“I am convinced that beauty will save the world. Maybe one person at a time, but it will save the world.” Renzo Piano, Italian architect
nature
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One of the least visited national parks in America, Lassen Volcanic National Park, is an hour and half drive from here. Camping at a walk-in site near the entrance affords…
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In the first century, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, working in the great library in Alexandria, produced his earth-centered system of the universe. The Ptolemaic world-view held sway until the 16th…
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A young, homeless-looking man is at my sitting spot on the creek when I arrive late in the afternoon. He’s brought his bike down the bank with him, and a…
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It has become fashionable amongst the intelligentsia to offer an evolutionary apologia for all manner of human unintelligence. Adaptive justifications for obesity, religious belief and even political leanings have become…
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A flock of small birds lands in the shallows, and a few begin furiously beating their wings in the water. More join in, and suddenly there are a dozen birds…
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It’s summer in northern California. People cross the iron footbridge on bikes or foot on a hazy, warm Sunday afternoon. I sit about 75 meters upstream from the bridge, and…
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Overhanging the gorge are great angular outcroppings of volcanic rock—solid and sharp-edged protrusions from some long-ago eruption of Lassen or some other volcano in the area.