Washington

The Entire West Coast May Soon Have a Price On Carbon

Oregon and Washington state are both considering bills in their 2018 legislative sessions that would put a price on carbon. If passed, the bills would create a West Coast block, including California and Canada’s British Columbia, of states and provinces that all have a carbon pricing scheme. “The hope was that we’d have the whole…

Monuments Are Being Covered in Living Slime and Officials Aren’t Sure Why

The National Parks Service is facing a new threat, and it’s not a wild horde of honey badgers. It’s living slime. The organization released a statement on Wednesday that explained the gray stuff taking over the top of the dome on the Thomas Jefferson Memorial isn’t mold or dirt, but biofilm: a group of microscopic…

Google Will Finally Test Self-Driving Cars in a Place Where It Rains

Google’s self-driving cars have logged over 1.4 million miles, but only on the streets of two cities: Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas. Now Google is adding a third public test track. The latest city to welcome our robot car overlords is Kirkland, Washington. A place that has weather! Kirkland is just across Lake Washington…

Damn Washington, That’s an Impressive Landslide!

A substantial landslide closed part of Washington state’s highway this week. The more impressive part? This mess is going to take days to weeks to clean up. The rock slide closed a chunk of US2 in central Washington between Wenatchee and Chelan early on Sunday. The stretch of road—Pine Canyon in the Wenachee Mountains, part…

Republicans Fail to Sabotage Net Neutrality in Government Spending Bill

A new $1.1 trillion budget bill has excluded Republican-backed efforts to block implementation of the FCC’s open internet rules, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported today. The government spending bill’s summary—a hefty 2,009 pages long—was posted online early this morning, but there’s zero anti-net neutrality language. That’s a a very good thing. Republicans in Washington have…

Uber and Lyft Drivers Can Now Unionize in Seattle 

Seattle City Council has unanimously passed a bill allowing drivers for Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing services to form unions. Seattle is the first US city to allow these drivers a way to collectively bargain. This means drivers will be able negotiate their salaries and working conditions as a unit. It does not mean, however,…

So You Want to Become a Mountaineer?

According to Hemingway, “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” I just learned that last one. Here’s how you can too. My first real mountain backcountry experience didn’t come until I was 24; it was the one that started it all. I experienced the call of…

What It’s Like To Hunt Big Game After #CecilTheLion

I’m a hunter. Not because I hate animals or nature, but because I love them. Two weeks ago, I flew to Washington to shoot a bear with a bow, that was a couple weeks after the whole #CecilTheLion business. And hunting was different, but maybe not for the reasons you’re thinking. Back in February, I…

Can The Lightest Mountaineering Boots Ever Handle Mt Rainier?

At less than 500 grams, these new Salomon S-LAB X ALP CARBON GTXs are the lightest mountaineering boots ever. That means they’re uninsulated, lack ankle support and aren’t compatible with traditional crampons. Can you still climb a mountain in them? We summited Rainier to find out. A carbon plate in the mid-sole with tailored flexibility…

Why Washington Is the Best State for Biking

The weather might not always be bike-friendly but that doesn’t stop enthusiastic residents from riding in it. The League of American Bicyclists released its annual scorecard for the most bike-friendly states today and for the eighth year in a row, Washington leads the list. All 50 states are graded each year across five categories that…

How To Live The Cabin Dream Without Giving Up Netflix

Editor’s Note: Contrary to Gawker Media editorial policy, Gizmodo briefly deleted this post after the subjects claimed that they had been portrayed without their consent. It has been republished with the names of all but one of the subjects, the name of a company they work for, and one photograph of one of the subjects…

Climbing The Snowiest Mountain In The World

The snowiest mountain in the world can be found right here in the US. I traveled to the North Cascades in Washington State to climb Mt. Baker with world-renowned climbing guide, Craig Van Hoy. Our guide, Craig Van Hoy, has over 400 summits of Rainier, multiple summits of Everest, and climbed Kangchenjunga (the 3rd highest…

This Wild Concept For the Ultimate Urban Bike Will Soon Be a Reality

Last week we looked at The Bike Design Project, a competition between five design teams and bike builders to create the perfect urban bike. And today we have a winner, which will now be put into production by Fuji—so you’ll be able to buy it, if Blade Runner-looking velocipedes are your thing. The winning design,…

Hazard, Risk, and the Steelhead (Oso) Landslide in Washington

On March 22nd, a massive landslide buried a town in the state of Washington. It is the most deadly landslide within the United States in a decade, and we knew it could happen. Living in the path of impending catastrophe is a choice we all make daily, but that doesn’t make it easy. The Steelhead…

A toxic and deadly week in landscape reads. We learn how, remarkably, tourist poop is flown by helicopter out of national parks, how Silicon Valley exports toxic waste all over the country, how poison lurks in our old televisions, and how the land can just fall away in the form of Washington’s deadly mudslide. A…

Proof that drones will completely change the way everyone makes movies

I don’t know if it’s the The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony or the slow twisting motion of the quadcopter’s descent, but I really love this first scene from Viktor Mirzoyan’s aerial video over a beige Washington D.C. It made me think of how quickly everything is changing. A shot like this was unthinkable just a…

“I’m Lost!” Washington Zoo Loses/Finds Rusty the Red Panda (UPDATE)

An adorable red panda has vanished from Washington’s National Zoo, with helpless zookeepers taking to Twitter to plead for help in finding the little friend. Have you seen Rusty? He’s about the size of a raccoon, and he’s still a baby. UPDATE: The red panda has been found, zoo officials said this afternoon. https://jezebel.com/emergency-alert-very-adorable-red-panda-missing-from-n-559146640 Red…

This Tiny Hand-Built House Is Fit for a Very Small King

Who says you need a big house with an expansive yard to achieve the American Dream these days? One Washington State resident has found her perfect home in the 140 square feet of living space she’s built herself. Located in Snohomish, WA, Apartment Therapy reader Melissa submitted her teensy abode as part of the site’s…

Washington State Sure Looks Pretty From Space

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a beatuifully textured piece of modern art—but you’d be wrong. It is in fact a view of the rolling hills of farmland in the northwest United States, pictured by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Kompsat-2 satellite. Snapped over Washington state, the image above shows Columbia County in…

This graph of whooping cough cases in Washington State should scare the crap out of you

The United States is in the middle of its worst whooping cough (aka pertussis) outbreak in over half a century, but few states have been hit as hard as Washington. This graph, released just a few days ago by the CDC, compares the state’s pertussis cases in 2012 against those documented in 2011 — and…