Creative Retirement Institute

Spring 2013 classes: April 1 - June 14

To find out more about a specific class, select its class number. You need not be a member to enroll in classes.

Note: Classes marked FULL may have a waiting list; call 425.640.1830 if you are interested in that class.

Spring Luncheon Event

Frank Gonzalez

C973 03/13
Wednesday 11:30 am
Woodway Hall $15 or $26

Join us for lunch with Frank Gonzalez, PhD, founding Director of NOAA Center for Tsunami Research and Affiliate Professor UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences, for his presentation, “Tsunamis: Recent Disastrous Events, Basic Physics, and the Threat to the Pacific Northwest,” which will focus on the recent tsunamis in the Indian Ocean (2004) and Tohoku (2011), physical mechanisms of tsunamis and the threat to our region. Dr. Gonzalez has been instrumental in establishing the first deep-ocean tsunami monitoring network, developing inundation and evacuation maps for coastal communities, compiling post-disaster field surveys, documentation of tsunamis, and development of the NOAA Tsunami Forecast System. This event is sponsored by the Dr. Maybelle Chapman Speakers Series. Seating begins at 11:30 am, Wednesday, March 13th, on the second floor of Woodway Hall on the main campus of Edmonds Community College, followed by lunch and the presentation. The luncheon cost is $15 for CRI members. The event is open to the public. Tickets for the luncheon and speaker are $26 and available for purchase at the CRI office (T-F 10am-2pm) in the Edmonds Conference Center (201 – 4th Ave. N., downtown Edmonds) or by mail using a registration form. Register for the luncheon or purchase your tickets before February 26, 2013. No phone reservations.

√ Advances in Dentistry
Gerald L. Becker

C958                            05/06/13
Monday          1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Cristwood Park Chapel           $11

This comprehensive short course about dentistry gives today’s dental patient and healthcare consumer information to help them make informed choices in dental care.  Topics covered will include the four main types of dental materials used by their dentist, crowns, dentures and implants, the causal relationships between sleep apnea, orthodontics, tooth wear and TMJ. Preventive techniques relating to decay, gingivitis and periodontal disease will complete the two-hour session.  Questions and answers from attendees will follow.  Dr. Becker has practiced clinical dentistry for nearly 40 years.  He twice has been selected as a “top dentist” by Seattle Magazine and his practice top-rated in Western Washington by Puget Consumers Checkbook Magazine.  For over 12 years his office has been a “preceptor” for Bastyr University in a wide variety of dental topics ranging from integration of medicine and dentistry, to oral pathology and preventive dentistry.  His private dental practice is located in Shoreline.  Approximately one block walk from parking to classroom.  1 session.

√Afganistan:  Confronting a Change-Resistant Land and People
Walter M. Yeager

C871           04/03/13 – 04/17/13
Wednesdays    9:30 am – 11:30 am
CON                $33

The objective of this course is to promote a better understanding of Afghanistan, whose people are as dramatically diverse as the land where they have persevered for centuries.  It hopes to provide an appreciation of their tenacious culture that has confronted America’s decade-long attempt to impose a government that will not threaten our national interests. The course is organized around a series of slide presentations to show the insights and experiences the instructor and his family gained during their years in Afghanistan.  These include historic photos of the 19th and 20th century British experience, Afghanistan’s abortive attempts at modernization during the 1920s, and views of Kabul and the Afghan countryside including the giant statues that were located in the Buddhist missionary site of Bamiyan.  Walter Yeager earned his MA in history at Washington State and did graduate work on Asia at UW, the East-West Center at University of Hawaii and at University of Edinburgh.  He was a member of Columbia University’s Faculty of Education Team at Kabul University, leader and co-leader of summer study programs for teachers in Afghanistan and other South Asian countries, and Resource Liaison Officer for the South Asia Center at UW for 8 years.  He has taught at UW, Edmonds Community College, other community colleges and CRI.   3 sessions.

