Common Dreams photo
Janet Yellen’s speech at “Fostering a Dynamic Global Recovery,” a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
A decade has passed since the beginnings of a global financial crisis that resulted in the most severe financial panic and largest contraction in economic activity in the United States since the Great Depression. Already, for some, memories of this experience may be fading — memories of just how costly the financial crisis was and of why certain steps were taken in response. Today I will look back at the crisis and discuss the reforms policymakers in the United States and around the world have made to improve financial regulation to limit both the probability and the adverse consequences of future financial crises.
A resilient financial system is critical to a dynamic global economy — the subject of this conference. A well-functioning financial system facilitates productive investment and new business formation and helps new and existing businesses weather the ups and downs of the business cycle. Prudent borrowing enables households to improve their standard of living by purchasing a home, investing in education, or starting a business. Because of the reforms that strengthened our financial system, and with support from monetary and other policies, credit is available on good terms, and lending has advanced broadly in line with economic activity in recent years, contributing to today’s strong economy.1
At the same time, reforms have boosted the resilience of the financial system. Banks are safer. The risk of runs owing to maturity transformation is reduced. Efforts to enhance the resolvability of systemic firms have promoted market discipline and reduced the problem of too-big-to-fail. And a system is in place to more effectively monitor and address risks that arise outside the regulatory perimeter.
Nonetheless, the scope and complexity of financial regulatory reforms demand that policymakers and researchers remain alert to both areas for improvement and unexpected side effects. The Federal Reserve is committed to continuing to evaluate the effects of regulation on financial stability and on the broader economy and to making appropriate adjustments.
I will start by reviewing where we were 10 years ago. I will then walk through some key reforms our country has put in place to diminish the chances of another severe crisis and limit damage during times of financial instability. After reviewing these steps, I will summarize indicators and research that show the improved resilience of the US financial system — resilience that is due importantly to regulatory reform as well as actions taken by the private sector. I will then turn to the evidence regarding how financial regulatory reform has affected economic growth, credit availability, and market liquidity.
The US and global financial system was in a dangerous place 10 years ago. US house prices had peaked in 2006, and strains in the subprime mortgage market grew acute over the first half of 2007.2 By August, liquidity in money markets had deteriorated enough to require the Federal Reserve to take steps to support it.3 And yet the discussion here at Jackson Hole in August 2007, with a few notable exceptions, was fairly optimistic about the possible economic fallout from the stresses apparent in the financial system.4
As we now know, the deterioration of liquidity and solvency within the financial sector continued over the next 13 months. Accumulating strains across the financial system, including the collapse of Bear Stearns in March 2008, made it clear that vulnerabilities had risen across the system. As a result, policymakers took extraordinary measures: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) sharply cut the federal funds rate, and the Federal Reserve, in coordination with the Treasury Department and other agencies, extended liquidity facilities beyond the traditional banking sector, applying to the modern structure of US money markets the dictum of Walter Bagehot, conceived in the 19th century, to lend freely against good collateral at a penalty rate.5 Still, the deterioration in the financial sector continued, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failing in early September.6
The Cantor Arts Center, Sally Fairchild and Sargent’s Women, A New Book About the Artist
At the Cantor Arts Center: John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Sally Fairchild, 1884-1887. Oil on canvas. Gift of Dr. Herbert and Elizabeth Sussman, David and Valerie Rucker, Dr. Stephen Sussman and Kelly Watson, Eric and Nancy Sussman, and Dean and Chiara Sussman, 2012.1
We went to the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University this week to see an exhibit which ended the day after we went, Creativity on the Line. It used an Atomic expresso coffee maker as an illustration … the Brevetti Roboatti*, celebrate “the timeless beauty that mid-century modern designers brought to everyday objects”.
Later we paused by a compelling young woman painted by John Singer Sargent, a Portrait of Sally Fairchild, 1884–87, who is beyond fetching, rather strong and self-assured:
“Sargent was known for his brilliant depiction of whites by using other colors, as seen in the white blouse. He received his artistic training in Paris and became a leading portrait painter of the social elite in Europe and America. Working directly from the model without preliminary sketches, he was adept at capturing the personality of his sitters. The artist strikes a balance of delicate, bold, and loose brushwork to express the intellect of the fetching 16-year-old Sally Fairchild. Paving the way for generations of young women to come, she would become the first female to attend lectures at Harvard University.”
