does safari run in background

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Safari sites running on the background?

Posted on Dec 7, 2019 7:31 AM

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Dec 7, 2019 8:25 AM in response to Justforaquestion

To see if you can clear the connections, try double clicking the Home button or swipe up from the bottom of the screen and swipe Safari upwards. Go to Settings/Safari and clear History and Website Data. Open Safari and test.

Safari - Clear the history and cookies on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Safari website data on your iPhone or iPad - How to clear

Dec 7, 2019 8:40 AM in response to Eric Root

Dec 7, 2019 12:01 PM in response to Eric Root

Yes i know. Is there anything else i can do? Or would wiping the phone help? My biggest concern is if these sites can see what i do while browsing or something?

Dec 7, 2019 7:44 AM in response to Justforaquestion

Apart from the bottom 2 items, they have all run for 18 hrs 35 minutes which suggests that they were all running concurrently.

It's my guess that while you had Safari running, any favourites that were in the Favourites bar may have been active at the same time.

This may help: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3105553/6-easy-ways-to-customize-safari-on-iphone-and-ipad.html

Dec 7, 2019 8:06 AM in response to sapper

Google, wilmastadi and io-tech are only in my favorites. I’ll check that, thanks for the reply ;)

Dec 7, 2019 10:30 AM in response to Justforaquestion

What option(s) do you get if you tap the arrow on the right side of a site?

Dec 7, 2019 10:48 AM in response to Eric Root

Can add limits if that’s what you mean?

Dec 7, 2019 11:48 AM in response to Justforaquestion

If you do that, you might not be able to access certain web sites when you want to.

Dec 7, 2019 12:44 PM in response to Justforaquestion

I don't think wiping the phone would help.

Dec 7, 2019 12:49 PM in response to Eric Root

Is this a common problem or? And i asssume these are trackers so can they see what i’m doing and stuff?

How to add a background to Safari in iOS 15

Create a colorful background for your iphone.

By Barbara Krasnoff , a reviews editor who manages how-tos. She’s worked as an editor and writer for almost 40 years. Previously, she was a senior reviews editor for Computerworld.

Share this story

iOS 15 has brought with it a number of features that don’t affect your privacy, your efficiency, or your fitness. They’re — well, just nice. One of them is the new ability to change the background of the mobile version of Safari so that when you open a new page, you’re looking at something beautiful or wildly colorful. Or just nice.

The process is almost ridiculously simple. Here’s how to do it:

• Once you’re in the Safari app, you’re going to open a new page. Not sure how to do that? Look for the double square in the bottom-right corner and tap on that.
• You’ll see thumbnails of all the pages currently open in Safari. (If there are loads of them, you may want to take this opportunity to get rid of a few.) Tap on the plus sign in the lower-left corner.

• You’re now on “Customize Start Page.” Look for the “Edit” button and tap on that.
• Now, you can either choose from one of the backgrounds that Apple has included or tap the square with the plus sign to select one of your own. If you chose the latter, you’ll be taken into your Photo app to make a choice.

• Tap on the image you want to use, and you’ll be brought back to “Customize Start Page.” Your new image has now replaced the square with the plus sign and is highlighted. If you’re happy with your choice, leave the page. If you want to select something else, just tap on that square again to choose something different, or tap on one of the preinstalled Apple backgrounds.
• Leave the “Customize Start Page,” and you’ll see that your new Safari page now has a cool new background.

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Safari for iPhone & iPad: How to open tabs in the background

Three steps to distraction-free reading

So, you're reading a fascinating article in Safari when you come across a link to something else that looks interesting. You don't want to stop reading, but you're afraid you'll forget about the new article, so you open it in another tab for safe keeping. Annoyingly, though, Safari kicks your current article to the curb and immediately takes you to the new one. Argh! If Safari was a person, you could punch it in the face — but since it isn't, here's what else you can do: make new tabs open in the background.

To do this, you first need to change a setting:

• Open the Settings app.
• On an iPhone, navigate to Safari > Open Links. On an iPad, go to Safari > Open New Tabs in Background.
• On an iPhone, select the "In Background" option. On an iPad, toggle on "Open New Tabs in Background."

Now you can open links in the background tab by performing these steps in Safari:

• Tap and hold on any link.
• On an iPhone, select "Open in Background." On an iPad, choose "Open in New Tab."
• On an iPhone, you can find the new link by tapping the Show All Tabs button in the lower-right corner. On an iPad, the link opens in a new tab beside your current one.

Voilà! You can now open stories to read later without leaving your current article, and Safari didn't get its face punched. Everyone's a winner!

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How to Change the Safari Background on iPhone and iPad

Add a splash of color to your web browser by choosing a background design to use with Safari on your iPhone.

When you open Safari on the iPhone, the start page has a simple white background. In dark mode, it turns black. And that's about it. However, with iOS 15 and newer software versions, you can choose a colorful wallpaper as the Safari background instead.

And if you want something personal, you can even use a picture from the Photos app as the background of the start page in Safari. So, keep reading to learn how to change the Safari background on your iPhone and iPad.

How to Change the Background in Safari on iPhone

The instructions below will show you how to change the Safari background on your iOS/iPadOS device. If you want to use a custom image, make sure it's in the Photos app (and not elsewhere, like the Files app, Google Drive, or Dropbox).

When you're ready, follow these steps to add or change the Safari background:

• Open Safari on iPhone running iOS 15 or later and tap Edit from the start page.
• Turn on Background Image .
• Apple includes preset background images. Tap to use one.
• Alternatively, you can tap the plus icon (+) to select a picture from the Photos app.
• Finally, tap X from the top-right corner or drag this page down to close it. You will see the Safari start page with a changed background.

