Posted in Writing, tagged writing, creativity, inspiration, Writers, Thoughts, advice, #365Ways, art, #365Ways2026 on October 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.” — David Bowie
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, community building, creativity, inspiration, librarians, libraries, unsung heroes on October 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
You probably know that it’s the 250th anniversary of the United States, but did you know that this year is also the 150th anniversary of the modern American library system? I didn’t!
To mark the occasion, and to get a better understanding of what life is like for librarians today, reporters went to the annual American Library Association conference in Chicago this summer and interviewed almost 50 librarians about their work. What is it like to be a librarian in America today?
Librarians Discuss the Challenges and Triumphs of Running a Library Today
A lot has changed since the American Library Association was established in 1876 — even just over the past decade. The library has gone from a building full of books to arguably the most versatile civic center in any community lucky enough to have one… But most of all, they want you to know what the library really is: a safe place for people to gather around books, ideas and one another.
The work these often under-appreciated folks do touches so many communities in so many positive ways. Which reminds me, it’s about time to donate to my local library again!
“The misconception about libraries to me is that they feel irrelevant because we’re in a digital information age, but I would say they’re more relevant now than ever before because we’re conflating content with information and information with knowledge.” — Sam Helmick, Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City Public Library
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #MacFellow, art, awards, constructive creativity, creativity, Genius Awards, inspiration, MacArthur Fellows on September 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The 2026 MacArthur Fellows have been announced, and this year’s class is an interesting mix. From climate scientists to fiction writers, historians to chemists and more, the list provides a window into just some of the work being done by smart, enthusiastic, and creative people today.
These Fellows have found ways to capture some of the most important issues of our time, and it’s great to see such varied examples of constructive creativity, and to think of all the other people out there doing good work. Let’s hear it for flashes of genius!
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, astronomy, Hubble, inspiration, NASA, science, Thoughts on September 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This month marked the Hubble telescope’s 200,000 orbit around Earth. That’s a lot of laps!
NASA marks Hubble’s 200,000th orbit around Earth with a stunning image
Hubble has been operating in space for more than 36 years and is still making discoveries. The space agency noted that the telescope has traveled over 5 billion miles around Earth during its lifetime and has made more than 1.7 million total observations.
Click through to the article and the related NASA links to see an image of (checks notes) galaxy cluster MACS J0417, taken the day Hubble crossed that milestone. Here’s to science!
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, art, creativity, inspiration, life, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman
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Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, computers, conflict, decisionmaking, humanity, inspiration, thanks on September 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day, everyone! Perhaps you, like me, could use a refresher? Not to worry, Sam Matey-Coste has us covered.
Petrov was under direct orders to follow protocol and to immediately, without hesitation, report any Oko nuclear launch warning to Soviet high command. Who would then, presumably, launch a nuclear counterattack on the United States. This nuclear World War III would have devastated human civilization, perhaps irrevocably.
Stanislav Petrov disobeyed his orders.
It’s a good story, made even more important because it’s true.
Petrov died in 2017. As one source said at the time, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.”
Let’s hear it for the humanity that still matters, even among the machines.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, action, art, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, writing on September 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Everything depends on the individual human being, regardless of how small a number of like-minded people there is, and everything depends on each person, through action and not mere words, creatively making the meaning of life a reality in his or her own being.” — Viktor Frankl
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, inspiration, learning new things, lessons, math on September 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I’ve always been more of a word person than a math person, but I do enjoy experts who can translate their area of expertise into sharable concepts with roots in what matters for everyday life.
In this (fair warning, very substantive) video, one of the world’s best mathematicians shares some of the “extremely intuitive concepts” that underpin his forthcoming book on, what else? Math!
The world’s greatest mathematician explains 6 essential concepts of math – Big Think
If we didn’t have numbers, we would have to always speak poetically when trying to describe any situation, and it would always be a little bit imprecise, and the next person who’s communicating what you’re saying would get it slightly different. Numbers allow for precision. They are placeholders for concepts like quantity and size and magnitude, into very portable things that you can communicate to other people who may not have directly interacted with the objects you’re describing. And once you try to describe a very complicated scenario with many, many moving parts, you need numbers and everything else that’s born on top of that.
Do I like speaking poetically? I do, but a ten-page description of the state of the world is not terribly useful when it comes to calculating the price of gas.
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, inspiration, NASA, space flight, still special, Thoughts, transportation on September 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Every single crewed mission to space — on one definitive map – Big Think
Future space cowboys and girls, stick this on your wall as you beat a path to the stars. This poster is a snapshot of humanity’s loftiest enterprise so far: making it off-planet. It maps Earth’s main spaceports, the landing sites on the Moon, the highest and farthest orbits traveled by us humans, and the spectacular array of suits and vehicles that got us there.
This poster is a thing that the site sells, but I’m not promoting it as such and you don’t have to buy it to get a look. If you click through to the article above, you’ll see something that I found pretty dramatic: every crewed space mission fits in one little graphic.
There’s a lot going on in this one image, but compared to any other form of human transportation, it really brings home how different space is.
Imagine a visual history of all US train rides since the driving of the Golden Spike in 1869, for example. Or even yesterday.
For me, that realization brings an extra bit of wonder to space flight.
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, Fiction, inspiration, interdependence, Thoughts, world trade, Writers, writing on September 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
For dinner-related reasons, Mr Man and I were recently discussing the humble fish finger. What were they like in childhood, which were the best now, and how does a “fish finger” get made, anyway? Imagine my surprise when I ran across this article on that exact topic. It’s interesting and full of supply-chain related surprises (that “30,000 mile” bit isn’t a typo!).
The 30,000-mile fish finger – by Ed Conway – Material World
This journey, a journey about which most people tucking into their fish fingers today are almost completely oblivious, tells you rather a lot about the way the modern world – what I like to call the Trade World – really works.
I find stories like this fascinating, and they’re also an interesting window into ideas for fictional worlds. If your fantasy kingdom has been around for a couple of centuries, it’s probably part of an international trading network. And that network would be rife with all kinds of history and conflict, complications and opportunities, legal and otherwise.
Just a thought!
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