the tradition, the 2015 International CES has a large list of celebrities including Hollywood stars, popular music stars and DJs, sports legends and TV personalities to make appearances on behalf of various vendors in promoting innovative products and technologies and showcasing the new ways for consumers to work, play, connect and access information. 

Garrett McNamara, an American professional big wave surfer, was at the Body Glove Mobile booth today signing autograph. The advertising card, promoting Optrix waterproof, ultra-rugged sport cases for smart phones with optical-grade glass lenses, features Garrett breaking the world record for the largest wave ever surfed at Nazaré, Portugal on Jan 28, 2013. 

See Impossible

The 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opened today in Las Vegas with a record of more than 3,600 exhibitors. CES is known as the place for the vendors to showcase their most-recent cutting-edge technologies. However, the recent trend is that, in addition to the usual hardware displays and technical demos to the buyers and industry affiliates, exhibitors are highlighting what those technologies can do in terms of enhancing creativity, stimulating social changes, and improving people's life.

One example is Canon U.S.A.'s PIXMA PRO City Senses Interactive Gallery that features images created by local photographers, Heather Gill and Emily Wilson from Las Vegas. Visitors can experience through the senses of touch, taste, smell and sound with a Las Vegas theme that have inspired the photographers' work. So far, the PIXMA PRO City Senses Interactive Galleries have featured seven cities: Boston, Austin, Seattle, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. "See Impossible" is the theme for the Canon booth at the 2015 CES.

Audiences are asked to compare their visions with photographers' after listening to the sounds from casino floors in a dark room at the 2015 CES in Las Vegas.

Postcard US-2323219 to USA shows a loving couple with a street bench formed by dancers at Canon Theater in the 2012 CES.

It's Going to be a New Day in Florida

Postcard US-3141369 to USA was a vintage card showing a night scene under the full moon in Florida.

The clock has struck midnight on the East Coast. It marks a new day in Florida as it became the latest of 36 states and Washington D.C. in the U.S. where same-sex couples can now legally marry. Many courthouses in South Florida open overnight to issue marriage licenses and hold wedding ceremonies.

It was a drawn-out battle since the same-sex marriage ban, part of the State Constitution Amendment 2, passed with a 62% voter approval in 2008. In the end, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's many appeals, a bogus legal advice from a private law firm to clerks, and the last minute attempts from a conservative legal group Liberty Counsel, can not turn back tide.

Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5b

Postcard US-3109087 to France shows Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5b, NR7952, at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Amelia Mary Earhart, born July 24, 1897, was an American aviation pioneer. As the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she took off from Newfoundland on May 20, 1932 and landed in Ireland nearly 15 hours later in the above plane, receiving the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this endeavor.

Amelia Mary Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra plane.

According to Wikipedia, She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

12 Months in Japan

Postcard JP-621600 from Japan shows each of the 12 months in a year and its associated custom and activity. I also found a web page that explains the names of months in Japan. Japanese people have a custom of sending New Year's Day postcards (年賀状) to update and greet their friends and relatives whom they could not meet with often in the past year. The Japanese Post Office (日本郵便) guarantees the delivery of the New Year's Day postcards on January 1 if they are posted before the deadline. Coincidentally, this card found its way to my mailbox on December 31, 2014.

True Love is Born from Understanding

Postcard CZ-561866 from Czech shows "Buddha Moon" produced by Tushita, a Germany based calendar and card publishers of ethnic and spiritual editions in the last 30 years, as a Sangha Edition. In Buddhism, Sangha (僧伽) means the monastic community of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns.

At the beginning of the New Year, I found one of the Budda quotes especially telling: "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

Party Like a High Roller, at the High Roller

High Rollers (VIP passengers) got special treatment on the High Roller, the tallest Ferris wheel in the world on New Year's Eve. At the midnight the wheel was halted so that passengers could enjoyed fireworks from 167.6 meters or 550 feet above the ground with a champagne toast. Postcard US-2984268 to Thailand shows the High Roller at The LINQ Promenade, which opened on March 31, 2014.

2015 Fireworks from Caesars Palace with the High Roller in the background.