This isn’t the only time that we’ve been drawn to a book about Sargent; four years ago when Val Castronovo reviewed the Brooklyn Museum’s Sargent watercolor exhibit, I noted the book, Sargent’s Daughters; The Biography of a Painting by Erica E. Hirshler*. The new book, Sargent’s Women, written by Donna M. Lucey and published by W.W. Norton, has just been released but since we’re shy book reviewers lately, you’ll have to accept Norton’s opinion:
“Sargent’s Women has a distinct elegance and potency — Lucey’s writing propels you forward, straight to the heart of the story, along the vibrant ties that linked this fascinating artist to the women he made infamous.” — Christene Barberich, global editor-in-chief and cofounder, Refinery29
“In this seductive, multilayered biography, based on original letters and diaries, Donna M. Lucey illuminates four extraordinary women painted by the iconic high-society portraitist John Singer Sargent. With uncanny intuition, Sargent hinted at the mysteries and passions that unfolded in his subjects’ lives.
“Elsie Palmer traveled between her father’s Rocky Mountain castle and the medieval English manor house where her mother took refuge, surrounded by artists, writers, and actors. Elsie hid labyrinthine passions, including her love for a man who would betray her. As the veiled Sally Fairchild — beautiful and commanding — emerged on Sargent’s canvas, the power of his artistry lured her sister, Lucia, into a Bohemian life. The saintly Elizabeth Chanler embarked on a surreptitious love affair with her best friend’s husband. And the iron-willed Isabella Stewart Gardner scandalized Boston society and became Sargent’s greatest patron and friend.
“Like characters in an Edith Wharton novel, these women challenged society’s restrictions, risking public shame and ostracism. All had forbidden love affairs; Lucia bravely supported her family despite illness, while Elsie explored Spiritualism, defying her overbearing father. Finally, the headstrong Isabella outmaneuvered the richest plutocrats on the planet to create her own magnificent art museum.
“These compelling stories of female courage connect our past with our present — and remind us that while women live differently now, they still face obstacles to attaining full equality.”
*Artist unknown (Italy), Atomic Espresso maker for Brevetti Robbiati, 1950s. Aluminum, brass, plastic, and bakelite. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, L.25.7.2016
**From Hirschler’s Book:
“The painting itself continues to speak. Watching people look at it in the museum’s galleries can be fascinating. Viewers seem to spend more time with it than they do with others in the room where it hangs. (Editor’s note: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.) Often they are artists, bewitched by Sargent’s ability with the brush. Sometimes they are mothers who use the picture’s accessibility — the youngest girl sits so close to the visitor — to engage their own small children. Some visitors beg the museum staff for admission to the gallery if the room is closed for an installation, usually recounting the long distances they have traveled just to see this one thing, this icon, this masterpiece. People weep in front of it.”
A UC Berkeley PhD Candidate in Computer Science Creates a Step toward Fighting Human Trafficking: Sex Ads are Linked to Bitcoin Data
A UC BerkeleyPhDcandidate has developed the first automated techniques to identify adult ads tied to human trafficking rings by linking the ads to public information from Bitcoin — the primary payment method for online sex ads.
The study is a first step toward developing a suite of freely available tools to help police and non-profit institutions use Bitcoin data to identify victims of sexual exploitation online.
Websites for online classified ads selling sex are widely used by human traffickers, but law enforcement efforts to trace and disband human trafficking rings are hindered by the pseudonymous nature of adult ads, the tendency of ring leaders to employ multiple phone numbers and email addresses to avoid detection and the difficulty in determining which online ads reflect willing participants in the sex trade and which reflect victims forced into prostitution. The study is a first step toward developing a suite of freely available tools to help police and non-profit institutions overcome these challenges and identify victims of sexual exploitation on websites such as Backpage and Craigslist, where ads for human trafficking are often found.