√All About the Sun: Solar Max, Solar Min, and What It All Means!
Linda Khandro

C957           05/13/13 – 06/10/13
Mondays         1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                              $44

We are currently experiencing the sun in the “solar max” or “active sun” phase of its 11-year sunspot cycle (or 22 years depending on how it is counted).  We also have a new solar observatory in space that collects data and sends back the eye-popping beauty of it all!  “It all” includes the features that accompany the cycle:  sunspots, flares, filaments (prominences), and coronal mass ejections.  Come for the hot times as we start from the sun’s nuclear fusion furnace in the core (getting a glimpse of E=mc² in action), journey outward through the radiation and convection zones to the “surface” and thence to the far-blazing corona.  We will end up with earth’s magnetosphere, which protects us from the stronger aspects of solar exuberance while it gives us the beautiful auroras!  Linda Khandro is a geologist with an MS degree in earth science.  Her interest in astrobiology brought her to UW as an education/public outreach specialist.  Linda has taught several well-received classes for CRI.  4 sessions.  No class on Memorial Day, May 27th.

√Alternative History:  Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men
Richard Dunn

C901            04/04/13 – 04/25/13
Thursdays        10:00 am 12:00 pm
MAB 108                                 $44   

In recent years “alt history” writers have revisited such events as the deaths of Princess Diana and JFK (Monica Ali’s Untold Story, and Don DeLillo’s Libra), the second world war (Heller’s Catch-22), and Watergate (title of Tom Mallon’s current work), and it is thus timely to revisit one of the great American novels of the 20th century.  All the King’s Men won the 1946 Pulitzer Prize, and the first film version won best picture for 1949.  This powerful story, based on the rise and fall of Louisiana Governor and later, Senator Huey Long, ponders the nature of power and corruption, human will and freedom.  Poetically and philosophically it is a novel not just of a divided America, but of a country whose present is forever looking both backward and  moving forward, sometimes systematically, but just as often (as Warren’s newspaperman narrator put it) “by jerks and twitches.”  Richard Dunn is Professor Emeritus of English, UW.  He has taught various CRI classes, particularly on Victorian literature, including Dickens, Brontes, Tennyson and Middlemarch.  4 sessions.

√Arab Spring, European Winter?  Financial Crisis in Europe and the New Democracies in North Africa
Eva-Maria Maggi

C873          04/15/13 – 04/22/13
Mondays     10:00 am – 12:00 pm
CON                                   $22

Looking back in 30 years, the democratic uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the financial crisis shaking the European Union (EU) will be viewed as two of the most decisive historical milestones in the 21st century.  Both events are recalibrating world politics and economy as we know them.  The Arab Spring and the consequent elections in Egypt and Tunisia demonstrated that democracy in North Africa is possible after all, while the financial markets showed Europe that their common currency has fundamental defects that need to be fixed.  In exploring the European Union’s recent foreign policy in North Africa, students will learn about the EU’s reaction to the Arab Spring and how the current financial crisis in Europe impacts EU engagement in the region.  The first session introduces EU foreign policy in North Africa before and after the Arab Spring.  Session two focuses on the Arab Spring and possible impacts for the democratic movements in North Africa that could arise from the financial crisis in Europe.  Critical discussions and suggestions are highly encouraged.  Eva-Maria Maggi is a PhD candidate in political science at the Institute for International Studies, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Germany.  Her dissertation examines policy changes in Morocco and the role of the European Union (EU) as an external actor in these processes.  Eva works as a graduate assistant at the EU Center of Excellence at the UW Henry M. Jackson School for International Studies.  2 sessions.

√Behavioral Economics
Nicholas Chandler-Klein and Grad Students in Economics

C959              05/21/13 -06/11/13
Tuesdays         1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                              $44

The basics of behavioral economics will be covered over the course of four lectures, each given by a different economics graduate student, loosely based on the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. 
Lecture 1:  Rationality, irrationality, risk, and prospect theory (Nicholas Chandler-Klein); Lecture 2:  Priming, framing, anchoring, and overconfidence (Chasya Hoagland); Lecture 3:  Laboratory experiments, auctions, and strategic games (Yunling Jocelyn Wang); Lecture 4:  Policy implications of behavioral economics (Daniel Brent). All four lecturers are third year or above graduate students in the department of economics at the UW.  All have knowledge of popular and research literature on behavioral economics.  4 sessions.