Free Websites to Get Amazing Background Images for Safari

iOS 15 and even its successor iOS 16 feature just nine Safari backgrounds. If you don't like them, you can get fantastic backgrounds from websites that offer copyright and royalty-free images . Some of these sites are:

1. Unsplash

Unsplash has tons of images covering various categories like flowers, nature, fashion, architecture, abstract, interiors, film, and more. Its homepage features the most recent editorial images. You may choose from there or use the search box to find something specific.

Pixabay offers royalty-free images of various kinds that you can use for your Safari background, iPhone wallpaper, and elsewhere. Downloading images in lower resolution requires no authentication. However, you may have to solve a Google captcha for higher resolutions.

Pexels is another great place to find high-quality images to use in your projects, wallpapers, or on your Safari background. The homepage showcases a collection of fine photos, and you can also use the search box to find pictures related to gifts, nature, technology, models, wallpaper, and so on.

Use Safari With a Beautiful Background!

Now you know how to change the plain white or black Safari background to something colorful, fun, and personal. At this point, you just need to be creative with the Safari background you choose.

But if you ever change your mind and wish to return to the minimalist design, all you need to do is repeat the steps and turn off the toggle for Background Image.

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iOS 15: How to Customize Your Safari Start Page and Background

First seen in macOS Big Sur, Safari's redesigned Start Page in iOS 15 is a one-stop shop for all of your Bookmarks, Favorites, Frequently Visited sites, Siri Suggestions, iCloud Tabs, Reading List, and Privacy Report.

• Launch Safari on your iPhone or iPad .
• Tap the open tabs icon in the bottom right corner of the Safari interface.

• Scroll down to the bottom of the Start Page and tap the Edit button.
• To sync your Start Page settings with other devices linked to the same Apple ID , turn on the switch next to Use Start Page on All Devices .
• Use the switches to control what you want to appear on your Start Page. Options include: Favorites , Frequently Visited , Shared with You , Privacy Report , Siri Suggestions , Reading List , and iCloud Tabs .
• You can also turn on the Background image option and choose one of the existing iOS wallpapers, or select your own from your photos by tapping the big + button.

In iOS 15, Tab Groups is another new feature in Safari that can improve your browsing experience. To learn more about Tab Groups, be sure to check out our dedicated how-to.

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iPhone: How to set a custom Safari background in iOS 15

One of the notable changes  with iOS 15  is a totally redesigned Safari. The all-new browser aims to make it easier to use with one hand and offers more customizability. Follow along for how to set a custom iPhone Safari background in iOS 15.

There are quite a few changes with Safari on iPhone in iOS 15. For an in-depth look at all the changes, check out our guide as well as all the best new extensions for Safari:

• Hands-on: Here’s how the all-new Safari in iOS 15 works
• Here are the best new Safari extensions to download for iOS 15 and iPadOS 15

As for setting a custom iPhone Safari background, it’s a quick and easy change and you can use any of your own images or the new included background wallpapers from Apple.

How to set a custom iPhone Safari background in iOS 15

• Open an empty Safari page (tap the two square icon > tap the + icon in bottom corner)
• Swipe to the very bottom and tap  Edit
• Tap the toggle next to Background Image
• Tap the + to use your own image or choose from one of the included background wallpapers

Here’s how the process looks:

You can also reorder the sections of the start page or turn them on/off to further customize your setup.

More on Safari in iOS 15

For a closer look at how the new tabs and tab groups work and everything else new in iOS 15’s Safari, check out our full walkthrough in the video and post below:

Read more 9to5Mac tutorials:

• Hands-on: Here’s how Background Sounds work in iOS 15
• iPhone: How to enable and disable iCloud Private Relay in iOS 15
• iOS 15 brings new Announce Notifications feature for Siri, here’s how it works

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How to set a custom background in Safari browser tabs on your iPhone

• You can set your Safari background with a custom image on new tab pages starting with iOS 15.
• To select a custom background image, open a new tab in Safari, tap the Edit button at the bottom of the page, and enable the Background Image button.
• You can choose one of several preset images or pick a photo from your phone's photo library.   

Apple made some significant updates to the default Safari web browser for the iPhone in iOS 15 , including tab groups and a movable address bar. But one of the most interesting updates is the ability to set a custom background for new browser tabs. Not only does it add a much-needed visual update, but it's easy to configure, and you can change it as often as you like. 

How to set a custom background in Safari for iPhone

You can only set a custom background in Safari for your iPhone if you are running iOS 15 or later. To check, start the Settings app and tap General . Tap Software Update and check your current version. If necessary, install the update.

When you're ready to set the custom background:

1. Start the Safari app. 

2. If you're not already on a new, empty tab, tap the Tabs icon at the bottom (it looks like two overlapping squares) and then tap the Plus sign at the bottom left.  

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Edit . 

4. Turn on Background Image by swiping the button to the right.

5. Choose the background image you want to use for new tabs from one of the presets, or tap the Plus and select an image from your photo gallery. 

6. Tap the X to close Customize Start Page . 

You should now see your selected background image on all new tabs. You can return to the same menu to change your selection at any time. 

• Main content

How to change Safari background on iPhone

Add some personality to Apple's browser (thanks to iOS 15)

"How to change Safari background on iPhone " is a question many iOS users are asking to figure out how to add some flair and personality to Apple's native web browser. Why be stuck with a plain, boring background when you can add some pizazz to your internet surfing, right?

Thanks to the new iOS 15 update, you can now customize Safari's start page. This was a feature that was first available on macOS Big Sur, but now iPhone users can enjoy this new, visually pleasing perk on their iPhones. Here is a quick, easy, step-by-step guide on how to change the background on Safari.

• How to update to iOS 15
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Make sure your phone is updated to iOS 15. Once you've got the latest iOS release installed on your phone, follow the instructions below on how to change your Safari background on iPhone.

