Iceland. Thoughts of bargain supermarket frozen turkey twizzlers, Viking epics, alternative rock band The Sugarcubes, may all be triggered when naming this barren and volcanic North Atlantic island nation. But soon Iceland may also be known as a world...

At the age of 24 I rode my bike across the 6.5km Columbia River bridge between Oregon and Washington state. Big river, big bridge. I remember thinking it would make a damn :-) good power plant. Upriver, past Portland and in the shadow of Mount Hood, I...