√Bible Heroines You’ve Never Met
Rev Richard Gibson

C945            04/02/13 – 04/23/13
Tuesdays        9:30 am – 11:30 am
MAB 108                              $44

There are many unknown women in the Bible.  Some of these were powerful leaders who helped strengthen our own understanding of life and faith.  They were theologians, wives and daughters.  Some were uppity, some were silent, and some were assertive.  We will examine each of their stories and discover their insights.  Rev. Gibson is a popular CRI teacher, retired pastor from Terrace Presbyterian Church in Mountlake Terrace and amateur archaeologist.  4 sessions.

√Celtic Wisdom
Robert Stahl

C947              05/02/13 – 05/23/13
Thursdays      10:00 am – 12:00 pm
MAB 108                                $44

This course will explore the spiritual wisdom of the Celts and how it appears today in Irish culture.  The Celtic presence in Ireland was characterized by a deep and abiding reverence for nature and the land.  As well, the Celts passed along valuable insights into themes such as friendship, making life sacred, soul, music, love, and death.  DVD material will provide an appreciation of The Book of Kells and of Western Ireland considered as a sacred space.  Required texts are Anam Cara by John O’Donohue and The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews.  Robert Stahl currently teaches courses in art, photography and literature at several Seattle-area colleges including Highline, Edmonds, North Seattle, and Everett Community Colleges.  He has traveled around the world with his camera, and has taught previous CRI classes on Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Rumi, The Art of Pilgrimage, Care of the Soul, Carl Jung and Zen.  4 sessions.

Classical Music of the Nordic World
Steve Reeder

C925             05/24/13 – 06/14/13
Fridays              1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                                $49

The composers of the Nordic world – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland – have given us a remarkably varied and important body of music over the centuries.  Each class session will showcase their achievements, replete with a generous sampling of their compositions.  We will consider this rich and enduring classical legacy from the northern world from John Helmich Roman (the Swedish Handel) to Denmark’s Golden Age of the early 19th century, and from the acclaimed Norwegian Romantics (Grieg, Malvorsen and Svendsen) to the Finnish master, Jean Sibelius and his disciples.  Steve Reeder has spent his entire career in broadcasting, teaching and public speaking.  He now programs and hosts classical music shows for Northwest Public Radio, serves as a pre-concert speaker for the Seattle Symphony, and is the on-stage narrator for the orchestra’s multi-media concert series, “Beyond the Score.”  4 Sessions. 4 sessions.

√Computer Curb Cuts:  Taking Advantage of Computer Accessibility Tools in Everyday Life
Brian Boston

C851               06/05/13 – 06/12/13
Wednesdays   10:00 am – 12:00 pm
CON                                     $22

Curb cuts and ramps are two of the many methods we use to accommodate people with disabilities on street corners and building entrances.  Your computer also has similar accommodations, yet few people know about them and as a result, suffer from unnecessary eyestrain and the need for computer glasses, moving and handling a mouse, and many other avoidable problems.  Just as baby strollers and bicyclists benefit from physical curb cuts, you can benefit from computer accessibility tools and improve your overall computer experience.  Discover how to use these features to see, hear, and utilize your system’s capabilities more efficiently.  Participants are welcome to bring laptops into classes to explore many of these features directly.  (Laptops must be capable of running on battery for the session.)  Computer accessibility has been a passion for Brian Boston since he worked for the Accessible Technology Group at Microsoft.  Brian’s 33 years of computer experience, including 18 years with Microsoft, have helped him in training hundreds of support engineers and thousands of end users.  Brian’s overall mission is to connect people with their family, friends, hobbies and interests using technology.  Through his company, Boston Legacy Works, Brian educates and supports individuals and small businesses, advising and assisting on purchase, usage, maintenance, and security.  2 sessions.