“The technology we’ve built finds connections between ads,” said Rebecca Portnoff, a UC Berkeley PhD candidate in computer science, who developed the tools as part of her dissertation. “Is the pimp behind that post for Backpage also behind this postin Craigslist? Is he the same man who keeps receiving Bitcoin for trafficked girls?” Questions like these are answerable only through more sophisticated technological tools — exactly what we’ve built in this work — that link ads together using payment mechanisms and the language in the ads themselves.”
Portnoff will present the findings this month at the Association for Computing Machinery’s SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, one of the world’s leading data-mining conferences, which will publish the paper in its proceedings. The work was funded by Amazon Web Services Cloud Credits for Research program, Giant Oak, Google, the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education. Computer scientists from UC San Diego and the New York University Tandon School of Engineering were also involved in the study.
The research team’s approach relies on two novel algorithms. The first is a machine-learning algorithm rooted in stylometry, which is the analysis of an individual’s writing style to identify authorship. Stylometry can provide confirmation of authorship with high confidence, and, in the case of online trafficking ads, allows researchers and police to identify cases in which separate advertisements for different sex workers share a single author: a telltale sign of a trafficking ring, but hard to identify without sophisticated computer analysis.
“Imagine looking through page after page of explicit advertisements, some for underage victims. You’re looking through all this material to find the set that [is] advertising trafficked and underage victims. Even given a team of humans dedicated to the task, there’s simply too much data — often quite traumatizing — to go through,” Portnoff said.
By automating stylometric analysis, the researchers discovered they could quickly identify groups of ads with a common author on Backpage, one of the most popular sites for online sex ads. (Since this research was conducted, the adult advertising section of Backpage was discontinued; however, the researchers noted that adult ads remain prevalent, now appearing in multiple sections of the site.)
After identifying groups of ads with a single author, the researchers then tested a second algorithm that that utilizespublicly available information from the Bitcoin *mempool and blockchain— the ledgers that record pending and completed transactions. Because Backpage posts ads as soon as payment is received, the researchers compared the timestamp indicating submission of payment to the timestamp of the ads’ appearance on Backpage. All Bitcoin users maintain accounts, called wallets, and tracing payment of ads that have the same author to a unique wallet is a potential method for identifying ownership of the ads, and thus the individuals or groups involved in human trafficking.
“There are hundreds of thousands of these ads placed every year, and any technique that can surface commonalities between ads and potentially shed light on the owners is a big boost for those working to curb exploitation,” said Damon McCoy, an NYU Tandon assistant professor of computer science and engineering and one of the paper’s co-authors.
Combining automated stylometric and timestamp analysis to identify sex ads by both author and Bitcoin owner represents a considerable advancement in assisting law enforcement and nonprofit organizations that try to identify victims of human trafficking, McCoy said.
The researchers deployed their automated author identification techniques on a sampling of 10,000 real adult ads on Backpage, a four-week scrape of all adult ads that appeared on Backpage during that time, as well as on several dozen ads they themselves placed as a point of comparison. They reported an 89 percent true-positive rate for grouping ads by author — significantly more accurate than current stylometric machine learning algorithms.
The team also reported a high rate of success in linking the ads they placed themselves to the corresponding transactions in the Bitcoin blockchain.
They acknowledge, however, that they were unable to verify whether matches they made using real-life ads and Bitcoin transaction information truly correspond to individuals tied to human trafficking — that must ultimately be pursued by police.
“Sex trafficking of children hides in plain sight within the vast online escort environment. It’s difficult for investigators to sift through the mounds of data and figure out what is important and what is not when looking for a child,” said Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn. “This type of research is critical to advancing this work and helping investigators find children faster and reduce the time in trauma. We’re grateful to academics and researchers who are willing to lend their time and talent to this issue to help find new solutions that move this work forward.”
The researchers intend to refine their analysis in collaboration with law enforcement andnonprofitorganizations.
