To mark the 47th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission, the Smithsonian has made available a high-resolution 3-D scan of the command module “Columbia,” […]

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U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell talks about the importance of bird conservation and why birds really matter. Step outside your house in the […]

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Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, talks about the importance of bird conservation and why birds really matter. Step outside your […]

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Last October Smithsonian Folkways released “The Brothers Nazaroff: The Happy Prince,” a boisterous, high-energy tribute to cult Yiddish troubadour Nathan “Prince” Nazaroff, who recorded the […]

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Meet Amy Homma, the Director of Digital Learning at Art Lab+. Learn how Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has created a dynamic program to […]

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Judy Garland’s iconic ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” are one of the most popular attractions at the National Museum of American History. But […]

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A team from the Smithsonian is starting a pilot program to aid people in restoring their damaged family heirlooms. Click photo to learn more….

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Get a quick tutorial on how to upload a story about your local culture and experiences to the Smithsonian’s storytelling website, located www.museumonmainstreet.org Museum on […]

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Scientists in the US are helping to preserve this near-threatened species native to South America.

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When Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute paleobotanist Carlos Jaramillo learned that Panama was expanding its canal in 2006 and blasting 100 million tons of rock to […]

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As the world prepares to celebrate Global Tiger Day this Saturday, July 29, Great Cats keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo have some big news […]

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Internationally renowned artist Mark Bradford will debut one of his largest works to date with “Pickett’s Charge,” a monumental new commission that spans nearly 400 […]

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 Blues singer and pianist Marcia Ball performs “Louella” at the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.      

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 The zoo extends the collecting mission of the Smithsonian into the realm of the living. From the Series: Stories From the Vault: Random? http://bit.ly/2gfy5hO

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On February 12, 2018, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled its commissioned portraits of former President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama by artists Kehinde […]

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Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have found that poaching is an emerging crisis for Asian elephants in Myanmar. Researchers first became aware […]

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 When Emma Lawton was 29 she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. As a graphic designer, drawing is a huge part of her life but […]

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 Husband and wife artists, Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson, (who married at Burning Man in 2011) create detailed, tactile, often whimsical large-scale artworks, including the […]

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A peek inside the gates at the Goodman Games late summer 2017. Held in the heart of Anacostia’s historic Barry Farm, the Goodman League hosts […]

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We've been reporting on the city of Los Angeles approving major developments without seismic studies attached.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, why is this?

Mark Lacter: Steve, this is a real gotcha moment for the L.A. Planning Department, the City Council, and everyone else at City Hall who signed off on these projects.  The latest revelation, which was reported by the L.A. Times, shows that a planned 39-story residential tower in Century City is just 300 feet from the active Santa Monica fault.  And, we're only learning about this because the Metropolitan Transportation Authority did its own seismic testing near the site when it was looking for potential subway stops, and officials decided that it was too close to the fault.  This also comes after three large-scale projects in Hollywood were found to be located quite close to the active Hollywood fault.

Julian: The concern is that if any faults were to rupture, the foundation of a building could be split apart.

Lacter: Kind of an inconvenient truth both for the developers, who have millions of dollars riding on these projects, and for L.A. city officials who are betting on a future that will include many more high rises.  And, we should note that more than two-dozen high rises are either in the process of going up, or are at least on the drawing board.  In case you're wondering why there aren't regulations that monitor this sort of thing, the answer is that there are regulations.  California has a law that requires state geologists to map active earthquake faults, and then set zones on either side of the fault line.

Julian: Has the state done this?

Lacter: The state says it hasn't had the time nor the money to map areas within the city of L.A., though the faults have been known to be in the general vicinity of these projects - and so, you'd think the city would want them tested extensively.  Of course, that would mean more delays, which the developers wouldn't be happy with.

Julian: Of course, seismic studies are not always definitive.

Lacter: They're not - and it's possible that different geologists would come up with different findings.  But so far, most of the information seems to be coming from the developers, and you have to wonder whether it's a great idea to rely on folks who have a financial interest in a project to tell us what's safe and what isn't.  Probably not.

Julian: Your article in the new issue of Los Angeles Magazine raises a broader point about the city's business climate.

Lacter: Steve, for many years, L.A. has been branded as a terrible place to do business because of government interference, but that's largely a myth.  If anything, city officials have been too accommodating.  Frankly, the anti-business rap never made much sense when you consider the thousands of companies that start up here each year.  A study by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers ranks L.A. particularly high when it comes to ease of doing business, which runs counter to the conventional wisdom.

Julian: You're not saying it's truly easy, are you?

Lacter: Easy, no.  There certainly are plenty of reasons for business owners to pull out their hair.  And those hassles, along with an unemployment rate that remains quite high, has given developers and others the leverage to ask for various giveaways.  All they have to do is say that their projects will generate more jobs, and city officials tend to respond favorably - no matter how questionable those proposals might be.  And, by the way, job creation doesn't always determine economic growth, certainly not in the short term.

Julian: We all remember during the mayoral campaign, candidates were talking about how their policies would lead to lower unemployment...

