Hike - Rodney Falls & Pool of WInds

Hiked with friends to Rodney Falls and Pool of Winds on the Hamilton Mountain trail. According to the trailhead sign, the hike to Rodney Falls is a moderately difficult hike of only about 1.25 miles. The Pool of Winds lies at the foot of Rodney Falls where there's a small natural viewing area that makes it possible to look into the narrow opening where the pool is. 

The water falling into the pool pushes the air out of a narrow opening resulting in a rush of wind; hence the name, "Pool of Winds". The water then cascades down a long slope sounding similar to a jet airplane taking off. Both Rodney Falls and Pool of Winds are awesome and well worth the hike. Going on a weekday worked out

nice since the trail is quite popular and can get crowded. The trail was a bit muddy in places with a down tree in one spot. Otherwise, easy peasy. 

Book Review - The Wizard and the Prophet

Title - The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World 

Author: Charles C. Mann

My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review:

Description (Audible): In 40 years, Earth's population will reach 10 billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups - Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Cut back! was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose! The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate! was Borlaug's cry. Only in that way can everyone win! Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces - food, water, energy, climate change - grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilization on the line, the author's insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.

Description (ChatGPT): The Wizard and the Prophet pits two towering figures of science—Norman Borlaug, the "wizard" of agricultural innovation, and Jens Bjørnest, the "prophet" of environmental caution—against each other in a compelling intellectual duel that could rival any fantasy saga. As Borlaug pushes us to feed the world through technological wizardry, Bjørnest warns of the ecological cost, advocating for a more restrained, sustainable path. This book is like a high-stakes game of chess, where each move could determine the future of humanity. Poignant, thought-provoking, and often surprising, it’s the kind of read that will leave you rethinking the balance between innovation and preservation... and possibly wondering if there’s a third way—like a "wizard-prophet hybrid"—that could save us all. A brilliant mix of history, science, and philosophy, this book challenges you to think about how we want the world to look—and how far we're willing to go to make it happen.

Happy Lunar New Year 2024

February 10, 2024 marked the first day of the Chinese New Year and Year of the Dragon. The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year is China's most important festival. I don't normally celebrate the Chinese New Year but this year decided to check out the celebrations at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon. Portland has some pretty cool gardens and I'd have to say, Lan Su Chinese Garden is one of the coolest. This was my fourth time visiting the garden and first time during the Chinese New Year celebration. Some of the highlights included -

• Large-scale lanterns including pandas and dragons
• Newly remodeled Chinese teahouse
• Live music played on a two-stringed Chinese Erhu
• Lion dances (missed this one)

Things I Learned On This Day (#TILOTD) –

• Lan Su Chinese Garden "is a walled Chinese garden enclosing a full city block, roughly 40,000 square feet (4,000 m2) in the Chinatown area of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. The garden is influenced by many of the famous classical gardens in Suzhou."  
• The Chinese New Year, is based on the Chinese calendar and uses a 12-year cycle of animal signs to represent each Chinese year. The twelve animals that represent each year of the Chinese zodiac are: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig, in that order. The animals are associated with various characteristics, such as luck, wealth, and good fortune. After every 12 years, the Zodiac Animals in the Chinese Calendar repeat themselves with a new Element each year. This amalgamation of twelve animals with five different elements goes on for a period of 60 years, creating 60 unique combinations.
• 
  I was born in the year of the dragon! 
  

Book Review - Facing East from Indian Country

Title - Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Author: Daniel K. Richter

My Rating: 👍👍👍👍
My Review:

Description (Audible): In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers. Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus, Native people controlled most of eastern North America and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Daniel K. Richter keeps Native people center-stage throughout the story of the origins of the United States. Viewed from Indian country, the 16th century was an era in which Native people discovered Europeans and struggled to make sense of a new world. Well into the 17th century, the most profound challenges to Indian life came less from the arrival of a relative handful of European colonists than from the biological, economic, and environmental forces the newcomers unleashed. Drawing upon their own traditions, Indian communities reinvented themselves and carved out a place in a world dominated by transatlantic European empires. In 1776, however, when some of Britain's colonists rebelled against that imperial world, they overturned the system that had made Euro-American and Native coexistence possible. Eastern North America only ceased to be an Indian country because the revolutionaries denied the continent's first peoples a place in the nation they were creating. In rediscovering early America as Indian country, Richter employs the historian's craft to challenge cherished assumptions about times and places we thought we knew well, revealing Native American experiences at the core of the nation's birth and identity.

Description (ChatGPT): Facing East from Indian Country flips the script on traditional American history, offering a refreshingly bold perspective from the Native side of the story. Rather than focusing on settlers and their journey westward, historian Daniel K. Richter invites us to see early America through the eyes of Indigenous peoples looking eastward—toward the encroaching tide of European colonization. With sharp insight and historical rigor, Richter reveals the complex and often overlooked narratives of resistance, adaptation, and survival. It’s a history that doesn’t just challenge the dominant narrative, it rewrites it with wit and authority, forcing us to rethink who the "first Americans" really were—and still are. Prepare to face a new, more nuanced version of American history, one that refuses to be flattened by the myths of the past.