*Editor’s Note: Mempool Size – Blockchain – Blockchain.info; https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-size. Bitcoin Charts & Graphs – Blockchain. … Mempool Size. The aggregate size of transactions waiting to be confirmed. Source: blockchain.info. Created with …
The Creativity Sweeps: Everything Those Teachers Did, They Did With Flair; They Knew No Bounds
Jackson Pollock, Untitled (Green Silver); ca. 1949, enamel and aluminum paint on paper, mounted on canvas. Solomon Guggenheim Museum; New York Gift, Sylvia and Joseph Slifka
by Julia Sneden
Back when I first started writing this column, a friend suggested that I write about some of the “wildly creative” types I’ve encountered during a lifetime of associating with theatre people (my husband is a set designer; I was a drama major; and, back before my children were born, I worked at a couple of movie studios). The idea sounded good to me, because I have indeed been fortunate to have met some famous and fascinating people.
But when I sat myself down at the word processor to try profiling a few, the most flagrantly creative and Out There people who came to mind were the preschool and kindergarten teachers at the extraordinary school my children attended, long ago.
Everything those teachers did, they did with flair. They knew no bounds: They entrusted good, sharp knives to four-year-olds who chopped vegetables for their “Pilgrim Stew” contribution to a feast which was held the day before Thanksgiving, outdoors (as the Pilgrims had done). They hung the kids’ art works from the ceiling, on the playground fence, off the rail of a balcony. They taught letter formation using pencils to scribe rolled-out clay. They taught beginning sounds through cooking (“Preparing Plain or Pepperoni Pizza”). They let the children make designs and large letters using push pins on individual cork boards. They broke down recipes and made pictogram cards, setting them up in a long, left-to-right row, so that if a child followed the recipe steps, he or she emerged with ONE cookie or ONE individual pizza. They showed the children how to find the seeds in various flowers and vegetables; they taught them how to coax sprouts from those seeds. They gave the kids shovels and hoes and rakes to turn up the ground in the class garden plot, where the children planted a garden using their seedlings, and the following year, when the children were no longer in their classes, the teachers invited them back after school to harvest the fruits of their labors.
©Julia Sneden for SeniorWomen.com
Read the rest of the article …
But, first, we’d like to note three preschools that our children attended: The Lindgren School, founded in 1944, in Closter, New Jersey, The Out-of-Door Academy, established in 1924 on Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida and The New Canaan Nature Center Preschool in Connecticut. The school that Julia is referring to is the Summit School of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. — Tam Martinides Gray, Editor and Founder, SeniorWomen.com
EPA Chief Planning To Scrap an Obama-era Rule to Curb Discharges of Lead, Arsenic and Mercury from Power Plants Into Sources of Drinking Water
In the face of opposition by the power industry, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is planning to scrap an Obama-era rule to curb discharges of lead, arsenic and mercury from power plants into sources of drinking water. The Environmental Working Group condemned the move as one more special favor from Pruitt to polluters at the expense of public health.
Ex Editor: NPDES (National Pollutant Elimination System Program) in Your Region: The EPA has 10 Regional offices around the country. Regional offices work closely with the states to implement the NPDES program. We don’t think the map is interactive but there are State Programs: Authorization for states, tribes, and territories is through a process that is defined by Clean Water Act )
The rule, finalized in 2015, would have kept an estimated 1.4 billion pounds of contaminated wastewater from coal-fired and natural gas power plants out of drinking water sources. The rule was immediately opposed by the power industry, which filed a lawsuit claiming it would be too burdensome.
On Friday, Pruitt informed opponents of the water protection plan that the EPA would begin the process of amending the rule to allay industry’s complaint that compliance would cost them too much money. A coalition of electrical utilities called the Utility Water Act Group petitioned the EPA in April to set aside and revise the rule.
Lead and mercury are highly potent neurotoxins that can cause serious, irreversible brain and nervous system damage in children. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and a common drinking water contaminant.
“Frankly, I’m losing count of the number of actions by Administrator Pruitt that will put the lives of millions of American children at greater risk,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “But I can quickly add up what the cost is to polluters for dumping toxic chemicals into our water in the era of Scott Pruitt and Donald Trump: zero.”
EWG recently released a national drinking water database that shows where lead, arsenic, mercury and other contaminants were found in tap water by local water utility tests. Data from almost 50,000 utilities showed that arsenic contaminates more than 7,230 water supplies serving 70 million people and that mercury contaminates more than 280 water supplies serving 2.5 million people.