1. Tap on the Safari icon on the bottom taskbar.

2. Close all of your tabs. To do this, tap on the Tabs icon and tap "X" on all the pages. This should bring you to your Safari homepage, which lists your Favorites and Frequently Visited websites.

3. Scroll all the way down and tap on "Edit."

4. The "Customize Start Page" window should appear. Scroll down to the Background Image section.

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5. Under Background Image, you can change your Safari background to one of the pre-selected wallpapers or you can insert your own. Follow step six and beyond for instructions on how to do this.

6. To insert your own wallpaper, tap on the plus sign. This will prompt your photos to appear. Tap on your desired photo. For this tutorial, I selected a pepperoni pizza background because, well, who doesn't love pizza?

7. After exiting the Customize Start Page window, you should see your new, customized background on Safari.

Keep an eye out for more how-to guides that help you navigate iOS 15's newest, coolest features.

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire's business beat in 2013. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech as she dove into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!

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2 Easy Ways to Customize the Safari Homepage Background

Last Updated: April 19, 2023 Fact Checked

Using iPhone or iPad

This article was written by Luigi Oppido and by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly . Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 31,224 times.

Do you want to customize your Safari start page? Whether you're using the Safari app on iOS or the desktop version on Mac, you'll be able to change Safari's background image in a few simple steps. You can use Apple's default backgrounds or one of your own saved photos. If you're trying to change your Safari theme from white to black (or vice versa), you'll need to configure your Light/Dark display in the Settings app. This wikiHow will show you how to change the background image on Safari using your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Things You Should Know

• On iOS, open a new start page. Tap "Edit," toggle on "Background Image," and then select a photo.
• On Mac, open Safari, click "Settings," and check the "Background Image" box. Select a photo and then click "Choose."

• Changing the Safari background is different from enabling Dark Mode .
• To enable or disable Dark Mode, go to Settings → Display & Brightness → select Light or Dark .

• If you have a lot of Favorites on your start page, you may need to scroll down to see this button.

• When it's toggled on, a collection of background images will appear. If you want to use one of Apple's provided backgrounds in Safari, tap it to apply it immediately.
• To use your own image as the background, continue to the next step.

• The Photos app will open.

• If you have a photo on your computer you'd like to use, you can transfer it to your iPhone or iPad using AirDrop.
• Tap X to close the page.
• If you want to remove the background image, return to the "Edit" menu and toggle off "Background Image".

• Be sure to update your Mac .

• A pop-up menu will open.

• When the box is checked, two tiles will appear. You can scroll towards the right to see more. If you want to use one of Apple's provided background images, click it to change your background immediately.
• To use your own image, continue to the next step.

• The Finder will open to your photos. Navigate through your folders to find a picture.

• If you want to remove the background image, return to the "Settings" menu and uncheck "Background Image".

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/customize-a-start-page-ibrw01514823/mac

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How to add a background to your Safari homepage on iPhone and Mac

Bet you didn’t know you could customize your Safari homepage’s background. The more you know. Here’s how to spruce up it up.

With all of the features introduced with the release of iOS 15 and macOS Monterey , one of the most underrated changes was the redesign of Safari . Apple’s default browser is in second place to Google Chrome in terms of browser popularity, but recent additions added several features that might push it over the top, like the VPN-like Private Relay tool and Hide My Email compatibility.

One of our favorite parts of using Safari is the customization options available on its homepage. On the start-up page, you can display all your bookmarks, view links shared in your Messages app , browse your Safari reading list of saved articles, and more.

You can also customize the look of your homepage by adding a custom background. Who wants to look at a boring solid-color background when you could pick a cute animal theme or upload photos of your friends and family.? With this custom option available, there’s no reason to not add a bit of personality to your Safari experience.

How to change your Safari background on iPhone

The option to add a background to the Safari homepage is only available on iOS 15, so make sure your iPhone is updated before you jump into the steps below.

• Open the Safari app and open a new tab.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the tab — past your favorites, shared articles, reading list — and tap on the “Edit” button centered at the bottom of the screen.
• At the bottom of the customizations list, tap the “Background Image” slider to enable it. If “Background Image” is turned on, the slider will be moved to the right, the slider background will turn green, and you’ll see a collection of background previews below the slider.
• Safari has nine built-in backgrounds for you to choose from. You can also upload your own background by tapping the plus symbol box in the top left-hand corner of the background options. Your camera roll will open up and you can select a photo or saved image from your phone to apply to Safari. If you choose a custom image but want to change it, just tap the “X” on your custom image preview to erase it.
• Once you’ve picked a background image, just tap the “X” in the upper right-hand corner of the customization screen to return to your Safari tab.

How to change your Safari background on Mac

To change your Safari background on Mac, your computer needs to be running macOS Big Sur (or later). Big Sur was first released in 2020 — if you’re running an older macOS, you’ll need to update your operating system.

• Open Safari and open a new tab.
• Click on the hamburger icon in the lower right-hand corner of the Safari window.
• At the very bottom of the pop-up menu, make sure the box next to “Background Image” is checked off.
• You can preview all nine backgrounds by clicking on the first one and then using the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate back and forth. To upload a custom image, just click on the box with the plus symbol to search your Mac for an image to upload.

Here's How To Change Your iPhone's Safari Background

Safari received some updates with iOS 15 , including the ability to customize its start screen. This is the page that appears when you open Safari and have no other tabs open. On this screen, you have your bookmarked pages, and with the new update, there are some more features available to populate this screen. One of these is the ability to change the background of Safari. Before, there was simply a black or white background (depending on if you use dark or light mode), but now you can choose from multiple different pre-set backgrounds or even your own image from your camera roll.

You can also change a variety of other features in Safari, including which of them are on the start page and the order they appear in. If you've ever wanted full control over the customization of your Safari start page, now is the time to do it. You can customize Safari directly within the app, and you can always change things around again whenever you want. 

