What inspires your research?

It's not exactly international history and politics, but interesting nevertheless:

September's National Geographic had a fascinating story about a non-historian who created the Mannahatta Project - an effort to re-envision Manhattan as it was before its discovery by Henry Hudson in 1609 - after seeing an historical map in a coffee table book.

This begs the question: what sources inspire you? Have you found a great research topic in an unusual place? Let us know!