SLAC – Longest Linear Accelerator

SLAC

Looking down the hall of the 2 mile long straight building at Stanford’s linear accelerator. Straight, not level. The guide said if it was level it would follow the Earth’s curve and at 2 miles long it would then be about 12 inches off of straight at the end. This building was designed to be straight because a couple of stories below ground, under this support equipment that the building is housing, is a long tube that is designed to accelerate particles very near the speed of light. And those particles go straight. You don’t get too many opportunities to look down so perfect an example of a diminishing perspective through distance.

SLAC

This is the outside of the building, looking down the exact same stretch as seen in the inside photo above it. You can see highway 280 going over the linear accelerator as a bridge not too far ahead in the photo.

SLAC

Our tour guide took us to a newer building added down the end of the accelerator where x-rays generated by the accelerated particles are used for modern research. The accelerator was running throughout this whole visit, and does so through most hours of most days of the year. And so, behind the tour guide in the above photo, here a few stories under ground, x-rays are flying through the labs in a horizontal tube that I pointed out with the added blue arrow. These x-rays are used in the various experiments going on in the numerous rooms of SLAC.

There is something wonderful about humans working together on huge ambitious projects to advance our understanding of the universe. And it is pretty great to get to look at these projects and to consider what they do and how they do it.

SLAC

Coming back up to the surface, surrounded by California.

Live Painted Murals at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds

These murals were painted live in front of the community while enjoying the 2023 County Fair.

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Hector Covarrubias (https://www.instagram.com/cova____/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Dee-meh (https://www.instagram.com/ladimeuna/), Priscilla Marquez (https://instagram.com/priscillasarte/reels/), and Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz (https://www.instagram.com/shishi.madriz/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Driftin (https://driftin.one/produce).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Arsenio Baca (https://www.abacaart.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Jessica (https://www.instagram.com/jcaoart/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Eddie Ramirez (https://www.eddieramirezart.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Demetris BAMR Washington (https://www.bamrtheartist.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Ricardo Richey – APEXER (https://theapexer.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Robert Nexus-Nexx Ortiz (https://www.instagram.com/og_nexus_408/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Jesse Hernandez – Urban Aztec (http://www.jessehernandez.net/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Norman Chuck – Vogue (https://www.voguesworld.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Raiz (https://www.pablosomething.com/) and Pancho Pescador (https://www.instagram.com/panchopescador/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Elba Raquel (https://www.elbaraquel.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Cities of Santa Clara County Murals

At the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, there is a building with murals for its cities and towns.

San Jose by Mario Dimas (https://www.instagram.com/mariodimasart/).

Santa Clara by Kelly Detweiler (https://www.instagram.com/kdetweilerart/).

Gilroy by Sheryl Cathers (https://www.instagram.com/sheryl_cathers/).

Los Gatos by Bhavana Misra (https://bhavnamisra.com/).

Palo Alto by Megan Sara Stevens (https://www.artistmegansara.com/).

Mountain View by Scape Martinez (https://www.sm-artgroup.com/).

Sunnyvale by a collaboration of artists; Ketaki Adi, La Vonne Carrick, Angelo Lopez, Deepti Nanawati, Penny Nolan, Kanchan Paranjpe, Jayashree Sadasivan, Neela Shukla, Ishwarryah SR, Jenny Tang.

Los Altos by Morgan Bricca (https://morganmurals.com/).

Campbell by Pam Mossing (https://www.facebook.com/pammossingmurals/photos_by).

Milpitas by Francisco Ramirez (https://www.instagram.com/fco1980/).

Cupertino by Joseph Demaree (https://idiomism.wixsite.com/josephdemaree).

Saratoga by Greg Cheung.

Los Altos Hills by Tanya Fisher (https://www.tanyafisher.art/).

Morgan Hill by Paul J. Gonzalez (https://pauljgonzalezartstudios.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Monte Sereno is at the end of the building and is five murals around a doorway that focus on painter Thomas Kinkade who had lived there. These murals above were by Kachan Paranjpe Khadikar and Ketaki Adi. The following ones were, in the order shown, by Joseph Demaree, Francisco Ramirez, and Lila Gemellos.

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Cabbage at the Library

Cabbage Sculpture

From the street of San Tomas Aquino Rd. I assumed I was looking at a simple, though attractive, vegetable sculpture. Then I got closer and saw there was more to it. Notice the roof of this library has a rain spout directed to the top of the sculpture. Then, looking closer I saw that the sculpture has curves that channel water and a drain near its base. It is a part of the rain water drain path! That is just neat. I found that the artist Elizabeth Conner (https://elizabethconner.com/section/348652-Public-Art.html) calls this work “Cabbage”.

Cabbage Sculpture

From the top you can see how the water is channeled all around the grooves of the sculpture’s leaves as it flows down towards the drain.

Cabbage Sculpture

Waterways work their away around it all and it has integrated lights to backlight the leaves at night.

Cabbage Sculpture

I like looking at this and hope to be near it when it is raining some day.