How to change Safari's background

The following steps will show you how to change your background in Safari, either to a pre-set image or your own. You can also turn off the background image feature altogether (via Apple ).

1. Open the Safari app.

2. Make sure your tabs are closed or open to a new one to get to your start page. 

3. Scroll down to the very bottom and tap "Edit." 

4. Now you're on the "Customize Start Page" screen. From here, scroll down to "Background Image."

5. Tap on one of the pre-set images to set it as your Safari background.

6. To use your own image, tap on the plus icon and then the image you want to use as a background. 

7. To remove a background image you previously chose, tap the "X" in the corner of the uploaded image. 

8. To turn off the background images feature, tap the slider to the off position, turning it gray. 

Now you can use the Safari start page with an image of your choice for a customized experience.

Changing other Safari features

There are a few other settings you can change in Safari to customize your start page. This includes a few different sections: Favorites, where the bookmarks you have filed as Favorites are stored; Frequently visited, which is a list of web pages you visit the most; Privacy Report, showing you how many trackers Safari has protected you from ; Siri Suggestions, giving you suggestions based on Siri usage; Reading List, which is where pages you have saved to your Reading List are visible; and iCloud Tabs, to share tabs over multiple devices via iCloud. 

On the "Customize Start Page" screen, you can turn all of these features on or off and change the position in which they appear. To turn them on or off, simply tap the slider either to the green "on" position or the gray "off" position. To change their placement, tap and hold the three lines next to the feature you want to move, then drag it up or down. These changes are saved automatically, so when you're done you can tap on the "X" in the top right corner to close the customization page and see your alterations. 

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Power users know all the tricks, and being able to open links in the background is the quintessential power user move. Here's how to do it on iOS.

Safari lets you open links in a new tab on iPhone or iPad, but it immediately switches to that new tab when you do. Here's how to open all new tabs in the background instead.

Opening links in new tabs on an iPhone or iPad has long been a simple case of touching and holding a link and then tapping "Open in New Tab." That works great if you don't want to lose your place on your current web page. But it can be jarring if you just want to open a tab and come back to it later. For that, you want to be able to open a new tab in the background.

Thankfully, deep in the heart of the Settings app on both the iPhone and iPad, you'll find a setting that does exactly that. Once turned on, all tabs will open in the background rather than stealing your focus, and it's pretty great.

To get started, open the "Settings" app and then tap "Safari."

Next, scroll down and tap "Open Links" to open the next screen.

The next screen will show the two options available to you. If you want to open new links in the background, without having them steal focus, tap "In Background" and exit the Settings app.

Now, whenever you tap and hold on a link in Safari, a new option will appear to open "Open in Background" which, when tapped, will do precisely that.

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How to set a custom background in Safari browser tabs on your iPhone

• You can set your Safari background with a custom image on new tab pages starting with iOS 15 .
• To select a custom background image, open a new tab in Safari, tap the Edit button at the bottom of the page, and enable the Background Image button.
• You can choose one of several preset images or pick a photo from your phone's photo library.

Apple made some significant updates to the default Safari web browser for the iPhone in iOS 15 , including tab groups and a movable address bar. But one of the most interesting updates is the ability to set a custom background for new browser tabs. Not only does it add a much-needed visual update, but it's easy to configure, and you can change it as often as you like.

How to set a custom background in Safari for iPhone

You can only set a custom background in Safari for your iPhone if you are running iOS 15 or later. To check, start the Settings app and tap General . Tap Software Update and check your current version. If necessary, install the update.

When you're ready to set the custom background:

1. Start the Safari app.

2. If you're not already on a new, empty tab, tap the Tabs icon at the bottom (it looks like two overlapping squares) and then tap the Plus sign at the bottom left.

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How to add your own background image to Safari’s Start page

Safari 14 offers the option of setting your own background directly in the browser meaning you can now personalise your home screen in Safari with a photograph or image of your choice.

It reminds us a bit of the Picture Of The Day feature on Bing, but with the Microsoft browser the choice lies with the developers and the picture changes every day with a background story to the photo.

In Safari 14 this image can be chosen from a selection provided by Apple, or you can select one of your own images.

You will need to download and install Safari 14. The new version of Safari works on Catalina, Mojave, and (when it launches) Big Sur.

To find out which version of Safari you are running follow these steps: Open Safari > Click on Safari in the menu > click on About Safari. You should then see which version of Safari you are running.

To download Safari 14 follow these steps: Go to System Preferences > Software Update an you should the see download (as long as you are running Catalina, Mojave or Big Sur).

Now that you have updated to Safari 14, you can change its appearance by following these steps:

• Open Safari.

• Cick on Choose to accept the new background.
• If you want to add your own image as a background click on the plus sign as above, but use the Finder window that opens to locate your chosen image.
• To make finding your chosen image easier we recommend selecting the image you want to use prior to this step and copying it either to the desktop Pictures folder, or to your Desktop and then locating the Desktop via the Finder.

Alternatively you can just drag the image onto the Safari page and it will automatically add it.

Read this for more tips on using Safari: How to use Safari on a Mac. Plus: Best web browser for Mac.

Author: Karen Haslam , Editor

Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago. 

Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.

Recent stories by Karen Haslam:

• Best Antivirus for Mac 2024: Top Security Software Compared
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Guest Essay

Larry David, Philosopher King

By Mark Ralkowski

Dr. Ralkowski is a professor of philosophy and honors at the George Washington University.

“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the HBO comedy series created by and starring Larry David, debuted way back in 1999 and comedy, television and the world have all changed significantly since. Yet somehow “Curb,” which comes to an end tonight after 12 seasons, remains as relevant as ever. How can that be?