√Current Issues Forum:  Winner-Take-All Politics
John McGibbon

C875            05/08/13 - 05/15/13
Wednesdays     1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                              $22

In their recent book, Winner-Take-All Politics, political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson describe how government policies have transformed the US from a land of broad-based prosperity to a “Richistan” with a declining middle class.  Using this book as a platform, you are invited to throw in your two-cents worth or even two-bits in a discussion on how this occurred and what can be done to reverse the trend.  Please Note:  Reading the book prior to taking the class is highly recommended and should significantly enhance your experience.  The book is available in paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other outlets.  John McGibbon is a CRI member with an AB degree from Dartmouth College.  He is a retired Boeing finance manager with a strong interest in current affairs.  2 sessions.

√Drought and Flood:  What the Disasters of 2012 Mean for the US
Brett Walton

C877           04/22/13 – 04/29/13
Mondays         1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                              $22

The summer of 2012 was one of the driest and hottest in the United States in recent memory.  By the beginning of autumn, the US was on pace for the warmest year ever recorded in the Lower 48 states, two-thirds of which were in the clutch of drought.  Then at the end of October, Superstorm Sandy hit the most densely populated region of the country, flooding Lower Manhattan subway tunnels, knocking out power to millions, and prompting governors to ration gasoline.  We will explore what the disasters of 2012 mean for food production, infrastructure, water supplies, investment and recovery.  Brett Walton is a reporter for Circle of Blue, a news agency reporting on freshwater and all its connections.  He has taught classes for CRI on water, energy, wilderness, online journalism and Central Asia.  2 sessions.

Fact and Fiction
Marge Young and Bev Christensen

C921            05/03/13 – 05/24/13
Fridays           9:30 am – 11:30 am
FBC Private Dining Room
No Fee—Registration Required

We are not your average book discussion group!  Participants make their own reading choices and come prepared to present brief reviews and share their appraisals.  You may select a past or current author in any genre.  Learn from each other through informal discussion.  Marge Young and Bev Christensen are avid readers and have been a part of this class for years.  This is a non-fee class but requires registration.  4 sessions.

√The Giant Fossil Bird Footprints from the Chuckanut Formation
Dave Tucker

C961                               04/17/13
Wednesday    12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
CON                                   $16

The world’s only known giant fossil bird tracks were discovered in Whatcom County in 2009.  They were left by a 7-foot tall, 385-pound flightless bird, believed to be Diatryma.  No other tracks of this bird are known.  This presentation tells the story of the discovery of these priceless tracks, the arduous efforts to protect them from illegal fossil collectors, and the nail-biting rescue for public display.  Come learn about what we have discovered about this giant bird.  Dave Tucker is an Associate in the Geology Department at Western Washington University.  He organized the Big Bird Herd, a group of volunteers who rescued the tracks.  Dave is the author of Northwest Geology Field Trips.  1 session. 

        
√A Glimpse of the Works of Gore Vidal
Ginny Enstad

C913             05/30/13 – 06/13/13
Thursdays      10:00 am – 12:00 pm
MAB 108                                $33

Gore Vidal was a prolific writer of novels, plays, essays and memoirs, as well as a celebrity who often appeared on television.  He frequently sparred with other celebrities and gained a reputation as a rather ascerbic man who, nonetheless, was in demand.   We will first examine his early novel, The Judgment of Paris.  At the second session, we will discuss the following chapters of his memoir, Palimpsest:  A Memoir:  “Palimpsest,” The Small Bedroom at Merrywood,” “The Desire and the Successful Pursuit of the Whole,” “Dah,” “Paris, Proust’s Whorehouse, Gide, Bowles and Isherwood,” “London, E.M. Forester, as well as Friends-to-Be.” “To Do Well What Should Not Be Done At All,” “Getting Out,” “Getting Back,” “Section:  E Lot 293 ½ Subdivisions 2 and 4”.  For the final session, we will look at several of Vidal’s essays which will be provided at the first session.  Ginny Enstad has an MA in literature.  Now retired from the Edmonds School District, she continues to value literature as a means of understanding our fellowman and ourselves.   3 sessions.

