The Arctic ice is apparently all gone, or may well be soon, according to the Independent (UK). "The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice," writes science editor Steve Connor, "making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have......

Another beautiful photo from Seattlest Flickr contributor Tim Willis Yesterday's stormy weather left over 35,000 homes in Western Washington without power. Nearly 20,000 of the homes affected were in Seattle and South King County. The National Weather Service warned of gusts of over 55 mph yesterday and, while it's no scientific measure, the windows of our house were rattling and the power flickered more than once last night. Thankfully, it never went out. The Washington......

Seattlest keeps waiting and waiting for the right weekend to head out for our inaugural hike of 2008. There are few things we love more than hiking through the cool misty forests of Cedars and Doug Firs; the monotony of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other up a mountain brings us a zen calm. After driving through the mountains for Memorial Day weekend, we were feeling especially itchy to head out on the trail. But we are going to......

The weather, it just gets worse. Hoping for summer? Keep hope alive! Remember spring? Surely, we must have had one. (Missed it last year; we were in the bathroom.) Wait, a dim memory: a vague recollection of a spring-like afternoon last week. It comes back to us now. We were on upper Queen Anne. A whole street of yellow blossoms catches our eye. Goldenchain, they call those trees, don't they? Laburnum, in the garden store.......

TEENY BOPPER EXPRESS: Disney's High School Musical opens at the Paramount tonight, so maybe steer clear of the teenagers downtown. If you have your own teenager, maybe it's a good night to set them free with their friends so they can go sing along and goo-goo-ga-ga over the cute boys and dreaminess of this sensational teenfest. 7:30 p.m. // Paramount Theater // $20-67 plus fees WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Seattlest made it to the Seattle Storm's opening......

Fishing the Sound by epic Seattlest Flickr contributor Slightly North Sorry local fisherman. After the NOAA ruled out shooting as a cause of death, we know we passed the blame to your understandable anger at the gluttonous sea oafs. But the latest theory on just how six local sea lions died places the blame squarely on mother nature's shoulders. Now, according to investigators, the sea lions do not appear to have died of gunshot wounds,......

So far, spring has been colder than the Mariners' bats. We’re not advocating global warming, just a little regional pick-me-up, something to get people dressing sluttier and make outdoor activities appealing. Given the three odd weekends of sun we had last summer coupled with summer ending earlier than usual, it doesn’t take much sun depravation here before folks start getting antsy. The average temperature for April was down from last year. And, given the......

Another great Seattle snow shot courtesy of our Flickr Pool and SamanthaFitForBattle If you thought snow in late March was strange, just wait till you try snow in late April! The National Weather Service says Western Washington should expect a cold weekend, with high temperatures venturing into the low 40s. They've forecasted 1 to 2 feet of snow in the Cascades over the weekend and lowland snow showers at elevations as low as 1,000 feet.......

Is the weather getting stranger here by the day or is it just us? Just a short two weeks ago we had springtime snow. Today the cheery blossoms and the rest of Seattle enjoyed gorgeous springtime sun and temperatures in the 70's. "Blossoms and Flakes" by Seattlest Flickr Conrtibutor shawnmebo "[lempelziv......

The choreographic genius of Spectrum's Donald Byrd makes God-fearing folk swear and the irreligious cry, "Oh my god!" Partly that's because his dancers present as solid, sweating people, rather than mysteriously gesturing messengers. He consistently brings ideas back to the body--his pas de deux can have an X-rated quality--so you feel the argument he's making. Last night he was perched on the Moore's stage pre-show, mic in hand, "Okay, so it's not a full house......

BOOKS: Attention Chicago-watchers: NPR's Peabody-Award-winning Scott Simon is at the Moore Theatre tonight reading from his new book, Windy City: A Novel of Politics. It's a political comedy for which Simon had to come up with names for his 50 fictional Chicago aldermen; his wife named all 50 for him but he's not co-crediting her with the writing. Well, well. This is his second novel; his first is about the making of a teenage......

ENVIRONMENT: Down at the Aquarium, KC Golden, policy director of Climate Solutions, talks with KING 5 meteorologist Jeff Renner about the innovative work the state is doing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and the history of the struggle to get global warming on the public's radar, concluding with the obligatory list of "things you can do." There's a reception with light refreshments beforehand. 7-9 p.m. // Seattle Aquarium, 1483 Alaskan Way // Tickets: $20......

We have never before had the visual treat of seeing the cherry blossoms in full bloom and snow at the same time. It's been this Seattlest's favorite part of the strange spring snow flurries. From just outside our house:......

On this, the 26th day of March, it was snowing at 8pm on Capitol Hill--and it was even sticking to cars, to the grass, to the trees. WTF? It is nearly April, right? One more snowy pic after the jump.......

MUSIC: Saul Williams--actor, poet, musician--comes to Neumos with his album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. In our interview, he said: "I characterize Niggy Tardust as an angel of mercy. You know, I think that in the face of America and our changing times there’s a lot to be said, a lot that could be said, and a lot of ways that it could be said. And if, you know, your revolutionary......

THEATRE: Young Jean Lee's Theater Company presents Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven (A Show about White People in Love), which is an aggressively exotic title for someone raised in Pullman, WA.Writer/director Young Jean Lee's worst nightmare was to make a confessional, ethnic identity play with a flowery Asian-sounding title. So, the young NYC-based artist did just that [...] a character named "Korean-American" navigates increasingly disturbing levels of a pseudo-Korean world intercut with......