I’d propose that one reason is because Larry David stands as an underappreciated philosopher of our everyday lives. He has taught us important truths about both how we live our lives and how we should live our lives. Most important, he’s been our foremost critic of the social rules that govern the way we interact, offering an enticing vision of social freedom that we’d be foolish to ignore.

“Curb” is full of observations about societal strictures that might otherwise go unspoken. Rules such as: You tiptoe at night; you always accept your friend’s invitation to tour her new house; you never steal from roadside memorials or caskets; you don’t go over your caviar allotment at a dinner party; you ask to split the check when you eat out with friends.

Mr. David, in the guise of his semi-fictional alter ego, has introduced us to countless examples of what I like to call the “unknown knowns” — these rules and rituals that we understand and abide by without quite knowing how we learned them. For example, most of us have been victims of what he calls “the chat and cut,” a ploy that some people use to cut in line when they don’t want to wait. But it wasn’t until Mr. David pointed this act out and named it that we thought about it explicitly. Now that it has been named, it’s a lot easier to spot in our own lives.

One simple way of considering the character of Larry is as a vessel of our wish fulfillment. As Cheryl Hines, David’s co-star, has said , “I think we all live vicariously through Larry,” because “if somebody asks you to dinner, you’d like to just say, ‘No, I don’t really like you that much.’ But people don’t in real life, you know? Larry does.” Sigmund Freud argued in his 1905 book “Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious” that laughter gives us a sense of relief because it releases the energy we normally spend on repressing our drives. Freud would say that when Larry acts out on “Curb,” we laugh because Larry lets us indirectly satisfy repressed desires to do the same.

But there’s much more that we can learn and benefit from in Mr. David’s approach to the world. One lesson he teaches us is that we all have a lot of special social knowledge that we’ve never thought about before. In “Being and Time,” the German philosopher Martin Heidegger called this knowledge part of our preconceptual “understanding of Being.” Larry describes it as our “unwritten rules,” such as: Everyone knows that you should never blow your nose in a cloth napkin at a restaurant. As Larry’s frequent collaborator Jerry Seinfeld put it in an episode of “Curb”: “It’s just not done in polite society. It’s not done in impolite society. Even the impolite don’t do it.”

As the contemporary American philosopher John Searle wrote in “Making the Social World,” these “background practices” are crucial to the construction of our social reality. “Our whole mode of sensibility is shaped by forces and influences that are, for the most part, invisible to us — what it is to be male, what it is to be female, what is involved in being a citizen, what is involved in being a professor,” Searle wrote.

This understanding is acquired without thinking and it then determines our thinking. A great example of this is our “knowledge” of the appropriate distance to stand from a conversational partner. That distance varies according to the purpose of the conversation, its context and the identities of the people who are talking. This is not knowledge that we acquire from books or from a teacher in a classroom. We are socialized into it simply by living our lives.

What makes Mr. David’s comedic vision in “Curb” so special is that, in addition to teaching us so many of these unwritten rules, it shows us that we are free to reimagine our ways of living. There is no fundamental necessity to these practices; they are arbitrary and open to revision. In fact, if we look closely at these “unwritten rules,” as the contemporary American philosopher Noël Carroll has argued, what we find is that they don’t have any basis other than our emotional attachments to them. They may feel authoritative. We certainly let them control our behavior. But there is no necessity here, as the character of Larry constantly points out.

The British anthropologist Mary Douglas has called these kinds of jokes — in which communal norms are tested and questioned — “anti-rites,” because they show us the contingency of our social expectations. “A joke is a play upon form,” Ms. Douglas wrote, “that affords an opportunity for realizing that an accepted pattern has no necessity.” The English philosopher Simon Critchley, in the 2002 book “On Humour,” built on Ms. Douglas’s theory by suggesting that jokes do two related things. First, they return us to “the background meanings implicit in a culture.” Second, they “indicate how those practices might be transformed or perfected, how things might be otherwise.”

During the long run of “Curb,” Mr. David has consistently shown us how things might be otherwise. It’s been very funny but also revelatory. He has awakened us to the background practices in our culture, and revealed to us that they have no necessity, which offers us a kind of freedom we may not have recognized.

This is not trivial entertainment. As Friedrich Nietzsche might have said, Mr. David has gone to battle with the “spirit of gravity” in our time; the world of morals, religions and tragedy. In doing so, he has offered up an alternative vision of life, one of lightness and joyful wisdom.

Mark Ralkowski is a professor of philosophy and honors at the George Washington University.

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Charging elephant kills an American woman on 'bucket list trip' in Zambia

An American woman who was on what she had called her "last big trip" was killed when a charging elephant flipped over the car she was traveling in at a national park in Zambia .

The “aggressive” creature buffeted the vehicle carrying six tourists and a guide, tour operator Wilderness said in a statement Tuesday. It said the 79-year-old victim died after Saturday's incident on a game drive at the Kafue National Park in western Zambia.

The company did not name the victim but Rona Wells, her daughter, identified her as Gail Mattson in a post on Facebook. She said her mother died in a “tragic accident while on her dream adventure.”

A video circulating on social media apparently showing the incident shows a large elephant running toward a car, which slows down as the animal approaches its left side. The elephant then flips the vehicle over and the passengers can be heard gasping as the car rolls over.

NBC News does not know the condition or identity of the person who filmed the video.

Photos shared online of the car, which is emblazoned with the logo of the tour operator, show it tipped onto its side after the incident, with a deep dent in two of its side doors.

Wilderness, which describes itself as a “leading conservation and hospitality company” operating in eight African countries, including Zambia, did not respond to NBC News when asked to confirm the authenticity of the video and the photos.

But the tour operator’s CEO, Keith Vincent, said in the statement that the company’s “guides are all extremely well trained and experienced.”

"Sadly in this instance the terrain and vegetation was such that the guide’s route became blocked and he could not move the vehicle out of harm’s way quickly enough,” he added.

