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Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

With apologies to turtles. And tortoises. And science.

Today, allow me to refer you to a story from Nature’s Futures, about a put-upon pair of frontline workers and the genetically-modified reptile who captured their hearts.

Clean-up on Planet 9 by Carol Scheina

A giant sea turtle swimming in a building-sized aquarium. Fields of toothy purple flowers. Goddamn dollhouse-sized pine forests. Quite a bit wasn’t the size or shape it was supposed to be.

While I appreciate the author’s discussion of her inspiration for the story, I can’t help but think that it could also be (at least distantly) related to the mysterious origins of the dimension-hopping tortoise* in my own story, “The T-4200.”

Sadly, “The T-4200” is not currently available online, but this story inspired me to send it off to a reprint market. Fingers crossed!

* I know, while a turtle and a tortoise are both members of the Testudine family of reptiles, they are not the same. Still (and with apologies to all right-thinking scientists out there), the story already adds animal-based faster-than-light travel, so I’m just going to go with it.

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Photo by Josh Miller on Unsplash

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“The chief obstacle to a woman’s success is that she can never have a wife.”

— Anna Lea Merritt (19th Century Artist), Lipincott’s Magazine (thankfully, this is no longer true everywhere)

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The path to success has always been difficult for many artists, and much more so for women. Given that it is International Women’s Day and I am from Pennsylvania, I thought I’d share the story of one group of women who looked at the crappy hand they’d been dealt and said, “Thanks, but we’ll find a better way.”

This is the story of the talented Victorian girl gang known as The Red Rose Girls.

Clubhouse Goals with the Red Rose Girls

While renting out the Red Rose Inn in Philadelphia, they lived on their own terms exploring the benefits [of] a communal all-female household. And at a time when women were barely even permitted to attend art school, they enriched each others careers and thrived together as self-sufficient artists.

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Photo by Heidi Kaden on Unsplash

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Short on time but still want to explore the wonders of the universe? Check out Dust, an outlet for short sci-fi videos:

The YouTube Channel Sci-Fi Fans Need To Watch – CNET

…Dust’s absolutely balling YouTube channel, which functions as a receptacle for hundreds upon hundreds of sci-fi shorts with surprisingly high production values. If you’re a fan of sci-fi and you have around 15 minutes to kill, I 100% recommend hopping onto Dust and hitting play on pretty much anything. … As a spot for aspiring filmmakers to show off their talents, Dust’s videos mostly feature high-concept sci-fi – sort of like a post-modern Twilight Zone for zoomers. Almost all have surprisingly good special effects, decent acting performances and – above all – come bursting with grand ideas.

Have fun out there!

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Photo by Alex Shuper on Unsplash

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It’s been just over two years since the Perseverance rover began its quest on Mars. What’s it been up to? A lot, but this article has a summary and link to the whole of its adventure (so far) distilled into a time-lapse video.

Follow Perseverance on Its Mars Journey With This Two-Year Timelapse – Universe Today

The rover has now traveled almost 15 km (9 miles). In addition to studying numerous rocks, it has also collected and stowed away 18 sample containers of rocks, regolith, and even the Martian atmosphere, to be gathered later and brought to Earth in a future Mars Sample Return mission.

For more cool stuff like a Mars photo booth, check out NASA’s Perseverance’s Highlights and Dr. Sunanda Sharma’s talk about Perseverance- Two Years on Mars.

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Chewie on Mars: “What do you mean, this isn’t a new chew toy?”

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It has been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainians have been stronger, more determined, courageous, resourceful and resilient than any external observers expected. The fact that they have to be these things is terrible. The fact that they continue to be these things is glorious. 

Today, a collection of photo retrospectives and readings about the conflict and what’s at stake.

Time for me to donate to one of the many organizations working to help those affected by this war. World Central Kitchen remains one of my favorites.

Glory to Ukraine!

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Photo by Daria Volkova on Unsplash

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If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to fly, here’s a little taste…

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Photo by Jeff Tumale on Unsplash

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I started multiple posts today (mackerel? Winnie the Pooh? cracking CIA kiddie codes?) but none seemed quite right. I think I’ll go shovel some snow and see if that gets my mind going.

In the meantime, here’s a piece about the usefulness of science fiction in the nonfictional world.

Connecting Science Fiction to Science Policy by Avital Percher

Science fiction can help the science policy community envision both where we end up as well as how we get there. As our social-technological problems grow ever more complex, we need a range of stories that spans the human experience and even beyond. How will we leverage new tools to improve equity and democracy in society? Science fiction can help us imagine future possibilities, opening not just our minds but our hearts as well.

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Photo by Dylan Shaw on Unsplash

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Inquiring minds want to know!

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Photo by Laurent Grattepanche on Unsplash

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“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

— Charles M. Schulz

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Photo by paul walker on Unsplash

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Hello! So nice of you to stop by and see what’s up on this Mondayest of Mondays. I’m a little busy and I don’t want to bore you, so perhaps you might enjoy a bit of cultural enrichment? Maybe learn a bit about a master like Vermeer? 

I just discovered that the Rijksmuseum has an online tour of Vermeer’s work and world narrated by Stephen Fry. Sounds fun, right?

Closer to Johannes Vermeer – Rijksmuseum

I enjoy Vermeer’s paintings because 1) that light, so amazing, and 2) he captured the details of regular people doing regular things. Not always, of course, an artist still has to pay the bills, but enough to pass on the sense of real people doing real things. 

Art as time travel, is how I like to think of it.

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Photo by JJ Jordan on Unsplash

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