Grace Kelly at Her Very Best
John James

C981           05/02/13 – 05/23/13
Thursdays       1:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Cristwood Park Chapel           $49

Grace Kelly was a great screen actress, as well as a princess, a fashion icon, and one of the most famous women of the 20th century.  Come and enjoy four of her best movies, including two directed by Alfred Hitchcock  and one for which she received an Academy Award:  The Country Girl (1954) Bing Crosby, William Holden,; Dial M for Murder (1953) Robert Cummings, Ray Milland, John Williams; To Catch a Thief (1955) Cary Grant, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams; and High Society (1956) Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Celeste Holm, Frank Sinatra.  There will be special handouts and time to discuss each movie.  John James is a retired librarian from Shoreline Community College with advanced degrees in history and library science, and a life-long interest in classic films from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s.  Approximately one block walk from parking to classroom.  4 sessions.

√Highlights of Washington’s History
Charles LeWarne

C903              04/30/13 – 05/14/13
Tuesdays        10:00 am – 12:00 pm
ESC                                       $33

Highlights of Washington’s history will be a three-session review of major formative and interesting events of our state’s intrigueing past.  Newcomers will be introduced to the state and its history, and those who have been around awhile will be reminded of much they have known while reflecting on new stories.  After a short review of the state’s geographical base and the lives of indigenous people, we will highlight the period of exploration by Europeans and Americans and move on to the new settlements and expansion that led to statehood in 1889.    Moving into the 20th and 21st centuries, we will examine the dramatic changes that have taken place, Washington’s role in the nation, and our understanding of history. Charles LeWarne received  BA degrees from Western Washington University, an MA in history from the University of California at Berkeley, and a PhD in history from the University of Washington.  He is the author of Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885 – 1915 which received the Governor’s Writers Award, and of Washington State, a textbook for secondary school students.  He is co-author with Robert E. Ficken of Washington:  A Centennial History, and he is one of five co-authors of Snohomish County: An Illustrated History.  The Love Israel Family:  Urban Commune, Rural Commune was published by the UW Press in 2009. LeWarne regularly offers classes at CRI and frequently presents talks to interested groups. 3 sessions.  

√Historical Survey of the Aviation/Aerospace Industry:  The End of World War II into the Present-Day Jet Age
Mike Lavelle

C905               05/21/13 – 06/11/13
Tuesdays        10:00 am – 12:00 pm
ESC                                        $44

The time period from the end of World War II in 1945 into the present-day Jet Age examines the rapid technology explosion in aviation/aerospace and its effects on the growth and consolidation of both the military and commercial worldwide aviation market place.  Key international companies, their engineering and manufacturing capabilities, along with their resulting aircraft product, will highlight this survey course.  Mike Lavelle, a former Director at the Museum of Flight and an aviation historian/author, is an Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA), as well as Fellow in the Royal Aeronautical Society of Great Britain.  Mike has over 48 years of aviation/aerospace experience.   He has taught many courses on aviation and aeronautics.  4 sessions.

√Homer’s Iliad
Dennis Peters

C915             04/02/13 – 04/23/13
Tuesdays       12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
MAB 108                              $44

On the western shore of modern Turkey lie the sprawling remnants of Troy.  Three thousand years ago an extended siege destroyed it.  Invaders from Greece tore down the walls and killed or captured the inhabitants.  Whatever actually happened may never be known, but Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad, has left poetic images of that war that still shape imagination and the value system of the Western world.  Helen of Troy, Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, these names and the values they represented shaped the educational system of classical Greece, a system that still lives on in our universities, our notions of honor, of fate and the importance of fame.  Most of the Greek tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles are based on episodes of the Iliad, but once the staple of western classical education, these works have lately slipped out of public consciousness.  We will examine the sources of the Iliad, several of its major themes, and the long centuries in which its influence shaped the value system of the modern world.  Dennis Peters has taught humanities courses in high school and college, as well as several courses at CRI.   Any translation of the Iliad will suffice.  The instructor uses the Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition).  4 sessions.