Another woman was also injured in the incident and taken to a medical facility in South Africa, the Wilderness statement said, adding that four others were treated for minor injuries.

“It’s extremely rare to see an elephant that irate,” Marlon du Toit, a wildlife photographer and safari guide, told the “TODAY” show Thursday. “Across Africa, there are thousands and thousands of guests on safari on a daily basis with no negative consequences.”

The exact cause of Mattson’s death was unclear, but the company said her body would be repatriated to her family in the United States with the support of local Zambian authorities and the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Lusaka.

“This is a tragic event and we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the guest who died,” the statement added.

NBC News has reached out to Mattson's family for further comment.

Kafue National Park is Zambia’s largest and oldest national park, according to its website, and spans an area of more than 8,000 square miles. Vast regions of the park remain unexplored and the website says it is home to a variety of untamed wildlife.

A 'bucket list trip'

Mattson spent her winters in Sun City West, Arizona, playing bridge and cards, but during the rest of the year, she "travels all over the world," her friend Brenda Biggs told NBC News. Biggs and her husband, John Longabauth, became friends with Mattson when they moved to the area 6 ½ years ago.

Longabauth said Mattson spoke to the couple about her upcoming safari trip about two weeks ago, and called it "one of her bucket list trips." He said she was very excited for the adventure.

Before she left, she gave the couple concert tickets for a show that would happen while she was traveling, telling them to enjoy the concert and "I'll see you when I get back," Longabauth recalled of the conversation.

Biggs said Mattson, who was almost 80 years old, told her that the African safari was her "my last big trip." She said Mattson was "super excited because it was like the culmination of all the trips that she had gone on."

An avid traveler, Mattson took to trips to Europe and Asia, Longabauth recalled, noting that she might have been to South America, too.

Biggs called her friend "flamboyant," "friendly" and "fabulous" and said she loved bright colors. Mattson had taken over Biggs’ job as the event planner for their 200-member bridge club, she said.

"Gail was one of the more up people you'd ever want to meet," Longabauth said. "She was always up. She was always optimistic. She was always seeing the good side of everybody."

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

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World Central Kitchen, led by a humanitarian chef, has fed crisis zones for years

Rachel Treisman

José Andrés unloads food packages delivered by World Central Kitchen in Kherson, Ukraine in November 2022. Efrem Lukatsky/AP hide caption

José Andrés unloads food packages delivered by World Central Kitchen in Kherson, Ukraine in November 2022.

The aid group World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that it is pausing its efforts to feed Palestinians in Gaza after seven of its workers were killed by an Israeli strike.

The nonprofit said in a statement that the team was hit while leaving a warehouse where they had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, a route that World Central Kitchen helped establish just last month.

The organization said the convoy had been traveling in a deconflicted zone, in armored cars branded with their logo and after coordinating movements with Israel's military, which now says it will conduct an investigation of the incident "at the highest levels." Erin Gore, the CEO of World Central Kitchen, called it a "targeted attack."

"This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war," she said.

The U.S.-based organization, which was founded by celebrity chef José Andrés and his wife Patricia in 2010, delivers food to people on the front lines of natural and humanitarian disasters around the world.

Middle East crisis — explained

World central kitchen pauses gaza aid, as netanyahu acknowledges an 'unintended hit'.

It has been working on the ground in the region since Hamas - led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. Israeli's military response in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, displaced an estimated 1.7 million and left the territory on the brink of famine .

WCK said last week that it had provided some 42 million meals to people in Gaza over 175 days, calling the situation there "the most dire we've ever seen or experienced in our 15 year history."

"More and more people, particularly children, are dying of starvation," Gore and Andrés said in a joint statement. "We've known for months that famine is imminent and the situation is getting worse."

With food scarce and malnutrition rising , international experts have warned that some 30% of Gaza's population is already facing " catastrophic" levels of hunger and that northern Gaza could officially see famine anytime between now and May.

World Central Kitchen isn't the only organization working to get food into Gaza, where aid deliveries are severely limited by Israeli border restrictions, logistical challenges and ongoing fighting. But it has played a major role in the humanitarian response, including sending two shipments of hundreds of tons of food to Gaza by sea.

The second such shipment — stocked with shelf-stable items like rice, canned vegetables and proteins, as well as dates in honor of Ramadan — left Cyprus on Saturday . The Cypriot foreign ministry said Tuesday that some 100 tons of aid had been unloaded in Gaza before WCK announced it was pausing its operations in the enclave, and the remaining 240 tons would be returned to Cyprus, according to the Associated Press .

Just days ago, WCK vowed it would keep pushing to get food into Gaza "until there is substantial aid getting in via land." Now those plans are up in the air — it says it will be "making decisions about the future of our work soon."

In the meantime, here's what else to know about the organization:

WCK brings food to the front lines of disasters

People line up for food prepared by a World Central Kitchen worker in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in December 2022. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP hide caption

People line up for food prepared by a World Central Kitchen worker in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in December 2022.

Andrés is a Spanish-American chef known for his numerous U.S. restaurants, PBS travel series and humanitarian work of over a decade.

He traveled to Haiti after it was struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in 2010, cooking for displaced people in camps — an ad hoc relief mission that helped set World Central Kitchen in motion.

WCK has responded to a long list of natural and man-made disasters ever since, working with local partners on the ground.

It served more than 20,000 meals in the Houston area after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and another 3.7 million across Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria , for which Andrés was named the James Beard humanitarian of the year in 2018 (seven years after winning its "outstanding chef" award).

He told NPR that same year that he expected to see more chefs getting involved in disaster response, since "restaurant people" are particularly well suited to managing chaos.

NPR's Book of the Day

In 'the world central kitchen cookbook,' josé andrés collects recipes with impact.

"What we are very good at is understanding the problem and adapting," he said. "And so a problem becomes an opportunity ... We're practical. We're efficient. And we can do it quicker, faster and better than anybody."

