News
Understanding the Royal Treatment at Brightwater
King County’s shiny new sewage treatment plant aims to change our thinking about water usage.
When a visitor tells Ron Kohler that it smells good where he works, he nods graciously. “I hope you pay particular attention to that smell,” he says. “I’m very proud of it.” The aroma—generic fresh air—is nothing special, except that Ron is a manager at King County’s Brightwater wastewater treatment plant. From its innocuous odor…
Test-Tube Food
Local lawmakers want to force the labelling of genetically modified foods. Here’s a look at the cons
Hardly a day goes by that genetically modified foods don’t make the news in some form: legal battles over labeling requirements, rumbles in the blogosphere about potential new products, theories about the harm these products might do to people or other species, or a new scientific perspective that becomes ammo in the battle over these…
Raise a Beaker to Seattle’s First Science Fest
Seattle's first ever science festival brings a plethora of nerdy topics and the one-and-only Stephen
Organized by the Pacific Science Center and timed to coincide with the Seattle Center’s Next 50 celebration, the first-annual Seattle Science Festival features a galaxy of family-friendly festivities. Science Expo Day (6/2) kicks things off with a big bang. Taking place across the Seattle Center grounds, this free event features more than 150 happenings: exhibits,…
The Mysterious Death of Orca L112
Since researching our June article on the shaky state of local resident orca populations, I’ve been waiting for the report from NOAA’s local office, hoping they could determine what killed L112, also known as “Sooke” or “Victoria.” The young female southern resident killer whale washed up dead on the Long Beach Peninsula this February, bruised…
Can Seattle Scientists Save Orcas from Extinction?
Limited numbers of orcas swim the Salish Sea—and new troubles await them.
This February, a young killer whale washed up on the chilly shores of southwest Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula. Scientists looking at the markings on its dorsal fin and saddle patch (the dark gray splotch behind the dorsal fin) identified the whale as L112, a female just over 12 feet long born in 2009. She belonged…
UW to Offer Digital Publishing Continuing-Ed Program
If you’re interested in blogging professionally, self-publishing digitally, creating e-books—or your employer wishes you knew more about such things, look into the University of Washington’s new certificate program in digital publishing. The nine-month-long course launches this fall, and it promises a good mix of hands-on training and theoretical insight about many of the legal, aesthetic…
Dangers Await Upstream for Local Salmon
With damns coming down and the battle over “Frankenfish” heating up, what lies ahead for local salmo
Trolling with a guide off Malcolm Island near the northern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, we watch the rod tip, hoping for a strike. It’s 6:30 a.m., and the sky over the Coast Mountains looks like the underbelly of a salmon. The rod tip dips sharply, and I let out the line, trying to…
The Lasting Impact of Seattle’s World’s Fair Architects
Design at the 1962 World's Fair brought its architects acclaim well beyond the Seattle Center ground
Most Seattleites walk or drive past the Space Needle and the other major buildings at Seattle Center without giving much thought to who designed them. But these structures, including KeyArena and the Pacific Science Center, are the lasting architectural legacy of the Century 21 Exposition, better known as the Seattle World’s Fair. In 1962, some…
World’s Fair 50th-Anniversary Celebration Activities
Six months of commemorative festivities begin on April 21. Here are our picks.
On April 21, 1962, visitors from close by and around the world streamed through the gates of the Seattle World’s Fair to witness a future they’d never before imagined. It seemed that soon we’d all live in Plywood Homes of Living Light, commute by monorail and dine at revolving restaurants in various Space Needles piercing…
Mind the Gap
Poor and minority kids are falling through the cracks at Seattle schools. Can a Supreme Court ruling
Imagine receiving a telephone call from your child’s teacher asking you about your family’s academic goals and how you can work together to achieve them. It’s happening in areas of Seattle as part of an innovative new strategy to turn around a troubling trend among local schoolchildren. These “sunshine calls,” along with home visits from…
Gridlock! Seattle’s Transportation Issue
A comprehensive guide to what's really slowing the Seattle commute. Plus, encouraging updates on the
It’s the least sexy, most flammable cocktail-party topic around: transportation. The horror story about a one-hour crosstown crawl. The strategy swap about how best to cross the lake during a Mariners home stand. And the sharply divisive rhetoric about which multibillion-dollar projects our region really needs—and how to pay for them. Transportation touches us all,…
Crime Central: Can Belltown Make a Comeback?
Can this downtown Seattle neighborhood bounce back from a serious crime wave?
When Tim Gaydos takes visitors on a walking tour of Belltown, where he lives with his wife and two small children, he’s always a half-step ahead at a pace that can leave an out-of-shape companion gasping. As you catch your breath at a crosswalk while waiting for the light to change, he speaks in language…
So Long, Viaduct. Hello, Ultimate Boring Machine!
Once the flashpoint for heated debates, the Viaduct now lies partially in ruins, and the changes tha
A Wrecking Brawl For nearly 60 years, Seattle’s polarizing north-south thoroughfare, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, crouched in concrete splendor along Elliott Bay, carrying 100,000 cars a day the length of the city, from SoDo to Belltown and beyond. Irreparably damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the thing has since been at the heart of a…
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