Human Rights in Foreign Policy
Jim Thyden

C879            04/05/13 – 04/26/13
Fridays            1:00 pm – 3:00 pm  
GSBC                                    $49

Human rights is a controversial subject in international relations.  What is the history of human rights in US foreign policy, and why is it not always the highest priority?  What can we expect to accomplish, and what are the most effective diplomatic techniques?  What are the major international agreements, and why has the US not ratified all of them?  Why does the State Department write annual reports on all countries except the US?  Who writes the reports?  We will discuss these questions and read typical reports by the State Department and other organizations.  Our final session will feature a panel of experts from UW and from the community.  Jim Thyden served 26 years in the US Foreign Service, including 3 years as director of the State Department’s Office of Human Rights, when he was responsible for bilateral relations with all foreign countries on human rights issues and for editing the annual reports.  Jim has lectured and taught at the Foreign Service Institute, the UW Jackson School, and for CRI. 4 sessions.

√Land of Palm and Fountain:  Glorious Medieval Spain
Kristi Busch

C909           05/30/13 – 06/13/13 Full
Thursdays       1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                              $33

 

C909           06/03/13 – 06/17/13 Second Session
Mondays    10:00 pm – 12:00 pm
MAB 108                              $33

Come explore the incredible world of Medieval Spain from the 700s to 1492.  While the rest of Western Europe slept, Spain thrived.  They built breathtaking mosques and palaces with the sound of falling water and the scent of citrus.  They brimmed with libraries full of poetry, Greek manuscripts, philosophy and more.  Their markets exploded with imported goods from their many trade routes.  And best of all, they made a land of tolerance, where Christian, Jew, and Muslim flourished.  When Europe awoke, Spain was there to lead the way with troubadours and manuscripts.  Kristi holds a Master’s degree in museum studies from George Washington University.  She has been a storyteller in both performance and therapeutic settings.  However, her main focus has been teaching for the past 30 years.  She has taught courses in history, civics, philosophy, and mythology to 16-86 year olds, but nothing compares to making history come alive. 3 sessions.  3 sessions.

√Lifestyle Update
Robert Anderson

C891           04/02/13 – 04/23/13
Tuesdays           2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
FBC                                     $33

The latest research on stretching our longevity and quality of life to optimum levels will be a main topic in this class.  What we eat, how we sleep and relax, movement and exercise options, nutritional supplements, and how we manage stress will be highlighted.  Most of us can address manageable improvements in lifestyle which carry the benefit of promoting our health and postponing degenerative disease.  We can take advantage of the continuing research as it evolves.  Bob Anderson, M.D., practiced medicine in South Snohomish County for forty years and was a member of the founding committee of CRI.  As the author of many books and founding president of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, he helped develop resources to educate physicians in adding innovational thinking to their conventional training, certifying to date over 1,800 doctors as integrative holistic physicians in the United States.  He has presented similar topics for physicians and consumers throughout the US, Europe, Central America and New Zealand.  4 sessions, 1-1/2 hours.

√The Margins of Evolution Full
Frank Harold

C962            05/08/13 – 05/29/13
Wednesdays  10:00 am – 11:30 am
MAB 108                              $33

Evolution is the overarching theme that unifies all of biological science.  In principal, and often in detail, evolution makes sense of the history of life on earth, accounts for its diversity, and  explains how organisms adapt to their environment.  The underlying mechanism, the interplay of random variation and natural selection, is solidly established.  But like all sweeping generalizations, at its outer margins the Theory of Evolution runs into difficulties that point beyond our present knowledge.  The first of  four sessions will cover current conceptions, and then we will explore other areas where knowledge fades into uncertainty:  the nature and evolution of cells, the origin of life, and whether evolution has direction or purpose.  Science has been Frank Harold’s calling for nearly sixty years.  He holds a PhD in comparative biochemistry (UC Berkeley) and has served on the faculties of the University of Colorado, Colorado State, and presently the University of Washington.  Forty years of research has centered on the way cells work, especially how they generate useful energy.  Dr. Harold is the author of over a hundred publications, including three books.  4 sessions, 1-1/2 hours.