The organization has grown substantially over the years and expanded its efforts to focus not only on disaster response but resilience training and longer-term community needs, including opening a culinary school in Port-au-Prince several years after the earthquake that started it.

It has fed survivors of major wildfires in California and Hawaii , federal workers in D.C. during the 2019 government shutdown and stranded cruise ship passengers during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic , throughout which it provided food for front line workers and other vulnerable groups in the U.S. as well as Spain, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic.

It delivered hot meals and fresh produce to a Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood after 10 people were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket , and distributed food after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.

More recently, WCK provided more than 20 million meals to people impacted by the dual earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last April. And it has responded to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine by providing millions of meals to people there , first in hard-hit population centers and neighboring countries, and increasingly in more remote and vulnerable areas.

This is not the first time WCK has lost workers in a conflict zone

Workers hug on Tuesday after recovering the bodies of World Central Kitchen staff who were killed by Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza. Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images hide caption

Workers hug on Tuesday after recovering the bodies of World Central Kitchen staff who were killed by Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza.

World Central Kitchen has lost workers before.

Several team members have been killed in Ukraine in recent years, according to the organization.

It said in June that a 60-year-old volunteer named Igor was killed when Russian shelling hit his apartment building in Kharkiv, and that two other volunteers, Sardor and Viktoria, had been killed in a strike in Chuhuiv the previous July. (The group only identified them by their first names.)

Andrés told NPR's Morning Edition in December that WCK had lost a total of six people in Ukraine.

"As a cook, as a chef, when I founded this organization, I never expected that this will happen," he said. "And I almost wanted to pull World Central Kitchen immediately out of Ukraine. But the locals told me: 'José, You cannot leave. We need you. We need your organization.'"

Middle East

Gaza food crisis is nothing like anything chef josé andrés had seen before.

While conflict zones are inherently dangerous, the organization has also faced criticism over its safety record in the past.

In December, Bloomberg published a story alleging — among other accusations — that Andrés looked the other way on matters of staff safety, including demanding that staff send a food truck into parts of Turkey that local officials had declared "no-gos" due to landslides.

Andrés told NPR that disaster and war zones come with risks, and the organization doesn't "push anybody to go."

"Obviously, it's people that maybe they don't feel safe doing this job, but then they shouldn't be in these kind of humanitarian situations," he added. "But from there to say that José Andrés puts people in danger — I'd never be able to tell anybody to do what I'm not willing to do on my own."

The organization has won awards and faced upheaval

World Central Kitchen brought food to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, one of many natural disasters to which it's responded. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

World Central Kitchen brought food to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, one of many natural disasters to which it's responded.

WCK has earned plenty of accolades for its work over the years, but has also recently weathered a string of scandals.

Andrés was awarded the 2015 National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama and has twice been named one of TIME's most influential people, among them. A handful of Democratic lawmakers nominated WCK and Andrés himself for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.

The nonprofit — which operates on non-governmental contributions — has grown exponentially since its founding. It brought in more than $500 million in contributions and grants in 2022, which the New York Times reports was a fourfold increase from the year before.

While WCK gets perfect scores on watchdog sites like Charity Navigator and Charity Watch, there have been some concerns and criticisms raised recently about where exactly that money is going — including from within the organization itself.

A charity kitchen in Ukraine linked to chef José Andrés was destroyed by a missile

WCK announced last June that as it was spending some $2 million a day in Ukraine, it "learned of suspected instances of fraud" and commissioned a law firm to investigate. It ultimately confirmed instances of fraud that amounted to several million dollars, which the organization called "unacceptable, but still represents a tiny percentage of the $432 million we spent feeding people impacted by war."

It acknowledged it could have invested more in its internal operations to discover "bad actors," and said it was making changes among personnel and partners in both Ukraine and Turkey as a result — as well as implementing additional safeguards to combat fraud, like an anonymous tip line.

The organization has also grown in size, now counting thousands of volunteers and 94 employees, according to 2022 filings .

Humanitarian leaders are condemning the strike

United Nations staff members gather Tuesday around a World Central Kitchen car that was hit by an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in Gaza. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

United Nations staff members gather Tuesday around a World Central Kitchen car that was hit by an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in Gaza.

WCK said the seven workers killed in the Israeli strike included a Palestinian and citizens of Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom and Canada — with one a dual citizen of the U.S.

U.S. and foreign leaders as well as international organizations are offering their condolences and condemnations, and calling for an independent investigation into the Israeli military strike.

Philippe Lazzarini , the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — which has lost at least 176 employees in Gaza — said the organization provides "much needed food assistance to a starving population."

Boiling weeds, eating animal feed: People in Gaza stave off hunger any way they can

He said humanitarian workers are #NotATarget, a hashtag that other human rights groups and public officials are using in their posts about the attack.

Andrés wrote on X that he is heartbroken and grieving for the loved ones of those killed, whom he described as "people ... angels."

"The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing," he said. "It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now."

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*Mac and Linux are compatible with Java Edition only.

Poisonous Potato Update

The (s)mashing update you always asked for!

Imagine being a potato. Now imagine being the potato’s less popular sibling who didn’t inherit the tuber-licious looks the rest of your family possesses. What’s worse is – you're facing the impossible decision of what to do with all this starch? Since neither French fries nor couch potato sat right with you, there's only one option remaining. Congratulations friend, you’re a poisonous potato. 

For years, Minecraft’s own toxic tuber has been neglected and underappreciated, lacking both purpose and usefulness. For years, you – the community – tried to highlight this, working tirelessly to bring it to our attention and literally begging us for more functionality. As of today, your concerns are a thing of the past. 