Almost 19,000 public water systems in all 50 states had at least one detection of lead above the level at which a formula-fed baby is at risk. But because lead tests are conducted differently by utilities, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people are likely being served water contaminated with the heavy metal.
Consumers can find out more about potential lead threats in their water by visiting their utility pages in the database.
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center: Blood Test Spots Tumor-derived DNA In People With Early-stage Cancer
Right: Liquid biopsy for cancer; Credit: Reprinted with permission from Victor Velculescu et al., Science Translational Medicine 2017
In a bid to detect cancers early and in a noninvasive way, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report they have developed a test that spots tiny amounts of cancer-specific DNA in blood and have used it to accurately identify more than half of 138 people with relatively early-stage colorectal, breast, lung and ovarian cancers. The test, the scientists say, is novel in that it can distinguish between DNA shed from tumors and other altered DNA that can be mistaken for cancer biomarkers.
A report on the research, performed on blood and tumor tissue samples from 200 people with all stages of cancer in the US, Denmark and the Netherlands, appears in the Aug. 16 issue of Science Translational Medicine.
“This study shows that identifying cancer early using DNA changes in the blood is feasible and that our high accuracy sequencing method is a promising approach to achieve this goal,” says Victor Velculescu, M.D., Ph.D., professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Blood tests for cancer are a growing part of clinical oncology, but they remain in the early stages of development. To find small bits of cancer-derived DNA in the blood of cancer patients, scientists have frequently relied on DNA alterations found in patients’ biopsied tumor samples as guideposts for the genetic mistakes they should be looking for among the masses of DNA circulating in those patients’ blood samples.
To develop a cancer screening test that could be used to screen seemingly healthy people, scientists had to find novel ways to spot DNA alterations that could be lurking in a person’s blood but had not been previously identified.
“The challenge was to develop a blood test that could predict the probable presence of cancer without knowing the genetic mutations present in a person’s tumor,” says Velculescu.
The goal, adds Jillian Phallen, a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center who was involved in the research, was to develop a screening test that is highly specific for cancer and accurate enough to detect the cancer when present, while reducing the risk of “false positive” results that often lead to unnecessary overtesting and overtreatments.
The Center for Investigative Reporting: Trump Administration Suddenly Pulls Plug on Teen Pregnancy Programs
By Jane Kay, Reveal / July 14, 2017
Above: Guttmacher Institute illustration for How Dismantling the ACA’s Marketplace Coverage Would Impact Sexual and Reproductive Health
dministration has quietly axed $213.6 million in teen pregnancy prevention programs and research at more than 80 institutions around the country, including Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University.
The decision by the US Department of Health and Human Services will end five-year grants awarded by the Obama administration that were designed to find scientifically valid ways to help teenagers make healthy decisions that avoid unwanted pregnancies.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and other top Trump appointees are outspoken opponents of federal funding for birth control, advocating abstinence rather than contraceptives to control teen pregnancies.
Among the programs that lost their funding: the Choctaw Nation’s efforts to combat teen pregnancy in Oklahoma, Johns Hopkins’ work with adolescent Apaches in Arizona, the University of Texas’ guidance for youth in foster care, the Chicago Department of Public Health’s counseling and testing for sexually transmitted infections and the University of Southern California’s workshops for teaching parents how to talk to middle school kids about delaying sexual activity.
tion of two years of funding for the five-year projects shocked the professors and community health officials around the country who run them.
h officials say cutting off money midway through multiyear research projects is highly unusual and wasteful because it means there can be no scientifically valid findings. The researchers will not have the funds to analyze data they have spent the past two years collecting or incorporate their findings into assistance for teens and their families.
“We are just reeling. We’re not sure how we’ll adapt,” said Jennifer Hettema, an associate research professor at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which was finding ways to help doctors talk to Native American and Latino teens about avoiding pregnancy.
More than a quarter of US girls become pregnant by 20. The teen birth rate has continually declined over the past 20 years, but it remains high compared with other industrialized nations, particularly among poor and minority girls.
rump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program had two strikes against it: Former President Barack Obama started it, and social conservatives don’t want to give teens access to birth control.
projects were awarded five-year grants in 2015. But last week, they received annual grant award letters from the Office of Adolescent Health, which were obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Included was this sentence: “This award also shortens the project period to end June 30, 2018, at the end of this budget year.” In years past, the award letters said the project period would end June 30, 2020.