Pinnacle Iceberg, East Greenland 2006 © Camille Seaman Over at the Seattle Times, Sheila Farr was knocked out by Camille Seaman's show, The Last Iceberg, at Photographic Center Northwest. You can preview some of her photos here. Like Edward Burtynsky's photographs of quarries and trash heaps, there's a troubling aesthetic at work. Reflected in the dissolving grandeur of Seaman's ice-scapes is global warming. Says Farr:A member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, born in 1969, Seaman......

Vedder’s first solo music video—for his critically lauded and Grammy-nominated Into the Wild song “Guaranteed”—airs on VH1 (and VH1.com) on Monday. Perfect timing, then, for the ever-more-famous guy to bump into his 1992 self while browsing Easy Street’s vinyl bins. Serendipity! 1992 Eddie (strokes soul patch; sings to himself): I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution… take a bow for the new revolution… 2008 Eddie (spots 1992 Eddie): Hey, are you ... ? Young......

Dennis McLerran, head of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is "pissed." Governor Schwarzenegger is suing federal regulators. According to more than 500 news articles, The Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s bill to place limitations on vehicle emissions, which would have cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent in the next 10 years. McLerran claims in a Seattle Times article the EPA’s decision is purely political, not factual. Washington was one of the 18 states that......

Behind our couch lives what we refer to as our "third cat." Much more well-behaved and definitely lower-maintenance, petting-wise, than the two actual cats from whence it came, but more or less inert unless there's a breeze. When we sweep behind the couch every three or four years we generally don't carry the third cat down to the Sound and chuck him in, but that's what storm runoff is doing right now to a lot......

We're not yet convinced that the current War on Plastic Shopping Bags/Global Warming will stand the test of time, but we sure are intrigued that everyone everywhere seems to be trying to make the eco-friendly message stick (do you really think NBC's "Green Week" is destined for the history books? Neither do we.). We're feeling equally ambivalent about "Geography," the latest piece from local choreographer/composer duo Scott/Powell Production, premiering this weekend at On the Boards.......

We gotta admit to being kind of a sci-fi nerd. We own all the Star Wars movies in most of their various formats and edits, have read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels numerous times (including the atrocious Mostly Harmless), and actively seek out any books and films that depict any kind of a dystopic view of our future. So when we heard that yet another cut of Blade Runner was playing......

Peter Steinbrueck, a soon-to-be--former City Council member, announced legislation today that would require all city departments that review the environmental impacts of projects to take greenhouse gas emissions into account. Besides the fact that it's kind of crazy that they don't already do that, we think this is a great idea. It's great because it's an attempt to take into account and limit all of those emissions that are usually ignored as too hard to......

It’s been hard for us to admit this, greenie that we are, but a vote for Prop. 1 is in order, at least from this Seattlest's perspective. This has been hard because we're as environmentally friendly as they come. We ride our bike; compost; and we reduce, we reuse and leave the recycling as only as the last step of a long process. So the news we saw when we opened our e-mail this morning,......

Along with the million other words being written on this topic, we at Seattlest thought it was a good time to share some of our thinking on the Roads and Transit bill we're going to have the chance to vote on this November. The crux is this: Voters in the greater Puget Sound region are being asked to approve almost $11 billion for a 50-mile expansion of light rail and $7 billion on highways around......

Tuesday night University of Washington biology professor Roger del Moral spoke at an uncrowded Town Hall about his findings in natural disaster-ology, covered in his new book (with co-author Lawrence Walker), Environmental Disasters, Natural Recovery and Human Responses. (On the plus side, we got in two questions during the Q&A, a first for us.) This will no doubt turn out to be the easiest Science Lecture to get a seat at: next week brings Harvard......

For those (like Seattlest) who are too lazy to actually visit in person the South Lake Union coffee shop Kapow! to get their S.L.U.T. tee shirts (which they may or may not even have), they are now available online. Remember a week ago when the SLUT poster first appeared on Seattlest? A few days later the P-I, King5, the AP caught on. Joe Whatshisnuts from forty miles east of Boise is going to crack his......

There was a lot of shit-talking when it hit 98 on Wednesday, but the light at the end of the tunnel for some of us was the prospect of surfing again this weekend. What better way to ignore the non-existent mythological hoax that is global warming than to put on a wet suit and freeze your balls off in the icy waters of the Pacific Northwest? Typically, the weekend offers no such joy: while the......

Last year, we had the joy of walking around town before the precarious date of 6/6/06 and seeing images of nuclear holocaust strung across every light poll in town (meaning on Capitol Hill). This year, we get the pleasure of anticipating our big 3-0 on a far more auspicious date: 7/7/07. As a child of 7/7/77, we've lived with the inevitability of next Saturday for our whole lives. For us, it's the only time......

On Saturday, Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News-Tribune reported that local real estate developer Dave Sabey had offered to buy the Sonics from Clay Bennett and make them the centerpiece of a development he's planning south of Boeing Field. By Sunday, Percy Allen of the Seattle Times had interviewed Clay Bennett, who said "I am a friend of Dave Sabey and I respect him as a businessman ... but there's nothing there." Now, today, Gary......