Lacter: ...right, almost like they could pick up jobs at Ralphs.  Well, it doesn't work that way.  Thing is, the city of L.A. doesn't need to cut so many deals - the local economy is rich enough and broad enough to keep prospering.  Which is why city officials would be much better off laying off the incentives, and focusing on the basics - public safety, transportation, the parks, and libraries.  Do that right, and the business climate will take care of itself.

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

It's late October, which means  more and more stores are decorating for Christmas. 

Steve Julian:  Business analyst Mark Lacter, whatever happened to "better late than never?" 

Mark Lacter: Steve, retailers never want to sell late because it often means having to reduce the price. They're looking to start out as soon as possible - these last three months represent their biggest payday of the year. And here in California people do seem to be buying stuff - consumer spending has been up for 14 consecutive quarters, going back to the spring of 2009, and taxable sales are up almost 5 percent from the peak levels before the recession. Another good sign is Chapman University's index of consumer sentiment, which is at its highest level since the beginning of the recession in late 2007. All these indicators explain why the state economy is generally outpacing the rest of the nation.

Julian: There has to be a "but" in here someplace…

 Lacter: The "but" is that only 60 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn have been recovered, and the unemployment rate in many parts of the state, including L.A. County, is still at or above 10 percent, which isn't what you'd call a healthy economy. And that's why holiday shopping this year could end up being sort of hit and miss. Folks who have well-paying jobs and a bunch of their money in the stock market - and Southern California has its share of both - those folks will probably be spending good amounts. 

Julian: Are there geographic tell-tale signs?

Lacter: The closer to the coast you go, the more spending there's likely to be. But it's a different story if you're feeling vulnerable about your job or in the amount of savings you have in the bank. So you have retailers once again coming up with ways of reaching as many budget-conscious folks as possible, as early as possible. The most obvious move is opening their stores on Thanksgiving night - Macy's is the latest of the chains to get a head start on Black Friday (Target, Kohl's, Walmart and J.C. Penney will also be open). Another strategy is matching your prices with the prices on Amazon and other online retailers - also, retailers will use mobile apps and arrange in-store pickup of online purchases. All told, expect holiday sales to run 3 percent ahead of last year, with the L.A. area likely to be a bit higher. Decent, but not great.

 Julian: What's the message to consumers now: buy or not buy?

 Lacter: Well, we'll start with the good news - gasoline prices are at their lowest level since the beginning of the year, with an average gallon of regular in the L.A. area running $3.75, according to the Auto Club. And barring any refinery fires or international catastrophes, the numbers might keep falling into November and December, which could incentivize consumers to buy a little more at the shopping malls. Here's some more good news - the L.A. area has seen a huge drop in the number of homeowners who are underwater, which happens when the value of a property is less than the amount that's owed on the property. This of course was a big problem during the recession, but over the last year the median home values have gone up between 20 percent and 30 percent. 

 Julian: And if your equity is positive instead of negative, you'll probably feel more confident about spending. 

 Lacter: That's right. But there are also deterrents to spending - as has been reported, a few hundred thousand Californians lose their individual health care policies by the end of the year because their plans don't meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Policyholders will be stuck in many cases with a premium increase, possibly a big increase. Now it's possible that in the long run these folks will be better off with a more inclusive plan that results in lower out-of-pocket expenses. But it'a hard to ignore the sticker shock of having to shell out, say, $250 a month instead of $100.

 Julian: There goes the holiday list...

 Lacter: For those folks, yes. And even though L.A. consumers do a good job of separating their feelings about Washington with their desire to spend, the economy is bound to slow down a little. So Steve, just don't count on that $9,000 fur vest I was going to get you for Christmas. Sorry about that…

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

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The Weeping Goldsmith, written as a first-person narrative, follows Botanist John Kress through nine years as he surveys Myanmar’s teak forests, bamboo thickets, timber plantations, rivers and mangroves to document its incredible botanical biodiversity.

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Follow botanist Candy Feller of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center as she conducts field work on mangrove ecosystems at Carrie Bow Cay, a Smithsonian field research station in the Caribbean.

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“Our guide celebrates the beauty of some of the most attractive inhabitants of Panama’s undersea realm and provides an indispensable, easy-to-use tool for their identification,” say the Littlers.

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What they observed was unique among all bird species: successful male caribs maintained and defended territories with nectar supplies that were two to five times greater than their daily needs and also isolated part of their crop for the exclusive feeding rights of visiting females.

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This new research has revealed that in areas considered unsuitable for farming today, "pre-Columbian farmers constructed thousands of raised fields in the seasonally flooded coastal savannas of the Guianas.

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The Encyclopedia of Life is an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens will have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project, bringing together species and software experts from across the world. Lean more at www.eol.org

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Recent analysis using DNA sequencing of ancient Roman pills found aboard a ship that sank in Italy’s Gulf of Baratti between 140 -120 B.C, has revealed that the medicines consist of material from simple garden plants, namely carrot, radish, parsley, celery, wild onion and cabbage.

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