√Our Energy Future:  New Developments
Bernard G. Silbernagel

C963             05/03/13 – 05/24/13
Fridays           10:00 am – 12:00 pm
MAB 108                               $44 

Our picture of future energy options has changed dramatically as a result of events of the last year.  The Gulf Oil Spill and its implication for future deep-water petroleum production, the impact of the Japanese tsunami on the general perception of reliability of nuclear energy as a source of electric power, and current debates over the role of human activity as a source of climate change, raise issues over which might be the best options to pursue for our future energy technologies.  The potential contributions of green energy options and conservation and the associated costs are becoming better defined and can attempt to provide a current perspective on upcoming developments.  Dr. Silbernagel recently retired as a senior scientist in Exxon Mobil’s Corporate Research Laboratories.  He received his BS at Yale University and PhD at University of California, San Diego in physics and taught physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara prior to working in industrial research.  He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He is the author of over 100 scientific papers. 4 sessions.

The Philosophy of Technology
Bill Patterson

C949               04/05/13 – 04/26/13
Fridays          10:00 am – 12:00 pm
MAB 108                                $55

In tracing the relationship humans have with their technologies, from the Greeks to the present day, it can be argued in a materialist way that our technologies have determined our cultural institutions and values and given us the ground for being as such.  Thus, the technologies that we develop and their uses have moral significance.  We will cover specifics like the creation of writing, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles, computers, smart phones, social networking, etc.  As usual, the course will be a mixture of lecture and instructor-led dialogue.  Bill Patterson has taught many courses for CRI, sometimes combining thinkers of a given period with its literature and other aspects of its culture and at other times treating a single subject philosophically.  He has earned Master’s degrees in philosophy and in whole systems design.  4 sessions.

Piano Masterpieces:  Beethoven and Chopin
George Fiore

C923             04/03/13 – 04/24/13
Wednesdays       2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
MIC 109                                 $55

The first of these lecture-recitals by George Fiore will be an overview of the five Beethoven piano concerti.  The following sessions will include Chopin’s four ballades and fourteen valses.  This class celebrates the tenth year that CRI has offered similar musical programs by this outstanding pianist.  George Halverson Fiore is Associate Conductor of Choral Activities Emeritus of the Seattle Symphony and a widely recognized pianist.  4 sessions.

√The Poetics of Hell:  Dante’s Inferno
Sean Taylor

C917             04/04/13 – 04/25/13
Thursdays         1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                                $44

We will engage in reading and discussing  the first volume of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Inferno, in which the poet travels to the infernal regions in the company of Virgil, his ghostly guide, and is inducted into knowledge of the divine by the examples of the damned.  Attention will be paid to the troubled question of the moral economy of Dante’s Hell, where certain sins (some of which are no longer considered sins) are punished more than others.  The recommended edition of the text is John Sinclair’s translation (The Divine Comedy, Volume 1. Galaxy Books, 1961; a lovely translation, with facing page of the original Italian text – widely available, on Amazon for as little as one penny).  Students are requested to read through Canto 3 for the first class meeting.  Sean Taylor holds a PhD in English from the University of Washington, and has taught as a professor at Portland State University and Hamilton College.  His main areas of expertise are Old and Middle English literature.  4 sessions.

√Shake, Rattle and Roll!! Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics  
Donn Charnley Full

C965            04/29/13 – 05/20/13
Mondays        9:30 am – 11:30 am
MAB 108                              $44

Man has experienced the Earth’s quakes throughout history.  As our understanding of earthquakes increased, it became clear that they also help us to understand the Earth’s primary geologic process:  Plate Tectonics.  We shall discuss how earthquakes are propagated and measured, and how this knowledge helped us to unlock the secrets of Plate Tectonics.  Donn Charnley is an Emeritus Professor of Geology at Shoreline CC.  He earned a Master’s degree in geology from UW in 1959, and has taught for Seattle Public Schools, Shoreline CC, University of Washington and for CRI since 2003.  4 sessions.

√Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew
Sean Taylor

C919           05/03/13 – 05/17/13
Fridays            1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
MAB 108                              $33

In a discussion of one of Shakespeare’s most provocative comedies, which will be staged by Seattle Shakespeare Company at the same time as the course, our reading may be informed by both the text and by the live performance.  Does the play constitute a feminist or patriarchal test?  How does Kate’s final speech support your answer to that question?  And how does the live performance affect your answer?  Students are requested to read through Act 2 for the first class meeting.  Any edition of the play will do, though it is recommended to find one with annotations and with line numbers.  Sean Taylor holds a PhD in English from the University of Washington and has taught as a professor at Portland State University and Hamilton College.  His main areas of expertise are Old and Middle English literature.  3 sessions.

√Solar Systems Beyond Our Own Full
Eric Agol

C967              05/31/13 – 06/14/13
Fridays           10:00 am – 12:00 pm
MAB 108                                 $33

In the last two decades we have begun to find planets orbiting other stars (so called expoplanets) in great abundance.  Topics covered in this course include the history of the search for expoplanets in other solar systems and how astronomers discover and characterize these planets and their properties.  How are they thought to be formed?  What are the prospects for finding planets similar to earth in size, temperature, and mass?  Come and learn if there are others like us out there!  Eric Agol is Professor of Astronomy at UW.  He has studied extrasolar planets for the last decade and just recently discovered a new planet.  3 sessions.

√Treasures of Kenwood House
Rebecca Albiani

C907             04/03/13 – 04/24/13
Wednesdays     12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
CON                                      $42

This spring Seattle Art Museum will host a superb exhibition of Old Master paintings from the collection of Kenwood House, London.  To help enrich participant experience of the exhibit, which will feature portraits by Rembrandt, van Dyck, Hals, and Gainsborough, among others, Rebecca will teach three sessions focusing on portraiture.  The first will deal with Rembrandt’s self- portraits and his images of his wife and lovers.  The following week, we will examine 17th century double portraits from Northern Europe, looking at how Rembrandt, van Dyck, Hals and their contemporaries portrayed love and marriage in paint.  Finally, on April 24 (after skipping a week), we will turn to the grand age of the portrait in British painting, particularly the works of Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney.  Come enhance your enjoyment of some of the finest art to visit Seattle in years.  Rebecca Albiani earned her BA degree in art history and Italian at UC Berkeley and her MA in Renaissance art history at Stanford.  She gives a popular lecture series at the Frye Art Museum as well as many art courses for CRI.   No class on April 17th. 3  sessions.

√Understanding Trade Agreements
Bill Center

C881           04/01/13 – 04/15/13
Mondays         2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
MAB 108                              $33

Why do we need trade agreements?  What is the terminology, history and framework for agreements?  What is the role of  international organizations such as the WTO?  We will review some recently approved agreements, major historical agreements such as NAFTA, and current pending agreements, including those under negotiation.  Bill Center is presently serving as Senior Advisor for the International Fellows Programs at Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs UW and teaching at Global Business Forum, Foster School UW.  Bill is past President of the Washington Council on International Trade, retired as Rear Admiral, USN, and has served as Deputy Director for International Negotiations for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  3 sessions. 

√Washington Wines
Ruth Arista

C883            06/05/13 – 06/12/13
Wednesdays      1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
CON                                     $39

We are touring our own back yard in a wine glass.  Washington produces hundreds of world class wines.  In this two-part class, wine professional Ruth Arista leads an enthusiastic discussion of the geology, geography and vineyard practices that give Washington wines their character.  Sensory evaluation of wines from each Viticultural area accompanies each class.  Ruth Arista has over a decade of experience in the Washington wine industry as owner of Arista Wine Cellars, a wine shop in downtown Edmonds.  Class includes handouts and tastings. 2 sessions.