This post is of a different style – instead of discussing some issue, I’m using this forum to outline briefly three subjects that touched me over the past week.  And, while each subject area merits a more in depth treatment, I’ve boiled down prospective discussions to simple questions.

College choice:

On a day hike last week with a high school junior in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows, we discussed college choices and her criteria (colder climate, good English dept., caring community, etc.).  She wants to make the best choice but doesn’t yet have a structured

Easy to smile a lot when it’s a beautiful day & you’re in Yosemite’s great Tuolumne Meadows.

approach to making that choice.  Is there one?  I wonder….In my own case, I remember being uncertain and also not having any particularly rational approach to picking a school.  The deciding factor was a childhood & high school teammate who was a freshman at Princeton and said “If you get into Princeton*, you’re crazy to go anywhere else.”  That sealed it.

*which I had by then

Question #1: Is there an accepted best practices approach for a high school student to select a college?

Place names:

Later in the day of that Yosemite hike, I continued by car east through the park to Mono Lake, a large subject of its own, and then headed south on US #395, an especially scenic drive.  The next day I took another day hike, this one from the Rock Creek trailhead (off

Author on the more southerly Mono Pass. In the background is Summit Lake.

U.S. 395 near Toms Place) into the John Muir Wilderness and up to Mono Pass, about 3miles in and 2000 ft. of elevation gain…However, there is another Mono Pass nearby – it’s on the eastern border of  Yosemite about 50 miles north.  They each have a “Summit Lake” and can be reached by the “Mono Pass Trail.”  Suffice it to say, two passes identically named and not too far apart can be confusing.

Question #2: How did it happen that there are two Sierra Nevada mountain passes named Mono Pass?

Unintended consequences:

Finally, in planning for an upcoming vacation in New England, I learned of a growing alternative energy company headquartered in Portland, Maine, Ocean Renewable Power Company.  In September, 2012, it began suppling ocean tide-originated power to the Maine power grid.  In May of this year it broke “ground” in Alaska for a river-based energy plant along the lines of the artist’s drawing below along with the press release.

RivGen® Power System
by ORPC.co of Portland, Maine

Question #3:  To what extent will the growing “renewable energy” niche of energy produced by moving water (rivers, tides, & waves) have adverse environmental effects?  (Same question applies to wind & solar energy deployments).  

Pointers to one or more well thought out a discussions of any of the above questions are welcome!