In addition, a $2.9 million annual grant split among Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, the University of Michigan, the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute, EngenderHealth in New York and Youth Catalytics in Vermont was eliminated immediately.
These five groups were unfunded after one year of their five-year projects. They were responsible for providing resources, such as training for recruiting and communication, to the other grant holders. The five groups received letters saying that the cut was due to changing program priorities and that the projects were no longer in the federal government’s best interest.
The elimination of funding was done outside the traditional federal budget process. Congress has begun negotiations on the spending bill, and on Wednesday, an appropriations subcommittee cut money for teen pregnancy prevention.
Pat Paluzzi of the Healthy Teen Network in Baltimore said the axing of the program, including her project to develop an app to answer teen girls’ health questions, is “part and parcel of the shift to abstinence-only dollars.”
“They don’t like to deal with the sexual reproductive health of teens,” Paluzzi said. “They frame it in this country as moral issues. Public health issues shouldn’t be political issues.”
Several grantees were told by officials at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Adolescent Health that the decision to eliminate funding came from the office of the assistant secretary for health. Last month, President Donald Trump appointed a new chief of staff there, Valerie Huber, who favors abstinence as the solution to teen pregnancy.
The office of the assistant secretary for health on Thursday confirmed eliminating the final two years of funding for the 81 programs but declined to answer questions.
“All of these grantees were given a project end date of June 30, 2018, allowing the grantees an opportunity to adjust their program and plan for an orderly close out,” a Health and Human Services Department spokesman said.
The funded programs were exclusively involved in preventing youth pregnancies; no abortion counseling was provided.
Public Lands From Which to View the Eclipse: Yaquina Head,Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Teton,Homestead, Clarks River Wildlife Refuge
A total solar eclipse. Photo by M. Druckmüller, NASA.
On Monday, August 21, 2017, millions of people across the US will get to see one of nature’s most awe-inspiring sights — a total solar eclipse.
With wide-open spaces and low light pollution, public lands are the perfect place for viewing this rare event, and we’re sharing advice for safely witnessing this awesome moment.
What is a solar eclipse?
The path of the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Photo by NASA
A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and earth, blocking all or part of the sun. For thousands of years, people have observed this phenomena, and this year many in the U.S. will get that chance! The last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979, and the next total eclipse over the U.S. won’t be visible until April 8, 2024.
From beginning to end, the solar eclipse will last up to 3 hours, but the total eclipse (when the moon completely blocks the sun) will be visible from each location for much shorter. For those lucky people in the path of totality, which spans about 70 miles in width and crosses portions of 14 states from Oregon to North Carolina, they’ll get to watch as day turns into night when the moon blocks the sun for up to 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Everyone else will see a partial solar eclipse.
During the partial eclipse, the sun’s rays will cause eye damage and should only be viewed through a solar filter or special eclipse viewing glasses. These can be purchased from numerous sources for as little as $2. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses (even very dark ones) are not enough to protect your eyes.
Learn more about the specific times the solar eclipse will be visible at your location.
Tips for where to watch the total solar eclipse
The South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho is one of the public lands that’ll have great views of the total solar eclipse. Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management
From Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area on the west coast to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the east and Grand Teton, Homestead National Monument, and Clarks River National Wildlife Refuge in between, America’s public lands offer some of the best viewing locations for the total solar eclipse.
Whether you choose to watch the eclipse from an iconic national park or a lesser known (and just as beautiful) public land, these tips will help you have a safe and memorable experience while respecting your public lands:
- It is NEVER safe to look at the sun during the eclipse. Except during the very short period of totality do not look directly at the sun without approved solar-viewing devices.
- Be sure to get there early to beat the crowds and find a good parking spot. Only park in designated areas or lots. Please don’t park along the sides of roads or in meadows. The total eclipse lasts only 1 minute-2 minutes and 41 seconds (depending upon your location), so do not be late!