Mojang Studios is proud to release our most well-boiled update to date that will add so much usability to the poisonous potato that even tater-haters will become devoted spud-buds. The Poisonous Potato Update – rich in both carbs AND features! You asked. We delivered. Or maybe you didn’t ask, but we delivered anyway? In any case, it is HERE! 

GET THE SNAPSHOT UPDATE 

Snapshots are available for Minecraft: Java Edition. To install the snapshot, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the "Installations" tab. You can even play the snapshot on your own Java Realms together with your friends! 

Remember, snapshots can corrupt your world, so please back up your world and/or run the snapshot in a different folder from your main worlds.  

-> DOWNLOAD THE CROSS-PLATFORM SERVER JAR

Poisonous potato add-on.

The roots of the poisonous potato run deep within Minecraft and extends far beyond Java Edition. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the tuber-lar sensation has spread its influence to Bedrock Edition as well. With Jigarbov’s Poisonous Potato add-on , you’ll be able to experience the joy of the poisonous potato the way it was always intended – through blocks and furniture to weapons and armor.

-> GET THE ADD-ON

Gameplay & features.

• Poisonous potatoes – LOTS of poisonous potatoes! 
• A few normal potatoes too! 
• The homeland of all potato kind
• Five spud-tastic biomes: fields, hash, arboretum, corruption, and wasteland 
• Experience the life of a potato – from its inception as a raw potato picked from the fields, through cooked hash browns, to its eventual decay
• Local weather with a-mashing effects 
• Added the Colosseum, home to the lord of potato kind... 
• A whole sack of a-peeling new blocks 
• Rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, and Niacin! 
• No new mineral blocks. No need! The blocks themselves contain minerals: Potassium, Magnesium, and Iron! 
• Added the frying table – everyone asked for it, so we added it. It fries potato things. It's a really nice model! 
• Added functionality to the fletching table. You can now fletch toxic resin into more refined versions of the resin. 
• Added impurities because purity is overrated 
• Added a whole bunch new gadgets that will tune your poisonous potato game up to eleven! 
• You get it by now. They’re all poisonous potatoes... 

TECHNICAL CHANGES 

• The flux capacitor integration now synergizes with quantum voxelization, which enables a 360-noscope enhancing real-time RTX terrain-rendering nightshade multibox spectrum acceleration while optimizing transdimensional entity synchronization for seamless vitelotte-king edwards-russel burbank experiences! 

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE?

Then you will be the proud owner of the file that contains the update. 

WHAT CAN I EXPECT IN TERMS OF GAMEPLAY?  

Poisonous potatoes. We hope this article has made that perfectly clear. 

I DON’T BELIEVE I ASKED FOR THIS UPDATE, IF I’M HONEST. 

You might not have – but your brain (or maybe belly) did! 

ARE THERE CURRENTLY ANY OTHER CARB-BASED UPDATES IN THE WORKS? 

Great question! Please look forward to the Radioactive Rice Update and Toxic Taro Update in the very distant future! 

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The Solar Eclipse and Wildlife

Eclipses offer a rare opportunity to study animal behavior in unusual conditions..

On Monday, April 8, Americans from coast to coast will have their eyes turned to the skies. But as this year’s solar eclipse approaches totality, they shouldn’t forget to look around them, too.

Eclipses, one of nature’s most unusual and dramatic phenomena, have well-documented effects on animal behavior. In previous eclipses, observers have noticed a general quieting of animal activity around them, with many animals becoming inactive or going silent. A 2017 study at a South Carolina zoo — located in the path of totality of an eclipse that year — found that 75 percent of observed animals changed their behavior during the event.

But why? Given their rarity, the full effect of eclipses on animals isn’t yet well-understood. For some wildlife, however, the event seems to suppress typical daytime activity while triggering the types of behaviors associated with nightfall.

During an eclipse — particularly in the path of totality — the sky darkens, and temperatures can drop . This can lead birds (many of which are known to change their behavior in response to lighting intensity) to quiet their calling and leave the sky , with some behaving as if they’re preparing to roost . Bees and other diurnal insects may become less active, while some flowers close their petals . Spiders have been observed spinning down their webs, as many do before nightfall.

Meanwhile, though the effects here seem less pronounced, some nighttime animals may start to become active as the eclipse nears totality. Frogs, crickets , and owls have been observed calling, as they often do at dusk. In the 2017 eclipse, which took place in August, fireflies became active in some areas.

Overall, however, eclipses are often marked by a lull in animal activity, with diurnal animals resuming their regular behavior as the event subsides.

Where can I watch wildlife during the solar eclipse?

While a partial eclipse will be visible across the contiguous United States, the effects on animals are likely to be more significant closer to the path of totality — the band of earth’s surface where the moon can be seen fully covering the sun. This path will cross fifteen eastern states from Texas to Maine throughout Monday afternoon. Full totality will last just a few minutes in any given location, but changes in light may be noticeable in the hours before and after the event.

Wildlife can be observed anywhere, from a local park to your own backyard. For best viewing opportunities, find somewhere quiet — ideally away from roads or large crowds — where it will be easier to listen for changes in sounds during the solar eclipse.

More than 30 national wildlife refuges and 27 national park units fall in the path of totality, for those able to make the trip. Many will be hosting official viewing events; you can check with your local park’s website or social media accounts for more information.

A citizen science opportunity

For those interested in helping scientists better understand the solar eclipse’s effects on wildlife, there are several opportunities to participate. Researchers hope these initiatives — using technologies and platforms unavailable to them in past eclipses — can provide the data needed to draw broader conclusions about animal behavior.

• NASA’s Eclipse Soundscape Project invites Americans to document their experiences of the eclipse through audio recordings and written notes.
• Solar Eclipse Safari , a project run by researchers at NC State, asks participants to document changes in animal behavior during the event.

You can also document your experiences using citizen science apps such as iNaturalist and eBird , which serve as public databases for researchers and amateur naturalists alike.

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