A few weeks ago, Nobel Prize Laureate and co-discoverer of DNA Dr. James Watson blew through town, reflecting on how he's stayed away from stupid people, then delving into his now-customary slurry of sexist patois. Apparently he waited until he got across the pond to London to pull out the big guns:The 79-year-old geneticist said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that......

Although the Nobel Prize in Literature is supposed to be awarded in recognition of a writer's entire oeuvre, it's become commonplace for Nobel-watchers to attribute the award to the Swedish Academy making a political statement. Thus when Orhan Pamuk won in 2006, cynical commentators attributed it primarily to a pair of novels, Snow and The White Castle. The novels explore the interaction between the Christian West and Muslim East and the struggle between Modernity and......

This just in: Seattle Rep’s 2007-2008 season in the Bagley Wright Theatre begins with Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, Twelfth Night, followed by a powerful play about the Cuban revolution, The Cook by Eduardo Machado. A new play, The Breach about Hurricane Katrina comes next, then the classic Molière comedy, The Imaginary Invalid, and finally Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney brings his skills to a classic Greek adventure in The Cure at Troy. In the Leo......

We've been hoping for weeks to publish what Danny Westneat did today--an open letter to everyone who says Seattle's schools are shitty. You've all made your point that Seattle schools stink. But before we subject ourselves to any more of this Seattle self-flagellation, please first indulge me a little quiz. Among our state's 10 largest cities, where do you suppose Seattle ranks for academic achievement? Westneat then supplies statistics indicating that Seattle schools are......

Wednesday, October 11 >>>University Temple United Methodist Church, 7:30pm. Religious believers can be co-opted, argues distinguished biologist and secular humanist E.O. Wilson in his talk "The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion." Blah blah salvation of biodiversity blah glory of nature blah work together. We dislike this automatic Religion-and-Science connection ("Ballet and Groundskeeping: A New Unity"), but he's a smartie. Could be worth it. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. >>>UW Information School, 7:00-9:00pm.......

Local novelist Pauls Toutonghi wrote in with his thoughts about the death of Nobel Prize winning author Naghib Mahfouz. With the strange intimacy and speed of our new, wired world, I found out this morning that Naghib Mahfouz -- the 94-year old Egyptian novelist -- had died. I knew he was dead forty minutes after it happened. An email appeared in my inbox from CNN -- announcing that the world had lost another Nobel Laureate.......

What’s it really like to be the child of a Nobel Prize winning physicist? Tonight Seattle is offered a glimpse into this world when Michelle Feynman, daughter of Nobel Prize-winning Richard Feynman, discusses her father’s life and work. Joining her in this reminiscence will be local scientists George Dyson and Prof. Steve Ellis. Richard Feynman was no ordinary scientist. A self-described “curious character”--check out the blurb on the back of his book “Surely You’re......