- Know the fire risks and respect fire restrictions. August is peak wildfire season for public lands, and a small spark can rapidly become a large fire. Be sure to properly put out campfires, and in many areas, vehicles are required to have a shovel and fire extinguisher or gallon of water.
- Get your maps. Some public lands are remote areas along unmaintained roads and are often inter-mingled with private land, so know where you’re going. Contact your local Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or Forest Service offices for camping and jurisdiction maps. Before you head out, make sure you are familiar with the area you are going to and ensure you have appropriate gear, equipment, and supplies.
- Use designated spots for camping. While most reservable campgrounds are already booked, there are some locations that offer first come, first serve campsites. Remember: whether in a developed campground or at a dispersed site, you can usually camp in an area for up to 14 days. Learn more about camping guidelines.
- Don’t forget your eclipse glasses. You’ll be able to buy eclipse glasses at some public land visitor centers, but to ensure you have them for viewing, it’s best to purchase them before leaving home. Learn more about protecting your eyes during a solar eclipse.
- Please use designated routes and trails. Going off road disturbs wildlife and habitat and in dry conditions can spark a fire.
- Tread lightly and leave no trace. Leave your site better than you found it.
- Bring plenty of water. It can get hot during the summer, and water can be limited. Always carry at least one gallon of water for every person in your group.
- Pack the sunscreen. Even though this event is about the sun’s rays being blocked out, you’ll probably spend some time waiting in the sun. Protect yourself.
- Remember to pack it in, pack it out. Remove all trash (including your viewing glasses and any food scraps like apple cores).
- Be patient and don’t expect all services to be available. Many small towns within the path of the eclipse expect their infrastructure and community services to be stretched to the limit during the event. Be early and patient and expect traffic on rural roads. Don’t expect cell-phone reception as it is already spotty in rural areas and may be overtaxed by the high number of users.
Check out some of the solar eclipse events across the country from the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Managementand U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Tips for photographing the solar eclipse
Visitors to the Grand Canyon prepare for the annular eclipse in 2012. Photo by Erin Whittaker, National Park Service
Just as the partial eclipse will damage your eyes, it will also damage your camera unless you place a special solar filter over the lens. These are widely available from photography stores. No filter is needed during totality, so be sure to practice removing your solar filter quickly before the day of totality so that you are not wasting precious time. The dark sky during totality makes it important to have your camera/smartphone on a tripod or some other support to prevent blur.
With a wide angle lense, the sun will appear as a tiny dot in the image, so consider using a telephoto lens. Want to know how large the eclipse will appear? You can practice ahead of time by taking an image of the full sun as long as you have your solar filter on (and protective eyewear).
Make sure to turn off your flash as it won’t improve your photos and will distract other eclipse viewers. Speaking of viewers, consider taking a video of the audience as the eclipse goes into totality — they are guaranteed to applaud and gasp at the magical sight and will make for some memorable clips.
Unlike the fleeting few minutes of totality, the partial phases of the eclipse provide several hours for creatively composing photos. Take the time to to silhouette foreground subjects like trees, mountains, people or other objects against the skyline and crescent sun to lend the context of your location to the eclipse.
Above all, plan your time during totality to be able to capture some images quickly so that you can spend part of this precious short time enjoying the eclipse itself.
Check out more detailed information on camera settings and other aspects of eclipse photography.
Scout Report: Amboyna Conspiracy Trial, Eclipse, Using Social Media, Pangaea, Portrait Gallery Activities, Haiku, Community-College Employer Connection, Jewish Warsaw and More
This illustrated manuscript (right) of Farid al-Din ‘Attar’s mystical poem Mantiq al-Tayr (Language of the Birds) is one of the most important illustrated manuscripts from Timurid Persia (1370–1507) and a highlight of the Islamic collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see source below)
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
GENERAL INTEREST
Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll – August 2017: The Politics of ACA Repeal and Replace EffortsAug 11, 2017 | Ashley Kirzinger Follow @AshleyKirzinger on Twitter, Bianca DiJulio Follow @BeeDiJulio on Twitter, Bryan Wu, and Mollyann Brodie Follow @Mollybrodie on Twitter
KEY FINDINGS:
Attitudes Towards Recent “Repeal and Replace” EffortsIn the early morning hours of July 28, 2017, the U.S. Senate voted on their latest version of a plan to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Known as “skinny repeal,” this plan was unable to garner majority support– thus temporarily halting Congress’ ACA repeal efforts. The August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, fielded the week following the failed Senate vote, finds that a majority of the public (60 percent) say it is a “good thing” that the U.S. Senate did not pass a bill aimed at repealing and replacing the ACA, while about one-third (35 percent) say this is a “bad thing.” However, views vary considerably by partisanship with a majority of Democrats (85 percent), independents (62 percent), and individuals who say they disapprove of President Trump (81 percent) saying it is a “good thing” that the Senate did not pass a bill compared to a majority of Republicans (64 percent) and individuals who say they approve of President Trump (65 percent) saying it is a “bad thing” that the Senate did not pass a bill. 
