inspiration | J.R. Johnson

Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

Magic, Magic Everywhere

Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, magic, state parks, swamp, Thoughts, Virginia on September 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes you might look at the world and see only the meh, the drab, the muddy exteriors of your surroundings. It’s Tuesday, I get it.

But when the light is just right or you’re a little less tired and you take an extra moment to look deeper, you may find magic just waiting to be discovered.

Here’s one example; click through for photos, which are amazing.

Rainbow swamp: The flooded forest in Virginia that puts on a magical light show every winter

Every winter, when sunlight hits at the right angle, visitors to Virginia’s First Landing State Park are treated to a mesmerizing rainbow light show courtesy of the park’s bald cypress swamp.

I ran across this article and immediately wanted to know more. You too? Here you go!

An Array of Colors at First Landing State Park – State Parks Blogs

If you happen to visit First Landing State Park at just the right time, you might see people transfixed at the edge of one of the cypress swamps. I’ve been there and excitedly said aloud, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!” to no one in particular, while wearing a very silly grin. Why you ask? Because I saw this rainbow water for the first time.

What an incredible world.

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How It Feels

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.

— Michelle Obama

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Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on *Unsplash*

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Obviously!

Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, climate change, creativity, environment, genre fiction, innovation, inspiration, Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction, technology, Thoughts, writing on September 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Today’s question of the day:

BBC World Service – The Climate Question, Can Science Fiction help us fight climate change?

The acclaimed US sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson is also a star in the world of climate activism because his work often features climate change – on Earth and beyond. Robinson has been a guest speaker at the COP climate summit, and novels such as The Ministry For The Future and The Mars Trilogy are admired by everyone from Barack Obama to former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.

Now, the answer to this question seems fairly self-evident to me. I see innovation as a conversation, in a way, between what is and what we can imagine will be. And fiction is excellent at helping us imagine new and better worlds.

Other examples of sci-fi ideas made real:

Ten Inventions Inspired by Science Fiction | Smithsonian

6 scientific innovations inspired by science fiction

10 ‘Star Trek’ Technologies That Actually Came True | HowStuffWorks

Look around you. What are our technological and social capabilities? What are our needs? And what do you think we’ll invent next?

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Ever Curious

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on September 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.”

— Stephen Hawking

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This Could Get Tricky

Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, biology, color, inspiration, perception, Thoughts on September 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Mr Man and I recently went on the hunt for the perfect blue gift for a friend. We did eventually find a beautiful piece of handblown glass in a dark blue with silver flecks. Lovely.

The only issue, we later discovered, was that our goal should have been a color that was closer to teal. So not the deep blue of a falling dark sky, but the vibrant green-tinged hues of a Caribbean sea over a white sand beach.

Regardless, the piece was still pretty. And it brought up the question of whether one person’s idea of blue is the same as another’s.

And then this site came across my desk: Is My Blue Your Blue?

If you think the page color is blue, click the button at the bottom right. If you think it’s green, click the bottom left. And don’t be surprised when it starts to get tricky!

For more on this topic, check out this article on the variability in color perception, and interpretation, in humans.

The science of color perception

A lot of factors feed into how people perceive and talk about color, from the biology of our eyes to how our brains process that information, to the words our languages use to talk about color categories. There’s plenty of room for differences, all along the way.

For example, most people have three types of cones — light receptors in the eye that are optimized to detect different wavelengths or colors of light. But sometimes, a genetic variation can cause one type of cone to be different, or absent altogether, leading to altered color vision. Some people are color-blind. Others may have color superpowers.

Superpowers? Yes, please!

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This Beautiful Dance

Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, geology, inspiration, science, Thoughts on September 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

How did we get the landscape that we have today? I’m talking the big stuff, geology, not horticulture. Plate tectonics. We all know what Earth looks like now, but how did we get here?

This animation starts with the world we recognize, then rolls back time to show how the planet’s macrostructure has changed. Fun, right?

Witness 1.8 billion years of tectonic plates dance across Earth’s surface in a new animation

Mapping our planet through its long history creates a beautiful continental dance — mesmerising in itself and a work of natural art.

It’s a beautiful dance.

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Hey September, What’s Up?

Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, astronomy, inspiration, NASA, science on September 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

If you’re the sort of person who enjoys looking up, you might like this list of September skywatching tips from NASA.

What’s on the roster? Another supermoon, a partial lunar eclipse, Saturn doing its ring thing, and something called International Observe the Moon Night, plus more more more.

Check out the article or watch the video here:

Have fun!

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Tinged in Red

Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, fall, inspiration, nature on September 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Nights are cooler, the afternoon sky is a crisp blue, and the outermost leaves of the giant maple tree across the street are tinged in red. It must be time for fall foliage predictions!

Fall foliage map: When and where to expect autumn colors

Click through for animated maps and links to more info, explainers, and a printable coloring book for the kiddos (or you, I don’t judge!).

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We Are Connected

Posted in Holidays, Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts on September 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”

― Albert Einstein

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