Author Archives: William Calvin

About William Calvin

UW prof emeritus brains, human evolution, climate

Fall color in Freeway Park

The leaves are finished near St. James but north of Madison St, it’s still a riot of color.

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Smoking statistics

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Lots more men than women.  Looks as if half of smokers quit after age 65.  An undergrad degree cuts smoking in half, and a graduate … Continue reading

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The Lake Union Rainbow

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The Sunday Night Action

In case you missed the action: video link

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Due east, Bellevue arises

That’s radiation fog forming behind Bellevue. Light from the predawn blue sky warms the ground enough to warm the bottom layer of air, which has extra humidity from overnight settling (no wind to mix it). Warmer air rises but soon … Continue reading

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The pit at 620 Terry

Between the Frye and James Street.  It will rise as high as Skyline.

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“High pressure ridges” and the jet stream meanders

Keep hearing of a “ridge of high pressure” in the weather forecast?  Here are two. The top is Arctic and Alaska, the star is Seattle, and you can spot Baja California.  Oriented?  Note the polar jet stream coming across the Pacific, … Continue reading

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Whole Foods building and massive new Swedish buildings

That emerging building, to house a Whole Foods, on the corner of Broadway as you drive along Madison is supposed to look that this when finished next year: Note that thrust over the corner sidewalk. And Swedish is about to … Continue reading

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A view of the new improved First Hill

The new filing for the Town Hall parking lot towers (1101 8th Ave) has a view of First Hill from downtown, with new building and proposals in color.  Skyline is just below that #16. The gold are the Town Hall … Continue reading

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The big 620 Terry building begins; Boren & James construction tops out

Looking east from Skyline’s 26th floor; that’s the Frye at left.  The two eight-floor buildings at Boren and James have topped out. The lot clearing in this last week has been for the 620 Terry building.  It will become the biggest building … Continue reading

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Climate denial

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Skyline Surround: Updates to “Neighborhood population explosion”

Its popularity has inspired me to put last week’s post about the Skyline Surround into a more updateable form: So the two new downtown buildings blocking any sunset views we might have had to the west and southwest will be complete … Continue reading

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The wide eraser and Florida

The first thing to note is just how big it is, relative to the width of the Florida peninsula. The width of the track of hurricane-force winds (74 mph at the edges, 185 in the middle) near PR and Cuba can … Continue reading

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Irma heading into hot water near Florida this weekend

Irma is the second most powerful hurricane ever recorded–so far.  Hurricanes get their power from a heated surface; if the warm surface layer is shallow, they can deplete this heat source quickly–but in Irma’s case, the warm water goes deeper … Continue reading

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The sunset colors

Taken using the HDR on my Canon 5D Mark 3 DSLR.  The iphone and ipad cameras on HDR setting usually fail to capture the shading.

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The neighborhood’s population explosion

So the two downtown buildings blocking any sunset views we might have had to the west and southwest will be complete in 2018; the twisted 43-floor 5th and Columbia and the wider 34-floor 5th and Madison.  You have all heard … Continue reading

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Coming up in the east (tilting towers at the Frye)

The Frye Museum’s parking lot will close in the fall/winter of 2017/18 to make room for new construction.  Here are the latest plans.  That’s Skyline to the left, the cathedral to the right, and the Frye at the bottom.  And … Continue reading

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8th & Columbia Building REVISED public space

Daniels is proposing (August 2017) a redesign of the public space as it was approved back in 2013.  Basil managed to obtain the whole spiral-bound book; I have photographed a few key pages.  There is a cafe now where the … Continue reading

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If the winds had been the other direction

During those BC fires which provided smoke to Washington State in early August, the wind direction farther north at Lake Athabasca was out of the south causing smoke to accumulate in the Arctic.  You can see the situation intensify over … Continue reading

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Yesterday’s sunspot movement

You will not see sunspots on Monday, just action around the rim just before totality: corona and the occasional big arch.

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Head in a Box for the Eclipse

Save your big boxes for Monday.  Turn your back to the sun.  Keep the pinhole small (you cannot see them in the photo), less than 1/4 inch, and located well above the head space.  A sheet of white paper can be … Continue reading

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Add Ozone to the miseries of the Seattle Smoke

To quote Cliff Mass: According to Dr. Jaffe, we have not seen [ozone] like this in decades.  So with smoke adding lots of particles into the atmosphere (documented in previous blogs), high ozone levels, a depressing sky with little visibility, and … Continue reading

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Sun Dog at Seattle Sunset

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Sunset rain over the Olympics

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The Neighborhood before Skyline

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