YEAH QUOTES AND RAINBOWS

I really, really, really hate 95% of the quotes people post on Facebook and it's not because I don't like quotes.  I love quotes.  It's just that people get so wrapped up in trying to motivate themselves and others and it just always comes out as fakety fake fake fake.

Personally, I don't look to poems or presidents or the bible for inspiration to be a good person or to motivate me.

So here's something from the book I am reading, For the Love of Physics, that I found inspirational and I so rarely feel inspired by anything.  Blame my generation-WHY?! irreverence; there is nothing I can do about it... to the quote:

Of course I show them to people.  If you know a rainbow could be right in front of you, why not look for it, and why not make sure others see it too? 

- Walter Lewin

So today, I want you to go out there and be WEIRD ENOUGH TO SHOW PEOPLE YOUR RAINBOWS.


You can get the book here, which goes into so much rainbow detail you'll puke and it'll be breathtakingly beautiful, but for now, here's a short lesson in how to find a rainbow:

Stand with your back to the sun.  Look at end of your shadow (your head).  Look up 42º and to the right and left, there you should find a rainbow if conditions are right (sun is low enough, clouds are not obscuring the light, there is moisture across from the sun, etc).


If you want to see more rainbows, check out Atmospheric Optics
and if you're really, really into rainbows, check out the Cloud Appreciation Society, which I did not know until today existed but I'm rather excited about it.  They have a fantastic online gallery.

from National Geographic