Figure 1: Two-Thirds of Republicans and Trump Supporters Say It Was a Bad Thing the Senate Didn’t Pass ACA Repeal Legislation The majority of those who view the Senate not passing an ACA replacement bill as a “good thing” say they feel this way because they do not want the 2010 health care law repealed (34 percent of the public overall) while a smaller share (23 percent of the public overall) say they feel this way because, while they support efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, they had specific concerns about the particular bill the Senate was debating. And while most Republicans and supporters of President Trump say it is a “bad thing” that the Senate did not pass ACA repeal legislation, for those that say it is a “good thing” more Republicans say they had concerns about the Senate’s particular legislation (21 percent) than say they do not want the ACA repealed (6 percent). This is also true among supporters of President Trump (19 percent vs. 6 percent). 
Figure 2: More Republicans and Trump Supporters Say Senate Bill Failure is a Good Thing Due to Policy Rather than Against Repeal Efforts WHO DO PEOPLE BLAME OR CREDIT FOR THE SENATE BILL FAILING TO PASS?Among those who say it is a “good thing” that the Senate was unable to pass ACA repeal and replace legislation, similar shares say the general public who voiced concerns about the bill (40 percent) and the Republicans in Congress who voted against the bill (35 percent) deserve most of the credit for the bill failing to pass. This is followed by a smaller share (14 percent) who say Democrats in Congress deserve the most credit. 
Figure 3: Four in Ten Credit the Public for the Senate Bill Not Passing, Similar Share Blame the Democrats On the other hand, among those who say it is a “bad thing” that the Senate did not pass a bill to repeal the ACA, over a third place the blame on Democrats in Congress (37 percent). About three in ten (29 percent) place the blame on Republicans in Congress while fewer (15 percent) say President Trump deserves most of the blame for the bill failing to pass. HALF OF THE PUBLIC ARE “RELIEVED” OR “HAPPY” THE SENATE DID NOT REPEAL AND REPLACE THE ACAMore Americans say they are “relieved” (51 percent) or “happy” (47 percent) that the Senate did not pass a bill repealing and replacing the ACA, than say they are “disappointed” (38 percent) or “angry” (19 percent). 
Figure 4: Half of Public Are Happy/Relieved that Senate Failed to Pass the Repeal Legislation; Fewer Say They Are Disappointed/Angry Although two-thirds of Republicans and Trump supporters say they feel “disappointed” about the Senate failing to pass a bill to repeal and replace the ACA, smaller shares (30 percent and 37 percent, respectively) report feeling “angry” about the failure to pass the health care bill. 
Figure 5: Two-Thirds of Republicans and Trump Supporters Say They Are Disappointed that Senate Failed to Pass Repeal; Fewer Are Angry MAJORITY SAY PRESIDENT TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACA MOVING FORWARDWith the future of any other replacement plans uncertain, the majority (60 percent) of the public say that because President Trump and Republicans in Congress are now in control of the government, they are responsible for any problems with the ACA moving forward, compared to about three in ten Americans (28 percent) who say that because President Obama and Democrats in Congress passed the law, they are responsible for any problems with it. Partisan divisiveness continues with majorities of Republicans and supporters of President Trump who say President Obama and Democrats are responsible for any problems with it moving forward, while large shares of Democrats, independents, and those who do not approve of President Trump say President Trump and Republicans in Congress are responsible for the law moving forward.
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